We don't have any forwards for next season, who do we sign ?

Rozay

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I keep saying this but I'm more and more convinced that Charles De Ketelaere is the best option for us; especially as a Firmino type getting the most out of attacking wingers and Bruno. He's going to be absolutely top drawer. Lots of regular watchers of the Belgian league absolutely love him, say he's a cert to be world class etc. He'll be 30m or so. Let's get him now for that rather than him go to a Dortmund, Villarreal, Leicester etc. and then we'll want to sign him for 80m. These are the type of signings we need to make. Not the obvious, super expensive types. We don't have that luxury unlike Liverpool or City as we have too much to fix.
He and Vanaken are both quality for Brugges I must say.
 

Negative Red

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Alexander Isak or Darwin Nunez look good to me. I just hope we have a plan rather than some desperate last minute signing that we haven't thought out.
 

NotoriousISSY

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Wouldn't mind us taking a punt on Bowen for one of the wide positions seeing as we're fecked front to back. Seems quite an adaptable player who is getting better week after week. But given he would take Maguire money to bring in, that's not going to happen and would probably lead to another Maguire type result.

Given where we are, I also wouldn't be dead against a Schick/Haller type signing. We're not getting the cream of the crop the way things are, but depending on who the new manager will be, we really need to bring in suitable players.
 

DomesticTadpole

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Wouldn't mind us taking a punt on Bowen for one of the wide positions seeing as we're fecked front to back. Seems quite an adaptable player who is getting better week after week. But given he would take Maguire money to bring in, that's not going to happen and would probably lead to another Maguire type result.

Given where we are, I also wouldn't be dead against a Schick/Haller type signing. We're not getting the cream of the crop the way things are, but depending on who the new manager will be, we really need to bring in suitable players.
Maybe we could try the buy one get one free with Rice as well.
 

Jericho

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We’ve got Rashford, Sancho, Elanga and Martial all under contract for next season with Amad and Pellestri in contention for a place.

That’s a very decent forward line. Ronaldo might just stay as he didn’t have many options last season and he won’t have more a year later. We might buy a younger forward sooner than later to develop.
...in Fifa 22 maybe.
 

VidaRed

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Now that ronaldo has thrown in the towel (as predicted by many) do we regret not seriously pursuing alvarez, haaland, nunez, nkunku and letting cavani go ?
 

VidaRed

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With all due respect the entire OP is loaded with assumptions about the future to inflate the problem in that area of the field.
Would you now say the loaded assumptions were right ? :wenger:
 

Greck

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Would you now say the loaded assumptions were right ? :wenger:
Yes? We have options, albeit ones we may not like. It's the line that finished 2nd with sancho in place of greenwood. We absolutely still have forwards. Plus the midfield is looking like might be reinforced so that much was wrongly assumed to stay the same. Life won't end at ronaldo leaving. We should ideally still target an attacker signing.
 
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Big Ben Foster

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We'll stay true to form and make our typical deadline day panic striker signing
 

Lee565

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A short term cheap option that has worked already for ten hag at ajax, tadic as a false 9, his wages wouldn't be silly either.

You got free agents like dembele and dybala that could suit ten hag but their attitude is highly questionable and would likely demand big wages
 

glazed

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One thing that has been very much exposed is the complete disconnect between the existing scouting system and ETH's ideas. He seems to be mainly interested in players he knows about personally which can't be a long term policy for a club of our size.
 

tomaldinho1

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One thing that has been very much exposed is the complete disconnect between the existing scouting system and ETH's ideas. He seems to be mainly interested in players he knows about personally which can't be a long term policy for a club of our size.
It’s basically LVG tenure on repeat so far. Manager comes in to implement a very different possession heavy style of play, gets linked with some big names, he then raids former network. The big difference this time is his network is current and not based on outdated knowledge of club football.
 

Nou_Camp99

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One thing that has been very much exposed is the complete disconnect between the existing scouting system and ETH's ideas. He seems to be mainly interested in players he knows about personally which can't be a long term policy for a club of our size.
Tbf he's been in a job 5 mins mate. If you were expecting perfect harmony straight away then you were a bit naive perhaps.

Him targeting players he knows well can only be a good thing too.
 

Lee565

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isn't this what a lot of fans and the club wanted, long term vision over supposed short term gain, we ignored conte because despite his track record and reputation he wasn't long term enough for a club obsessed with every next manager we hire is going to recreate a fergie like dynasty, now they want to panic because basically our only striker in ronaldo feels he wants to see out his remaining years competing for trophies and playing in champions league.

If we had hired conte we would not be in this dreadful state, just look at how quick conte has spurs operating in the market this summer.
 

glazed

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Tbf he's been in a job 5 mins mate. If you were expecting perfect harmony straight away then you were a bit naive perhaps.

Him targeting players he knows well can only be a good thing too.
I get that but wtf have the club been doing for the last 6 months? They knew they were going to have a high press rebuild and they have been tracking....nobody? Or maybe just nobody ETH fancied?

Anyway I'm not worried. Let's see how it pans out.
 

VidaRed

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If we don't sign sesko or any other striker we'll crash and burn with having to rely only on martial.

And even if ten hag manages to resurrect his career he still can't be expected to play every game and perform throughout the season.

We "monitored" alaverz, haaland and nunez whilst they were signed up by our rivals, the odds of it happening with sesko aren't too far away. Watch him get signed up by chelsea next season.
 

kps88

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I'm amazed we didn't put signing a forward on the top of our priority list. Even if we expected Ronaldo to stay, it was obvious we needed to add another attacker after losing Greenwood and Cavani. Relying on both Martial and Rashford to come good is a huge gamble.
 

Daengophile

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We have several players who can play up front and score goals.

Do we need an out and out striker?

Are they becoming unfashionable?
 

Sparky Rhiwabon

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Greenwood is gone, martial has gone, cavani will go after this season and ronaldo is ancient and will also leave if we don't get into CL.

So on top of not having a midfield, we won't have any forwards either. I bet our board regrets not bidding for julian alvarez from river plate who city signed up on the cheap.

Glazers won't spend a bomb on haaland. Our only realistic option is kane for around 75m and even that might be too much for the glazers.
Where has Martial gone?
 

Santoryo

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This obsession with strikers is weird to me, especially in modern football. You need to add attacking players, not specifically strikers(who happen to be extinct for the most part). As long as we can bring in another forward/attacking player then we're good to go. We'll need depth on that front given I don't expect Martial, Sancho and Rashford to play every game nor stay fit throughout the entirety of the season.
 

VidaRed

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We have several players who can play up front and score goals.

Do we need an out and out striker?

Are they becoming unfashionable?
The modern strikers also press and contribute to the overall play. Ronaldo is unfashionable, we went through a phase where the traditional strikers who would loiter around up top have or are being phased out.
 

justsomebloke

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This obsession with strikers is weird to me, especially in modern football. You need to add attacking players, not specifically strikers(who happen to be extinct for the most part). As long as we can bring in another forward/attacking player then we're good to go. We'll need depth on that front given I don't expect Martial, Sancho and Rashford to play every game nor stay fit throughout the entirety of the season.
I think perhaps it's taking it a little too far to argue we don't need players who are primarily specialised as strikers, but we certainly do need the depth. Right now, assuming Ronaldo leaves and none of the youngsters are ready to step into a regular role, we have a decent first XI attacking quartet, and beyond that....Anthony Elanga (and DvdB for the no 10 role). Which obviously will not do. We have got to add at least two forwards, and positional versatility would be a great boon.
 

JB7

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Check the title of the thread…
Prior to pre-season had any club wanted him he'd have been gone. He forced his way out of the club in January so it was entirely reasonable to discount him going forward at the time.
 

Chief123

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Greenwood is gone, martial has gone, cavani will go after this season and ronaldo is ancient and will also leave if we don't get into CL.

So on top of not having a midfield, we won't have any forwards either. I bet our board regrets not bidding for julian alvarez from river plate who city signed up on the cheap.

Glazers won't spend a bomb on haaland. Our only realistic option is kane for around 75m and even that might be too much for the glazers.
That’s probably the most unrealistic option. You’d need to nearly double that fee.
 

VidaRed

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We literally have no forwards and the season starts in a couple of days!

 

sunama

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Martial will get a parade when he comes back from the loan.
You were not far off.
He is now being hailed as our saviour for the coming season.
It is shocking that a player who has been with us for so long and achieved very little can be held in such high regard. We can't even sell the guy - no other club rates him.
 

sunama

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The club is moving lots of players, on big wages, off the books. Buying a class replacement for Greenwood and the squad looks fine for next season - more than fine. If Ronaldo goes, then his money would free up another purchase. Don’t know why the doom and gloom. We are trimming the squad and allowing room to bring in some new players. We should be happy.
An optimist.
Where do you think we will finish in the league next season?