Summer '08: Ins and Outs

The thing with Johnson is that if he wants another shot for making the England team... he needs to be playing somewhere. If he's second choice at Everton, he may want to go somewhere else much like James McFadden did in January. Fulham may also have to wait until January to get him. Everton has got young players like Anichebe and Vaughan who are coming up as well. £10m is too much though for sure. Maybe Everton is just waiting for him to ask to leave, as well.... and then the price will come down some.

 

I'm not terribly high on Kitson (and I still highly doubt he's even on our radar), but he is a consistent goal scorer. I don't know how you can argue with that - he's averaged about .33 goals per 90 minutes in both of the last 2 Premier League seasons. Before that, he averaged .58 goals per 90 minutes over 3 seasons in the Championship - since 2003, strikers moving between the two leagues have scored in the Premiership at a rate of almost exactly 60% of their Championship rate. So, that Premiership equivalency rate would put Kitson at about .35 goals per 90 in those 3 years. That's right around 11 goals a season in the Premiership, and he's done that for 5 years straight...that's about as consistent as you're going to get, and his scoring rate over those 5 seasons is actually slightly better than McBride's.

Last January, Zigic said he didn't want to play in England. Negredo is no more proven than anybody else we're looking at - his track record is about the same as a Kevin Doyle. He's a better purchase than Kitson because he's younger and likely to improve, though it's also possible that he'll flame out Collins John-style. If we want a quick & easy drop-in McBride replacement, Kitson is our man. I don't think that's quite what we should be looking for, however. We need a do-everything striker. Cisse would be excellent, Saha would be great, and I'm sure there are tons of relative unknowns in this mould that Roy will be looking at.

Damn, way too much time spent defending Dave Kitson.

 

Why not go by the numbers? After all, you used them to argue against both Beattie and Johnson. I understand you don't like Kitson. But you can't possibly argue against his performance at Reading.

Now that the numbers work against your argument with a player you don't rate, you claim they shouldn't count. Let's try to be consistent here. Kitson got the job done in the Premier League as a striker at Reading. If you think that was easy, then take a look at how Reading's other forwards performed this season.

I've seen assessments from fans who regularly go to the Madjeski and watch this guy play. He contributes not only as a scorer. They've rated him on of their best assets on the defensive end as well against set pieces. That not only indicates a player with an ability in the air; that also is demonstrative of a player who has the technique, talent, and willingness to use his strengths for the betterment of his club regardless of the situation.

Sorry. But I'll take Reading fans' judgement over yours. If we were to sign this player for £3 million, then the vast majority of them would believe they were massively screwed by Fulham.

Negredo? Zigic? Mr. Rourke and Tatoo haven't let you depart Fantasy Island yet, have they?

Maybe you think we have £50 million in the transfer budget and can sign Ronaldo as well while we're at it.


:roll:

 

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11681_3789040,00.html

 

Here's another midfield rumor from fansfc and vitalfulham:


The internet grapevine is starting to buzz with the suggestion that Fulham are tracking a Romanian international. The player in question is Paul Codrea...a twenty-seven year old midfielder, is currently appearing for Siena in Serie A.

But his displays in Group C of the Euro 2008 competition where his team were pitted against strong opposition in the shape of France, Holland and Italy look sure to guarantee him a mega-money move.

Could Roy Hodgson, working at Euro 2008 in an official capacity, have seen Codrea as an important cog in our midfield next season?

 

The best Lee Cook at Fulham summation to date (most have already seen this, but it's spot on):

http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2414/250 ... af53_o.gif

Woy may have a thing against lefties...

 

The assesment you got from Reading fans was pretty much the same thing I said. Hard-working player with great ability in the air and not much else. We need to do better than that if we are to improve. While some might be happy with just staying in this league, many others are not. I want to improve with each season and Kitson is not going to do any better than what we already had.



Negredo and Zigic would not be that expensive at all. Listen, we had 10M to go after Elmander, why can't we spend 6-8M for a player that is much better and that could actually improve the team? We have the money, we just need to spend it on better players.



Now onto Codrea, I like him. Good battler and gets the job done. Rather have Radoi as he is a bit more talented and can play at CB too, but Codrea would be a decent buy.

 

It also seems as though we're trying to get rid of the players that can do us no good. I like what Hodgson is doing there, but I wanna keep Bouazza until we can find a replacment. I agree with Don here. We're desperately short on left-sided players and need to keep the few we have until replacements are lined up.

 

I don't like it. Bouazza is one of the few guys on the squad who can provide that "moment of brilliance" (I know, he didn't do much last year, but the guy barely got on the pitch once the club got rolling, and the early season drudgery was not his fault). As Don pointed out, he's a rare lefty on the squad, and I think he's due for a rebound year. Keep him and play him more - I think he would pair well (inside-outside) with Gera.

 

You keep forgetting that Negredo and Zigic have to want to come to Fulham. Negredo has suggested he wants to stay in Spain. Zigic, apparently, is on record as saying he doesn't want to play in England. Not to mention other clubs are looking at these players as well. Who knows what players Roy is after for sure, but the best Fulham can get this summer might possibly be Dave Kitson. And he'll have to do if we have to have another forward.

I also would like Bouazza to stay, but if he isn't going to start he may want to move somewhere else... Espanyol and whatever other Spanish team is following him are good teams. Football people seem to recognize he's talented... so that's good.

 

How many times have you heard players say they want to stay only to sign for the other team? Just because they say they want to stay, doesn't mean they actually want to stay.

 

This goes without saying... but they still have to want to come to Fulham, and there are some attractive teams sniffing around these guys. Fulham isn't in a position to get whomever, whenever.

 

I never said that. I was told to name names and I named a few names that I think can fit our price range and can be brought to Fulham. Of course they would have to want to come here, but with a little talking to, I think they will be convinced. After all people said that Danny Murphy would never come here because he left Charlton just a year earlier and he's not only here, but staying here.

 

10M for Elmander was an unsubstantiated rumor that we all agreed was pretty silly. And while you're right that Zigic certainly could go back on his statement that he wants to stay in Spain, that doesn't address why he would want to leave Valencia to come to Fulham, unless we were to back up the Brinks truck, which is not something that seems to be in the cards.

 

i'm pretty sure we won't get either of those guys 24. I do like how you are brainstorming and searching for players who would definitely improve the club. It's apparent that Roy is definitely trying to shore up the defense and midfield, and now that Kamara has gone down, he's got his hands full with finding two strikers which is what I think we need now. I could see us going for Kitson and then using a large portion of the transfer kitty on a more proven player such as a Cisse, or Saha. I think part of the issue is a waiting game to see how the dominos start to fall with the bigger clubs and who they are going to buy and sell. I know a lot of us don't like that game, but as we see some players on the bigger clubs become avaialable, and teams that are maybe a tier above us showing interest....I see them needing to sell one of their guys to get the funds...and here is where we may find our bargain. Does that even make sense?

 

Actually that rumour could've been true and the price was only 1M off the price Bolton paid for him. That source got everything right except for 1m of the price.


Playing time and London is 2 pretty good reasons for wanting to come here.

 

Sure it COULD'VE been true, but it could've been false too. In other words, as I said, it was an unsubstantiated rumor. The fact that Bolton paid 11M (was it 10M? sorry if I'm off) for him doesn't necessarily mean we were willing to pay that much - note, for example, the reported difference between what we're offering for Andy Johnson (5M) and how much Sunderland and Wigan offered (10M). If true, that indicates that Roy isn't willing to pay through the nose for that lots of other clubs want and would prefer to find better deals on guys who are off others' radar (see Hangeland, Andreasen), and that's the responsible way to go about it.

Playing time is a fair point, since that seems to be scarce for Zigic in Valencia, though more might be forthcoming if they sell David Villa this summer, as has been rumored. I love London as much as the next guy, but the Mediterranean coast of Spain is pretty awesome so I wouldn't expect it to be as much enticement as it might be for someone playing in Wigan or Gdansk or Kansas City.

 

Can we all agree on a collective gag order? This thread is, what, 47 pages long and all we're doing is arguing over people we haven't even signed yet.

 

I have to say, I don't know if its my faith in Roy or just boredom at our substantial lack of significant signings that have led me to pay much less attention this off-season than probably any previous.

Of course, I do check facebook every now and again.