Why aren’t we linked with any strikers?

[WestLothianFox]

4 hours ago, jayfox26 said:

Linked with Sturridge hes a striker. Plus the club arent going to announce to the press a full list of our transfer targets. People need to chill on here. Its the 1st week of June. If we hit July and still haven't made a single signing then I'd be slightly concerned but its far too early for all the panic yet! 

I agree with you, no club would let a list of transfer targets get to the press. The head of recruitment will guard this with his life. Our new head of recruitment would never let this happen. 

 

 

[Simoken]

9 minutes ago, WestLothianFox said:

Our new head of recruitment would never let this happen. 

[Fox seen in Norwich]

5 hours ago, Gerard said:

I also wouldn't be surprised if BR sees Iheanacho as the man to cover for Vardy next season and a striker isn't a priority for us. 

 

More than happy to go with what BR thinks is best. 

This

[urban.spaceman]

Designated Thread is locked...

[Nicolo Barella]

Rumours are rumours. Unless we loan out Iheanacho, I don't think we will sign a striker

[Ric Flair]

14 minutes ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Rumours are rumours. Unless we loan out Iheanacho, I don't think we will sign a striker

Not a chance we only go in to the season with 2 strikers. Rodgers has already said as much a while ago and he's also said there'll be times he wants to play 2 up front.

 

It could be we sign a player equally as competent up top as out wide like Son does for Spurs so that for the majority they play out wide but then fill in or mix it up up top at times.

[woollett the bullet]

9 hours ago, weller54 said:

Good thinking Batman!!... 

So Robben might still be on the way in then? 

If that was deliberate mate . . I'm impressed

[weller54]

21 minutes ago, woollett the bullet said:

If that was deliberate mate . . I'm impressed

Glad you're impressed!!.. 

Now you've pointed it out I may get a few more rep points? ?

[justfoxes]

7 hours ago, Dahnsouff said:

Here you go

Well he’ll certainly bring a bad atmosphere to the dressing room also not really been very prolific at finding the net of late, I for one think I’ll pass on this bad apple who sulks majorly when things don’t go his way but then this is the kind of bulls? rumours we are being linked with !!

 

[justfoxes]

1 hour ago, Nicolo Barella said:

Rumours are rumours. Unless we loan out Iheanacho, I don't think we will sign a striker

I think we will be loaning Nacho out the lad needs to go out on loan to find his Mojo get his confidence back maybe send him to West Brom ???

Edited 5 June 2019 by justfoxes

[Charl91]

I think we're signing Nicky Maynard.

[dooflip]

8 hours ago, urban fox said:

Which just goes to show what a load of b*ll*cks most rumours are. I would say that the chances of that happening are as about the same as that of finding Elvis serving down the local chippy.

 

But as previously stated it is probably designed to show others that we have ambition

Hammond?

[urban fox]

16 hours ago, dooflip said:

Hammond?

Nah he would probably miss the bag and drop the chips on the floor

[Scotch]

On 05/06/2019 at 11:11, pmcla26 said:

This will be the hardest signing to get right this summer in my opinion. How do you find an adequate player who can make an impact off the bench and be happy to have that role?

 

I think the likelihood is we will keep Iheanacho in the squad and sign a inside forward type who can be utilised on the wing and as a number 9. That way they can provide cover for Vardy and play up front in his absence. Much like the Kane/Son situation at Spurs.

I think we need an inside forward type player anyway for the RW but I think your looking at the Striker situation wrong.

 

We shouldn't be looking for a player to fill in for Vardy, we should be looking for someone to take his place. As much as we all love Jamie, hes 32 and we can't be sentimental. Instead of finding someone who could grab a few goals when Vardy can't play we should be looking for a top class striker, knowing that Vardy can come in and grab goals in the odd game or in the last 20 minutes.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

18 minutes ago, Foxy_Bear said:

I think we need an inside forward type player anyway for the RW but I think your looking at the Striker situation wrong.

 

We shouldn't be looking for a player to fill in for Vardy, we should be looking for someone to take his place. As much as we all love Jamie, hes 32 and we can't be sentimental. Instead of finding someone who could grab a few goals when Vardy can't play we should be looking for a top class striker, knowing that Vardy can come in and grab goals in the odd game or in the last 20 minutes.

Has Rodgers not already said publicly that he believes Vardy to still be a top class EPL striker and as such still his number 1?  I get that ideally you succession plan and get the replacement in ahead of time but the only way that will work and you can keep both happy is if it's a young player who has a lot of development in him and he becomes ready just as Vardy declines.  Going out and signing an off the shelf, finished article, top striker then you have a problem of keeping them both happy which can be toxic, particularly if things aren't going well then you throw in Vardy's legendary status.

 

Rodgers was pretty vocal at Celtic about if playing a system with only 1 striker then having only two at the club is fine.  He later reneged on that and bought a third but he stated that was due to the crazy number of games we play up here in a season, you guys obviously don't have that problem.

 

If he thinks Iheanacho is worth persevering with and developing I can see him going for a top wide player who can also fill in in the number 9 position in emergencies as opposed to having the problem of trying to keep Vardy and another top striker happy.  He utilised Patrick Roberts as a false 9 for us in similar emergency situations.

Edited 6 June 2019 by henrik_62

[don_danbury]

On 05/06/2019 at 10:40, Dahnsouff said:

Here you go

just imagine vardy and costa up front. wow

[Scotch]

2 hours ago, pmcla26 said:

20 goals last season and no sign of slowing down, think we should cross the replacing Vardy bridge when it comes to it. He’s got another 2 decent seasons in him at least, don’t forget he only started playing pro football at 25, his body isn’t as worn as most 32 year olds in the premier league. 

 

Also, I don’t have confidence that any club in our position would adequately replace a world class striker for someone just as good, especially in today’s inflated market.  

 

Who do you think would be a realistic target to take Vardy’s place just out of curiousity ?

 

 

Seb Haller, Kevin Volland, Luka Jovic, Timo Werner, Duvan Zapata, Kryztof piatek, Andre Belloti, Maxi Gomez....

 

Thos are just a few off the top of my head that are scoring in some of Europes so leagues. Ok, maybe a couple of them will be out of reach but you can't tell me that having one of these guys rotating with Vardy isn't gonna be needed if we are realistically going to break into the top 6. 

[volpeazzurro]

3 hours ago, henrik_62 said:

Has Rodgers not already said publicly that he believes Vardy to still be a top class EPL striker and as such still his number 1?  I get that ideally you succession plan and get the replacement in ahead of time but the only way that will work and you can keep both happy is if it's a young player who has a lot of development in him and he becomes ready just as Vardy declines.  Going out and signing an off the shelf, finished article, top striker then you have a problem of keeping them both happy which can be toxic, particularly if things aren't going well then you throw in Vardy's legendary status.

 

Rodgers was pretty vocal at Celtic about if playing a system with only 1 striker then having only two at the club is fine.  He later reneged on that and bought a third but he stated that was due to the crazy number of games we play up here in a season, you guys obviously don't have that problem.

 

If he thinks Iheanacho is worth persevering with and developing I can see him going for a top wide player who can also fill in in the number 9 position in emergencies as opposed to having the problem of trying to keep Vardy and another top striker happy.  He utilised Patrick Roberts as a false 9 for us in similar emergency situations.

But we've only got one striker, he'd be very foolish to our detriment to put any faith in Nacho. Not sure, but wasn't it Rodgers who put faith in Balotelli? If so, bearing in mind the quality of other managers he let down it would show an egotistical streak that we don't need here. Nacho has not been here 6 months,  he's had ample time to up his game.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

18 minutes ago, volpeazzurro said:

But we've only got one striker, he'd be very foolish to our detriment to put any faith in Nacho. Not sure, but wasn't it Rodgers who put faith in Balotelli? If so, bearing in mind the quality of other managers he let down it would show an egotistical streak that we don't need here. Nacho has not been here 6 months,  he's had ample time to up his game.

Not saying he'll definitely do it but there was more than one player that we said the exact same about prior to Rodgers arriving and he turned them into completely different players overnight.  Stewart Armstrong, James Forrest and Calum McGregor all being such examples, all Celtic fans wanted them out the door prior to Rodgers arriving.

 

If he sees the same in Iheanacho and believes he can turn him around then I'd trust him in this regard, you might save yourself £30m that can go towards getting Tielemans or the quality wide player you badly need.

[Gerard]

5 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

Not saying he'll definitely do it but there was more than one player that we said the exact same about prior to Rodgers arriving and he turned them into completely different players overnight.  Stewart Armstrong, James Forrest and Calum McGregor all being such examples, all Celtic fans wanted them out the door prior to Rodgers arriving.

 

If he sees the same in Iheanacho and believes he can turn him around then I'd trust him in this regard, you might save yourself £30m that can go towards getting Tielemans or the quality wide player you badly need.

 

Iheanacho has looked awful for the most part but if BR thinks there is a player in there I'm more than happy to back his judgement.

 

We've seen snippets of quality in Iheanacho mainly against lower league teams but some top class finishing. He was the Golden Ball winner in the U17 World Cup and was the most prolific goalscorer in PL history when at Man City by the metric of minutes per goal. 

 

In the two seasons he featured for Man City before we bought him he featured in 46 PL games and 18 cup games. Whilst admittedly the vast majority of those PL games he came on as sub you don't get 64 appearances for Man City over two seasons if you're an absolute mug. As I say I'm happy for BR to make the call on him and Iheanacho needs to knuckle down and attempt to replace Vardy as our No1 striker in the next year or so.  

 

 

[Muzzy_Larsson]

17 hours ago, volpeazzurro said:

But we've only got one striker, he'd be very foolish to our detriment to put any faith in Nacho. Not sure, but wasn't it Rodgers who put faith in Balotelli? If so, bearing in mind the quality of other managers he let down it would show an egotistical streak that we don't need here. Nacho has not been here 6 months,  he's had ample time to up his game.

I think Rodgers will be better qualified to make the decision than us.  I can only speak for my club but as I said, I'd be wary of writing anyone off as he turned a few players who the fans were crying out to get rid of into world beaters (by our standards anyway) overnight.

 

I'm sure it's been well reported (in Gerrard's book I think) that he knew Balotelli was a huge gamble before he signed him and he said as much to Gerrard as they signed him.  Rodgers strikes me as the sort that quickly learns his lesson so I don't know if that's the best example as a reference point.

[Muzzy_Larsson]

18 hours ago, Foxy_Bear said:

Seb Haller, Kevin Volland, Luka Jovic, Timo Werner, Duvan Zapata, Kryztof piatek, Andre Belloti, Maxi Gomez....

 

Thos are just a few off the top of my head that are scoring in some of Europes so leagues. Ok, maybe a couple of them will be out of reach but you can't tell me that having one of these guys rotating with Vardy isn't gonna be needed if we are realistically going to break into the top 6. 

I'd be very surprised if any of those players would be attainable for Leicester, some absolutely wouldn't be like Piatek, Jovic and Werner for a whole host of reasons.  If any of the others move on this summer I'd expect them to have Champions League clubs across Europe after them, Haller for example is being linked with Spurs now.  Furthermore, all of those guys would cost £40m+, are you really going to spend that on a striker to play second fiddle to Vardy.

[notnow john]

7 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

I think Rodgers will be better qualified to make the decision than us.  I can only speak for my club but as I said, I'd be wary of writing anyone off as he turned a few players who the fans were crying out to get rid of into world beaters (by our standards anyway) overnight.

 

I'm sure it's been well reported (in Gerrard's book I think) that he knew Balotelli was a huge gamble before he signed him and he said as much to Gerrard as they signed him.Rodgers strikes me as the sort that quickly learns his lesson  so I don't know if that's the best example as a reference point.

Lee Congleton??

[Muzzy_Larsson]

4 minutes ago, notnow john said:

Lee Congleton??

Good point 

[Scotch]

56 minutes ago, henrik_62 said:

I'd be very surprised if any of those players would be attainable for Leicester, some absolutely wouldn't be like Piatek, Jovic and Werner for a whole host of reasons.  If any of the others move on this summer I'd expect them to have Champions League clubs across Europe after them, Haller for example is being linked with Spurs now.  Furthermore, all of those guys would cost £40m+, are you really going to spend that on a striker to play second fiddle to Vardy.

That's exactly my point though, I dont think we should be signing a player to play second fiddle to Vardy. I think we should be signing a player to take Vardy's place. 

 

Alot of folk on here seem to think we should be pushing for top 6, yet alot of them dont feel we should/could keep two top class strikers happy. You need top replacements if you're gonna be a top team. Signing one of these guys and bringing Vardy of the bench will not only make us far more dangerous but will also prolong Vardy's career.

 

I think the world of football is very different from just a few years ago purely because of the money. If you compare us to some of the CL league teams you are talking about. Teams like Spurs, Inter, Benfica, Athletico, Ajax or even Arsenal, Milan etc..... Much bigger teams, yes but in terms of attractiveness to players? We can very much compete in salary with any of those clubs, we have ambition to be at the top of one of the most competitive and watched leagues in the world and when you talk about the likes of Haller competing with Vardy for a place.... He has a much better chance of that than going to Spurs and competing with Son and Kane, or going to Arsenal and competing with Aubameyang and Lacazette. 

 

I really do understand the importance of signing guys like Che Adam's and bringing them through, it's worked for us in the past but if we really do have ambitions to push on and be a real contender for regular top 6, we need to drop this mid table mentality. Yes, have young players to develop but let's not rely on them. Let's say Vardy gets injured for 6-12 months (given his age  it's not unrealistic) would you rather be relying on Belotti and Ihneacho or Che Adams/Maupay and Ihneacho.....