Waghorn

[whoareyaaa]

You asked if the four posts you made were wrong, I'm not going to justify not signing Chris Wood, just point out that not everything written in those posts is correct.

Since Beckford went?

See that would suggest that you thought Beckford was an adequate option upfront. Yet so far Waghorn and Vardy have both put in better performances than Beckford did for 80% of last season, so I fail to see how Beckford leaving correlates with us needing a new striker, if you were happy with Beckford then you should surely be happy with Waghorn and Vardy who contribute more and who have both had a better first half of the season than Beckford had last year.

Depends on what you consider a sufficient number of goals. As I said after 23 games, if we had repeated our goal tally in the second half of the season we would have bettered what champions Reading managed last year in terms of goals, would that not have been sufficient?

If you take out 'his little purple patch' three years ago you're left with a season in which he was injured and a season when he was either not played by Sven or stuck out on the wing by Sousa. I think it'd be a lot fairer to remove those two spells myself. I think it's clear to see that Waghorn has been much closer to the player we had on loan in recent weeks as opposed to the player we've had play sporadically for the last two years. The goals will (if he starts games) and already have begun to come with that. The stats you have been provided with by me in the past have always been goals per minutes played in the Championship which is as fair as you're going to get, I don't change the way I judge players, but it would suggest that Martyn Waghorn is a perfectly sufficient striker for a club chasing a top six finish.

I disagree. Cardiff this season have not got a single goalscorer on double figures (still), they're running away with the league. Last year Reading won the Championship with their top goalscorer Adam Le Fondre managing just 13 goals (one more than Nugent has about half way through the season), none of their other players had more than 8 goals to their name (A tally Andy King, Anthony Knockaert, Jamie Vardy and Martyn Waghorn all look set to beat). Yes we have a better attack and are more likely to succeed with Chris Wood, but to say that it was an absolute necessity, that we had no chance of challenging without doing so is naive. We have one of the best defenses in the league and prior to Chris Wood signing we had an adequate strikeforce. I'm delighted we've signed him, but don't think that his scoring goals is proof that other players can't or that we couldn't challenge for a play-off position which is what we all expected, prior to his signing.

Once again you fail to understand what the word need means. I think it's fair to say that the majority at the start of the season expected us to finish in the play-offs. My expectations haven't changed because of a few brilliant games and a few awful games I still expect and anticipate a play-off finish. In order to achieve a place in the top 6 we did not NEED to sign Chris Wood. I'm glad we have, but it was not a necessity. We were already in a play-off position prior to the signing of Chris Wood and we were starting to turn our form around prior to Chris Wood joining the club. Don't get me wrong I'm ecstatic that he's joined the club, but I don't believe not signing him would have stopped us getting into the play-offs so I don't think we needed him, obviously we'll never know for sure.

In conclusion, Nigel Pearson has done a great job in signing a top player, he has put us in a much better position to challenge for Automatic Promotion, I am delighted that he has joined the club. That does not make your posts correct, we could and I am certain would have challenged for at least the top six finish that we all expected at the start of the season and clubs like Reading (who had a similarly strong defence) and Cardiff have shown and are showing that you do not need two incredible goalscoring strikers to be at the top of the nPower Championship. The success of Chris Wood does not prove that our other players would have been incapable of pushing us into the position we genuinley NEED to be in.

Pearson has said it himself that he wants the automatic spots so I don't know what your going on about really, Lets not pretend everything would be rosy without the addition of Wood. If you take into consideration two 6-0's and one 4-0 already that's +17 from 3 games. and I think the majority would agree we WAS lacking that cutting edge up front, we all know how many chances we create but the strikers just weren't taking there chances enough of the time.

I'm not saying we are a one man team as everyone needs to be playing at a high level and have done so for the majority so far. but sometimes you need a clinical finisher to take you to the next level, especially when the rest of the team is playing very well.

[shearfox]

Pearson has said it himself that he wants the automatic spots so I don't know what your going on about really, Lets not pretend everything would be rosy without the addition of Wood. If you take into consideration two 6-0's and one 4-0 already that's +17 from 3 games. and I think the majority would agree we WAS lacking that cutting edge up front, we all know how many chances we create but the strikers just weren't taking there chances enough of the time.

I'm not saying we are a one man team as everyone needs to be playing at a high level and have done so for the majority so far. but sometimes you need a clinical finisher to take you to the next level, especially when the rest of the team is playing very well.

Agreed, we are certainly not a one man team but Wood was the kind of player we were missing to turn us into serious championship contenders. Pearson wants top two and bringing Wood in has certainly improved the side and makes the task even more achievable.

[Fox in exile]

I love Martyn Waghorn but he is a totally different style of player to Wood.......NP knows what he is doing and I trust him to pick a team that will get results and Waggy seems the type of player to accept this x

[Mark_w]

Pearson has said it himself that he wants the automatic spots so I don't know what your going on about really, Lets not pretend everything would be rosy without the addition of Wood. If you take into consideration two 6-0's and one 4-0 already that's +17 from 3 games. and I think the majority would agree we WAS lacking that cutting edge up front, we all know how many chances we create but the strikers just weren't taking there chances enough of the time.

I'm not saying we are a one man team as everyone needs to be playing at a high level and have done so for the majority so far. but sometimes you need a clinical finisher to take you to the next level, especially when the rest of the team is playing very well.

Nugent is a more than adequate finisher. As I stated Cardiff are showing currently, as well as Reading last year, that you don't need two great goalscorers to be successful in this division. Don't get me wrong I am delighted that we've signed Wood and with the start he has made, I just disagree with this suggestion that we stood no chance without signing him.

[whoareyaaa]

Nugent is a more than adequate finisher. As I stated Cardiff are showing currently, as well as Reading last year, that you don't need two great goalscorers to be successful in this division. Don't get me wrong I am delighted that we've signed Wood and with the start he has made, I just disagree with this suggestion that we stood no chance without signing him.

Fair play but I honestly think we would have struggled for the autos if we didn't sign him or someone of that caliber, play-offs would have been more likely.

Time will tell...

[kingfox]

Odds Slashed on Mark_W - 4/7

Manwell Pablo - 10/11

[Manwell Pablo]

Odds Slashed on Mark_W - 4/7

Manwell Pablo - 10/11

I've got to give it to him, by coming out with such a long and tiresome post he is making it difficult for me to conjour the motivation to reply to it properly.

I'm at work tomorrow though so when I'm not giving up my own time to write an essay I should imagine it'll come a lot easier.

Having skim read it though there is some shit about me thinking Beckford being an adequate striker (which is not true) and about a team not needing two strikers to succead at this level (granted, but most do, and the way we play we most certainly are one of them)

At the end of the day anyone arguing that we'd of been ok without Wood as we have Waghorn shouldn't even be given lip service, what can I say, only on Foxestalk.

[Mark_w]

I've got to give it to him, by coming out with such a long and tiresome post he is making it difficult for me to conjour the motivation to reply to it properly.

You were dying to hear it yesterday.

Having skim read it though there is some shit about me thinking Beckford being an adequate striker (which is not true)

Yet in your post you suggested we've only needed a new striker since Beckford went. Funny that.

and about a team not needing two strikers to succead at this level (granted, but most do, and the way we play we most certainly are one of them)

How are we certainly one of them because of the way we play? We have one of the best defences in the division and have players in midfield who can chip in with goals, we're exactly the kind of team that can do well without two out and out goalscorers.

At the end of the day anyone arguing that we'd of been ok without Wood as we have Waghorn shouldn't even be given lip service, what can I say, only on Foxestalk.

I'm not saying we'd be doing just as well, I'm suggesting that while I'm glad it has happened, signing Wood was not a necessity.

I look forward to your essay tomorrow, once you've bothered to read my post.

[_Fatboyslow_]

It is going to be hard to turn down all these offers we are getting for him

[Manwell Pablo]

You were dying to hear it yesterday.

Yet in your post you suggested we've only needed a new striker since Beckford went. Funny that.

How are we certainly one of them because of the way we play? We have one of the best defences in the division and have players in midfield who can chip in with goals, we're exactly the kind of team that can do well without two out and out goalscorers.

I'm not saying we'd be doing just as well, I'm suggesting that while I'm glad it has happened, signing Wood was not a necessity.

I look forward to your essay tomorrow, once you've bothered to read my post.

Yeah I was dying to hear an adequate response not traul through a desperate scrambling attempt to save face backed up with irrelevant arguements and false statements and a general lack of footballing knowledge Mark, which is why it was difficult to read.

Point 1, Jermaine Beckford, I may not have been posting quite as often as I currently am when we signed Jermaine Beckford so whether there is someone who can remember what I said at the time I don't know. But if you really want to trawl through back posts I am sure if look hard enough you will find a post from me describing him as a "stupid panic buy" and comparing him to DJ Campbell. I've never liked Jermaine Beckford, ever, the only time I bring him up is when people like yourself slate him when he has scored the same amount of league goals and one more cup goal in less apperances than saint Waghorn, and one thing I will give him, natural talent wise, he is a much better player and has had a decent season as a squad player in the Premier League, which Waghorn will never manage.

To explain what I meant by that comment, at that moment in time there was a requirement to sell, or indeed at least get one of our strikers earning a decent whack off the books before we pressed on and got another striker in. We had Vardy Waghorn Futacs Beckford Nugent and at the time technically Schlupp going for that position it would have been silly to add 6th/7th person vying for that position and we would also be in even graver danger of failing our fiancial fair play target than we are now. To be totally honest from a purely footballing perspective I think a motivated Jermaine Beckford is much more use coming off the bench than Waghorn but neither are going to get us promoted and given Beckford earns the most (more than likely) and the dummy has come out I'm more than happy to see the back of him.

Moving on to our style of play which is a strict 4-4-2 (most of the time although 4-5-1 has been used to sturdy the ship away from home sometimes. Quite effectively by Pearson) Cardiff rather tend to try and support Heider meaning their goals will be more spread throughout their midfield, which so far has provided them with 26 goals to our 20, and their defence scores shit load more than ours, who generally, Konchesky aside, don't have a great striking history, and I'll be loathed to blame our left back for our lack of goals. So as I've already said in this thread, unless you are suggesting we go out, change formation, and sign some Centre Backs with a history of getting 5 goals of season to replace our current ones, our goals, to quote you "need" to come from our strikers. I am not saying we need them both hitting 25 goals, but we need them hitting more than 3 in mid January (And if he scores more than 8 for as you laughably suggest I will happily buy you a pint! Hopefully he wont even get the minutes to get anywhere near that!) To put it in simple terms, use all the excuses you want for him, Chris Wood has scored the same amoint of goals in a away first half than Waghorn has managed all season, It is clear where our problem lay, we needed a goal scorer, especially one that can find the net away from home another massive issue we've been having, no good wiping the floor with everyone at the King Power if we can't get enough points on the road to take us up.

This is all forgetting, Cardiff and Reading are an exception to the rule generally, Look at all the promoted teams over the last 10 years, most have strikers who score. Especially the ones that don't come hurtling back down (which is one of the reasons Southampton and West Ham, who had the three leading scorers in this league last season are in a better position than Reading are at this moment in time.)

There is nothing naive about saying Waghorn wont score us enough goals to take us up, the proof is in his record this season, and you have to go back three years to find anything suggesting he is capable of even providing an adequate number of goals. You might be happy challanging for a play off place, I would rather go up automatically, or at least, give it a good go, and to me it seemed quite simple, we add a decent goalscorer, preferrable a big bloke, who was decent in the air, it could well be the difference between challanging the top two and scrambling to stay in the top six for the remainder of the season, three very comfortable victories later, I believe that even more.

Ultimatley Mark, I myself have said, in this thread I think, that we'd probably get the play offs without another addition, it's not really about that, it's that with the addition of another striker, we are in a position to now challange for the top two.

[kingfox]

Yeah I was dying to hear an adequate response not traul through a desperate scrambling attempt to save face backed up with irrelevant arguements and false statements and a general lack of footballing knowledge Mark, which is why it was difficult to read.

Point 1, Jermaine Beckford, I may not have been posting quite as often as I currently am when we signed Jermaine Beckford so whether there is someone who can remember what I said at the time I don't know. But if you really want to trawl through back posts I am sure if look hard enough you will find a post from me describing him as a "stupid panic buy" and comparing him to DJ Campbell. I've never liked Jermaine Beckford, ever, the only time I bring him up is when people like yourself slate him when he has scored the same amount of league goals and one more cup goal in less apperances than saint Waghorn, and one thing I will give him, natural talent wise, he is a much better player and has had a decent season as a squad player in the Premier League, which Waghorn will never manage.

To explain what I meant by that comment, at that moment in time there was a requirement to sell, or indeed at least get one of our strikers earning a decent whack off the books before we pressed on and got another striker in. We had Vardy Waghorn Futacs Beckford Nugent and at the time technically Schlupp going for that position it would have been silly to add 6th/7th person vying for that position and we would also be in even graver danger of failing our fiancial fair play target than we are now. To be totally honest from a purely footballing perspective I think a motivated Jermaine Beckford is much more use coming off the bench than Waghorn but neither are going to get us promoted and given Beckford earns the most (more than likely) and the dummy has come out I'm more than happy to see the back of him.

Moving on to our style of play which is a strict 4-4-2 (most of the time although 4-5-1 has been used to sturdy the ship away from home sometimes. Quite effectively by Pearson) Cardiff rather tend to try and support Heider meaning their goals will be more spread throughout their midfield, which so far has provided them with 26 goals to our 20, and their defence scores shit load more than ours, who generally, Konchesky aside, don't have a great striking history, and I'll be loathed to blame our left back for our lack of goals. So as I've already said in this thread, unless you are suggesting we go out, change formation, and sign some Centre Backs with a history of getting 5 goals of season to replace our current ones, our goals, to quote you "need" to come from our strikers. I am not saying we need them both hitting 25 goals, but we need them hitting more than 3 in mid January (And if he scores more than 8 for as you laughably suggest I will happily buy you a pint! Hopefully he wont even get the minutes to get anywhere near that!) To put it in simple terms, use all the excuses you want for him, Chris Wood has scored the same amoint of goals in a away first half than Waghorn has managed all season, It is clear where our problem lay, we needed a goal scorer, especially one that can find the net away from home another massive issue we've been having, no good wiping the floor with everyone at the King Power if we can't get enough points on the road to take us up.

This is all forgetting, Cardiff and Reading are an exception to the rule generally, Look at all the promoted teams over the last 10 years, most have strikers who score. Especially the ones that don't come hurtling back down (which is one of the reasons Southampton and West Ham, who had the three leading scorers in this league last season are in a better position than Reading are at this moment in time.)

There is nothing naive about saying Waghorn wont score us enough goals to take us up, the proof is in his record this season, and you have to go back three years to find anything suggesting he is capable of even providing an adequate number of goals. You might be happy challanging for a play off place, I would rather go up automatically, or at least, give it a good go, and to me it seemed quite simple, we add a decent goalscorer, preferrable a big bloke, who was decent in the air, it could well be the difference between challanging the top two and scrambling to stay in the top six for the remainder of the season, three very comfortable victories later, I believe that even more.

Ultimatley Mark, I myself have said, in this thread I think, that we'd probably get the play offs without another addition, it's not really about that, it's that with the addition of another striker, we are in a position to now challange for the top two.

HOLY SHIT

[Manwell Pablo]

HOLY SHIT

Damn right bitch.

Now slash my odds.

[kingfox]

Damn right bitch.

Now slash my odds.

Ladbrokes have suspended betting

[Captain...]

To the critics of waghorn and vardy, I have one question:

How many has Nugent scored since Wood signed?

We play with one man leading the line and one second striker linking between midfield and forwards, who puts in a shift, getting out wide when knocky is off wandering and dropping back to harry the opposition when we lose the ball, waghorn also is one of the best at the club with a dead ball.

That is part of vardy and waghorn's game but it is a part of their game which limits their goal scoring options, now we have Wood leading the line and Nugent dropping back and doing the support role, Nugent hasn't scored while the rest of the team have been filling their boots.

Wood cannot be compared to waghorn or vardy as they are different players with a different role. It will be interesting to see how Nugent and Wood play when we don't get an early lead and aren't dominating poor opposition.

Wood has been a revelation and has had a superb start to his career here, I can't think of any player ever having such an impact, and he has been what we've been missing in someone to stick away those chances we create, and we are a much stronger team for it, but don't be surprised to see np pairing waghorn with wood or playing wood up top and waghorn/vardy wide left in 433/451 in tougher away games, or when we are holding on to a narrow lead.

Waghorn has already played his part this season and has more of a role to play.

[Manwell Pablo]

To the critics of waghorn and vardy, I have one question:

How many has Nugent scored since Wood signed?

We play with one man leading the line and one second striker linking between midfield and forwards, who puts in a shift, getting out wide when knocky is off wandering and dropping back to harry the opposition when we lose the ball, waghorn also is one of the best at the club with a dead ball.

That is part of vardy and waghorn's game but it is a part of their game which limits their goal scoring options, now we have Wood leading the line and Nugent dropping back and doing the support role, Nugent hasn't scored while the rest of the team have been filling their boots.

Wood cannot be compared to waghorn or vardy as they are different players with a different role. It will be interesting to see how Nugent and Wood play when we don't get an early lead and aren't dominating poor opposition.

Wood has been a revelation and has had a superb start to his career here, I can't think of any player ever having such an impact, and he has been what we've been missing in someone to stick away those chances we create, and we are a much stronger team for it, but don't be surprised to see np pairing waghorn with wood or playing wood up top and waghorn/vardy wide left in 433/451 in tougher away games, or when we are holding on to a narrow lead.

Waghorn has already played his part this season and has more of a role to play.

Just out of interest Cap how many of the massive two games they've played together have you been to to make this brilliant observation, Because from what I've seen, you've pulled the above statement directly from your arse hole!

It's two starts, one of which he only played 57 minutes of, and the other is away from home where he only scores once in a bull moon anyway. Exactly why we needed someone else.

The reason Waghorn and Vardy haven't scored many goals has nothing to do with them being "link up" strikers and everything to do with them not finishing the umpteen chances they've had between them!

[phillo]

Woodd is just what the doctor ordered

[Captain...]

Just out of interest Cap how many of the massive two games they've played together have you been to to make this brilliant observation, Because from what I've seen, you've pulled the above statement directly from your arse hole!

It's two starts, one of which he only played 57 minutes of, and the other is away from home where he only scores once in a bull moon anyway. Exactly why we needed someone else.

The reason Waghorn and Vardy haven't scored many goals has nothing to do with them being "link up" strikers and everything to do with them not finishing the umpteen chances they've had between them!

Not been much to judge on, but you have deemed it enough time to judge you were right about waghorn. Seeing it was very poor opposition and we got on top quickly in both games, from what I saw, Wood was leading the line and was playing further forward than Nugent, as a result got on the end of more chances, same as when Nugent and waghorn were playing together.

Waghorn was guilty of missing chances when he first came back in to the team, but that was because he wasn't match fit, since he has regained fitness his shooting has improved, he has been unlucky with some great goalkeeping, and just off target long rangers, but his goal scoring return has been poor no denying, but his all round play brings so much more to the team. His goal against Hudders shows the difference between waghorn a few months ago and waghorn now.

[Manwell Pablo]

Not been much to judge on, but you have deemed it enough time to judge you were right about waghorn. Seeing it was very poor opposition and we got on top quickly in both games, from what I saw, Wood was leading the line and was playing further forward than Nugent, as a result got on the end of more chances, same as when Nugent and waghorn were playing together.

Waghorn was guilty of missing chances when he first came back in to the team, but that was because he wasn't match fit, since he has regained fitness his shooting has improved, he has been unlucky with some great goalkeeping, and just off target long rangers, but his goal scoring return has been poor no denying, but his all round play brings so much more to the team. His goal against Hudders shows the difference between waghorn a few months ago and waghorn now.

3 years is enough to judge Waghorn on.

It's not the the amount of time anyway it's the amount of goals he's scored! It does not seem coinsidence to me that a proper decent, not mention young striker that was what we've been crying out for comes in and all of a sudden he's got twice as many goals as MW in 3 fvcking games! I think your very wrong with your assesments, given time you will see Nugent playing off Wood getting more chances due to him holding the ball and flicking stuff on in certain situations, and Nugent running the channels for Wood in others, in a flat 4-4-2. A decent footballing partnership, not Waghorn and Vardy barging round, Waghorn over hitting every pass and Vardy needing 6 touches to get the ball under control. Too much developing required with those two sadly we aren't in the position to afford them the time they need.

Probably make do with him bundling around in the last 20 minutes of games making a nuisance of himself, one's thing is for certain if we go up he needs selling or loaning

[Col city fan]

Is this thread really still going?

For me it's simple.

From what I've seen so far, Waggy will need three or four good chances to convert a goal.

Wood needs one or two.

You do the math.

Simple.

And don't give me all this 'Waggy's all round game' gubbins.

Wood has that AS WELL as being a clinical finisher.

From what I've seen so far.

[Ely fox]

He was poor on sat very poor

[Lambert09]

At the end of the day it's a squad game and we will need Wood, Waggy, Nuge, futacs and with a bad injury run maybe even Vardy. So get off their backs and accept we have a very decent looking attacking line-up

[Ely fox]

Pearson should have brought on futacs waghorn is gash

[Ely fox]

On sat both waghorn and dyer's first touch was poor. Knockart looked premiership quality was gutted to see him go off and i thought keane played well too

[Goober]

Pearson should have brought on futacs waghorn is gash

Some of our fans are fvcking annoying

[Mark_w]

Yeah I was dying to hear an adequate response not traul through a desperate scrambling attempt to save face backed up with irrelevant arguements and false statements and a general lack of footballing knowledge Mark, which is why it was difficult to read.

This should be fun.

Point 1, Jermaine Beckford, I may not have been posting quite as often as I currently am when we signed Jermaine Beckford so whether there is someone who can remember what I said at the time I don't know. But if you really want to trawl through back posts I am sure if look hard enough you will find a post from me describing him as a "stupid panic buy" and comparing him to DJ Campbell. I've never liked Jermaine Beckford, ever, the only time I bring him up is when people like yourself slate him when he has scored the same amount of league goals and one more cup goal in less apperances than saint Waghorn, and one thing I will give him, natural talent wise, he is a much better player and has had a decent season as a squad player in the Premier League, which Waghorn will never manage.

To explain what I meant by that comment, at that moment in time there was a requirement to sell, or indeed at least get one of our strikers earning a decent whack off the books before we pressed on and got another striker in. We had Vardy Waghorn Futacs Beckford Nugent and at the time technically Schlupp going for that position it would have been silly to add 6th/7th person vying for that position and we would also be in even graver danger of failing our fiancial fair play target than we are now. To be totally honest from a purely footballing perspective I think a motivated Jermaine Beckford is much more use coming off the bench than Waghorn but neither are going to get us promoted and given Beckford earns the most (more than likely) and the dummy has come out I'm more than happy to see the back of him.

Whilst I disagree with some points in this section (It's quite clear that I'd rather Waghorn was part of our squad long term), I can at least see where you're coming from. However the post that you claimed couldn't be seen as wrong now simply stated that since Beckford left you've been saying we need a new striker. Surely you can see that, that would suggest that you didn't think we needed one before that point. Even if that's not the case it's your fault because I'm sure that most people would have seen that as a post that suggested we did not need a new striker prior to Beckford's departure.

Moving on to our style of play which is a strict 4-4-2 (most of the time although 4-5-1 has been used to sturdy the ship away from home sometimes. Quite effectively by Pearson) Cardiff rather tend to try and support Heider meaning their goals will be more spread throughout their midfield, which so far has provided them with 26 goals to our 20, and their defence scores shit load more than ours, who generally, Konchesky aside, don't have a great striking history, and I'll be loathed to blame our left back for our lack of goals. So as I've already said in this thread, unless you are suggesting we go out, change formation, and sign some Centre Backs with a history of getting 5 goals of season to replace our current ones, our goals, to quote you "need" to come from our strikers. I am not saying we need them both hitting 25 goals, but we need them hitting more than 3 in mid January (And if he scores more than 8 for as you laughably suggest I will happily buy you a pint! Hopefully he wont even get the minutes to get anywhere near that!) To put it in simple terms, use all the excuses you want for him, Chris Wood has scored the same amoint of goals in a away first half than Waghorn has managed all season, It is clear where our problem lay, we needed a goal scorer, especially one that can find the net away from home another massive issue we've been having, no good wiping the floor with everyone at the King Power if we can't get enough points on the road to take us up.

I did suggest that a change in approach away from home was neccessary, however we'd just started to do that prior to Wood's arrival anyway. I'm not defending his total, or Vardy's or anyones I'm saying that given what they offer the team they are sufficient for what we are looking to achieve. Don't get me wrong I'm not saying that we don't stand a better chance of automatic promotion with Chris Wood in the team, but that simply isn't what you said in any of the original four quotes that I took issue with. Plenty of clubs have done very well in this division without two natural goalscorers, not just Cardiff and Reading, and since we've already got a good goalscorer in Nugent, I disagree with the suggestion that we needed one. As for Waghorn's three goals in January you're failing to take into account the fact that he's only started 9 league games. Now yes he has made a lot of substitute appearances and not had the desired effect. However 3 goals scored does not look so bad when you take into account the fact that he's started only nine games and up until the Bolton game was clearly nowhere near his best. Since then he has been one of our better players and if he continued to start games then I imagine he would have only improved on his tally.

This is all forgetting, Cardiff and Reading are an exception to the rule generally, Look at all the promoted teams over the last 10 years, most have strikers who score. Especially the ones that don't come hurtling back down (which is one of the reasons Southampton and West Ham, who had the three leading scorers in this league last season are in a better position than Reading are at this moment in time.)

Ok I'll do just that. Following the 25th game of the season, our last without Wood, we had scored 38 goals. That would suggest that we were on course for around about 70 goals if I've got my maths right, so let's compare that to promoted sides in previous years.

2011/2012 - Reading (69 goals), Southampton (85 goals), West Ham (81 goals)

2010/2011 - QPR (71 goals), Norwich (83 goals), Swansea (69 goals)

2009/2010 - Newcastle (90 goals), West Brom (89 goals), Blackpool (74 goals)

2008/2009 - Wolves (80 goals), Birmingham (54 goals), Burnley (72 goals)

2007/2008 - West Brom (88 goals), Stoke (69 goals), Hull (65 goals)

2006/2007 - Sunderland (76 goals), Birmingham (67 goals), Derby (62 goals)

2005/2006 - Reading (99 goals), Sheffield United (76 goals), Watford (77 goals)

2004/2005 - Sunderland (76 goals), Wigan (79 goals), West Ham (66 goals)

2003/2004 - Norwich (79 goals), West Brom (64 goals), Crystal Palace (72 goals)

2002/2003 - Portsmouth (97 goals), Leicester (73 goals), Wolves (81 goals)

That's about half of the promoted team who finished with the number of goals that we were about on course to get prior to Chris Wood's arrival and taking into account the fact that we have an incredibly strong defence I don't think it's impossible to imagine ourselves getting promotion if we'd continued to score goals at the same rate we did before Chris Wood arrived. By the same token we could have missed out, but that seems to suggest that we weren't certainly going to be out of it without Wood signing. I've just looked at ten years since that's the time frame you were using for your stats.

There is nothing naive about saying Waghorn wont score us enough goals to take us up, the proof is in his record this season, and you have to go back three years to find anything suggesting he is capable of even providing an adequate number of goals. You might be happy challanging for a play off place, I would rather go up automatically, or at least, give it a good go, and to me it seemed quite simple, we add a decent goalscorer, preferrable a big bloke, who was decent in the air, it could well be the difference between challanging the top two and scrambling to stay in the top six for the remainder of the season, three very comfortable victories later, I believe that even more.

Show me where in that post I suggested that Waghorn's goals would fire us into the Premier League. I simply stated that the players we had at the club prior to Woods arrival were sufficient for a team who were looking to get promoted.