Transfer Rumours Charlie Austin

I too think he will end up at the Toon, it's a game of who blinks first between the two clubs.
The shame of the matter is that whilst each is trying to out psych the other, precious pre season game time is being squandered, and Austin is losing out on the opportunity to settle in and gel with his new team mates.

 

Its not wages, Austin wants to be here and he isnt willing to see his contract out and stay at QPR. If there is one certainty, he is leaving. The guy is 26 played the season of his life last year, broke into the england side and is now looking around at the other english striking options and thinking that apart from perhaps Kane and Rooney, he is 3rd choice in terms of a CF for england. I think he should be looking at doing all he can to get on that plane to Euro 2016 and he cant do that in the championship.

Once Nufc are certain he doesnt have a prolonged issue with his knee, they will offer £13.5 -£14M and get the deal done. Ive heard that medical testing of his shoulder are going to be completed as early as today or tomorrow, but that is very much hearsay.

 

How do you know?

 

He told me

 

Is Charlie Austin really England's third choice? Hodgson will always pick Rooney, Sturridge, Welbeck, Kane first I suspect.

I think if Austin moves to a club currently in the PL and scores 25 goals next season, he'd still at most be an unused sub when the above players are fit, not that I agree with the selection that goes on.

 

Not sure that's fair. Sturridge was picked when he was healthy and knocking in goals for Liverpool. Wellbeck was picked when Austin had only played half of a decent season. We've no real basis to say what the preferences are if they should all be fit, in form and availabe.

 

I don't know on the centre back front. I suppose it will depend if we actually go and get another of the required quality.

I'd take Gini over Lens any day of the week personally. Different types of player of course but I think Gini is a bit of a step up on what I've seen. I do think Lens is a talented player but I've seen a lot less of him. I've seen the odd appearance for the dutch but thats about it.

 

Sturridge is picked every time he's fit,and will continue to be so whether he's played 1 game or 3 since his latest injury, while Welbeck was still getting picked when he had splinters in his arse from the Arsenal bench.

 

Kaboul and Coates have premier league experience, and young cbs tend to need a season to get into it.

Gini is like a **** version of Frank Lampard, while Lens is like an out and out right wing forward, with the pace and power to have a useful impact in this division.

 

I don't know how much you've seen of Wijnaldum, but I've watched a fair amount of Eredivisie football over the past few years, and apart from being a goalscoring midfielder, Gini's pretty dissimilar to Lampard. For a start, he's not a particularly good passer - and he won't rack up assists the way Lampard did. On the flip side though, he's a better dribbler, and much more capable of beating a man, which is not something Lampard ever really did. He's also much quicker than Lampard ever was. In fact, he's not much slower then Lens - he just doesn't have the same power or explosiveness. He's also arguably more versatile than Lampard. I remember him playing as a winger at the start of his career - and he's equally comfortable playing as a centre mid or just off a striker, as well as his natural attacking midfield position.

Lens is a good signing for Sunderland, and ideally I would have liked him as well as Gini. Given the choice though, I'm much happier with Gini.

 

Indeed but Kaboul is a ladyboy who pulls his hammy every 1.2 minutes. If fit yeah I could see him working out. Big if though. He wasn't even their first choice nevermind anyone else chasing him, there must be reasons behind that. Risky for me.

Coates. Well at one stage I thought he was going to be a useful signing, good pedigree etc. Again though injury prone and has actually only managed 22 appearances in the PL in 4 seasons. Some through not being fancied but had that serious knee injury also.

I like what I've seen of Gini and I think we've got him coming into his peak years. The thing I like the look of with him is that willingness to lead, shout at others and take responsibility. We have too many passive ****ers.

 

I've enjoyed reading through this thread, some good knowledge has been shown. I will be gutted if yous get Austin, he will surely get you 15 league goals and I can't understand why nobody has just paid the money.

 

I knew I'd forgotten something. Gini has experience of captaining a team, which is something Lens doesn't have. Not forgetting the fact that he's also 3 years younger.

 

He's not coming here. Club spin. Nothing really has changed other than we spent a little more of the cash that's been sat in a bank for a couple of years. 3 players is not enough, one untested, young CB with "sell on value" is nowhere near enough. Noises from Honest Schteve now seem to be about "waiting", which basically means no more players arriving. How this is now a top-10 squad is beyond me, with an already past-it Colo and Steven Taylor first choice CB (well, for about a month til Taylor does his season-ending injury, then at Xmas we're back to Williamson as Colo fancies an Argentinian holiday). Far too much pressure on Mitrovic and Wijnaldum who are still being 'supported' by Gouffran, Obertan and Anita. Still a really, really average choice at left back and lord help us if Janmaat gets injured.

Sorry, with a month to go the club has failed to capitalise so far on the belated optimism and instead we're getting the usual soundbytes just from a different mouth.

 

Or, to look at it logically the club have just let young Armstrong leave on loan for the season to make room for an additional striker and to not stifle his development. We currently have Cisse, Mitro, Perez and Riviere, Obviously Riviere is beyond poor but Swansea only have Eder & Gomis, West Ham have Sakho and Valencia (can't include Carroll, he's a crock), Villa currently only have Agbonlahor, Everton have Lukaku and Kone, Stoke have Crouch, Walters and Bojan. We're fine in the striking department as long as Cisse is kept. As it is our strikers are top 10 quality add Austin and we have a top 6-8 options up top along with a top 10 pool of midfielders.

We lack a minimum of one defender, preferably two. Every news outlet is reporting we're still after more players. No need to panic, at least one more will arrive with that player preferable being a defender instead of a striker. If we're really serious we'll get two and then there should be no complaints.

 

Perez still looks like your best striker to me...

 

It may be that SM may use him as a winger from time to time, or on the right of a 3.

 

Oozes natural talent and is a lovely bloke off the pitch too (goes to watch Whitley Bay).
He did good last year in a poor side, with poor service so I really hope this year sees him given more chances.
I also think the lad can play out wide given the opportunity so may be tried there too.

 

As I say, logically we won't be spending £15m on Austin. Riviere will remain as fourth choice, Cisse the senior figure, Mitro/Perez offering options. Not a lot wrong with that, but as I say Steve's comments of "let's get the new boys in before signing anyone else" leaves me a bit cold as you'd have to be living under a rock not to recognise the need for 3 more (CB, LB, RM).

 

Has Rivierre not sustained a knee injury? Im looking at us at the moment and we have 2 out and out strikers, Cisse and Mitrovic. As we know Ayoze can do a job, but is he really an out an out striker? If Riv is out for 3-4 months then I think we need another striker, especially with Armstrong out.

If he choses to play two strikers (not all the time, but home games against weaker teams) then i think it is an area we are weak. Im not arguing the fact that the defence needs looking at urgently, I just think the Austin deal is needed.