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Shopping in Aldi
News of incoming transfers to Birmingham City have been a bit thin on the ground, and as such this piece by Colin Tattum in yesterday’s Birmingham Mail was seized upon hungrily by messageboard forums eager for news of the retooling at St Andrews. Alas, it’s contents were met with some chagrin as the names of strikers that have been mentioned are somewhat underwhelming.
The article also makes mention that as I thought before, not only Zigic but Jerome as well will be moving on leaving our current strikeforce as Akwasi Asante and maybe Doris the tealady, if her hammys haven’t packed in. There has been comment on the this blog that us selling Johnson will leave us short in the defensive department; I fear our striking options are even worse than that, even if Rog indeed moves on.
Whilst the article doesn’t outright say it, it implies that Danny Graham at £3million is out of our reach financially, that Billy Sharp at £2.5million plus is out of our reach financially, and that we might be shopping in League One for potential over anything else. Clearly it seems, we’re now doing our shopping at Aldis and wondering how long before we’re rifling around in the dumpster outside for scraps.
The most worrying for me is the mention of Kris Boyd as a potential target. Kris Boyd is not the answer, unless the question is “which Scottish striker’s name is an anagram of Dry Kisbo?”. Although he actually finished the season with twelve goals – more than I’d thought – he’s not any better than Championship level and at 27 he’s at an age where his value isn’t going to go up much further. It worries me that Eck might be revisiting past targets when the time has clearly come to move on and look at new players and new ideas.
The Daily Mail paints an even bleaker picture. Zigic not sold, but paid off and released, and worse still Matt Derbyshire signed for a million. Firstly, I cannot see how we will not sell Zigic – there are teams that want him and I’d be surprised if we didn’t get at least a couple of million for him. I also cannot believe we’d sign Derbyshire less than a month after allowing his loan to expire without so much as a word. No disrespect to Mr Derbyshire, but I saw nothing last season that convinced me he’s worth a punt at this level or the Premiership – the lad doesn’t have one outstanding quality, and his confidence appears to be rock bottom.
The one murky light in the darkness is the possibility of us looking at Leon Best at Newcastle United. Whilst I understand that many are completely underwhelmed in us trying to sign the 24 year old, he did score six in the top flight last season, he is only 24 and there is a possibility he could improve. I know those aren’t great attributes, but when the alternatives are a Scot who has previously rejected us and a Lancashireman who couldn’t hit a barn door for us… well.
I can only hope that these articles are just ideas; stabs in the dark as things have been quiet from St Andrews. I suspect next season would be even more painful than this if our striking options are indeed Boyd and Derbyshire. In all honesty, I’d prefer Asante and the tealady up front. The fact is, just because all we can afford is Aldi prices, it doesn’t mean we have to spend our money in there. In my opinion, I’d rather have us sign some raw promising youngsters than trying the same old failed lines.
Tags: Akwasi Asante, Cameron Jerome, Kris Boyd, Leon Best, Matt Derbyshire, Nikola Zigic
6 Responses to “Shopping in Aldi”
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The other name was Jason Roberts. This is exactly the sort of signing we don’t need in my humble opinion. 33 years old, been around the block, but hasn’t really impressed in the last few years. This sort of player won’t suddenly turn it on again like a tap. High wages, ageing, and in my eyes the same attributes as Marcus Bent. I am concerned that Big Eck won’t have learned lessons from the past and our forwards could consists of Jerome, Kris Boyd (Garry O’Connor) Jason Roberts (Marcus Bent) and a random foreign forward who has played international for a country ranked 81st in the World (Carlos Costly)…
I think you will find that Tattum is the only one who actually knows where the manager is shopping and can realistically go.
When there isn’t any news coming out of Stans make it up and throw any rubbish into the mix, give it to the London press and watch it regurgitate in all the copy sites “clubcall, eatsleepsport, football 365, tribalfootball etc etc.” WAIT and see what direction we go in once the buying and selling begins.
it’s a wee bit too soon to start judging the transfer activity just yet – back in Jan i don’t recall hearing mention of Martins, Jiranek or Beausejour right up until deadline day (I vaguely remember some chat about Hleb beforehand) and those signings really excited me at the time. Jiranek was fantastic for us, aside from LC winning goal Martins may well have scored a few more had he not been injured, and Beausejour has been at the very least reliably OK (I actually like him).
i don’t think we should expect to be dazzled by sensational signings, might be a cliche but i hope we can build a young ‘hungry’ squad of unknown players around some experienced heads from the last couple of seasons.
With Paul Montgomery (Chief Scout) gone, seemingly the scapegoat for our relegation, who is his replacement? I’d have thought the club would have either appointed someone by now (2 weeks since his sacking). The board obviously thought ths was a key decision for this key position, but the silence is deafening. A decent Chief Scout with a reputation is pivotal to any future successful signings for next season.
You know me Thongsy. I like to be Mr Positive, and you’re right – most of this is paper talk and there is a lot of doom and gloom mongering on the forums right now. I have to admit though, I’m struggling right now to feel positive. When you hear the same old names being trotted out you do begin to wonder how much of it is conjecture, and how much of it is based on knowledge that there isn’t a plan B. I desperately want to believe that things will be alright, and now I’ve had the day to think about things I think as more solidly based news comes out it will be easier to do so.