Summer 2013 | Vital Football

Summer 2013

wee_od_88

wee_od_88

Vital Football Hero
We are only half way through February and already the media is looking ahead to the summer!

We are being written off in the Champions League now that we are 3 goals down and have to go to Turin. Realistically that is correct but we all still hope that we can at the very least put in a good performance and get some goals!

The SPL is considered all but wrapped up with a current 18 point gap at the top of the table. The cup will just have to wait and see......

In mid-July, the first of our THREE Champions League qualifiers start! So the players need to be back in mid-June to prepare. We are already talking about a similar scenario as last year where we will start to rest our main first team players and use the young/fringe players in the SPL in order to give our stars more of a rest before the CL qualifiers.

As well as that, there is the obvious talk of us having to almost rebuild our squad following the likely departures of Wanyama, Hooper, Forster and possibly others.

We will no doubt finally get rid of the likes of Daryl Murphy and Paddy is likely to go as well while some of the younger players who have been out on loan and are likely to fail to make the grade are also likely to move on such as Lewis Toshney, Paul Slane and unfortunately James Keatings.
Miku will also go back to Spain and I don't expect to see him back.

We could receive offers for a number of players, whether any of those offers are good enough is another matter.......
Samaras has impressed and clubs are said to be interested
Matthews
Lustig
Izzy
Wilson
Ambrose - being linked with Sunderland, Liverpool and Swansea
Forrest
Kayal
Others could be subject to interest as well such as clubs already looking at Tony Watt etc.

We potentially face a HUGE rebuilding of the team! The only upside is that even from selling Hooper and Wanyama, we are looking at an income of around £15m.

So who is likely to be on our shopping list.........any suggestions? Or any particular type of player you think we would need?
 
I have come across 3 young players that I think would be good additions to the squad. They are not likely to be first team players but certainly players we should look at bringing in for the SPL and look to develop.

The first is Finish striker Tim Vayrynen. He is almost 20 years old and plays in Finland for FC Honka. He is around 6ft 3 and is a current Finland U21 international. He has already played for the U17s (8 goals in 9 games) and the U19s (9 goals in 17 appearances) however he is yet to score in 3 appearances for the U21s.
He scored 18 goals in 46 games last season and has played in Europa League qualifiers as well.
He is out of contract in December and because of him playing in Finland and being so young, he wouldn't cost much at all.

[youtube=zrgryNNjROc]
 
The next is another Finish striker, Joel Pohjanpalo. 18 year old about the same sort of height as Hooper and has been tracked by Liverpool. There was talk that the deal was already done but they've never actually completed the deal.

If they're not actually going to do the deal, it's time we stepped in. He's very highly rated and considered the next Jari Litmanen.
He is quick, he is good in the air, generally has really good technique. He can also play out in a wider position. He is perhaps a bit like Tony Watt but not as strong and tall but a bit more polished in his technique. Video of his goals shows a perfect hat-trick, a header, a left foot shot and a right foot shot.......and he does that in under 3 mins of real game time.

He would need to bulk up a bit and strengthen up but he already has CL qualifying experience as well as Europa League experience and has scored in those games so he clearly has some quality.

[youtube=kJFBqM7UNUw]
 
The third player I am particularly excited about, I think he is really one we should have a look at!

17 year old CM from Macedonia, Darko Velkovski is about 6ft tall and would be a great addition to our young team. He will turn 18 in the summer and has been with his current club in Macedonia for just over a year and a half. He has already made 5 appearances for Macedonia U19s and scored 1 goal. He has made 18 appearances this season so far, starting 10 games but only finishing 3 of those 10.

That would suggest he needs to work on his fitness a little but when you see the video of him and his ability at such a young age already, I think you will agree that he is one we should look at!

He is a bit of a mix between Wanyama and Kayal. He is not all out defensive, he is a proper CM who can score the odd goal but is solid at the back as well. He has good skill and decent pace although watching him in the video there are times where he doesn't look that quick but that could be more down to his acceleration rather than overall top speed.

I think his best attribute is his passing and vision! He is fantastic at picking out a pass and playing one of the attackers through!

I think he could be a great midfield pairing with the attacking flair of Rogic!

He is one that we would have to work on but I also think he could already have the ability to step in to the first team in the SPL. At 17 year old........that's impressive!

[youtube=c4UIyYYbgcY]
 
Wee Od is back on the scouting trail. Nice work, slick. These are all good youth players. Who will replace Hooper? He is likely to leave in the summer window. I bet we will resign Stokes, but Lassad and Miku aren't cutting it as far as being our central option and I don't think Stokes will ever behave enough to be the marquis scorer for the club, even though the ability is there.
 
Cheers Welch! Glad you like!

Stokes will resign because he's been brilliant! Not just scoring but his overall play has been great! He seems to help bring the midfielders into the game! It's great that he has more or less picked up where he left off!

I like Lassad and hopefully he'll be better next season as well! He's still not a Hooper type goalscorer though. We would still need someone else.
Miku is unlikely to stay I think. Even if he gets opportunities between now and the end of the season, I'm not convinced he will do enough to win a permanent move!

Tony Watt is still a great prospect and in the SPL he can be a good striker for us. Not going to get a Hooper amount of goals but should still bag a good number! Samaras is an unknown quantity as we know! He is still unlikely to bag much more than 12-15 goals a season at his best!

James Keatings is back after a few loan spells, it would be good to see him get back into contention towards the end of the season! He could be a real goal machine as he has been at youth level! He's not a Hooper replacement yet but he could yet be that player in another year or two! If he can get into the team!

I will need to look into replacements for Hooper who can come straight in but players with good goalscoring records aren't cheap but there are a few.....it also depends if we are looking for another Hooper in the sense are we looking for someone a bit younger but that is ready to go straight into the team and could give us a good return on our investment.

There are a few I can think of already......Philip Hosiner is an Austrian player similar to Hooper in style and size and has a fantastic record this season!
Andreas Cornelius, Stefanos Athanasiadis and of course one who we know is already a target, Charlie Austin.
 
The top target for Hooper's replacement should be Philipp Hosiner. 23 years old, almost 24. He has only been at Austria Vienna since the summer so his price tag will be high, plus of course he is in the top 10 goalscorers in all of Europe at the moment (23 goals in 23 games in the league and 28 in 30 games overall). He's similar in size to Hooper and I think they are similar types of players. He seems to be a natural goalscorer with good stamina and good pace! He may cost close to £5m though because of he has 2 years to run on his contract, the number of goals he has scored, his age and the fact he has only been at the club since the summer.

[youtube=TBA1kxv2J-A]

Charlie Austin is a target, the 23 year old English striker, currently at Burnley, was linked with us before when he was at Swindon and chose to move to Burnley instead. I wasn't impressed by him then and having watched footage of him again, I'm still not that impressed! 23 goals in 32 games this season.

Stefanos Athanasiadis is a consistently good goalscorer in Greece for PAOK Thessaloniki and in Europe. 24 year old Greek international striker, 19 goals in 29 games this season and ha 2 years left on his contract. Probably worth around £5m.

[youtube=7O9NH2UwjG4]
 
Other options

Leonard Kweuke - I've posted about him before. 25 (26 in the summer) year old Cameroon international playing for Sparta Prague in Czech Republic. He's a big, strong, powerful striker but also a very athletic striker who is capable of some cracking goals! The last few seasons he has been a consistent goal scorer and has played in Europe. He only has 9 goals this season in 24 appearances and he has 7 assists as well. So he is a good all round striker who if not scoring will still help set up others for goals which is important.
He will only have 1 year left on his current deal come the summer so he could be available for around £2m-2.5m.

[youtube=xvUv5m73NCc]

Andreas Cornelius - 19 year old Danish striker who moved to FC Copenhagen last summer and is thriving. 20 goals in 37 games this season including European games. The problem is clearly that he only moved in the summer so will demand a higher transfer fee and the fact he is proving himself and is so young will also push the price up. He has 3 years left on his contract and is currently priced at around £1.8m, I think we would have to double that to sign him and I don't think we'd be willing to pay that for a 19 year old! He's a tall target striker but he is also very mobile and is quick! So he scores a lot with his head but has very good technique as well. His movement in the box is what allows him to score so many goals!

If we could get him for the right price, he would definitely be one to get!

[youtube=qsaY4cfl_80]

Deni Alar - 23 year old Austrian U21 international striker (they are allowed one or two over-age players and also dependent when his birthday falls and as long as they are at most 2 years older). He's about 6ft tall and quite a leggy striker, he seems to have quite long legs! It's a good thing because he manages to stretch for the ball and get enough on it to score! He's quite good in the air as well and is a good target in the box. Good movement and he's quick.

He is probably the most likely option out of all of them to be honest. Simply because he will only have 1 year left on his contract and might only cost around £2m.....if that!

[youtube=eL7t0kDl1Vk]


There are some other options for strikers obviously but these are the ones who have the best scoring records this season so far. One thing I'm sure Lennon and Lawell will be aware of is trying to sign or do a deal for a striker before Hooper is sold. The longer we can drag out the Hooper sale the better because if clubs know how much we get for Hooper, the more they will ask from us knowing that we have plenty of money to spend!
 
Fraser Forster admits he'd like to move to the EPL but ONLY if he is guaranteed first team football!

Tottenham's interest in James Forrest is being reignited after some better displays recently, the fact he has Champions League experience and because he is young and still quite rough. They plan to sign him as a long term replacement for Gareth Bale who is quite likely to leave in the summer.......

No news on who wants Hooper or Wanyama yet.........
 
I can't see Forrest leaving this early. He can be convinced that first-team football is better than sitting the bench, which he would at Spurs. I have to say, Hooper only drew interest from Norwich and he is our best player. The SPL's reputation has fallen so far that our better players may not draw the ig interest from top EPL clubs. Their options may to be signing for weaker EPL clubs and never playing in Europe or signing for a bigger club and never seeing the pitch. We're not such a bad option.
 
Very true welch but it's also (unfortunately) about the money and they can double or triple their wages without any real problems. Wanyama will have bigger teams after him because he is younger but I don't think Hooper will have the big teams after him. The best Hooper can hope for is a Europa league team....and that's not guaranteed every season! But just playing in the EPL is more likely to get them a call-up to the England squad (for Wilson, Hooper and Forster obviously).
 
A club like Fulham, Everton, West Brom or even Swansea would be a good fit for him. Liverpool are in dire need of extra firepower so they could yet be interested in a move for him! That would be a good move for him!

Arsenal are apparently eyeing a move for Wanyama after turning down a plea from Alex Song to resign him from Barca after his summer move has not gone very well.
 
Apparently they are......I think they should be hiring me to help though! :D Haha!

No more transfer news today (still nobody being linked with Hooper) but Lennon was in the papers today praising Rogic. He claims that in Rogic, he has bought a "very good player" and described him as "He's tall, elegant, got really quick feet, excellent technique and an eye for the goal,"......lets hope we get to see some more of this talent before the end of the season!
 
I think we've seen more of Rogic in 2 starts and 2 sub appearances than we have of Bangura in however long he has been with us now!
 
We've been linked with a couple of players this week.

Apparently we are one of a number of clubs keeping an eye on Marcos Alonso, 22 year old Spanish LB or left winger who is related to Real Madrid star Xabi Alonso. He started his career at Real Madrid and moved to Bolton Wanderers on loan and the deal was eventually made permanent. He struggled early in his days with Bolton due to injury and his inexperience but in the last couple of seasons, he has really started to shine at Bolton. Now a few of the EPL clubs are supposed to be interested including the likes of Stoke and West Ham.

Not necessarily a bad move if we could do it but I don't see much in this story. Izzy hasn't been great this season, granted but with Mulgrew and the possible addition of Gershon, I don't see a need for Alonso unless we plan to use him predominantly as a winger!


The other player we've been linked with is Issam El Adoua who is being dubbed as a replacement for Wanyama........I fail to see how we can replace Wanyama (who is only 21 years old) with El Adoua who is 26 already!
He's a Moroccan international who can play CB or CM. He's two footed, comfortable playing the ball with either foot but from what I've seen he's not as skillful as Wanyama and generally I just wasn't that impressed with what I saw of him. I'd certainly rather have Wanyama than this guy!
Apparently there have been excellent scouting reports on him and he has a release clause of just £1m from his club in Portugal, Vitória Guimarães SC.

Portugal seems to be another market we are trying to tap into as we for the last couple of seasons now, we have been linked with moves for players from the Portuguese league and even the second tier of Portugal.
 
Liverpool in the hunt for Wanyama!

Yeah I read that Lennon is considering a summer move for Doyle, we tried to get him on loan in January but it was a no-go. He's playing for a Wolves team who could be relegated this season, he's easily better than that!

Stokes is to get his 1 year extension and depending how he does next season will then dictate if he gets a deal after that. Lennon doesn't expect to see the best from him until next season.

What do you think about adding Kevin Doyle? 29 year old now....no European football experience but plenty of international experience and obviously played at a high level in the EPL. I think we could get at least 3 years out of him at a good level!
 
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