Javier Hernandez Signs

[szola]

We play with 1 main striker and 3 attacking midfielders/forwards/trequartistas/players running fast up the field who'll try to score goals.

The three would be Anderson/Antonio/Lanzini/Yarmolenko/Snodgrass/Fornals. Two for every position.
The front man would be Haller & Ajeti

Xande Silva woulde be our back up plan, I'd guess.

[e17]

Genuinely amazing to me how many think “we” & “our” when talking about G&S & their money

[Graza]

Did anyone actually see Hernandez play for us when he was here?

For all the talk of him being an out and out goalscorer or offering something different, it was like playing with 10 men with him on the pitch.

That's his game though. He's not a link man, he's not there to win or hold the ball up, to use Hernandez properly you need other players to feed him the ball in the box, to feet and let him finish. We haven't played that way when he's been here so he's always been a bad fit.

[Carlton'sGoal]

That's his game though. He's not a link man, he's not there to win or hold the ball up, to use Hernandez properly you need other players to feed him the ball in the box, to feet and let him finish. We haven't played that way when he's been here so he's always been a bad fit.

Which is fair enough, it's not necessarily his fault, but we won't miss him. It was always an odd signing, considering we've played 1 up top for the best part of the last 10 years.

[steveyrockstar]

I'm amazed at how many people on here bemoaning this sale.

He didn't want to be here, he's never really looked the part in our team in any game, and at £120,000p/w is far too expensive to be sat on our bench.

Don't think many people are upset about losing him as such, his spell was quite disappointing, it's just the timing. We've now been left with a vaccuous void in the squad where we at least once had a different type of striker who was capable of cropping up with the odd important goal. That void we can't now fill until Jan at earliest.

If Hernandez's presence was having a detrimental effect on the squad, then we were probably right to shift him. But we don't know if he did. He seemed very professional to me.

[Marky]

It’s a big gamble but one I would have done if they line up a replacement first week of Jan.

Think of fee and wages they are saving

[steveyrockstar]

Against the lower mid-table teams, the bottom teams or the teams in the League/s below yes.

But in the years he has been here he has only scored against teams in the top half 4 times.

They were all in his first season: Spurs, Palace, Bournemouth and Chelsea all finished in the top 10 that season.

4 goals in over 2 and a half years!

And the super sub cobblers is a complete myth too. He has only scored 5 times off the bench during his time at the club. And 2 of those goals were against Huddersfield. Arguably the worst team to have graced the Premier League.

I won't argue that his spell with us wasn't disappointing, but most of those goals you point to did lead to us obtaining points. Fact is we now have an empty hole in the squad that we can't fill until at least Jan. If we weren't going to use Hernandez this season anyway and management felt we have that squad hole covered by other better players, then it was fine to sell him.

However, I'm sceptical. 5 goals off the bench in 2 years could equate to an extra 10 points.

[kotch22]

we won't miss him.

I think we will quite possibly miss him, though. You're right that his style doesn't offer enough to our overall game, but there will be times late in games when we are struggling against a packed defence, looking for a winner or equaliser. There are very few other strikers in Europe who can so significantly shift a team's odds of nicking something when coming off the bench, and - unless someone else steps up - his leaving could well be felt in the form of 3 or 4 points.

[frankiemac]

not a huge gamble

we have pocketed a load of dough, huge savings on wages, and got out a bloke who doesn't want to be here (never good to have one of them in the squad)

if (touch wood it doesnt happen) haller gets injured, we have ajeti...or yarmalenko who can play there...in 2 months, antonio will be back, and in jan, we can strengthen again

[hammer1975]

Third choice striker

:lol:

Social media brainwashing/conditioning clearly doesn’t work then

So, who will be the first to say that it’s only a good deal if we use the money to sign a good player at the start of the January window and then promptly change their mind at the end of the January window to say there was no-one good available and that it’s the managers fault we’re not top six and out of the cups on our bottom half wage bill and bottom half net spend since the move?

f*** success on the pitch and long live profit is what I say

[Coops]

Genuinely amazing to me how many think “we” & “our” when talking about G&S & their money

I agree. It isn't us or we it is they and them.
Its isn't as though they will put it in a big pot marked for the January transfer window. Us fan will see no benefit from the sale of our striker.

[Carlton'sGoal]

unless someone else steps up - his leaving could well felt in the form of 3 or 4 points.

Point taken, but I'd hope that Lanzini, Fornals, Anderson etc could step up in this situation, whilst also offering something over the whole season, rather than Hernandez who may dig us out a hole but offers very little else for another 10 or so games.

[stu1]

Financially it makes sense but from an on the pitch perspective it makes hardly any.

If Haller gets injured we are in trouble, how do we know Ajeti won't be another Rebrov? I'm not saying he will but there's certainly no guarantee that Ajeti is good enough for a team aiming for Europe in the premier league.

The fact Antonio is out, just increases the risk further. Too many people seem to be ignoring the fact it is a squad game to day. If you are chasing a goal and have the majority of possession, there are few better goal poachers around than Hernandez. His sale no doubt weakens our attacking options in such a scenario quite significantly, we have no one with his skillset in the squad and thus have reduced our options.

If we were going to sell Hernandez, I'd have kept Perez.

[Sloop John B]

Financially it makes sense but from an on the pitch perspective it makes hardly any.

If Haller gets injured we are in trouble,

If Haller gets injured and we'd have had Hernandez upfront on his own all season we'd also be in trouble.

[Hammersfaniow]

Yes they should have just magic'd up a big offer the second the season was over

I wrote ‘when the transfer window was open’, that’s June, not the second the season was over. Big difference

[YorksHammer]

So, who will be the first to say that it’s only a good deal if we use the money to sign a good player at the start of the January window and then promptly change their mind at the end of the January window to say there was no-one good available and that it’s the managers fault we’re not top six and out of the cups on our bottom half wage bill and bottom half net spend since the move?

Honestly, between total wages saved and the money from this sale, we should have something in the region of £15m available come January.

And for me, the right way to spend that would be on one of the central midfielders Pellegrini targetted this summer, and not on another striker. As others are saying, we have enough to keep us covered up front barring a complete injury crisis* that wipes them all out. We don't really need to sign there.

But if we can get that missing midfield piece of the puzzle - we'll be better off.

If he doesn't move anywhere today, Ascacibar who we were linked heavily with and supposedly taking a very good look at based on ITK information will still be playing in the Bundesliga 2 come January for Stuttgart. It wouldn't be a bad move, and should certainly not be beyond us given the money saved/brought in.

But that's for discussing in another 3/4 months.

[The Old Man of Storr]

If he doesn't move anywhere today, Ascacibar who we were linked heavily with and supposedly taking a very good look at based on ITK information will still be playing in the Bundesliga 2 come January for Stuttgart. It wouldn't be a bad move, and should certainly not be beyond us given the money saved/brought in.

But that's for discussing in another 3/4 months.

According to Stuttgarter Nachrichten he could be on his way to Real Betis .

[stu1]

If Haller gets injured and we'd have had Hernandez upfront on his own all season we'd also be in trouble.

Yes but he wouldn’t be upfront on his own all season. To have only Ajeti as a back up to Haller is a huge gamble, at least with Hernandez if we wanted to we could play both upfront, or have at least one striking option on the bench to try and change things.

[Sloop John B]

I wrote ‘when the transfer window was open’, that’s June, not the second the season was over. Big difference

June, July it makes not a jot of difference if there are no offers for the player... You can't just decide to sell someone...

[thejackhammer]

So should we stockpile 3 players for every position out of fear that one might get injured?

As out and out strikers Tottenham only have Kane, Arsenal only have Lacazette and Aubameyang, Man Utd only have Rashford, Liverpool have Firmino and Origi, Man City have Jesus and Aguero.

We play one upfront, we dont need 3 strikers. I'd rather Ajeti get game time, he's 22 not 17.