Crouchend_Hammer wrote:
Since 2012, the answer is Andy Carroll
Ever since we signed him, he has been an influence on our striker purchase. The board and manager don't want to sign a big money striker and then Carroll stays fit. The chance of him being fit, albeit slim, is always at the back of their mind.
If he wasn't on our books, my hunch is we would have bought a 'big name' striker at some point in the last 4 years
Nothing has really changed since we signed Carroll, any other big money signing has to be able to do a job somewhere else on the pitch. G&S aren't prepared to spend big on an out and out striker as, when AC is fit, one of them would be starting on the bench and they can't stomach that.
A few seasons back we were supposedly very interested in Kalou, as, to their way of thinking, he could play up front if AC was injured, but do a job out wide if Carroll was playing (Kalou decided that wasn't for him though). Valencia also fits this model, and it again is shown in the panic buy of Ayew when we failed to land any of our striker targets last summer; he can play up front if need be, and, when Carroll is fit, he can play out wide.
So we keep spending money on "dual purpose" players that often are neither one thing nor the other, and then taking punts or loans on strikers in a scattergun approach to try to increase our options, but all, with the exception of Sakho who has since gone off the rails anyway, with no success at all.
G&S need to accept that it's OK, nay, even necessary, to have big money signings sat on the bench if we want to compete in this league (and not just when they're coming back from injury). We can only hope that after last season's transfer shambles they are finally beginning to realise this.
