Transfer Rumours

Vaughan scored 14 league goals last season, and that included jumping up a division. He had very little service, and was obviously frustrated by his/our performances.

It's realistic to think he could score 15-20 in a more attacking/better performing side.

Donaldson hasn't been scoring many in years, but Novak has shown he's capable of hitting double figures in the past and came very close last season. To target 10-12 goals is again pretty realistic.

I am not a fan of Guthrie, but he's also scored double figures in three of his last four seasons.

I think you'd struggle to name a side with four strikers as versed in scoring as those four. In terms of multiple double-figure league seasons, Salford don't have them; Bolton don't have them; I'm not sure anyone does?

I guarantee if Bolton had come down and signed Vaughan, Donaldson, Novak and Guthrie, people would be assuming they had the strength in depth to score the goals necessary for promotion.

I don't really see how, if Vaughan stays, there's any other argument?

 

Might be jumping in here but I don't get your point.

We signed these players and they all under performed.

Guthrie is rubbish. Let's not dress this up now. He isn't good enough.

Vaughan yes can score goals and I don't want him to leave but for me we treated him like sh&t and Rhodes messed up again so I can't blame him for waning out.

Novak was a poor signing on deadline day.

Donaldson misses far to many chances and age is really catching up with him.

We have seen these players and barring Vaughan all of them are not good enough.

Then add Billy Clarke to the mix and I am sorry but for me our attack won't fire us out of this league.

 

Doyle and the lad from Plymouth look decent signings but they have a lot of wriggle room.

Bolton are the biggest club in the league so expected....

I wouldn't want Delfonouso though.

 

Nothing to disagree with there
Let's face it we have history we loaned out to one of our promotion rivals,the leagues top scorer last season got him back and killed his game again
History may well repeat itself with Vaughan whilst we seem happy to "make,do" and re sign second best
Strange !!!!

 

Novak is a 1/4 striker. Not brilliant but not poor. Better record than Delfuneso who you were championing yesterday????

Vaughan was treated like shite by Bowyer. Not the club. We gave him a very healthy 3 year deal aged 30. That's some reward at this level.

Agree on Guthrie. Donaldson a decent enough player, awful finisher agreed. Clarke is a body. Also doing Academy coaching so don't expect much from him next season. Here to make up numbers as a 5th striker.

For me, if we can replace Guthrie with a half decent loan and keep Vaughan then we don't look too shabby up the top end.

 

I see quite a few people citing Guthrie’s stats but they are not actually that great. Even the season where he scored 14 in 38, he scored 3 of those against the Swansea kids in a Checkatrade game. Take that out and his ‘prolific’ season equates to 11 in 37 which is neither here or there. Either side of that he scored 5 in 28 last season and 1 in 12 in 2017/18. Shocking returns.

This is a player coming off a season where Hope Akpan nearly out scored him and sorry to go over old ground again but was surplus to requirements for the worst professional football team in the country. Plenty of cause for concern with this one.

Donaldson can’t finish for shit and then there’s Novak who about 1 in 4 at best.

Taking into consideration that Vaughan and Donaldson are probably the highest earners in the squad and we paid money for Novak and Guthrie the talent in our front line does not justify the amount of money we’ve spent assembling it.

 

Donaldson has scored one in three most of them in the championship considering what else he brings to the team it’s very good

 

He will be 37 midway through next season. His last double figure season was 15/16 with 11 league goals from 40 appearances. He needs to bring a lot more to the team than 4 goals to justify his position as presumably one of the bigger earners

 

Looked like a high class Championship striker when he was missing 3 yard sitters.

 

The fact is the partnership of Donaldson and Vaughan was working well up to his injury Vaughan was on course to score 20 or more and Donaldson for 10 or over Donaldson overall play made up for any chances he missed
Jon Stead who did a similar job scored only 6 in 32 but just like Donaldson his overall play was good

 

Glad you mentioned Stead. Donaldson could do with looking at Stead. We need him to hold the ball up and bring others into play to score the goals.

 

Fact is injuries are part of the game.
Fact is Donaldson DIDN'T score 10
Fact is Vaughan DIDN'T score 20.

Don't understand your facts!

 

Has that ever been Donaldson's modus operandi ????

 

You've basically just said they weren't good enough last season.

I know that.

I'm talking about next season.

Is there a reason Vaughan-Novak can't work? Or why Clayton isn't the best third striker in the Division?

Which side has four better or more proven forwards?

 

If you're talking about next season, there's no reason why people can't talk about last season either. In fact, you have to go back a lot of seasons when those four were "proven" strikers. If we wheeled Alan Shearer out of retirement, would you be saying we've signed a "proven" striker? Probably not. Donaldson, lets face it, is on his way out in terms of being prolific. As much as he was "proven" back in the day, he's not put a string of decent seasons together for a long time. James Vaughan I'd say has lost his "proven" tag, but he is still the right side of thirty to knuckle down and regain that mantle -. if he's in the right frame of mind to do so. Novak and Guthrie I know nothing about other than seeing them play for us towards the end of the season, and thinking they don't look up to the task. So in this respect, I do agree that it's with an eye on next season I'll be casting my judgement on those two.

 

Exactly what he was doing until the injury probably why we were doing well in the league

 

As I have said in previous post Stead was never a proven striker but in a good side he brought a lot to the table I think Donaldson does the same

 

Got to agree with @Park bantam , admittedly based on the one game I saw him play at Morecambe. Missed the fairly easy header first half but his hold up okay and stretching the defence was really really good. That said, he doesn't score enough

 

For all Donaldson brings in the overall build up play, I just don't think we have enough goal scorers around him to be able to justify his complete lack of composure in front of goal. If we had two or three capable of making up for his lack of goals around him you can get by and admire what else he brings but ultimately we've only got Vaughan you'd be confident of making it into double figures. For all his hold up play, if nobody apart from Vaughan is capable of putting it away on a semi regular basis you have to ask where the goals are going to come from? Even in this season that ended early you needed to score 50+ to reach the play offs, let's be semi-optimistic and say that Vaughan stays and gets 15-20 then you have to ask who's going to make up the other 30+ goals and that's my biggest concern going into the new season as it stands.

(I'd say Novak has the capability to reach double figures but obviously if we were hypothetically starting Vaughan and Donaldson, there'd be no room for Novak)