Cottagers eye French prospect

[Mr Fulham]

There is no doubt our lack of good central strikers have been a problem for us for years.

Since Saha left  do you think? In 2004-2005 we were fifth in the goals scored table! Fifth! 2005-2006 was the last time we were in the top half of the goals scored table.

I agree. We have never really replaced Saha. McBride and Zamora were fantastic players for us, but they were/are no poachers, no guaranteed 10+ strikers.

We seem to be only able to spend another 6 million.

That reasoning is far too simple in my view.

[Lighthouse]

'But we all know we haven't got any money, don't we?'

We have spent the money on several players. Al has already allowed us to spend. But my point was just that Hughes wanted it spent on one forward and Jol is spending for a squad. When as you say, we have been in need of a striker since Saha. Shame we can't squeeze enough for that forward.

Hughes and Jol had a different idea for the squad. Short term/ long term. Debate is could a forward be better for us than several young players. We will never know.

[Mr Fulham]

I'm not too sure if it's about the money. Maybe it's about waiting for the right player(s)....

We were linked with Shane Long by Sky Sports a few days ago.

[RidgeRider]

We have offered about 3 million each for a forward and a full back. We seem to be only able to spend another 6 million. Say 14 million if true. Hughes wanted to spend that on one player. A top class forward. We will never know who had the right idea. Hughes clearly wanted Prem success. Jol seems to be building a squad to last.

i never understand why not spending lots of money means we have none.

the only way forward for fulham is to buy younger players for £1-5m.  this French lad sounds just the ticket.

Buying £15m strikers is all well and good but it is not sustainable in any way.

But we all know we haven't got any money, don't we?

We've just about increased our revenue to the point where we can buy the odd player without increasing our debt too much. Any large fees for players comes straight out of Al Fayed's pocket. So in this sense, yes, we could probably technically afford to splash double figures (in millions) on a player but only if MAF is feeling especially generous (we'll have to pay him back eventually I suppose). Otherwise, as you say, it's bright young things from RC Lens and the like.

Always going to be the way for a club of our size.

Part of the payback is when we take a young player in, which we have done a lot of the last couple of seasons, and sell them on for 10m, like we did with Smalling, this is part of the payback.

One of the obvious potential benefits to buying young, before they are known gems, is they may end up being good Prem players and will do a job for Fulham, if they turn out to be better than that, we sell them on, and if they don't pan out, they either stay as squad players or we let them go...not so much risk doing business this way as long as you good a really good one every so often.

I really like the direction we are headed under Jol more than Hodgson or Hughes. As has been said, basically, Hughes wanted big 'impact now' players, Hodgson wanted tried and true that would play with discipline and help now, and Jol is looking to build for the future while deepening the squad and making positions more competitive. Ideally with good scouting you can find, develop, keep a few and sell a few for a profit.

[twang]

We have, apparently, raised our bid.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lensois.com%2Fbreve-rclens-41584-une-offre-a-la-hausse-pour-serge-aurier-.html

[AlFayedsChequebook]

We have, apparently, raised our bid.

http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=sv&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.lensois.com%2Fbreve-rclens-41584-une-offre-a-la-hausse-pour-serge-aurier-.html

I hope this is true, a new RB is needed!