We need a proven goalscorer!

[Arch Stanton]

Christ almighty is this phrase getting on my nerves....

Taking to a Bristol Rovers fan at work today (I work in Bristol, so there plenty of them) and he is the self proclaimed voice of football... he smugly mentioned to me that Danny Wilson was close to signing Andy Ritchie from Portsmouth today, I guessed he meant Matt.  He reckons he knows Danny personally...  hmmm, sure you do pal.

Anyway I digress, he then launched into a tirade about ‘Someone needs to tell our manager that we need a proven goalscorer, it’s the missing piece in our team, we need a proven goalscorer’

Like there’s a place where these mythical beings sit on supermarket shelves simply waiting to be picked up.
You can’t move on the Adver comments threads for people saying ‘we need a proven goal scorer’ it even appeared in the Caddis & Ferry story today.

Yes, I know every team needs a decent striker to go places, but it’s the way it’s discussed, it’s like it hasn’t dawned on Wilson, Trollope et al that this is a key element to any successful team.

I’m sure this has been ranted about multiple times on this forum, but fuck it; I needed to write this down.

As an aside, when was the last time we bought a ‘proven goalscorer’ anyway? Cureton? Thorpe? ( ) Neither were massive successes for us – perhaps Mooney?  I suppose most of our decent strikers of recent times were not ‘proven goalscorers’ before they came to us – Parkin, Cox, Austin.  Not sure really, perhaps at the end of the day I’m just not grasping the definition of the phrase.

[Batch]

Austin was a proven goalscorer

[carbonwhite]

Austin was a proven goalscorer

is

[Arch Stanton]

Austin was a proven goalscorer

Exactly, define proven goalscorer, I scored 5 for my five-a-side team Monday night, I must average about 4 a match - sign me up!

My point is if Wilson turned round and said the only striker we're buying this summer is Steven Smith from Poole Town. The 'We need a proven goalscorer' brigade would probably be outraged.... the fact he scored 29 goals in 23 games would probably not be taken into consideration. But yet he could be another Austin.

[Nemo]

Exactly, define proven goalscorer, I scored 5 for my five-a-side team Monday night, I must average about 4 a match - sign me up!

How do you feel about coming to WorldNet?

[Spy]

Yeah we already have one proven goalscorer. It'd just be nice to have another.

I actually reckon there's a pretty good chance of Austin being League 1 top goalscorer this year.

[mexico red]

who is this steven smith you talk of? sign him up he looks a proven goalscorer..

[carbonwhite]

i would say a proven goalscorer would average around 1 goal in evey 2 games every season

[Arch Stanton]

who is this steven smith you talk of? sign him up he looks a proven goalscorer..

 

Ah, but is he 'proven' enough for the adver comments gang though?

I demand that an official 'proveness-ometer' is created.

How do you feel about coming to WorldNet?

Is that still going? I'm always up for 5-a-side. Not sure I'm up to standard, I normally play against a bunch of gasping, Bristolian fatties, compared to them I'm Steve White.

[Doore]

i would say a proven goalscorer would average around 1 goal in evey 2 games every season

I would agree.  I think the thrust of the argument though was that the fan thought the manager was not aware that this was needed.  The poster was pointing out that perhaps the manager knows this,  but that they are not exactly readily available at reasonable prices.

[Tails]

The thing is, our fans are ridiculous in expectations. The season we got promoted and possibly the season after, we all moaned about how we needed a proven goalscorer. When Cox was banging them in, we needed another proven goalscorer (despite the fact Billy scored a decent amount!). When Austin and Paynter were both banging them in, the midfield suddenly wasn't scoring enough (despite the fact Ward got a decent amount from the left wing).

We could have every outfield player scoring, and some numpty Town fan would complain that Lucas isn't scoring enough. It's the fucked up mentality of the average Swindon fan.

[pauld]

We could have every outfield player scoring, and some numpty Town fan would complain that Lucas isn't scoring enough

To be fair, Lucas' goalscoring record is shit

[Colin Todd]

The thing is, our fans are ridiculous in expectations. The season we got promoted and possibly the season after, we all moaned about how we needed a proven goalscorer. When Cox was banging them in, we needed another proven goalscorer (despite the fact Billy scored a decent amount!). When Austin and Paynter were both banging them in, the midfield suddenly wasn't scoring enough (despite the fact Ward got a decent amount from the left wing).

We could have every outfield player scoring, and some numpty Town fan would complain that Lucas isn't scoring enough. It's the fucked up mentality of the average Swindon fan.

Agree. Thing is, whilst its obviously prefereable to have a "proven goalscorer" in the team, you dont neccessarily need one to be successful, nor does having one guarantee that you are going to be successful.

Its also an excellent point that of our best strikers in recent years Parkin, Cox, Austin (you could throw Fallon and Paynter in there as well) none of them were proven goalscorers before they played for us. 

Cureton and Thorpe were "proven goalscorers" and were shit here. Mooney was obviously good.

On that basis I'd rather we kept on signing "unproven goalscorers"

[Reg Smeeton]

To be fair, Lucas' goalscoring record is shit

I've yet to see a keeper score for STFC....they're all shit.  We've had a keeper score against us, and loaned a keeper out whose scored for his temporary club...unless one of our keepers scores this season Wilson should go.

[Ardiles]

Taking to a Bristol Rovers fan at work today (I work in Bristol, so there plenty of them) and he is the self proclaimed voice of football... he smugly mentioned to me that Danny Wilson was close to signing Andy Ritchie from Portsmouth today, I guessed he meant Matt.  He reckons he knows Danny personally...  hmmm, sure you do pal.

Anyway I digress, he then launched into a tirade about ‘Someone needs to tell our manager that we need a proven goalscorer, it’s the missing piece in our team, we need a proven goalscorer’

I just think it's so sweet of your Rovers supporting colleague to worry about us so much.  It's like he really cares.