Thetownend.com

Sorry to go all STFC_Bart on you but with the season a day away I'm seriously worried about our lack of strikers.

I know everyone has been moaning about this for months, but I always said 'Sturrocks got 2 months/6weeks/a month/3week etc' to sort something.

Well now he has one day to sort something and I'm starting to worry.

We start the season with what 3 strikers....Sturrock, Arrieta and Mohamed.

Two of which have never played in English football, let alone League One.

Blair Sturrock has played at League One level 44 times scoring an impressive ONE goal, which makes him our most prolific striker!

Even Andy Caton has got one goal to his name at League One Level.

We've nearly signed Akinfenwa, we've heard rumours about McGoldrick, Best, Constantine, Jutkiewicz and fuck knows who else and in the end we've signed some Welsh guy and some Portugese no name.

I'm sorry but these players wont be good enough to the score goals needed, added to that I dont think our midfield looks full of goals either.

So if this is our squad going into the season then just where are the goals going to come from?

Even when Big Bad Bazz comes back, he has managed to score exactly no goals at this level as well.

Time has finally run out and I can honestly say our forward line doesnt impress me in the slightest.

We saw in a number of games last season it usually takes us going 1-0 to get our arses in gear (Barnet, Bury, Rovers, Lincoln) and I really cant see us scoring more than 1 in a game.

I fear if we dont score first thats it. Lots of 0-0s this season and alot of 1-0s to - I just hope the majority are in our favour.

Read todays adver

We'll be fine. Theres still 21 days till the window closes, and we can still get players in on loan. Im a bit concerned, but not overly worried.

I have, but I've heard it all before.....I'll believe we've got another player in when he have

:D  dont blame you

ah yes, we've got 21 days to sign a striker wahoooo!

BUT

THE SEASON STARTS TOMORROW!!

Peacock is up front tomorow, you was raving about him last year so surely we will be ok :wink:

Yes but what do you suggest we do right this second?  

If you're moaning tomorrow Im going to make you wear my luminous orange army hat all the way to northampton.  8)

We'll scrape through the first games of the season with 0-0's, 1-0's, and then well push on in october/november time.

but if we played Peacock upfront who will play in midfield, Michael fucking Pook.... :evil:

I guess the plan would be to play Peacock up top, but having worked all of pre-season and most of last season with Peacock in midfield he's obviously not Sturrocks first choice of striker.

Infact we know full well Sturrock doesnt want to play him there, rather he has to....

no easton and adams... next question

right this second, sign a fucking striker!!

I hear Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink is without a club  :wink:

Ok, so it isnt as easy as that....but Sturrock must have some targets, some full back targets etc etc

I cant believe Sturrock has failed at the moment to find a decent available striker with some sort of record at League One he actually wants to sign

I'm sort of with DV. Sturrock has been promising it would be okay for 2 months now, yet has failed to sign anyone up top with any calibre.

This is the first season i can remember where I've been genuinely worried about starting with such a poor looking bunch of attacking options.

Sturrock said about bringing in new faces by end of next week which means we theoretically only have the Charlton game with the same striker situation.......

Im not hugely panicked just yet as long as these "investors" are making funds available to bring in a semi decent striker.

on the flip side its the first time in years i have been happy with our defensive options though

I thought you wanted a striker, make your mind up!

It's not a good situation going into the season, but you never know...a debut goal for Arrieta or the Phophet could fill them with Confidence and they might start banging them in...

I was quite happy with the defence last season

....but you're right defense and central midfield look solid.

Not 100% sold on the wingers yet, both very hit and miss.

Strikers....however!

I swear I threatened to rape the face of the next person to start a topic like this.

I don't think there's the point of just signing someone for the sake of making up numbers. If playing Peacock upfront is better than any realistic possible options we've had then we have to do it.

Sturrock can't build a striker out of his leftover dinner and string.

WE'RE DOOMED, STURROCK OUT  :roll:

Good post Gaz, well thought out as always.

Now, tell me who is going to score our goals for us?

Come on tell me, Im dying to know.

Plus, when the fuck did saying our forward line isnt very good = we're doomed.

I agree with Dan, we are relying on complete unknown quantities and lets face it the cock aint exactly a prolific striker is he? PS has known for some time that we are light weight up front and he we are 24hrs away from the start of the season without a proven striker. By the way Dan,how is the suntan coming along :D

don't worry, arrieta is the next ugarte.

That'd be nice...

ARGHARGAHRHARHAGHARHAGH!

Where do you suggest Sturrock gets a proven Striker from? The last time Swindon managed to get proven strikers was Cureton and Thorpe. And that ended well. In fact Mooney would probably be the only successful proven striker we've signed in like 100 years.

Wasn't Sturrock saying weeks before deadline day last season about how the power is with the selling clubs and soon it will be with the buying clubs as the window closes ?

And then didn't he go out and sign a few players who didn't really make much of an impact or he wanted to use with Corr being the exception.....

Is he not using the same reason's now ?

I am seriously worried when he tells us he has until the end of the month to sign players, he's had enough time to sign them up....we need at least 3 decent players that can make an impact now, and then go and look for the "development players".

Ohh and I am also fucked off with him saying how he has to make us a selling club....it would be nice to be able to keep our best players so we can challenge not keep fucking selling them for once !!

Rant over.

Arietta, 5 goals in 5 games can't be sniffed at. There are plenty of players who haven't played in the league who ended up being decent... whats his name erm hmmm Oh yeah Freddy Eastwood being one of them, I wouldn't judge until atleast a month into the season.

Plus, when the fuck did saying our forward line isnt very good = we're doomed?

Well simple really.. goals win games, if we don't have any goals as you say, we don't win games and we get relegated?

I dont think he is using excuses at all.  Sturrock is at a point where he needs funds to purchase. Free transfers are all very well however don't always guarantee quality. How can he sign any big impact players that you want without any money!?

Now the investor situation is closer to finalisation "apparently" he should be able to look more seriously at targets and make offers whereas before, he didn't have that option/could not table anything.

Paul Sturrock knows how to get promoted from this division. I believe he has an ace up his sleeve. I trust Sturrock. Goals will come, we will grind out results. Let's not write off the season before it starts!

Arietta 5 goals in 5 games means nothing. How many did Royce Brownlie score in pre-season last year about 7 or 8 wasnt it and look how he turned out - does anyone even know where he is now a days?

I didnt say we wouldnt score ANY goals - I just said I didnt think our forward line has alot of goals in them, there is a difference

Cureton, Thorpe, Peacock, Roberts, Fallon, Henderson, Mooney and Parkin had all played in League One and scored some goals previous to us signing them.

Sure they didnt all turn out as well as they should have, but at least they were some what proven in League One and not totally unknown quailites.

OKay, I'm kind of with DV as far as the next week or two goes. For the next 2 or 3 games we are certainly struggling up front and it is disappointing to see our squad is nowhere near complete.

However, if we can get 2-4 points from the first 2 league games (and just see how it goes against Charlton!) then perhaps we'll have got somebody in and we might be able to push on. If in a couple of week we still have nobody I will be worried

For anyone who is pointing out Arrieta's 5 in 5 feat, could i advise them to look at David Dukes golscoring record while on trial back in the day. He never fired us to glory with 20+ did he?

In all honesty I'm more worried about the enigmatic nature of our wingers and the lack of back up for them (for back up read direct replacements for when Zabooub cant stay on his feet for more than 10 seconds and when Roberts just cant be arsed or manages to make the incorrect decision in every possible situation)

If Roberts and Zaboub dont turn up it dosnt really matter who we have up front as they are going to get fuck all service - our central midfielders are all play it simple and run around types.  I suppose with Peacock or Bazza up front they might win some balls in the air but thats about it

Although English-born Basque Seperatist Harry Eta is clearly our saviour

i'd rather sign someone of real quality in two weeks time than some clown in time for tomorrow. peaock and a.n. other for tomorrow, with adams and easton in the middle, then we move on. Ciabatta could doa  job anyway, five in five is decent.

arrieta's spanish/basque

so there!

But look at the teams that Aribaldi has scored the 5 against....not exatly decent teams now are they ?

no they're not, but you can only score against what's put in front of you and scoring at any level breeds confidence. What I'm trying to say is that it's not the desperate situation it seems to be. We dstill have options and while it would have been ideal getting a striker in for the kick off, there's no point breining an old noddy in. It could be a loan player from the prem...

I know Arrieta scored two against Forest Green t'other night and got one against Ciren, but thats only three goals, where have his other two goals come from please, cheers

Some Austrian team i think.

...wasn't that that Guima bloke?

I'm pretty sure Arrieta scored in one of them games though. 2 against Forest Green, 1 against Ciren. He didn't score at Exeter or against City so 2 must have come in Austria.

how old is arrieta?

also, i think mohamed will turn out to be a good player.

(strauss you prick)

I though she was a Borrower.

30 i believe

i am concerned about our lack of forwards.but still think there will be at least 4 clubs worse than us this season.

clubs with solid defence and midfields do not get relegated.

I'm not too bothered to be honest. Peacs is a more than useful Plan B and as you mentioned DV, Arrieta, Blair, K-Mo and even Robbo if needs be. OK none of them 100% certain to carry us up but they will fill a hole. We'll sign a striker or two, I'm sure of it... and I'm sure Luggy wants it to happen on his terms and not the selling club.

I've got this feeling Ibon is going to be a real surprise package this year... :wink:

Leeds being one of them!

To be fair it was said for most of last season that we didn't score enough goals to get promoted,......but we did.

With the squad we have now, it would appear that we are in the same boat.  
I don't think that without a serious upgrade in our striking options that we have any chance of finishing up the league, but I do think we have enough to finish out of the bottom four.

I think we need good competition out wide as really Roberts Sofi have got no competition and especially with Roberts he needs to be pushed to perform, this league will be tougher than L2 and we will need strength in depth

Sturrock's on the job - he's said he wants two players for every position. That means 2 more midfielders to come. And obviously he's after strikers too

Yes, but he's been saying that for months, and he's only got 16 hours 51 minutes and 50 seconds left

I'm still not sure what you expect Sturrock to have done DV, do you expect him to sign anybody because they are a striker? I've got enough faith in him to think he's probably tried, or at least discounted available options due to budget restraints or them being shit. We've signed the son of Islaam and the Spanish Eta Borrower dude. I'm not quite sure what you are expecting.

If there aren't any good realistic targets out there, then surely around now-ish is when you start going for some loan signings. Or maybe a fresh look at strikers who are suddenly available where other clubs have made new signings.

It's not quite the end of the world yet. We've got 3 fit strikers, 2 of which are unproven and 2 former forwards who have moved back into midfield. With Barry Corr getting back to match fitness in a few months for an extra point.

So at the moment it'd be

[definates]
Sturrock
Ariettayina
Mohammed

[proven goal scorers]
Robers
Peacock

[youth team players]
err. caton and someone else. I don't give a shit anymore because they generally turn out to be a bit shit.

[unfit but are good]
Corr.

I don't think it's the emergency factor that it's being hyped up to be. Unless you think we've got a chance of signing a goalscorer which is more proven than Roberts or Peacock?

This team doesnt have enough goals in it at the moment.

And it is important because attacking is the exciting bit!