pompey watching austin?

[herthab]

If we did sell Austin in Jan there is no doubt in my mind that we would be relegated.....most of you will probably disagree but there is not enough goals in the rest of the team to cover the loss of him.

23 league goals this season. Austin has scored 6 of them.

As usual your post is incorrect.

[Simon Pieman]

That's the only good thing about our season so far, we're seeing a few players chipping in with goals from all over the pitch - even at our end (to bring it back down to reality).

[Rich Pullen]

It's true though isn't it.

EVERY time our star forward moves the same "well that's it, we're doomed" stuff emerges. Even Rory Fallon stepped up when Sam Parkin left! Sadly the rest of the side did not.

I believe the only position we've only genuinely struggled to adequately replace (as I've mentioned in the past) was Fraser Digby in goal.

[RobertT]

Keepers in general seem much more fragile these days though.  All that punching and flapping seems to have created shot stoppers only.  I watched The NY Red Bulls vs San Jose and the latter team had a keeper who seemed pretty much on the old style mould of English keepers, and that got me thinking that some of the best right now are yanks.  They seem bulkier, more inklined to clear the box out in order to get the ball etc

Austin can be replaced, it would be hard though and it may take a few punts on players before the next 20+ goalscorer is found.

[Benzel]

Will people expect too much of Campbell if we sign him?

[Rich Pullen]

As it stands, I imagine that there will be pressure on any Town signing to make an instint impact.

However, I'd expect Wilson to treat any Non-League signing the same as he brought Austin into professional football. Give them a month to get used to being a professional then start bringing them in.

If they score 4 minutes into the full league debut then brilliant.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

Will people expect too much of Campbell if we sign him?

I would. If the cunt didn't score 2 minutes into his debut I would be right on his back.

[glos_robin]

23 league goals this season. Austin has scored 6 of them.

As usual your post is incorrect.

Without Austin we'd have no frontline striker ..... With Austin we're struggling badly, without him I dread to imagine. For what it's worth I don't think we'd be stupid enough to sell him in January as we'd face the possibility of a Dossevi and Pericard strikeforce on a regular basis which is a god awful thought. Add to that the fact that none of the other players in our squad have a history of scoring on a regular basis I fail to see how you can't be more than a little concerned.

We got lucky with Austin in that we took a punt and replaced Cox within a few months, judging by this season we've yet to replace Paynter and to try and replace Austin as well is asking a hell of a lot.

[Barnard]

Also can't see the club selling Austin in January, it's not as if we're looking at the prospect of him walking away for free in the summer and if, as is looking increasingly likely, we're going to be looking to steer clear of the bottom end of the table rather than pushing for a playoff spot, it makes more sense to keep him.

[Highland Robin]

We got lucky with Austin in that we took a punt and replaced Cox within a few months, judging by this season we've yet to replace Paynter and to try and replace Austin as well is asking a hell of a lot.

Funny how its just 'luck' that we got Austin, rather than good scouting/management, but when the troubles strike, its bad purchases and bad management.....

[jonny72]

It was just luck. If Bournemouth weren't in the shit we'd have missed out on him. Plus we'd had opportunities in the past to get him which we didn't follow up on. Double plus even Wilson didn't have a clue he'd play that well at this level. Triple plus Wilson only threw him in to the action because our other strikers were so shit he was fucking desperate and it couldn't be any worse.

[glos_robin]

Funny how its just 'luck' that we got Austin, rather than good scouting/management, but when the troubles strike, its bad purchases and bad management.....

Well it's true isn't it, not all punts will come off for every Charie Austin there are 3 or 4 Charlie Griffin's. In the past we've taken punts on players like Griffin, Kaid Mohammed, Lloyd Opara, Darren Dykes to name a few and they haven't come off. Austin was a calculated gamble that came off but you can't expect that to always happen

[Benzel]

I think the key is to not go for players with stupid names. Darren Dykes? He was never gonna be a footballer.

[joteddyred]

Without Austin we'd have no frontline striker ..... With Austin we're struggling badly, without him I dread to imagine. For what it's worth I don't think we'd be stupid enough to sell him in January as we'd face the possibility of a Dossevi and Pericard strikeforce on a regular basis which is a god awful thought. Add to that the fact that none of the other players in our squad have a history of scoring on a regular basis I fail to see how you can't be more than a little concerned.

We got lucky with Austin in that we took a punt and replaced Cox within a few months, judging by this season we've yet to replace Paynter and to try and replace Austin as well is asking a hell of a lot.

I totally agree with this, but unless we're pushing up around the play off positions in January, I don't think we've got a hope in hell of keeping him here.  It's all very well saying we always manage to get good replacements when we've lost strikers in the past, but if Wilson has struggled to find anyone decent to replace Paynter, I can't see him finding a replacement for Austin particularly easy.  In my opinion Austin is not just a goalscorer, he's a far better all round player than Paynter was.

[OOH! SHAUN TAYLOR]

I totally agree with this, but unless we're pushing up around the play off positions in January, I don't think we've got a hope in hell of keeping him here.

Eh? I think there's every chance he will stay personally. I think you're being way too pessimistic.