Which League Two striker could cut it in the Prem?

[stevegull]

After watching the (relative) success of Adam Le Fondre on match of the day last night it got me wondering which other League Two strikers have it in them to notch a few goals in the Premiership.

We all know Le Fondre had a tremendous record in League Two and he wisely took his time about choosing where to head to next. He chose wisely and is now a Premier League striker.

So who has impressed you this season? Do you think ANY current League Two striker could go to the Prem and notch, say, 10 goals?


I'll kick it off and say that I don't think Akinfenwa could do it. ^.^

[AustrianAndyGull]

Luis Boa Morte definately couldn't

A few years ago i might have said Gillespie now of Fleetwood but he has lost his way big time.

One of the strikers i rate in this league and who i think should be at a higher level is Padraig Amond of Accy but Premiership i don't know.

At the end of the day, Connor Sammon played in the prem last season and he SHOULD be in league 2.

[stevegull]

Some players definitely play above their station in England's leagues! For example although Shola Ameobi is a Newcastle 'legend' I don't think he's too dissimilar to Jon Nurse. Ameobi just made good career moves and has become a better player than Jon Nurse, obviously. But I still think Shola wouldn't look out of place in the Championship or League One.

I think the most likely players who are stuck at this level that could still get goals in the Prem are likely to be of the 'poacher' variety. One of those little pests that can just pop up in the 6 yard box in enough space to get a shot away. Elliot Benyon would be an example of this type of player, but I'm not sure he is good enough to score goals in that division.

I know it's an obvious one to say on current form but I've always thought Tom Pope had something about his game that means he could play higher.

[ferrarilover]

Some players definitely play above their station in England's leagues! For example although Shola Ameobi is a Newcastle 'legend' I don't think he's too dissimilar to Jon Nurse. Ameobi just made good career moves and has become a better player than Jon Nurse, obviously. But I still think Shola wouldn't look out of place in the Championship or League One.

I think the most likely players who are stuck at this level that could still get goals in the Prem are likely to be of the 'poacher' variety. One of those little pests that can just pop up in the 6 yard box in enough space to get a shot away. Elliot Benyon would be an example of this type of player, but I'm not sure he is good enough to score goals in that division.

I know it's an obvious one to say on current form but I've always thought Tom Pope had something about his game that means he could play higher.

I was saying this very thing the other night in relation to goalkeepers. You're not going to convince me that Gazzanega is a better keeper than Bobby, yet, look where they are, and what they were valued at. Gazzanega is a Premier League goalie, earning a hundred grand a week, and is valued at £3,000,000. Bobby is effectively an average L1 keeper (which is where the Posh would be if all divisions were amalgamated into one), valued at 1/10th of Gazzanega.
For me, this is all down to the fact that Bobby came from Torquay, who are, as everyone knows, as weak as piss when it comes to the transfer market, and Gazzanega was at Gillingham (i.e., a team who aren't Torquay), who wouldn't be taken for a ride and therefore got a vastly inflated sum for a not brilliant player by playing hardball (sorry, been watching American sport on TV again). Sadly, Bobby will suffer just as much as us in all this. If he'd been at a club with some backbone, it might well be he who was between the sticks for Saints now.

Strikers, dunno, not sure, maybe Kee, given his finishing or Akinfattwat given his size. I've long said pace will get you 99% of the way in this game and I think Daniel Sturridge is proof of that. Couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo, but earns more from Chelsea in a week than Bet365 do from Bixie, and that is predicated on nothing more than his being faster than either Drogba or Torres. Anyone especially quick, hell, maybe even Zebroski?

Matt.

[AustrianAndyGull]

Bet365 wouldn't get much out of Bix, Matt. His idea of a huge gamble is a fiver accumulator! He should join myself and the big boys with the big stakes ( meaning bigger losses! )

On the subject of Olejnik, i watched the Posh goals last night and some of their defending was absolutely horrendous, colliding with each other, leaving players unmarked in the box all the time. The amount of times Bobby must be exposed on a regular basis is untrue and if it weren't for him we'd be talking 8,9,10 goals for the opposition. He made some great saves yesterday but has no chance with most of the goals because they are gifted by shocking defending. The stats say he has conceded a shedload but how many has he kept out? I just hope he doesn't come tumbling down the leagues again and end up at somewhere like Oldham or summat.

[ferrarilover]

Did you see the fourth Birmingham goal, where they left the deadliest striker in England (Jordan Rhodes) unmarked, 3 yards out? **** ing criminal, poor Bobby must be wondering what he's done to deserve what he's got.

Matt.

[stevegull]

Did you see the fourth Birmingham goal, where they left the deadliest striker in England (Jordan Rhodes) unmarked, 3 yards out? f**k ing criminal, poor Bobby must be wondering what he's done to deserve what he's got.

Matt The n00b.

My thoughts exactly. Surely the last thing the manager had said to his defence was, "don't give Rhodes space, least of all in the box."

Fallen on deaf ears.

Also agree with you regarding Bobby. In general I've always thought goalkeepers are all a pretty similar standard (bar those at the VERY top). And I can honestly say if I was a Premier League manager and I could pick between Olejnik and Gazzaniaga (or whatever he is) I'd feel more comfortable with Bobby. Goalkeepers in particular become a victim (or winner) through their club history. Like Steve Harper could well have been slumming it in League One all his career quite happily without being 'talent spotted' but he has instead been picking up his Premier League wages (mostly) sat on Newcastle's bench.

[stevegull]

Tom Pope has just notched 20 goals for the season. How high up could he play?

[happytorq]

I was saying this very thing the other night in relation to goalkeepers. You're not going to convince me that Gazzanega is a better keeper than Bobby, yet, look where they are, and what they were valued at. Gazzanega is a Premier League goalie, earning a hundred grand a week, and is valued at £3,000,000. Bobby is effectively an average L1 keeper (which is where the Posh would be if all divisions were amalgamated into one), valued at 1/10th of Gazzanega.

Where on earth do you get the figure of £100k a week? There is absolutely no way on the planet that Paulo Gazzaniga is earning that much at Southampton. At the outside he's on £20k a week, and that's still being very generous. I'm aware that you like to make points by exaggerating things, but that is ridiculous. Southampton aren't a team who pay huge salaries- it wasn't that long ago they were totally skint.

For me, this is all down to the fact that Bobby came from Torquay, who are, as everyone knows, as weak as piss when it comes to the transfer market, and Gazzanega was at Gillingham (i.e., a team who aren't Torquay), who wouldn't be taken for a ride and therefore got a vastly inflated sum for a not brilliant player by playing hardball (sorry, been watching American sport on TV again). Sadly, Bobby will suffer just as much as us in all this. If he'd been at a club with some backbone, it might well be he who was between the sticks for Saints now.

Um..no. You couldn't be more wrong if you fell out of the wrong tree in Wrongtown in the county of Wrongshire in Wrongland. There are many factors that contributed to Gillingham getting more money.

1. Gazzaniga is 20 years old. That's really young, obviously. With the right coaching they can probably flog him for a lot more in a few years' time. Bobby is (I think) 26; still fairly young for a goalkeeper but at this stage of his career there probably isn't much more improvement in him. Sell-on is unlikely to be for fortunes.
2. Bobby went to Peterborough. Gazzaniga went to Premiership Southampton. Do I need to explain this?
3. I don't know how many clubs were in for Bobby (that met our valuation), but if it was just 1, that gives them a pretty strong bargaining position. If Gazzaniga is that good of a prospect then it's a fair bet that there were several clubs interested, which naturally raised the price.
4. Bobby had already been released by a Premiership club in the past. It's likely that this makes other Prem clubs think twice before approaching him.

I'll grant you that sometimes we as a club let players go for too little money, but that's a function of being a small club with a limited budget. Other teams know that we have to sell to survive and that even a half-decent bid will get the job done. It would be nice if the board showed a bit more backbone but we're always going to be a selling club, and more often than not as soon as a player knows another club is interested, he'll want to go. I can't think we pay that well, even compared to other League 2 sides. If we had a billionaire back we could afford to tell teams to shove off, but right now we can't.

[ferrarilover]

No, of course Gazzanega isn't on a hundred grand, but since it's almost completely irrelevant to the point I was making, it doesn't matter, it's just a number to demonstrate the difference between where the second best L2 keeper in 2011/12 is at present and where the best keeper of the same period is as we speak. Even if it is £20k/week, that's probably still £17k a week more than Bobby gets, which is plenty enough for a keeper who isn't quite as good. You're what, in publishing? Can you imagine if the bloke in the next office who isn't quite as good as you was on two million dollars a year more?

As for you list of reasons, I haven't the will for a transatlantic guessing game, but even if we accept them all at face value, that still doesn't add up to a 10x price increase between Bobby and Gazzathingy. It's hardly as though Gillingham are swimming in money and perhaps we'd have a pound or two more to our name if we didn't insist on selling up to the very first offer that came through the door. I remain certain that the Posh pitched an offer which they thought we'd laugh at in order to test the water (just like anyone buying anything, a house, a car, shit on Fleabay etc) and we fell over ourselves to accept it. Other teams are doing well because they have the cash to invest because they get big money for their players. For all that Di Canio is an arsehole, he managed to convince a whole bunch of teams, including us, to pony up big bucks for his merry bunch of retards over the summer. Sure, some of them are lovely, but are they better than Eunan, are they THAT MUCH better than Eunan (for whom we barely got more than we did for Elliot bloody Benyon)?

It's not all down to us, of course, there are factors beyond our control and our need to sell is the biggest of those, but realistically, there are only half a dozen clubs in the world who have no need to sell at all and could resist even the biggest offers. Man Utd are now a selling club, we need to accept that if we toughen up a bit, all we'll do is scare off the chancers and start getting bigger payouts for our talent.

I fear we may have taken this thread off topic...

So, that Tom Pope is pretty good, eh?

Matt.

[Glostergull]

Fallen on deaf ears.

Also agree with you regarding Bobby. In general I've always thought goalkeepers are all a pretty similar standard (bar those at the VERY top). And I can honestly say if I was a Premier League manager and I could pick between Olejnik and Gazzaniaga (or whatever he is) I'd feel more comfortable with Bobby. Goalkeepers in particular become a victim (or winner) through their club history. Like Steve Harper could well have been slumming it in League One all his career quite happily without being 'talent spotted' but he has instead been picking up his Premier League wages (mostly) sat on Newcastle's bench.[/quote]

I think I can agree with you in general. It doesn't take too much in the way of fitness to be a goalkeeper for most teams up to league one. The main thing is learning positioning. Most of that comes through experience.
I have been following the progress of one in the Welsh Premier league and he is pretty consistant. I am recomeding our club scouts keep an eye on him. He is still only 26. Was on Chester Cities books as a youth player years ago but has been with a couple of Welsh teams since. He can produce some amazing saves and it pretty consistant with crosses, long shots, short shots, high balls, low balls etc. he could easily make the grade and have many years left in him yet. he is a big guy too.

[stevegull]

Also agree with you regarding Bobby. In general I've always thought goalkeepers are all a pretty similar standard (bar those at the VERY top). And I can honestly say if I was a Premier League manager and I could pick between Olejnik and Gazzaniaga (or whatever he is) I'd feel more comfortable with Bobby. Goalkeepers in particular become a victim (or winner) through their club history. Like Steve Harper could well have been slumming it in League One all his career quite happily without being 'talent spotted' but he has instead been picking up his Premier League wages (mostly) sat on Newcastle's bench.

I think I can agree with you in general. It doesn't take too much in the way of fitness to be a goalkeeper for most teams up to league one. The main thing is learning positioning. Most of that comes through experience.
I have been following the progress of one in the Welsh Premier league and he is pretty consistant. I am recomeding our club scouts keep an eye on him. He is still only 26. Was on Chester Cities books as a youth player years ago but has been with a couple of Welsh teams since. He can produce some amazing saves and it pretty consistant with crosses, long shots, short shots, high balls, low balls etc. he could easily make the grade and have many years left in him yet. he is a big guy too.

That's the other important factor you refer to; size. I heard recently (maybe on this forum) that Premier League clubs get their youth goalkeepers in by simply looking for the youngsters that are fairly tall at a young age. The club can then teach them the handling aspects and they can pick up positioning out on the pitch (as you rightly say). As for this player in the Welsh league then I think it's worth a look from the club, as I think there must be plenty of keepers plying their trade in obscure divisions that could step up to our bench and beyond.