This is the crux of this argument. You can't argue that we don't play as well when Sako goes into the CF spot because he isn't a CF and we have seen how damaging he has become cutting in from the wings. If we had another CF to compare form with we would have a better idea, but we don't, so we can't, so as Kev says, we might as well just wait and see what happens once we do get a new striker.

I accept Benteke has a lot of room for improvement in terms of his goal return this season, but this is the sort of nonsense which really winds me up; the bloke literally won the most headers of any player in Europe's top 5 leagues in 2017 - by all means criticise him, but to suggest he doesn't win enough headers is ludicrous. There's literally nobody better in Europe at it, statistically.

Our fan base will always criticise anyone who arrives with a significant transfer fee; happens time and time again. You only have to look at the responses on this thread to see that the crux of most people's issues with Benteke is that he was expensive and hasn't fulfilled their perception of what a £30m striker should be.

There's always a cheaper option who turned out to be better value, but it's not realistic to think we're always going to find that gem - sometimes you have to splash out to get the man.

Last year's 17 goals have been very very quickly forgotten by some.

indeed!

Possibly, but that's all supposition.... Suppose we get a striker in and also that he fits into the team better than Tekkers.

Personally I hope so - Big Ben needs someone pushing him. We saw him at his best last season when Wickham was competing for the striker spot.

Benteke off to Chelsea as a permanent move? Would be a good move if we could sign Babacar and Dembele in return

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He gets stick for being lazy which I think is unfair because he sometimes gets no service and gets fed up chasing around after nothing. He doesn't really hold the ball up that well though, you can see when we play it long to him he's crying out for someone within 20 yards of him so he can do one of those deft knock downs or flicks into somewhere rather than nowhere, and he needs crosses to score from. His problem is a complete lack of flexibility - if the crosses aren't coming in and we can't get a spare man near enough to him when we break he disappears - he can't zip around into other areas to make himself available like Sako does, he needs the rest of the team to be set up to suit him, and that's why I think Parrish would be happy to cash in and get two strikers who can link up better.