Thanks Peter that is very encouraging. This is someone who could be a damn good signing and could make us a bundle of money in the future too if he can transfer his talents to the pace of the EPL.

Purely based on YouTube he does appear to have a certain calmness in front of goal and tries to place rather than blast the ball. He also seems able to find space although that may be due to poor defending of course.

15 million is a decent price (not too big) for a striker of Chalov's value and age.

Work permit should not be a problem, he plays in the U21 national team and should be main forward for Russia in the next years.

Seems like he could be a good addition with potential and knows how to finish.

With all the ridiculous rumours these days though and inflated prices I can't quite believe that one of Russia's top talents would be available for 15m. Seems these days 20m is the lowest pricetag foreign clubs slap on any potential move to the prem regardless of ability or experience.

Again we'll just have to wait and see if it's BS. I guess with each day that goes by the wait is getting shorter and shorter.

Edited by samprior (31 Jul 2019 12.21pm)

Has he signed yet?

I put this lads name into YouTube earlier and it started showing me some nice enough finishes, though some of the games seemed to be down the park from what I could tell.

By definition a signing like this is a gamble. Sorloth and Jach didn't pay off, and so we are already chasing losses on this particular market (by which I mean the young, foreign, never heard of him market).

Was having a discussion on another thread this week about how the 'hope value' of any young player is such a distorting influence on price. Does this kid cost £15m because he's actually worth £15m as a player right now, or because his value may, one day, end up anywhere between £0m and £40m, and so somehow that equates to £15m today?

If he stayed in Russia and got no better or worse for the next three years would he be worth more, or less than £15m? Probably less, as the hope value would have reduced? If he came to England and did OK (9 or 10 league goals a year for two or three years) would he be worth more or less than £15m? Probably about the same? How well would he have to do to be worth significantly more than the purchase cost? Dunno. It's an imperfect science and no mistake.

We do of course need a forward to chip in, even if he's not 1st choice every week. If it was as simple as that then note Burnley picked up Jay Rodriguez, who has a proven 1 goal every 3 games record in the top two divisions, for £5m now and £5m next year, which sort of puts the whole 'hope value / potential sell on incentive' of this Russian kid into some sort of perspective. Perhaps?

Needless to say, if we get him then I'll spend the next 10 days believing him to be the new Shevchenko until proved otherwise!

Edited by TheBigToePunt (31 Jul 2019 3.04pm)