Even though the team needs strengthening in many areas, the position of center forward is the one which has become a must. With the fewest goals scored in the league and Benteke a disappointment, Jordan Ayew mostly used as a winger and Zaha maybe on his way out, there definitely needs to be someone brought there.

I've decided to write this thread after seeing that Celtic have set Odsonne Edouard's price at 40 million, all the while I think other players around Europe can be brought into discussion here and are better and cheaper than him. (not that I don't appreciate Edouard, but still...40 million?!)

The train for Sorloth seems to have passed, as Trabzonspor has all the cards and can buy him for cheap next summer. Only possible thing would be to give them 20 million for the player and admit we were wrong, in a case like Pogba's return to Man United from Juventus, but I'm sure the board will not sanction this, so this thread isn't about Sorloth.

What about the other Premier League strikers? Well, here they are: [Link]

Out of those, who could come to Palace for an affordable fee? Hardly anyone. Those who are doing well for their clubs cost waay too much (even someone like Raul Jimenez from Wolverhampton costs 50 million) and those who are not doing well are not good enough for Palace.

Some have been really expensive last summer (Haller, Joelinton) and their clubs will not want to sell them for less than what they paid. Course, there's a big difference between Haller and Joelinton, as the Frenchman is a good center forward, while the Brazilian was a stupid buy by Newcastle.

Michy Batshuayi will surely want to leave Chelsea to get playing time and he was a good fit here, but the fee of 40 million that Chelsea wants is enormous. Even if they would accept less, like 30 million, it still is a gigantic one. The exact same situation is for the other Belgian who hardly plays, Origi from Liverpool, who they want a lot of money for.

Nketiah from Arsenal would be a great transfer, but they will not let the youngster go. Even Norwich wants at least 15 million for 30 year old Teemu Pukki after his exploits last year in the Championship. Michail Antonio could be an option, but how much has he played as center forward in his life? (don't be fooled by those 4 recent goals, think of all his games for the last 2-3 years, he hasn't really scored from center forward position in another season). Troy Deeney is really fat and slow and only scores penalties, Welbeck is too injury-prone and has hardly played (also on a big salary), so not much to choose from in the PL. Cenk Tosun broke his leg.

I like the youngster Gyokeres, but he's from the direct rivals and I doubt they'd sell. Also, he's more like one for the future.

Last year I made this thread and the center frowards mentioned there have done well in the last year: [Link]

Andrasz Sporar has been bought by Sporting Lisbon so he will probably cost triple that now as the Portuguese will want to make use of their investment. Robin Quaison was really the stand-out player from the list and as you could see there was really no negative part to him. He cost little, he did great, had an eye for scoring, height, mobility, everything. Now his price is much higher after being among the best scorers in Germany, but still affordable cause his contract ends in 2021.

I don't want to brag, but I made no mistake in the suggestions from last year. Not 1. I have however made some mistakes in the past. I admit them. The biggest one was Danny Ings, in whom I did not believe and I could not value at the 20 million Liverpool wanted after such a horrific injury. But he has really proven me wrong and instated himself as a great PL forward. Good for him. I admit. Other suggestions I made over the years was swapping Benteke for Batshuayi when Antonio Conte wanted this (and I was right, cause now Bats costs 40 million and Benteke less than 10), Nils Petersen from Germany (who did great in the last years, but is now old at 32) and some who didn't really hit the ground running like Yoshinori Muto or Mariusz Stepinski, but I put that on lack of playing time or playing for really minor squads (the Stepinski suggestion was only for a 4 million striker to be 4th choice and he has pretty much been decent for that money in Italy, so not that wrong). So if you want to take my advice after being right with dozens of footballer, please read on. If you don't and believe that if I was wrong about Ings than I don't know what I'm talking about, then stop.

Those suggestions in the link above still stand, but the players who were 28 years old are by now 29 and going on 30 and will hardly have any resale value, their feet are now getting tired, so I remove them from the list.

That means no more of those first 3 mentioned there: Fernando Karanga, Tiquinho Soares, Baghdad Bounedjah (though this last player is a phenomenon in the UAE league, scoring twice more than the games he has and has actually proven himself as a very good player in strong matches in the national team too, scoring with Senegal, Columbia, Tunisia, Mali or Monterrey in the Club World Cup and I would have liked to see him play in Europe. There's been a lot of talk of Marseille from France but they never paid the 15 million demanded for him, probably because he's too old to recoup). So either him or Niederlechner from Germany's Augsburg would be my choices for an older player, but let's leave them aside because they cost money.

Now, who is 30 but doesn't cost money? This brings me to my number 1 player on the list. (number 1 doesn't mean my first choice, it's just the order in which I wrote them)

1. DANIEL STURRIDGE- signed with Trabzonspor for only 25.000 a week and a small signing fee.
[Link]

Now I know he was not the most hard working player, but he could be made to press and run if he had a proper coach. He has the attributes. And like I said in the thread I made for his transfer, his injuries have been vastly exaggerated. He is known to be injury-prone just because Jurgen Klopp shamed him in an interview that he needs to learn the difference between big pain and acceptable pain. Otherwise, he actually had a 2018/19 injury-free season for Liverpool. This season he was suspended from gambling and had a few minor injuries (weeks, not months). I'm just saying...he needs to be considered, he is a safe option to score 10 or more goals in a season. And comes almost free.

Let's see where else could a club like Crystal Palace search for strikers? Well, in one of the other Top 4 leagues, of course: Spain, Italy, Germany and France. Here are all the center forwards there:

Spain: [Link]

Italy: [Link]

Germany: [Link]

France: [Link]

And also in leagues such as Portugal, Netherlands, Belgium, Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Greece, Switzerland, Austria, Scotland, Czech Republic, but they'd have to be very, very good. Also in South America- Brazil, Argentina, Mexico have very strong leagues, but the players are usually very expensive there.

The very own English Championship is definitely a 2nd division from which players make the step up to the Premier League, but players there are already English-level priced. Considering that the German 2.Bundesliga, the Serie B, the Segunda Division and Ligue 2 are rather similar to the Championship, they should also be considered. Brentford has had a really good history with bringing players from the French League 2 lately: Maupay, Benrahma, Mbeumo etc. All of those are worth more than 20 million and are able to play in the Premier League.

So, another thing to take into consideration is the benefit of the investment. If a center forward on this list costs more than the others, then why does he cost so much and how much more money can he bring to the club to recoup? There are 2 ways in which he does this: either through scoring more and getting the club more points, therefore more money from the prizes, or from a re-sale.

2) One player who would cost a lot but really be an investment totally worth it is MUSA BARROW from Bologna. I've known him for a few years (and this says a lot cause he's only 21) and always been impressed when he was with Atalanta, but didn't have the courage to name him on any list because I knew they wanted more than 10 million for him and he had only played in a few Serie A matches and in the Europa League qualifiers, so I couldn't really name a player who wasn't established at high level to be bought for 10 million. Well....I should have, cause in the time since he was bought by Bologna (it was really, really hard in Atalanta as they have the best scoring trio in all of Europe: Duvan Zapata, Ilicic, Alejandro Gomes and Barrow didn't find time to play) he has really established himself as a goalscorer in the Serie A.

Kid can play as left winger and right winger too, but his place is up front. He was the best scorer in the youth system, then scored 4 and asssisted 2 in 4 European matches for Atalanta and it was at that point when Bologna decided to pay for him some 11.5 million pounds. Now scored 9 and assisted 5 in 1400 minutes this year.

Surely his value has gone up and they would want 20, 25, maybe even 30 million, but he is worth it. He is now an established goalscorer, there is no chance he will be a flop. At 21, the re-sale value is huge.

Considering that OLLIE WATKINS of the Championship is 24 years old and costs at least 20 million, if not 25 and LUKA WALDSCHMIDT, the German international wanted by big clubs is also 24 and would cost between 15 and 20 million, while the above mentioned ROBIN QUAISON is 26 and would cost 15-20 million as well, I can say that I would rather bid 25-30 million for Barrow (some 10 million more than for those other 3) and still get the same or better result in a top league, with certainty of selling him for 50 million or more, something which couldn't be sure with 24-26 year old players.

Now what if Palace doesn't have so much money as to invest in Barrow? Well, then, the following players are cheap (up to 10 million each) and are the best options I could gather.

3) From Spain: SANTI MINA of Celta Vigo- 24 years old, about 10 million.

4) From Germany: KARIM ONISIWO from Mainz- 28 years old, around 7 million

5) From France: JOSH MAJA from Bordeaux- 21 year old, around 10 million.

6) From Switzerland: JEAN-PIERRE NSAME from Young Boys- 27 years old, around 10 million

7) From Switzerland: CEDRIC ITTEN from St Gallen- 23 years old, about 5 million.

8 ) From Switzerland: ERMEDIN DEMIROVIC from St Gallen (but actually on loan from Spanish Alaves)- 22 years old, around 7 million

9) From Austria: CHRISTOPH MONSCHEIN from Austria Vienna- 24 years old, about 5 million

10) From Austria: MARKO RAGUZ from LASK- 22 years old, about 5 million.

11) From Croatia: ANTONIO COLAK from Rijeka- 24 years old, around 5 million.

12) From the Championship: LUCAS JOAO from Reading- 26 years old, around 7 million.

* with the mention that the 22 year olds Demirovic and Raguz might need another year to develop and become really good Premier League scorers.

Are there any other players than these above? Yes and No. Yes, of course may players are better. No, not players that Palace could afford. Not better deals. If Palace can afford to buy more expensive, then it must go for the above mentioned Musa Barrow If not, choose from the above. All of those are better than Benteke and better than most center forwards from that list of strikers in the Premier League. They are certainly at the same quality with a player who costs 30 million in the Premier League.

There cold have been player like the Belgium Club Brugge goalscorer David Okereke or the former La Liga and now Japanese based Michael Olunga or the Senegalese Habib Diallo from France or Samuel Tetteh from LASK Linz or Umar Sadiq from Partizan Belgrade or Smail Prevljak from Red Bull Salzburg or John Cordoba from FC Koln or even players from more exotic leagues such as Mame Thiam from Turkey (raised by Juventus) or the 2 Brazilians Marcao and Rafael Silva from China, but none of these players have a EU citizenship or enough matches in their national teams in order to be signed according to Premier League regulations.

And a special mention for JESSIC NGANKAM, who is 20 years old, without much experience in a top league, but who will soon explode just like MUSA BARROW did and will be worth 50 million in a league like the Premier League. Hertha would sell these days for around 5-10 million, which I know is a huge sum, but this kid is the next best thing. Play him or not, loan him to get playing time and then get him back, the fact is that all efforts should be made for him to be added by a serious Premier League board! So he'd be number 13 on the list. If someone would force me to play an entire season with this 20 year old youngster in the Premier League, I would and I don't think I'd go down in the Championship. Would certainly score much more than McBurnie, Che Adams, Benteke or others who have tried this year.

So this was it. I'll try to do a thread on left wingers and right wingers if anyone is interested, but the main position that has been terrible in the last years for Crystal Palace is this one. I hope you guys will check out the players above if you don;t know them and give your input. If you want to ask about other players, please do and I will tell you why they are not on my short list.

Hopefully someone from the board is reading this.

Edit: ooooops, I forgot 1: CEDRIC TEUCHERT from Schalke, but has mostly played in the 2.Bundesliga- 23 years, supposedly they want to let him go for free as they don't believe in his value and think they have better center forwards in Kutucu and whoever else they use there. Mind you, this is the same club which last year let Breel Embolo leave to Moenchengladbach for just 10 million and he has been wonderful there, qualifying to the Champions League with Borussia from 4th league position, ahead of Bayer Leverkusen.

Teuchert should be taken on a free and at least given a chance. he hit 8 out of 8 for the German U21 team and has played constantly well in the 2.Bundesliga at 21, 22 and 23 years old.

Edited by mattteo (27 Jul 2020 12.36am)

Looking at Deeny's post match comments he may well be looking for a new club. I don't think he will come to Palace but there are plenty of other Pl clubs that would love him even if only as a back up striker.

One more point

I guess this illustrates how difficult it can be buying players that suit your clubs playing philosophy int terms of price and style. There are so many it must be a minefield to latch onto the best one for your situation.

I don't disagree that we need a striker, but I would argue that our most necessary transfer is someone who can create.

We have never replaced Cabaye and Loftus-Cheek, who both allowed Roy to play the current formation and get away with it. Both could carry the ball upfield and were excellent passers of the ball.

With the 3 central players we have, Townsend and Zaha not contributing anywhere near to the levels they have been, a striker would almost be pointless. It's not like we've been creating a shed load of chances and our current strikers haven't been converting. Most of Ayew's goals have been completely self made.

Yes we definitely need a finisher, but I think we're much more in need of some players that can give them something to finish.

I think a fully fit RLC would have made more of a difference to us this year than say a Danny Ings or Edouard.

We need both as one won't work without the other.

I recall in a home game (Maybe Watford or Newcastle ?) where he was presented with a gilt-edged chance at the Holmesdale end and he put a free header wide from close range.
In a recent game he headed woefully wide when well placed.His heading ability in front of goal has been very disappointing.

A.Villa have had their problems at centre-forward with both Wesley and Samatta so maybe they will consider Benteke who is still held in reverence by their supporters.
But of course Benteke has been getting in our team and he is enjoying a healthy pay-packet so perhaps little incentive for him to move.

I certainly enjoyed the array of Benteke goals.He displayed a coolness and shooting ability that he just hasn't displayed at our club.

Benteke has scored 72 PL goals, with 26 coming from his head.
[Link]

Edited by Willo (28 Jul 2020 10.45am)