Ex Lion Tamer

Supposedly haggled over a few million and missed out on a striker when he had a free rein to spend big

So we shouldn't make other signings and save all the money to buy a striker who doesn't exist?

I think there's a shortage of goalscoring strikers at the moment and a lot of teams around us spending silly money. Leeds have just spend £35m on Rutter who has scored 2 goals this season. Bournemouth have signed Semenyo who scored 5 in the Championship. West Ham got Ings ahead of us and he's injured now anyway. Even Man U have settled for signing Weghorst. Chelsea are struggling for a striker and signing wingers instead. What I might be willing to accept is that we cocked up in the summer which apparently was Semmens' fault rather than SR.

Just saying it isn't difficult doesn't make it so. Who would you have brought in?

Knowing about the problem doesn't mean we can magic up goalscoring strikers who want to join us over other clubs

What if you're wrong and it is actually difficult? I find that idea more compelling than the suggestion that the club is either useless or deliberately gaslighting us season after season

Are there ever times in your life when things don't go as you hoped and you have to reset your expectations? Alternatively, do you think the club should stop trying to be ambitious in transfer windows in case people get disappointed when it doesn't happen?

Well not really. But we needed to roll the dice and see if someone else could bring new ideas and get a tune out of the squad. We shouldn't be surprised that they haven't

Does he deserve to be pilloried for the fact that we haven't signed a clinical striker?

The exact reason why Everton want him is the reason why we're struggling to find a replacement. There isn't much better out there for teams in our position

Brighton also struggled to find a goalscorer for a number of years. And they're not bottom of the league like we are

You said "for the money we'll pay". But even if we pay more, who will come to us when we're bottom of the league? Who are the strikers with great goal records who we could buy for £30m, £40m, £50m who would come to us right now?

Even if we had £70m, would a £70m player join us right now?

Who though? Maybe no one good wants to come to us

Caleta Car, Aribo, Lis, Maitland Niles are decently experienced players. We now have Orsic, Bree, Bednarek as well. Add that to McCarthy, KWP, JWP, A Armstrong, Ely, Adams, S Armstrong and you have plenty of 25+ players. The problem is that a lot of those players aren't very good, because you have to pay astronomical fees for good players of that age

I thought Orsic couldn't influence the game because he didn't have an attacking full back to support him. He was isolated out on the left

Koeman signed Martina. Twice!

Is it possible that not every player wants to play in England?

It's the backup RB signing everyone was clamouring for two years ago

Mara was signed as one for the future. We were intending to sign another striker to score goals this season. Also those are bargain basement prices in today's markets, albeit Adams and Armstrong were going out of contract so we thought they were worth more

Maybe he'll be better playing in a deeper line under Jones

Personally I hated the model where we bought crap, injury-prone older players like Ripley, Kanchelskis, McCann, Hirst, Speedie, Groves, Dixon, Howells

Get McGoldrick in the team FFS

It's his potential that makes him worth £30m. He's obviously not the finished article but when he turns it on he looks world class

I see it the other way. Lavia has only been with us one season and may well feel he wants another season of regular gametime before going back to a big club. If JWP gets a good offer he'll no doubt feel the time has come for a new challenge