Chez

I'm always happy to give players I've never seen a chance, but my mate who lives in Mallorca and watches them from time to time just texted me: "Larin. He is a donkey. Even Mallorca realise that and have been desperately loaning him out to anyone who'll take him."

forget Pelle, the Cyle Larin equivalent in 2012 would be someone like Elvis Manu.

Of course. My mistake. Larin better offer something then. He played 74 minutes in the UEFA cup game and has been coming off the bench for ten or 15 minutes in the January games, so you'd hope he is fit enough, but we'll see.

I wonder if the 30 international goals stat grabbed the eye of our video analysts/scouts.

cos he's amazing? his agent said so.

Very different looking player to when at Mallorca. Its all forward runs into the box rather than holding the ball up with back to goal. likes a back post tap in. looks alright in those clips running on to the ball. Confidence looked high and first time finishes quite a few without thinking. Looks a bit leaner than he does now perhaps. Not super quick, but not slow either. Wonder who he scored his international goals against.

nice finish from Tengstedt, who may have been an option for us too.

In the recent game against Real Bettis they played Tengstedt up front and Larin played as the number 10.

I saw him play for Mallorca last season against Vallanoid. He came on as a sub, replacing Tonasa, who was their best player, at right wing. He only got about 20 minutes. Like most of the Mallorca side, he didn't really impress.

a right winger maybe?

hmm. that sounds worse than archer or Armstrong. Edit: AH you meant at right wing didnt you? Has he looked OK there?

OK. that stat doesn't make good reading. At some point he is going to stay injury free for an extended period. lets hope its now otherwise my prediction of the play offs aint gonna work out.

losing Downs - absolutely no loss at all losing Archer - pretty much no loss losing Fraser - absolutely no loss at all Losing Armstrong - a loss and not sure who play on the right for fellows. Edozie, Robinson? Another loan perhaps? it's a risk.

16 games plus the fa cup. You don't think Stewart and him can cover those games?Are you thinking we need three plus Oyekunle?

We only play one up front. There are only 16 games to go. Stewart is currently fit. it might be enough. would you prefer we kept archer?

...better than playing archer up the middle, not as good as playing Armstrong up the middle, maybe? I don't know. Ive been struggling to find anyone suitable to come in. maybe the club have too.

if he's a loan, then i am happy to see how he looks coming on for 20 minutes at the end of games. he has to be better than archer down the middle...doesn't he?

isn't a physical presence all he has really? I dont see a guy that makes runs and strikes the ball well.

blimey. I am guessing the scouts that haven't been asked to watch him have spent the time discovering this kind of stuff.

bloody hell. When Edozie was linked to them and Ueda was mentioned tongue in cheek the other day, I thought I'd take a look at what else they had and watched Larin's youtube tape. I wasn't massively impressed with what I saw, so didn't suggest him on here as an option. Larin is certainly a broad shouldered striker that has the physicals tool to lead the line. Maybe he can hold the ball up, and bring others into the game. a lot of the highlights are of him with his back to goal retaining the ball, which we do need. He's scored some goals, a 1 in 3 record is alright, mostly in the MLS years ago, but 10 goals in 60 odd La Liga appearances for Majorca is a little concerning.

he has the tools. lets hope we can find someone that has them too...plus some confidence perhaps.

we've had deadline day deals come out of nowhere in the recent past, so that doesnt worry me too much. Landing someone that is good enough is the concern after Downes.

fair point, but then you have a player that doesn't want to be here. Do we want that?

makes sense to me. There seems to be very few options right now. There are so few strikers at the top level in the first place, and getting them to come here in January is hard. There are only 16 games left. Stewart may get injured again, but I'm hopeful he can get a run of games

I'm fine with one, personally, as we only play one up front. I think Stewart + Oyekunle will be fine as cover for this amazing new number 9 we are going to sign. Yeah, I know. Archer has done little for us. Its time to loan him out.