This post is in response to all the rumours linking us to 20+ million Khouma Babacar, Cenk Tosun, Slimani, Florin Andone or others.

Asamoah Gyan- not on an extremely big salary, could be afforded by a PL team, he plies his trade in Turkey with Kayserispor after being the best striker ever to play in the United Arab Emirates years in a row. He has also proven himself at international level and was also pretty darn good in Europe before choosing the "big money" at just 26 and going to Al Ain. He currently plays little for Turkey's 4th placed team, mainly because the manager there (whom is a fellow Romanian and I know well), is an idiot. 51 goals in 106 matches for the national team, that's the best any African striker has. Kayserispor got him for free!!!

Nils Petersen- probably the most underrated big center forward out there. If you want someone who can score big time and is a big man up front for moments when you dominate, he's your man. Never really appreciated in Freiburg. Olympic silver medalist in 2016 with Germany, after scoring 6 goals in the tournament. The Germans ask for really small fees compared to the players' value and compared to the English market. Petersen is better than any player who costs 5-8 times more and plays in the PL

Dwight Gayle- really underrated in his time here. I've seen many opinions about him being a "great Championship player", but not "good enough for the PL". I find that impossible. Those who prove themselves very good in the Championship are also good strikers in the PL. From Rickie Lambert to Troy Deeney, from Charlie Austin to Jamie Vardy, from Callum Wilson to Ighalo, from Andre Gray to Abel Hernandez, they've all been decent if not actually good in the PL. Yes, there's the occasional Patrick Bamford, but he was very young and inexperienced and at his age was always a gamble. Gayle has been a steady goalscorer both in the PL and in the Championship for many years. IF you give him playing time, he'll do it, he'll repay you. Rafa Benitez has turned away from him, even though it was mainly Gayle who ensured their promotion from the Championship. He prefers Joselu and Mitrovic. Even though he has 9 matches and no goals this year, Dwight Gayle has actually scored last match against Bournemouth and it was wrongly disallowed for offside (you can check it out on many sites: [Link] )
He had the best goal to minutes played ratio last year and was even among the best in the PL when he was playing for Palace: 25 goals in 3400 minutes. He's only 27. Fulham offers 15 million for him. He'd probably chose to stay in the PL if we'd offer him.

Emenike- this one's a tricky one, as he doesn't seem to be scoring much. He has even retired from the Nigeria national after criticism of not having scored in 2 years. Well, the time may seem long, but he actually assisted 5 times in those last 1200 minutes for the national team (and they were tough games in the World Cup with Bosnia and Argentina where he assisted). I don't differentiate much between a goal and an assist and it just shows that he still contributed for the ultimate purpose: scoring. If a center forward doesn't score but provides an assist every other match is still a good thing. And up until then he had been a wonderful goalscorer too, with 8 goals in 13 matches for Nigeria and also at club level with Spartak Moscow and Fenerbahce, You could say he didn't cut it for West Ham, but he was just used in 16 matches, mostly coming on as a substitute for a few minutes (and he did score 2 goals).He's with Olympiakos, but they also invested in the young Serbian goalscorer Djurdjevic (who's not a confirmation yet), so they might let Emenike go for a low fee. He's 30 years old.

Obafemi Martins- a little too old at 33, but he's one of my favourites. His goals per minutes played ration is surpassed only by a few players at medium-level football leagues in the last years. 40 goals and 20 assists in the MLS in 6200 minutes (beat that, Giovinco!) and 16 goals and 8 assists in China in 2500 minutes. Those of you who had been around back in the day, remember just how fast and awesome he was at 20 years old, playing for Internazionale Milano. He's undervalued in Shanghai Shenhua though and even though the Chinese pretty much ask for gazzillions when selling their star players, they want to give up on Martins because they have the 3 foreign player berths occupied by Carlos Tevez, Giovanni Moreno and Freddy Guarin.

Well, that's it folks. Sell Benteke this winter for 20 million and buy 1 of those strikers, that's what I'd do. Heck, you can buy 4 of them at the same time with that money (one being Nils Peterson in order to have a big guy up front and the other 3 of your choosing). Play a 4-4-2 formation with Zaha and Townsend feeding them balls from the wings. I guarantee you Palace would score big time, which has been the number 1 concern this season, and it could really avoid relegation. The amazing thing for a club like Palace is that it's a PL club and can sell such overrated players like Benteke for huge fees. With 20-25 million gotten for him you could revolutionize the team- if you had the brains to bring good chap players in.

Some other players, but not strikers, who would be good for improving the scoring and cheap (because there are also Zaha and Townsend who are really good and starters):

Right footed wingers:
Ryan Fraser from Bournemoth who has been just 4th choice winger this season (even though Bournemouth would probably not sell to a relegation rival)
Patrick Hermann from Borussia Moenchengladbach
Carlos Mane from Stuttgart (depending on how he comes back from injury)
Ivan Cavaleiro from Wolverhampton
Nani- if you can convince him to leave Lazio, where he doesn't get much playing time

Left footed wingers:
Ben Arfa- who PSG wants to ditch and considering they got him for free, they probably just want someone to take over his wages
Jonny from Malaga, who is dramatically underused for someone who has had wonderful La Liga seasons before joining
Cheryshev- who has come back from injury but finds it difficul to get into Villareal's first team
Lestienne- who was amazing in the Eredivisie and the Champions League for PSV but is dramatically underused in Russia
Hernani from Porto- now that's a player I see as worth even 20 million. And they don't use him!

When I said in the summer: the 1 player that I'd like most is El Shaarawy, he's playing second fiddle at Roma, was 3rd or 4 th winger choice at the end of last seasons. I said "offer 15 million and get him". Imagine what could have been. He's just scored 2 amazing goals against Chelsea and got his career back on track (ok, forget the World Cup elimination, he's only played less that a half from 4 halves against Sweden )

Edited by mattteo (14 Nov 2017 11.06pm)

Edited by mattteo (14 Nov 2017 11.08pm)

Edited by mattteo (14 Nov 2017 11.14pm)

Why not? 25 goals in 3500 minutes for Crystal Palace say he is. What more would it take for him to be one? Do you want him to grow wings and fly? Score a hat trick every match? Win his team the league?? Oh wait, he just did that for Newcastle last year, being the player with most goals and most assists

Edited by mattteo (15 Nov 2017 12.01am)

That just shows that managers aren't God. In fact, most of them end up in those positions because they're rich, well connected ex-sportsmen.

You can't be like that. There's no line drawn. If you're decent in the Championship, like Rhodes is, you can be a flop in the PL.

But if you're amazing in the Championship you'll be at least decent in the PL.

Again....screw everything I think or what the Palace managers were thinking when Gayle was here (by the way, where are those great managers now?).
What settles the dispute are the numbers. His ratio for Palace was only surpassed by strikers from top 6 teams. That's strikers from 14 other teams who faired worse than he did when you take into consideration the minutes received.
One can't say he hasn't done it in the PL when he has. Facts are undisputed, unlike personal opinions.

It’s not just stats. Most of us have seen enough of him to form our own opinion. My opinion is that when he wasn’t played much but came on as sub he looked interested and sometimes scored, however when he forced himself in the starting eleven, he was a completely different player , games would pass him by and you wouldn’t even know he was playing.
A quick small good finisher, but that was it. If he showed half the fight/determination of AJ he could be great. Unfortunately you cannot teach desire/motivation/will to win (if you could , Gayle would still be playing for us and Hennessey would be a world beater).

I was listening and then you said sell our best striker for £20 million and then I stopped even thinking about the rest.

Steve Bruce signed Asamoah Gyan for Sunderland from Rennes. He was at the club at the same time as Fraizer Camobell and Connor Wickham.I recall him as a player who was strong and quick and took free kicks over a wall.

Jony of Malaga - Understand he is left-footed and plays out wide on the left.I know someone who is watching the Real Madrid v Malaga game on the Saturday after next so I will ask him about Jony if of course he plays.

Edited by Willo (15 Nov 2017 9.27am)

You mean Benteke is our best striker? What has Benteke done to deserve such a praise?
He has 900 minutes with no goals or assists this season.
Since he joined, he has only managed 15 goals or assist in 3700 minutes in the PL (excluding 2 penalties). During this time he has 3 goals and 1 assist for the national team (excluding the Gibraltar match lol), so at the best he's a decent striker not a 20+ million one.
He used to take a lot of penalties for Aston Villa too, so whoever followed these facts knew he was not gonna be great ever since his transfer to Liverpool.

Ok, screw my opinion. Facts are these: Benteke for Palace has scored and assisted 15 in 3700 minutes in the PL.
Dwight Gayle has scored and assisted for Palace 15 in the PL (excluding 1 penalty) in 2700 minutes. 25 in 3600 minutes in all competitions.
The difference is hugely in favour of Gayle. And let's take into consideration the rest of their involvement, not just the goals or assists: does Benteke run more that Gayle? Does he recover more? Is he better in serving his teammates? Is he more technically gifted? Why should Benteke then cost more and Gayle less than 15 million???

Yet, we all believe that the managers "were correct in keeping Gayle as a sub". No, they weren't they should have given him playing time. He got that in the Championship and he rocked.
Take a look at this stat right here: [Link]

Add up the goals and assists for every player. Then take away the goals from penalties (where there's the red 11). Compare the players according to the minutes the got. You clearly see the importance of Gayle for his team. If Chris Wood, Glenn Murray or Tammy Abraham can be decent PL strikers, surely he can too.
He's only played 300 minutes this season and already he should have had a goal for Newcastle, but the ref wrongly disallowed it. He's gonna be good in the long term no matter what you say.
The thing is....what team is going to have the intelligent manager to use him?

I didn't mention my opinion of Gayle. I said Bentenke is the best striker at our club. We only have two (excluding the youngsters). Your comparison of Gayle and Bentenke ignores the fact that Gayle never showed himself capable of playing the lone striker role and he was too often bullied off the ball. Would I still like Gayle at the club? Yes, but only alongside Big Ben, not as an alternative. To say Bentenke is only worth £20 million in today's market seems blind, to me. Once he's back fit and playing alongside Zaha we will see him return to the beast he can be. Most of the players you listed are theoretical possibilities rather than any sure bet, whereas Bentenke showed with 15 goals in the PL in his first season what he can do for us.

He was also SHYTE

The Voice of Reason In An Otherwise Mediocre World

He was there because he got so much playing time. Had he not cost the huge amount of money he would not have played 3100 minutes last season.
With so much playing time he scored very little. Forget the actual number per se. It's about the goals to minutes ratio.
Many, many strikers would have scored more than him given those minutes.

I don;t necessarily say we should sell him for only 20 million. But to get funds to make new transfer and improve the squad you need to get cash in first. I'm just saying that some teams might want Benteke, but I don;t see anyone offering a tone of money for him, certainly not more than 25 million at how he's proven himself. And that would be a good thing for Palace in my opinion! You could get players of his caliber or even better with that kind of money. I tell you, Nils Petersen from Freiburg is a lot better than Benteke in the big tall striker up front role (if you think Gayle or others couldn't fit in that role) and he costs 5-6 TIMES less, around 5 million.

Now if we sold Benteke for 35 million I wouldn't be sad, but I doubt anyone would offer that. If you could free funds from somewhere else it would be nice too, but who else to sell? Especially as investments will be triple checked now with PL money coming in from next year not being a certainty. I doubt players will be brought in with big money unless some funds are freed. I gave the solution with selling Ben, as he's not an awesome PL striker. Decent yes, not awesome. I see us getting relegated with him.
Now imagine this formation after the January window (ok, screw Gayle as let's say 15 million are a lot, there are more options too):

...........Diego Alves (formerly of Valencia).....
.................(Hennessey, Speroni)..............

Almeida/Rafael/Janmaat, Dann, Sakho, Schlupp
(Ward), (Fosu Mensah), (Tomkins), (PVA)

Zaha, Cabaye, Milivojevic, Townsend
(Hermann),(RLC), (McArthur), (Hernani/Alessandrini)

................Asamoah Gyan/Emenike................
............Obafemi Martins/ Nils Petersen..........

That would be 7 ins:
Almeida (cause Benfica missed on Europe this year), Rafael (cause Lyon now use Tete as first right back) or Janmaat (lost his place at Watford) as a right back
Hermann from Moenchengladbach would be a realistic solution as I doubt someone like Nani (although not getting enough playing time at Lazio) would be convinced to come as long as Zaha is here
Hernani from Porto or Alessandrini (formerly of Marseille, now in the MLS) would rock the PL, I tell you. They're something like Knockaert from Brighton, who will be one of the best wingers in England in the years to come
+ 4 new strikers

All for the price of 1 out: Benteke

Edited by mattteo (15 Nov 2017 1.34pm)