One in one out….

Two things struck me about our good friends up at SJP today, firstly the following statement by Pardew at his pre-Liverpool press conference.

“I don’t think we will be bringing a striker in this window after the collapse of Maiga, which we had put a lot of work into, as far as we are concerned, we will go with what we have got.”

This begs the question, now many would argue that we have replaced Carroll with Demba Ba and I for one, wouldnt argue against that logic however we needed a new striker when we had Andy C and we’re even more desperate for him now. Imagine seeing Ba paired with a proven Premiership striker, how much damage could they do together? Now instead imagine a strike force for January at least that comprises Shola, Lovenkrands, Best and possibly Ben Afra (assuming he gets a game).

Where would we be without Ba’s 14 goals so far this season? I make it 16th and 6 points above the relegation spots.

Surprisingly (not) that statement contradicts the following by good old Derek L back in November

“We have had an exceptional year, and long may it continue but the fans want us to buy more players.”

“We need to bring in a striker in January, we will need replacements in the summer and we need to give ourselves as much as possible”

So what changed? well Steven Taylors injury was a couple of weeks after that statement which leads you to believe that we have a simple “one player in” policy, regardless of need or whatever else is happening it appears to be a case of

“what do you need Alan?”…”ahh right so you need a Defender and a Striker?”…..”ok, which one?”

Thats not how you run a successful football club, frankly its not how you even run a Sports Shop…..