Has Hoppe signed?

Diego said:
His medical was today, he’s following Boro sports scientist on insta now and also the barber that all Boro players seem to use. That’s what I’ve read on one Boro. Imagine he will be announced tonight or tomorrow
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As barbers go, he’s undoubtedly the regular recipient of whispers from his clientele.
Wouldn’t surprise me at all if he was the provider of ITK stuff to oneBoro.
 
Well, he has height so I welcome that, not sure the hair is a good look though. I am also a little bit worried about him standing nearest the kerb as he may cause a traffic accident in being mistaken for a Belisha Beacon
 
Can’t see this lad being the answer to our goal scoring problems though - I’m happy enough with these kind of squad filler/potential to sell on for a profit type signings as long as we get some actual proven scorers to go with him
 
I know work permits can drag on but fingers crossed we can get it through for Sundays game so he can at least be on bench.
 
Funky_Chicken said:
Can’t see this lad being the answer to our goal scoring problems though - I’m happy enough with these kind of squad filler/potential to sell on for a profit type signings as long as we get some actual proven scorers to go with him
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Proven scorers like gyokeres who would cost £20m?
 
Ironops said:
Proven scorers like gyokeres who would cost £20m?
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Possibly more like £12-15m, maybe plus £5-8m of addons, which if we had to pay them we wouldn't care, as he would have been further proven. He'd have got 30 last year, playing for Fulham, or probably 25 playing for Bournemouth. He's worth a hell of a lot more to us than Spence, which would likely be a similar transfer structure. Nobody is paying £20m flat fee.

Also, it's not just about goals, they need to be able to play football in this side, and link up with other players. We've bought scorers in the past (Assombalonga, Rhodes etc), and not played to suit them, or expected them to be something which they were not.

Matt said:
He's not even that proven
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Who, Gyokeres? He's proven enough over a 46 game season, to be able to get goals in a mid table side and more importantly he's clearly a good footballer, with a lot of attributes. Plus we've got first hand experience as he absolutely destroyed us, and we're meant to have a decent defence/ midfield.

Could say the same about Brereton Diaz, but I won't, as in one year he's proven enough, like Gyokeres.

Hoppe's much less proven (albeit only 21), he's 3rd-5th choice for a poor Mallorca side (who are no better than top Championship teams) which couldn't score. He's no more proven than Coburn.

Larsson looks a little more proven than Hoppe, but he's been playing in a bad league too, hence why he's up for playing in the Championship. Larsson proven a lot less than Gyokeres, probably why he's valued in the middle of the two.
 
Gyokores wasn't proven when Coventry paid £1m for him last season. He was pretty average for Brighton U23s and in the Bundesliga 2nd division....

Most teams take Hoppe-sized risks - and some turn out to be "proven goal scorers".
 
Pak_Doo_Ik said:
I know what you mean, we should be signing more proven strikers like Assombalonga and Gestede cos it’s not like it worked when Norwich tried it with Pukki or like Brentford did with Maupay, Benrahma.

When will this club learn for crying out loud
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Assombalonga scored at 1 in 2 for two seasons before he cam in a poor Forest side and then scored at 1 in 2 for two seasons when we started him, and that was playing in sides which barely created any chances, as we had no creativity. We where whinging about having no creativity for years, so can't expect crazy goal numbers in an average/ defensive/ lump ball side, when we do little to facilitate it. Same thing happened to Rhodes, and we got our money back on him. We should have sold Assombalonga after the second season, when he didn't fit our style (if we had a style). Both Rhodes and Assombalonga offered goals, but not much else, but everyone knew that before we bought them.

Gestede was well on his way down (not that he peaked that high) when we paid £6m for him in the prem (which is pennies for prem club), we signed him from the Championship where he couldn't get goals playing for Villa. This was a cheap gamble for a prem side, which did not work.

Just because Pukki was free, does not mean he was some great scouting find. He'd proven enough with Brondby and Finland (goals and technically), to be worth a punt to just about anyone, there was probably a lot of interest. I've not known many occasions when we've won a race for a player, when there's been lots of interest.

Muapay was a good find for around £2m, but didn't really come good until his second season, we need someone who would have an immediate impact, if we want to go up this year, and capitalise on the team we have this year. Similar applies to Benhrahma for £3m. I expect there was a fair amount of interest for both of these also.
 
The position MFC and many others are in is; trying to find the next striker who scores 15-20 goals and increases in value so a premier league (etc.) team pays over the odds for him. Hoppe may be that striker. We can’t be the team paying over the odds. Not anymore. Not until we are an established premier league team. We need to adjust our expectations to suit.

Many may look at £15m for Spence and £12.5m for Tav and think that changes this. It shouldn’t. The amount of money that is available from those sales should get us 4, 5 or even 6 or 7 players that could be the next £20m man.
 
Ash88 said:
Gyokores wasn't proven when Coventry paid £1m for him last season. He was pretty average for Brighton U23s and in the Bundesliga 2nd division....

Most teams take Hoppe-sized risks - and some turn out to be "proven goal scorers".
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Aye, and they know for absolutely certain that they would struggle to make the play-offs, and zero chance of top 2/3, and that they were too skint to get anywhere near that. Cheap punts are their only option, some work, most don't. We've punted similar figures on loans and lower level players, and it's never worked for strikers. We had about 7 cheap strikers in the last two years alone which never worked, they didn't offer goals or good link up play, good enough for top 3, and likely won't do the same this year either, or next as none of them will likely be here, or we won't be top 3 if they are.

It's a different risk profile when your side is almost ready, only missing a couple of key pieces (main man up top, and a centre mid).

If we don't go up this year then our side will likely be significantly weaker and less creative next year. Then that would mean we have less chance of success, too many missing pieces, so would then make more sense to resort back to cheap punts.

It's all about balance, sometimes you have to pay the price for a relative guarantee, otherwise you waste an opportunity. If you don't have the opportunity then punt away, and hope it pays off.
 
Teesside_Steel said:
The position MFC and many others are in is; trying to find the next striker who scores 15-20 goals and increases in value so a premier league (etc.) team pays over the odds for him. Hoppe may be that striker. We can’t be the team paying over the odds. Not anymore. Not until we are an established premier league team. We need to adjust our expectations to suit.

Many may look at £15m for Spence and £12.5m for Tav and think that changes this. It shouldn’t. The amount of money that is available from those sales should get us 4, 5 or even 6 or 7 players that could be the next £20m man.
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This year (and this year alone), we don't need 7 players who may be good enough in 2-3 years, we need two very good players who will be good enough this year, plus maybe a couple of cheap/ free backups/ loans. We need the guy who is going to be first pick up front and either someone better than McGree or Crooks, or someone similar, and hope those three centre mids are good enough rotating to be top 3. The rest is almost covered, or could be cheaply.

I totally understand that long term, if you're not good enough to go up, that splitting the risk over more players could be better. The problem is you need to find them and then you also have to convince them to come here, rather than go to the 100 other clubs which are more appealing than us, all over Europe.

We're fortunate this year that we do have a bit of cash, and seemingly a lot of clubs don't, so we likely have a budget more than a lot of our competing clubs (or they already have forwards/ centre mids). Any championship club would likely love to have Gyokeres (seemingly some lower prem clubs too), maybe Larsson too for the Champo, but most already have those positions covered, don't have the cash, or will be nowhere near the top end of the league (i.e the risk does not make sense).

We need to take advantage of what we have this year, if we want to go up this year, if we don't it could be another 3-10 years etc. I think most agree we're pretty well set now, apart from two positions. Next year would be harder without Jones, Giles, Steffen, Howson, Fry, Dijksteele or whoever else who may go, we could need all of those 6 x £5m punts to all work out and be better than those 6, it's unlikely. We also may need to find a new manager if we can't get what we clearly need, imminently. Then with that comes another overhaul to get some lump ball players.
 
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