January Transfer Rumours - General Discussion

I totally agree with what you have said and I'm certain that there are some rough diamonds out there. I know that stats don't always paint a full picture but when you look at the lower league scoring records of players like Jamie Vardy and Charlie Austin before they were signed by Leicester and QPR respectively you can see they were born goal scorers.

Vardy's record before joining Leicester was, 28 goals from 41 games (1 goal every 1.46 games) at Halifax and 34 goals from 42 games (1 goal every 1.24 games) at Fleetwood. Therefore, his overall scoring record was 1 goal every 1.34 games. 

Austin's record was just as impressive before we signed him, he had 4 clubs before joining us. At Kinterbury he scored 21 goals in 28 games, at Hungerford he scored 11 goals in 37 games, when he was at Poole he scored an amazing 64 goals from 57 games, at Swindon he scored 37 goals from 65 games and at Burnley he scored 45 goals from 90 games. An overall ratio of 1 goal every 1.56 games. 

Nothing is guaranteed but their brilliant scoring records minimised any risk/gamble when they were signed.  I think Leicester paid just £1m for Vardy and we paid a figure somewhere between £2 -£3m for Charlie. 

For teams like QPR its important we do our homework and look at the records of the strikers we are interested in buying to make sure that their goal scoring records have some consistency and that that they are not one season wonders. Unfortunately, when we signed the likes of Washington, Sylla and Smith they were never prolific goal scorers and whilst they may have had one good season they were never going to be regular goal scorers. 

I should have also included Britt Assombalonga who prior to joining Forest had been plying his trade in the lower leagues and had scored 65 goals from 128 games (1 goal every 1.97 games) for Wealdstone, Braintree, Southend and Peterborough. He did cost Forest £5m but his record for them was 30 goals from 69 games and I believe he has now scored 5  goals from 11 games for Middlesboro. Therefore, even though he has moved into a higher league he still continues to score at a rate of around a goal every 2 games. Based on his continued goal scoring ratio you would think he might even be worth a punt for a team in the Premiership.


As a QPR fan I believe the only striker that is worth the risk of signing in January is Sam Jones of Grimsby who has a goal scoring record in the lower leagues of 65 goals from 153 games (1 goal every 2.35 games). Reckon we could get him for around half a million.

The Blackpool kid we signed hasn't exactly set the world alight and wheeler was scoring goals on a regular basis
Both promising young players and from a lower league that in my opinion haven't quite worked out yet
Yes there is good Lower league players and yes worth a risk and if they are on a roll then they may like charlie and vardy keep on scoring with us

Good point! 

Same old story
On form goal scorers dry up when they come to us
Even messi and Harry Kane would have trouble scoring with us
We are a rubbish team who play crap football in reality and who would want to come to us in January anyway

I hope Sir Les doesn't use this in his pitch to future players.