Does he? Hasnt really done anything since/aside from a glut of goals in League 1, underwhelmed at Stoke and has injury concerns.

I see that the "announce x" tweeters are back commenting on everything the club tweets during the off season!

There is no point assuming that dubious online sources/guesses are accurate regarding wages.

Seems like a 2+2 assumption based on them being at Malmo but lets wait and see. That Berget is a 31 year old winger who played at Cardiff under Solskjaer and barely played, I think he signed a few Scandanavians but that was a long time ago.

Is he "very good" in the air? The occasional bullet header I will grant you but they are few and far between!

You are right in that it ultimately comes down to quality and we don't know if these players are good enough but even if they aren't it doesn't mean that they never will be. A loan spell is a very common way to develop players to bridge that gap between uncompetitive under 23 football and 2nd tier professional football. Take Wharton who a few years ago was well off Championship standard so went to League 2, impressed there whilst physically developing which then gave us some confidence that he could hack it at Championship level, the same could happen to Carter. The gap between Championship (as average a standard as it is) whereby results are the priority and playing against mainly players in their late teens that are still growing and the emphasis is development is a world apart which means that it is very difficult to gauge if they are up to the level. The examples you use are stand out examples but the key is not expecting ALL of the mentioned names to all break through together (likely some never will, history tells us that) at the expense of first team reinforcements. When Foden or Carvalho came through, neither City nor Fulham had that summer decided to sign 4 or 5 less players expecting that many players with no senior experience to all break through at once, on the back of a mass exodus of players leaving the club. The whole discussion stems from whether we can expect them all to break through or whether we should sign players and treat any breakthroughs as a nice bonus. I don't get the need for that final paragraph either. None of us are experts but it doesn't mean that our opinions shared on a messageboard need to be patronised and dismissed.

No but total novices at anything like Championship level.

Absolutely no chance whatsoever unfortunately that they will get relegated.

Lets hope so, it would be great if he could. You clearly haven't acknowledged or read my points though because you just keep reverting back to the same 2 well trodden lines.

Why is the default line something along the lines of being negative to constructive points? It's not negative to suggest that we can't automatically assume that we can rely on kids right now that haven't played senior football. I haven't said that they aren't or won't be good enough.

You posted that asking if @longsiders1882 was worried, having been fixated by Burnley's plight with regular comments about how you think they will struggle. It seemed a little bizarre considering the similarities! Lets break it down: Burnley fans have no idea what pre-season games they have - we seemingly have that sorted, give you that no kit has been unveiled (let alone available to buy) - same Team returned to training with none of Kompany's support staff announced - our manager and assistant can not take training at the moment, their manager seemingly can and as you said, Bellamy is on the staff no sponsors on training kit - fair enough, but hardly significant compared to the skeletal squad we have You are beyond naive if you think we don't need many players, we are weaker by a captain, a player of the season, a regular and key central midfielder, a key winger, most likely a first choice right back and our only goal threat, not forgetting at least another half a dozen squad players. Even if you think we need 5 or 6, that is half a team! Tomasson isn't going to say, "well I didn't want to keep the staff but I had to" is he?! Also, Peacock-Farrell is shit. Mistakes every other game.

The thing that I am saying is that I don't think that there is a significant difference between the goal threat he offers as a central striker and as a wide striker. See my analysis regarding his goal tallies as to what I mean: "I look last season, he got 9 often playing wide, some were central like the 2 you mention and v Boro, he scored v Cardiff and Swansea when he was coming from wide, against Boro at home he was as a wide striker. He got 8 the season before again often from wide. The season before that he got 6 and he played central more that season than in the last 2. He got 11 in more games (no injures unlike the last 2 seasons) predominately playing in a front 2 with 2 wide men in his initial spell." I think the whole "Mowbray needs to use him possibly" has skewed people's opinions because it was an easy stick to beat Mowbray with. It's all excuses ie if this happens and if that happens despite history showing little difference in goal threat regardless of position, just the common denominator that he has always had an average at best goal record. As I have shown above he doesn't really score more even when he is central, either way I don't think he will ever be a regular scorer. High single figures or at a push just over 10 is par with him. He also had a season at Birmingham where again he barely scored.

I think we need 8 or 9 personally, but as you say, we can't rely and assume on these players stepping up as it is an unknown. I would look to loan quite a few of these out because the gap between kids football and senior is so much that we could do with a good indicator of how close they actually are, rather than being on the fringes. Vale seemingly struggled in his last loan in non league and I thought Brown looked well off it at Birmingham, he is seemingly being banked on as a late developer as I am not even sure if the league he came from is fully professional.

Yeah, neophox was questioning his release.

We need to get signing players soon, business seems to be starting now and we cannot be left behind.

Twine (a stand out League 1 talent for a decent fee) and Jed Wallace (a proven top quality stand out Championship player no doubt on decent wages) would be 2 very shrewd additions and would prove the power of a recently Premier League side unfortunately if they got done. If Pope goes for £10m that could be the signing of the summer for Newcastle, worth far more than that and England's best keeper. Peacock-Farrell is a disaster so I suspect if Hennessey is over the hill then a new keeper will be a must. Much different to us? We have a manager still waiting a work permit, and when he does he has to work with mainly staff that were already here. We have lost loads of players for no money and are behind most in making signings ourselves. No sign of the kit and although it has been announced, it seemingly will be drip fed in.

Davenport is the one likely to be injured. Is £4m not a problem?!

My point is specific to Gallagher though in that I don't think the likelihood of him scoring increases much when he plays either as a central striker or as a "wide forward." I look last season, he got 9 often playing wide, some were central like the 2 you mention and v Boro, he scored v Cardiff and Swansea when he was coming from wide, against Boro at home he was as a wide striker. He got 8 the season before again often from wide. The season before that he got 6 and he played central more that season than in the last 2. He got 11 in more games (no injures unlike the last 2 seasons) predominately playing in a front 2 with 2 wide men in his initial spell. Most goals are obviously between the posts in general but those players you mention were all masters at sniffing out and taking chances. I do think that those sort of central poachers are less common and there seems to be more wide strikers like Salah, Mane, Son etc who often outscore the middle attacker. I do think Gallagher is moderately more suited to playing central but there isn't much difference in his effectiveness/ineffectiveness either way and indeed the one thing I am sure of is that I don't want to go into a season with him as our main striker. Graham isn't going to criticise a friend on national radio is he?! Like I said, I watched the full game and his whole round game was typically poor but he did score a great goal in that game. I don't think your expectations of his likely goal tally if he plays regularly as a striker are too dissimilar to mine, I would suggest 10-12 personally and I think that tallies more with history, perhaps even on the generous side. I am also not sure that Tomasson being a striker (with different attributes) makes a huge difference either, people often expect a former player to be better with players in that position but it seldom works out like that.

I personally am not convinced that being played "wide" massively impeded his ability to score goals. It was either towards the side of a 3 or as part of essentially a front 2 with Buckley as sort of an attacking midfielder/striker hybrid. It isn't like hes playing out wide in an old fashioned 4-4-2. strikers and wide men are very fluid in modern formations. I suspect that the key to whether he can "score goals" depends on what sort of numbers we expect. Extrapolating goals in the way you have done @Angry_Pirate is based on massive assumptions which to me seem like too much of a logic leap. 15 as a minimum (would love to be proven wrong) seems very ambitious for a striker who lacks a goalscoring instinct. 10 players including Brereton got 15 or more last season, so not thinking that Gallagher is capable of being in the top 10 goalscorers in the league is not being "fundamentally negative." I think the expectations of @Wing Wizard Windy Miller are most realistic. Gallagher scored 11 in a team that played an old fashioned 4-4-2 under Coyle with Conway and sometimes Marshall wide with a partner, so 1 in 4. In general, I don't think he is much if any more effective even when he does play centrally, it highlights further major flaws such as hold up, link up play, winning headers etc and his goalscoring potential doesn't seem to change much if at all. @chaddyrovers highlighted 2 games (he was not generally good in either game mentioned, especially at Boro, aside from his goals) but they are not examples of his general performance level as a striker, and he also had effective performances from wide, notably at home v Cardiff and Swansea. If he was our main number 9 for a season, which I wouldn't be comfortable, my guess would be that he would get 10-12 goals. It all comes down to what "he will score goals as a number 9" specifically means, obviously literally he will, but how many? I also don't like the assertion that anyone is just being "negative" as I don't think that is a constructive argument.

But when Gallagher did play as a central striker he didnt score that many goals, he is not a good finisher and he does not have a goalscoring instinct. He never at any point made it impossible not to use him centrally because he didnt score enough when he did play there and in fact a number of his primary flaws become even more obvious. Even under Coyle when he played in a unsustainably attacking side with 2 wingers and 2 strikers, he was scoring 1 in 4. When I question why people seem so confident that he would score goals implying with regularity the response is usually just a repitition of that same line. His reputation as a striker improved when he didnt play there and I think its partly because it can be used as a Mowbray criticism. I didnt agree with the use of him out wide but I just dont think he is anything beyond a striker for whom double figures is not far off his ceiling at this level. Id love him to get 20 goals but I cant see it sadly.

Another sign of Venkys continuing reign of terror. 10k season tickets is seen as a decent achievement.

As I said, I dont see the evidence from his career or signs that hes a poorly utilised potential regular goalscorer. Hes not a natural goalscorer, he never has been and he hides behind the whole "Mowbray wasted him" narrative that ignores his flaws as a striker in the first place. We need a new first choice striker. If Gallagher is deemed to be that man with the main responsibility, we can forget the top 6.

I dont recall reading that but may have missed it. Where did he say it? The main disagreement was the difference in numbers that we believe we need to sign on the assumption that all of these kids are good enough now. Specific to Vale, you cant really judge against kids. He struggled earlier in the season in non league. I would personally look to loan him to League 1 or 2 and see if he can get regular goals, but either way, my point was more that if any of these kids break through, it should be seen as a bonus, not just assumed instead of signing players as the likelihood of a clutch of kids all breaking through at once with a 100% record is minimal. So if Vale is kept around, we still need an out an out striker as you say. Same with Garrett, Wharton, Phillips and Brown.

Most of the time he was injured. Suppose that doesnt fit the narrative as well. Be interesting to see where he goes next as he impressed more here when he didnt play than when he did play. When he has played up front he has not impressed. He isnt a natural goalscorer, he has a poor first touch, struggles to hold the ball up and bring others into play, he is poor in the air, he doesnt jump as well as he should for his size. Like Davenport who impressed more when he didnt play, Gallaghers reputation as a striker improved more when he didnt play up front. 17? Youve added a few on there.