from the star

<div>Published Date: 07 January 2009 </div><div class="byline" id="ds-byline">By Neil Goulding</div><div class="ds-firstpara" id="ds-firstpara">BARNSLEY boss Simon Davey has spoken for the first time about his desire to sign Chesterfield striker Jamie Ward.</div><div class="va-bodytext" id="va-bodytext">Davey revealed to The Star that he has been keen to sign a promising young striker for some time.

On Monday the Welshman made a &pound;400,000 bid for the 22-year-old hitman, the current leading scorer in League Two with 14 goals for the Spireites.

&quot;He's (Jamie] a striker in form. He's young, hungry and has the potential to improve. He's a player I'm very keen on, I believe he's got the potential to be very successful,&quot; revealed Davey, who has given Chesterfield until 4pm today to make their decision.

&quot;Jamie's a young out and out goalscorer. We've already got some good strikers at the club, but I believe he's a player that we need.

&quot;I wanted somebody who has had relative experience at League football, but also who is young and whom I believe can develop and play in the Championship. Jamie fits the bill.

&quot;Jamie also has electrifying pace, which is another major component which I think will help him play at Championship level.

&quot;He's also just down the road at Chesterfield, so it's not a big move in terms of distance for him.

&quot;We've offered the money, so we'll have to wait and see what happens. All I know is there was contact with Chesterfield late yesterday, so hopefully we can get our man.&quot;

Davey has been watching Ward for a weeks and been impressed with the former Torquay United and Stockport County loan player's potential.

And a major factor in his decision to sign Ward was the potentially career threatening injury to striker Iain Hume, who is likely to be out for the rest of the season with a fractured skull.

&quot;The injury to Iain Hume was a major factor in my decision to find another striker,&quot; added Davey. &quot;We paid &pound;1.2million for Iain in the summer, he came in and scored five goals and was playing well, but then we lost him after his horrible injury.&quot;

What do you think? Post your comments below.

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You missed off the bit about

how keen he is to ensure we sign a left footed left back come midfielder as a matter of urgency.

 

I just don't believe Simon Davey has commited the cardinal sin of placing ward on the preverbial pedestal before his bid of 400k has been accepted. It's equates to telling a car salesman that you want his wonderful vehicle but only for a certain price.

 

Agree, and what happened to the policy of .......

....... 'we don't discuss our transfer deals until they are done'.....

Nailed on now that some other club will sign him - Nice one SD

 

Cant do right for doing wrong can he ? nt

 

So if you find your mythical left footed left back

Where would you play him ?

 

Oh FFS. Will you just get behind him!

Here is a man at the helm of our Football club, trying his damndest to improve us and take us forward, and there are people trying their damndest to pull him to pieces.

I say be fooking thankful that a club like ours is even capable of lodging a £400,000 bid for a up and coming, good striker. Be thankful that we are capable of splashing out £1.2 million on Iain Hume and above all, be realistic.

We are a small club and at the moment, we are doing, in my opinion, pretty damn well.

Get behind them for christs sake.

 

No, he changes 'the rules' when it suits him ..........

....... that's why you can never believe a word he says

 

RE: Agree, and what happened to the policy of .......

Maybe he KNOWS its already done.

 

Come back and talk to me when you have got .........

........ behind them as much as me, and for as long as me pal.

In my opinion, he's doing an 'ok' sort of job that he is extremely lucky to still be in and as far as I'm concerned he's not the man for the job and never will be, but that's just my opinion and ****** if you don't like it.

However, the point of my post was that he always says that he doesn't discuss transfer deals until they are done, so why has he started spouting about this deal at this point?

 

RE: Oh FFS. Will you just get behind him!

absolutely spot on give him a break for christs sake.

 

Why do you keep banging on about this??

Kozluk doesnt need replacing. Cover required maybe, but much more pressing positions.

Whilst we are looking for this left back you want that we dont need we should also look for a goalkeeper - cos this is a position we dont need a player for nor do we have the money to replace the current one with a better option.

 

Hold on there for a moment Poet. I think that I refer to the common sense factor here. It is'nt about putting him down it relates more to the fact that when (allegedly) two or more clubs are chasing the same guy you DO NOT tell the world about this wonderful player you're bidding for. S.D. is setting himself up to be outbid. I do hope you see the rationale behind my post and not perceive it has a negetive attitude towards him. Again, it's known as the common sense factor.

 

however, in reality what he has done

is told chesterfield that we are desperate to sign Ward and feel that he will be invaluable to us, whilst at the same time saying demanding that they accept our bid now or we pull out which would leave us with nothing and them with their best player and still another 5 or 6 clubs wanting to bid for him. I really can't see how this is time limit and talking him up is beneficial to anyone but chesterfield to be honest.

 

Think he was having a pop at me, and not you mate nt

 

Im not sure you can put those two statements together.

'come back when you get behind them as much and for as long as I have'

and

'as far as Im concerned he's not the man for the job and never will be'

Surely not giving the leader of the team any support now (and I suspect ever) is not getting behind the team????

 

Goalkeepers: 3
Right backs: 4
Centre backs: 4/5 (if you include atkinson who is our player)
Left Backs: 0/1 (if you include kozluk who is actually a right footed right back)
LEFT wingers: 1
Central midfielders: 3?
Right wingers: 2
Strikers: 7

That's just a quick count up but it seems about right, now where does that say we need to strengthen in the transfer window? Keepers? No we already have three. Up front? No we cant even fit the ones we've got on the bench anymore. Right side of the team? Way too many already? How about left side? We have only one naturally left sided player at the club and a lot of people have written him off as not good enough, this is why I think we need to strengthen on the left before we go signing more forwards.

No point sigining Ward if we aren't going to get the service to him and at the moment we don't have anything down the left.

 

And it's a complete u-turn from the "keep it under your hat" policy that we normally adopt regarding potential signings. He must be supremely confident of pulling this one off to go public on it.