Awaiting Stans thoughts on the Austin deal.
Yes we tweeted each other earlier at the time I didn't have the details and the reason I was sceptical wasn't because he isn't Dwight Gayle as I have never thought he was coming back and was not obsessed with him as was the case with the more hysterical parts of our fan base.
Stuff I don't like.
He is 30 and I was hoping that we would get through the window with Sawyers being the oldest player we were going to sign.
He falls into the category of established proven player from further up the pyramid who is joining us on the downslope and generally those signings have lead us to where we are today and I didn't want to see another one.
Stuff I am kind of neutral about
Injury record, there is no denying his time at Southampton was hampered by injuries but the good news is the injuries do not appear to have a single underlying cause e.g. a damaged knee or persistent muscle problem so other things being equal there is no particular reason why he should not stay reasonably fit.
Goal scoring record. In general I don't share the excitement about his previous Championship level scoring record largely because 3 seasons have lapsed since he has had a really heavy goal scoring season. I never like it when fans or pundits point to something more than a couple of seasons old to justify a signing because it generally means we have just bought a lemon. That said I think he will score goals but possibly not quite the volume people are anticipating but that is not a big issue.
Stuff I like
Tactical fit is spot on. It is very obvious that whatever shape Bilic goes with it will feature a target man as a focal point of the attack and Austin ticks this box.
The deal. When I commented earlier I was fearful that we were spending an awful lot of money to bring him in (enough even to legitimise criticism that we could have bought in Gayle for the same amount) . £4m is as much as I would want to spend as a complete write off but the fact we have a two year deal and we have managed to tidy away his current contract as part of the fee means we can afford to keep him next year if we don't go up and he is not earning an unreasonable wage for a Championship club.
Overall this is okay and maybe the best deal we could have struck on transfer deadline day. Or put it another way I am not shooting envious glances down the road at Bristol City.