2016 Summer Transfer Speculation

AstonThriller wrote:Am I the only one who isn't surprised that we haven't made a whole wave of signings yet? The fact is any responsible manager was always gonna assess the squad and then go from there. Now the keeper situation was clear for all to see so getting one in early was a priority. Then with our squad lacking leadership Elphick, with his previous experience of leading a team to promotion, was an obvious deal to make, especially at that price. Then lastly I think the Tishbola signing was clearly influenced by Steve Clark having managed him at Reading.

Now he's seen them In training for a number of weeks and has seen them play a few games I think, like Xia just hinted at on Twitter, that we'll be in for a busy few weeks ahead with both in-comings and out-goings.

I'd also like to add that so far, unlike Newcastle, we've managed to keep our gems. Amavi, Adama, Gana and Ayew imo would make our team seriously strong next season and they are still here right now.

Agree. No alarm bells for me. The teams RDM are putting out at the moment are likely to feature players he's unsure about mixed with a few from his 'keepsies' list. Not too much to take from them as far as I'm concerned.

AstonThriller wrote:Am I the only one who isn't surprised that we haven't made a whole wave of signings yet? The fact is any responsible manager was always gonna assess the squad and then go from there. Now the keeper situation was clear for all to see so getting one in early was a priority. Then with our squad lacking leadership Elphick, with his previous experience of leading a team to promotion, was an obvious deal to make, especially at that price. Then lastly I think the Tishbola signing was clearly influenced by Steve Clark having managed him at Reading.

Now he's seen them In training for a number of weeks and has seen them play a few games I think, like Xia just hinted at on Twitter, that we'll be in for a busy few weeks ahead with both in-comings and out-goings.

I'd also like to add that so far, unlike Newcastle, we've managed to keep our gems. Amavi, Adama, Gana and Ayew imo would make our team seriously strong next season and they are still here right now.

Surprised no. The right thing for us no.

RDM said early after his appointment that he has 'got difficult dressing rooms to work together before' - so he was always going to be careful and give some of the old guard another chance. I think more will come in right up until the windows closes.
I actually think it would have been better to get things done earlier. I don't quite see what RDM is assessing - we crashed out of the prem winning only 3 games - there isn't one of last seasons squad I would hang onto given the right bid coming in....and yes I include amavi and ayew in that.
Its pretty as I feared with RDM - he's coming across as this deep thinking, much considered coach. Really what we needed was a bit of decisive leadership . I fear he will manage in much the same as Remi Garde did - there didn't seem a whole lot of effort in that Nantes friendly last night....just like a follow on from last season. No doubt RDM will provide us with some in depth assurances that its all part of some master plan - but you have to be very clever to see it.

Im not buying it - the brief was promotion - XIA has provided funds - and the proceeds from player sales should be enough to fund a decent promotion push. At the minute Im thinking 8th - 10TH...

I guess we are just going to have to wait and see whats happened when the window closes, but I too was hoping players would have been forced out / had contracts cancelled by now and most the transfer business done, I know it was always unlikely but I still can't help but feel underwhelmed.

I'm pretty sure we are getting rid of Guzan, Richards and Sinclair. Lescott and Bacuna I'm more unsure of.

Bamford is still available isn't he?

Synopsis wrote:I guess we are just going to have to wait and see whats happened when the window closes, but I too was hoping players would have been forced out / had contracts cancelled by now and most the transfer business done, I know it was always unlikely but I still can't help but feel underwhelmed.

tony has already said they will be pushed out, if that means taking a loss so be it. patients is needed. he had to look and monitor the squad first!!

Totally agree with Jimbop, no amount of jumping up and down and banging fists shouting " I WANT IT TO HAPPEN NOW" is going to make an iota of difference and neither should it. RDM would have been acting very unprofessionally had he come in, listened to the disgruntled gripes of a mightily peed off fan base who were on a witch hunt and acted upon it.

He simply had to look for himself and that needed some games for him to be able to make his own judgements on players, as well as speaking with them in person no doubt.

Well it's becoming apparent who he wants shot of although of course it may be he has no option but to shift some regardless of what he thinks of them to free up squad space.

Have to say Nzogbia is a disgrace, watching him play for a new contract at Sunderland just shows he can actually play and score if he really wants to.... Disgusting player and shame on him for taking the p*** whilst he was here.... more fool Sunderland if they sign him.

If we get 9.5m for Sinclair and Richards I'm gonna have a w#%k to celebrate

Sinclair, N'Zogbia and Richards. Probably around £ 150-160 k in wages that

According to BBC WM tonight Guzan is off to Boro by end of the week.
And a twitter rumour suggests Sunderland have activated Micah Richards £5m clause.

Lets hope both are true!

Yeah word is Richards doing a medical tomorrow in a 5m deal. Honestly this summer just gets better and better. Guzan and Richards out and 5m in return .

Micah showed passion on occasions but quite frankly he was the worst "centre-back" I've ever seen at the Villa. The effect he had on the defence when playing their was simply poisonous. Him and Clark are two of the worst I've seen and their partnership is as bad as it gets...I only hope Ciaren follows him out the door.

As for what we need..I think right-back, a striker and two attacking midfielders will be brought in tbh. So at least four more. If Clark and Lescott go then another centre-back as well.

With the right centre half Clark is absolutely fine, anybody with Richards would be shit!

achilles wrote:With the right centre half Clark is absolutely fine, anybody with Richards would be shit!

Not for me..to me along with Richards he's one of the worst to wear the shirt. the consistent mistakes he's made throughout his career proves that. At this age he should be the one leading others...but as we saw at the world cup he just doesn't have the intelligence to be a top defender.

Agree with you AT, Clark makes way too many mistakes and is one of those players that will always have the label 'potential' next to his name without ever getting close to achieving it.

My guess is that if any player's do get paid off to cancel their contracts the money for it will come out of the transfer kitty. This may explain why the transfer kitty was quoted to be between such a high range, as it depended on which players RDM wanted to get rid of and if any could be sold on. I also think that our kitty is for both transfer windows this season and not just for this current window, so I'd expect the majority of the money to be spent in January.

I think Xia has his eyes open when he bought the club and had few illusions that his hand would be back in his pocket to the tune of several million to offload the players that put us in this position to start with.

Maybe RDM asked for a bit of time to see if the issues of last season were down to previous mismanagement, poor attitude or just simply due to the players being shit.

No way wouid anyone potentially spend millions plus waste time if things were purely down to internal wranglings.

It would seem from various stories, rumours and Xia himself that many problems cannot be fixed so the players in question will be moved on and replaced.

Ive no doubt at all that agents abd clubs have been approached with deals 80% done (at least in principal) and there'll be a flurry of activity before the season starts.

I can't speak intelligently of this league we're in as to pick how we'll do other than to say that a (then) high-flying, motivated Blues team were one of the few to actually lose against us. So on that alone id like to think we'd be comfortably sitting around 8th spot. Add in a better manager...7th. Better attitudes...6th.

The new players - and those to come in - are still unknown so 6th would seem a reasonable guess.

If RDM can get a couple more signings and fire them up then we should make the playoffs.

Interesting times!

BBC reporting Guzan to Boro it seems

Smoggies fans around the halfway line will get to practice their catching skills.

Heres my take on the transfer speculation
I can see anywhere between 5 and 8 players leaving the club, on top of those already gone, be that wanting to leave or having no choice in the matter.
And i believe those that leave will be replaced wisely and will be major upgrades(which shouldn't be difficult for the most part) on those the good Doc/RDM deem surplus to requirements, those could be:
Gabby(please just go)
Guzan(close to going)
Lescott(fuck me go)
Richards(motherfuck me go)
Bacuna(to a champions league team obviously)
Those i can see asking to go are from:
Gana
Traore
Sanchez
Veretout
Sinclair
And if correct, then so be it, they go with my blessing, because if they don't want to be here, i don't want them here, this season is a time for togetherness, for focused minds, and for fight, because this season is going to be one hell of a fight, but a fight i certainly believe we will overcome, ie promotion(pessimisticly via play-offs, optimisticly having the league won by March)
On a side note, i'm seeing more and more negativity towards RDM(ive actually seen people willing him to fail, are they that idiotic not to see that if he fails, we as a club fail?) mainly because he wasn't everyones prefered choice, well thats fine, you didn't want him, but, and this is important, he
was the Docs choice, so get behind the bloke, because at the end of the day whats more important, us succeeding, or the constant complaining that he wasn't your choice as Manager?
Anyway, apologies for the long-windedness, and these are just my views/opinions
UP THE VILLA

People want RDM to fail before a ball is even kicked in anger? I can understand when Lambert and that pug-nosed twat were managing that it got to the stage where one more loss might see them get the axe so with nothing to play for, why not hope for a loss in order to start afresh.

But to hope a new manager fails at this stage is madness to the point of being classified as some kind of mental disorder. And that disorder would probably be called lookatmelookatme-itis

Fourth Official on twitter are saying that Richards is having a medical at Sunderland today, after they activated his £5m release clause. I don't think that makes it certain, but Fourth Official seem to have a better reputation than most, especially on twitter.

You'd assume personal terms have been discussed and agreed, fee agreed, etc so if he's having a medical then he's off. With any luck. Hopefully he has a clause inserted into his contract that states he must play when fit and must play central defence.

Richards will go there. Say all the right things. Run the ball out of defence and everyone will love it.

Then make the same mistakes. Then throw the towel in.

I don't think his attitude is as bad as Bacuna or Lescott, but he has a weak personality IMO Totally wrong as a captain, wasn't strong enough to stand up to the likes of Gabby and Lescott, and when things started to go wrong he hid and gave up.

Any of the shit squad that are sold should have a clause in their contracts that they must be played against us in any future matches (3 points gtd,............ I thank you)

The Utterer wrote:Totally agree with Jimbop, no amount of jumping up and down and banging fists shouting " I WANT IT TO HAPPEN NOW" is going to make an iota of difference and neither should it. RDM would have been acting very unprofessionally had he come in, listened to the disgruntled gripes of a mightily peed off fan base who were on a witch hunt and acted upon it.

He simply had to look for himself and that needed some games for him to be able to make his own judgements on players, as well as speaking with them in person no doubt.

Well it's becoming apparent who he wants shot of although of course it may be he has no option but to shift some regardless of what he thinks of them to free up squad space.

Have to say Nzogbia is a disgrace, watching him play for a new contract at Sunderland just shows he can actually play and score if he really wants to.... Disgusting player and shame on him for taking the p*** whilst he was here.... more fool Sunderland if they sign him.

Trotters wrote:People want RDM to fail before a ball is even kicked in anger? I can understand when Lambert and that pug-nosed twat were managing that it got to the stage where one more loss might see them get the axe so with nothing to play for, why not hope for a loss in order to start afresh.

But to hope a new manager fails at this stage is madness to the point of being classified as some kind of mental disorder.  And that disorder would probably be called lookatmelookatme-itis

its an attention seeking mental disorder, people on the bham mail are all heavily dosed up with smack imo. others are just sad people whom try to provoke an argument by spouting utter utter bull shit. they are not the fans we want, I can imagine them booeing coz were only 3 - 0 up. wankers.