January '17 Transfer Window

After his display against Burton I am surprised anyone higher than us would want him. Especially for £25 million

Boldfinger wrote:After his display against Burton I am surprised anyone higher than us would want him. Especially for £25 million

Pre-injury, I thought Amavi was a real prospect as an attacking full back but decidedly questionable when it came to the defensive aspects. Post injury, he doesn't seem to have the same drive to get forward as often, he seems much more hesitant about taking opponents on and he is delivering far fewer killer balls in as a result.

Defensively, he is still the curate's egg. He'll do some very good things but to me still has that Huttonesque thing about him where he isn't where he should be or similarly fucks up.

If there really has been a £25m bid, if we were to accept it we'd be mugging somebody off. Not accepting it, we are mugging ourselves off. He's not worth that now and maybe never will be, we could buy away most, if not all, of our midfield problems with £25m.

ember wrote:

Boldfinger wrote:After his display against Burton I am surprised anyone higher than us would want him. Especially for £25 million

Pre-injury, I thought Amavi was a real prospect as an attacking full back but decidedly questionable when it came to the defensive aspects. Post injury, he doesn't seem to have the same drive to get forward as often, he seems much more hesitant about taking opponents on and he is delivering far fewer killer balls in as a result.

Defensively, he is still the curate's egg. He'll do some very good things but to me still has that Huttonesque thing about him where he isn't where he should be or similarly fucks up.

If there really has been a £25m bid, if we were to accept it we'd be mugging somebody off. Not accepting it, we are mugging ourselves off. He's not worth that now and maybe never will be, we could buy away most, if not all, of our midfield problems with £25m.

And be left with cissokho. No thanks. He will be a class act I'm sure of it. If 25m bid HAS been rejected then that is a massive statement from xia and I'm sure our midfield problems will still be sorted sale or no sake. For once it's nice to not sell our best players of which amavi is one of imo

Alan Nixon saying that we're trying to do a deal for Rhodes...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/2483194/middlesbrough-transfer-news-jordan-rhodes-will-cost-aston-villa-12million-if-they-make-swoop/

I'd be surprised if we're interested and even more surprised at £12M.

Isn't McCormack a better version of Rhodes than Jordan Rhodes? Would be a strange signing. In fact, I'd rather see us play RHM than Rhodes.

They're both goal-scorers, but other than that Rhodes and McCormack are completely different kinds of players.

McCormack drops deep and gets involved with play, creates his own chances, and provides a lot of assists. Rhodes is basically just a goal-poacher and nothing else, but in this division very good at what he does.

I'm not interested in signing Rhodes, for what it's worth. Not permanently for £12m, loan maybe.

Kieren Trippier linked, YES PLEASE.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:They're both goal-scorers, but other than that Rhodes and McCormack are completely different kinds of players.

McCormack drops deep and gets involved with play, creates his own chances, and provides a lot of assists. Rhodes is basically just a goal-poacher and nothing else, but in this division very good at what he does.

Really? I thought McCormack was more a goalgetter when playing for Fulham for instance, and this is largely why I thought he struggled with us as he's stuck way too deep.

id take £25m for Amavi in a heartbeat. If i am honest I don't believe such an offer is on the table.

Well he is a goal-getter in the sense that he scores lots of goals (historically at least), but his general play isn't really one of a goal-poacher. As I say he drops deep and has a good reading of the game, an intelligent player, illustrated by the fact that in the last two or three seasons he's been one of the players with the most assists in the division.

I think one of the reason's he's struggled for us is that he likes a strike partner who plays through the middle, someone he can play his through-balls too. With us a lot of our strikers are players who like to drift wide. Gestede's the only one who really stays central, and McCormack's looked pretty good when playing with him.

Hopefully his goal and run in the team will be a big help. I still wouldn't be surprised if he ended up being our top scorer.

I honestly don't think Xia would lie about us receiving a £25M bid for Amavi. He hasn't really given us reason to doubt what he says thus far.

He's not worth that much, but then again it's not much of a far fetched figure when you consider the amounts being payed for players at the moment, especially by Premier league clubs.

I mean when we signed him it was considered a coup as he was apparently statistically the second best player behind Ibrahimović in Ligue 1. Since then he's been linked to Liverpool, AC Milan, Lyon and Marseille, I think Man City might have been linked as well.

Besides we're hardly going to sell him for what we bought him for, or for little profit, so teams are probably going to have to bid approaching £20M at the very least. The £25M usually wouldn't be paid in one go, and would also possibly be based on a lot or performance based conditions.

Guardian article on Gestede possibly moving to Middlesrbrough.

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/dec/28/middlesbrough-rudy-gestede-aston-villa

Middlesbrough are closing in on the signing of Aston Villa striker Rudy Gestede, with Aitor Karanka’s side expected to pay around £6.5m to secure the Benin international.

Gestede, who scored five times in the Premier League last season, has caught the attention of several Premier League sides despite starting only eight Championship matches for Villa this season. Crystal Palace, West Brom and Newcastle were also interested in signing the former Blackburn striker but it appears Middlesbrough have won the race after convincing the 28-year-old to move to the north east.

Gestede was in the crowd at the Riverside Stadium for Boro’s 3-0 defeat to Liverpool and is expected to sign a three-year contract with the club.

His departure could see Scotland striker Jordan Rhodes head the other way, with Villa manager Steve Bruce interested in signing the player purchased from Blackburn last year.

Newcastle may now turn their attention to Brentford striker Scott Hogan, with Palace and Swansea both prepared to pay £15m to sign the Serbia striker, Aleksandar Mitrovic.

We're now being linked with a loan move for Leicester's Matty James. He's a 25 year old box to box midfielder who has played a few seasons in the championship and of course has played in the premiership. Looking at his record he gets assists and has scored a few goals here and there. So he's another name that can be thrown into the hat I guess.

Shangai SIPG want Ayew...

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/2490828/aston-villa-forward-jordan-ayew-wanted-by-shanghai-sipg-boss-andre-villas-boas/

also it was apparently A Chinese club who bid for Amavi...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2016/12/28/aston-villa-transfer-news-club-reject-25m-bid-jordan-amavi-china/

IF we can get a combined 18-20m for Gestede and Ayew then I'd take it and really look to splash out 30-35m on five new players. We do that then we should be unstoppable during the run-in tbh.

Shangai SIPG are absolutely loaded if they want Ayew, I'd want at least £20M. Only Kodjia has contributed more in terms of goals/assists. And like a lot of our problems it comes down to our poor midfield, improve that and I think Ayew improves too.

For some absolutely bizarre reason I've always fancied Villa having Irish players.

How about Conor Hourihane? Being linked to shite Premier League teams atm.

See we're linked with Matty James. I'd take that. A bit on the short side, but has a bit of nasty in him which we really lack.

Why can't we get RHM to commit? Stick him on the bench tonight and show him what he will be missing if he leaves.

The Telegraph Reporting interest in Rhodes and saying that we don't have a huge budget. I'm still skeptical that we want him.

Boldfinger wrote:After his display against Burton I am surprised anyone higher than us would want him. Especially for £25 million

So one performance defines a player's WHOLE career and potential?

Interesting that the commentary said in the first half that we were considering bringing in Gerrard as player-coach before Calderwood. And now the Major League are having their break, could we do a deal like we did with Keane, I wonder. Not really sure how he is as a player these days though, I would have he might have more attractive offers. Also worth noting that Xia has said that he's going to be in the US this week.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:Interesting that the commentary said in the first half that we were considering bringing in Gerrard as player-coach before Calderwood. And now the Major League are having their break, could we do a deal like we did with Keane, I wonder. Not really sure how he is as a player these days though, I would have he might have more attractive offers. Also worth noting that Xia has said that he's going to be in the US this week.

Gerrard has finished with LA Galaxy and retired from football. Happened a few weeks back.

If we can get 25m for amavi and 10m for ayew from China I'll drive them there. Myself. Anyone fancy being Co driver