January '17 Transfer Window

I didn't think FFP mattered in the first year of being relegated from the Premier League??

I don't think it matters for the first 3 years of new ownership (???) but the club will need to keep a very keen eye on it as most of our players are contracted to 2020 and we have an awful lot of awful players on awfully big money. We don't really need to be adding to that.

Every club has a certain amount of complete arseholes (as well as Villa hating, slum-dwelling, 12-toed, inbred freak trolls which I suspect this clown is) and it's nice when they get stuffed back under their rock...

@Dr_TonyXia u r so full of shit youve been saying this for 2 weeks now ..now ya saying b4 the end of window if its that late its to late !!!

— Mark mcmullan (@Markym35) January 17, 2017

Understood all frustrations but if you can help club go to kidnap our targets to come earlier then I would be very happy too. Pls be patient https://t.co/hYWqh2DH5R

— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) January 17, 2017

Good response from Dr X. I doubt some ejits really understand how deals are done and the difficulties of dealing with some Chairman who are little less than meglomaniacs. One issue is I don't think the good Dr really understood that at the start either. No matter, he's getting there and so far is the best owner we have had in my lifetime.

As Dr T says show a little patience, we've suffered for years with a poor team, but now things are changing, its not going to happen overnight but were moving in the right direction, give it another two weeks and see what happens, oh and Steve Bruce is the master of 11th hour deals. UTV

According to Alan Nixon on twitter we are now getting serious about Rhodes but Boro still want £12m.

We may have taken off the funny hats & silly shoes but it would appear Boro as still playing the fool.... £12m - not playing, 4th choice, really ???

Having said that if we get the midfield sorted & he comes in & scores 15 goals before the end of the season & we sneak the play offs it would be deemed a good investment ....

Gordonsleftboot wrote:Good response from Dr X. I doubt some ejits really understand how deals are done and the difficulties of dealing with some Chairman who are little less than meglomaniacs. One issue is I don't think the good Dr really understood that at the start either. No matter, he's getting there and so far is the best owner we have had in my lifetime.  

Whilst I'm in agreement that many have little idea as to the shenanigans involved in transfers, I think it needs to be said that many are frustrated by the fact that other clubs don't appear to have the same problems dealing with Villa! "You want Rudy?" No problem, £6m please and take him! It was naive (putting it nicely) to let Rudy leave when we are quite clearly so short up front. Cissokho also gone, no problem there. We have worsened our position and improved others. That's utterly stupid decision making, decision making I had hoped was behind us. We are now at the mercy of others, and they well know it. They have us over a barrel, once again. I can't say utterly stupid enough times.

Villa Transfers via Twitter ( reliable in the summer ) is reporting that there is a medical booked for tomorrow but no names as yet.

Movement at last please let it be the midfield players we are screaming out for

1Elliot wrote:Villa Transfers via Twitter ( reliable in the summer ) is reporting that there is a medical booked for tomorrow but no names as yet.

Movement at last please let it be the midfield players we are screaming out for

Surely lansbury?

The thing with being patience is that it builds the expectation levels higher!
Therefore I really hope that Bruce has some 'rabbits' up his sleeve as people will be expecting it!

If Kodjia cost us potentially £15M after one season in the Championship and McCormack £11M as a player in his thirties, then I don't think Middlesbrough can be blamed too much for asking £12M for Rhodes. If we look at it as £6M plus Gestede for Rhodes then it doesn't look bad business, even better if we can do a deal where some of the fee is paid, upon certain conditions being met, like promotion, so if we do pay the full sum, we'll be happy to do so.

Looking at the table I see we've only won more game than we've lost this season, which surprised me a bit, we really need someone who can turn these draws we've been getting into wins. Obviously we need better service, but Rhodes is the type of player who'll dig out goals from all sorts of situations.

See that's what I don't get - if Boro wanted Rudy Just-Head, and they wanted him cos they rate him better than Rhodes, and they value Rhodes at 12 mill, why the eff didn't we say, well it's a straight swap then, and you can't deny that's fair as you obviously rate Rudy more than Rhodes".

So why did that not happen? I swear we've got all the negotiating skills of Theresa May.

I don't agree with the logic that because Middlesbrough wanted Gestede and to sell Rhodes, then Rhodes must be worth the same or less than Gestede, or even that Middlesbrough rate Gestede higher than Rhodes.

They bought Gestede because he suits their system better not necessarily because he's better than Rhodes.

Us getting £6M for Gestede was good deal for me, if we hadn't have sold when offered that much people would have been moaning that we should have bitten their hands off, and I see around £10M as a fair price for Rhodes given his goal record in the Championship.

Neil Moxey in the Mirror now reporting that we've made a formal bid for Rhodes. Also saying that we still want Hourihane and Lansbury.

Rhodes rumour also confirmed by ESPN?

If we sign a couple of midfielders then it will be a good deal IMO?

£12m does sound a bit wild to me. For that kind of dough I'd want a player that can also perform in the premiership and I'm not sure that's the case here.

Trotters wrote:£12m does sound a bit wild to me. For that kind of dough I'd want a player that can also perform in the premiership and I'm not sure that's the case here.

Unfortunately I think the fees we paid for Kodjia & McCormack in the summer have set a bench mark price for proven Championship goal scorers & there is no denying Rhodes is a master goal scorer at this level ( or least he has been to date but I'm sure the Villa jinx will put pay to that )

deadbuzzardalive wrote:I don't agree with the logic that because Middlesbrough wanted Gestede and to sell Rhodes, then Rhodes must be worth the same or less than Gestede, or even that Middlesbrough rate Gestede higher than Rhodes.

They bought Gestede because he suits their system better not necessarily because he's better than Rhodes.

Us getting £6M for Gestede was good deal for me, if we hadn't have sold when offered that much people would have been moaning that we should have bitten their hands off, and I see around £10M as a fair price for Rhodes given his goal record in the Championship.

On that basis McCormack was perfect and we all know how that is turning out so far.
This is exactly why we shouldn't bother with Rhodes, WITHOUT a BLOODY midfield, neither will score goals at VIlla!

deadbuzzardalive wrote:

They bought Gestede because he suits their system better not necessarily because he's better than Rhodes.

Whichever way you explain it, the outcome was they wanted Gestede more than they do Rhodes. The cost of something is governed by what people are willing to pay, not its intrinsic value (otherwise the Mona Lisa would be worth the cost of some paint, canvas and wood). All I'm saying is I'm not convinced we tested that to the maximum we could have, given they wanted him (for whatever reason - system or otherwise) more than Rhodes, and we want Rhodes more than Rudy.

It's hypothesis anyway, for all I know the offer might have been 4 and we screwed them up to 6, it was more idle observation that me knowing anything.

So if we sign hourihane/lansbury/Rhodes, and given that we've signed Johnstone, if RH-M signed his contract, and that Green really seems to be showing promise (plus I assume we've signed that young 17 year old German (?) lad as one for the future), would folks be happy with that this window?
Personally if we don't sort a RB I won't be happy at all, spoilt as that sounds.

De Kuip wrote:So if we sign hourihane/lansbury/Rhodes, and given that we've signed Johnstone, if RH-M signed his contract, and that Green really seems to be showing promise (plus I assume we've signed that young 17 year old German (?) lad as one for the future), would folks be happy with that this window?
Personally if we don't sort a RB I won't be happy at all, spoilt as that sounds.

We absolutely need that RB. IMO we also desperately require someone on the left wing/midfield to get a partnership going with Amavi. I had hoped that would be Ayew this season but he's turned out to be a one in ten performer. Grealish also underwhelming. A near perfect window for me would be Lansbury, Hourihane, Brady, and Jenkinson or another RB. That's what I'd pick if it had to be four. I'm definitely not convinced about Rhodes at the reported £12m, shame we couldn't get hold of Hernandez as that would be my choice. With the four I mention I think goals and chances will come, even for the likes of Agbonlahor in the short term. I'd obviously have Rhodes over agbonlahor but not at £12m, we surely have to keep an eye on what we're spending? Happy to let Ayew leave to fund Brady. Hourihane and Lansbury should cost something in the region of £5-6m combined which we got for Rudy. We also really could do with a CB.

At least there appear to be some kind of movement now! Goodness me it was like torture watching us lamely throw away even more points at the weekend.

It's still nothing certain though which is a worry.

We won't get a RB unless it is on loan as we have just bought one in Richie De Laet to replace Hutton, so it would be utterly pointless!
Anyway we have much more pressing concerns with other areas of the pitch especially midfield (I think I may have mentioned that before)!

A couple of reports on twitter saying boro have rejected 10m bid for Rhodes.

https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/2645828/aston-villa-transfer-news-jordan-rhodes-10m-bid-rejected-middlesbrough/

Ready to bid for Bree according to that.