January '17 Transfer Window

@big ming he certainly looks interesting, a physical presence as well as being composed. Might be worth a punt although at 23 he should be stepping up if he wants to see if he is any good at a higher level.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:The best still might be yet to come.

What does that mean?

I thought it looked a bit wrong when I read it back to myself..,

We've hardly spent any money, so might have a bit to go big on a striker. But I've no idea who we might go after. I'm sure they will be looking at plenty of players though. Wyness said yesterday that for every signing we've made there have been fifteen options.

Need to get rid of a few now though, especially in central midfield, I think I counted ten we've got for that position including the players out on loan. I wonder if Palace offered us our money back for Jedinak, if we'd be tempted to let him go.

Well judging by the Doctor's tweet as I read it:

3 options for one position at 50% each option
2 players (outgoing) at 50% each player
1 position at 50% (provisionally on one or both of the outgoings happening)?

Ohhh Christian Benteke ...

mefromhere wrote:Ohhh Christian Benteke ...

Now that would be perfect, never going to happen, but it would be perfect.

Not this window maybe ... but if we were to swap places in the summer I could see it as a possibility

Got it after lot's of research it means;



He does enjoy teasing us.

I know it's OT (sorry) but just to say that on this day in 1983:
Barcelona 0, Aston Villa 3
Goals from Shaw/Cowans/McNaught
Villa won the European Super Cup

De Kuip wrote:I know it's OT (sorry) but just to say that on this day in 1983:
Barcelona 0, Aston Villa 3
Goals from Shaw/Cowans/McNaught
Villa won the European Super Cup

I saw it on the official site. Brilliant

I'm hoping for another wide man, central defender and left-back. A striker would be a bonus too. By the sound of it Dr X and co are really looking to push hard until the end of the window so here's hoping they get more over the line.

AstonThriller wrote:I'm hoping for another wide man, central defender and left-back. A striker would be a bonus too. By the sound of it Dr X and co are really looking to push hard until the end of the window so here's hoping they get more over the line.

Plenty more coming in mate and plenty going to be leaving.

NARLA24 wrote:
Plenty more coming in mate and plenty going to be leaving.

Who's your money on leaving? Imo

Kozak
Richards
Tshibola (on loan)

And maybe one of MCCormack or Ayew.

AstonThriller wrote:

NARLA24 wrote:
Plenty more coming in mate and plenty going to be leaving.

Who's your money on leaving? Imo

Kozak
Richards
Tshibola (on loan)

And maybe one of MCCormack or Ayew.

Agree except possibly not Tish - just in case of a couple of midfield injuries. Maybe Westwood off?

Middlesbrough want Grealish according to the mail. I can't see him being very interested in going there. Think he'll do well with the new midfield in place, as will Ayew if he stays, McCormack too, if he can get over his problems but think he'll probably leave.

Looking forward to seeing Gabby start banging in the goals, hoping Richards back fully fit soon, too bad we missed out on getting Lescott back, lets get guzan, he's available!

Hope the new midfield lads click soon, but its going to be tough for them to break into the team with Westy and Gards in their way, good luck I say.

FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK THIS MSG, DeKuip you bloody rackbag Ive gone fecking mental.

Just caught up. Blimey Xia doesn't mind a bit of fun on twitter does he? Brilliant stuff.

RHM isn't ready yet so that leaves us light up front now (Gabby may as well be a bowl of steam). So I'd like a striker in. I'd also like to see a new Central Defender. If either of Baker of Chester get injured/suspended, we're relying on Elphick and he's only good for 4th choice in my view.

But even if we sign no one else, this has been a great window.

Then again, we said that last time around when we signed 327 strikers who were all top scorers.

Trotters wrote:Just caught up. Blimey Xia doesn't mind a bit of fun on twitter does he? Brilliant stuff.

RHM isn't ready yet so that leaves us light up front now (Gabby may as well be a bowl of steam). So I'd like a striker in. I'd also like to see a new Central Defender. If either of Baker of Chester get injured/suspended, we're relying on Elphick and he's only good for 4th choice in my view.

But even if we sign no one else, this has been a great window.

Then again, we said that last time around when we signed 327 strikers who were all top scorers.

Exactly!

One way or another, my money is on Rhodes being here by Tuesday next.
I doubt that it will be unlocked by Grealish moving in the opposite direction even though it would make some sense as he has largely failed to live up to the hype so far.
The problem is FOMO. "Fear of missing out" in that Grealish will move somewhere else and suddenly blossom into the top class player we all suspect is in there somewhere.

alex mowatt replacing conor hourihane at barnsley, i seem to recall someone on here banging on about him for us in the summer. Who got the better deal?

Trotters wrote:If either of Baker of Chester get injured/suspended, we're relying on Elphick and he's only good for 4th choice in my view.

The irony is last season our best central defensive pairing was on the bench while Richards and Lescott were played every match, irrespective of how terribly they'd performed the match before. Chester and Baker do it for me though, and with a decent midfield in front of them maybe we'll start to see more clean sheets? I also firmly believe in Amavi. Who's he had sitting in front of him, helping with the defence for most of the season so far? Grealish, Kodjia, Ayew? And when Elphick plays Baker or Chester get dragged out of position to help cover, and Amavi is left too often as our last man on that side.

Another thing, with De Laet due back at the end of the season or start of next, that means if Bree plays well we'll be able to offload both Bacuna and Hutton. The Lambert hangover will soon be over, with only Gabby, Hutton, Westwood, Baker and Bacuna having played under him. Baker has come into his own but soon we'll be ready to wave goodbye to the rest with our very best wishes. I wonder though if Gardner will be given the opportunity to show what he can do now he'll have a decent squad of players around him. Grealish too, sitting behind the striker, with the freedom of the pitch, without having to worry about constantly getting back for defensive duties.

I'm really happy with the signings so far. They seem to be intelligent signings, not just buying cheap players in bulk, or up-and-coming players looking to stay for a year to attract the attention of a 'bigger' club, or players past their best like Richards and Lescott. Sure, with Bree there's a certain amount of uncertainty but he's played 19 Championship matches this season for Barnsley and like Amavi could well be an important player for us in a couple of years time. Plus, importantly, it doesn't seem like Tony needs to sell on players for the cash (at least not yet) and can make good financial reasons for players to want to stay with us.

big ming wrote:One way or another, my money is on Rhodes being here by Tuesday next.
I doubt that it will be unlocked by Grealish moving in the opposite direction even though it would make some sense as he has largely failed to live up to the hype so far.
The problem is FOMO. "Fear of missing out" in that Grealish will move somewhere else and suddenly blossom into the top class player we all suspect is in there somewhere.

I think part of the problem with Grealish is lots of us (including the man himself) been taken in by the hype, heard the names of PL teams interested in buying him and seen some of his flashes of brilliance on the pitch. He's not a one-man saviour though, and in a team where very few players have managed to find their feet he's done about as well as most of the other players. He's not played that often and when he is it's usually with different players around him. Now we have a stronger midfield it should free up Grealish to be played in a meaningful way - by which I mean to his strengths, not filling in on the wing because no one else works there - and he needs that chance. I still like Gestede, I still like Weimann. Both players who do a specific job but were never played that way. How many times last season was Gestede played how he was with Rhodes, as one half of a two-man strike force? Never. Not once. I think he and Ayew would have been great together. But then Traore wasn't played either and nor were our U23s wingers. So very little supply, no partner to play with, only six or so goals. What a waste of time.

This season I really think the only players to have found their place here are Chester and Kodjia (and Baker but he's always getting injured). Ayew still isn't being played correctly (he's a striker, not a winger, although I do think he could also play behind Kodjia), no one knows what's going on with McCormack, although it's been suggested here that he could well have worked well with Gestede. No one knows what Gardner, Westwood or Gabby are supposed to be doing on the pitch, it seems they don't either. In the Preston match last week one of the commentators on the radio said something along the lines of 'no, don't do it' just before Westwood shot the ball high, to one side of the goal, into the stand behind. Hutton cannot cross for toffee, yet frequently does, even when Adomah is one pass away. Gallini was starting to look good but it transpires one of his conditions was he had an Italian trainer but when RDM was sacked, Bruce brought in a British one. For a 21-year-old kid in a different country, that's a bit tough. Amavi I think will come good, and there are signs of it. And Grealish I think will too, if he's given the opportunity to play how he plays best, with good players he knows how to play with surrounding him.

Spot on, for me @FoxyAV - I've always shared those thoughts about players being inappropriately judged when they're not being played to their strengths due to poor teammates or tactics (which I'm sure are often forced by poor players).

There's no way we should sell Grealish. He hasn't live up to expectations, but maybe those were too high in the first place, he's still decent and in an improved line-up will perform better as we have more of the ball, and have players who can find him, and who can read Grealish's intentions when he has the ball.

Look at the youngsters we've had in the past deemed not good enough - Cahill, Albrighton, Jordan Graham, Bannan, Daniel Johnson, Callum Robinson, Steven Davis, Peter Whittingham, and there are possibly more. Even the least rated of those would have been beneficial to our team in recent times.

I'd rate Grealish as being better than most of those names mentioned.

Now the Mirror are reporting that we're going to offer him in exchange for Rhodes. I think Rhodes would be a good signing but I hope that isn't true. Selling him would undo some of the feel good factor from our signings.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:There's no way we should sell Grealish. He hasn't live up to expectations, but maybe those were too high in the first place, he's still decent and in an improved line-up will perform better as we have more of the ball, and have players who can find him, and who can read Grealish's intentions when he has the ball.

Look at the youngsters we've had in the past deemed not good enough - Cahill, Albrighton, Jordan Graham, Bannan, Daniel Johnson, Callum Robinson, Steven Davis, Peter Whittingham, and there are possibly more. Even the least rated of those would have been beneficial to our team in recent times.

I'd rate Grealish as being better than most of those names mentioned.

Now the Mirror are reporting that we're going to offer him in exchange for Rhodes. I think Rhodes would be a good signing but I hope that isn't true. Selling him would undo some of the feel good factor from our signings.

And in the mirror article they call him a left footer so says all you need to know about the bs story