January 2019 Window

deadbuzzardalive wrote:Looks like we're signing Kortney Hause. I don't know a great deal about him, but the Wolves fans seem to rate him, by all accounts he's a strong and fast player, also plays on the left hand side, so sounds like just what we need, especially with Tuanzebe being confirmed as being out for eight to ten weeks.

Ideally if he signs, I think we will still need a left-back, a defensive midfielder, another midfielder who can give us what we miss when Grealish is out, and I don't think another winger would amiss either, El Ghazi and Bolasie are both hit and miss, Adomah seems to have lost it, and Kodjia's not really a winger. I was going to suggest signign El Ghazi on a permanent, and bringing in Hudson-Odoi in on loan, but Bayern Munich have had a bid turned down for him, so doubt he'd want to come to the championship.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:...I don't think another winger would amiss either...

Green!

Green has hardly played for Portsmouth, so not sure we can expect him to come back here, and be the answer to us... We'll probably sign a bunch of players get our hopes up, everyone will be positive, and then when it comes to the actual football we will still be rubbish, it's what happens with every window, nothing much really changes.

FoxyAV wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:...I don't think another winger would amiss either...

Green!

Are you Andre's agent?

He cannot get into a League 1 starting line up so why would he improve us? One of them players who get better the less he plays in some fans opinion? Plus he is knitted and gets injured by a sideways look from a right back? He is not the solution!

The defence is the problem and Smith needs to sort it! Smith will very quickly find out that patience is a luxury at a big club! Terry needs to show his worth as well!

DelboyVilla wrote:

FoxyAV wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:...I don't think another winger would amiss either...

Green!

Are you Andre's agent?

He cannot get into a League 1 starting line up so why would he improve us? One of them players who get better the less he plays in some fans opinion? Plus he is knitted and gets injured by a sideways look from a right back? He is not the solution!

The defence is the problem and Smith needs to sort it! Smith will very quickly find out that patience is a luxury at a big club! Terry needs to show his worth as well!

What do we do to our u23's

Gardner
O'HARE
RHM
Davis
Green
Lyden

all have major injury issues

DelboyVilla wrote:

FoxyAV wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:...I don't think another winger would amiss either...

Green!

Are you Andre's agent?

He cannot get into a League 1 starting line up so why would he improve us? One of them players who get better the less he plays in some fans opinion? Plus he is knitted and gets injured by a sideways look from a right back? He is not the solution!

The defence is the problem and Smith needs to sort it! Smith will very quickly find out that patience is a luxury at a big club! Terry needs to show his worth as well!

He's just come back from injury. Sure, he's not played much but he's scored four for Portsmouth so far. Yeah, one's against an U21 squad but he's only 20...

And anyway, what's happened to wanting to promote and encourage our youth players? I'm not saying play him all the time but he might well give Bolasie a run for his money.

smetro wrote:

DelboyVilla wrote:

FoxyAV wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:...I don't think another winger would amiss either...

Green!

Are you Andre's agent?

He cannot get into a League 1 starting line up so why would he improve us? One of them players who get better the less he plays in some fans opinion? Plus he is knitted and gets injured by a sideways look from a right back? He is not the solution!

The defence is the problem and Smith needs to sort it! Smith will very quickly find out that patience is a luxury at a big club! Terry needs to show his worth as well!

What do we do to our u23's

Gardner
O'HARE
RHM
Davis
Green
Lyden

all have major injury issues

KMac's alleged bullying and abuse???

Only jesting!!

Abraham to Wolves rumours aren't going away, BBC reporting their interest now. Still I suppose if Chelsea do call him back, all they're doing is exactly the same that we've done to Hull and Charlton, in calling back Elphick and Steer.

I really hope he stays, but I don't think it would actually be as disastrous as some seem to think, I mean I'd still expect us to compete, and think we'd still score plenty of goals.

Rumours will run all the way through January, it’s no surprise Abraham is attracting attention given his form. We’re Aston Villa, we’ll carry on whoever comes or goes. It’s only 2yrs ago we were all celebrating the capture of Hogan, a player most of us proclaimed as one of the leagues very best goal scorers. We still also have Kodjia, another who we proclaimed as one of the very best in the league. By our own proclamations we have 2 of the very best in the league, so it’s up to us to make it work. I’ve doubts over Hogan, however I’m content if we’re forced to try and make it work. As pointed out on another thread we have a whole lot of misfits out of contract this coming summer that’ll go a long way to clearing a bloated wage bill and clearing spaces for a proper squad. A balanced squad. A squad for the future years.

We brought in master poacher Bent as a decent goal scorer, he kept us in the PL one season and then Lambert appeared and wanted him to fit into his 'DEFEND! DEFEND! DEFEND! Quick, run after that aimlessly punted ball' tactic. Just because he was crap at it doesn't mean he was a crap striker. Likewise Hogan. If we were going to rely on him we'd need to set up the supply to suit him. On the plus side we have the manager that made that work at Brentford, on the other hand we'll need Jack back. At least we wouldn't see Hogan 30 yards ahead of the midfield, triple-marked and having the ball punted to him to hold up.

One thing I noticed about Nyeland was how quickly he's up off the floor with the ball and looking for someone to chuck it to. I don't remember Johnstone being that fast the last two seasons, I hope the new goalie does the same thing.

We've also got Keinan Davis, who whilst doesn't score many himself, our other players seem to score more goals when he's in the team, and under Smith his goal tally would probably improve as more chances will be created for him; some might say he's more suited to Bruce style football, but he performs perfectly well for our u23s who play more of a passing game. I hope gets a chance on Saturday.

Also if Abraham does leave, I'd be surprised if we didn't bring in someone to replace him.

I’m going to be content with whoever comes in. We have to be. Whoever it might be we simply have to back them, as well as those already here. UTV

deadbuzzardalive wrote:We've also got Keinan Davis, who whilst doesn't score many himself, our other players seem to score more goals when he's in the team, and under Smith his goal tally would probably improve as more chances will be created for him; some might say he's more suited to Bruce style football, but he performs perfectly well for our u23s who play more of a passing game. I hope gets a chance on Saturday.

Also if Abraham does leave, I'd be surprised if we didn't bring in someone to replace him.

Well, we saw he worked well under Bruce because he could hold up the ball long enough for the midfield to remove their defensive hats and run up the pitch to go on the attack. It would be good to see him playing Smith's way.

John Percy
‏Verified account @JPercyTelegraph
8m8 minutes ago
#Wolves are poised to sign Tammy Abraham on loan from Chelsea early next week, pending Fifa approval. Understand the FA & Premier Lge have both given the deal the ok. Abraham has scored 16 goals on loan at #avfc #cfc


Hopefully we can find a decent replacement.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:
John Percy
‏Verified account @JPercyTelegraph
8m8 minutes ago
#Wolves are poised to sign Tammy Abraham on loan from Chelsea early next week, pending Fifa approval. Understand the FA & Premier Lge have both given the deal the ok. Abraham has scored 16 goals on loan at #avfc #cfc


Hopefully we can find a decent replacement.

Even if this is correct (big IF), I would be reasonably relaxed if he goes. He really is not the finished article and that will be seen at the Dogheads. We have finishers in the squad who are not getting a chance. Far more important to sort out our lamentable defence in which case we won't need to score 3 or more to pick up a point or, sometimes 3 points. Getting Jack back or a clone is far more important.

I think it's clear TA is a gonna,

Sadly i have zero faith in the other options. Kodija has never recovered from his injury but will score a few i guess (nowhere near the TA level though), Hogan has shown absolutely nothing since he got here despite loads of opportunity. Davis will likely take the rest of the season to get back up to a decent level and is most definitely not prolific anyway.

For me we need a replacement in when he goes.

Why would Chelsea do anything to strengthen the Dogheads when, the way things are at the moment, they may end up competing with them for a European place?

Wolves are fifteen points behind Chelsea at the moment, so Chelsea won't see them as a threat... That gap will more than likely get bigger more than anything else.. Wolves whilst doing well, have actually had a lot of luck in a number of their games, without which they'd be looking over their shoulder now at the relegation places...

Hopefully we've got a decent replacement lined up, but judging by the players we're being to linked to in other positions it doesn't look like we've got a great deal of money to spend, so will probably have to be another loan.

Maybe we can nick Grabban again!

Where is a loan player of Tammy's quality going to come from though. I can't think of any other top club young fringe players who would be available. Not now solanke is at Bournemouth. Chelsea are light and don't have anyone, solskjaer has said no loans for uniteds youngsters he wants to keep them there, Liverpool have let solanke go and haven't replaced, arsenal don't have anyone of that level to my knowledge, spurs might let janssen out but he's hardly prolific. Any team below them with a player that good will be playing them. If tammy goes I think we will be going with what we've got. We won't pay for someone like maupay right now and no champ club will do a loan to buy to us on their top players.

If I'm trying to be positive about Abraham leaving, I'd suggest that whilst we may not get someone in who will score as many goals as him, if we bring in more of team player to replace him, then our results might actually improve... That might sound counterintuitive, but if you've got a player who scores goals, but doesn't do much else, then it can be like playing with ten men... Darren Bent is the classic example of that, scores for fun, but usually teams struggle when he plays for them, which is why he didn't make it at Tottenham, and probably why Abraham won't make it at Chelsea.

As for a replacement, Maupay would be ideal... And these are his quotes from just a week ago...

“I have a really, really good relationship with Dean. So obviously if one day he calls me and says ‘Neal, I need you in my team’ I would consider it. But at this moment I can’t be focused on other things than Brentford. Obviously, I really liked working for him, so if one day he wants to bring me to Villa or wherever I would listen to him because he has done a lot of good things for me.”

But presumably with FFP we can't afford him... Another option that comes to mind is Vydra at Burnley he's played 265 minutes worth of football for them, that's less than three games, last year he scored 21 goals in the Championship... And there will plenty of other options in leagues across Europe.

Being linked to Kiril Despodov a winger/second striker, has ten goals and eleven assists this season in the Bulgarian league.

I think Vydra is a great shout DBA. I also wonder if Brentford would be interested in a swap plus loan players for Maupay? Hogan plus a couple of loaners?

Never heard of the Bulgrian lad and he sounds like a risk who will need time to adjust?

What I'd love to see is us being more creative with the academy. The likes of Bedeau, for example. A bit like what Arsenal did to us with Dan Crowley. I would assume there are lots of rules about that but then Chelsea seem to get away with loaning out 30 or more players every season to let other clubs develop them all and cherrypick the best to come back (or be sold on).

I actually saw someone linking us with re-signing Crowley a few days back, we could do with an alternative to Grealish, but given all the other positions that need filling, I'm not sure if a that's priority. Despodov might be a risk, but he's the kind of risk that we see other clubs take, and then wonder why we ourselves don't take such risks, intead of wasting money on has beens... As for swapping Hogan for Maupay, I think the main problem with that is Hogan's wages.