Summer 2010 Transfer Thread: B*llsh*t, Rumours & Wishes

[Mazrim]

You could argue all players are stop gaps. The trick is knowing which ones compliment what you already have at the time. We have highly rated young strikers who could be at Villa for the next 10 years or more so we have the luxury of having a place for an experienced player to provide what we dont have, a player who can link play but still chip in with goals. Keane could be considered that.

[Concrete John]

Don't see what striker we could get for £6-8m that's better than Carew and/or Gabby?

Precisely.

You said you'd want better for the sort of money being talked about for Keane, which I don't think is possible.  So you're admitting you'd like the impossible?

As it goes I'd put him on a par with Gabby and Carew, so we'd be better overall and, as Mazrim said, he's a different sort of striker, so would give us better options and diversity.

why are we hunting in the 6-8m range for a (british based) striker though? maybe the 8m we spunked on MFH and Ivanhoe could have come in handy about now?

Who said that's all we're doing?  Keane is available, good and would fit in with what we need, so it's a signing I'd agree with, but that doesn't mean he's the only striker we're tracking.

[Greg N'Ash]

You could argue all players are stop gaps. The trick is knowing which ones compliment what you already have at the time. We have highly rated young strikers who could be at Villa for the next 10 years or more so we have the luxury of having a place for an experienced player to provide what we dont have, a player who can link play but still chip in with goals. Keane could be considered that.

are we gonna wait 10 years though? Surely that wasn't the lerner/MON masterplan? 15years till we challenge??! My own thoughts is Heskey has gone. Lost it. Finished.  Carew has a year or 18months in him at best. Keane probably 2 and half years. If we're gonna get anywhere in the medium to short term we need a top striker. They cost 10m plus (or 15m if you only shop in britian) and surely it should have been a priority earlier.

[Clampy]

I hope this Keane 'injury' means we're doing a deal for him. Could be just what we need.

[Clampy]

You could argue all players are stop gaps. The trick is knowing which ones compliment what you already have at the time. We have highly rated young strikers who could be at Villa for the next 10 years or more so we have the luxury of having a place for an experienced player to provide what we dont have, a player who can link play but still chip in with goals. Keane could be considered that.

If we're gonna get anywhere in the medium to short term we need a top striker. They cost 10m plus (or 15m if you only shop in britian) and surely it should have been a priority earlier.

Who have you got in mind then Greg?

[Greg N'Ash]

You could argue all players are stop gaps. The trick is knowing which ones compliment what you already have at the time. We have highly rated young strikers who could be at Villa for the next 10 years or more so we have the luxury of having a place for an experienced player to provide what we dont have, a player who can link play but still chip in with goals. Keane could be considered that.

If we're gonna get anywhere in the medium to short term we need a top striker. They cost 10m plus (or 15m if you only shop in britian) and surely it should have been a priority earlier.

Who have you got in mind then Greg?

Bent is probably the only one possible in the u.k. and would cost big time

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Don't see what striker we could get for £6-8m that's better than Carew and/or Gabby?

Precisely.

It's all down to where you do your shopping. Benfica bought Cardozo for £7.5m, Porto bought the Hulk for less than £6m (it was rumoured at the time we were interested in him), there are players out there, we just need to keep looking.

As for Robbie Keane, I've resigned myself to the fact we're probably going to sign him and whilst he will do a job for us in his first season, I have serious misgivings as to what he can do thereafter. You can't knock his attitude but you can't turn the clocks back either and at 30 years of age, I would have preferred we looked for somebody else.

Maybe Martin feels he can't take a risk on a foreign player with the budget he has, as there are so many key areas that need improving, he's having to spread his investments on players he knows can do a job from Day One.

Hopefully, that should rule out McGready.

[Dave]

You could argue all players are stop gaps. The trick is knowing which ones compliment what you already have at the time. We have highly rated young strikers who could be at Villa for the next 10 years or more so we have the luxury of having a place for an experienced player to provide what we dont have, a player who can link play but still chip in with goals. Keane could be considered that.

are we gonna wait 10 years though? Surely that wasn't the lerner/MON masterplan?

Yes Greg, that's exactly what Maz meant. We're going to leave Delfouneso on the bench until he's 29 years old and only then will we see any benefit from him.

It's all down to where you do your shopping. Benfica bought Cardozo for £7.5m, Porto bought the Hulk for less than £6m (it was rumoured at the time we were interested in him), there are players out there, we just need to keep looking.

While I agree in principle that we need to broaden our horizons, we wouldn't have been able to sign either of those two players for work permit reasons.

[Mazrim]

You could argue all players are stop gaps. The trick is knowing which ones compliment what you already have at the time. We have highly rated young strikers who could be at Villa for the next 10 years or more so we have the luxury of having a place for an experienced player to provide what we dont have, a player who can link play but still chip in with goals. Keane could be considered that.

are we gonna wait 10 years though? Surely that wasn't the lerner/MON masterplan? 15years till we challenge??! My own thoughts is Heskey has gone. Lost it. Finished.  Carew has a year or 18months in him at best. Keane probably 2 and half years. If we're gonna get anywhere in the medium to short term we need a top striker. They cost 10m plus (or 15m if you only shop in britian) and surely it should have been a priority earlier.

Wait 10 years for what? I'm just saying they could be here for that long and be very successful. It gives us the luxury of being able to get shorter term options because we perhaps have the long term ones at the club already.
But nobody would be happier than me if we went out and bought a top class 23 year old who'll be ace for years. In the meantime, Keane would do a good job for us. Very much in the same way Saunders did.

By the time he's done and calls it a day, Gabby is in his prime, Fonz is established in his early 20s and hopefully taking the game by storm and we can look at who else we need again. Maybe Weimann has also stepped up.

The whole point of having this academy is to give it a chance to work for us after all.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

It's all down to where you do your shopping. Benfica bought Cardozo for £7.5m, Porto bought the Hulk for less than £6m (it was rumoured at the time we were interested in him), there are players out there, we just need to keep looking.

While I agree in principle that we need to broaden our horizons, we wouldn't have been able to sign either of those two players for work permit reasons.

I think we could have got Cardozo, probably on appeal, as he was awarded best player in Paraguay in 2006 and played in the 2007 Copa America. He may not have had sufficient caps but it was obvious to all he soon would.

You could be right about Hulk although Man Utd managed to sign Anderson from Porto even though he at the time wasn't a Brazilian international. I seem to remember that went to appeal.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Well i thought Keane looked like he "turned the clocks back" in the New York matches. as player of the tornament. His enthusiasm is strong and i think he would be a very effective addition .......

[Villatillidie25]

Get in there!!

http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,12874_6292853,00.html

Looking less and less likely that we are going to waster our money on this rubbish.

In terms of Keane; i think he would be a decent addition, offering something different with a little bit of an eye for goal. At 30 he can do a job for 3 years probably and I would like to think the Fonz will start to play a bigger role this season.

[Shrek]

Great news.. Mcgeady is on way to Moscow for talks with Spartak.

This is best news all summer!

[VillaZogmariner]

Great news.. Mcgeady is on way to Moscow for talks with Spartak.

This is best news all summer!

ITSOTP

[adrenachrome]

Aston Villa boss defends policy of doing summer transfer deals late in the window

Aug 3 2010 by Mathew Kendrick, Birmingham Mail


MARTIN O’Neill has defiantly defended his reputation for leaving signings until late in the transfer window, roaring: “I couldn’t care less what people think.”

Villa are yet to do any business this summer despite the new Premier League season being less than a fortnight away.

Half a dozen fringe players are still up for sale with Manchester City’s protracted move for midfielder James Milner also hanging in the balance.

O’Neill is working to bring in the reinforcements he feels the claret and blues need to challenge for the top four, domestic cups and Europa League.

And the Villa boss defended his policy of taking his time over signings – citing the success of Stephen Warnock, James Collins and Richard Dunne.

Warnock arrived after last season had already kicked off with Dunne and Collins joining on transfer deadline day.

Asked by the Birmingham Mail about his reputation for dithering in the transfer market, O’Neill replied: “Really, I’m not remotely interested.

“Honestly, I couldn’t care less whether I get unfairly criticised.

“What I will say is the business that we did in the last few days of August last year really made our season.

“Those three players coming in – Stephen Warnock and the two centre-backs – were absolutely supreme for us.

“It was so important to get those three players in, so personally if I had to wait until the last couple of days because of circumstances then I would.”

O’Neill is refusing to panic about the lack of arrivals or departures and, although he doesn’t like the transfer window, is happy to use every last minute of it to do the right deals.

“Those are the rules so you go by the rules and you run that length of time,” he added.

“That’s absolutely fine. It’s not a problem.”

O’Neill is still refusing to comment on Villa’s interest in Aiden McGeady amid reports that the Celtic winger is holding out for a move to Villa Park after rejecting a £9.5 million move to Spartak Moscow.