January Transfer Window - Rumours, Links, B*llsh*t and Made-Up Nonsense

[pauliewalnuts]

From the Current Bun -

GERARD HOULLIER admits you would have to be blind not to see that Aston Villa must sign new players in January.
But the Villa boss says the new buys may not include a striker - despite his side failing to score in 344 minutes of league action.
He said: "If we spot a good international player who can add something, we'll take him.
"We need to bring some players in and will have one or two coming in January. Will it be up front? Not necessarily.
"I don't like January windows but you need to be blind not to see there are areas where we're not blessed with numbers."

I hope he's just playing his cards close to his chest with that striker bit.

The midfield isn't right, but up front, we're barely existent.

[Concrete John]

When is Gabby due back?

If he's going through a process of evaluating the squad then what we do or do not need upfront will largely be dependent on our 1st choice striker, who he's barely seen yet!

[Mazrim]

A rejuvenated Heskey, a fit again Gabby and the great promise of Delfouneso (and fit a again Weimann) I think we need one more (top) striker as Carew looks like he needs another challenge but its nowhere near as desperate as the central midfield situation.

Still, I can quite easily see a new striker coming in with Carew heading out.

[PeterWithe]

Stoke can have Davies. £3m doesn't seem a lot but he's hardly played and I'm not sure if he's going to get near the team with Dunne, Collins, Cuellar & Clark.

Isn't his contract up soon, if so I'd be surprised if we got that much for him. He didn't play for Leicester at the weekend, dropped already?

[Concrete John]

I'd agree with Mazrim - Carew out and one in seems to be the likely scenario.

However, Heskey is no spring chicken and it's still uncertain how good Weimann or Delfouneso will be.  Plus can either of them play as a lone striker, which seems to be Houllier's preferred formation so far?

[PaulTheVillan]

Stoke can have Davies. £3m doesn't seem a lot but he's hardly played and I'm not sure if he's going to get near the team with Dunne, Collins, Cuellar & Clark.

Isn't his contract up soon, if so I'd be surprised if we got that much for him. He didn't play for Leicester at the weekend, dropped already?

If his contract is up then I'd take £3m for him.

[pauliewalnuts]

Stoke can have Davies. £3m doesn't seem a lot but he's hardly played and I'm not sure if he's going to get near the team with Dunne, Collins, Cuellar & Clark.

Isn't his contract up soon, if so I'd be surprised if we got that much for him. He didn't play for Leicester at the weekend, dropped already?

He was injured, apparently.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Obviously Mac and Houllier have spotted that the Fonz cannot cut it at this level. And the fact he played Ireland and Ash up front confirms that. So that Leaves Carew, Heskey and Gabby. Carew has had his day so we effectively need two strikers. One in jan to give us a fresh start and that backed up by two match changing midfielders. One defensive the other a box to box type power house. Hopefully Ireland will step up his game and bring competition to the squad .............

[Mazrim]

A team/squad for the second half of the season?

---------------------Friedel

------------Collins----------Cuellar
Young-----------------------------------Warnock

-------------Muntari--------Diarra

Downing----------Ireland------------Young

---------------------Hoarau

Guzan, Dunne, Clark, Delph, Albrighton, Agbonlahor, Heskey
Beye, Lichaj, Bannan, Reo Coker, Petrov, Weimann, Delfouneso

Out: Davies, Carew, Sidwell (circa £8m).

Just goes to show. A few names in and some of our injured players back and things start to look a lot rosier.

[VillaZogmariner]

As it stands, on Jan 1st we'll have a 1st team squad of -

Friedel
Guzan
Marshall*

Young
Beye

Warnock
Lichaj*

Dunne
Collins
Cuellar
Clark
Davies*

Downing
Albrighton
Bannan

Reo-Coker
Petrov
Sidwell
Delph*
Salifou*
Osbourne*

Ireland
Young

Agbonlahor
Heskey
Carew
Delfouenso*
Wiemann*

Now taking out the * players who are either out long term, or hardly get a look in, that leaves us with a squad of 20, so selling players in January should be the very last of our choices. So what if we could lose Carew and Sidwell in the summer for nothing, we'll be lucky to get 1m each for them as it is, so is it worth reducing our squad even more?

For me I think we need a Defensive "Quarterback" (L. Diarra) and a striker (Insert fancy foreigner here) this January just to tide us over until the Summer when we can carry out a more detailed and in depth disection of the squad.

[Concrete John]

If it's the transitional season everyone thinks it is, then I'd accept a lessening of numbers in Jan if it allowed us to free up space on the wagebill so we could do our proper recruiting in the summer.

DCM and striker are the priorities, but I'd be happy enough waiting until the summer for one of those.   

[KevinGage]

A team/squad for the second half of the season?

---------------------Friedel

------------Collins----------Cuellar
Young-----------------------------------Warnock

-------------Muntari--------Diarra

Downing----------Ireland------------Young

---------------------Hoarau

Guzan, Dunne, Clark, Delph, Albrighton, Agbonlahor, Heskey
Beye, Lichaj, Bannan, Reo Coker, Petrov, Weimann, Delfouneso

Out: Davies, Carew, Sidwell (circa £8m).

Just goes to show. A few names in and some of our injured players back and things start to look a lot rosier.

Like the look of that line up (which Diarra, BTW?) but I don't think many of them will be available in Jan. Possibly Muntari, if he's not getting game time at Inter.

But at that stage we could be ensconced in mid-table and looking unlikely to move higher, and I'm pretty sure he'll have offers from clubs looking to win trophies and compete. This season - at least- I don't think that will be us.

Any business we do this Jan will probably be short-term, Owen/ RSC and the like. I'd hope for better but TBH those two would be an improvement on what we have. We'd just have to hope that Bodymoor Heath is well stocked with bionic implants to get them through more than a handful of games at a time without breaking down.

[Mazrim]

Lassana, preferably but more likely Mahmadou.

[Quiet Lion]

0.001% Chance we get Lassana

[Matt C]

At least one if not two strikers in and we should send the Fonz out on loan; absolutely pointless him spending another season in our reserves if we're not going to use him - and based on initial indications, we're not. I'd rather see him spend six months in the Championship playing regularly.