Summer transfer rumours, speculation and out-and-out b*ll*cks.

[Mazrim]

The aggressive royster doyster in me says, "forgetaboutit" and just throw caution to the wind.
Walker is fast enough to recover most times, I'd say get somebody like Gibbs to play the other flank and just go for it. Get a very mobile destroyer to protect the centre halves.
That way you move fluidly from a back 4 to a back 3 with the full backs joining midfield, like in Little's era.
It's all about flexibilty, pace and speed of thought.

[barrysleftfoot]

 You're right there Bentman.........you can't, imho have 2 aqttaqcking midfielders, like you can't have 2 attacking wide players unless the FBs and CMs are the right kind.

 When we won the Lge in 1980/81 we had Des Bremner, who was a solid hard working right sided , whilst we had Swain behind him, and Morley on the left.

  I think Spuds won't keep Naughton and Walker, 1 of them will go, and if we put a bid of about £5m for him i think we will get him.Be a good signing for that as well.

[barrysleftfoot]

  Not sure you could play Makoun then Mazrim.........certainly would'nt be able to play Bannan.

  The problem for us this year has been the fact that the midfield does'nt defend as well as last year.If we had FBs of Gibbs and Walker, and 2 wide players of Downing and Young/Albrighton, not sure we would have the necessary graft or defensive qualities.

[abc123cox]

i think yes a midfielder is a priority but an attacking midfielder then no....

we have Hogg and Petrov (if he stays) as defensive midfielders.

we have allbrighton and downing as wingers

we have Makoun and Delph as our box to box passing players and

we have Bannan and Johnson as our young attacking midfield options

out of all them i think our defensive midfield needs looking at, if we do keep Reo then i don't think we even need to improve their....

defence 4 is a priority and if we have any left in our kitty a good holding striker with a bit off skill i.e Ellmander. however would love to see Gabby given a bit of time alongside Bent!

all i an think off is defence, defence, defence!!!

[Dave Summers]

4-3-3 for me should be the way forward.

If we are presuming that Walker signs for us and Young disappears, then maybe something like this from the current players at the club?

Friedel

Walker
Cuellar
Clark
Young

Reo-Coker
Delph
Makoun

Albrighton
Bent
Downing

Gives us protection in midfield and would love to see us try it in the games left this season.

Of course am hoping for a new keeper, left back, Young to stay and possibly a new centre back as well.                                                   

[Matt Collins]

I like 433. But you need at least one gpalscoring midfielder. And the wide players need to act as much as strikers as wingers. On the former, certainly, we're weak. 

[Matt Collins]

We've been looking at him a few times. He's been great for them this season though he had an absolute shocker last night. He'll be expensive too but it will continue our run of signing the Scottish player of the year.

My concern is that should we sign Walker permanently how we could accommodate
two attacking fullbacks who are not the greatest
defensively.

Very inmportant issue for me . I think the future of football is attacking fullbacks with a lot of protection in central midfield. But we're trying to make the transition from a team that depended much more on the old fashioned values of solidity and, height and guts at the back, and hard work rather than any tactical sophistication in midfield. We've seen the consequences this season with a record number of goals shipped. Buying walker, a similar left back such as izaguirre or Figueroa, and playing Clark at centre back may fit with that fwd looking model but could see us ship even more. For a start, we'd only have one player who was good in the air for defending corners (the other centre back, and even there hardly faultless this year!). Under MON we normally had 5 (all 4 defenders plus Carew / heskey). A big big risk for me.

[Mister E]

If we play two intelligent flyers at FB and want two wingers to support a CF, the answer is to play Clark as the withdrawn MF player. He effectively becomes part of a back three when the FBs are attacking and plays in front of a back four when we're defending.
In that scenario, the midfield three would be a combo of Clark plus 2 from Makoun, Delph, Bannan, Johnson and Hogg. All of these midfielders can pass, defend and shoot.
Assuming Bent is the sole CF, variety would come from replacing one of the wingers with one of Gabby, Gardner and Weimann.

[D.boy]

Swain, Williams and Gibson all liked to get forward and that didn't do us any harm.

[VillaZogmariner]

We were being linked with Chris Brunt yesterday.

[BedsVillain]

We were being linked with Chris Brunt yesterday.

I know talk about kicking you when you're down!!

[Matt Collins]

Interesting that on the OS Mcallister is talking about downing playing in the middle. I can see this, I think he might be better then young there in fact because he is a better passer and retainer of the ball. We could then go for a wide player like N'Zogbia and that should in theory be pretty dangerous. A back up fwd as s replacement for heskey and retaining NRC would leave me pretty satisfied with the fwd and midfield options

[The Situation]

I tell you who we should sign in the summer...



Would love to have him back at the Villa. If West Ham didn't have him they'd be down already. How West Ham signed him I do not know.

[Summers]

I fully agree. I'd love Hitz back. He's a much improved player since he left.

[andyh]

Interesting that on the OS Mcallister is talking about downing playing in the middle. I can see this, I think he might be better then young there in fact because he is a better passer and retainer of the ball. We could then go for a wide player like N'Zogbia and that should in theory be pretty dangerous. A back up fwd as s replacement for heskey and retaining NRC would leave me pretty satisfied with the fwd and midfield options

I couldn't give a flying fuck what Mcallister says.
Hopefully that twat won't have the slightest thing to do with our club next season.