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

[UsualSuspect]

Downing to stay with a pay rise

Sky Sports

[Concrete John]

Milner, Downing, Delph, Young, Gabby - old men, deadwood, or £80m down the drain?

Don't - you'll wake him from his slumber and he'll respond by talking about playing Carlos at RB.

[barrysleftfoot]

  I've always liked the look of the Swansea goalie tbh.Safe and secure, nothing spectacular.

  Tbf Eric was'nt too bad at RB , apart from 1 game, but i would try and sign Walker.Onohua, not at £8m tbh, i think the other young lad Boyata? looks a better prospect.

  I do think that we will spend a bit of money in the summer.

[Merv]

If we can drive City down to £5m for Onohua, fair enough. Athletic and got a bit of pace about him. He's the kind of CB we need - already got a couple of strong physical stoppers (Cuellar, Collins) and a footballing CB (Clark) so someone with pace would work.

I'd pursue Robinson, Walker and Enrique, plus a new CB to replace Dunne. Lichaj works as a back-up RB, Luke Young stays to cover both full-back positions, Baker further cover at CB and LB next season.

[VillaZogmariner]

If we cant get Walker, (and I'm confident we can) Bosingwa is out of contract in the summer.
Onuoha is a good player and an interesting proposition but only as a centre half who covers full back.
£8m seems a bit harsh but not ridiculously so. His game reminds me of Ugo.

Bosingwa has a 1 year extension clause in his contract which Chelsea are going to take up.

[JUAN PABLO]

MON would probably have got the best out of Bentley, but he'd have been another one who's attitude would have turned to shit as soon as he had to start grafting a bit under the new regime.

He's hardly pulled up any trees at Small Heath.

yeah like he got the best out of NRC , Luke Young etc

[Greg N'Ash]

And he's spot on.

No, he's changing the subject, as he often does, as we were talking about whether MON could or would have gotten more out of Bentley had he moved here.  So the reply to my specifically talking about the development of Milner, Ash and Gabby is 'John Gregory MKII'.

Hang on, you were the one that went from claiming MON's regime was like Stalag 9 and suddenly changed tack to stating he got results which has no bearing on whether it was strict or not frankly.

[enigma]

I'd take Onuoha even at £8m seeing as you're basically getting two players as he's equally comfortable at CB and RB. I was disappointed we didn't go for him last year.

[VillaZogmariner]

If Onuoha is available for anything under £8m I'd take him. As others have said, he is comfortable covering at centre back as well as on the right.

A "defensive squad" of Cuellar, Clark, Onuhoa, Walker, Collins, Baker, Lichaj would be good enough for me. Maybe even ditch Collins and bring a new Laursen or Mellberg in.

[Tom_Mc9?]

Maybe even ditch Collins and bring a new Laursen or Mellberg in.

Sounds simple enough.

[VillaZogmariner]

Maybe even ditch Collins and bring a new Laursen or Mellberg in.

Sounds simple enough.

I wish it was simple!

[john e]

how can we be linked with players when our mananger is ill, and we dont even know for sure who are manager will be next season ?

[Tom_Mc9?]

Me too! Whoever we get is surely going to be better than this season's defensive shambles.

[spangley1812]

how can we be linked with players when our mananger is ill, and we dont even know for sure who are manager will be next season ?

According to McAllister, GED is well enough to do office based work so Im sure that means working on targets for next season

[Matt Collins]

I didn't realise how good Bent's movement was til he joined. I think that to capitalise on this, we could really do with one or two players able to play really clever through balls to him. Downing could from time to time, moreso if he moves inside on occasion. Delph and Bannan are also capable if they play.

But I think that a real starname to either play in the number 10 position AY has been playing in (but properly) or if we move to 4-3-3 could either play wide or a little deeper in midfield.

The names I thought of were:
Keisuke Honda
Mathieu Valbuena
Yoann Gourcuff (a bit ambitious perhaps!)
Yossi Benayoun
Esteban Granero
Krankjar


For a direct wide player replacement for AY I'm still in the N'Zogbia, Dempsey camp.

I'd keep NRC and Petrov while we test if Makoun, Delph and Bannan are good enough.

I'd love to keep Walker, but Onouha is a good alternative who could play centre back. If we don't get Onouha I'd like to try Samba, R Johnson or maybe Spahic though I don't know much about him

 I'd keep Luke Young but get a left footer. Jose Enrique the best bet, otherwise Olsson though he's really attacking and might leave us suspect defensively.

I'd keep Friedel but get him some competition. Robinson the best bet, wouldn't take Green or the blues keeper.