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

[LeeB]

etherington is shite as far as i'm concerned. 9 assists in stoke's hoof ball style? well i think that would tell us how AM intends to play if it happened to be true.

That'll do for me, sign him now.

[eastie]

Mirror exclusive saying mcleish preparing to fly to Madrid in hope of signing canales from real on a season long loan- exciting attacking midfielder , would be good if it came off.

[paul_e]

Etherington would be a terrible signing in my opinion.  He's 30 now and is exactly the type of signing that was being made by MON which has led to us having a huge wage bill and no one to sell who'll bring in decent money other than our star players.  This is exactly the trap Gregory fell into as well.  Regardless of his ability he's 4-5 years too old for us to go for him.

Early 20s so they have some resale value should be our target market for the time being unless it's a player that will make a huge improvement to us.  I think the same of given as well, the only argument I can see in favour of Given is that we think siegrist will be ready in 1-2 years and we just need someone to tick us over in the meantime.

[PaulTheVillan]

Etherington would be a good addition to the squad aslong as he doesn't cost that much.

[Matt C]

This sounds a good one (if true of course)

http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/transfer-news/Aston-Villa-Real-Madrid-midfield-starlet-Sergio-Canales-target-for-season-long-loan-also-wanted-by-Everton-article753626.html?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

I'd like it to be true, but a very good Spanish U-21 player coming to England to get game time doesn't ring true to me. Wouldn't he be better off playing in Spain?

Maybe Madrid don't want him going to another competing domestic club.

[Clampy]

Mirror exclusive saying mcleish preparing to fly to Madrid in hope of signing canales from real on a season long loan- exciting attacking midfielder , would be good if it came off.

Nah, can't see that happening.

It would'nt surprise me if there was something in this Etherington story. It might explain where Stoke have got the cash from to bid silly amounts for average Small Heath players.

[paul_e]

Mirror exclusive saying mcleish preparing to fly to Madrid in hope of signing canales from real on a season long loan- exciting attacking midfielder , would be good if it came off.

Nah, can't see that happening.

It would'nt surprise me if there was something in this Etherington story. It might explain where Stoke have got the cash from to bid silly amounts for average Small Heath players.

Neither of the palyers they've bid for are average, Dann is a very good defender and Jerome is a waste of space, between them they probably make up 2 average signings, with Jerome dragging things right down.

[Mazrim]

Etherington isnt a bad player but hardly inspiring either. And that's what we need right now.
I'd much rather take a punt on a young player like Chamberlain.

[PaulTheVillan]

I'm not totally convinced some of these younger 'superstars' from the lower leagues are better than what we've got.

Victor Moses was hyped up & he's hardly played for Wigan.

[MoetVillan]

Southampton have delivered the goods in youth recently though, Bale and Walcott spring to mind.  My mother in law is a Saints fan, and says Chamberlain is just as good.  (Although she is trying to play it down, she says she is sick of the top players they develop leaving each season)

[oldtimernow]

Southampton have delivered the goods in youth recently though, Bale and Walcott spring to mind.  My mother in law is a Saints fan, and says Chamberlain is just as good.  (Although she is trying to play it down, she says she is sick of the top players they develop leaving each season)

Now where have i heard that before?

[*shellac*]

(Although she is trying to play it down, she says she is sick of the top players they develop leaving each season)

We understand.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Etherington isnt a bad player but hardly inspiring either. And that's what we need right now.
I'd much rather take a punt on a young player like Chamberlain.

Still got a feeling that we're going to morph into The Dog Shit mk2, I think we'll be signing the sort of crud he signed for them.

[cb]

If we go for Etherington and Given, then that for me is the final nail in the coffin of our ambition as a club. I can take the signing and development of young up and coming players only to lose them to the big boys for a massive profit, so long as those profits are reinvested again in youth and there is some semblance of a plan for someday outgrowing this strategy and becoming a big fish ourselves, but to go through one cycle of this with Milner, Young and Downing, only to then piss away the proceeds on players whose best is clearly behind them, is just not something I can support. We need to be signing players in their early-mid twenties, not players like Given and Etherington, who while they may well be good players, simply do not match the profile of player we should be looking at. Should these be our signings then it will only confirm to me that McLeish is not up to the job of being our manager.

[willywombat]

Fletch, did he sign Johnson, Dann,Foster, Hleb, Gardner & Larsson or did Fist-face bring any of those in? Reason I'm asking is because all of those would improve our squad