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

[Mister E]

Thats an awful squad on last season's form. You've got to hope the likes of Dunne, Collins, Warnock re-discover the art of defending - A BIG ASK.  You've got to hope the youth players all mature and surprise us - A BIG ASK.. You've gotta hope Ireland gets un-mad - A BIG ASK. You've got to hope we stay injury free and we don't lose someone like Bent for a month - A BIG ASK.

I applaud your optimism but we are up shit creek without a paddle.

Well you say that, Greg, but was last season the 'trend' or a one-off?
- have Dunne, Warnock & Collins become crap or was last season a 'blip' in their career performances? Common sense would argue that last season was a blip, since good players don't suddenly become crap.
- we haven't seen the best of Makoun yet.
- by their very nature, youth players mature. Not all will make it of course, but if we get 3 good first-team squad players out of Herd, Hogg, Lowry, Baker, Gardner, Bannan, Defouneso and Weimann this season, then that's cool. I'm assuming that AlB, Clark and Delph are already in that category.
- Ireland? I agree that the question of his madness is unanswerable right now!
- Injuries? Always a risk but I regard last season's injury-glut as unusual.
- Losing Bent to injury: Yes, possible although his career to date has been blessed with good fitness. Gabby can play up top in a 4-5-1 very adequately.

It's not all rosy in the garden for sure, but it ain't doom and gloom either. We do need to bring in reinforcements IMHO but this will not happen until the transfer market warms up a little (Only MU, L'pool and Sunderland have really done any trading; long way to go yet). I'd expect an FB and additional wide man (in addition to CNZ) before the season-start.

Everyone seems to be painting the extreme scenarios on here right now. I just don't think we're in wrist-slitting territory yet.

[Merv]

Hmmmm. Well, it's definitely kicked off overnight; no idea where this leaves us but my feeling of unease continues.

I'm not expecting a huge influx of players but at the absolute minimum we need one wide player, at least one new full-back (at the moment we're gambling on Warnock to stop sulking/come good and Luke Young to stay injury free, something he hasn't done consistently for a couple of years), and one central midfielder (our midfield really worries me at present).

[Concrete John]

Thanks John M!  So if you were AM then whats the convincing pitch in selling Villa to the Zog!

Ring ring.

"Charlie?  It's Alex Mcleish here.  How does £60k a week and £1m signing on bonus sound?"

[Greg N'Ash]

Dunne was shit most of the time at Citeh - thats why they got rid.. He's also not getting any younger or slimmer probably. Collins is erratic at best. Warnock was bobbins before GH arrived so blaiming his form on GH is wishful thinking to say the least. Petrov struggles to last 90 minutes anymore. I really think we'll struggle to stay up with injuries and lets face it we don't need last years injury list to be down to the bare bones - we already are. The only upside is the youth players as i think some of them could step up this season but really again thats just hope.

[Concrete John]

OK, say we get N'Zogbia, how are we looking?  Presuming we play 4-5-1 as per most of last season:-

Given

Young
Dunne
Collins
Warnock

Petrov
Makoun

Albrighton
Ireland
N'Zogbia

Bent

That's not nearly as bad as some are making out.  Given AM's defensive traits I'd expect him to make us pretty solid as there is talent in that back line.  I think we'd need to monitor Petrov closely and if a game is truning against us, get fresh legs on for him in the shape of Delph.  Obviously a big question mark over Ireland, but if he does get his head straight that's quite an exciting front 4.

Thats an awful squad on last season's form. You've got to hope the likes of Dunne, Collins, Warnock re-discover the art of defending - A BIG ASK.  You've got to hope the youth players all mature and surprise us - A BIG ASK.. You've gotta hope Ireland gets un-mad - A BIG ASK. You've got to hope we stay injury free and we don't lose someone like Bent for a month - A BIG ASK.

I applaud your optimism but we are up shit creek without a paddle.

In realtion to the defence, then you may have a point.  But last seasons form for Albrighton (goals/assists per minutes on pirch similar to Downing), N'Zogbia (more goals than any of our wingers in a poorer side) and Bent (don't think I need to explain that one) was excellent.  And I expect Mcleish to sort the defence out as that seems to be his strength as a manager. 

But, as I've said before, the centre of the park does worry me.  Hopefully he'll have a good look over the next few weeks and agree with me, which will mean an extra one coming in.   

[eastie]

If you're Aston Villa and you're after a Wigan player, do you need a pitch?

Apparently, he's quite keen to come anyway.

martinez didnt fancy it ,nzogbia may well be better seeing out his deal and having his pick of clubs on a free-i still fear his wage demands could scupper a move here too.

[Mister E]

If you're Aston Villa and you're after a Wigan player, do you need a pitch?

Apparently, he's quite keen to come anyway.

martinez didnt fancy it ,nzogbia may well be better seeing out his deal and having his pick of clubs on a free-i still fear his wage demands could scupper a move here too.

But it's been said several times above, Wigan cannot afford for him to run his contract down!

[Mazrim]

Nothing McLeish has said seems unreasonable to me. 

I think there is certainly untapped talent at the Club and I also think we have some of the most promising finest young players in the Country.  We don't need to be spending 20 million on potential, we've got plenty developing nicely ourselves and for that i'm sure we are the envy of alot of Clubs.

I'm actually relieved that he's taking stock of the current squad, looking at what we've got and seeking to add one or two quality additions where we need to - makes perfect sense to me.

Which of our youngsters would realistically have a chance of playing at a top 6 club?  Albrighton maybe, if he keeps developing, and possibly Clark in a year or two.  That's it.

I disagree. All of the following players I think have a good or better chance of being competent to top players in this league over the next few years IF they get the right amount of exposure to first team football and yes, that bit of luck we all need:
Delph, Gardner, Albrighton, Clark, Williams, Delfouneso, Johnson,  Bannan, Carruthers, Weimann, Seigrist.
And behind them in the 16-17 age group there are at least 4 that are very, very promising. But I've not seen them much yet, just exciting reports from the right people.

Our youth set up is superb and will lay some golden eggs pretty soon. We have to give it a chance though.

[Mazrim]

If you're Aston Villa and you're after a Wigan player, do you need a pitch?

Didn't work when we were after a Wigan manager.

We dont need to do this again do we?
He wasn't offered the job and had already agreed to stay at Wigan.

[Concrete John]

I'm not expecting a huge influx of players but at the absolute minimum we need one wide player, at least one new full-back (at the moment we're gambling on Warnock to stop sulking/come good and Luke Young to stay injury free, something he hasn't done consistently for a couple of years), and one central midfielder (our midfield really worries me at present).

Well, he's said one more is coming in and we'd expect that to be a wide player in the shape of N'Zogbia.  I also think another FB would be useful, but I think it's right he has a look first to see what he's got, so can decide if it's a LB, RB or just a back up player that's needed.  And fully agree on the midfielder - just can't see any of our present squad stepping up enough to fill that void to the level we need.

[eastie]

Dunne was shit most of the time at Citeh - thats why they got rid.. He's also not getting any younger or slimmer probably. Collins is erratic at best. Warnock was bobbins before GH arrived so blaiming his form on GH is wishful thinking to say the least. Petrov struggles to last 90 minutes anymore. I really think we'll struggle to stay up with injuries and lets face it we don't need last years injury list to be down to the bare bones - we already are. The only upside is the youth players as i think some of them could step up this season but really again thats just hope.

dunne was player of the year in 2 of his last 3  seasons there and was loved by fans, hardly shit greg!
would you spend an extra £30m in the hope of getting to 6th and an extra £3m in prize money thereby losing £27m?

i wish we had an owner splashing millions but randys dream appears over and realism has set in.

one wide man coming in is ok as i doubt we will use 2 wingers in any case, and makoun on signing did say he is very effective as a defensive midfielder and can play either midfield role,

[eastie]

If you're Aston Villa and you're after a Wigan player, do you need a pitch?

Apparently, he's quite keen to come anyway.

martinez didnt fancy it ,nzogbia may well be better seeing out his deal and having his pick of clubs on a free-i still fear his wage demands could scupper a move here too.

But it's been said several times above, Wigan cannot afford for him to run his contract down!

wigan cannot force him to leave either,he hasnt asked to leave and in a year would have many better options as a free and probably would make more money.

Due to our finances surely keeping cuellar makes more sense than selling for £2m?

[Risso]

If you're Aston Villa and you're after a Wigan player, do you need a pitch?

Didn't work when we were after a Wigan manager.

We dont need to do this again do we?
He wasn't offered the job and had already agreed to stay at Wigan.

He didn't want to talk to us about the job, even though we asked for permssion to speak to him.  We're not a big draw anymore.

[Mister E]

Dunne was shit most of the time at Citeh - thats why they got rid.. He's also not getting any younger or slimmer probably. Collins is erratic at best. Warnock was bobbins before GH arrived so blaiming his form on GH is wishful thinking to say the least. Petrov struggles to last 90 minutes anymore. I really think we'll struggle to stay up with injuries and lets face it we don't need last years injury list to be down to the bare bones - we already are. The only upside is the youth players as i think some of them could step up this season but really again thats just hope.

- Dunne was Citeh's player of the year at least 2ce in his last 3 years. He was shit last season because he started unfit, no one seemed to get on his case about it and GHou / GMac pissed him off.
- Collins is erratic; he needs managing and a decent defensive coach.
- Warnock: yes, but he is not de facto "crap": he's shown previously in his career (most recently when he was picked to go to the WC in 2010) that he can play.
- Petrov is a 60 minute man: as long as this is recognised and suitable subbs put on the bench to play out the game, that's okay. Petrov's contribution to games is under-rated on this site; he's an influential player.
- don't know why you think we'll be injury-susceptible next season ...

[charleeco7]

I took his comments to mean we will have one MAJOR signing such Nzogbia, then one or two at a couple of million. Im guessing he's got £12-13 million to spend plus whatever else he can generate through sales, which is why we dont want to pay more than the £9 million.

It will still leave us lightweight though.