January Transfer Speculation (or lack of) Thread

[E I Adio]

Desperate journalism more like. His real name is Phil Space.

[john e]

'Lazy Journalism'  if i had a pound f................      oh i cant be bothered , to lazy

[Merv]

So.

Just a quick check of Villa news this morning and the first two things I read are:

Herd out for at least another month with ankle ligament damage.

Loan deal for Delph to go to Leeds.

Is it sensible to effectively be without two central midfielders for the next month or so? Our options there are getting thinner all the time, it seems - unless McLeish believes Gardener is ready to step up more significantly.

[garyshawsknee]

So.

Just a quick check of Villa news this morning and the first two things I read are:

Herd out for at least another month with ankle ligament damage.

Loan deal for Delph to go to Leeds.

Is it sensible to effectively be without two central midfielders for the next month or so? Our options there are getting thinner all the time, it seems - unless McLeish believes Gardener is ready to step up more significantly.

It only takes another injury and were pretty thing with midfielders,id keep him for now.

[Shrek]

I see the geordies are shelling out ten million on another striker who is away on African Nations duty.  Papiss Cisse, seems to have a decent record, albeit in the Bundesliga.  SSN claiming we were interested.

Good signing imo. Has a good goalscoring record in the Bundesliga like Demba Ba did and they play together for Senegal.

As much as I hate to say it, Newcastle have got to be some sort of role model for us, they weren't even in the prem two seasons ago!

They have the fan base though, we don't.

What difference does that make to the sort of players we sign?

They're not even spending that much money.

If Randy and Ashley do not want to put money in, then surely the fact they are getting 15-20k more fans every other week means they can afford to buy players cheap who are coming towards the end of their contracts, but still pay decent wages.

Is my logic wrong?

[Dave]

If Randy and Ashley do not want to put money in, then surely the fact they are getting 15-20k more fans every other week means they can afford to buy players cheap who are coming towards the end of their contracts, but still pay decent wages.

Is my logic wrong?

Pretty much.

We were able to find the money to sign Given, Hutton and N'Zogbia. We weren't forced to sign them over cheaper, better players.

[Merv]

Pardew got the job because he's casino mates with Ashley and Lambias, their CEO (who managed the casino they used).

They've done pretty well so far. It's hard to look at Ben Arfa, Tiote, Ba and Cabaye and not feel a certain amount of jealousy.

Newcastle are a funny one to call - like Risso, I'm wondering whether they've just got reasonably lucky or whether this part of a longer strategy beginning to pay off. The club have definitely stepped away from buying big name players on large salaries - it eventually cost them with relegation. What they've done instead is recruit the kind of players Paulie listed above - modestly priced, wages presumably well within budget, players hungry to succeed. It's working well for them so far.

Pardew's appointment was controversial and I'm not entirely sure he got the job purely for footballing reasons - connections played a huge part - then again, he did a good job at West Ham and seems to have got it just right at Newcastle.

[Concrete John]

He'd have fucked off that useless thunderclunge Warnock too.

And that other useless thunderclunge (excellent word, by the way!) Agbonglahor.

Houllier has his way, but he did fall out with three quarters of the one of the best PL defences when he arrived, that have since failed to regain their collective form.  I think Randy asked McLeish to try and get the best from them rather than write them off, as Gezza had done, when he arrived.  He's doing that, with good responses from Dunne and Ireland thus far.  Where we go from here in the summer will be interesting.

[Matt C]

Matt Kendrick reporting Delph loan to Leeds progressing.

[Concrete John]

As for Newcastle, I think we might be going a bit OTT on them and their 'master plan'.  Yes, they're trying a different approach and there are parts of that we can take on board, but apart from Ba's goals they'd be mid-table and we wouldn't even be talking about them.  And was that a master-stroke or a punt on an injured player that's paid off spectacularly?  He's 26, so if as good as he's seemed over this half season, why was he scratching around for a club and playing at West Ham?

The true test of any system is it's longevity and ability to produce good and consistent returns over a period of time.  So I look at the Swansea footballing philosophy, Ajax's accademy (and Villa's!) and Arsenal for true examples we can learn from.  If Newcastle are still doing the same thing in the same way and getting the same results in 5-10 years time then we can say it's something to copy, but after 6 months we can't be sure it's not just a fluke. 

[Greg N'Ash]

God, things must be bad when we're citing Newcastle as an example to follow. There's no mystery with them. For whatever reason the manager has clicked with the players and they're playing their hearts out for him. they've also got most of the carroll money still so the board there aren't splashing out compared to us

[pauliewalnuts]

I see the geordies are shelling out ten million on another striker who is away on African Nations duty.  Papiss Cisse, seems to have a decent record, albeit in the Bundesliga.  SSN claiming we were interested.

Good signing imo. Has a good goalscoring record in the Bundesliga like Demba Ba did and they play together for Senegal.

As much as I hate to say it, Newcastle have got to be some sort of role model for us, they weren't even in the prem two seasons ago!

They have the fan base though, we don't.

What difference does that make to the sort of players we sign?

They're not even spending that much money.

If Randy and Ashley do not want to put money in, then surely the fact they are getting 15-20k more fans every other week means they can afford to buy players cheap who are coming towards the end of their contracts, but still pay decent wages.

Is my logic wrong?

Yes

They're not buying particularly expensive players, certainly no more than the type of player we've bought in the past.

Tiote cost £3.5m
Cabaye £5m
Ben Arfa £6m
Ba was a free transfer

[pauliewalnuts]

As for Newcastle, I think we might be going a bit OTT on them and their 'master plan'.  Yes, they're trying a different approach and there are parts of that we can take on board, but apart from Ba's goals they'd be mid-table and we wouldn't even be talking about them.  And was that a master-stroke or a punt on an injured player that's paid off spectacularly?  He's 26, so if as good as he's seemed over this half season, why was he scratching around for a club and playing at West Ham?

Team in "if you took away their main source of goals, they wouldn't do as well" shocker ;-)

Newcastle are far from just about Ba. Look at their midfield for a start, very solid in the middle.

Also at the back, they're getting good performances out of Coloccini.

[Merv]

Not necessarily an example to follow per se (the question of luck has been present in just about every post about them) but they have started to rebuild themselves smartly from the disaster of three/four seasons ago. They overspent hugely on players and wages, and suffered as a result, but seem to have recruited smartly and can now invest (Cisse, £10m) when the right opportunity comes up.

If Villa follow the same path we're all hoping (hoping... might not be the case), we can continue to off-load the big earners at the top end of their careers during the summer and  begin to invest sensibly again.

[Greg N'Ash]

Big difference is, the newcastle board are operating a proper sell to buy policy. For example if we'd had the 15m Lerner pocketed last summer we could have signed all of newcastle's signings and still bought N'zog, Hutton and Given