January Transfer Speculation (or lack of) Thread

[Toronto Villa]

I'm calling it now - Liverpool to offer Carroll and cash for Bent.

That's what I've been told too by somebody who works with Villa in a scouting capacity.

Carroll & Shelvey & £15m for Bent.

That would make Bent worth something like £37-£40 million seeing they shelled out £35m+ for Carroll alone. Just can't see it at all. And the very last thing we need is another lazy waste of talent on our books. I'vbe still got a tiny bit of faith in Ireland one day coming good, but Carroll, given a great opportunity at one of Europe's biggest clubs would rather drink away his best years as opposed to applying himself to be the best he can be. No ta.

[Mazrim]

I'm calling it now - Liverpool to offer Carroll and cash for Bent.

That's what I've been told too by somebody who works with Villa in a scouting capacity.

Carroll & Shelvey & £15m for Bent.

That's quite an astonishingly unlikely deal.
Carroll was £35m (ridiculous) not so long ago. Shelvey I'm undecided on but is fairly highly rated or at least has been for a while... plus £15m?

I personally rate Carroll (and have for years) and think if used properly he could be a goal machine in this league but I'm loathe to lose Bent under any conceivable circumstances but I have to say this would be too good to refuse.

[Dante Lavelli]

I'm calling it now - Liverpool to offer Carroll and cash for Bent.

That's what I've been told too by somebody who works with Villa in a scouting capacity.

Carroll & Shelvey & £15m for Bent.

That's quite an astonishingly unlikely deal.
Carroll was £35m (ridiculous) not so long ago. Shelvey I'm undecided on but is fairly highly rated or at least has been for a while... plus £15m?

I personally rate Carroll (and have for years) and think if used properly he could be a goal machine in this league but I'm loathe to lose Bent under any conceivable circumstances but I have to say this would be too good to refuse.

I agree with Mazrim.  That offer is way too good to be true. 

I really rate Carroll and I think playing at a club of villa's stature would be perfect for him.  He'd play every week and would be able to get himself back into form and amongst the goals.  Watching him today he is still an absolute handful for central defenders and a menace in the air winning headers that he should not even get near. 

I do not think he would score as many as Bent over a season but he would be a better focal point than Bent allowing us to retain the ball better and he'd also help defensively with corners and the like.

[phantom limb]

If you put aside the fact that Carroll is a massive fat drunk who's probably scored about 2 goals for Liverpool since going there then this seems a great idea and nothing can possibly go wrong. We need someone to replace Heskey and he seems to have the requisite amount of big uselessness.

[KevinGage]

I remember when the deal was first announced and SSN had Tony Cantscoreino and Iain Dowie arse licking all things Redscouse.   

Dowie "Yeah, it's an astute bit of business by Liverpool, they've maybe overspent by about £10 million but..."

So not really very astute at all then.

It looked mental at the time, and I don't see why King Kenny should be different to any other manager. Get a decision like that wrong and your job should be on the line.

[VillaSpen]

Just watched the full 90 minutes of Liverpool's draw with Wigan in the company of a couple of plastic-scouse ex-pats. After seeing Carroll saunter about looking vaguely interested at best and not showing the least amount of remorse after the three sitters he missed I would be appalled at the thought of him coming in on the wages he earns. Plus, with our less than impressive delivery from wide areas of late he would be entirely pointless.

Let King Kenny put up with him.

[NeilH]

Given the policy of the club over the last six months I've virtually resigned myself to him going. My gut feeling says he's definitely off and if I were a betting man, I'd plump for Arsenal to add some support to Van Persie. He'd be the perfect goal-hanger to compliment Van Persie's graft and application.
As for replacements, well we can certainly forget getting anyone of his standard in again, those days are for now long gone.

[Phil from the upper holte]

I said to my mate I can't think of anything worse than gettin Caroll for Bent and he said I can not gettin a replacement, I paused and said isn't it the same thing??

It's a no and I would really fear for us on the goal front, were struggling now

[midnite]

I'd keep bent over Carroll any day. I fear if it does happen with carroll's size it'll be hoof football again.

Bent is a goal machine. Stats speak for themselves.

Apparently pienaar is up for sale... Now he is someone i'd like to see down villa park, feeding bent all day long

[Jimmy Smash]

At least if we had Carroll it would continue the Villa tradition of signing a great striker on paper who becomes inexplicably useless when pen is put to paper.

[Dave Clark Five]

Look around for someone who is already injured or injury prone. That is, historically, the type of player that we will buy.

[Greg N'Ash]

I don't think Carroll's coming. As others have said, it Lerner did sanction Bent's sale, it would be more likely he'd pocket half the money and buy a cheap replacement. That unfortunately seems to be the way things are going. I think its more likely he'll wait until at least the summer to offload Bent unless we get an unbelievable offer.

[Clampy]

We've needed a 20 goal a season striker for years and now we've got one, the last thing we should do is sell him. We should concentrate on getting him back to what he does best. Creating chances for him would be a start.

[pauliewalnuts]

We've needed a 20 goal a season striker for years and now we've got one, the last thing we should do is sell him. We should concentrate on getting him back to what he does best. Creating chances for him would be a start.

Well said.

Unfortunately, I don't trust the board not to cash in.

[Greg N'Ash]

We've needed a 20 goal a season striker for years and now we've got one, the last thing we should do is sell him. We should concentrate on getting him back to what he does best. Creating chances for him would be a start.

Agree totally, but is AM going to set us up in a way that suits Bent's talents? I could be wrong but i'm not sure he fancies him or put another way, if AM had that money GH had i don't think he would have bought Bent.