January Transfer Speculation (or lack of) Thread

[old man villa fan]

I'm amazed at people trying to talk a quality goal scorer out of the club.  Is it because these people think he might be on his way because we are now a 'selling' club (according to some) and so want to get in first by saying he is rubbish anyway.

Some are saying on the one hand that the only thing he does is score goals and the on the other, we are not creating chances.  It seems pretty simple to me, change your style and create those chances.  We created those chances for him last season but I hear some of you say "but we have lost Young and Downing" which is true but if you look where on the pitch those chances were created from, it was not generally from a player going down the wing and crossing the ball, many were from the ball being slid through to him on the ground from deeper positions.  Albrighton and N'Zogbia are not doing this and the other midfield players are playing too deep to do it.

If I was selecting the team I would play Bent and Gabby up front, play 3 across the middle (with only one of the wide players), with one behind them.  The trouble is we are so used to (and so are the opposition) playing 4-4-2 with 2 wide players that we seem to have lost how to play the ball around in the middle of the park.

Back to Bent, if we are not creating chances for him, surely it would be the same if we brought somebody else in.  The answer has to be, play in a way that creates more chances.  I am not sure what Bent's strike rate in the PL is, 1 in 3?  Considering he has taken penalties in the past, this would probably make it nearer 1 in 4 from open play.  Are we currently creating this many chances for him alone - no, we are actually struggling to create this many chances in total.

Bent is not the best at holding the ball up but he is good at laying the ball off first time when it is played to him, providing he has players either along side him or supporting closely from behind.  Do we do this, no we do not.

So we have a quality goal scorer and a player that can lay the ball off well, two attributes you need in a top PL striker but we are not creating enough chances for him or playing the ball into him in the best way.  It is no wonder we are not getting his career strike rate out of him this season.  It would seem that we would prefer to have a Heskey that holds the ball up well (when he is not falling down!) and brings others into play but at a snails pace by which time the opposition defence has got itself set.  It is little wonder somebody like Ireland is struggling to fit in (attitude excluded).

[PaulTheVillan]

Does anyone have any idea of how much we have reduced the wage bill per week, by?
Who are still the high earners ?  Heskey, Beye, Collins, Dunne, Petrov, Warnock & BENT?

OK - lets try and work this out starting from last summer when Milner went and excluding loans:-

Out
Milner - £60k
Shorey - £40k
NRC - £50k
Downing - £60k
A Young - £60k
Davies - £40k
Sidwell - £50k
Freidel - £50k
L Young - £50k
Have I forgotten anyone?
Total - £450k a week

In
Ireland - £60k (heard he acceopted Milner's wages)
Bent - £80k
Hutton - £40k
Given - £60k
N'Zogbia - £60k
Total - £240k

So I make it an almost £11m a year saving from where we were during our wages height under MON

Pires.

[Ian.]

Sell Bent ?. FFS        only score scores       FFS

He's not scoring, he isn't contributing anything. Without Gabby this season we would be bottom.

For such a good goal scorer, there is a reason he has never made it at a top 6 club.

Yes we should keep him. But only if Alex Mcleish is going to change the way he plays, otherwise we may aswell cash in and get a hoof ball specialist.

He can't score if he is not playing or his service has dried up. We have tried adapting so if continue to do so and the service comes he will be notching regularly again.
We are not a top 6 team anymore and Bent is as good as we are going to get at the moment. I'm happy we have him and he could be the very reason we have a good second half to this season.

[Risso]

Those who wouldnt be too bothered if we sold Bent - where do they think our goals are going to come from?

Exactly.  It's not like the cash would be reinvested in anybody as good is it?

[PaulTheVillan]

Those who wouldnt be too bothered if we sold Bent - where do they think our goals are going to come from?

Exactly.  It's not like the cash would be reinvested in anybody as good is it?

Carlton Cole.

[Nastylee]

I really do detest the modern day football fan. Idiotic fools!

[tarzansbrother]

Sorry to ask but will we get money from the the Cahill to Chelsea move? £2m increase so £1m to villa if they got a 50% sell on. May allow funds to agree a loan deal of decent quality.

[JUAN PABLO]

MON still calling Henry , Terry 

[Dave]

Sorry to ask but will we get money from the the Cahill to Chelsea move? £2m increase so £1m to villa if they got a 50% sell on. May allow funds to agree a loan deal of decent quality.

Apparently we have 15% of anything over the £5m they originally paid.

[Risso]

Sorry to ask but will we get money from the the Cahill to Chelsea move? £2m increase so £1m to villa if they got a 50% sell on. May allow funds to agree a loan deal of decent quality.

Apparently we have 15% of anything over the £5m they originally paid.

Won't be much if anything then, as he's in the last year of his contract isn't he?

[Dave]

Nope, not much at all.

[Concrete John]

I heard £7m mentioned this morning, so that's £300,000 to us, which amounts to feck all in the modern game!

[Mazrim]

I just find it hard to believe Chelsea think he's good enough for a title chasing team.

[Karl Bridges]

Sorry to ask but will we get money from the the Cahill to Chelsea move? £2m increase so £1m to villa if they got a 50% sell on. May allow funds to agree a loan deal of decent quality.

Enough to pay Heskey for 5 weeks.

[Greg N'Ash]

7m for Cahill is an absolute steal. With quality players around him he'll go on and probably replace Terry as England captain.

Meanwhile in downtown Amangsett the early morning peace is shattered by the sound of "DOH!" coming from one of the local mansions