January Transfer Speculation (or lack of) Thread

[TheSandman]

I'd rather morph Gabby and Bent together.

What a fucking player that would make!

[SoccerHQ]

He has the talent Maz I agree, and I think he could do well in the wide roles behind Bent or Gabby. Although 6 months at Wigan or Bolton playing up front might do him a lot of good.

Yeah I'd go with that. He really needs to play week in week out which won't happen here so loaning him out is the best bet. Think he's better dropping deep as he does that for the under 21s quite well. I've always liked to have seen how him and Gabby would combine.

[Mazrim]

I'm not ready to give up on Fonz yet. Or Weimann for that matter.

Agree re. Weimann. But Delfouneso has had enough chances. If he was going to make it, he would have done so by now. If he achieves as much as Luke Moore, he will have done well.

Completely disagree. He hasn't had enough chances and only in these days of mass information do we write off 20 year old England U21 strikers who have had sporadic first team appearances. 10 years ago, many fans would have scarcely heard of them, never mind already given up on them.

Fonz might not make it but he hasn't had enough exposure to first team football yet to prove it by my reckoning.
And when he does get a chance it's like the clock is ticking and he has to do something special in the 10 or 20 minutes he might have to prove himself or be looked over for another month or so.

I regret that Heskey, a striker with hardly any goal scoring ability has had the gametime that Fonz, a striker who potentially has a lot of goal scoring ability should have had to really show is if he can or can not cope.

[Villanation]

I'm not ready to give up on Fonz yet. Or Weimann for that matter.

Agree re. Weimann. But Delfouneso has had enough chances. If he was going to make it, he would have done so by now. If he achieves as much as Luke Moore, he will have done well.

Completely disagree. He hasn't had enough chances and only in these days of mass information do we write off 20 year old England U21 strikers who have had sporadic first team appearances. 10 years ago, many fans would have scarcely heard of them, never mind already given up on them.

Fonz might not make it but he hasn't had enough exposure to first team football yet to prove it by my reckoning.
And when he does get a chance it's like the clock is ticking and he has to do something special in the 10 or 20 minutes he might have to prove himself or be looked over for another month or so.

I regret that Heskey, a striker with hardly any goal scoring ability has had the gametime that Fonz, a striker who potentially has a lot of goal scoring ability should have had to really show is if he can or can not cope.

I think he needs 5 or 6 starts on the trot, if we gave DB a rest, now maybe a good time, then we will see what he has.

[paul_e]

I really is shocking how many people are willing to write the fonz off.

He's 20 (turns 21 next month) so is still younger than many players come through at.

A quick scan shows 20 starts and 38 subs appearances with a return of 10 goals.  Given most of those subs appearances have been 10-15mins at most his record is good enough to deserve a chance to have a run of games, half hour from the bench or the odd start.  Until he's had 7-8games of 30mins+ in the team can we judge him.

I'd have thought people would've learned after all the writing off of Guzan over the last 18months.

As for Keane I don't see the value to it if, as reported, we're having to pay 750k.  I just don't see him having enough impact to justify that.  He was a great player a few years back but he's lost half a yard of pace and hasn't been able to adapt his game to make up for it.

[garyshawsknee]

I'm not ready to give up on Fonz yet. Or Weimann for that matter.

Agree re. Weimann. But Delfouneso has had enough chances. If he was going to make it, he would have done so by now. If he achieves as much as Luke Moore, he will have done well.

Completely disagree. He hasn't had enough chances and only in these days of mass information do we write off 20 year old England U21 strikers who have had sporadic first team appearances. 10 years ago, many fans would have scarcely heard of them, never mind already given up on them.

Fonz might not make it but he hasn't had enough exposure to first team football yet to prove it by my reckoning.
And when he does get a chance it's like the clock is ticking and he has to do something special in the 10 or 20 minutes he might have to prove himself or be looked over for another month or so.

I regret that Heskey, a striker with hardly any goal scoring ability has had the gametime that Fonz, a striker who potentially has a lot of goal scoring ability should have had to really show is if he can or can not cope.

I think he needs 5 or 6 starts on the trot, if we gave DB a rest, now maybe a good time, then we will see what he has.

All Emile does now when he plays is picks up knocks,Fonz or Weimann should be the first pick off the bench,i really hope its the last we see of Emile in a Villa shirt,as I don't think he'd get near most of Premier teams starting line up.

[supertom]

In our system, where does Keane play? McLeish doesn't seem to know his best system by any stretch. He's flitting between a 4-4-2 and a 4-3-3 and slight variants. For me Keane would play as a second striker, just off Benty. So we'd be best playing a 4-4-1-1 to fit him in. But that would mean dropping Ireland just as he's coming good.

Or, we play Keane in place of Bent.

Or Keane wide left, where he's played before, but not as effectively as he can. But that means dropping either Gabby or Bent, or possibly dropping two of Zog, Alby and Ireland.

Do we bring him in as a bench option? That's no good for him, not that good for us. Again, as mentioned, we have Wiemann and Fonz who need the chance to prove themselves.
 
Saying that, we don't have a front man who can link midfield and attack. Keane can do that. In truth though, I'm not a fan of these two month loan deals. What if he comes in and sets the world a light, then we have to re-adjust our system again once he's gone?

[eamonn]

I'd be happy if we got rid of Emile this month and forego any transfer fee (he's out of contract in the summer anyway). With Keane til March and then Fonz and Weimann covering the two main men, and Ireland starting to look like the quality ''in the hole'' player he used to be, we should be sorted.

And I'm pro-Fonz. Mazrim summed it up well, every time the kid gets a brief start or sub appearance he seems to be judged harsher than any other players. We're not a side that create bundles of chances as Bent will testify and the only sitters I remember Delfouenso missing were on his full debut at Fulham last season. He made up for that with a goal against Blackpool a few nights later which I believe was his last start until the Liverpool game before Christmas.

About exactly a year ago when we drew 1-1 at the Sty he nearly won the game with a fantastic bit of skill. He turned on a sixpence and struck an audacious strike from 30 yards out or more which crashed against the bar with Foster well-beaten. Most of you have probably forgotten it. Can't help thinking that had that gone in his Villa career would have blossomed. It still can in my opinion but unfortunately I don't think there's many left that believe in him. He has to perform extra-special to keep out Gabby and Bent but he must get pissed off when Bent contributes little (i.e in games he doesn't score).

[Matt C]

As old Emile is now injured (again) for 'three to four weeks' according to McLeish then I'd say any slim chances of him leaving in January are gone. He'll be here until the summer when he'll move on to the last move of his career, presumably.

[Jimmy Smash]

Hell hang around til he contract runs out. No one is going to pay him any near as much as he gets at Villa.

[CJ]

I wouldn't be remotely surprised if AM gives him an extended contract. Horrifying thought.

[Fernando Partridge]

Let us re sign Juan Pablo Angel!!

[Bad English]

Let us re sign Juan Pablo Angel!!

Just read that he was booted out of his last club to make way for Robbie Keane.

[Summers]

He was traded to Chivas. He scored 7 goals in 9 appearances for 'em. He only scored 3 in 22 for Galaxy.

[Fernando Partridge]

He was awesome @ the NewYorkRedBulls!