Summer Transfer Thread: Speculation, Lies, Absolute Cr*p and Bosman Rumours

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Heskey has been such a dissapointing player for us, and such a dissappointing player in general. If a guy like him is still hauling himself around the Premiership next season it will be a sad indictment of the league.

Lest we forget, he's cost us (so far) a total of £11.3m in transfer fee and wages.
For that we've had 9 goals in 83 appearances.

Fair exchange and no robbery.

I reckon it's cost us something like £14m thus far. £3.5m transfer fee, signing fee plus wages in the region of £10m. It really makes me quite angry.

If you're right, that's nearly £1.5m per goal. Incredible.

This paragraph on him when he joined sums up how his baffling signing helped fuck up our champions League chances

'Heskey signed for Aston Villa for a fee of £3.5 million on a three-and-a-half year contract on 23 January 2009. He made his debut against Portsmouth on 27 January 2009 and scored in this game with a strike from 20 yards; the first time he has scored on his debut for any club for which he has played. He scored one more goal before the end of the season, with the opening goal in a 1–1 draw with West Ham United. He finished the season with 14 appearances and two goals for Villa.'

[Clampy]

I think all three will be gone. I'm not sure we're in a position to offer a 35 year old centre forward a new contract.

[Tokyo Sexwhale]

In any sane world, Heskey would be gone at the end of the season.

But I just don't know what the Villa management is thinking at the moment.

[Merv]

To be fair, Heskey was good on his debut.

[VillaAlways]

I think all three will be gone. I'm not sure we're in a position to offer a 35 year old centre forward a new contract.

Have you forgotten we employed a manager that just relegated their arch rivals and paid them for the pleasure

[FatSam]

It is tricky to judge a player in the Dutch league, especially if they haven't played much European or international football. Alves was in his late 20s when Middlesborough signed him, and had just had a crazy season - including scoring 7 goals in a single game! Whereas Huntelaar on the other hand had scored pretty much everywhere he had played, and had played European and international football. Its obviously a risk, and the fee should reflect that. The £12m Middlesborough paid for Alves was wreckless.

as opposed to the fee we paid leeds for a player from the 3rd division, Delph?

every signing comes with risk. look at torres, carroll, downing, henderson, berbatov, makoun, defoe, heskey - all flops and all had plenty of EPL experience and most of them plenty of european and international experience to boot.

sometimes it just doesnt work out. id prefer for us to stay clear of buying overpriced EPL regulars but no guarantee buying players from abroad will always turn out good either e.g. Makoun.

I completely agree - I suppose my point was just that the level of risk needs to be carefully judged. When you zoom out for a moment, Alve's transfer to Middlesborough looks risky, and smacks of desperation. Players with EPL experience such as Beye and Heskey carry risk as well, and in our current situation I'd be far happier if we looking where we might get better value. Das Bost sounds like an interesting prospect, and if he is to develop into a great player then now is the most realistic stage of the cycle for us to sign him. That said, I'd be a bit worried if we signed him for £10m on the basis of one good season.

[Matt C]

So if talks are 'on hold' presumably that means Guzan has rejected the contract we offered him.

[Big Dick Edwards]

Todays news is a polite way of keeping the three players as motivated as possible for the next two months, Carlos in particular, before allowing them to walk away.

[paulcomben]

Heskey will be gone. Waste no worry on that.

Weimann is set fair to bag 25 goals in the Championship and, let down by his team mates, only succeed in helping Villa reach the play-offs. Eck will be fired after 25 matches and replaced by Neil Warnock.

We will all be standing by William McGregor with placards. And rocket launchers. The peasants revolting.

[Dave]

Todays news is a polite way of keeping the three players as motivated as possible for the next two months, Carlos in particular, before allowing them to walk away.

I think in the case of Guzan and Cuellar it's more a case of keeping it as quiet as possible that they don't want to sign the contracts that have been put in front of them.

[The Man With A Stick]

When will his contract be up, 1st of June?  I'm writing it in my calendar as "Heskey Day" and buying a shitload of fireworks.

[Billy Walker]

Deleted post.

[damon loves JT]

Emile's contract negotiations consist of him saying 'yes, yes I'll sign it' and everyone else in the room pretending to look for a pen

[paulcomben]

Most amusing. Can I attend Heskey fireworks? And also, before the pen, the wondering why the printer isn't working and then why the paper has all gone. Who forgot to reorder stationery?

[The Man With A Stick]

Bank holiday weekend too.  Gonna be a lonnnnnnng weekend that.