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

[George E]

George E: thanks, spot on. Now that Rutski has enlightened me as to what I look for in a footballer, I want Lambert doing his utmost to put this team together:

Blake Fielder-Civil

Mervyn King
Nigel Kennedy
Geezer Butler
Dave Woodhall

Tom Hanks
Pike out of Dad's Army
Mrs Doyle
Prince William

David Cameron
Tracey Andrews

Fred West would be a shoe-in as a midfield destroyer if he hadn't topped himself.

I'd like wind the clock back a few years and see Vinney Jones up against Fred West - not so much during the match more the carnage in the car-park afterwards.

[Matt Collins]

Gone a bit quiet hasn't it? It looks to me like the club's transfer policy hasn't shifted too much really and we'll need to move people out to get new ones in. But I'm really not sure who's going to pay a fee or meet the wage demands of the likes of Hutton, Collins, warnock.

And tho we were all keen to lambast mcleish, I've seen enough over the last couple of years to think that this squad just isn't good enough. If Karim is immediately as good as petrov I'd be really happy, but that only leaves us where we were this time last year.

Lambert might be able to do his miracle worker stuff, and we did under achieve last year. But I can't see the current squad getting anywhere near top ten.

We may need to look at an evolution not revolution here.

I'm sure someone will now post that they expect to see us spend 20-25m net with at least one marquee signing. But I was hearing this for the last two years.

[D.boy]

Hello ray of sunshine

[willywombat]

To be honest, evolution not revolution was eactly what I was expecting.I doubt our finances have improved to the extent of being able to splash 30-40 million on building a team to immediately challenge for a champions league place. I would happily settle for comfortably mid-table after the season we've just been through although I really do feel that if Paul Lambert can instill a desire to win games rather than just not lose them and to play decent football along the way then we might surprise a few people

[rutski]

George E: thanks, spot on. Now that Rutski has enlightened me as to what I look for in a footballer, I want Lambert doing his utmost to put this team together:

Blake Fielder-Civil

Mervyn King
Nigel Kennedy
Geezer Butler
Dave Woodhall

Tom Hanks
Pike out of Dad's Army
Mrs Doyle
Prince William

David Cameron
Tracey Andrews

Fred West would be a shoe-in as a midfield destroyer if he hadn't topped himself.

your getting a bit fucking dull.

[Matt Collins]

Lowton quoted on Pravda as saying "I'm looking to fight for a place and play Agee games this season" suggests we may be looking at another new right back? Or that lichaj (or Hutton?) would be first choice, neither option would thrill me to be honest.

[Phil from the upper holte]

Where are all the links? Hope we see more faces before kick off at west Scum

[walsall villain]

Quiet yes but could be Lambert wants a good look at what he has got. Not easy shifting the dead wood though as we found with Beye.
couple of friendlies then hopefully out comes the cheque book.
Can't see any big money deals are likely.

[Ian.]

Gone a bit quiet hasn't it? It looks to me like the club's transfer policy hasn't shifted too much really and we'll need to move people out to get new ones in. But I'm really not sure who's going to pay a fee or meet the wage demands of the likes of Hutton, Collins, warnock.

And tho we were all keen to lambast mcleish, I've seen enough over the last couple of years to think that this squad just isn't good enough. If Karim is immediately as good as petrov I'd be really happy, but that only leaves us where we were this time last year.

Lambert might be able to do his miracle worker stuff, and we did under achieve last year. But I can't see the current squad getting anywhere near top ten.

We may need to look at an evolution not revolution here.

I'm sure someone will now post that they expect to see us spend 20-25m net with at least one marquee signing. But I was hearing this for the last two years.

Even if this is the case and PL can stop us from leaking the goals from set pieces we will already be at least 10-15 points better off than last season. If we can be a bit more pleasing to watch as well then we are then heading in a direction which is up. We were very close to lower league football and what was worse it was very depressing and I could not see a way out.

[Concrete John]

The squad as it stands is still capable of a top half finish, IMO.

Defensively we have had major problems, but the main thing was a lack of organisation, which we expect Bertie to fix.  Simply stopping giving away soft goals would see us a decent few places up the table.  Bent was still scoring his career average per game last season until he got injured, so we can expect at least that and hopefully for a full season.  The key would be getting the likes of Gabby, N'Zog and Super Marc 'at it' again and I think our new manager will.

That's not to say we WOULD finish top half, but I'd far from rule it out!   

[damon loves JT]

The pause in transfer activity appears to have coincided with the start of pre-season training.

[john e]

never rated Gabby even in his pomp, so i'm not going to start now,

yes i was jumping around st Andrews like a madman when he poped in the winners, and i loved him for it, but i still think he is a very average footballer, i did very much the same when Heskey scored against Wolves, but he was still shit

i called Gabby a busted flush 3 years ago when other people were telling me he would be Englands no1 striker for many years to come, so i'm not jumping on any bandwaggon here.

if you like him for whatever reasons fair enough, i have never seen it,

 i think he has more than fullfilled his potential, he has played for the greatest club in the world is hero worshiped from the crowd, and all on very limited ability,
he's not prolific never has been, doesnt add a great deal to the team very often, his poor games outnumber his good ones at least 20/1,
he had one little spell at the beginning of last season when i saw a different Gabby, but that lasted about 6 games and it puff powdered out.

the reason Gabby stayed loyal is because no one any bigger than Villa have ever been interested in him, anyone who thinks he would have stayed if Man Utd had come knocking is deluded, he will never play for a bigger club than Villa.

he is in my view a bottom half prem player, and if we have any ideas of performing higher than that we need better than him,
 i accept we finished 6th with MON when he played, but its a team effort, doesnt mean all the players are that standard, he has been a passenger in to many games that i've seen.


having said all that, i'l still jump about next time he scores, thats not being hypocritical, thats being a Villa fan

[villastikz]

Gabby was an improving player scoring 9, 11, 12 and 13 league goals, which aren't bad goal tallies, for a second striker/super sub, the problem really comes when people view him as a no1 goal scorer because he isn't and never will be, he just isn't good enough, not being harsh just honest.

As a second striker, if he gets them goal tallies back, then that's a different matter as he will be better than Man Utd's "second striker" as Javier Hernández only got 10 league goals last season, Arsenals second highest goal scorer was Theo Walcott on 8 league goals, Man City's second/third goal scorers were Dzeko and Balotelli on 14 and 13 league goals respectively.

IF, Lambert can get him back to scoring those levels of goals then great, he will be equal to players at other top clubs but if he can't then unfortunately he will need to go and someone brought in who can get those goals for us.

1 of our biggest problems where goals are concerned is not enough players have been scoring. As I said above Arsenals second highest scorer was Walcott on 8 but Arteta got 7 and Vermaelen got 6 as well and there are others that chipped in too and it all adds up, Arsenal scored 68 league goals with RVP getting 30 which means the rest of the squad got 38 between them. We can't achieve anything relying just on Bent to get the goals, it needs to be a team effort and more players need to be getting the ball in the net.

[N'ZMAV]

Gabby is a useful squad player. I wouldn't be looking to start him next season though. He needs to do more. Weimann is ahead of Gabby in the pecking order now... if I was in charge that is...

[supertom]

More big money deals will happen towards the end of the window I'd guess. If we're to make a standout signing, it won't be till August IMO. It's generally been quiet so far. It's only mid-july and we've sorted out 2 signings, and Holman was already signed and sealed. There's no reason to panic just yet. I still expect to see 3-4 new faces coming in. Lambert knows he'll have to bring more players in.

Finding decent players for smaller fees will be hard, so yes, it might be that he's gonna have to shift dead wood too. Easier said than done of course. I don't think there's been a lack of movement on our part, that's for sure. He's certainly being a lot more decisive than O Neill.