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

[john e]

Olaf Mellberg looked alright in the Euro's
Now he has prem experience leadership and a villa legend to boot

Is he still playing ?

[Concrete John]

Absolutely agree with Dave's post above

Just to easy to say 'we need older players with premiership experience' thinking there is a bunch of them all waiting to sign and make a massive difference, in reality there is a bunch of them who will be more than willing to come but will make no difference,
 that's why we have loads of them farmed out or on the fringes on massive wages doing sweet FA,

To just keep saying we need a 'Roy Keane' like player in midfield or words to that effect is rediculous, we haven't got 50 mill to spend on one player,
Frimpong often gets mentioned, I don't know if he would be any good or not but I do know he would be just as much of a risk than any of the young players we already have, he's not currently doing great for Charlton

We do need leadership on the pitch, especially as we seem to start every game slowly and then gain confidence gradually if we haven't let in 3 or 4 by half time, but it's not easy to find those sort of players the good ones cost millions and demand high wages, that's why we are taking a few chances and trying to find pearls,
I hope PL does surprise us all and brings someone in who will fit the bill, who can bring some much needed leadership and quality to the team, but in general it's just as much of a risk with an expensive old hand ( n'zog)as it is with a punt on a youngster (benteke)

I have obviously chosen the two best players to illustrate the point there but you know what I mean

I do know what you mean and a very good point made.

The other thing about it it is the youth policy Lambert's adopted is in order to try and unearth the new Milners and Ashley Youngs before they become the players they can be.  So the likes of Benteke, Westwood and Lowton are not there to keep us in the league, but to shoot us up it as they develop and improve.  So making the shorter term experienced signings is tricky as you a) don't want to impede the youth development and b) can't overspend on them and get into the financial hole we now seem to be getting out of.

I thought we got it pretty right in the summer with Holman, Vlaar and KEA, but the results have been mixed.     

[sirlordbaltimore]

Olaf Mellberg looked alright in the Euro's
Now he has prem experience leadership and a villa legend to boot

Is he still playing ?

Not for me, 35 and already looked like his best days were behind him. Nothing to be gained for either party IMHO

[paul_e]

I'd sell Bannan. He doesn't have many good games.

Agreed. He's Championship standard. Never understood his popularity with many Villa fans. Perhaps it's because he came through the ranks.  His distribution is poor, he loses possession and his corners are shite. Get rid.

Stats wise he averages about an 80% pass completion rate which is ok but not great but made a lot better by the fact that a much higher portion of his passes are forward than most players with completions in the 90s.  He also averages 1.6 key passes a game (that's double Irelands average and easily the highest in our midfield) and has the highest cross completion rate in the team.  Add on that he works his arse off and tries to make himself available to the man on the ball better than anyone except Westwood and it becomes clear to me that, whilst not ready to be a regular starter, he's a valuable squad member who provides much more to the club than a lot of others who are significantly better paid .

Feel free to check the stats if you like - Barry Bannan

To really see how good he could be we need to get a big nasty bugger in there with him and Westwood and let him play much further forward.

The negative of his game is that he does often try to hit passes that are very high risk which has given him the 'hollywood' reputation but, personally, I'm all for having a player that backs himself like this, playing it safe all the time isn't a quality you want from your entire midfield (unless that midfield contains xavi, iniesta, fabregas and busquets, at which point you just forget the stats and sit and enjoy the show).

[Dave]

Olaf Mellberg looked alright in the Euro's
Now he has prem experience leadership and a villa legend to boot

Is he still playing ?

At Villareal in the Spanish second division.

[Dave Cooper please]

Charlton Athletic midfielder Bradley Pritchard has reportedly emerged as a transfer target for three clubs in the Premier League.

The Zimbabwe-born 27-year-old has been a permanent fixture in the Addicks team this season, earning rave reviews for his dominant displays in the centre of the field.

Yesterday saw the January transfer window open and, according to Sky Sports News, Aston Villa, Fulham and Reading are all monitoring Pritchard as they consider bolstering their squads.

Pritchard, whose contract expires in June 2014, joined Charlton from Hayes & Yeading in May 2011.

Charlton fan I know posted this on facebook:

'if you steal bradley pritchard off us i will take the cheese grater to your face. Peace'

He rates him.

Mentioned this in another (the wrong!) thread.
Ex Tamworth player and he follows me on Twitter!

Box-to-box midfielder, real grafter, but a massive step-up from Conference to Premiership in just 3 seasons. Still, some players mature later than others and at 27 he would raise our average age up a notch.

Would he be any use?

If he really has improved that much at Charlton then yes, he'll do the dirty work in front of the back four and even back at Tamuff he rarely wasted a pass once he'd won the ball.

[eastie]

Need to move on
Bent, Ireland, N'Zogbia, Dunne, Warnock, Hutton, Delph, Delfouneso

I would go with this.

Why would we 'need to move on' our best bet of scoring goals, the little things that are the difference between staying up and going down ?.

You call him our best bet of scoring goals, but I doubt I'm the only one who would pick Benteke and Weimann as our strike force over him in a heartbeat.

Problem is though, what if benteke or Weimann pick up a bad injury, I'd rather have bent than gabby or Bowery .

[ozzjim]

Charlton Athletic midfielder Bradley Pritchard has reportedly emerged as a transfer target for three clubs in the Premier League.

The Zimbabwe-born 27-year-old has been a permanent fixture in the Addicks team this season, earning rave reviews for his dominant displays in the centre of the field.

Yesterday saw the January transfer window open and, according to Sky Sports News, Aston Villa, Fulham and Reading are all monitoring Pritchard as they consider bolstering their squads.

Pritchard, whose contract expires in June 2014, joined Charlton from Hayes & Yeading in May 2011.

Charlton fan I know posted this on facebook:

'if you steal bradley pritchard off us i will take the cheese grater to your face. Peace'

He rates him.

Mentioned this in another (the wrong!) thread.
Ex Tamworth player and he follows me on Twitter!

Box-to-box midfielder, real grafter, but a massive step-up from Conference to Premiership in just 3 seasons. Still, some players mature later than others and at 27 he would raise our average age up a notch.

Would he be any use?

If he really has improved that much at Charlton then yes, he'll do the dirty work in front of the back four and even back at Tamuff he rarely wasted a pass once he'd won the ball.

I can see the howls of discontent if we sign 2 Charlton players to solve our midfield woes though!

[dekko]

I'd keep hold of Bent more or less purely to use as an impact sub - 'teke and Weimann are probably better all round players, and a great partnership to boot, so I'd start the two of them, and then throw on Bent for one of them towards the end of a game to use his positioning etc to find gaps in tiring defences.

Of course, then you'd have a player on massive wages only getting used on occasion - plus I doubt he'd be happy to settle for being second fiddle to a bunch of kids

[Concrete John]

Need to move on
Bent, Ireland, N'Zogbia, Dunne, Warnock, Hutton, Delph, Delfouneso

I would go with this.

Why would we 'need to move on' our best bet of scoring goals, the little things that are the difference between staying up and going down ?.

You call him our best bet of scoring goals, but I doubt I'm the only one who would pick Benteke and Weimann as our strike force over him in a heartbeat.

Problem is though, what if benteke or Weimann pick up a bad injury, I'd rather have bent than gabby or Bowery .

If you take Weimann and Benteke as out first choice pairing right now, then it's unrealistic to expect a club in our present position to have a really strong 3rd choice striker.  Even the likes of Spurs would be fucked if they lost both Adebayor and Defoe to injury at the same time.

The simple fact is that unless we're going to play Bent, he's too valuable an assett to have sitting on the bench, or in the stand, so it's better for the club to sell him.

[john e]

Olaf Mellberg looked alright in the Euro's
Now he has prem experience leadership and a villa legend to boot

Is he still playing ?

Not for me, 35 and already looked like his best days were behind him. Nothing to be gained for either party IMHO

So are Frank Lampards, same age there's plenty would take him though

[Mazrim]

I don't agree at all that "where we are" = dross from a league or two below us.

There is absolutely no way that Scott Dann and the like is the best we can hope for.

[Monty]

I'd sell Bannan. He doesn't have many good games.

Agreed. He's Championship standard. Never understood his popularity with many Villa fans. Perhaps it's because he came through the ranks.  His distribution is poor, he loses possession and his corners are shite. Get rid.

Stats wise he averages about an 80% pass completion rate which is ok but not great but made a lot better by the fact that a much higher portion of his passes are forward than most players with completions in the 90s.  He also averages 1.6 key passes a game (that's double Irelands average and easily the highest in our midfield) and has the highest cross completion rate in the team.  Add on that he works his arse off and tries to make himself available to the man on the ball better than anyone except Westwood and it becomes clear to me that, whilst not ready to be a regular starter, he's a valuable squad member who provides much more to the club than a lot of others who are significantly better paid .

Feel free to check the stats if you like - Barry Bannan

To really see how good he could be we need to get a big nasty bugger in there with him and Westwood and let him play much further forward.

The negative of his game is that he does often try to hit passes that are very high risk which has given him the 'hollywood' reputation but, personally, I'm all for having a player that backs himself like this, playing it safe all the time isn't a quality you want from your entire midfield (unless that midfield contains xavi, iniesta, fabregas and busquets, at which point you just forget the stats and sit and enjoy the show).

Well said and researched. I think that Bannan playing further forward would actually suit him better because of his penchant for high-risk passes, because that's the part of the pitch you want high-risk in.

[paul_e]

I don't agree at all that "where we are" = dross from a league or two below us.

There is absolutely no way that Scott Dann and the like is the best we can hope for.

Agreed, I think Villa fans have a tendency to overplay the 'lets be realistic' card, we'd still be a big draw for a lot of players, we're one of only a small handful of clubs who've been ever presents in the sky era and a few years ago we were pushing the top 4.  Yes things have gone wrong since but we're still capable of attracting bigger players if we want them, it really depends on who the manager wants.

[Concrete John]

I think that Bannan playing further forward would actually suit him better because of his penchant for high-risk passes, because that's the part of the pitch you want high-risk in.

Although I agree in part, I'm not sure he possesses enough of a goal threat to really thrive playing in behind Benteke and/or Weimann.