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

[Doorbell]

HAPPY EASTIE DAY EVERYBODY!

and a happy eastie day to you too 

[ROBBO]

Is there a cake? if so can i we not have chocolate.

[Loxton01]

Good to see us finally get a player! Concerned where his from but it's a body and he does look strong! One criticism why two days before the end of the window! Is he someone we could not have got in at the start of jan! I suggest he is not first second or even third choice??

Any thoughts

[frank black]

Happy Eastie to you all!

[picicata]

Is there a cake? if so can i we not have chocolate.

The cake is a lie

[eastie]

Morning all- lets hope we are all feeling good by 11 pm tonight!

Louzie is in the soup kitchen and the cake is here - all we need now are 3 quality signings.

[AvFc4eVeR]

Morning all, here we go, Yacouba Sylla anyone??

TRANSFER LATEST
Aston Villa are in talks to sign Clermont Foot defensive midfielder Yacouba Sylla for around £2m.

If the deal goes through, the 22-year-old will be Villa boss Paul Lambert's first signing of the transfer window.

Defeat by Newcastle on Tuesday saw Villa drop into the Premier League's bottom three.

From Beeb coverage...

[Morten]

It is true though. We had to totally rebuild a squad on 23 million plus less wages than before. He bought fairly well, just did not have the time to properly analyse just how incredibly bad our squad was already.

He bought well? Are you absolutely being serious?

Completely.

Guzan, Lowton, Westwood and Benteke were excellent signings for the fees

Vlaar needs time to get back up to speed following injury but prior looked like he was adjusting and the other night I thought lead the onslaught second half well.

His biggest mistake, or let down, unfortunately for him is KEA never adjusting to the physical side of the game here. Petrov struggled badly for 18 months when he arrived and I do think KEA can improve, he was loved dearly by the fans of Feyenoord so there is a player in there.

Bennett - we needed a left back that was solid and Bennett is easily his most unfit for the role signing. He is a cracking footballer IMO, and could easily play left midfield in a 4-4-2 and sling balls into the box.

Spot on. It seems to me that when people trot out figures like £20m they think we should have a side comfortably in the top half. Yet that amount spent on several players really isn't a substantial amount, and when you consider we were in need of several first choice players let alone a few to beef out the squad that amount looks even more well spent. One of the most annoying things to hear at the moment is so called well informed pundits on tv/radio coming out with how much we spent in the summer without any regard for who was bought and how many players were needed.

Agree. The signings made in the summer are nearly all good value. Vlaar cost under 3 million pounds. Now QPR have bought Samba for about 12 million pound and apparently he is going to be on 100,000 pounds a week, that is madness. Benteke was also a good buy, he is worth a lot more now. He has missed a few, but in fact he has already scored 12 goals this season. Having him instead of Heskey is massive improvement. Lowton and Westwood are also good value. The problem this season is that we have relied too much on the inexperienced players. Lowton, for example, could need a rest, but we have no one to replace him. A lot of the players Lambert inherited have been poor: Lichaj, Clark, Bannan, Ireland, Herd, Albrighton, Bent, Delph (who has improved a bit) and also Agbonlahor, he can do much better. Buying young talent is good, but we have lacked leaders, something that should have been adressed long time ago. Clark has potential, but the fact that he has been captain this season, because there were no other alternatives, says a lot.

While I do not blame Lambert for his signings, I blame him for his tactics. The lack of midfield against Newcastle was just the latest example, there have been many. Bradford second half... What I liked about Lambert when he came was that there was a belief that we would not surrender difficult games like last season (Tottenham away, Arsenal away etc.). He had a winning mentality, right now he looks as if he does not believe in us himself. I want him to guide the young players more during games, they need it.

But the most frustrating is the lack of communication from Lerner and Faulkner. What is their vision, ambition and plans ? they wont tell us. Faulkner said after a win last season that we should aim for Europe, but then there was silence again. Mat Kendrick said some days ago that he has tried to set up interviews many times with Lerner and Faulkner, but he is rejected again and again. Lerners statement on Friday was better than nothing, but I want him to answer all the questions.

[eastie]

Morning all, here we go, Yacouba Sylla anyone??

TRANSFER LATEST
Aston Villa are in talks to sign Clermont Foot defensive midfielder Yacouba Sylla for around £2m.

If the deal goes through, the 22-year-old will be Villa boss Paul Lambert's first signing of the transfer window.

Defeat by Newcastle on Tuesday saw Villa drop into the Premier League's bottom three.

From Beeb coverage...

Nice to see the beeb 15 hours behind as usual.

[Jimbo]

The control centre will be twinkling and flashing like Delhi in Diwali.

[Dave]

I don't think of him as overly unlucky, he can't train his team to defend set pieces and he's been negligent with the best array of attackers in the bottom half of the league (damned with faint praise I know), we've enough talent to stay up but I can't see it happening and that's Lamberts fault.

I'm struggling to think of a club that's had as much bad luck as we have over the past three seasons.

If you continue to sell your best players and replace them with inferior ones, how does bad luck come into it?

Newcastle sold several of their best players and got in unknowns, and they all hit the floor running and put them 7th last season.

You'd have to have a very narrow view of the footballing world to describe most of Newcastle's signings 'unknowns'.

[eastie]

Swansea agree fee with  mboro for danny graham - strange one that.
Jenas and bentley both taking medicals at qpr .
All. Quiet at bodymoor heath.

[LeeB]

It is true though. We had to totally rebuild a squad on 23 million plus less wages than before. He bought fairly well, just did not have the time to properly analyse just how incredibly bad our squad was already.

He bought well? Are you absolutely being serious?

Completely.

Guzan, Lowton, Westwood and Benteke were excellent signings for the fees

Vlaar needs time to get back up to speed following injury but prior looked like he was adjusting and the other night I thought lead the onslaught second half well.

His biggest mistake, or let down, unfortunately for him is KEA never adjusting to the physical side of the game here. Petrov struggled badly for 18 months when he arrived and I do think KEA can improve, he was loved dearly by the fans of Feyenoord so there is a player in there.

Bennett - we needed a left back that was solid and Bennett is easily his most unfit for the role signing. He is a cracking footballer IMO, and could easily play left midfield in a 4-4-2 and sling balls into the box.

Spot on. It seems to me that when people trot out figures like £20m they think we should have a side comfortably in the top half. Yet that amount spent on several players really isn't a substantial amount, and when you consider we were in need of several first choice players let alone a few to beef out the squad that amount looks even more well spent. One of the most annoying things to hear at the moment is so called well informed pundits on tv/radio coming out with how much we spent in the summer without any regard for who was bought and how many players were needed.

Agree. The signings made in the summer are nearly all good value. Vlaar cost under 3 million pounds. Now QPR have bought Samba for about 12 million pound and apparently he is going to be on 100,000 pounds a week, that is madness. Benteke was also a good buy, he is worth a lot more now. He has missed a few, but in fact he has already scored 12 goals this season. Having him instead of Heskey is massive improvement. Lowton and Westwood are also good value. The problem this season is that we have relied too much on the inexperienced players. Lowton, for example, could need a rest, but we have no one to replace him. A lot of the players Lambert inherited have been poor: Lichaj, Clark, Bannan, Ireland, Herd, Albrighton, Bent, Delph (who has improved a bit) and also Agbonlahor, he can do much better. Buying young talent is good, but we have lacked leaders, something that should have been adressed long time ago. Clark has potential, but the fact that he has been captain this season, because there were no other alternatives, says a lot.

While I do not blame Lambert for his signings, I blame him for his tactics. The lack of midfield against Newcastle was just the latest example, there have been many. Bradford second half... What I liked about Lambert when he came was that there was a belief that we would not surrender difficult games like last season (Tottenham away, Arsenal away etc.). He had a winning mentality, right now he looks as if he does not believe in us himself. I want him to guide the young players more during games, they need it.

But the most frustrating is the lack of communication from Lerner and Faulkner. What is their vision, ambition and plans ? they wont tell us. Faulkner said after a win last season that we should aim for Europe, but then there was silence again. Mat Kendrick said some days ago that he has tried to set up interviews many times with Lerner and Faulkner, but he is rejected again and again. Lerners statement on Friday was better than nothing, but I want him to answer all the questions.

Christ, it's nice to read a well balanced post for a change.

[eastie]

Samba has passed a medical - arry very busy 3 players in for medicals before 9am.
I expect lambers still cooking his porridge.

[UK Redsox]

Swansea agree fee with  mboro for danny graham - strange one that.

Doesn't he want out of Swansea for "personal reasons" ?

If so, and since he's from the North East and started his career at Boro, this might make sense if the "personal reasons" are genuine rather than just wanting more money/playing time.

However, moving to Boro at his age does seem a backward step