Summer 2013: Villa Transfers, Speculation, Suggestions and Rumours

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

0-3 Armenia ....

Danes are worse than Scotland. I am not sure we should be signing any of their players!

They were like a sunday morning team like nobody knew where they were playing !!!

[charlie]

Under Eck I worried each match we would lose and be relegated. Under Lambert there was always hope, the possibility of beating clubs away was real, the football was attractive if a little accident prone. We already have signed or resigned players, [MoN would be petrified], and have links with several. Players we had never heard of have been brilliant, dross is going. I like Lambert's style and philosophy. I pray he succeeds, top ten and above without breaking the bank. Wobberto may be windbags best in Europe, Lambert may well become a genuine top manager in the not too distant future.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

Okore has come on for the 2nd Half....

We're thinking of signing a woman?

She must be good, if only for three weeks in every month.

Definitely deserves a post relating to a "leaky" defence!
;-)

[nigel]

Lescott is 31 in 2 months and on a reported 90K a week.

And we weren't lucky last season.

That's not particularly old for a centre back.
And I've seen defences as bad as ours relegate teams before.

It is when factoring in a new contract for a footballer.

So? There was still no luck in us staying up. We stayed up because we deserved to.

And we all saw what throwing buckets of cash at experienced premiership players did for QPR.

Was that becuase they were experienced or just the wrong players?  Man Utd threw bucket loads of cash at experienced PL striker Robin Van Persie and it won them the title.

I think we need to balance things a little more with a couple of experienced players.  And I think Lambert wanted to do that last season until injury and form meant the likes of Gabby, Bent, Ireland and Dunne did not feature as much as he might have expected.

However, if we continue with youth only I'm patient enough to wait and see this side develop together.   

Van Persie was the best striker in the country, it was buying guaranteed goals, he also finished the best striker again in England last season
you cant compare him to Lescott who is not anywhere near the best CH in the country, and was made to look like a big lump of lard in the last game of the season by a average Norwich city player,
your not guaranteeing anything with Lescott, just a hope that he continues to do OK and not degenerate into the latest Villa millstone on massive wages, 

I don't think we will be signing Lescott he doesn't fit the Villa profile,

We may not sign Lescott, in fact I'd class it as very unlikely, but you're being terribly unfair to him there as a player.

Lescott's had two chances to join us, the team he apparently supports.
1. When he left Wolves.
2. When he left Everton and chose Money City.

[damon loves JT]

What impresses me is that we clearly had people doing the spadework on these signings even while we were fighting desperately against relegation.

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

I did. I looked forward to every game I went to. I've probably got to go back to 95/96 for the last time I enjoyed a season as much. I felt connected to the team, it felt like MY Aston Villa. That counts for more than just results to me.

And what we are doing so far since the season ended just reinforces that feeling.

This.

I went to more away games last season than I have done for years and other than suffering at Bradford I loved it.
Felt totally reconnected with our fantastic Away support, the team and the club generally, and incredibly proud to be a Villa fan, as always!
UTV!

[cdbearsfan]

Lescott is 31 in 2 months and on a reported 90K a week.

And we weren't lucky last season.

That's not particularly old for a centre back.
And I've seen defences as bad as ours relegate teams before.

It is when factoring in a new contract for a footballer.

So? There was still no luck in us staying up. We stayed up because we deserved to.

And we all saw what throwing buckets of cash at experienced premiership players did for QPR.

Was that becuase they were experienced or just the wrong players?  Man Utd threw bucket loads of cash at experienced PL striker Robin Van Persie and it won them the title.

I think we need to balance things a little more with a couple of experienced players.  And I think Lambert wanted to do that last season until injury and form meant the likes of Gabby, Bent, Ireland and Dunne did not feature as much as he might have expected.

However, if we continue with youth only I'm patient enough to wait and see this side develop together.   

Van Persie was the best striker in the country, it was buying guaranteed goals, he also finished the best striker again in England last season
you cant compare him to Lescott who is not anywhere near the best CH in the country, and was made to look like a big lump of lard in the last game of the season by a average Norwich city player,
your not guaranteeing anything with Lescott, just a hope that he continues to do OK and not degenerate into the latest Villa millstone on massive wages, 

I don't think we will be signing Lescott he doesn't fit the Villa profile,

We may not sign Lescott, in fact I'd class it as very unlikely, but you're being terribly unfair to him there as a player.

Lescott's had two chances to join us, the team he apparently supports.
1. When he left Wolves.
2. When he left Everton and chose Money City.

You think we would've matched Man City's bid of £25 million if he had wanted to join?

I couldn't really give a toss who people support but he'd do a job for us.

[danlanza]

Not with his fucking wages he wouldn't.

[cdbearsfan]

Decent point. I assume Man City want rid of high-earners that don't play much and would have to contribute towards his wages like we'll probably have to with SFI.

Depends on if the Premier League and/or UEFA are really going to enforce the Financial Fair-Play regulations.

[supertom]

I don't see Lambert breaking his ethos. Lescott is a no go. Too old, too expensive in fee and wages. He'd improve us possibly, largely short term.

Given the choice I'd actually go for Okore. I trust in Lambo's judgement. He seems an ideal part for Vlaar too, who hopefully will come on a level next season. Injuries didn't help him.

I'd also wager Belhanda is unlikely. I'd love it to happen but he's too expensive. We might be able to double our money in 1-2 years time, but the initial outlay is too much. We could bring in 2 players for that. We need quality and quantity in.

[tomd2103]

For us to improve next season we need to buy better players, not players who might be better.I'm all for buying Okura, and the Danish kid, but we need to be buying players like Belhanda, or McCarthy, plus one or two others for us not to have to go through what we have had to the last 3 or 4 seasons.

 The basic philosophy i agree with, but replace the high earning, non-committed with high earning, highly committed.Iif we buy young players, who in 2/3/4 years want to play for Ure/Barca whatever, like Benteke, then i'm happy with that.

I don't entirely agree. I think holding onto the players that develop into the 15-30 million pound footballers together, for a period of time is the important bit, while still buying people who can grow into that bracket. We had none that would fetch more than 10 million last summer because they were not that good. Arguable that we now have 3-4 in that bracket just about. Not letting them walk away is just as important as buying finished articles. Belhanda looks interesting for sure, but for this summer, that may be beyond us. With 6-7 players to bring the squad up needed, it is going to be similar to last summer.

Agree with that Jim, but I do think we need a quality "starting" CB and possibly a LB as well. 

[tomd2103]

I did. I looked forward to every game I went to. I've probably got to go back to 95/96 for the last time I enjoyed a season as much. I felt connected to the team, it felt like MY Aston Villa. That counts for more than just results to me.

And what we are doing so far since the season ended just reinforces that feeling.

This.

I went to more away games last season than I have done for years and other than suffering at Bradford I loved it.
Felt totally reconnected with our fantastic Away support, the team and the club generally, and incredibly proud to be a Villa fan, as always!
UTV!

One of the things about last season was that there were not too many meaningless games, especially after Christmas.  We spent most of the season either trying to get out of or stay away from the bottom three, so most games had something riding on them. 

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

I did. I looked forward to every game I went to. I've probably got to go back to 95/96 for the last time I enjoyed a season as much. I felt connected to the team, it felt like MY Aston Villa. That counts for more than just results to me.

And what we are doing so far since the season ended just reinforces that feeling.

This.

I went to more away games last season than I have done for years and other than suffering at Bradford I loved it.
Felt totally reconnected with our fantastic Away support, the team and the club generally, and incredibly proud to be a Villa fan, as always!
UTV!

One of the things about last season was that there were not too many meaningless games, especially after Christmas.  We spent most of the season either trying to get out of or stay away from the bottom three, so most games had something riding on them. 

Bang on tomd!
But there was a strong sense of hope in going to those games as opposed to the sense of dread of the season before. I genuinely think that the majority of us bought into the Lambert plan and can see that it seems to be going in the right direction.
Exciting times!

[Caiphus]

Clark & Baker have 100 and 50 appearances now respectively.

I would consider Clark "experienced" by that measure.  Whether he is good enough?  That is still to be determined...

What I do believe though, is a pre-season working with Vlaar and knowing the midfield 3 of Westwood, Sylla and Delph is pretty much locked in should mean that the defensive unit is a lot more organised next season with an understanding of each other's roles and limitations.  I would love a new top class CB to slot straight in with premiership experience and a good track record of performance but I can't think of any that are available that are of a decent age profile with affordable fee and wages. To be honest, there are very few premiership CBs I rate atm, that would be gettable.

[VillaAlways]

According to Danish newspaper a bid of 4 million euros accepted for Okore

@HeartOfTheHolte: Okore bid accepted: http://t.co/AadHx5XA1C #AVFC