Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[KevinGage]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

It's a tough one to call, in the sense that we did see off competition from Werder Bremen to sign him. 

But a few of our lot who live out in Poland said he never particularly stood out in that league, and the Bulgarian lad who used to post here said he was inconsistent and prob not good enough for the Premier League.

[pauliewalnuts]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

It's a tough one to call, in the sense that we did see off competition from Werder Bremen to sign him. 

But a few of our lot who live out in Poland said he never particularly stood out in that league, and the Bulgarian lad who used to post here said he was inconsistent and prob not good enough for the Premier League.

To be fair, though, I also remember a Belgian poster on here telling us Benteke wasn't good enough for this league.

[PeterWithesShin]

To be fair, though, I also remember a Belgian poster on here telling us Benteke wasn't good enough for this league.

Worth a million at most iirc and that we had been mugged.

[old man villa fan]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

His Youtube highlights video?

Ha yeah. That'll be it. Or someone remembers seeing him as a youth on fifa a few years back, where they have no image just a silhouette. 'Hey lambo, i remember getting this lad on fifa a few seasons back, got him for just 3k a week and his shooting was 54, and he was only 17, his shooting stats must be like ... 74 by now.'

Wasn't he recommended by Petrov

[Toronto Villa]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

the same scouts that got us Benteke, Bacuna and Vlaar. Not every transfer is a hit and this one even came endorsed by Stan Petrov. I'm pretty sure he thought Tonev would have worked out.

[paul_e]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

the same scouts that got us Benteke, Bacuna and Vlaar. Not every transfer is a hit and this one even came endorsed by Stan Petrov. I'm pretty sure he thought Tonev would have worked out.

I firmly believe that a goal in his first game or 2 would have been a sliding doors moment for him. As things went we saw a guy who has ability (in my opinion) completely fail to adapt to the league, an early goal to get his head right and we'd be talking about what a bargain we'd picked up.

[junxs]

Doubt it, his game plan is shoot. If one had flown in, he wouldn't have suddenly developed Messi like skills - he'd still be shooting from all angles with team mates in better positions.

[paul_e]

Doubt it, his game plan is shoot. If one had flown in, he wouldn't have suddenly developed Messi like skills - he'd still be shooting from all angles with team mates in better positions.

See I don't think he would, the biggest problem I've seen with him is that he's trying to do too much, that's a classic sign of someone who doesn't believe he's good enough for the league. He's trying to do everything and score a wonder goal every time he gets the ball.  An early goal to settle his nerves and have him believing he deserved to be here and didn't have to win every game on his own to be accepted was what he needed.  Unfortunately every time he got the ball with space to shoot he tried to hit it too hard and skied it.

I think there's a good player in there, he can shoot from distance, the videos before he signed prove it and the comments from the players from training back it up. He has pace, he can beat a man, he's played a few good passes, but against he's always trying to play a perfect pass instead of just playing his natural game.  I hope we don't sell him this summer, a loan out with a championship club (or similar) until Christmas and see if he can get himself a bit of confidence then see what happens.

[UK Redsox]

Tottenham will make a move for Southampton midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin, 24, once they have completed the signing of 21-year-old Swansea left-back Ben Davies. Daily Mirror

The arrival of Davies at White Hart Lane could pave the way for Spurs left-back Danny Rose, 24, to move to Hull for £6m. Sun

If Villa were to spend £6m on a player this summer, another left back for the growing collection would probably be the one 

[SoccerHQ]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

It's a tough one to call, in the sense that we did see off competition from Werder Bremen to sign him. 

But a few of our lot who live out in Poland said he never particularly stood out in that league, and the Bulgarian lad who used to post here said he was inconsistent and prob not good enough for the Premier League.

Celtic were another one in for him and they've had a good recent record at signing cheaper players from weak leagues.

There is something there but I'm struggling to see it coming out in the prem, I watched him v Stoke and all he did was dribble the ball out of play 4-5 times. Wasn't much better in the other games he started.

[SoccerHQ]

I think Robinson will go out on loan shortly. Makes sense with Bent back in the fold.

Clearly the left back situation is Richardson number 1 with Bennett back up and then either Clark or Baker to fill in if an injury crisis occurs. Luna to be loaned out most likely and Enda Stevens taking over the Bowery status of how the fcuk this guy earns a premier league wage.

[FatSam]

That is not just a question of 12 months with us though, that is a problem with the player.

Which leads to ... What the feck did our scouts see?

It's a tough one to call, in the sense that we did see off competition from Werder Bremen to sign him. 

But a few of our lot who live out in Poland said he never particularly stood out in that league, and the Bulgarian lad who used to post here said he was inconsistent and prob not good enough for the Premier League.

Celtic were another one in for him and they've had a good recent record at signing cheaper players from weak leagues.

There is something there but I'm struggling to see it coming out in the prem, I watched him v Stoke and all he did was dribble the ball out of play 4-5 times. Wasn't much better in the other games he started.

At the time he was signed, I thought he fitted our strategy very well i.e. 'Moneyball' type strategy of buying promising players from weaker leagues in their early twenties (rather than as teenagers when its more difficult to predict how good they will be, and prices are often higher). I don't know what he ultimately cost, and therefore what value we have got from the signing.

However, I do think that it was probably unrealistic to expect him just to hit the ground running. He is clearly still pretty raw, despite being 23 when we signed him, and having had a certain amount of promise from a young age. We would do well to learn from clubs who sign-up young players and manage their development through loans (including abroad) before including them in the first team squad. Although they do this on an industrial scale, I'm thinking of clubs like Udinese. The difficulty is that it seems pretty obvious with hindsight that we were signing him for the first team squad last season, and that's obviously a big risk given what he had done in his career up to that point.

[KevinGage]

We can still follow the moneyball route, to an extent. 

Tottiingham's progress over the past 10 years has been founded on picking up bargains like Lennon, Dawson, Huddelstone, Walker et all from the lower leagues and marrying that with a few high profile signings.

We went from one extreme t'other: signing predominantly 28 year old+ players with little resale value under O'Neill to a team full of kids. 

[Ads]

Moneyball doesn't mean exclusively young players though and I am not sure you can directly translate such a statistical approach into football.

[paul_e]

What moneyball needs is a stable environment to bring the players in to. If the senior players Lambert had when he came in were all professional and performing the kids that come in can be given the time and support to ease into the league, that we had to rely on the kids to save us has meant we haven't been able to give them a fair chance to build experience.