Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[Dr Butler]

As are mine - and they rave about him. When they didn't have a defence, they lost repeatedly. Opinions, eh? Like poo holes - we've all got 'em!

indeed ! when he moved to Wet Sham my neighbour called him the "Ginger Pele"  I kid you not !! and now he only rates his mobility slightly above Douglas Bader.

[Toronto Villa]

Ironically, in the week we play Chelsea,  my best memory of Collins is the goal he scored against Chelsea from a corner at Villa Park. My other memories are of him being solid at times,  defensively all over the place at times and drunk and disorderly at times.

[N'ZMAV]

No more one dimensional players. We need players who are good on the ball as well as offer something else.

Agreed. NRC was better without the ball. No more of that please.

[PeterWithesShin]

League and cup this season, with Collins West Ham won 36% (W8 D4 L10), without 31% (W4 D3 L6).

As for NRC, good grief no.

[brian green]

We have had loads of players down the years like NRC, ones you hope are going to be better than they eventually turn out to be.   Sometimes it works the other way round.   You look at a player and you think never in a million years will he make it but he keeps plugging away, giving his all, working on his game and they prove their critics wrong.   Allan Evans was a classic case in point.

[dave shelley]

Not forgetting his hoppo Ken McNaught.

[peter w]

We have had loads of players down the years like NRC, ones you hope are going to be better than they eventually turn out to be.   Sometimes it works the other way round.   You look at a player and you think never in a million years will he make it but he keeps plugging away, giving his all, working on his game and they prove their critics wrong.   Allan Evans was a classic case in point.

But that's just it. Who did he prove wrong? To me he was nothing more than just okay but he lost us possession too easily. He showed all too often that he was what he appeared to be, and that's a decent prospect who never developed any further.

[brontebilly]

James Collins is fine if your game plan for a centre half is for him to throw himself at everything and kick the ball up the pitch as soon as possible for someone to chase/flick on.  That suited MON and it suits Fat Sam.  Someone earlier likened him to Baker and I agree totally, brave, good in the air, decent tackler but iffy positioning and terrible distribution.

suits Paul Lambert too lets be honest. He is a much better player than Baker. Not sure what anyone sees in Baker. Honest as the day is long but incredibly limited in multiple facets of defending.

Collins went to pot after MON left. Particularly dire in the second half of the McLeish season. Though our midfield was desperate at the time, giving Collins and Dunne free reign to attempt 50 yard punts.

Collins is a bog standard old school EPL defender with declining mobility. But doubt we would have conceded anything like 69 league goals last season if he were first choice ahead of Clark, Baker or even Vlaar who was chronic last season.

Hope we are looking at better defenders than Collins in the summer by the way 

[peter w]

To be fair to Lambert his plan to play a ball-playing centre-half for the season next to Vlaar. The tempo of a team is set by how quick your centre-halves to take control of the ball and use it positively. That Okore got injured is was a shame on many aspects. But I doubt that he expected to give Clark or Baker as much time as he has this season. I also don't read too much into Baker being ahead of Clark either. He may just being rested. He may have a little niggle that means he's not 100% but could be used if need be. If so we're hardly likely to announce it to the opposition.

I like Baker but ultimately his next move will be down.

[MoetVillan]

Collins would put at least one rick in a game.  Better than Baker?  Piss off.  Baker doesnt have issues with other players off the pitch, is Villa through and through, looks like he cares, is equally as good at defending as Collins and passes the ball better. (Not too hard to "Collins looks up, pretending to see some space, and hoofs it up to opposition centre half/opposition goalie/favourite ball boy of the day (delete as applicable)"  Its like the law of injured players.  The longer they are out the better they were perceived to be.  One good season with Collins was tarnished for me by huge wages for a guy that was average at best and a bloody trouble maker

[brian green]

I don't think NRC proved anybody wrong.   He was what he was.   A seriously flawed player but I was not alone in hoping for better from him and although the hard men and women on this site would disagree I don't like to see anybody in a Villa shirt not make the grade whether it is NRC, Fonz or Tonev

[Clampy]

The main problem with NRC was that we paid way too much for him.

[manic-road]

Collins would put at least one rick in a game.  Better than Baker?  Piss off.  Baker doesnt have issues with other players off the pitch, is Villa through and through, looks like he cares, is equally as good at defending as Collins and passes the ball better. (Not too hard to "Collins looks up, pretending to see some space, and hoofs it up to opposition centre half/opposition goalie/favourite ball boy of the day (delete as applicable)"  Its like the law of injured players.  The longer they are out the better they were perceived to be.  One good season with Collins was tarnished for me by huge wages for a guy that was average at best and a bloody trouble maker

Got to agree with all of that.

[Phil from the upper holte]

The main problem with NRC was that we paid way too much for him.

We did and his press conference was a nightmare, it went way over and was much later than it was supposed to be, I went to the pub to watch it and by the time it actually came on I was wasted

[Phil from the upper holte]

Collins would put at least one rick in a game.  Better than Baker?  Piss off.  Baker doesnt have issues with other players off the pitch, is Villa through and through, looks like he cares, is equally as good at defending as Collins and passes the ball better. (Not too hard to "Collins looks up, pretending to see some space, and hoofs it up to opposition centre half/opposition goalie/favourite ball boy of the day (delete as applicable)"  Its like the law of injured players.  The longer they are out the better they were perceived to be.  One good season with Collins was tarnished for me by huge wages for a guy that was average at best and a bloody trouble maker

Got to agree with all of that.

Agree with most, he can't pass for shit