Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[peter w]

Did Cole actually do anything of note last season?!

Watched lots of high balls sail over his head in his defense. West Ham is the place where midfield technical ability goes to die.

That said, we're hardly the club to resuscitate it to be fair...unless there's a dramatic shift in our style of play (I hope). A signing like Cole might signal that.

Could he do much worse than Tonev, Sylla, KEA etc?

Well if he can't cut it at the Academy of Football than he's got no chance.

[andrew08]

  Fuck off, if Ince was that good why is he even looking at Hull.  He made a huge impact last season, didn't he?  That's why all these massive clubs are fighting tooth and nail to get his autograph.  We are in the shit, there is no denying it.  Unless a sale happens by the end of July we are probably going to be in a proper relegation battle.  However shitting myself over missing out on the signings of massive stars such as Tom Ince isn't what will give me nightmares.

I don't get where people are so convinced we'll be doomed this coming year. After all, we weren't actually close to being relegated last year – and that was with the awful run-in.

We do have some decent young players, and we all knew they needed to play alongside some experience – well, that seems to be happening. We've got plenty to come back from injury too. I'm not saying it's going to be rosy, but I don't see any reason why we can't actually build (a little) on last year. At least we have a chance of that now we've had a manager coming into his third season for the first time in ages 

Stability is surely the only way to get anywhere on a budget.

Totally agree. All will be fine...45 points is our goal next season. 38 games, 12 wins,9 draws.

Get those season tickets renewed folks.

[Chris Smith]

Keeping players fit will be the key, I would say. The dreadful run towards the end of the season makes us forget that for most of it we were havering around the middle. Surely we can't be as unlucky with long term injuries again.

[peter w]

Why not? We have been for around 4 seasons or so.

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe because last season was proof of how shit you actually have to be to get relegated. For many, last season was the worst squad, manager, style etc in memory. Yet we still had enough points after 28 games to stay up.

[pauliewalnuts]

  Fuck off, if Ince was that good why is he even looking at Hull.  He made a huge impact last season, didn't he?  That's why all these massive clubs are fighting tooth and nail to get his autograph.  We are in the shit, there is no denying it.  Unless a sale happens by the end of July we are probably going to be in a proper relegation battle.  However shitting myself over missing out on the signings of massive stars such as Tom Ince isn't what will give me nightmares.

I don't get where people are so convinced we'll be doomed this coming year. After all, we weren't actually close to being relegated last year – and that was with the awful run-in.

I guess that's a judgement that depends on how happy you are to be finishing 15th in the league. That's a lot closer to relegation than we'd like to be, even with our new down-scaled expectations.

As for stability, I think we have got all the stablity Lerner cares about - 16th, 15th, 15th over three years. Still in the top flight, no threat whatsoever of doing anything else, but that doesn't really matter, the club's up for sale (new catch-all excuse for the total lack of ambition).

The sooner these people sell up and move on, the better.

[pauliewalnuts]

Incidentally, "we weren't actually close to being relegated last year" - we achieved mathematical safety with two games left before the end of the season.

That's pretty close to it, really. Certainly closer than anyone will have enjoyed.

[Billy Walker]

Did anyone see the photo the club's PR Dept put up on Facebook yesterday (or was it the day before)? Said picture was of Joe Cole playing for England with silhouettes of the Premier League trophy, FA Cup and League Cup below him, indicating the honours he has won?  It was just so incredibly small-time.  If a Division Three club came up with that kind of thing you could understand it, but Villa?! 

EDIT: Sorry, this post should probably go in the Joe Cole thread, but, thinking about it, it might be just as relevant here as it indicates how the club and marketing people are approaching  transfers this year.

[pauliewalnuts]

Did anyone see the photo the club's PR Dept put up on Facebook yesterday (or was it the day before)? Said picture was of Joe Cole playing for England with silhouettes of the Premier League trophy, FA Cup and League Cup below him, indicating the honours he has won?  It was just so incredibly small-time.  If a Division Three club came up with that kind of thing you could understand it, but Villa?! 

EDIT: Sorry, this post should probably go in the Joe Cole thread, but, thinking about it, it might be just as relevant here as it indicates how the club and marketing people are approaching  transfers this year.

Agreed. How small time. Still, the longer we spend bobbing around the arse end of the table, the worse this will get. I suspect that's our mindset now.

[kippaxvilla2]

Gabby seems to me he's lost his love for the game. It all seems one big chore now.

A shitter version of Rooney if you will.

[paul_e]

For Gabby, I wonder if the general malaise at the club is the key to it.  We, as fans, have all been a bit battered by events from the last 4 years, in general nothing has gone our way.  Gabby is a fan as well, I wonder if he's struggling with the same apathy but amplified by the knowledge that he should be able to do something about it but all too often it hasn't worked out for him.  as has been said already, when he's "on it" he can look a top player (Liverpool has been mentioned but he also tore Arsenal to bits on the opening day last year) as soon as things start to go against us he just doesn't seem to have the mental strength to pull a performance from nothing.

[Billy Walker]

Did anyone see the photo the club's PR Dept put up on Facebook yesterday (or was it the day before)? Said picture was of Joe Cole playing for England with silhouettes of the Premier League trophy, FA Cup and League Cup below him, indicating the honours he has won?  It was just so incredibly small-time.  If a Division Three club came up with that kind of thing you could understand it, but Villa?! 

EDIT: Sorry, this post should probably go in the Joe Cole thread, but, thinking about it, it might be just as relevant here as it indicates how the club and marketing people are approaching  transfers this year.

Agreed. How small time. Still, the longer we spend bobbing around the arse end of the table, the worse this will get. I suspect that's our mindset now.

It is, alas Paulie, a mindset that has filtered right the way down from the very top to permeate every single department of the club.  This type of thing really does remind me of mid-eighties Villa.
I looked at that marketing department photo of Joe Cole and his honours and it just made me wish we had a rich Russian running the club.  I'm sure that was not our media people's intention!

[KevinGage]

For Gabby, I wonder if the general malaise at the club is the key to it.  We, as fans, have all been a bit battered by events from the last 4 years, in general nothing has gone our way.  Gabby is a fan as well, I wonder if he's struggling with the same apathy but amplified by the knowledge that he should be able to do something about it but all too often it hasn't worked out for him. 

He doesn't play like a fan.

[paul_e]

For Gabby, I wonder if the general malaise at the club is the key to it.  We, as fans, have all been a bit battered by events from the last 4 years, in general nothing has gone our way.  Gabby is a fan as well, I wonder if he's struggling with the same apathy but amplified by the knowledge that he should be able to do something about it but all too often it hasn't worked out for him. 

He doesn't play like a fan.

What does that even mean?  He is a fan, that's 100% undeniable so yes he does play like a fan because that's what he is, he doesn't run himself into the ground (which is what I suspect you mean) because that's just not his game.  His game should be to wander across the line and look for chances to use his pace in behind.  That's exactly what he did when he got into the side but since then he's had mon try to rturn him into a target man, Houllier and McLeish try to make him a winger and Lambert trying to either carry that on or make him a 10.  it's been about 5 1/2 years (about the time we obught Heskey) since he was given a prolonged run in a role where he was looking to break in behind with his pace.  There are comments that his pace hasn't been so effective as he's got older, that's largely because he's breaking from the wrong areas now, defenders usually have a 3-4 yard headstart on him, that he often either gets there or at least forces a panicked clearance is testament to the fact that he's still fast as fuck.

[Mister E]

For Gabby, I wonder if the general malaise at the club is the key to it.  We, as fans, have all been a bit battered by events from the last 4 years, in general nothing has gone our way.  Gabby is a fan as well, I wonder if he's struggling with the same apathy but amplified by the knowledge that he should be able to do something about it but all too often it hasn't worked out for him.  as has been said already, when he's "on it" he can look a top player (Liverpool has been mentioned but he also tore Arsenal to bits on the opening day last year) as soon as things start to go against us he just doesn't seem to have the mental strength to pull a performance from nothing.

fact is, he probably should have moved on to get more experience and a better class of football. The last four years have not exactly honed the skills he has.