Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[Villafirst]

Why can't Lerner just come out and say if there's any money for transfers? It's always just shrouded in secrecy - the club needs more transparency. Instead all you get is endless rumours and counter-rumours amongst the fans & media. A shambolic situation that's just left to fester.

I'd have no problem with him doing that but then people would want to know how much and the rumours would still continue anyway.

All I want to know (I did renew my ST on the very last day - with great hesitation) is there any money for transfers? - I'm not too bothered how much, but if none to made available to PL then that sends out a very poor message. I think fans who pay their ST money year-in-year-out have a right to know. Lerner needs to show his support to PL. The club's PR is a shambles.

[ADVILLAFAN]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2687556/Emile-Heskey-Striker-looking-new-club-England-spell-Australia.html

[dave.woodhall]

Why can't Lerner just come out and say if there's any money for transfers? It's always just shrouded in secrecy - the club needs more transparency. Instead all you get is endless rumours and counter-rumours amongst the fans & media. A shambolic situation that's just left to fester.

I'd have no problem with him doing that but then people would want to know how much and the rumours would still continue anyway.

All I want to know (I did renew my ST on the very last day - with great hesitation) is there any money for transfers? - I'm not too bothered how much, but if none to made available to PL then that sends out a very poor message. I think fans who pay their ST money year-in-year-out have a right to know. Lerner needs to show his support to PL. The club's PR is a shambles.

Does any club, ever, say how much they have to spend?

[supertom]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2687556/Emile-Heskey-Striker-looking-new-club-England-spell-Australia.html

Before a load of gags fly in about him possibly returning here, I wonder if Leicester might be tempted for a year? Perhaps a level too high for him now. Maybe the Sty will have him back.

[RussellC]

If we don't spend some money on a couple of good players we will be in big trouble. Teams can't continuously just avoid relegation year after year without it eventually catching up with them. Our squad isn't good enough as it stands.

Disagree - it's good enough to stay in this league, as has been proven these last 2 years. That doesn't mean it's a great squad or that we will play entertaining football or that I'm happy about it - but not good enough for this league is just baloney

Staying up for the past 2 seasons doesn't prove that the squad is good enough to stay-up for the coming season at all. That's 'baloney'. As has been mentioned several times on this thread, Premiership Clubs are likely to be throwing more money around than ever before this summer, at exactly the time that we appear to reigning-in our spending.

[PaulWinch again]

If we don't spend some money on a couple of good players we will be in big trouble. Teams can't continuously just avoid relegation year after year without it eventually catching up with them. Our squad isn't good enough as it stands.

Disagree - it's good enough to stay in this league, as has been proven these last 2 years. That doesn't mean it's a great squad or that we will play entertaining football or that I'm happy about it - but not good enough for this league is just baloney

Staying up for the past 2 seasons doesn't prove that the squad is good enough to stay-up for the coming season at all. That's 'baloney'. As has been mentioned several times on this thread, Premiership Clubs are likely to be throwing more money around than ever before this summer, at exactly the time that we appear to reigning-in our spending.

Indeed the league doesn't just stand still, if that were the case whoever won the league would just perpetually win it.

[Toronto Villa]

We've never gone a window without spending any money so why is there this air of doom and gloom suggesting that we are about to do that?

Quite simply, because we weren't up for sale in the previous windows.

So why has Randy sanctioned any deals at all? He could have just said screw it and he hasn't. Just because we are for sale doesn't mean business has stopped. And again, it's early July. Nothing has ended so it is way too early to determine that what has happened so far is what will be for the balance of the window.

[paul_e]

A few points on here:

RussellC - with the initial purchase and subsequent loans and interest write-offs he's put in somewhere between £250-300m.  All the loans have been converted to equity which adds them on to the price of the club but we're looking a sale of somewhere between £150-200m so he's going to be around £100m out of pocket.

Paulie - the self-sufficient stuff - basically the 2013-14 accounts may still record an accounting loss due to Amortisation but the club accounts were in the black by around £6m after the loan to equity write-off and will either stay that way or improve going forward. - I can't remember where I read this but there was a pretty good breakdown on one of the blog sites a couple of months ago.

Whilst I'm directing things at you you made a point of 'signing from the bargain bins with no indication of things getting better' (I'm paraphrasing). It's a good idea to stop for a second and realise that there is also no sign of things not getting better.  During Lerner's time at the club we have a net spend of £20m a season and we've had a statement from him this week basically saying things are going to continue as normal for the time being.  Given that it's fair to assume that we will still have that £20m to spend.

The biggest criticism  of Lambert in the transfer market so far should be that he's tried to spread the money too thinly, and has ended up with a number of gambles but of his more established signings only really KEA hasn't worked out (Okore and Kozak haven't played enough to judge them fairly but both seem suitable for at least a mid-table side). If he has decided this summer to switch to buying players in the £4-8m  bracket but thought he needed a few more than he could afford starting off with a few experienced guys on free or near free transfers and on fairly modest wages is pretty sensible.

Hilts - As per my response to Russell, the reality is owning Aston Villa Will have cost Lerner something like £10-12m a season by the time we're sold, criticise him for how that money has been spent if you like but it's totally unfair to criticise him for not spending.

[Ian.]

On Kieran Richardson, let me just ask this

We're playing stoke away first game and have luna, Bennett and Richardson to pick from. Imagine the game is tomorrow. Who do you pick at left back?

I pick Richardson

I also pick Richardson.

I also pick Richardson and so does my wife.

I pick Richardson. I also pick senderos above Baker. I guess the point, however, is that I'd have picked Bertrand and Lescott above both of them.

Pick me! Pick me!

[Gregorys Boy]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2687556/Emile-Heskey-Striker-looking-new-club-England-spell-Australia.html

Before a load of gags fly in about him possibly returning here, I wonder if Leicester might be tempted for a year? Perhaps a level too high for him now. Maybe the Sty will have him back.

Thought he'd retired to be honest.  I guess for a newly promoted club or mid-level championship he can still do a job.  Always wish Heskey good luck he's one of the good guys.

[RussellC]

We've never gone a window without spending any money so why is there this air of doom and gloom suggesting that we are about to do that?

Quite simply, because we weren't up for sale in the previous windows.

So why has Randy sanctioned any deals at all? He could have just said screw it and he hasn't. Just because we are for sale doesn't mean business has stopped. And again, it's early July. Nothing has ended so it is way too early to determine that what has happened so far is what will be for the balance of the window.

Well I firmly believe that he wouldn't sanction a deal for Lescott and so we had to sign Senderos instead. We also know that Lambert wanted Hoolahan but signed an older player for the same position who was available on a free transfer. I'm also sure that Lambert would have preferred to bu Bertrand than take Richardson for a 'nominal fee.'

A I mentioned earlier - we're rapidly filling up our 25-man squad. We showed last summer that we're very poor at moving-on our unwanted players. It goes without saying that we can only really judge the window once it's finished but, to me, there are absolutely no signs that we're going to make any kind of significant investment or, indeed, any drastic improvement in the quality of the squad.

[RussellC]

paul_e - you're completely right, there's no denying that Lerner has spent during his time at Villa.

However, I do disagree that there's no reason to assume we'll be continuing our average yearly spend this summer, as all of the evidence suggests otherwise to me. Aside from what Lambert's incomings so far suggest, Lerner could quite easily have made reference to "money being available for transfers" in his latest statement, but didn't. In fact, given that it's season-ticket renewal time it would have made great commercial sense to talk this up as much as possible, and he did anything but do that.

[paul_e]

paul_e - you're completely right, there's no denying that Lerner has spent during his time at Villa.

However, I do disagree that there's no reason to assume we'll be continuing our average yearly spend this summer, as all of the evidence suggests otherwise to me. Aside from what Lambert's incomings so far suggest, Lerner could quite easily have made reference to "money being available for transfers" in his latest statement, but didn't. In fact, given that it's season-ticket renewal time it would have made great commercial sense to talk this up as much as possible, and he did anything but do that.

My point though was that there is no reason to not assume that either.  No one knows but looking at 3 free/nominal transfers and assuming that we won't spend much when we're not even half way into a 13week transfer window is potentially jumping the gun.

I'm not saying we will spend but I just don't see anything to categorically state that we won't as some people seem quite eager to do.  To me the statement this week was basically a 'business as usual' announcement, so I look on that as an indication that spending will be as usual, even if the actual transfer 'kitty' wasn't addressed.

I admit I'm generally a fairly optimistic person which will serve to add a bias, but given all the pessamistic posters lace everything with a negative slant I don't see a problem with it, the reality is we will spend some money later in this window, it won't be as much as some people want but it will be more than some people expect.

To add a bit of context to this, when Lambert joined he made 2 signings pretty early (KEA and Lowton) but then most of his spending, including his big buy of the summer, was in August. Last year he did a lot of business in June but then his major signing came in August.  I think we'll see the same again with the bigger signing(s) happening later in the window.

[ClaretAndBlueBlood]

I admit I'm generally a fairly optimistic person

you cant be coming on here and saying that, and you cant be a true villa fan either!!!

[hilts_coolerking]

Hilts - As per my response to Russell, the reality is owning Aston Villa Will have cost Lerner something like £10-12m a season by the time we're sold, criticise him for how that money has been spent if you like but it's totally unfair to criticise him for not spending.

He isn't spending.  That's perfectly fair criticism.  If I had said 'he has never spent', which neither I nor anyone else on H&V is saying, then you might have a point.  I would prefer it if he spent a small fraction of his inordinate wealth on significantly strengthening the squad so that we're not involved in yet another relegation battle, rather than cutting costs in order to claw back some of the money he has wasted.

To read some of the posts on this thread it's almost as if the bloke is potless and asking for funds for the three or four quality signings we need is going to see him slide into poverty.  The club has slid down the table, the squad is largely crud, we've just about managed to avoid relegation two years in a row and yet some people think it's unreasonable to expect our multi-millionaire owner to address that.

Personally speaking I'm more interested in the team than in ensuring Lerner has £440M rather than £400M in his bank account.*

*Or whatever the figure might be