Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[Flamingo Lane]

Leon Britton lacks natural aggression.  What we need is a Norman "Bites Your Legs" Tebbit.

[cdbearsfan]

After the scum bag took the dive to win them a penalty, I am surprised that any Villa Fan with a memory larger than a goldfish could stomach him wearing the shirt again.

I take it you wouldn't want Robben, Ronaldo or Bale signing for Villa?

[supertom]

The trouble with Westwood is, he's a decent passer, but you wouldn't call it an acceptable attribute. His passing isn't good enough to mask the other deficiencies in his game. He's the sort of player who at Championship or L1 could look like Pirlo for someone. At our level, he's not quite good enough as more than a squaddie.
Also, particularly last season, Westwood had a disappointing tendency to disappear in games and go hiding. For me, the sort of deep lying play that he's expected to be, and perhaps aspires to be, would not do that. He does though. He spent far too long standing in the shadows of opposition players, almost taking himself out of large chunks of the game. Partly confidence yes, but also I think an indication that in the grand scheme of things, he's not of the required standard you'd expect from a week in, week out Premiership player. He needs a bit more nous, more guile, a bit more of an attitude to stamp his authority on a game rather than meekly stepping away from it.

Most definitely needs replacing in the first 11. As an option on the bench or to cover, he's fine. I don't see him plying his trade in the top flight in 2-3 years time to be honest. I think he'll take a drop.

Two more midfielders in and I think our squad is just about enough to see us finish comfortably, barring  bastard luck with injuries again. Midfield has been far and away our biggest weakness. Sort it out and our defence and attack both improve. Delphy needs help.

[N'ZMAV]

Westwood is good when we're on top in games. When we're under pressure he struggles.

[silhillvilla]

For the likes of Westwood it's season 3 in the PL. Hopefully we will see the improvement with the experience gained

[N'ZMAV]

It's make or break for the likes of Westwood, KEA and Lowton etc... I imagine they're all around 12-24 months left on their contracts after this season.

[tomd2103]

He would still be a decent signing.

Depends on how much he has left in the tank I guess, as we wouldn't want another Pires situation.  We have been crying out for an experienced midfielder who can sit in front of the back four and dictate play for a while now.  I remember Ivan Campo having some good seasons for Bolton a few years ago despite arriving in England at a similar age (if not older). 

Cambiasso is 33, Campo joined Bolton when he was 28. He actually left Bolton at a similar age to Cambiasso is now.

That's not to say that we shouldn't sign him just because of his age. Liverpool got two great seasons out of 35 year old Gary McAllister and ManYoo got a couple of useful seasons out of Laurent Blanc at the same age as Cambiasso is now.

Got my Spaniards mixed up Dave.  Fernando Hierro was the one who went there at the end of his career wasn't he?

[john e]

In the right overall structure, Westwood could be a Leon Britton for us. 

Britton isn't particularly dynamic, nor a good all-round midfielder. But what he does (awareness, taking up good positions and keeping play ticking over) he does very well.

The way we play, I am not sure that type of player will be much use to us, however.  Barring ridiculous offers coming in, it is Delph plus two others in midfield.  One of them (at least) needs to be able to provide us with a degree of defensive protection.

Funny, I thought Leon Britton was a particularly pompous Tory S of S and Euro Commissioner recently back in the news over paedophiliac cover-ups at the Home Office. Certainly wouldn't have been a dynamic midfielder at any time in his life, I suspect.

Westminster cover ups that Dano predicted,
we sniggered

[Matt Collins]

Westwood is good when we're on top in games. When we're under pressure he struggles.

That's it. I think he's out most under rated player. I'd like a physically stronger option in there - alongside or instead of. But I really think people criticise him too much. He was way, way better than Weimann or Lowton last season, but I think he gets criticised more

[kippaxvilla2]

http://www.claretandhugh.info/hammers-answer-claims-on-villa-target/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=hammers-answer-claims-on-villa-target

File under crap hopefully

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

A Leon Britton. Just what we need.

A proven premier league player for a team that's comfortably above relegation standard? Yes please.

They finished 4 points above us and generally looked in trouble of going down all year. Not exactly "comfortably above relegation standard".

Britton is an extremely limited player. Great at 3 yard passes, shit at everything else. Sound familiar?

[ChicagoLion]

After the scum bag took the dive to win them a penalty, I am surprised that any Villa Fan with a memory larger than a goldfish could stomach him wearing the shirt again.

I take it you wouldn't want Robben, Ronaldo or Bale signing for Villa?

I must have missed them playing for the Villa or even diving to win a pen against The Villa.

[pauliewalnuts]

After the scum bag took the dive to win them a penalty, I am surprised that any Villa Fan with a memory larger than a goldfish could stomach him wearing the shirt again.

I take it you wouldn't want Robben, Ronaldo or Bale signing for Villa?

I must have missed them playing for the Villa or even diving to win a pen against The Villa.

Would you not want them to sign for us if they had?

[sirlordbaltimore]

You can't moan about Young diving against us when we all turned a blind eye when he did it for us surely ? That's his job as a footballer, to get a result for the team that pay his wages.

It's like those that went mad at Yorke for kissing his badge in front of the Holte after receiving dogs abuse for the whole match. Daft sods

Hurry up back Ashley!

[olaftab]

After the scum bag took the dive to win them a penalty, I am surprised that any Villa Fan with a memory larger than a goldfish could stomach him wearing the shirt again.

Fully agree. Scum and cheat. He is dead to me.