Transfer Speculation / Gossip

[Toronto Villa]

My only concern with Cissokho is that he was truly awful at Liverpool.

Hopefully he's got that out of his system now.

he only played 15 times for them having been injured for the first 6 weeks after joining them on loan. What we know about the PL is that if you are just thrown in to the mix you can be shown up. I wouldn't look at that really short spell in English football as a true indicator of how good or bad a player he is to be honest.

[supertom]

My only concern with Cissokho is that he was truly awful at Liverpool.

Hopefully he's got that out of his system now.

Cissokho almost looks like he's a CH playing full back at times. He's rough with the ball (well, looked it a few times last season). He's got pace though. He's not hugely tall though I suppose, but he looks strong.
I suppose left of three centrehalves could suit him, with Rico taking the left wing back spot.

It's hardly inspiring but if he's been deemed good enough to play for Porto, Lyon, Valencia and Liverpool, there surely must be a player there. He only played 15 games for Liverpool, so maybe didn't get the chance to settle.

I'd gamble on him to be honest. If he can show he's a decent player it might be worth the punt and it marks a slightly more ambitious signing that the sort we've made thus far.

[pauliewalnuts]

It isn't an argument, though, it is a scenario. I was just running through the different scenarios in response to the previous poster, the point being that we don't really know how to judge the Senderos signing because we don't know what the squad is going to look like September 1st, and as such we don't know how Senderos will fit in.

I'm also not saying Vlaar will leave, but let's be honest, it's not hard to see that happening - he has just had an excellent world cup and has a year left on his contract, which is why the possibility is even being discussed.

[PeterWithesShin]

My only concern with Cissokho is that he was truly awful at Liverpool.

Hopefully he's got that out of his system now.

Cissokho almost looks like he's a CH playing full back at times. He's rough with the ball (well, looked it a few times last season). He's got pace though. He's not hugely tall though I suppose, but he looks strong.
I suppose left of three centrehalves could suit him, with Rico taking the left wing back spot.

It's hardly inspiring but if he's been deemed good enough to play for Porto, Lyon, Valencia and Liverpool, there surely must be a player there. He only played 15 games for Liverpool, so maybe didn't get the chance to settle.

I'd gamble on him to be honest. If he can show he's a decent player it might be worth the punt and it marks a slightly more ambitious signing that the sort we've made thus far.

On the flip-side you could say that there is a reason for him only playing 15 league games for Porto, 25 for Valencia over a 2 year period, and 15 for Liverpool.

I know sod all about him so hope he turns out to be ace, but figured i'd play the old devil's advocate role.

[Toronto Villa]

I suppose if he was really that bad a player he wouldn't end up at those clubs. Instead he'd have ended up playing for some no name Turkish club...

[Surrey Villain]

Think it was Robbie Keane who Doug wouldn't pay out for… went to Coventry!!

Thanks, of course it was.  Ten years or so later he came for a couple of months and helped keep us up. I suppose we'll be looking for somebody like that again in January!

[pauliewalnuts]

I suppose if he was really that bad a player he wouldn't end up at those clubs. Instead he'd have ended up playing for some no name Turkish club...

I don't really think that sort of reasoning works.

Some players get impressive moves without ever really showing why, some have a great spell at a decent club, then go on to do feck all elsewhere, some mook around at shit clubs for years and then out of nowhere start to look brilliant, making you wonder what they were doing at those small clubs in the first place.

We can only really judge them on what they do on the pitch, in the case of Cissokho, that being looking really poor for Liverpool and then failing to get back into the team.

Mind you, I thought Bertrand looked pretty poor for great chunks of last season, too.

[Surrey Villain]

it's being reported as a loan deal now also, not permanent. Could become permanent if he impresses.

They're making it up as they go along just to fill their columns We can only guess the same as they can but a 'rent to buy' deal with a fixed price at the end would be a sensible compromise then maybe we could spend that extra money on securing Ki. 

[Toronto Villa]

I suppose if he was really that bad a player he wouldn't end up at those clubs. Instead he'd have ended up playing for some no name Turkish club...

I don't really think that sort of reasoning works.

Some players get impressive moves without ever really showing why, some have a great spell at a decent club, then go on to do feck all elsewhere, some mook around at shit clubs for years and then out of nowhere start to look brilliant, making you wonder what they were doing at those small clubs in the first place.

We can only really judge them on what they do on the pitch, in the case of Cissokho, that being looking really poor for Liverpool and then failing to get back into the team.

Mind you, I thought Bertrand looked pretty poor for great chunks of last season, too.

yes, it certainly works both ways. However, I haven't watched enough of his games at Liverpool in depth to call him shit. 15 games is nothing really to make a full assessment on any player. And Liverpool have churned through a lot of players in the past few years, and very few defenders have really nailed down a spot there. Even the ones that have played the most like Skrtel look decidedly dodgy at the best of times.

[paul_e]

It isn't an argument, though, it is a scenario. I was just running through the different scenarios in response to the previous poster, the point being that we don't really know how to judge the Senderos signing because we don't know what the squad is going to look like September 1st, and as such we don't know how Senderos will fit in.

I'm also not saying Vlaar will leave, but let's be honest, it's not hard to see that happening - he has just had an excellent world cup and has a year left on his contract, which is why the possibility is even being discussed.

Yes but it's the most negative scenario possible and it's you taking that viewpoint that I question, I'm not saying it can't happen and I'm not saying there's anything wrong with you taking that position, it's just that if you look at it objectively saying that Vlaar (our captain and best defender) will leave and we won't bother replacing him isn't the most likely scenario over the next 3 weeks.

He may leave, I can see all the same reasons why that could happen that you can, but if he does you'd have to expect it would mean 30-40k wages and 8-12m in transfer fees would suddenly be available for a replacement. Given when we signed Senderos I see no evidence that he was signed to be a replacement (given the root cause for the concern was Vlaar's performances at the world cup after we'd already signed senderos) and therefore I don't see the logic that Lambert would now see him as that which seems to have been accepted by a lot of people.

[RussellC]

Given; Vlaar has made no statement of intent to leave, no club has bid (as far as we know), Lambert has stated he is happy at the club and we want to open discussions on a new deal

I'm still yet to see or hear any mention of the club offering Vlaar a new deal. Lambert's been quoted as saying, "'Ron's got another year still to go on his contract, it's not as if he's at the end of it 'Once we get back I'll sit with him, we'll have a bit more time, but he loves it at Villa, that's well known.' But the omission to say anything along the lines of "we're looking to offer him an extension" is glaring to me, and makes me think that it won't happen under Randy's stewardship. With a week to go until the season starts there's still not so much of a whisper on a new deal being offered to either Vlaar or Delph.

I hope beyond hope that both of these happen, but I certainly wouldn't call it a 'given'.

[bobdylan]

I'd be surprised if we tried to convert Cissokho into a centre half when we've just bought Senderos who can play there, but you never know.

[PeterWithesShin]

Maybe we should try converting Gabby into a CH? He can't be any worse there than he is at the other end of the pitch.

[N'Zimidy]

You never know, he might turn out to be half decent for Villa.

I really don't want him playing left wing-back and pushing Richardson inside to the midfield like we've seen in pre-season though. Richardson is a crap central midfielder.

[RussellC]

On topic - Sky have just shown Cissokho having a medical at BH.