Tom Cleverley - Loan Confirmed

[RussellC]

And yet Roberto Martinez, Alex Ferguson, and Roy Hodgson all disagree with Sam et al. They work with the player and see a lot more. They know what he can produce and what he should be able to produce.

Do they, though? Hodgson didn't rate him highly enough to take him to Brazil and in fact took injury doubts like Wilshere and the Ox instead, as well as relatively untried Lallana and a bit-part Milner. I don't think Martinez will be looking to take him to Everton at all, as I think he has plenty of options in midfield. Granted Ferguson played him, but at the same time that he was so short of midfield-options that he had to coax Paul Scholes out of retirement.

On the other side of the coin, it's apparent that the much heralded Van Gaal doesn't rate him sufficiently to play him in one of the weakest Utd sides in living memory.

I'm not doubting that Tom Cleverly is a decent footballer, or that he's good enough to play for Aston Villa, I'm just really not sure that he'd represent 'money well spent' if we were to bring him in this window.

[supertom]

If he were to go to Everton he'd be in the same boat as he is with Utd. He'd be a squad player. Now of course he could well go to the Toffees as they're in a great position in the current scheme of things in the Prem and we're not. Or he moves to a club like ourselves or Hull and plays week in, week out. If he plays regularly he'd maybe fancy an England recall.
In a straight choice between us and Hull, I think he comes here. We're a bigger club. In the grand scheme of things we'll be better than Hull over the next few years I think.
Lets not forget we still finished above them last season, and if anything they probably overachieved. I don't think they've as yet done enough business not to struggle again. Whether we have is debatable of course, but we'll see. He'd be crazy to choose them over us, unless they offer him a silly contract. In which case, I'd rather we didn't match that, along with such a big fee.

[SashasGrandad]

You never know about a player's value till he has played a few games for us - those of us with long memories remember thinking Ron Saunders was mad to spend £500,000 on Peter Withe.

But agree with comments about why we need another midfielder - when we haven't got any strikers to cover for Benteke/Kozak. Bent on Wednesday night was a waste of space, too slow and past it, even had me wishing we still had Bowery!

Joe Cole another waste of money - a few fancy flashes in areas of the pitch which will never hurt the opposition - and bugger all else. Won't be as effective as Robert Pires was. And he was crap.

Cleverley still has age on his side and might find his right level and hopefully he will find it here and do well.

[Legion]

You've gotta larf

[dave.woodhall]

You've gotta larf

At something else.

[Ads]

You've gotta larf

Its a pretty stupid comparison to comapre the two trasnfers though. Alonso will probably pick up £15 million wages across the next three seasons and have zero re-sale value.

[Legion]

More hilarity

[brian green]

What at? I could do with a larf.

[SamTheMouse]

Even if Cleverley does represent a slight upgrade on Westwood, it would be a shame if he took his place in the team. Westwood looks to have improved on last season, and in the first two league games he covered a lot of ground and tracked back, which were his two failings before. I'm struggling to see what Cleverley can do that Ashley can't.

The positions that need strengthening right now are the supporting strikers/wide men, because if Gabby and Weimann play indifferently - which is more often than not these days - then we seriously struggle to create chances. If we're going to bring in squad players, they need to be putting pressure on Weimann and especially Gabby, who looks like a man who knows he doesn't need to bother fighting for his place on the teamsheet.

[timeoutbigbar]

Has anyone with a reasonable amount of credibility actually even said we're in for him?  Everyone seems to be getting very 'excited'.

[Dr Butler]

I'm hoping that Roy is having a word with him about joining and also what young Tom will need to do to get in our side and stay there.

UTV
The Doc

[JUAN PABLO]

We just need to spend this money in another area like creativity and I hear he had potential when he was young , well a lot of players have this and never reach it and he is 25 now.

If other areas were now complete and he came for three million , I wouldn't have a problem with this but they are not ,ww can't break teams down , that's why we are awful at home.


Have we the luxury to spend 8 million on Tom cleverley

[kippaxvilla2]

Well with hopefully a choice of Valencia, Hull or Everton as well it won't be happening anyway.

You could argue there must be a player in there somewhere if four clubs are after him.

Nothing against him Clamps but he just isn't what we need immediately.  Number ten is an urgent priority.

[Clampy]

Well with hopefully a choice of Valencia, Hull or Everton as well it won't be happening anyway.

You could argue there must be a player in there somewhere if four clubs are after him.

Nothing against him Clamps but he just isn't what we need immediately.  Number ten is an urgent priority.

I'd still like to see a pacey wide man come in, someone who can come off the bench and run at the defence.

[ozzjim]

Chatting to a Leicester fan, he reckons Cleverly is excellent and needs to play as a number 10 in a free role. Apparently looked great there for them and Watford, not in central midfield.