The January 2015 Transfer Rumour Thread

[PaulWinch again]

Sounds promising.

[barrysleftfoot]

 Damari Gray would be worth a punt at £3m

[godzvilla]

Agent confirms Lewis Macleod interest - Aston Villa and Newcastle link :

http://hereisthecity.com/en-gb/2014/12/07/agent-confirms-lewis-macleod-interest-aston-villa-and-newcastle/

" The agent of Rangers midfielder Lewis Macleod has confirmed that interest is being shown in a player linked with Aston Villa and Newcastle United.
Rangers’ financial struggles have been well documented and sales are expected in January.
The Ibrox outfit have become accustomed to seeing their prized assets picked off, and Ally McCoist maybe be about to see his resources cut once again.
Among those said to be generating interest from south of the border is Lewis Macleod.
The highly-rated 20-year-old was never going to be kept under wraps for long after graduating out of the Gers’ academy system.
Premier League pair Aston Villa and Newcastle United are among those said to be closely monitoring his situation, with New Year approaches being mooted.
Macleod’s representative concedes that there has been contact, with an untimely hamstring injury failing to put off suitors.
Paul Martin said in the Daily Record: “There has been interest in Lewis from more than one team but that’s all I’d say on the matter.”
Macleod is a playmaking midfielder who has represented Scotland at every youth level up to the U21 ranks.
His potential is clear for all to see and he would appear to possess the attributes required to be a success in England.
He would, inevitably, need time in which to adjust to the Premier League scene, having never previously competed at that level.
A switch to a Newcastle or a Villa would allow him to be eased into the fold, though, with Alan Pardew and Paul Lambert boasting the squad depth that means he would not be thrown in at the deep end.
A January move would make sense for all concerned, allowing the youngster to get a look at his new surroundings before kicking on during a full pre-season over the summer "....................Godzvilla !

[tomd2103]

Really think we could do with one or maybe even two wide players in the window.  N'Zogbia offers very little and we don't really have any other natural wide players in the squad. 

[OCD]

According to the commentator today, Clark's headed goal was our first headed goal of the season. That says a lot about crossing, width and supply to the strikers.

[Dave Cooper please]

According to the commentator today, Clark's headed goal was our first headed goal of the season. That says a lot about crossing, width and supply to the strikers.

Or that without Benteke our strikers are shite at heading.

Besides that scrambled goal against Fulham has Weimann scored with his head?

[paul_e]

According to the commentator today, Clark's headed goal was our first headed goal of the season. That says a lot about crossing, width and supply to the strikers.

Or that without Benteke our strikers are shite at heading.

Besides that scrambled goal against Fulham has Weimann scored with his head?

Weimann and Gabby are both decent in the air, the issue is both of them spend so much time working deep that they can't get in on the end of anything.  Add to that the fact that most of our crosses are from 25-30 yards out and naturally are going away from players running from deep you're not going to see us getting on the end of many of them.  Benteke being brilliant in the air and more willing to get right on the defenders shoulder means he gets to far more of those crosses.

[RussellC]

Weimann scored a very good headed goal against Hull last season.

[Matt Collins]

Yeah and against Man U and Ipswich in the cup

Isn't the main problem that we've barely scored rather than that we've scored a disproportionately small number of headers?

[OCD]

Most of our crosses are diagonals, which are a lot easier to defend. There's only really Cissoko getting to the touchline but most of the time his crossing is poor.

[RussellC]

Most of our crosses are diagonals, which are a lot easier to defend. There's only really Cissoko getting to the touchline but most of the time his crossing is poor.

Yeah, that's probably the only area that Lowton offers more than Hutton in. He puts in some great crosses when getting forward from full-back.

[paul_e]

Most of our crosses are diagonals, which are a lot easier to defend. There's only really Cissoko getting to the touchline but most of the time his crossing is poor.

Yeah, that's probably the only area that Lowton offers more than Hutton in. He puts in some great crosses when getting forward from full-back.

Lowton corsses from the same angle but he has the ability to get the ball to bend and dip late so it's tough for the keeper to claim and all the power the striker needs is in the ball so they just have to concentrate on hitting the target.  Hutton and Cissokho are both guilty of too many floaty crosses that are either meat and drink for the keeper or are hard to generate any power with so the striker is more concerned with that than with hitting the target.  We do the same with corners and free kicks.  We scored on Sunday because the free kick was really whipped in and Clark just had to pick a spot (Grealish put in an absolute diamond of a corner in the 2nd half as well which we should have done better with).

[RussellC]

I'm sure I've read elsewhere that Benteke prefers those floated corners that Westwood always puts across. He knows he can out-jump most defenders so i think his theory is the higher the better.

That said, I've no idea why we persisted with it when he was out of the side and you're right about Grealish- that was a great delivery. The last really good corner I can remember us taking was by Tonev in the home friendly against Malaga!

[Dave]

The last really good corner I can remember us taking was by Tonev in the home friendly against Malaga!

There was that one from Westwood that Benteke scored from in the Norwich 4-1.

Strangely the only time that I can remember that he's whipped a corner in - and we scored from it.

[Londonvilla]

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/2215095-sami-khedira-and-20-potential-free-transfers-in-the-2015-summer-window/page/2

Other notable players whose contracts (correct at the time of writing) will end in 2015:
•   Anderson, Manchester United
•   Ignazio Abate, AC Milan
•   Emmanuel Adebayor, Tottenham Hotspur
•   Luiz Adriano, Shakhtar Donetsk
•   Mikel Arteta, Arsenal
•   Khouma Babacar, Fiorentina
•   Yoann Gourcuff, Lyon
•   Glen Johnson, Liverpool
•   Stephane Mbia, Sevilla
•   Niklas Moisander, Ajax
•   Goran Pandev, Galatasaray
•   Alexandre Pato, Sao Paulo
•   Maxi Pereira, Benfica
•   Jeremy Toulalan, Monaco
•   Mathieu Flamini, Arsenal
•   Mark Noble, West Ham
•   Winston Reid, West Ham
•   Adama Traore, Barcelona B
•   Rafael van der Vaart, Hamburg
•   Connor Wickham, Sunderland
•   Maya Yoshida, Southampton
•   Carlos Zambrano, Eintracht Frankfurt
•   Jon Flanagan: Liverpool's


Connor Wickham has just signed a new contract so cross him off the list....