The January 2015 Transfer Rumour Thread

[Damo70]

yes according to the club he's returned as a 'man' apparently. That came as something of a shock to me because I always thought he was, but perhaps he had some sort of sexual orientation crisis at Chavski which explained his lack of form for years.

Wasn't his nickname at Atletico as a youngster 'El Nino'? (with a squiggly accent on the second n), meaning "the kid"?

Is probably a reference to that.

El Nino as you say which means the boy. As opposed to El Nina which means the girl. The N with the squiggly accent over it is an extra letter in the Spanish alphabet compared to ours and comes between N and O. It is pronounced Enya. From my time working in the Canary Islands I realised that the whole purpose of this extra letter was to confuse English tourists. The idea being that you are unaware of the significance of the squiggle so spend half an hour trying to get your key to unlock apartment number N9 for example when your actual apartment is in the next block and is Enya9.

[nigel]

Rumours are going around that we could be signing Zakaria Bakkali from PSV.

[RussellC]

Rumours are going around that we could be signing Zakaria Bakkali from PSV.

I'd much rather us go for a 'wild card' option like that than throw cash at the likes of Scott Sinclair.

[aj2k77]

Wiki says he's 18 and 5 ft 4.

[Clampy]

PSV apparantely demoted him to their B team this season because he refuse to sign a new contract, which is up in the summer. I've never heard of him to be honest.

[passitsideways]

Bakkali was like the hottest of the hot shit in FIFA 14, so make what you will of that.

[RussellC]

He's in the Belgian squad with Benteke and he played for PSV U19s against us in the 2012 NextGen series, so will at least have been to Villa Park. 2 things that my be in our favour if we are interested in him...

[ozzjim]

It would be a pretty incredible signing considering how highly thought of he is/ was - can't see that one coming off at all

I do think an attempt to loan Lennon might be good for us to add a bit of width without having to pay out big money. We need a couple more forward options still. Gabby, Weimann and NZogbia have to become subs/ backup to better players if we are going to start scoring goals.

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

they also want to free up a non EU space in their squad to put their summer signing Correa in.

Correa is going to Rayo Vallecano on loan I think. That's what they were suggesting a few weeks ago anyway.

Just read Rodriguez is close to moving to Parma on loan.

[hilts_coolerking]

Wiki says he's 18 and 5 ft 4.

They call him the Barry Bannan of the Maghreb.

[brontebilly]

Say what you might about O'Neill's profligacy, and he was - there's no getting away from that, but as soon as Lerner took matters into his own hands the decision making at the club has been truly abysmal.

The decision making that led to handing MON a blank chequebook was more damaging.

They were both damaging - the leaving MON in charge of the chequebook, and everything that came after he'd gone, too.

The thing is, when MON was spending the money, we had no idea how dangerous the finances were getting (partly because General K used to tell us not to worry our little heads about the money, they knew what they were doing, when they quite clearly did not), and then when he'd gone and Lerner had to make the big decisions all on his own, it became at first a mess, and then a mess that he didn't really give a shit about.

I am not having much of the criticism of Lerner (ie the mental "he's taking money out of the club" line that keeps coming up despite the huge evidence to the contrary), and I defended him longer than most, but I'll never forgive him his sudden, abrupt decision to not give a fuck any more.

All that "we'll be here through thick and thin" nonsense the General used to tell us, and the very instant it first became thin rather than thick, they just stopped giving a toss pretty much overnight.

Really disappointing it turned out like that.

When did that happen though?  The signing of Bent and others in January 2011 would suggest he was still engaged at that point.  I think the McLeish appointment probably signalled the end of any real ambition.

When we cashed in on the likes Young and Downing and brought in McLeish.

EPL survival has been the aim of our board since that summer.

In hindsight Lambert made a truly awful decision to leave Norwich for us.

[eamonn]

Awful? I doubt his bank balance would agree. And his ''young and hungry all the way'' spiel at the interview is what Lerner and Faulkner were dying to hear. All parties were happy, even us lot til the nightmare around Christmas 2012.

[paul_e]

Rumours are going around that we could be signing Zakaria Bakkali from PSV.

This would be a massive signing if it's true, he's one of the most highly rated teenagers around right now and looks like he's going to be a very special player.

I apologise for the really shitty music:

Reminds me a lot of Shaqiri has that same low centre of gravity, quick feet and willingness to wrap his foot round the ball and bend them into the far post.


I'd be very happy with this one.


fuck it, lets try to get Viktor Fischer and Youri Tielemans whilst we're at it and do young and hungry the right way, by signing the best teenagers on the planet.

[PaulWinch again]

I can't see there is any chance of us signing Bakkali.

[tomd2103]

Say what you might about O'Neill's profligacy, and he was - there's no getting away from that, but as soon as Lerner took matters into his own hands the decision making at the club has been truly abysmal.

The decision making that led to handing MON a blank chequebook was more damaging.

They were both damaging - the leaving MON in charge of the chequebook, and everything that came after he'd gone, too.

The thing is, when MON was spending the money, we had no idea how dangerous the finances were getting (partly because General K used to tell us not to worry our little heads about the money, they knew what they were doing, when they quite clearly did not), and then when he'd gone and Lerner had to make the big decisions all on his own, it became at first a mess, and then a mess that he didn't really give a shit about.

I am not having much of the criticism of Lerner (ie the mental "he's taking money out of the club" line that keeps coming up despite the huge evidence to the contrary), and I defended him longer than most, but I'll never forgive him his sudden, abrupt decision to not give a fuck any more.

All that "we'll be here through thick and thin" nonsense the General used to tell us, and the very instant it first became thin rather than thick, they just stopped giving a toss pretty much overnight.

Really disappointing it turned out like that.

When did that happen though?  The signing of Bent and others in January 2011 would suggest he was still engaged at that point.  I think the McLeish appointment probably signalled the end of any real ambition.

When we cashed in on the likes Young and Downing and brought in McLeish.

EPL survival has been the aim of our board since that summer.

In hindsight Lambert made a truly awful decision to leave Norwich for us.

Not so sure.  Many of the players who had a good first season in the Premiership (Holt, Ruddy, Hoolahan, Pilkington etc.) soon got found out and I think he would have found it very hard to keep them up.