Summer 2015 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[Damo70]

I imagine it's very easy at this point to link us with anybody that's even driven through N17.

I would imagine any member of The Saw Doctors would be an improvement at left back.

[Villa in Denmark]

Bronte

At the risk of starting a proper argument, would your attitude to Richards be different if he was called Mickey O'Richardson and pissed Guinness?

[Matt Collins]

I'd take Townsend and Huddleston. Trippier off to Spurs, so Walker to us as well please. Not a bad shopping list.

My main problem with signing Huddlestone would be that we'd have yet another player whose name people refused to spell properly 😉

[cdward]

I'd take Townsend and Huddleston. Trippier off to Spurs, so Walker to us as well please. Not a bad shopping list.

My main problem with signing Huddlestone would be that we'd have yet another player whose name people refused to spell properly

I agree Mat Colins, it's really annoying

[gervilla]

I imagine it's very easy at this point to link us with anybody that's even driven through N17.

I would imagine any member of The Saw Doctors would be an improvement at left back.

Christ,  I hate The Saw Doctors. Probably as much as I hate Stephen Ireland.

[Concrete John]

Regarding this thing about Richards being CB or RB and whether he can attack or not, I think the diamond we've mainly played under TS puts the onus on FBs to get forward, which isn't his strength.  Having signed Sinclair and being linked to Townsend, that would suggest to me more of a 433, so attacking width further up the pitch.  If we go that way, there's less emphasis on the FBs to bomb on, meaning we can have players like Richards there.

Just a thought.

[eamonn]

I imagine it's very easy at this point to link us with anybody that's even driven through N17.

I would imagine any member of The Saw Doctors would be an improvement at left back.

*Applause*

[RussellC]

Not at all but if you're going to go after £1m gambles the 2nd best outcome is getting your money back so I think labeling our recruitment as a massive failure is unwarranted.  There have been failures in there but in general Lambert was ok at that bit.  making a successful team out of the players he got was where he struggled, his record of destroying any potential in fullbacks was the crowning glory of his time with us, Bertrands start, fall and rise at Southampton should show just how shit Lambert was in that area.

I've made it pretty clear that I think our recruitment should focus on the best young players we can afford and trying to get 2-3 of them every season.  That way if we see 1-2 leave for big money and 1-2 fail we're building a conveyor belt of talent where the chances are that we'll always make profits.  The odd thing is mon tried to dabble in that market and was hugely successful with it (Young, Milner, Delph, Davies being the obvious exception), but he ruined it by also spending huge sums on players who had no resale value.  We're not in the right place to implement that strategy yet so people like Richards coming in are good because they have quality and experience and are young enough to be around for 4-5 years to serve as the cornerstones of this type of strategy.

Lambert’s recruiting was so inconsistent though, especially in the full-back area. We’ll never really know why we opted to go for Joe Bennett instead of Cresswell, but it proved to be an absolutely terrible decision. But then to ditch Bennett after one season for an unknown Spanish full-back, to then loaning a very attack-minded one, who he then ditched for a well-travelled, but very defence-minded full-back was utterly bizarre and, in my opinion, very poor recruitment. I’d be very surprised if we get our money back on these 3 too.

Then there’s the right-back situation where we’ve switched from an unproven League One full-back, to an unknown Dutch winger (converted) to an actually established right-back who was our player all along, but who we were trying everything to get off our wage-bill. Whilst this has been going on, the team has spent 3 consecutive seasons hanging on in the Premiership by the skin of its teeth.

I’m sorry, but  can’t see how this can possibly be considered anything other than dreadful recruiting.

[dave shelley]

I imagine it's very easy at this point to link us with anybody that's even driven through N17.

I would imagine any member of The Saw Doctors would be an improvement at left back.

Christ,  I hate The Saw Doctors. Probably as much as I hate Stephen Ireland.

You have to get behind me in the hate queue for those pair Ger.

As an aside.  The original drummer with the Saw Doctors, John Donnelly, comes from this town I live in.  I know his parents and, his brother played for the kids' team I managed.  I'm famous.

[footyskillz]

I think Townsend's transfer value probably carries a premium because he's one of those, often assumed mythical, 'left-footed wingers'.

The premium is probably because he's a Spurs player. We're lucky the story's not put his valuation at £20m.

I like Andros but we have Gil already and both are defensively inept somits unfair to replace Gil as such with Townsend. He gave nzog a go I think Charles Gill should get game time too but i fear he'll leave or loaned out. Jefferson Montero for swnasea has looked very effective going forward and thatbtyoe of player would be fun watch down the villa. Tsherwood can't just work with players he's familiar with if he himself wants to develop as a coach . Townsend for 12 million I actually think uneccesay to spend that amount on one player.

I could definitely see Robbie Brady coming from hull and huddelsdton .

[gervilla]

I imagine it's very easy at this point to link us with anybody that's even driven through N17.

Ahh balls.  I should have got your autograph when I met you.

I would imagine any member of The Saw Doctors would be an improvement at left back.

Christ,  I hate The Saw Doctors. Probably as much as I hate Stephen Ireland.

You have to get behind me in the hate queue for those pair Ger.

As an aside.  The original drummer with the Saw Doctors, John Donnelly, comes from this town I live in.  I know his parents and, his brother played for the kids' team I managed.  I'm famous.

[pauliewalnuts]

The problem wasn't the fact that we bought players for 1 or 2m and they almost all tanked.

It was that they were the players we were buying to actually play games. If we'd bought them as back up for 1m and sold them later for the same, then we'd have broken even on the fee (although we've incurred the wages cost), true. The problem is that too often those players were expected to play a lot of games, and were failures.

In that sense, the problem wasn't so much those players, the ones we did sign, it was the ones we didn't sign.

[Tom_Mc9?]

What you said Paulie reminds me a bit of Clark and Baker who were abysmal as a pairing two seasons ago, but both had much improved campaigns last time out. Something has been wrong with us over the last few years in the way we've bought players and the way in which we've bought youngsters through. I have the sense that it's a bit of a new start for us now (how many times have we heard that before?) and hopefully things will improve.

I suspect though, that we'll be linked to a lot of players like Huddlestone and Townsend who many will be underwhelmed by, but if we're brutally honest are probably a slight improvement on what we have - there's a reason we've struggled in recent times and why we're fourth or fifth favourites to go down next season. Our improvement will be in baby steps, not some meteoric rise.

[Villa in Denmark]

The problem wasn't the fact that we bought players for 1 or 2m and they almost all tanked.

It was that they were the players we were buying to actually play games. If we'd bought them as back up for 1m and sold them later for the same, then we'd have broken even on the fee (although we've incurred the wages cost), true. The problem is that too often those players were expected to play a lot of games, and were failures.

In that sense, the problem wasn't so much those players, the ones we did sign, it was the ones we didn't sign.

Also that they were all thrown in at the same time.  We could probably have coped with 2, maybe even 3 starting if they were surrounded by experience at that level.  The most experienced signing in Lambert's first 2 years was probably Vlaar, and he spent the first 6 months struggling to adapt to the pace and intensity of the PL.
Of the team that started his first game against West Ham, the only PL experienced players were Given and N'Zogbia.

[Godfrey Brian]

I imagine it's very easy at this point to link us with anybody that's even driven through N17.

I would imagine any member of The Saw Doctors would be an improvement at left back.

"I was standing on the edge of the parallelogram
roaring me head off
'Pass it in Sham'
Cross it in low, don't hesitate or stall.
For Christ's sake pass me the ball"

Mmmmm . Looks like they've some tactical thoughts though.