Summer 2015 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[paul_e]

The bit that gets me with all this is the assumption that UK based players will settle straight away and foreign players won't.  There's plenty of examples of English players moving and not recapturing their form.  For me it's a cop out people use to justify paying over the odds for average players.  Just like Nzog we'd be paying for the player he's been for 6months in his career when in all likelihood we'd get the player he's been for the rest of it.  Yes he's decent running with the ball and yes his wild Tonev style pot shots have led to a small number of goals but he can't cross, doesn't offer great movement, misses far more than he 'hits' when he's shooting and for me shows very little evidence that he'll suddenly become a 10 goal and 10 assist a season success that we'll all think was a bargain (which is effectively what happened with Young).

[Tom_Mc9?]

I'd happily take him. Not a world-beater, but by no means a bad player. Which means he's likely to be several echelons above the absolute dirge we've been served up in recent years.

[tomd2103]

Townsend would be an excellent signing even at £12m.

A midfield of Sinclair, Townsend, Delph sand Sanchez (if playing at their full potential) would be at least a mid table midfield.

Yep.  I could see it being set up as:

                Sanchez       Delph

Townsend      Grealish      Sinclair

                      Benteke

Read in one paper today that N'Zonzi might be availbale as he is out of contract at the end of the coming season.  I think he would offer a solid presence alongside Delph and allow us to have a bit more freedom in attacking areas.

[Matt Collins]

The 'For the money I think we can do better abroad' is just a cop out sentence

We've shopped abroad for the last 3 years, some players mainly Benteke have come good, but there is a whole host of foreign players bought in to the club who are no more than average and many not even that

I didn't think Lambert did badly on the money he spent in fairness, but it's got us into a perennial relegation battle, the players we have signed and are currently linked with I haven't got a problem with any of them at the moment

 btw I think Townsend is a far better player than Wieman, that's not based on stats but just on what I see when they play

Disagree completely. Benteke for £7m. Okore £3-4m. Bacuna £1m. Under oneill we paid £4.5m for harewood, £9m for Davies and £4m for Luke Young.
If we got the likes of helenius Sylla tonev and Luna wrong for a combined outlay of  about £5m we should learn from that but we've made much worse signings in the past

[Matt Collins]

Good point about Phillips too. Townsend would cost about double so I know where I'd be looking

[edgysatsuma89]

Just like Nzog we'd be paying for the player he's been for 6months in his career when in all likelihood we'd get the player he's been for the rest of it.

That's so true. I know it's indisputable that he is an England international and people use that a lot to seemingly justify that price but I would suggest that a lot (not all) of people would agree that he shouldn't be. Particularly a regular which baffles me when he can't even get in the spurs XI. That goes for Welbeck to.

Also agree re. Phillips. And although the same logic of only playing well for a few months would apply (although I have no prior knowledge of the rest of his career) I'm presuming it would be at half the price.

[cdbearsfan]

Good point about Phillips too. Townsend would cost about double so I know where I'd be looking

You'd take a guy who can't get a look in for Scotland ahead of a regular England international? I support Scotland, but that still seems skewed logic.

[Dave]

The 'For the money I think we can do better abroad' is just a cop out sentence

We've shopped abroad for the last 3 years, some players mainly Benteke have come good, but there is a whole host of foreign players bought in to the club who are no more than average and many not even that

I didn't think Lambert did badly on the money he spent in fairness, but it's got us into a perennial relegation battle, the players we have signed and are currently linked with I haven't got a problem with any of them at the moment

 btw I think Townsend is a far better player than Wieman, that's not based on stats but just on what I see when they play

Disagree completely. Benteke for £7m. Okore £3-4m. Bacuna £1m. Under oneill we paid £4.5m for harewood, £9m for Davies and £4m for Luke Young.
If we got the likes of helenius Sylla tonev and Luna wrong for a combined outlay of  about £5m we should learn from that but we've made much worse signings in the past

Indeed.

Yes, Sylla and Luna were rubbish at the cost of £1m a piece. If we'd spent £1m on equivalent players from England, they also probably wouldn't have been amazing.

Surprise, surprise when we spent £7-8m on a player from abroad then they are pretty good. We should be signing the next Mané, Coutinho, Eriksen - they all went for around £10-12m. If we're actually going to spend some money it would be a shame to settle for somebody inferior just because they happen to be English.

[ADVILLAFAN]

I think Phillips is a better player than Townsend and he would certainly be cheaper, as any Englishman costs a fortune.

[FatSam]

Southampton do business early in the window which indicates they know who they want, and they're gettable. They've already signed a couple of 22/ 23 year olds from abroad, spending £3-4m. They seem to get good value. I suppose they are adding them into a much stronger squad.

[KRS]

Carlos Gill is better and was only 3.25 mil! Imagine a swap deal plus cash for Townsend . That's some perspective. I wouldn't pay more than £6 mil for Townsend. Maybe add ons up to 2mil so max is 8mil. But! As stated before we have gill and really hope Sherwood uses him the coming season.

Spuds aren't going to sell an established Premier League English international for £6-8m so you'd best get back to your scouting mission please footyskilz...stop slacking off!

Ha. Okay sure. 1. But what of gill! And also I get that Townsend current international but he's not a starter at spurs bit like 2. weimann not being fancied. Poch and levy clearly want lamela to deliver goods and with goal scorers eriksen and chadli in the team Townsend doesn't fit ad first choice. 3. Does the dross want first team action or be left for just Europa games. The 2016 euro year coming up I think a loan with a view to buy could suit all parties. 4. I just feel 12 mil is steep

1. File under "fuck knows"...clearly TS either doesn't fancy him, he hasn't shown enough in training or he didn't feel he is the kind of player suitable for the relegation scrap we were in.
2. You cannot compare Townsend to Weimann...they are worlds apart in their general ability.
3. Townsend will be looking for first team football either at Spuds or another club...the question is if he'll be patient and fight for his place or jump ship to guarantee first team football elsewhere.
4. I agree that a loan would be a much better option for us but I suspect Spuds would rather keep him available in the squad or cash in than send him out on loan.

[KRS]

I do feel its narrow and limiting only to buy English or uk players.Southampton are bringing I some potential cracking players to add to the unknown untried to English fans including mane from austria who is far better than Townsend.

Southampton do business early in the window which indicates they know who they want, and they're gettable. They've already signed a couple of 22/ 23 year olds from abroad, spending £3-4m. They seem to get good value. I suppose they are adding them into a much stronger squad.

I'd suggest that its a dangerous precedent for us to follow the Southampton approach to recruiting overseas players at this point in time...they have the foundations of a strong squad that has qualified for Europa League next season, and have an excellent and experienced European manager and presumably a stronger European scouting network. Southampton are in a position where they can afford to take risks on relatively unknown foreign players and need to add to their squad for Europa League football...they can afford to take the risk if a few of their new signings don't work.

Compare that to our position which is a poor squad lacking quality and strength in depth that just about avoided relegation; we don't have an experienced manager or European scouting network; and we certainly can't afford the luxury of taking risks on unknown up and coming European players...if we get it wrong this summer then it could be the difference between survival and relegation next season.

[footyskillz]

Okay the answer then is Janazuji on loan. Euro 2016 year coming up. Needs game time and would be more effective and exciting  than Townsend.
Others to consider would be natan Dyer at Swansea, Robbie Brady and matt Philips I see them as better goal scoring threats than dross.
Sherwood making his own team would see 4-5 changes max in line up from Lambert team. But I wonder how many new faces would start after replacing those he moved on. We heard that lugano chose qpr as he was likely to play so I guess some signings coming in would be added to squad. Could well be a case of robinson, gards, herdy and Bennett coming in to take up squad places.
And of course we have Kozak and Gill our versions of Pelle and Mane/Elijah/Tadic.
I actually think Kozak be effective and as good as big man like Pelle or ariel threat likje andy carroll both has shown this so forgotten man kozack in euro 2016 year could be very handy in deed. If villa can play strength like Southampton a pairing of benteke kozack be effective with Sinclair and Phillips as width.

[Clark W Griswold]

Townsend would be an excellent signing even at £12m.

A midfield of Sinclair, Townsend, Delph sand Sanchez (if playing at their full potential) would be at least a mid table midfield.

Yep.  I could see it being set up as:

                Sanchez       Delph

Townsend      Grealish      Sinclair

                      Benteke

Read in one paper today that N'Zonzi might be availbale as he is out of contract at the end of the coming season.  I think he would offer a solid presence alongside Delph and allow us to have a bit more freedom in attacking areas.

Yep, that's exactly how I see it on the line up. Grealish in kind of a free role with the wingers either side and a hardworking engine room. Nzogbia and Gabby could be back up. The only problem of course would be if Benteke goes, we would need to find a similar player to replace him. Id like to see more defensive reinforcements also, certainly a couple more.

[Dave]

You cannot compare Townsend to Weimann...they are worlds apart in their general ability.

People keep saying this, but what is there that backs this up?

If he were scoring lots of goals or creating lots of goals for his teammates then great, it would be good to bring him in.

But he doesn't. He seems to be a winger who doesn't score or create anything. We've got one of them already.