Summer 2015 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[paul_e]

One has managed 12 goals in 3 seasons, and 1 has been out for 18 months. Currently our highest scoring midfielder from last season has not been replaced and our best midfielder has been replaced with a guy who looks the part but may take time to settle. I agree, resolving the midfield will help no end, but we are nowhere remotely close to doing so.

True, but that's what we've got to work with, unless we sell both and buy an entirely new strike force it's wrong to use those stats as justification for marginalising those 2 which is what buying 2 strikers would mean and both Adebayor and Austin would, in my opinion, have to be accompanied by another striker, Adebayor because he's too unpredictable and Austin because I just don't think he can play on his own (look at that video, where he does decent passes, etc it's always to a guy who's a couple of yards away, it's a trait of a guy who's spent his career playing 442 and knows where the support will be, there's no chance we'll be regularly playing that way this season).

Last season we were all panicked about having to trust gabby and weimann at the start of the season and it turned out to be the one good period we had before the spring.  I'd rather we sign beast mark 2 and use the squad to help him settle for a few months than we sign a fucking expensive interim solution, either instead of the player we really want or to act as a barrier to that player getting game time.

[silhillvilla]

I think Austin would be a shit signing.

It would send as clear a message as possible that we hadn't learned a fucking thing from the relentless circus we've endured for not just the last 5 years, but long before that too.

Look at Christian Benteke. Then look at Charlie Austin. How the Fuck is that supposed to work then?

I'm inclined to agree.

In the summer of 2012, Yakubu had just scored 17 goals for Blackburn and Holt had scored 15 for Norwich. Lambert could easily have taken the easy route and gone with "well, we shouldn't take a risk and just spend our £7m on somebody who has proven they can score in the Premier League", but fortunately he didn't. I'm pretty certain that there were plenty of people at the time saying that we shouldn't be taking a risk in spending so much of our meagre budget on someone who hardly anybody had heard of.

Austin might not necessarily go on the same downward career spiral as the two examples at the top, but I'd be perfectly happy to take our chances on somebody who might be the next Benteke but might turn out to be less than that, over somebody that we know is going to be Charlie Austin.

Talk about over simplification, sweeping generalisations and selective modelling. You do realise we are less than 3 weeks from our opening game don't you. Charlie Austin is about as good as we can go for now. Let's hope we can convince him to join.

[ozzjim]

My preference for a front man would be Callum Wilson.

He gave Vlaar the run around when he came on in the Cup last season and looked a nightmare to defend against.

He would be my preference ahead of Bamford, Rhodes, Gestede, Austin etc

Good to see us linked with him today, from the area and will know what playing for AVFC is all about

Will be disgusted to see the likes of Townsend and Abedayor stealing a living from the club, Kyle Walker and Dembele please instead

Also Alex Pritchard did very well at Brentford last season, good set piece taker of which we dont have any and scored plenty of goals

Wilson looked a real handful every time I saw Bournmouth on the TV. Good age too, but the fee could be high and convincing him difficult.

[Chinchilla Bathhouse]

Also Alex Pritchard did very well at Brentford last season, good set piece taker of which we dont have any and scored plenty of goals

Haven't seen him play much but you're dead right about set pieces; that's an area we really haven't capitalised on for ages.  I don't want us to be like Big Sam's Bolton or anything, but there's got to be some middle ground between that and Westwood's floaty corners.

[brontebilly]

My preference for a front man would be Callum Wilson.

He gave Vlaar the run around when he came on in the Cup last season and looked a nightmare to defend against.

He would be my preference ahead of Bamford, Rhodes, Gestede, Austin etc

Good to see us linked with him today, from the area and will know what playing for AVFC is all about

Will be disgusted to see the likes of Townsend and Abedayor stealing a living from the club, Kyle Walker and Dembele please instead

Also Alex Pritchard did very well at Brentford last season, good set piece taker of which we dont have any and scored plenty of goals

Wilson looked a real handful every time I saw Bournmouth on the TV. Good age too, but the fee could be high and convincing him difficult.

the fee will be over 10m anyway but I think he is worth the gamble

Bournemouth play nice football in a nice part of England but the Holte End fits more than their ground

[ozzjim]

Watching the youtube of the Belgian lad, you would have to play with width to get the best from him and get the ball across. If we are looking to play a different way he may not fit.

[Toronto Villa]

I'd rather buy someone who has a built a bit of a reputation as a primary forward and then somehow incorporate Callum Robinson. He's a talented young player and would thrive being part of the first team set up. Adebayor wouldn't be the worst short term decision but there has to be forwards who are better all round options in Europe. We've secures two good players from the continent already so with the softer Euro vs the £ I'd stay there and find another gem.

[tomd2103]

My preference for a front man would be Callum Wilson.

He gave Vlaar the run around when he came on in the Cup last season and looked a nightmare to defend against.

He would be my preference ahead of Bamford, Rhodes, Gestede, Austin etc

Good to see us linked with him today, from the area and will know what playing for AVFC is all about

Will be disgusted to see the likes of Townsend and Abedayor stealing a living from the club, Kyle Walker and Dembele please instead

Also Alex Pritchard did very well at Brentford last season, good set piece taker of which we dont have any and scored plenty of goals

Wilson looked a real handful every time I saw Bournmouth on the TV. Good age too, but the fee could be high and convincing him difficult.

I think he's from the West Midlands, so might welcome a return closer to home.

[passitsideways]

I think Austin would be a shit signing.

It would send as clear a message as possible that we hadn't learned a fucking thing from the relentless circus we've endured for not just the last 5 years, but long before that too.

Look at Christian Benteke. Then look at Charlie Austin. How the Fuck is that supposed to work then?

I'm inclined to agree.

In the summer of 2012, Yakubu had just scored 17 goals for Blackburn and Holt had scored 15 for Norwich. Lambert could easily have taken the easy route and gone with "well, we shouldn't take a risk and just spend our £7m on somebody who has proven they can score in the Premier League", but fortunately he didn't. I'm pretty certain that there were plenty of people at the time saying that we shouldn't be taking a risk in spending so much of our meagre budget on someone who hardly anybody had heard of.

Austin might not necessarily go on the same downward career spiral as the two examples at the top, but I'd be perfectly happy to take our chances on somebody who might be the next Benteke but might turn out to be less than that, over somebody that we know is going to be Charlie Austin.

Talk about over simplification, sweeping generalisations and selective modelling. You do realise we are less than 3 weeks from our opening game don't you. Charlie Austin is about as good as we can go for now. Let's hope we can convince him to join.

Over-simplification and sweeping generalisations? You mean like "Austin gets the ball into the net. That's all that matters ."?

[Matt Collins]

A big factor at the moment is a really significant lack of pedigree in this league right throughout the squad. People make the Southampton comparison but they retained a really strong spine - and obviously bought very well

Having a forward who knows what it takes in this league has lots of advantages. We don't want to be completely reliant on new faces no matter how promising.

I continue to come round to the adebayor signing.

Playing praet, Gil and grealish behind a striker sounds sexy. But there's no premier league goal between them and hardly any top flight goals anywhere.

[RussellC]

A big factor at the moment is a really significant lack of pedigree in this league right throughout the squad. People make the Southampton comparison but they retained a really strong spine - and obviously bought very well

Having a forward who knows what it takes in this league has lots of advantages. We don't want to be completely reliant on new faces no matter how promising.

I continue to come round to the adebayor signing.

Playing praet, Gil and grealish behind a striker sounds sexy. But there's no premier league goal between them and hardly any top flight goals anywhere.

Completely agree with this. In isolation I would love us to try to unearth another foreign gem to replace Benteke and Delph but we have literally lost all of the Premiership pedigree from our squad in the past few weeks. Amavi and Gueye both look great, but the reality is that 90% of us hadn't heard of them 4 weeks ago. Perhaps Adebayor and Austin aren't the right answer but, at this stage, I would much rather bring in 2/3 players who know the league well and won't need time to adapt.

[Matt Collins]

If you run through our best eleven now it's pretty sobering.

Gueye might be great but other than that we're reliant on Westwood really stepping up and he's never looked that great in a two man midfield. I'm not sure if grealish and Gil can play together. And Sinclair, zoggy and gabby are all hot and cold.

The good news is there are plenty of other sides who don't have great pedigree or who have plenty of past it players - ahem Sunderland.

[Ads]

I'm not too worried by what our squadooks like now. We are still doing business.

[ozzjim]

Will be interesting if anything happens with Darder this week. Heavily linked in Spain even saying he would sign a 5 year deal this week but very little to nothing over here about it.

[Dante Lavelli]

Will be interesting if anything happens with Darder this week. Heavily linked in Spain even saying he would sign a 5 year deal this week but very little to nothing over here about it.

I'm in the minority but I wasn't impressed by his youtube montage, most of the time he was giving the ball away.