January 2016 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[Mister E]

What if we simply don't have many good ones? Lyden should have a shot in midfield, but then we should also be giving Gardner a run too if he is fit.

i have a feeling that they arent good enough you have to question why we have an academy as grealish apart in 4 seasons we have seen no one else come through

with all the will in the world gardner is too injury prone to ever play at the top level

Well, Lyden, Kinsella and Calder had a shout in close-season and didn't look out of place.
Daniel Johnson is a lad who got sold and is now doing well at Preston; Graham at Dogheads and James Collins (the youth player, not the Welsh CB) have also done well. Time to try our current crop? - why not?!

[Gareth]

January should be about trying our best to get shot of some of these lily livered wimps & cowards now that relegation is guaranteed.  The levels of performance & effort over the last few years have been beyond dire and the sooner the likes of Guzan / Hutton / Clark / Baker / Senderos / Bennett / Cissohko/ Westwood / Bacuna / N'Zogbia / Richardson / Cole / Kozak / Agbonlahor / Gil to mention a few are gone the better.

Am sick of our club being leeched upon by player after player with seemingly a club scared to criticise or do anything to change the underachieving patheticness & it is a key going forward that we get a set of players who a) want to play for Villa & b) don't have to be pandered to.

A new start with players who are physically fit, mentally alert, technically competent & desperate to develop & succeed is what is required.

We need leaders, those who lead by example & those who aren't scared to get in the faces of players who continually make mistakes.  We have a group who are too nice & too accepting of failure....it doesn't hurt to lose!

I want to see blood letting - players, management, board - there is not one who is deserving of respect & seeing a few kicked out of the door will be a pleasure even if it won't change a thing this season.

Yes, I am still pissed off with yesterday & I never went further than the sofa, can only imagine how those who went feel.

[godzvilla]

What if we simply don't have many good ones? Lyden should have a shot in midfield, but then we should also be giving Gardner a run too if he is fit.
[/quote

i have a feeling that they arent good enough you have to question why we have an academy as grealish apart in 4 seasons we have seen no one else come through

with all the will in the world gardner is too injury prone to ever play at the top level

Well, Lyden, Kinsella and Calder had a shout in close-season and didn't look out of place.
Daniel Johnson is a lad who got sold and is now doing well at Preston; Graham at Dogheads and James Collins (the youth player, not the Welsh CB) have also done well. Time to try our current crop? - why not?!

Re Jordan Graham at at Dogheads (  http://www.teamtalk.com/news/exclusive-bournemouth-track-wolves-winger-graham )  , he“s been getting a lot of really good reviews for while now , I didn“t realise he was the Graham that we sold to them.
Remember when he and Robinson ( now Bristol City ) were scoring for fun in our Youth Teams ?.   
Just another addition to that  “one that got away“ list ..............Godzvilla!

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

Just get rid of the lot of them, even if it's for nothing. Not one of these players will be hurt when we do go down, they'll all bugger off elsewhere or, if they're too shit to get a move will inevitably sit on their 40/50/60k a week contracts because successive twats in charge of the club have probably not thought about putting a relegation clause onto their wages/contract.

[David_Nab]

Once Gabby /Nzog goes I'd say only Richards is on anything like top Prem league wages.Though guys from France would have been on peanuts ( compared to Prem League wages) and has been reported all signings now have relegation clauses in contracts

[aj2k77]

What if we simply don't have many good ones? Lyden should have a shot in midfield, but then we should also be giving Gardner a run too if he is fit.

We don't really know if they are terrible or not do we. They aren't given a shot and aren't spoken about. We don't really have any communication from the club about anything.

What kind of communication are you expecting?

Why isn't Kozak specifically being selected? What is happening behind the scenes that make him unpickable?
What is Gardeners injury and what is the projected return date?
Is Ilori alive?
Are any of the u21 players close to getting selected?

Just some basics like that would be appreciated.

You can hardly expect the club to come out and talk about why some players can't get a game, it doesn't quite work like that.

How does it work then? We act like a branch of the secret service. Is it that difficult to say Ilori is this or that and will not be selected at the moment, or Gary Gardener has had such and such happen to his recovery and is expected to be out until February.

We hear fuck all from them, which actually is a blessing, because most of what they come out with is shite. I've changed my mind, I'd rather be a mushroom and kept in the dark after all.

[aj2k77]

Isn't the role of the local press to ask those questions, and do articles and research on that. Interesting stories about the youth coming through, question the club as to where the production line has gone, why Kozak is not in, where Gardner and Ilori are for example. Surely they should be doing those articles regularly, not the club.

Good points Ozzjim. The national press think we are irrelevant apart from some jokes about our next win etc and the local press are useless and have a smug prick of a boggie covering us.

[dave.woodhall]

Find me another club who publicly explain their manager's team selections and maybe I'll agree with you.

[sickbeggar]

People calling for a total clear out of staff are missing the point. Garde at least comes over as a thinker so hopefully its not an act. We're going to have to make some painful decisions on who we keep, not just who jumps ship if clubs offer them a chance. I hope we're now analising the strengths and weaknesses of even the total bottlers this season to see if they're some use next

Someone like westwood for example

Is he a premiership player?

Has played well in the past. Before this season, never looked completely out of his depth

Can he handle the championship?

Well we bought him based on performances from the lower leagues so yes

Has he the mentality to play in the championship or is he just here for the money? Probably would buckle down.

Can he get better? Well at 25 he should do

Can we afford him?

Would anyone pay us enough to bother selling him  and how long is his contract?


And so on with every other player.


If Garde gets that right then hopefully the bad eggs will be moved on, the rubbish will be moved on, and the rest will hopefully intigrate with new signings. We got rid of a lot of dead wood, and talented players when we last went down, but those that stayed did redeem themselves somewhat eventually under SGT

[Dave]

What if we simply don't have many good ones? Lyden should have a shot in midfield, but then we should also be giving Gardner a run too if he is fit.

We don't really know if they are terrible or not do we. They aren't given a shot and aren't spoken about. We don't really have any communication from the club about anything.

What kind of communication are you expecting?

Why isn't Kozak specifically being selected? What is happening behind the scenes that make him unpickable?
What is Gardeners injury and what is the projected return date?
Is Ilori alive?
Are any of the u21 players close to getting selected?

Just some basics like that would be appreciated.

You can hardly expect the club to come out and talk about why some players can't get a game, it doesn't quite work like that.

How does it work then? We act like a branch of the secret service. Is it that difficult to say Ilori is this or that and will not be selected at the moment, or Gary Gardener has had such and such happen to his recovery and is expected to be out until February.

We hear fuck all from them, which actually is a blessing, because most of what they come out with is shite. I've changed my mind, I'd rather be a mushroom and kept in the dark after all.

www.avfc.co.uk

The club would like it made aware to supporters that both Remi Garde and Tim Sherwood before him thinks that Libor Kozak is pony and was a bit of a waste of the club's money when we should really have been buying a creative midfielder or a better wide forward. He's not really got over his injury as well as we'd liked, so Garde has decided not to pick him until he looks a bit less mopey and does something in training.

The club would also like to announce that Tiago Ilori isn't really working out. To be honest he was a bit of a last-minute punt, he didn't really want to come here and Paddy Reilly said we might as well give it a go as he was available and he looked pretty handy in some international tournament the other year.

As for our super under-21 squad, well... they're not really as good anymore since we took the focus and funding away. A couple of them might make it, but our track record was pretty ropey when the budget was bigger and the coaches were better, so what hope do this lot have? Lewis Kinsella might see a few minutes given how shit the other options are while Amavi is out, but what's the point with the rest of them?

Be sure to snap up your tickets for the home match against Crystal Palace, now on sale

[Clampy]

What if we simply don't have many good ones? Lyden should have a shot in midfield, but then we should also be giving Gardner a run too if he is fit.

We don't really know if they are terrible or not do we. They aren't given a shot and aren't spoken about. We don't really have any communication from the club about anything.

What kind of communication are you expecting?

Why isn't Kozak specifically being selected? What is happening behind the scenes that make him unpickable?
What is Gardeners injury and what is the projected return date?
Is Ilori alive?
Are any of the u21 players close to getting selected?

Just some basics like that would be appreciated.

You can hardly expect the club to come out and talk about why some players can't get a game, it doesn't quite work like that.

How does it work then? We act like a branch of the secret service. Is it that difficult to say Ilori is this or that and will not be selected at the moment, or Gary Gardener has had such and such happen to his recovery and is expected to be out until February.

We hear fuck all from them, which actually is a blessing, because most of what they come out with is shite. I've changed my mind, I'd rather be a mushroom and kept in the dark after all.

www.avfc.co.uk

The club would like it made aware to supporters that both Remi Garde and Tim Sherwood before him thinks that Libor Kozak is pony and was a bit of a waste of the club's money when we should really have been buying a creative midfielder or a better wide forward. He's not really got over his injury as well as we'd liked, so Garde has decided not to pick him until he looks a bit less mopey and does something in training.

The club would also like to announce that Tiago Ilori isn't really working out. To be honest he was a bit of a last-minute punt, he didn't really want to come here and Paddy Reilly said we might as well give it a go as he was available and he looked pretty handy in some international tournament the other year.

As for our super under-21 squad, well... they're not really as good anymore since we took the focus and funding away. A couple of them might make it, but our track record was pretty ropey when the budget was bigger and the coaches were better, so what hope do this lot have? Lewis Kinsella might see a few minutes given how shit the other options are while Amavi is out, but what's the point with the rest of them?

Be sure to snap up your tickets for the home match against Crystal Palace, now on sale

Now that's sarcasm.

[ChicagoLion]

Top post Dave.
Cheered me up.

[old man villa fan]

It is looking more likely by the week that we will be relegated so next season starts now or very soon at least.

Garde needs to identify a style of play that he wants to develop and which players currently can fit into that and look to discard the ones that don't fit in.  To that end, if players do not want to move just tell them they will not be in the squad, will stay until their contract runs out and explain to them that without football, their careers will effectively end.  Alternatively, they can go and find a new club and perhaps give them something to soften the blow of lower wages but not pay them off.

What we need is some experience and some old fashioned professionalism from players that want to play i.e. solid pros.  There must be quite a few around Europe that have not been tainted by the PL bullshit that would buy into giving a couple of years so that younger players can be developed around them.  A good solid defensive midfield player, a centre back and one or two more.

One of the problems we have is that Garde brings a player in and he plays ok for one or two games and then falls back into his old ways and is part of the reason in my opinion why he is switching the team around.  Examples of this are Sinclair and Bacuna.  Is it a confidence thing, I don't know.  We cannot continue like this and a line needs to be drawn on those that are not going to improve significantly.

Our style of play is so predictable and easy to play against.  Perhaps taking some players out of the team may lead to more variety.  An example of this our use of Hutton down the right.  His head down, run and think of a pass/cross when he gets down the other end of the pitch must leave some of the other players thinking why should they try and take up good positions when they know they will not get the ball.  Traore is inexperienced but must be at a loss to think how he should play with Hutton.  That is just one example but you easily analyse Westwood's play likewise.

This transfer window I would be looking to buy two of those experience players noted above and then bringing in a few loan players who need to show something before the Euros just to freshen up the place and try and finish the season on an upward curve.

Ilori is a strange one.  If he is fit, he needs to play to see if he has what it takes and is worth spending £7m on.  Otherwise we may just as well write him off as it would be too much of a risk to stump up £7m with only a few games under his belt.

We cannot just throw a bunch of young players into the team in one go as it would destroy them but a few of them need to be brought in gradually and alternated.

[Dave]

Speaking of previously rumoured transfers, Steven Naismith is joining Norwich for £8m.

That's nearly 30 year old, one-goal-in-every-five-and-a-half-matches for Everton Steven Naismith.

Maybe somebody might buy Gabby after all.

[rob_bridge]

Top post Dave.
Cheered me up.

Agree made me chuckle