January 2016 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[tomd2103]

Can't see anyone paying money for Guzan, he isn't likely to find a club in England again after this seasons showing. Maybe a US team will take him off us and cover the wages.

Hutton will be fine in the championship, I'd keep him. Richardson isn't going to attract a fee. I'd keep him next season as cover.

NZogbia looks like going, but we may have to pay him to leave.

The only players we have that look like they are attracting any interest that we would get a fee for, are Kozak, Abonlahor and Ayew (sadly). I can't believe Albion are stupid enough to buy Agbonlahor off us, but hopefully that will happen. I can see Lerner taking an offer for Ayew if one comes in.

I'm sure a team in the US would take Guzan.   Richardson and N'Zogbia are both out of contract in the summer and will be gone I would have thought.  Not only do we need to plan for the Championship, but also when we hopefully come back up, so we need better than Hutton.  He's just signed a new contract though.   

[SoccerHQ]

When we are down is James Morrison on a free worth a look? Consistent and better than our midfielders bar Veretout

Yes very much so, a player I've always rated and still a regular for them. Chris Brunt would be another I'd look at if his contract is running out.

[JJ-AV]

They've got three options really, if you exclude 'doing nothing'.

1) Go for short-term deals, hope the players who need to play to get selected for the Euros will take the platform we can offer them and that may improve us

2) Go big, Randy can party like it's 2010 and we spend big, big money to go for it. The QPR route with (ironically) Remy and Samba.

3) Start building for the Championship; clearing out players and looking at young and hungrier types. I.e. what Lambert did but ready for next year.

For me, we're too fucked for number 2. We're in the Premier League now so signing promising midtable Championship players is probably just gonna mean more expense and they'll get dragged down with the no-hopers in the squad and we'll end up wasting any fresh impetus they'll bring.

Number 1 is the most logical option. But noone is gonna sign for us on this sort of deal until the end of the window, so we risk getting to the last few days of January and losing out.

Doing nothing is also a possibility, but I assume it'll result in another managerial change. Personally I'd like Garde to have a real crack at changing it.

[SoccerHQ]

Seems Debuchy will be confirmed this week, loan deal to end of the season.

Source?

I believe.....*from reading elsewhere*....it's a sentence or two in the Mirror article about the Lerner statement.

[Steve67]

Senderos, Richardson and CNZ out of contract this summer, no way would I want to offer Richardson a new one, even in the Championship. We have to be a little careful letting so many players go all at once as we don't have a big enough squad as it is.  Getting out of the Championship with kids is not going to work either. If we let the likes of the three already named go, and also get Gabby, Kozak, Gardner and Guzan off the books, we need somewhere in the region of five players in to replace them. Some of those who are out of contract at the end of next season might not have too many offers to pick from either.

[ozzjim]

When we are down is James Morrison on a free worth a look? Consistent and better than our midfielders bar Veretout

Yes very much so, a player I've always rated and still a regular for them. Chris Brunt would be another I'd look at if his contract is running out.

Well be bad not been offered a new deal there yet.  Could be a useful one to help us back up.

[Ads]

The end of Hutton. Thank the God's.

[OCD]

Senderos, Richardson and CNZ out of contract this summer, no way would I want to offer Richardson a new one, even in the Championship. We have to be a little careful letting so many players go all at once as we don't have a big enough squad as it is.  Getting out of the Championship with kids is not going to work either. If we let the likes of the three already named go, and also get Gabby, Kozak, Gardner and Guzan off the books, we need somewhere in the region of five players in to replace them. Some of those who are out of contract at the end of next season might not have too many offers to pick from either.

I think there needs to be a big turnover of players this summer. There's too much dross, too many that are happy just to show up and get paid. We pretty much need to start over and this summer is as good a time to do it as any. Get a good mixture of senior pro's who have been there and know what it takes but also still hungry but also a few promising young players and foreign talent who might need a bit of time but have a lot of potential e.g. Ayew, Veretout, the left back we signed etc.

[SoccerHQ]

The end of Hutton. Thank the God's.

Still has 18 months on his deal.

[ozzjim]

Hutton will give his all and do a job next season. Of that I am not worried too much.

But really there are 7-8 players in out team/ squad each week we need to cull and replace with better, even in the Championship.

[tomd2103]

Senderos, Richardson and CNZ out of contract this summer, no way would I want to offer Richardson a new one, even in the Championship. We have to be a little careful letting so many players go all at once as we don't have a big enough squad as it is.  Getting out of the Championship with kids is not going to work either. If we let the likes of the three already named go, and also get Gabby, Kozak, Gardner and Guzan off the books, we need somewhere in the region of five players in to replace them. Some of those who are out of contract at the end of next season might not have too many offers to pick from either.

I think there needs to be a big turnover of players this summer. There's too much dross, too many that are happy just to show up and get paid. We pretty much need to start over and this summer is as good a time to do it as any. Get a good mixture of senior pro's who have been there and know what it takes but also still hungry but also a few promising young players and foreign talent who might need a bit of time but have a lot of potential e.g. Ayew, Veretout, the left back we signed etc.

Which is why I worry the job could possibly be too big for the summer and our stay in the Championship might be longer than one season.  I think we need to fill the gaps in the starting XI below for next season:

                               ?
 
?            Okore                Clark              Amavi

              Veretout               ?

 ?                      Grealish / Gil                Ayew

                                   ?

So, I make that five new starters for the team required presuming all of the above stay.  I suppose the likes of Hutton and Sinclair would be serviceable at that level, but I hope we move away from them.  I'm not sure quite what Senderos has done wrong, but we need an experienced defender to cover Clark and Okore as well.  As for the question marks, some names might be:

GK - Heaton - Burnley
RB - Byram - Leeds
CM - Jedinak - Palace

The winger and striker will probably have to come from abroad as we'd be paying big money for any domestic players in those positions.     

[tomd2103]

Hutton will give his all and do a job next season. Of that I am not worried too much.

But really there are 7-8 players in out team/ squad each week we need to cull and replace with better, even in the Championship.

What kind of job though Ozz?  Consistently make defensive mistakes that cost goals and fail to beat the first man with a cross? 

[David_Nab]

Well still no one in , looks like the other clubs near bottom are not sitting around though Bournemouth , Norwich and Newcastle all spending big it seems .

[paul_e]

Surely Adama Traore fills that right side gap so 4 players to start.  Aside from that I'm pretty happy with the quality of cover in a lot of the other positions so after those 4 you're only really looking at 2-3 more that are desperately needed, in my opinion.  With the likes of Daniel Johnson and Jordan Graham looking very good at championship level (and previously Gardner and Whittingham) I really think we need to use this as a chance to let some of the youngsters have a shot.

[tomd2103]

Surely Adama Traore fills that right side gap so 4 players to start.  Aside from that I'm pretty happy with the quality of cover in a lot of the other positions so after those 4 you're only really looking at 2-3 more that are desperately needed, in my opinion.  With the likes of Daniel Johnson and Jordan Graham looking very good at championship level (and previously Gardner and Whittingham) I really think we need to use this as a chance to let some of the youngsters have a shot.

I'm not sure about Traore, Paul.  I don't know if his development would be better assisted by us loaning him abroad for a season with a view to taking him back if we go back up.  I agree with you on the youngsters though.  We should be looking at having 18 'senior' players and the rest of the squad made up from our younger players.