January 2016 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[cdbearsfan]

I also read this morning Lambert saying he's got more money at Blackburn then he had here.

So just more for him to waste on shit then.

How is that even possible? Them having more money?

It's not that difficult. Yesterday I found a fifty pence piece down the back of the settee so now I have more money than Villa.

[aev]

Quote from Garde

‘It was also a financial problem, yes. But it is not my job to explain that to you again. Probably the club realised mistakes has been made in the past, probably they didn’t want to do it again.
‘As a new manager I would have expected new faces to support my change. Not only for me but the club, team, squad to be strengthen very good decision. We missed these two targets. It’s unfortunate.’
Garde added: ‘It took me a few weeks to have an assessment and I made a recommendation to the board to try to sign players to the team, we need that. ‘Some games we are close to compete, then we need a little bit of quality. I cannot do more. I tried to sign them, I worked on very hard, but for different reasons we couldn’t.’

So the board have fucked him over basically

or possibly some of the requests being made by players simply made no sense financially especially given where it appears we are going. At the end of the day what he's saying about the board making financial decisions is the same at every club. I honestly believe we were closer to safety we'd be taking more risks, but our position has changed the environment in which we are operating. He also said he spoke to Doumbia for a long time but in the end he went somewhere else, so it's not like he wasn't being supported on certain deals. He also cited disappointed at Kalinic falling through. None of this makes for good reading but being where we are has contributed to the environment changing, and either players choosing other clubs or the club being presented with figures that would might put us in a bad position should relegation take place.

The problem is this lack of decent investment has been going on for some while now, and is more than likely going to result in us being relegated.

And missing out on an awful lot of money.

[Toronto Villa]

I also read this morning Lambert saying he's got more money at Blackburn then he had here.

So just more for him to waste on shit then.

How is that even possible? Them having more money?

how does he even fucking know? He's a bullshitter of the highest order.

[ozzjim]

Seriously though, with all the fucking penny pinching of the last few years to drive down the wage budget, what are we spending on wages now? It must be low

[PaulWinch again]

I also read this morning Lambert saying he's got more money at Blackburn then he had here.

So just more for him to waste on shit then.

How is that even possible? Them having more money?

And that's the point, ignoring who Lambert chooses to sign. How do Blackburn who have been in the Championship for a few years, have by all accounts pretty terrible owners. How have they got more to spend than a club who has been in the Premier League for all of the years of ludicrous television deals. It's fucking ridiculous.

[Chico Hamilton III]

I also read this morning Lambert saying he's got more money at Blackburn then he had here.

So just more for him to waste on shit then.

How is that even possible? Them having more money?

how does he even fucking know? He's a bullshitter of the highest order.

I'd say it's a safe bet. If he had a fiver to spend at Blackburn it'd be more than we're spending this window. 

[Toronto Villa]

Seriously though, with all the fucking penny pinching of the last few years to drive down the wage budget, what are we spending on wages now? It must be low

we've still got some decent contracts on the books plus some of ex managers still being paid off I imagine.

[aj2k77]

Seriously though, with all the fucking penny pinching of the last few years to drive down the wage budget, what are we spending on wages now? It must be low

Less than the Albion , a tin pot club with a ground from the 1970's and an average attendance of about what we got against Man City the other day when no one could be arsed to go. But they are now consistently outspending us. At least over the past 3 seasons they have.

[ASHTONVILLA]

I'd be interested to see what Lambert signings cost versus what has been recouped for them. Given that Benteke made a >£20million profit I'd reckon his purchases must be close to cost neutral. The real dirge like Richardson, Westwood, and Bennett didn't cost much, and I think we would get a decent fee for Okore.

MON for all the high wage issues at least spent on Milner, Delph, Young and Downing all of whom went for a tidy profit.

McLeish on the other hand signed Given, NZogbia, Hutton and Hollman all of which have brought nothing back in.

Houllier spent big on Bent, and also Makoun who both went on free transfers.

Sherwoods signings are unlikely to bring much back when they leave, Ayew, Amavi and Vertout might get what we paid for them but the rest we would be lucky to get anything back.

We will never know about Garde, as I don't think he will be allowed to sign anyone before he quits.

[curiousorange]

Sign a decent striker, we have a wafer thin chance of survival. So now, basically, it's over. If I was Garde I'd have told them to shove their job.

Incidentally, my day was made complete by having a Liverpool fan beg me to have Benteke back.

[Toronto Villa]

and the rich get richer as Pep confirmed as Man City manager next season

[kippaxvilla2]

The £102m net debt according to the last set of accounts might have something to do with it.  Albeit that was May 2014, this years will be interesting due at the end of Feb aren't they.

[curiousorange]

I'm sick of football right now.

[Villa in Denmark]

VID yes Gestede has been a nightmare and the others might have been in some cases a upgrade on what we had, but that was not going to be hard and I am sorry those players you mentioned have still only garnered two wins up to the 1st February.
Sorry again quantity over quality even thou some of them were not cheap.

If you can't see that just a better signing would have meant a drastic improvement to the team as a whole, for the reasons I stated then fair enough, we'll have to disagree, but the majority of the business was OK.
You accept that we've improved in some of the areas that were absolute weakest areas last year, so that must make the first 11 stronger, until you get to the 2 big departures.
Even Lescott is starting to look like a professional footballer for the most part, now that he's getting regular game time and not playing alongside Richards.

Illori and Crespo - low cost gambles.
Richards - Hopefully he'll go walkabout permanently sometime soon.
Gestede - Disastrous that he's our main striker - would have been OK as a bench option or understudy to a decent striker.
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Gueye - Inconistent and so far ultimately disappointing replacement for Delph.
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Bunn - looks like decent business for a No.2 Goalkeeper
Lescott - Showing his age, but looking better after a run of games.
Amavi - Looked very promising. Vast improvement on Richardson/Bennett/Luna. Defensively not as good as Cissokho, but light years ahead going forwards.
Veretout - As he's started to settle in has looked like our best centre midfielder since Petrov. Should see the end of Westwood as a starter.
Ayew - Huge upgrade on Weimann.

So 6 out of 10 are at least OK, 1 is a jury's out and 3 are write off's. 2 of those 3 were low cost gambles and the last should have been in the "at least OK" pile, but a combination of ego and arrogance seem to have parked him in the "I'm a Disgruntled Footballer, Get Me Out of Here" auditions list.
(Incidentally we should start calling Richards "the Aussie", so often does he go walkabout.)

If anyone else had managed a 65% strike rate on their transfers we'd be wittering on about how come they manage it when we can't. The lack of a decent centre forward is what has killed us.

[Locko]

The £102m net debt according to the last set of accounts might have something to do with it.  Albeit that was May 2014, this years will be interesting due at the end of Feb aren't they.

So we're. A £102m in the hole to the brain donor. We really are going to be the new Sheffield Wednesday...