Summer 2016: Transfer rumours and suggestions

[Phil from the upper holte]

amavi wide left
traore wide right
tshibola and a n other in the middle
grealish in a free role behind ayew

I'm not so sure. That is one of those lineups that could crash and burn badly. We still need some real steel/experience in there. A horrible, grizzled centre forward (in the mould of a Andy Carrol), a niggly centre midfielder (in the mould of a Joey Barton), plus two no nonsense fullbacks who can just defend. Other big gaping whole is set pieces - we have no-one who can take a freekick; no one who can take a corner (assjuming Gardener doesn't take up a midfield place).

we have two full backs in hutton and cissoko who are what they say on the tin, not wing backs but defenders who stop at the half way line
agree about central midfield hence the a n other, although gana if he stays would be fine

Sorry, but must have been watching a different Hutton for the past five seasons.  Hutton does get forward, but his crosses never beat the first defender and he is then caught out of position and can't get back.   

I don't hate Hutton but I hate him in the team for that very reason, he brings an end to more attacks than anyone, frustrates the hell out of me, let's face it were stuck with him. Giving him that extension was the utimate v's up to Lerner in my opinion

[mattjpa]

I wouldn't take a Scottish striker.  I can't think of any of them in recent years (and I mean the last 10/15 years) who have (a) been any good or (b) developed much after a move from Scotland to England to big money.

There doesn't appear to be an appreciation of athleticism in Scottish football in general or general football craft.  Where you see foreigners and indeed English players get craftier as they get older to make up for a decline in speed or skills, even the better Scottish players have an arc of:

Are shite because they're young, in Scottish football and have no football experience
Get better
Get good and maybe get a move to England
Get richer and lazy
Get shite because they're older
Get really shite and move back to Scottish Football or retire

No wonder the Scottish game is utter gubbins.

Im not going to smash you out of the park with this, but an argument could be made for both Maloney and Kenny Miller. Certainly Stephen Naismith ticks the boxes, Id love to have him even now...

[tomd2103]

amavi wide left
traore wide right
tshibola and a n other in the middle
grealish in a free role behind ayew

I'm not so sure. That is one of those lineups that could crash and burn badly. We still need some real steel/experience in there. A horrible, grizzled centre forward (in the mould of a Andy Carrol), a niggly centre midfielder (in the mould of a Joey Barton), plus two no nonsense fullbacks who can just defend. Other big gaping whole is set pieces - we have no-one who can take a freekick; no one who can take a corner (assjuming Gardener doesn't take up a midfield place).

we have two full backs in hutton and cissoko who are what they say on the tin, not wing backs but defenders who stop at the half way line
agree about central midfield hence the a n other, although gana if he stays would be fine

Sorry, but must have been watching a different Hutton for the past five seasons.  Hutton does get forward, but his crosses never beat the first defender and he is then caught out of position and can't get back.   

I don't hate Hutton but I hate him in the team for that very reason, he brings an end to more attacks than anyone, frustrates the hell out of me, let's face it were stuck with him. Giving him that extension was the utimate v's up to Lerner in my opinion

That was a really bizarre decision.  Had been completely frozen out and then was suddenly handed a new contract on the back of a couple of reasonable games.  Just goes to show there was no joined up thinking going at all.

[Dave]

I wouldn't take a Scottish striker.  I can't think of any of them in recent years (and I mean the last 10/15 years) who have (a) been any good or (b) developed much after a move from Scotland to England to big money.

There doesn't appear to be an appreciation of athleticism in Scottish football in general or general football craft.  Where you see foreigners and indeed English players get craftier as they get older to make up for a decline in speed or skills, even the better Scottish players have an arc of:

Are shite because they're young, in Scottish football and have no football experience
Get better
Get good and maybe get a move to England
Get richer and lazy
Get shite because they're older
Get really shite and move back to Scottish Football or retire

No wonder the Scottish game is utter gubbins.

Im not going to smash you out of the park with this, but an argument could be made for both Maloney and Kenny Miller. Certainly Stephen Naismith ticks the boxes, Id love to have him even now...

Wasn't he held up as exactly the sort of player we should have been spending £8m on in January and he promptly went and scored once for Norwich between January and the end of the season?

I struggle to see which boxes he would be ticking.

[Steve67]

I agree Dave, despite the fact that we've been rubbish for years we still seem to have the knack of wasting money and bringing has-been's or never were's in to the squad, hence the need for a cull.  Whilst I find our dealings painfully slow, I agree with the Doc that quality over quantity is the way to go.

[Dante Lavelli]

I'm not sure there is much scope to throw money at the problem.  £20m players are unlikely to want to play in the championship and we're not short of numbers so buying ten players without a similar number leaving will just lead to a bloated squad.

[Ads]

With Gil gone, hopefully that paves the way for a central midfielder to come in. I'd like to see two more before the Wednesday game to give us a shout of re-shaping the squad come August 31st.

[RussellC]

Sky are reporting that Ulloa wants out Leicester. Not sure if he'd want to drop back down to The Championship but would be a great addition if he did.

[in exile]

Sky are reporting that Ulloa wants out Leicester. Not sure if he'd want to drop back down to The Championship but would be a great addition if he did.

He's been linked to Swansea

[mr underhill]

Steve Bruce leaves Hull. But where to?

[oswald funkletrumpet]

amavi wide left
traore wide right
tshibola and a n other in the middle
grealish in a free role behind ayew

I'm not so sure. That is one of those lineups that could crash and burn badly. We still need some real steel/experience in there. A horrible, grizzled centre forward (in the mould of a Andy Carrol), a niggly centre midfielder (in the mould of a Joey Barton), plus two no nonsense fullbacks who can just defend. Other big gaping whole is set pieces - we have no-one who can take a freekick; no one who can take a corner (assjuming Gardener doesn't take up a midfield place).

we have two full backs in hutton and cissoko who are what they say on the tin, not wing backs but defenders who stop at the half way line
agree about central midfield hence the a n other, although gana if he stays would be fine

Sorry, but must have been watching a different Hutton for the past five seasons.  Hutton does get forward, but his crosses never beat the first defender and he is then caught out of position and can't get back.   

of course hutton gets forward, because he is told to do so and we have no natural width. you could throw a duvet over all of our midfield most of the time

playing with wingbacks for me is horrible to watch as on the one hand they have got to be good defensively and on the other they have got to be able to bomb on and put a decent cross in

then you have to rely on them getting back quickly or the midfield covering the gaps, this never happened and is one of the main reasons we got relegated

fullbacks told to just defend, natural width from your midfield and job done

as for richards, i had the misfortune of seeing him on the right hand side and can honestly say that in watching the villa for 40 years im struggling to think of a player with less positional sense

[nuninho]

Stupid question, but is the transfer window deadline the same date in the football league?

[RussellC]

With Gil gone, hopefully that paves the way for a central midfielder to come in. I'd like to see two more before the Wednesday game to give us a shout of re-shaping the squad come August 31st.

I wonder if (assuming he's still with us) we'll play Ayew there. I think he'd be quite suited to it. He certainly likes coming deeper to look for the ball and is good in possession in tight-spaces.  Otherwise I think I'd be having a look at someone like Alex Pritchard who didn't really make an impact at WBA due to injury but looked a real prospect at Brentford in The Championship the season before.

[Clampy]

Sky are reporting that Ulloa wants out Leicester. Not sure if he'd want to drop back down to The Championship but would be a great addition if he did.

Very good player, I like him a lot.

[RussellC]

Sky are reporting that Ulloa wants out Leicester. Not sure if he'd want to drop back down to The Championship but would be a great addition if he did.

Very good player, I like him a lot.

I would imagine that a stumbling block for us (as well as persuading him to drop a division) would be his similarity in style to both Gestede and Kozak, although I would regard him as an upgrade on both.