Nathan Baker?

[PaulWinch again]

Baker is not good enough as a first choice in the Premiership ......

But we are not in that next season and he is fine at Championship level

We won't see anywhere near 50 million spent and what is spent there are many other areas to spend it on ....... it will be interesting if its a 50 million spend and if that includes those going out who might make up 30 million at a guess

Does that paragraph not seem slightly odd to you?

[Mister E]

Baker is not good enough as a first choice in the Premiership ......

But we are not in that next season and he is fine at Championship level

We won't see anywhere near 50 million spent and what is spent there are many other areas to spend it on ....... it will be interesting if its a 50 million spend and if that includes those going out who might make up 30 million at a guess

Does that paragraph not seem slightly odd to you?

"must try harder"

[Dante Lavelli]

Baker is not good enough as a first choice in the Premiership ......

But we are not in that next season and he is fine at Championship level

We won't see anywhere near 50 million spent and what is spent there are many other areas to spend it on ....... it will be interesting if its a 50 million spend and if that includes those going out who might make up 30 million at a guess

last I read, it was more like £30m plus any revenue generated from sales.  All speculation mind.

[Ian.]

Baker is not good enough as a first choice in the Premiership ......

But we are not in that next season and he is fine at Championship level

We won't see anywhere near 50 million spent and what is spent there are many other areas to spend it on ....... it will be interesting if its a 50 million spend and if that includes those going out who might make up 30 million at a guess

Does that paragraph not seem slightly odd to you?

I have read that twice and I'm still none the wiser.

[pauliewalnuts]

Why do people keep going on about players who are "fine at championship level" like that is what we need?

Yes, fine if we're planning to hang around that level like Leeds, not so good if we want to get out of it quickly.

We need players who are too good for that level, not of that level.

We do not have some divine right to bounce back. We will need good players, not dross like Baker.

[rougegorge]

Why do people keep going on about players who are "fine at championship level" like that is what we need?

Yes, fine if we're planning to hang around that level like Leeds, not so good if we want to get out of it quickly.

We need players who are too good for that level, not of that level.

We do not have some divine right to bounce back. We will need good players, not dross like Baker.

Exactly!  If we think that players are OK for the championship and accept them,  we will set the bar at a low level just like we did in the premier league under Lambert. We'll just accept mediocrity.

In the main, the players that took us down won't be good enough to get us back up and those we loaned out won't be either.

[Dave Cooper please]

Why do people keep going on about players who are "fine at championship level" like that is what we need?

Yes, fine if we're planning to hang around that level like Leeds, not so good if we want to get out of it quickly.

We need players who are too good for that level, not of that level.

We do not have some divine right to bounce back. We will need good players, not dross like Baker.

Yes, but we are unlikely to be able to get a whole team of "too good" in one or even two transfer windows, so we are going to have to get as many as we can afford and who will come here and then complement them with "good enough".

[peter w]

Lescott, Richards and Okore are probably all going to go. Baker is worth keeping for me. As is Clark(e). Nathan isn't the best but what he is, is a player who'll put himself on the line. Sometimes to his detriment, but you can never fault his commitment. He's fine at that level and will be a fine stand-in, as/when needed. Buy two new decent senior CH's.

Hopefully our sensible new management team will persuade Okore to stay.

Hopefully they will fuck him right off.

[old man villa fan]

The thing you have to look at is whether a player is going to improve given more experience and confidence of playing in a winning team.  I do not think Baker will as his major weakness is reading the game and being caught out of position.  At his age and number of games he has played, I do not think that this can be coached into him.

Baker would only be good enough as back up but then you put a block on developing young players coming behind him.

[Villa in Denmark]

Lescott, Richards and Okore are probably all going to go. Baker is worth keeping for me. As is Clark(e). Nathan isn't the best but what he is, is a player who'll put himself on the line. Sometimes to his detriment, but you can never fault his commitment. He's fine at that level and will be a fine stand-in, as/when needed. Buy two new decent senior CH's.

Hopefully our sensible new management team will persuade Okore to stay.

Hopefully they will fuck him right off.

Yet on another thread you'd give the king of the ******, Agbonlahor another chance?

[peter w]

Yet on another thread you haven't once again read my post properly.

[brian green]

Don't bite, VID.

[peter w]

Bite? Somebody clearly hasn't read what i posted and it is that person who shouldn't bite? Right, okay.

[brian green]

From memory your post began something along the lines "I am a great fan of Agbonlahor". 

[peter w]

Let me help you with your memory then brian as the full post went like this:

I'm a big Gabby fan and think that with him properly coached and managed he could be a big player for us next season. However, I agree that his disgraceful behaviour last season may be something he can't and maybe shouldn't be allowed to come back from.

and then to respond to KevinGage remarking on his attitude last season:

His contract is the problem. Unless we can get someone to agree to take him on, and it's likely to be overseas, then the likelihood is that he'll be with us until his contract ends. He potentially has 2 years left (if that's how long he has on his contract) as a professional footballer. If that doesn't concentrate the mind then he's as good as done anywhere.



Now, you show me where I am willing to give Gabby another chance other than we may have no choice but to keep him? It is ViD trying to get bites out of me because I hope that Okore is dumped by the club. Something which he, probably given his current location, finds hard to accept.