January Transfer Window Rumours/Suggestions/Hearsay/Heresy/Horseplay

[Malandro]

According to The Mail, we are battling Birmingham City to sign Max Gradel. Is it right to nearly piss your pants when you read stuff like that?

[ADVILLAFAN]

According to The Mail, we are battling Birmingham City to sign Max Gradel. Is it right to nearly piss your pants when you read stuff like that?

I thought he played well in the African Cup of Nations. Far better than the massively overrated Wilfried Zaha, who has 1 good game in 10.

Who are this Birmingham City that you speak of?

[Mister E]

According the Doc and Wyness we ain't done yet with players likely to go out and come in. That they will work until the end of the window to get things sorted. If nothing else you cannot complain at their efforts to help Bruce having already spent a tidy amount with RDM.

True, although I suspect they'll be hoping to capitalise McCormack after the recent shenanigans.

[Dave]

According to The Mail, we are battling Birmingham City to sign Max Gradel. Is it right to nearly piss your pants when you read stuff like that?

I thought he played well in the African Cup of Nations. Far better than the massively overrated Wilfried Zaha, who has 1 good game in 10.

Adomah one side and Gradel the other is a stroll-comfortably-to-promotion pair of wingers, even if they would probably both need upgrading when we get there.

[brian green]

So he is more Grade 2 than Grade I?

[peter w]

According to The Mail, we are battling Birmingham City to sign Max Gradel. Is it right to nearly piss your pants when you read stuff like that?

I thought he played well in the African Cup of Nations. Far better than the massively overrated Wilfried Zaha, who has 1 good game in 10.

Who are this Birmingham City that you speak of?

They're a massive one city club. We can't compete with their history, stadium, facilities, active and dormant support. Move on.

[clash city rocker]

Pity Bruce wasn't here in the summer as we wouldn't have spunked millions up the wall on certain nonentities .Well impressed with his signings so far just disappointed that the money we spent on RM could have been used for 2 possibly 3 very useful additions under Bruce.

[ozzjim]

I really like Gradel too. Our shopping list has been ace this Jan.  Almost like Round and Bruce know what they are doing.  Gradel would be exciting. If he and a striker walked in before Tuesday i reckon we would still make the play offs.

[kipeye]

Pity Bruce wasn't here in the summer as we wouldn't have spunked millions up the wall on certain nonentities .Well impressed with his signings so far just disappointed that the money we spent on RM could have been used for 2 possibly 3 very useful additions under Bruce.

I am just as positive as anyone-but just for once-let's see how they perform first. It is likely too late for this season but if things go well and we have the summer to improve again (with some going out the other way), we should be looking at top two.

[john e]

Pity Bruce wasn't here in the summer as we wouldn't have spunked millions up the wall on certain nonentities .Well impressed with his signings so far just disappointed that the money we spent on RM could have been used for 2 possibly 3 very useful additions under Bruce.

I am just as positive as anyone-but just for once-let's see how they perform first. It is likely too late for this season but if things go well and we have the summer to improve again (with some going out the other way), we should be looking at top two.

he's not the first manager to try and sort the midfield out
we've bought plenty of players before, and even lots of midfieders,
 we had Garner Gueye, Veratout, Sanchez to name a few who came with the hopes of giving us a midfield that actually worked, but all play elsewhere now

its not buying midfielders that will sort the problem out, its buying the right ones,
lets hope Steve Bruce gets it right this time

[edgysatsuma89]

Haven't read the thread but ITK shiz, akpom was at BMH yesterday. Probably old news.

[KevinGage]

Seems like we have that witch doctor to thank for not being lumbered with A.N.Other lazy shiftless barsteward:

Big, bad Brede Hangeland was a neutral's favourite during his spell at Fulham.

The no-nonsense Norwegian central defender starred for the Cottagers between 2008 and 2014, and was perennially linked to larger clubs such as Arsenal for the better part of his Premier League career.

It was at Crystal Palace where he first trained and played alongside Emmanuel Adebayor, but his definitive and most comical memory of the big Togolese striker arrived a couple of seasons previous, when he was marking Adebayor during a game between Fulham and Spurs.

Hangeland recounted the tale to Norwegian football podcast Heia Fotball. On this show, the guest must pick a 'themed XI' of former teammates. Hangeland was tasked with selecting his all-time 'Lazy XI', where he provided particularly entertaining accounts of training with Wilfried Zaha, Dimitar Berbatov, Bryan Ruiz and Bobby Zamora to name just a few.

t was his Adebayor yarn which stole the show, however. The following was translated from Norwegian to English by r/soccer Scandinavian football sage brodor:

Only played with him for 6 months but a quick story. I played for Fulham and he played for Spurs. We were attacking and I was marking Adebayor in midfield.

Suddenly he says, "Ahhh, I'm hungry".

I replied, "What?"

[Adebayor said:] "I can't wait for the game to finish, I'm so hungry. Do you know a good restaurant in London, Hangeland?"

Later when he came to Palace I started to realise where this came from. When we had strength workouts he would sit in the gym with just a cup of coffee and a muffin. He was being paid by City, Tottenham and Palace at the same time, and he was sitting in the gym drinking coffee. Incredible natural talent, very lazy.

On Berba:

Hangeland also spilled the beans on notorious lazyman Dimitar Berbatov, and his stunning end-of-season frugality:

I've never seen a man get so many massages in my life. I'm certain he spent more hours getting massaged than he trained. Whenever we were in the gym working out Berbatov was getting massages. I knew the guy who gave him massages and usually at the end of the season the players give the physios a gift, a trip, a car, money whatever. He'd massaged Berbatov for hundreds of hours that season and he got...nothing. Absolutely nothing.
Hangeland went on to explain to the host that Berbatov had essentially starved his way to a six-pack, which might somewhat explain his lacklustre nature on the pitch.

[saunders_heroes]

According to The Mail, we are battling Birmingham City to sign Max Gradel. Is it right to nearly piss your pants when you read stuff like that?

This sounds like one of those classic Small Heath PR stunts. Sign some player no one's heard of and create an imaginary link with Villa to make it look like they've beat the us to his signing. Que several thousand semi errections in the Bordesley Green area.

[brian green]

And that's just the females.

[tomd2103]

So just another striker to come in I reckon...probably on loan.

Be interested what the plan B is after Jordan Rhodes.

I think they will pay what it takes to get Rhodes. They are just trying to cut a deal.

To be honest, I hope we don't go for Rhodes as had is not the type of player we need.  We really need a centre forward who can hold the ball up and bring others in to play.  Kodjia looked at his most dangerous when he was partnered with Gestede and I really think someone who could perform that role effectively could be a very good signing.