Summer transfer madness thread

[brian green]

I am off to throw some German towels in the pool in a minute so I will make my bet a treble by adding that another favourite of mine, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy will be in the Premiership before we are.

[paul_e]

I have only watched about fifteen minutes of the European under-17 Championships, form gambling purposes, but have been sufficiently impressed with French winger Hakim el Mokeddem.

We should sign him.

He's a bit of a little shit for diving but Germany have a winger called John Yeboah who looks like he's going to be something special, he's been superb in both of their games so far (other than going down far too easily if a defender touches him).

[godzvilla]

Bakary Sako, anyone? , he's a powerful wide midfielder / winger and a proven success at this level, he scored 36 goals in 111 league games for Wolves, and was that club’s joint leading scorer in his last season. Apparently he  could be available and, given that Palace got him on a free, the price may be be reasonable . Wolves & Derby  allegedly interested .  ..........................Godzvilla!.

[andyh]

We could easily shift Elphick, Gardner and Bacuna, if we were so inclined.

unfortunately, I would guess its more a case of if THEY are so inclined.

[in exile]

Id get rid of Bunn, Elphick, Bacuna, Richards, Gardner, Gabby, McCormack.

yes but how? They are all sitting on fat contracts so going nowhere.

No they're not. Bunn is out of contract.

http://astonvillacentral.com/squad/contracts/

[cdbearsfan]

I have only watched about fifteen minutes of the European under-17 Championships, form gambling purposes, but have been sufficiently impressed with French winger Hakim el Mokeddem.

We should sign him.

He's a bit of a little shit for diving but Germany have a winger called John Yeboah who looks like he's going to be something special, he's been superb in both of their games so far (other than going down far too easily if a defender touches him).

I'd be quite happy with a diving shit at Villa Park. He plays for Wolfsburg though so not sure he would be tempted. My recommendation is only at Toulouse.

My phone just tried to change that to Toulouse-Lautrec.

[paul_e]

I have only watched about fifteen minutes of the European under-17 Championships, form gambling purposes, but have been sufficiently impressed with French winger Hakim el Mokeddem.

We should sign him.

He's a bit of a little shit for diving but Germany have a winger called John Yeboah who looks like he's going to be something special, he's been superb in both of their games so far (other than going down far too easily if a defender touches him).

I'd be quite happy with a diving shit at Villa Park. He plays for Wolfsburg though so not sure he would be tempted. My recommendation is only at Toulouse.

My phone just tried to change that to Toulouse-Lautrec.

Indeed, was just mentioning how good he looked.  He didn't play today but the striker who got a hat-trick for them (Arp) looked good as well, having looked him up his scoring record at junior level is very good as well.

[tomd2103]

Bakary Sako, anyone? , he's a powerful wide midfielder / winger and a proven success at this level, he scored 36 goals in 111 league games for Wolves, and was that club’s joint leading scorer in his last season. Apparently he  could be available and, given that Palace got him on a free, the price may be be reasonable . Wolves & Derby  allegedly interested .  ..........................Godzvilla!.

We definitely need another wide player, so he wouldn't be a bad shout.

[eddiemunster]

Whose contracts are up this summer?

The following have contracts that are due to end any day now, unless anyone knows different;
C.Blackett-Taylor, B.Watkins, J.Sundman, B.Swift, K.Abdo, R.Calder, H.Cowans, E.Idem, V.Johansson, M.Clark, L.Hall, J.Clarke, J.Cox, J.Doyle-Hayes, J.Finnerty, H.Knibbs, J.Coates, J.Humphries. All from the reserves or academy.

[peter w]

I do think we should also be looking for someone else to play in the Jedinak role. The defensive midfielder isn't just there to break up play but should be the player who takes the ball from the back four and sets the tempo. get a pass out and make sure his defence move when he does further upfield to make sure the gaps aren't too big between defence and midfield, and attack. jedinak's passing is awful - he's no centre half either - so for me he's not good enough to play the role. That means one of Lansbury, Hourihane, or AN Other have to sit deeper to try and get the ball, thus losing shape and by then the long ball forward is the only real option.

He's go to go - or sit on the bench - for me.

[eamonn]

So you keep saying but as long as Bruce is here, Jedinak will play when fit. It's clear that he loves him.

[LeeB]

I do think we should also be looking for someone else to play in the Jedinak role. The defensive midfielder isn't just there to break up play but should be the player who takes the ball from the back four and sets the tempo. get a pass out and make sure his defence move when he does further upfield to make sure the gaps aren't too big between defence and midfield, and attack. jedinak's passing is awful - he's no centre half either - so for me he's not good enough to play the role. That means one of Lansbury, Hourihane, or AN Other have to sit deeper to try and get the ball, thus losing shape and by then the long ball forward is the only real option.

He's go to go - or sit on the bench - for me.

He'd be perfect next to Chester, despite you arguing the toss with me after the Wigan game when I'd watched him for 90 minutes and you'd seen 30 seconds highlights.

[peter w]

True, I can't pretend to have seen him as much as anyone who goes to the games - but those highlights showed him being hopelessly out of position which a better team would have taken advantage of. That's not arguing the toss as its not set in stone that he plays in defence. I think he'd be terrible there long term.

[LeeB]

True, I can't pretend to have seen him as much as anyone who goes to the games - but those highlights showed him being hopelessly out of position which a better team would have taken advantage of. That's not arguing the toss as its not set in stone that he plays in defence. I think he'd be terrible there long term.

On the contrary, a momentary mistake can happen when you switch to a position you don't play in every week, and a few games playing there consistently should sort it out.

His head is like a ball magnet in our box, he's utterly dominating in the air.

[peter w]

It was more than once though. It may have been a momentary lapse but to me it looked more like someone who can easily get pulled out of position because its not a position natural to him. Easy to head the ball away when its in front of you and I don't think at Jedinak's age you can teach a new position in terms of naturally reading a game and being able to cover the gaps when the ball isn't coming down on his nut. As I said, I'd keep him on the bench when a game's crying out for an extra defender. but we need better.