Summer transfer, gossip, speculation thread

[alanclare]

Butland is my top choice, too.

and me, and me, and me, and me.....

[danno]

Obviously the story was in THAT rag, but why would Birmingham being due 20% of any transfer fee for Butland be a stumbling block?

Is there any reason (if we were that petty) why we couldn't make the initial fee nominal, and then pay the bulk of the money via add ons?

Stoke probably wouldn't accept that sort of arrangement. If the fee was 20m, they'd probably want about 15m upfront.

Yes, you're probably right. The thought of an initial fee of £1 million rising to £15 million after two league games amused me.

[Gareth]

With the sell on clause that Stoke have with Small Heath for Butland I’m sure they will push it to the end of the window to force him to put in a transfer request and thereby forfeit his part of the transfer fee.  They have already got a replacement in so they’ll hope to sell.  Be it Villa, Bournemouth or some one else i’d have money on him not being at Stoke after deadline day.

[eamonn]

Why did we release Mitch?  He's only going to improve, Taylor is bobbins and Targett strikes me as our least inspiring signing of the summer.

[Toronto Villa]

Targett seems to me a very safe signing and nothing that will us get off our seats. He’s not going to make a lot of mistakes but he’s very likely not going to be bombing down the left setting up goals. It’s an odd signing given we got in Guilbert who looks very positive and attack minded. But maybe Dean didn’t need two of those types of player. Who knows but he obviously liked something about him technically.

[Damo70]

Obviously the story was in THAT rag, but why would Birmingham being due 20% of any transfer fee for Butland be a stumbling block?

Is there any reason (if we were that petty) why we couldn't make the initial fee nominal, and then pay the bulk of the money via add ons?

Stoke probably wouldn't accept that sort of arrangement. If the fee was 20m, they'd probably want about 15m upfront.

Yes, you're probably right. The thought of an initial fee of £1 million rising to £15 million after two league games amused me.

Small Heath took the piss out of Wolves when they sold Wayne Clarke on to Everton. Wolves were due a hefty percentage of any profit Small Heath made but they threw in a kid called Stuart Storer as well and claimed half of the Clarke fee was the fee for Storer. I am pretty sure Storer never played a game for Everton.

[Hookeysmith]

Is Walter Benitiz a real person ? The Wiki page is a bit sparse to say the least

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walter_Daniel_Ben%C3%ADtez

If he's not real then give me a fake goalie any day:

After the first few saves I thought "well I would expect anyone to save them" but then some of the latter ones were exceptionally good

[KRS]

Some ridiculous saves in those highlights.

[andyh]

I wonder how many he concedes by palming the ball back into the danger area?
The video doesnt show those.....maybe there aren’t any.

[paul_e]

There's one at about 3:34 from a downward header which is spectacular. He has the small problem, which is common in South American keepers, of not wanting to catch anything but his reflexes are stunning. Not sure how he'd go down with the more faint-hearted supporters though and you'd want all the defenders to be very aware that they'll be expected to clean up.

[OCD]

Rather us stop fucking about over the extra £3m and just get Heaton done.

[eamonn]

Paul_e (and Larry Duff if the gent is reading), what's your opinion on Mitch Clark's move to Leicester?

[paul_e]

Paul_e (and Larry Duff if the gent is reading), what's your opinion on Mitch Clark's move to Leicester?

I'm nothing like as big an expert as Larry but from what I saw of him he's the sort of player who will have a good club career and get plenty of games but it'll be in 5-6 different positions and he'll never truly nail down a regular place in a team in the Premier League because his versatility will count against him in many ways. I'd probably have kept him and let Taylor go, but that's mainly because I can't stand watching Taylor try to join the attack.

[AsTallAsLions]

Targett seems to me a very safe signing and nothing that will us get off our seats. He’s not going to make a lot of mistakes but he’s very likely not going to be bombing down the left setting up goals. It’s an odd signing given we got in Guilbert who looks very positive and attack minded. But maybe Dean didn’t need two of those types of player. Who knows but he obviously liked something about him technically.

I'm confused. Isn't Targett known for getting forward and putting in pin-point crosses...? I thought that was his whole selling point and the reason we were willing to spend so much money on him despite his lack of games for Shampton.

[Axl Rose]

Some ridiculous saves in those highlights.

Yes, that one at around three minutes. Fuck me!