Winter transfer, gossip, speculation and usual butter ollocks thread

[pauliewalnuts]

We need a winger and a forward. Davis will be injured again before Valentine's Day. Gambling on one forward was stupid in August and it would be stupid now.

Our realistic options are Benteke and Sturridge, both of whom are notorious sick notes. No point signing a back-up striker who is known to pull up any time someone breathes on them in training.

Why are they our only "realistic" options? There are thousands of strikers on the planet.

Available for transfer at the arse end of the tricky January window?

Benteke has recently signed a new contract at Palace and Hodgson has described talk of him leaving as 'ludicrous' and said he is one of their most important players.

How is he obviously available?

[Risso]

We've also been told in no uncertain terms that the club weren't considering Benteke anyway.

[AsTallAsLions]

We need a winger and a forward. Davis will be injured again before Valentine's Day. Gambling on one forward was stupid in August and it would be stupid now.

Our realistic options are Benteke and Sturridge, both of whom are notorious sick notes. No point signing a back-up striker who is known to pull up any time someone breathes on them in training.

Why are they our only "realistic" options? There are thousands of strikers on the planet.

Available for transfer at the arse end of the tricky January window?

Benteke has recently signed a new contract at Palace and Hodgson has described talk of him leaving as 'ludicrous' and said he is one of their most important players.

How is he obviously available?

First of all nobody used the words "obviously available" or said anything with that kind of emphasis, so you're misrepresenting. I said he was one of few realistic options in this window. He's got 0 Goals and 0 Assists for Palace this season, do you really think they wouldn't negotiate with any club willing to offer money, either for a loan agreement or a permanent?

[villabear]

We need a winger and a forward. Davis will be injured again before Valentine's Day. Gambling on one forward was stupid in August and it would be stupid now.

Our realistic options are Benteke and Sturridge, both of whom are notorious sick notes. No point signing a back-up striker who is known to pull up any time someone breathes on them in training.

Why are they our only "realistic" options? There are thousands of strikers on the planet.

Available for transfer at the arse end of the tricky January window?

Benteke has recently signed a new contract at Palace and Hodgson has described talk of him leaving as 'ludicrous' and said he is one of their most important players.

How is he obviously available?

They gave him a new deal I think because his deal was due to run out so he could go for nowt in the summer. I might be wrong, usually I am.

[Dazvillain]

Jacob Ramsey on verge of being loaned to Doncaster rovers

[villabear]

Tenuous Twitter Daily Heil link saying we’re interested in free agent Emmanuel Adebayor. He’s about 103 isn’t he?

[pauliewalnuts]

We need a winger and a forward. Davis will be injured again before Valentine's Day. Gambling on one forward was stupid in August and it would be stupid now.

Our realistic options are Benteke and Sturridge, both of whom are notorious sick notes. No point signing a back-up striker who is known to pull up any time someone breathes on them in training.

Why are they our only "realistic" options? There are thousands of strikers on the planet.

Available for transfer at the arse end of the tricky January window?

Benteke has recently signed a new contract at Palace and Hodgson has described talk of him leaving as 'ludicrous' and said he is one of their most important players.

How is he obviously available?

First of all nobody used the words "obviously available" or said anything with that kind of emphasis, so you're misrepresenting. I said he was one of few realistic options in this window. He's got 0 Goals and 0 Assists for Palace this season, do you really think they wouldn't negotiate with any club willing to offer money, either for a loan agreement or a permanent?

Alright, swap 'obviously available; for 'realistic', my point is the same.

I don't know why you get so defensive so quickly all the time. I'm not even necessarily disagreeing with you re Benteke, I'm just interested in the likelihood of it happening - when their manager has gone so far to express his annoyance at the links and asked why they would consider selling him, it doesn't really look like one of the more realistic options.

Sturridge does, mind. Unfortunately.

[ozzjim]

At least when fit Sturidge scores goals.

[Legion]

Given the circumstances under which he left the Academy I would be surprised to see him return.

[Risso]

Sturridge is a good player but has only ever had one really good season, the year when he and Suarez almost won Liverpool the title, and that was 6 years ago.  Since then, he's scored 19 goals in the league in 5 seasons, and been mostly hugely injury prone and unreliable.  I suppose it could be worth a punt and hope that he can both stay fit AND bag a few goals in the last 14 games, but I hope that something better is in the pipeline.

[Risso]

Given the circumstances under which he left the Academy I would be surprised to see him return.

Bloody hell Lee, he left Villa at the age of 11, 19 years ago!  I can understand the arguments for and against signing him until the end of the season, but what he did as a very young kid (presumably at his parents' behest) at the turn of the millenium surely doesn't come into it?!  I can't imagine there are many people still at the club from back then in any case.

[Small Rodent]

Given the circumstances under which he left the Academy I would be surprised to see him return.

Bloody hell Lee, he left Villa at the age of 11, 19 years ago!  I can understand the arguments for and against signing him until the end of the season, but what he did as a very young kid (presumably at his parents' behest) at the turn of the millenium surely doesn't come into it?!  I can't imagine there are many people still at the club from back then in any case.

But was it really the turn of the millenium? Was it a 00 or 01?

[SoccerHQ]

Sturridge link is a bit odd to me. We could've signed him for free in the summer for instance on similar deal to whatever Newcastle are doing with Andy Carroll who's as injury prone e.g. 1 year pay as you play.

Now it appears we're bidding 4m or so and he probably won't sign for less than 2 and a half years.

Reminds me of one summer we could've signed Luke Young for 3m and then signed him for 6m 12 months later.

With all this talk I was expecting Sturridge to be having a great season out there. He's scored 3 goals all season and none in the europa league which has better opposition.

Would've prefered a Pierero type who's mid 20s, had good scoring record in dutch league (I know I know) and can play a couple of positions across the forward line.

[chrisw1]

Someone recently posted Sturriges injury record over the last 6 months and it was horrific.  He had missed about 14 games and had 6 injuries if I recall correctly.

I can see the appeal - if only we can be the club where he finds a decent run of fitness and form...  But like Carrol and the later career Michael Owen I'm sure it just won't happen.

[Clark W Griswold]

Sturridge - good player. Just checked, he's played 9 times in Turkey, so errr, he's still a bit of a Turkey. 4 goals though, as long as we cover our arses big time with his injury record and if we're struggling to get anyone else in then i'd say try it.