Winter transfer, gossip, speculation and usual butter ollocks thread

[ozzjim]

Letting Chester go without a replacement is bonkers. As is having 2 strikers, 1 never played this league and 1 made of sugar glass for the rest of the season in a relegation battle.

[themossman]

Is he’s really off we must, must have a replacement at least as good lined up, which is no small thing. If we don’t we deserve what we get.

[GarTomas]

Sky reporting Chester to Stoke is on.

Goes with my blessing given what he gave for the past 3 years but interesting if Engels comes back into the fold or another signing to replace is imminent.

[Villafirst]

Stupid to let Chessie go to Stoke if true. We need his experience in this relegation scrap. Too many leaving for my liking. We need players in especially a striker ffs!!

[frank black]

Stupid to let Chessie go to Stoke if true. We need his experience in this relegation scrap. Too many leaving for my liking. We need players in especially a striker ffs!!

This must be part of some chain that leads to a replacement as otherwise it’s almost a negligent as starting the season with just one goal scoring center forward.

[Ads]

He's not up to this level, that's why he was at our level. Be interesting to see if he passes his medical.

[Fred Crump]

Taken from Sky :

“CHESTER STOKE MOVE GETS CLOSER

James Chester's loan move from Aston VIlla to Stoke City is getting closer, with the player en route to Shropshire to undergo a medical.”

Shropshire? Either he’s got a dodgy Satnav or Shrewsbury have made a late bid.

[rougegorge]

Letting Chester go without a replacement is bonkers. As is having 2 strikers, 1 never played this league and 1 made of sugar glass for the rest of the season in a relegation battle.

Exactly, I agree on both points.
Also if Engels is persona non grata, then letting Chester go certainly doesn't make sense.

[Luke8]

Imagine Chester wants to go and play football, especially with the Euros in the summer.

Normally in that situation you would say that’s tough or at least replace him first (which it may turn out that we do) but I think this is a bit of a special case, given that he reportedly did some long term damage to his body when playing whilst injured for us last season. Feels like we owe him this.

[paul_e]

The Vida links seemed pretty solid a couple of weeks back so maybe that deal is pretty much done and was just waiting on us having the space in the squad.

On a slightly tangential point I suspect that's the biggest factor holding us back on signings, we can only register 25 players so having more than that on the books is a bad idea. Obviously We've taken Heaton, Wesley and Kodjia off the list already but we've added Reina, Samatta and Drinkwater so we might be wanting to move people out before we complete deals.

[Aldridge Villa]

If rumours are true and Chessie is going to Stoke , such a shame we can’t give him a proper VP send off. If ever someone deserved one, he certainly does. All the best JC , thanks for your contribution the last 3 years or so.

[walsall villain]

If rumours are true and Chessie is going to Stoke , such a shame we can’t give him a proper VP send off. If ever someone deserved one, he certainly does. All the best JC , thanks for your contribution the last 3 years or so.

Too true

[Luke8]

The Vida links seemed pretty solid a couple of weeks back so maybe that deal is pretty much done and was just waiting on us having the space in the squad.

On a slightly tangential point I suspect that's the biggest factor holding us back on signings, we can only register 25 players so having more than that on the books is a bad idea. Obviously We've taken Heaton, Wesley and Kodjia off the list already but we've added Reina, Samatta and Drinkwater so we might be wanting to move people out before we complete deals.

Think we are ok with the squad registration as I believe Luiz and Davis are young enough to fall into the Under 21 category and therefore don’t count towards the 25 registered players.

[RamboandBruno]

If rumours are true and Chessie is going to Stoke , such a shame we can’t give him a proper VP send off. If ever someone deserved one, he certainly does. All the best JC , thanks for your contribution the last 3 years or so.

Yep. Can think of plenty of players that knocked around villa park for 2 or 3 years, that have left with hardly a raised eyebrow, but Chester feels like he gave everything for the cause in some difficult seasons, good luck to him.

[KevinGage]

If rumours are true and Chessie is going to Stoke , such a shame we can’t give him a proper VP send off. If ever someone deserved one, he certainly does. All the best JC , thanks for your contribution the last 3 years or so.

By the looks of it, think he had that v Liverpool.