Summer transfer, gossip, speculation and the usual butter ollocks thread

[JJ-AV]

Rashica isn't a tentative link is it? We've been after him since January. If he decides to sign, he will.

My impression is we've not moved on as nothing better has materialised

[N'ZMAV]

almost 9 months on, dragging on a bit

[OCD]

We're still being linked with a move for Brewster with other teams also being in for him.

[N'ZMAV]

be nice to get something wrapped up soon.

[dave.woodhall]

Gregory was as bad as O'Neill for constraining his transfer selections largely to the UK. Stone, Watson and Thompson (we certainly did our bit for the Geordie economy), all decent outlays at the time at an average of £5m but with little impact.

Unsworth wasn't any loss (who did we sign instead of him in the end? Little Al Wright was perfectly fine at LB/LWB for the following few years. Actually, maybe Gareth Barry's emergence and rapid rise meant we didn't need another left-sided defender like Unsworth).

Didn't Gregory sign almost exclusively English players for the first couple of years, then exclusively overseas? I do know that a few days before Mark Ansell asked for his transfers to be investigated, I heard a well-known former player from another local club made a rather disparaging remark about the transparency of his signings.

[Risso]

Gregory's signings in order (excluding non-entities like Ferraresi and Tarrant):

Thompson
Unsworth
Merson
Watson
Dublin
Enckelman
Delaney
Stone
Calderwood
James
Boateng
Ghrayib
Carbone
Nilis
Alpay
Ginola
Hitz
Staunton
JPA
Kachloul
Hadji
Schmeichel
Mellberg
Balaban

I think the last two perfectly encapsulate what a hit and miss sort of a bloke he was.

[dave.woodhall]

As I've said many times, it's ironic that the two managers who had, comparativerly speaking, the most to spend also had the most myopic transfer polciy.

[OCD]

be nice to get something wrapped up soon.

There's a week left before the international window closes so there's a good chance things will start to pick up again.

[maidstonevillain]

I would say about a 50% success. Not too bad. And we generally got rid of the flops fairly painlessly.

[OCD]

Most of Gregory's signings were decent but the problem was no re-sale value. He'll always be remembered for missing out on Robbie Keane who we could have made a 100% return on within a year.

[sickbeggar]

eh Junhinio (sp) surely? My mind's eye has Gregory giving the news camera the thumbs up through a villa park window before Doug offered him 2k a week.

[brontebilly]

eh Junhinio (sp) surely? My mind's eye has Gregory giving the news camera the thumbs up through a villa park window before Doug offered him 2k a week.

Juninho's career petered out a bit...had some injuries I think. We dodged an expensive bullet there... Robbie Keane was a daft one, a player we should have signed from Wolves

[Damo70]

Gregory's signings in order (excluding non-entities like Ferraresi and Tarrant):

Thompson
Unsworth
Merson
Watson
Dublin
Enckelman
Delaney
Stone
Calderwood
James
Boateng
Ghrayib
Carbone
Nilis
Alpay
Ginola
Hitz
Staunton
JPA
Kachloul
Hadji
Schmeichel
Mellberg
Balaban

I think the last two perfectly encapsulate what a hit and miss sort of a bloke he was.

Merson, Dublin and Mellberg were his best signings for me. I thought Steve Stone was a disappointment . I was a big fan of his at Forest and pleased when we signed him but he didn't do the business in a Villa shirt.

[KevinGage]

Aye. We'll never know for certain. 

Getting that move done could have lifted everyone around VP and the psychological boost (we actually mean business this time) might have carried us to top 2 or 3 - whatever was needed back then for Champions League football.

Juninho's career after that broken leg at Atletico was patchy at best. We weren't getting the Juninho of 1995-97.

[dave.woodhall]

I would say about a 50% success. Not too bad. And we generally got rid of the flops fairly painlessly.

We most certainly did not get rid of them painlessly. When Sir Graham came back we had about £100k a week sitting in the stand virtually on strike.