Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

I genuinely just woke up from a really realistic dream about Messi signing for Villa.

I shouldn’t read headlines before bed.

He’s now a free agent so I can’t think of a good reason why he wouldn’t join us!!!

[Risso]

Winks would add precisely nothing to the squad. If we're after a central midfielder we need a really good defensive one, and he isn't that. He's just a slightly upgraded Ashley Westwood, neat and tidy with no real stand out parts to his game.

[sickbeggar]

Winks is an odd one. Bit of an overpriced non-entity, Really struggling to work out who he's good enough to replace in our first XI. Looking at the Spurtz forum, they're all for it. Mind, their reaction to Nuno hints they still think they're Real Madrid or something. Maybe a little underwhelming as your new manager but a poll has over 2 thirds not wanting him. Most club's fans would at least rally round a new manager,

[Ads]

Winks isn't a bad player. He's not a good player either. He's not what our midfield or squad needs to elevate itself.

I can't see us being in for him. He would be a back up for Dpugie and what would be the point at 25?

[London Villan]

Part of what we are doing is building a squad though. Winks (if true) would come in as a squad player, similar to Young. Start less than 10 games and have 15-20 sub appearances.

He definitely isnt the midfield lynchpin we need.

[sickbeggar]

Part of what we are doing is building a squad though. Winks (if true) would come in as a squad player, similar to Young. Start less than 10 games and have 15-20 sub appearances.

He definitely isnt the midfield lynchpin we need.

Should we be buying 35m squad players at this stage? Surely the best option is to buy 1st team players and relegate the current 1st teamer to the squad rather than going down the MON route.

[chrisw1]

If we're looking at Winks and JWP, I'm wondering if Smith doesn't see us playing with an imposing out and out DM that a lot of us have been hoping for.

I think JWP is an excellent player, but I see him more in a box to box McGinn type role than as a DM.  I also think Doug would probably be best in that role too.

As for Winks, it seems an odd one to me and I don't see how he improves us.

[London Villan]

We need the squad to include 18-20 first team quality players. Winks was a key part of a Spurs team that came close to winning the league. Is he massively better than SJM or Doug, nope, but i can understand the interest in that type of player.

[cdbearsfan]

We are stacked with players of decent ability in central midfield. McGinn, Luiz, Sanson, Marvelous, Ramsey. Maybe Chukwuemeka. Hourihane at a push, though I suspect he'll be sold or loaned again. We don't need squad depth there. We need either a world class player in that position who is going to be better than them, or someone who offers something they don't, like JWP with his set piece prowess. I'm not sure that Winks offers either so don't see the point in signing him.

Would be fairly unimpressed with Tuanzebe, too. Unless they think there is a Youth Cup star who can be competing for a place at centre half soon, and he's just a stopgap, I'd rather we looked to sign the best young star we can get in that position, rather than someone who is fairly average and injury prone.

[N'ZMAV]

No point in selling Hourihane and buying Winks.

[WassallVillain]

Seems like I'm in the minority, but I actually quite like Harry Winks as a player. He's pretty good at the job he does, breaking things up, keeping the ball and moving it quickly to the better players around him.  I'd worry about who he would play instead of, but maybe it's time to stop thinking that way and start thinking about it being a squad game and having options on the bench that don't weaken the starting 11 at all.  I'm guessing with Hojberg at Spurs now he's seen as surplus to requirements there?  I think we can do better if we're buying another central midfielder (Ward-Prowse would be my pick), but I certainly wouldn't be disappointed to see him sign.

I like Harry Winks too. He lost his way a little under Mourinho, most do, but I thought there was a bit of Gareth Barry about him when he first broke through. Wouldn’t be the worst bit of business.

[algy]

Would be fairly unimpressed with Tuanzebe, too. Unless they think there is a Youth Cup star who can be competing for a place at centre half soon, and he's just a stopgap, I'd rather we looked to sign the best young star we can get in that position, rather than someone who is fairly average and injury prone.

I see him as potentially an astute bit of business, as long as the price is right.  We're effectively looking for a 3rd or 4th choice centre back at a team that isn't in Europe.  We aren't going to be offering anyone a huge amount of games, particularly as the back 4 isn't likely to change much.  Next season we hopefully will be in Europe, so a 4th choice centre back will get a decent number of games under their belt.

If we get Tuanzebe on loan and he turns out to be decent, sign him permanently.  If we get him and he's injury prone/average, then we send him back knowing that we're in a better position to bring someone in as they'll be getting 10-20 games a season comfortably even as 4th choice.  If he's fairly cheap, we can spend more money on players who will make more of an impact than a backup defender.  And lastly, we know that he'll settle and fit in, so he's fairly low risk in that area.

[sid1964]

Winks will cost us £50 million according to Levy

[algy]

Winks will cost us £50 million according to Levy

Offer them £2m plus Conor Hourihane?

[rob_bridge]

Winks will cost us £50 million according to Levy

The resultant reponse to Mr Levy involves some or all of the following words 'Yourself', 'Go' and 'Fuck'