Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[dave shelley]

You know you were in trouble when we signed Bowery who had scored 1 goal in about 83 games in the lower leagues.

Indeed, my Spireite mate couldn’t believe we bought him and they got a million for him - he basically said he was crap and couldn’t figure out who the gel was seeing any value in him.  So it wasn’t just the players who were crap, it was the whole recruitment team!

I believe we paid 500k for Bowery not a million.  I just don't get the stick Bowery seems to get from people.  He was a cheap punt that didn't work out and was moved on.  It happens all the time.  Compare that to the money the likes of Richards, Lescott, Kieran Richardson, Shay Given et al cost us and Bowery should never warrant a mention.

[Steve67]

I see Villa have moved swiftly to sign up seven of the under 23 squad today with new contracts. I see Chuck is not amongst them but hopefully they are also talking to him too. Still very quiet on the transfer front!

[eamonn]

Bowery was a step-up from the same transfer policy that saw us take a punt on a player better at tennis, Michael Boulding, a decade earlier.

I get that they were cheap punts that didn't work-out but...how many Premier League teams were doing that sort of thing? Smacks of cheap, small-time mentality.

[paul_e]

Bowery was a step-up from the same transfer policy that saw us take a punt on a player better at tennis, Michael Boulding, a decade earlier.

I get that they were cheap punts that didn't work-out but...how many Premier League teams were doing that sort of thing? Smacks of cheap, small-time mentality.

The answer there is probably most of them but if, for example, Everton sign a kid from league 2 for 500k and let him leave on a free 2-3 years later no one on here is likely to notice.

[sickbeggar]

2 different questions i think. The answer to worst player we've bought, and worst buy are different.

[Sexual Ealing]

We're nicking another kid from the Albion academy, apparantly. Tim Iroegbunam.

[eamonn]

Bowery was a step-up from the same transfer policy that saw us take a punt on a player better at tennis, Michael Boulding, a decade earlier.

I get that they were cheap punts that didn't work-out but...how many Premier League teams were doing that sort of thing? Smacks of cheap, small-time mentality.

The answer there is probably most of them but if, for example, Everton sign a kid from league 2 for 500k and let him leave on a free 2-3 years later no one on here is likely to notice.

But do Everton (or other clubs we're commonly bracketed with - West Ham/Newcastle etc.) give him close to 20 first team appearances before he disappears from whence he came? I'm not so sure. Especially when Bowery wasn't even being touted as a particularly decent prospect.

[dave.woodhall]

Bowery was a step-up from the same transfer policy that saw us take a punt on a player better at tennis, Michael Boulding, a decade earlier.

I get that they were cheap punts that didn't work-out but...how many Premier League teams were doing that sort of thing? Smacks of cheap, small-time mentality.

The answer there is probably most of them but if, for example, Everton sign a kid from league 2 for 500k and let him leave on a free 2-3 years later no one on here is likely to notice.

Plus there's the massive amounts that promising kids get offered to sign with Academies. Harry Forrester, for example, was reputed to be given a contract that would make him a millionaire back in 2007 and I don't suppose Arsenal got Dan Crowley for minimum wage. 

[Toronto Villa]

You know you were in trouble when we signed Bowery who had scored 1 goal in about 83 games in the lower leagues.

I do wonder how those meetings go. Blokes sat around a table getting a report from scout or analysts.

"You know there is lad Jordan Bowery at Chesterfield who looks like he can make the step to the PL. 10 goals in 83 games. Oh he had a loan spell at Barrow where he didn't score and they didn't keep him. But we really should snap him up before Bayern or Barcelona sniff him out"

Lambert pipes up having watched the DVD of him, "he's really excellent, he really is. Get him"

[kippaxvilla2]

Did he score a goal that effectively kept us up against Hull or did I dream that?!

[paul_e]

Bowery was a step-up from the same transfer policy that saw us take a punt on a player better at tennis, Michael Boulding, a decade earlier.

I get that they were cheap punts that didn't work-out but...how many Premier League teams were doing that sort of thing? Smacks of cheap, small-time mentality.

The answer there is probably most of them but if, for example, Everton sign a kid from league 2 for 500k and let him leave on a free 2-3 years later no one on here is likely to notice.

But do Everton (or other clubs we're commonly bracketed with - West Ham/Newcastle etc.) give him close to 20 first team appearances before he disappears from whence he came? I'm not so sure. Especially when Bowery wasn't even being touted as a particularly decent prospect.

Maybe, maybe not but you mentioned Boulding who only ever made 2 intertoto appearances for us so the point still stands, most clubs have cheap punts on 16-21 year olds every now and then and the vast majority of them fail. Bowery is a bit of an anomaly in that he was that sort of punt to nothing but Lambert seemed to determined to make it work and kept picking him, which says more about Lambert than it does about Villa.

I picked everton because in the last 5 years they've shown both sides of the random lower league punt, £1.5m on Calvert-Lewin now looks great business whereas a similar punt on Josh Bowler a year later looks just as poor as us signing Boulding, I could pick almost any team and find similar examples. It's also pretty easy to find players of a similar age to Bowery who were signed and given a similar number of games before being discarded, often for a lot more money.

[dave.woodhall]

You know you were in trouble when we signed Bowery who had scored 1 goal in about 83 games in the lower leagues.

I do wonder how those meetings go. Blokes sat around a table getting a report from scout or analysts.

"You know there is lad Jordan Bowery at Chesterfield who looks like he can make the step to the PL. 10 goals in 83 games. Oh he had a loan spell at Barrow where he didn't score and they didn't keep him. But we really should snap him up before Bayern or Barcelona sniff him out"

Lambert pipes up having watched the DVD of him, "he's really excellent, he really is. Get him"

Or maybe they say, "There's a lad at Chesterfield worth taking a punt on." Like there was a lad at Crewe who we sold for a big profit and he's still playing in the Premier League nine years later, or the one at Sheffield United who keeps him company. Or all those others we've picked up over the years; some have made it and some haven't. To put it even further into context - we signed Terry Bullivant for something like £150,000 when our record fee was £300,000. He played about a dozen games for us but you wouldn't use him as any indication of our transfer policy back then.   

[jwarry]

I see we are now picking off the cream from our local clubs, lovely

https://www.westbromnews.co.uk/2021/07/06/aston-villa-set-to-sign-west-brom-talent-tim-iroegbunam/

[Alex77]

I see we are now picking off the cream from our local clubs, lovely

https://www.westbromnews.co.uk/2021/07/06/aston-villa-set-to-sign-west-brom-talent-tim-iroegbunam/

It's great for us (I think) but I do feel a level of sympathy even for them. I don't know anything about the player, but to develop young players to have them taken away with little to no compensation doesn't feel right. Developing youth talent should be encouraged and rewarded and I'm not sure the current system does that. 

[kippaxvilla2]

I do agree with that by and large.  However, given it is them, I have made an exception so basically fcuk them.