January 2023 Transfer Rumours, Discussions and Done Deals Thread

[SoccerHQ]

I like Gallagher but...

Imagine cleaning out Newcastle for £45m on a player who has about 10-15 decent performances in his career and thinking the best way use that big ol' sack of cash is to throw every penny at Chelsea for a player that does very little to address the fundamental problems that are behind you being in 19th place. This screams of stupidity masked as ambition.

Add to that Chelsea are pretty motivated sellers with their 33man senior squad and £45m is pure desperation to be seen as backing the manager.

Think they're just signing him as he can actually score, got 8 for Palace last season in premier league which is pretty good for CM. Iwobi scores about 2 a season and he's Everton's attacking midfielder!

He's actually been starting for Chelsea in recent times so more likely to move on in the summer.

[ozzjim]

What is it now, 6 or 7 out and 2 in. A wide midfielder and forward would appear to make a lot of sense, but clearly not going to happen. The only one I'm really surprised about is Danjuma because its a loan and he'd have come to Emery. Not many strikers have moved, and I get taking the money for Ings, but it makes loaning Archer very odd. It seems a concerted effort to basically eradicate the Stevenage team from the squad. Maybe Emery has said get rid, I'll make do till the summer if we can't get any in.

[chrisw1]

I think they’ve settled for being okay. I think they’ve seen Newcastle and thought what’s the point.  It’ll be a policy of self sustainability now.  I genuinely think that and based on three consecutive windows.  It is weird though as there were plenty of reputable reports saying how he would be heavily backed this window.

I don't think so, we wouldn't get Emery if that's the case.

But like you I don't understand the lack of activity this window.  We seem to be risking a massive opportunity to push right up ther out of fear of an error.  I can only think we were very confident on one or two players and they've fallen through. 

[Steve67]

I really don't get this 'wait til the summer' stuff.  Those same players will still all want Champions League football.  Villa really aren't seen by footballers the way we fans do.  Kick that can down the road.

[lovejoy]

We live in a world of instant gratification - buy someone, do something. If we were in danger of relegation i'd agree we'd ned to act (or probably wouldn't have sold Ings) but we aren't. no need to lumbered ourselves out of desparation. A few positions in the league are indeed worth millions but I'd prefer to dodgy the shitty Europe competition until we are good and ready.

Yeah, we're far too big and important to lower ourselves to playing European football. Who'd want to waste time with that.

The conference thing yes, it would kill us in the league. We don’t have a deep enough squad and playing in that competition won’t help us attract new players.

[dave.woodhall]

I really don't get this 'wait til the summer' stuff.  Those same players will still all want Champions League football.  Villa really aren't seen by footballers the way we fans do.  Kick that can down the road.

Is my take. We can talk all we like about great owners and potential but we don't have anything concrete to offer the level of player we need. As Chris put it - Manana Villa.

[SoccerHQ]

We live in a world of instant gratification - buy someone, do something. If we were in danger of relegation i'd agree we'd ned to act (or probably wouldn't have sold Ings) but we aren't. no need to lumbered ourselves out of desparation. A few positions in the league are indeed worth millions but I'd prefer to dodgy the shitty Europe competition until we are good and ready.

Yeah, we're far too big and important to lower ourselves to playing European football. Who'd want to waste time with that.

That's exactly it.

We talk about how we're a big club all the time, when do we ever actually act like one?

Talk is cheap.

And while we are at it, what is our net spend the last two or three windows?

Yep it’s pretty piss poor. I fully hope I’ll be eating humble pie this time tomorrow, but hollowing out the squad without replacements signed and sealed is fucking bonkers. We’re a Premier League team with one senior striker in the squad for fuck’s sake.

It's bizarre.

You'd have thought they'd have learnt from three years ago. Only signed Wes who we know needed time to settle in yet had to play him every week given DS didn't rate Kodj and Davis as usual was injured.

Got to January and sold Kodjia straight away and then Wes got a terrible injury at Burnley. That resulted in us having to cross our fingers and hope Trez and AEG could do something upfront, they tried at least.

Then in last week we had to sign strikers and we found Samatta and Baston who between them contributed nothing to keep us up.

O.k it was a different DOF in those times but still leave yourself short and all it takes is one injury and then it's a struggle to win many games at all.

There's a chance this season. We aren't finishing above Newcastle anytime soon but Liverpool certainly are miles off looking like a team that can just reel off 6-7 straight wins currently. Chelsea have weaker manager than at any point in last decade and signing 20 players a day so they won't gel for many more months and for all the amazing football Brighton are playing currently....we beat them away and are just 3 points off them.

One of those teams will still probably finish 6th so you'd like a little more urgency just to see what happens especially as we have a decent run of fixtures up to March international break.

[curiousorange]

I really don't get this 'wait til the summer' stuff.  Those same players will still all want Champions League football.  Villa really aren't seen by footballers the way we fans do.  Kick that can down the road.

Yeah, I find that attitude completely baffling. There's half a season left, and most possibilities are still open, including relegation. Some possibilities are unlikely, but even so. Just because we're out of the cups that doesn't mean our ambitions should fade. If it does, the match threads from now on will be chilled affairs, won't they?

[Clampy]

FatSam kind of sums up where I am with it but I totally get the concerns of others as well, the main one being if we lose Watkins (who doesn't seem to get injured a lot thankfully). Who knows, Duran might settle pretty quickly and maybe the young Scottish lad might get time on the bench?

[paul_e]

My concern is what was Emery promised to entice him to take the job in the first place and has those promises been reneged upon?  I don't believe they have but I think my unease is understandable.  Also if he has the keys to the kingdom as far as transfers are concerned, just exactly what does he think he's doing, I'd love to know.

I don't think they have. There is far too much noise about bids for it to be all made up.

What I suspect has happened is that our targets for Emery are very different to what Gerrard was after and it's meant a lot of the scouting we'd done isn't worth anything. A few players will have been pushed ahead with, Duran being the obvious one, but, for example, Gerrard wouldn't have been scouting for a Left Back but clearly emery wanted one in. I think we've just found that it's difficult to do business in January when you haven't been talking with the players and clubs for a while unless you're willing to offer huge fees and wages like Chelsea have. It's made harder by the fact that we're after top half standard players and there just aren't many of them moving right now. Across the entire league there's 3-4 players that I think would've been good signings for us and only 1 if you ignore the obscenities at Chelsea.

[curiousorange]

FatSam kind of sums up where I am with it but I totally get the concerns of others as well, the main one being if we lose Watkins (who doesn't seem to get injured a lot thankfully). Who knows, Duran might settle pretty quickly and maybe the young Scottish lad might get time on the bench?

It seems pretty depressing that we're even considering that as a vaguely acceptable compromise.

[PaulWinch again]

FatSam kind of sums up where I am with it but I totally get the concerns of others as well, the main one being if we lose Watkins (who doesn't seem to get injured a lot thankfully). Who knows, Duran might settle pretty quickly and maybe the young Scottish lad might get time on the bench?

Doesn’t feel like particularly strong planning though does it? Hope your one senior striker stays fit, or a kid bought in with potential might hit the ground running, and if not a youth player it is.

[curiousorange]

My concern is what was Emery promised to entice him to take the job in the first place and has those promises been reneged upon?  I don't believe they have but I think my unease is understandable.  Also if he has the keys to the kingdom as far as transfers are concerned, just exactly what does he think he's doing, I'd love to know.

I don't think they have. There is far too much noise about bids for it to be all made up.

What I suspect has happened is that our targets for Emery are very different to what Gerrard was after and it's meant a lot of the scouting we'd done isn't worth anything. A few players will have been pushed ahead with, Duran being the obvious one, but, for example, Gerrard wouldn't have been scouting for a Left Back but clearly emery wanted one in. I think we've just found that it's difficult to do business in January when you haven't been talking with the players and clubs for a while unless you're willing to offer huge fees and wages like Chelsea have. It's made harder by the fact that we're after top half standard players and there just aren't many of them moving right now. Across the entire league there's 3-4 players that I think would've been good signings for us and only 1 if you ignore the obscenities at Chelsea.

I think this is entirely likely, but I also think not recognising that January is a time when you will be forced to pay a premium or you might not get your first choice is naive or reckless, or both. There's enough movement going on to suggest a team could have replaced a player we were willing to pay the money for.

[Pat Mustard]

We live in a world of instant gratification - buy someone, do something. If we were in danger of relegation i'd agree we'd ned to act (or probably wouldn't have sold Ings) but we aren't. no need to lumbered ourselves out of desparation. A few positions in the league are indeed worth millions but I'd prefer to dodgy the shitty Europe competition until we are good and ready.

Yeah, we're far too big and important to lower ourselves to playing European football. Who'd want to waste time with that.

The conference thing yes, it would kill us in the league. We don’t have a deep enough squad and playing in that competition won’t help us attract new players.

The conference league is still being treated as a glorified Intertoto Cup by UEFA, and unless we finish 6th (or possibly even 5th) that is what we’ll go into. The final this year is being played at a ground with a smaller capacity than The Sty has currently even with 2 stands closed, it’s hardly an inducement to big name targets.

[Dave]

We live in a world of instant gratification - buy someone, do something. If we were in danger of relegation i'd agree we'd ned to act (or probably wouldn't have sold Ings) but we aren't. no need to lumbered ourselves out of desparation. A few positions in the league are indeed worth millions but I'd prefer to dodgy the shitty Europe competition until we are good and ready.

Yeah, we're far too big and important to lower ourselves to playing European football. Who'd want to waste time with that.

The conference thing yes, it would kill us in the league. We don’t have a deep enough squad and playing in that competition won’t help us attract new players.

So you're both railing against entitled people who just want everything now, but also saying we're far too important to lower ourselves to playing in a European competition that we've not come close to being good enough for for at least a decade?

We should be trying to play in as many competitions as possible and win as many matches as possible. 

Otherwise what's the point?