As is often the case, I’m really not sure at all how the upcoming transfer window will pan out.
Here’s what Tony Xia has said;
“In terms of strengthening, everyone knows that for January we have the FFP to look at. But very possibly we will bring in a couple of loans to strengthen our squad. We want to keep getting better and better and help us end the season well.”
So how does that work then?
We’re talking about actual costs and it’s not just about transfer fees, when it comes to what we have to pay out.
Wages, National insurance, pensions, agent’s fees and all that sort of stuff comes into it.
If we’re genuinely right on the FPP limit, surely if we’re looking to bring a couple of (no doubt stupidly well paid) loans in, it must make sense that we’re going to have to let a couple of decent players go to balance the books.
And that’s where I’m struggling.
There are a few candidates that might possibly leave, in my book.
Bjarnasson, Lansbury and Hogan might be on my list, regardless of if I rate them or not, but Bruce signed all three.
Would he be so willing to give up on them already?
You could probably throw in a right back or two, but who has any real value, Hutton apart?
Given that he’s been one of our best players this season, I’d be surprised if he left, although there was speculation about him going to Sheffield in the summer.
McCormack seems the most obvious candidate, with him maybe having the best value.
He wants out and Bruce wants him out, in my opinion.
But you have to wonder what his value is, now that his reputation has pretty much been ruined; particularly after the suggestions that he missed training at his current club (although, rumours, in fairness, totally denied by the club’s coach).
Is scoring 5 goals in seven games in the A league really enough to make him worth serious money?
I doubt it, myself.
Still, I’d guess there might be a championship club willing to go to £5 mill or so for him, somewhere.
Which isn’t much in the scheme of things.
I’m inclined to think that now is the perfect time for us to lash out for a decent striker and no, not just the latest flavour of the month in the championship, as we’ve already had our fingers burnt with RM and Hogan.
But, given our current striker’s injuries, I’m at a loss as to where Bruce might look.
Bruce has his work cut out, but we can only hope he comes up with the goods, which in fairness, he has with the likes of John Terry.
Very interesting times, I reckon.
Which could prove make or break.
I wish him the best of luck.
The thing is, who’s realistically available at reasonable money, even on loan?
McCormack. One hell of a mistake.
do we need many january signings ?? other than getting a target forward. that can take the burden of davis is all really that is needed. if we go up this season then we will be looking for higher quality players.
loans makes sense unless they can sell mccormack. Leonardo Ulloa gets my recommendations. he leads the line good. well capable of hold up the ball. he isnt to shabby at goal scoring. would he come / could we convince him. get him and its another top signing that will improve us.
No, I don’t think we need much at all, but if Adomah stops firing, where are the goals coming from?
Leonardo Ulloa?
What’s he on?
£75k? and if he isn’t we’d have got him a couple of seasons back.
No chance, imo, but yes, a great player.
I suspect we’ll have to set our sights a little lower.
Think we need 3 signings. A center back if Elphick goes, as I don’t think a youth player will get his chance. A midfielder with Jedinak constantly injured and Lansbury likely to leave, maybe one that can play center back as well and cut it down to 2 signings, and clearly in need of a striker.
I don’t think Leicester pay players that well. Obviously Vardy and Mahrez are on that kind of money, probably Slimani and Schmiechel as well. Ulloa hasn’t been their first team starting striker in 3 years, so I’d assume he’s probably on like 40k a week, maybe 50. Were we ever actually in for him?
After Bruce’s comments about him, I wouldn’t be surprised if we went for Solanke. He regularly makes the bench but doesn’t actually play. Obviously you have the usual’s the media keeps linking us with. Akpom and Wilson. Wouldn’t really get the point in either. Yeah Akpom worked with Bruce at Hull but he scored 3 goals in 36 appearances and the media as per usual is playing up Wilson’s 5 goals in 5 U23 games.
If we could get 10-12 million for Hogan, McCormack, Lansbury and Elphick, I think we’d be doing pretty well. That’s at least 100k off the wage bill which would give us some breathing room. Only likely player that would be easy too offload though is Lansbury.
A new name we’re linked with. Chiedozie Ogbene, Nigerian born, currently been in Ireland since 2005 and plays for Limerick in Ireland. At 20, he scored 8 goals in 32 games. We’re apparently favorites according to the Irish media, and he’s also been scouted by the likes of Chelsea. They finished 7th.
our transfer activities will be relent on selling unwanted players. this is hard to predict, who foreseen bakers going to bristrol. not even bruce, but it was enough to temp bruce who had to sell. this shows me all the players have their prices. which ones are desired by others.
if nobody is sold then nobody will be bought. i cant see many incomings unless their are outgoings. the striker loan must be a target striker, must be able to hold up the ball like davis has been doing. its the focus point to all the attacks and our game plans
I would be sad to see Lansbury go in January – hasn’t had much of chance after a sluggish start to life at Villa. Still think he could be a class player for us. We need a target man desperately as Davis is our only one. I’m not sure we need a centre back. Also not sure people will be prepared to pay the 2 million Villa would want at least for Elphick or the 3 mil for lansbury. Bruce was only recently talking about Grealish and Lansbury having a part to play over xmas too,
Jedinak out for between 1 and 3 months says Bruce – oh dear – need another DM then, though Lansbury can play in midfield he is no where near as effective as Jedi or Whelan in front of the back four.
If we could get close to half what we paid for Hogan, McCormack and say Bjarnasson then we could have sufficient funds to make a really decent striker purchase. We should be able to get what we paid for Lansbury – we paid under his value at the time anyway. Elphick would still fetch at least 1-2m and that’s a fair chunk of money to play with. At this point, I’m not sure how I’d suggest to replace them with though – I think we need to look upwards and consider making some purchases for the long-game, not just to get us out the league.
That seems to be why Xia would rather have loans than permanent signings in January. So that we don’t waste too much money now. He said he knows they’ll have to up who they go for if we get promoted, because he doesn’t want us fighting relegation, and you’re not gonna really find too many wanting to come down to the Championship who are comfortable mid-table players, unless they’re not playing, like Ulloa and Musa.
That is the problem though, is if we want to sign someone, we need to sell like 4 players. McCormack is likely just to extend his loan, though that will save us on wages. Hogan if he’s fit by January, Bjarnason might make us a million and Elphick, if he even hits a million we’ll be fortunate. Lansbury same boat. Biggest question is, do we go for an experienced player, like say McCarthy, who can’t get in the team and has had injury problems the last year? Or do we go for a youngster, like Liverpool’s Harry Wilson or Brewster who are doing really well in the U23’s? Or do we go abroad?
Chiedozie Ogbene is supposedly a quick, tricky winger who can play up front if necessary. Not the kind of forward likely wanted but he’d probably be cheap. I agree we won’t likely buy more than 1 like him if we don’t sell anyone, but with McCormack gone we could likely loan someone in. We weren’t really supposed to have a lot of money over the summer but we raised the wage bill by some way with signing Terry and even Samba. Plus sign on fees free agents always get which could be a couple million themselves. As usual, no idea what Xia has planned as we signed twice as many players as Bruce said we would over the summer so we could sign any number of players.
scott hogan is a decent striker. totally not a target man like davis. he a striker that needs feeding. loves to get in behind and always makes plenty decent intelligent runs. trouble is at villa he hasn’t ever received anything like the service he requires. villa made plenty mistakes in the transfer market. would like to see more cautious approach to buying and selling. bring through more home grown, then if you need to bring in certain players. do plenty of research and less gambling. we always seem to get burnt fingers,
i don’t think we need a great deal this winter. my may worry is the target man we desperately need and have needed for a while. davis is the answer long-term. but another experienced targetman is needed, should davis get injured or burned out, we can kiss our promotion chances good bye.
tonights game is gonna be very hard. leeds are aggressive and fast starting. the crowd will be rowdy. we are gonna need to get a hold of the game right away. this is were you need your big players like terry jedi and kodji. tonight is gonna be a real test, leeds have not come from behind and won, so bruce will have to get his tactics spot on, dilemmas to attack um or make sure you dont concede early. survive the onslaught that’s sure to come. smart money is on leeds2 nil my villa heart says a draw is best we can hope for
Me personally think its still in a mess on getting rid, and keeping who, we have player’s getting hurt to easily, players not wanting to leave, and all the time have better players in the under 21-and -18s, we could be shelling out when we have players not given a chance, come the window we will sell youngsters when we should be playing them.I fail to understand the reason to why we do it. Still I’m not paid to manage I’m just aloud to watch and spend. One day I’ll scan and send you a program I have in the beginning of our great club when it first started. UTV.
I’m on my way up to Leeds for tonight’s game. I’ve been working over in the channel islands for the past 20 months so haven’t been to any games. Other than Barnsley at home last season, which was the first game I’d been to for about 4 years. I refused to go whilst Lerner was only interested in asset stripping us. Prior to that I was a season ticket holder and attended on average between 12-15 away games too.
I got back to UK last Monday and the first thing I done was booked tickets for Sunderland, Ipswich and Millwall at home. Luckily a friend got me a ticket for tonight’s game. My first away game for what seems an age.
One thing that has stood out for me is the lack of atmosphere at Villa Park. It is seriously lacking. I was used to singing every minute of every game and loved it. Going home at the end of the game with practically no voice!! Now it’s like standing in a grave yard. It’s really that bad.
I’m looking forward to tonight’s game given that it’s away and the atmosphere at away games from visiting fans is usually much much better. I mean we all prefer attending an away game as opposed to an home game, right? Well I do anyway.
If Badger is ok with it I’ll post something on it tomorrow. Not the game itself but the general atmosphere. Not just during the game but before and after too. Something we don’t see much of unless you attend the game itself. I’ll post some pics too if that’s ok with Badger.
2-2 and a well earned point.
IN BRUCE I TRUST.
UTV.
No problem, B6.
Yes, the away atmosphere is always miles better and I’m certain it will be excellent tonight. Certainly my memory of Elland Rd in the days of the “dying fly” will live long.
I hope you have a great night mate and yes, feel free to post about it and I’ll put it up.
We always appreciate user’s posts, as it makes a nice change from reading my usual rubbish 🙂
b6 i hope the atmosphere is worst than villa park. that will mean we played well 🙂 but i know from my experiences at elland rd, it is a very boisterous crowd. when the team match them its deafening. our fans where just as loud and intimidating. but lately we have lost that sparkle. maybe the die hard fans like yourself. are not committing until the club show they are over the lerner era
hope you have a safe journey and fun night in Yorkshire. 3 points and entertaining game to match