January Transfer Window

First big deals today:

Sturridge -> Liverpool

Ba -> Chelsea


Who do you want your club to sign?

Hard to know what Villa are going to do this window. Sell Bent perhaps, which would open up funds. But who will buy? at a guess, Newcastle, Sunderland, QPR or West Ham.

Also be good to finally ship Warnock & Hutton, though as long as they are kept out on loan, that's something. Dare say we'd also let N'Zogbia, Ireland, Dunne or Given go if there was interest as they are all high earners who are not playing enough to justify it.

As for incoming, Dale Stephens from Charlton is likely. another young lower-league midfielder Would expect a striker if we sell Bent, maybe a CB. Lambert seems to buy from the leftfield, so hard to make predictions.

Would be nice to get a player or two in quickly, as a boost after this horrible Xmas.

Well, it's official.

I'm fairly content with this signing; if Rodgers can get him playing with confidence then he's certainly got an eye for goal.

Now to get in a number 9.

Joshua King has signed a permanent deal with Blackburn Rovers after having been on loan there from Manchester United.

Carlo Cudicini left Spurs for LA Galaxy

I like Lambert.. But his transfer policy seems a bit mongish.

To be fair, I think Lambert's hands are tied.
It's not his dream signings,
he'd love to shop at the top shelfs if his chairman had a bigger wallet

rosenthal wrote:To be fair, I think Lambert's hands are tied.
It's not his dream signings,
he'd love to shop at the top shelfs if his chairman had a bigger wallet

It's a bit of both. I think he does have an ethos of the type of players he wants - he wants a young team with drive to succeed rather than a team of established players who are happy just to pick up their wages. But I guess he'd rather be signing more players like Benteke (21 yrs old, international, £7m) rather than sub £3m lower league players, if he had the funds to do so.

His lower league signings have been mostly good, to be fair. Westwood looks like he could be our Joe Allen type, at a fraction of the cost. Lowton can be a good RB too, though has struggled with the rest of the defence lately. Jury out on Bennett & Bowery.

It's all about the balance though, you can sign one or two good championship player(s) and do well.
But if you build your entire team out of such then you're in problem and likely to find yourself being a Championship side before too long.
Same goes for too many young/old/foreign etc. Need to strike a balance.

Bit surprised he doesn't use his german contacts more

Fees will tie his hands im sure... But I don't think he needs to buy so many from league 1..

of course everyone here could do much better than any real manager, that's a given, but I think Lambert has made some quite astute signings. He's pretty much built a whole new team for the price of an English centre forward. And as far as I'm concerned it's a good thing that he's taking a gamble on some young lower league players for the fringe positions. I think it's unlikely that Villa will finish in the top 4 this season, but once they sort out the defense the rest of the team looks solid.

Joe Cole has had a physical at Upton Park.

I'm surprised he had the energy for it.

Luis wrote:I'm surprised he had the energy for it.

They probably gave him a lolly to get through it, then promised him ice cream after if he behaved.

Well it seems we're not getting TH again which is a move in the right direction. However I fear we'll get Diaby being back in training as a LANS and a couple of sixteen year olds, and that'll be it.

When we were promoted three seasons ago, I think the majority of our fans thought we needed an improvement on Danny Simpson at right-back; a centre-back to compete with Steven Taylor and to replace him during his increasingly frequent spells out injured; and a forward player or two to partner with and complement Andy Carroll. To fill out the squad, we wanted a left-back to act as reserve to Jose Enrique, and some options in the wide positions where we only possessed Gutierrez and Wayne Routledge.

The situation up front has gone through a few stages since then, but we are essentially in the same state today. We are still playing Simpson and Williamson at the back; we lack options throughout the defence; and whereas we wanted a player to offer competition and options alongside Ba, Cisse and Ben Arfa, instead we'll feel fortunate if we spend a decent fee and bring in a half-decent replacement for Ba once he completes his move to Chelsea.

So the three players we need most are a forward of some sort - I think still a player with pace who can play off a striker or in a wide position; a centre-back; and a right-back, who will presumably be Debuchy. We could also really do with a left-back to compete with Santon; and ideally we'd bring in both a wide attacker who would immediately improve the first team plus a reserve striker. I'll be content if we get the three players.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2256077/Joe-Cole-latest-West-Ham-beat-QPR-Liverpool-flop.html

Its official, Joe Cole to sign for West Ham from Liverpool on a free.

Di Caniooooo! wrote:http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2256077/Joe-Cole-latest-West-Ham-beat-QPR-Liverpool-flop.html

Its official, Joe Cole to sign for West Ham from Liverpool on a free.

If someone actually wanted him seems strange that they had to pay him 3 million to go. At least they saved 4 million in wages but still strange. I reckon West Ham will have to pay him to leave for America by the end of next season.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2256612/Mathieu-Debuchy-completes-5-5m-Newcastle-move.html


Need moar!!!


(and a new manager )

West Ham to sign the "New Robbie Keane" Waterford 18 year old striker Sean McGuire. Cole to West Ham is also official.

I just had a thought. If you signed Andy Cole and brought him out of retirement you could boast one of the worst front 3 ever assembled in the Premier League: Cole-Cole-Cole

Di Caniooooo! wrote:West Ham to sign the "New Robbie Keane" Waterford 18 year old striker Sean McGuire. Cole to West Ham is also official.

Cole to West Ham is official? Again?

I've always been a fan of Sean Maguire, today is a good day

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_18KUuj25_g

Looks like Chamakhattack is going to WHam too. I thought they already had their requisite African ex-Ligue 1 striker to sit on the bench with Maiga.

Joe Cole has signed for West Ham. Rafa has bought a bra.

English Germ Lewis Holtby has signed a pre contract with Spurs, joins on a free in July

www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spurs/index.page

You just beat me to it, Bernardo!

Over at Arsenal Mania its apparent that he was a good player when Arsenal were linked with him. Now Spurs have signed him he's actually fairly average and if Arsenal had really been keen he would have obviously joined them innit (just like jan vertonghen hey chaps)


arsenal-mania.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=170382

Hands up those who ever doubted Levy's shrewdness (slash jewishness) in the Transfer market?

Aside from signing Holtby on a free (admittedly wages + signing on fee likely not to come cheap),

apparently we have also completed the signing Zeki Fryers.

Nothing particularly interesting about that I hear you - rightly - say.

However, the side story is little more amusing than that.

Mr Fryers was due to sign for us in the Summer after rejecting a contract at Man United.

Man United however were demanding at least 6 million in compensation for Fryers, being under 23 the case would have had to go to a tribunal.

In the end, he joined Standard Liege on a free, given the UK compensation / tribunal laws don't apply to Belgian clubs.

Now, we've signed him from Liege just 6 months later for a considerably smaller fee by all accounts.

Man United get nothing, while we get a player who 6 months ago Fergie and Co. were trying to haggle 6 million for considerably less.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/9779368/Spurs-cut-price-deal-for-Zeki-Fryers-could-anger-Manchester-United.html

Jews

Nice to hear about that wee club in the north west getting screwed over. A feel good story.

Holtby in and Bale out is indeed decent business; might as well get £30 million for Bale now from Madrid rather than wait a few years and risk him fading a bit.