Wes

The only players who would interest me are James McCarthy from Wigan and Andros Townsend from Spurs (on loan at QPR) although I think the amount we would be quoted for both would be ridiculously high compared to their true worth.

I think one thing we might see this year is a particularly bumper January transfer window throughout the league. The TV money trickles in throughout the season I believe so mid way through the season you could see a lot of teams spending some a bunch of that to secure their place in the league.

Not doubting he knows more than most Villa fans, myself included, but £20m + sales of those players would've been the guess of most reasonable people around the league anyway. He's not revealing much in that specific regard.

I've gone with 5.

• Reserve Goalkeeper competition for Siegrist
• Centre Back
• Left Back competition for Bennett
• An attack minded central midfielder
• A versatile forward/winger

I think the biggest purchases will be Centre Back and the Centre Mid.

For those of you who seemed to like my last post on how Dortmund built their team and the similiarities to how Lambert is building the side I'll have another lengthy post coming soon.

I know people like to float a lot of names in the transfer forum over the summer so for a bit of fun on my part and hopefully for the rest of you I've composed a list of players who could interest us from around some of the European leagues. (Trying to get ahead of the game and find the next Michu for my fantasy team next year)

Been holding off on posting it until now as I didn't want to tempt fate!

I'd rather continue our ideology from this year of not taking other teams castoffs who would demand high wages but continue to sign talent on the rise and those with experience from the continent.

I see and hope for continued progress, Lambert now being able to spread his wings a bit further and better place his imprint on the club. Safe midtable and the youngsters growing in confidence and ability would be just fine for me.

WE DID IT GUYS!

Lewandowski is in the final year of his contract which is why his market value is so low compared to player's of equal ability. Dortmund are stuck in a Catch 22 situation in that they want to keep Lewandowski but they also don't want to let him go on a free.

Bayern want him but they're huge rivals and they just sniped Gotze away from them via a release clause so they will definitely not be willing to sell him to Bayern. Dortmund's ideal trading partner is Chelsea. They like De Bruyne and want him plus cash in exchange for Lewandowski. De Bruyne wants to go to Dortmudn too but Chelsea don't seem particularly interested as they want to keep De Bruyne on their books and would rather loan him out to Bayer Leverkusen.

All a bit of a soap drama really.

One thing is for sure though is that Dortmund are cash rich right now. You can only trigger a release clause with an upfront cash payment. So they've got the £30m from the Gotze sale plus however much their annual transfer budget usually is, anything they get from an eventual Lewandowski sale plus a big injection from the champions League final.

In short they could easily make a play for Eriksen AND Benteke if that's what they wanted. It would be different to their modus operandi thus far but they see Bayern spending big and they may feel they have to spend a little more than they would typically do.

Georginio Wijnaldum would be an amazing signing from PSV, or Nacer Chadli at FC Twente! really think we could do with a midfielder who can chip in with a few goals because relying on the front 3 for 95% of our goals is not going to enable us to push on! Pity Holman isn't a better player really

Yes. I like them both. Good shouts there.

Yeah sounds like a misunderstanding! We all make them though. We have no hope in getting Soldado.

I have done my own bit of research of my own (just to pass the time) in to cheaper/younger players who may be on the move this summer and one of them happened to be linked with us in an article today - although it's from a banned speculation source on this site.

The guy is Thievy Bifouma. French U-21 20yo. Left footed left sided winger predominantly but can play more centrally (probably behind someone as he's quite slight). From the clips I've seen he seems to have a decent first touch, hard worker (key Lambert attribute) and very composed.

Why would he be available? As the artical states he's currently at Las Palmas in the second Spanish division after being loaned out by his parent club Espanyol; where he's got 11 goals and 9 assists in 31 appearances. Espanyol are heavily in debt and are going to have to sell some players. Would probably go for under £3m I would guess.

Another left sided player I liked the look of is 21yo Steven Zuber, from the Swiss club Grasshoppers. More of a traditional crosser of the ball than the shot minded Thievy. Has been a regular in their first team for 4 seasons. Chips in with a half dozen goals and assists per season for them. He may not be dynamic enough going forward for Lambert though. I imagine he'll be off somewhere else this summer though.

Is it sad to see him leave the club? Sure, as it is for all promising talent but there could be any number of reasons that he has chosen to leave. Personal/Family or Footballing. Frankly, I wish him well in all his future endeavours.

If he goes on to become a success and have a good career then all power to him. Whenever he's mentioned in the media there'll always be a reference to his training at Villa's academy. Something to be proud of and show to future potential players we want to sign scholorships with down the road.

Sunderland would stay up on goal difference barring a Stamford Bridge style meltdown from ourselves even if they got beat would they not?

Ah yeah good point. To be honest I was calculating and typing them out so fast my head got confused with all the goal differences.

Are Southampton exempt from this relegation malarky?

Yes their GD is too good.

Permutations

Wigan

If Wigan lose against Arsenal they are relegated.

If Wigan draw at Arsenal, Aston Villa are safe.

If Wigan win at Arsenal and win against Villa, Wigan are safe.

Aston Villa

If Wigan win at Arsenal, Villa lose to Wigan and Sunderland don't lose to Spurs, Villa are relegated.

If Wigan draw or lose at Arsenal, Aston Villa are safe.

If Wigan win at Arsenal and Villa don't lose to Wigan, Villa are safe.

Sunderland

If Wigan win both games and Sunderland lose to Spurs, Sunderland are relegated.

If Wigan draw with Arsenal and win against Villa, Sunderland are safe

If Wigan lose against either Arsenal or Villa, Sunderland are safe

As it stands it's between Villa, Sunderland and Wigan for the drop. Everyone else is safe.

Fair play to them, they put some of the magic back in to the cup with that win and they were the better team on the day.

Hopefully they'll be out on the town celebrating tonight.

Silly play and yes it did cost us, although it was his brilliance that had us in with a shout in the first place.

Yep. Whilst it's far from ideal it's hard to get overly annoyed with him. He's got us more points in the past than he may have cost us today.

As always there's some quality research there Wes. Fancy a job scouting from B6?

Sure, if they have an analytics department

If he took a big pay-cut and we got him at a reasonable price, would anyone accept Barry back?

I remember being told a year or so ago that he would like to come back to Birmingham at some point, because he has a lot of friends in the area.

Are the bridges all burnt for some people? Or is it pure fantasy?!

I wouldn't say the bridge has been burnt down, just that neither of the two have any need to cross it again any time soon.

1 - Guzan

2 - Lowton

3 - New LB?

5 - New CB?

7 - Weimann

9 - Benteke

 

That would be my best guess.

I'd go along with this too.

I think Benteke will be given the choice of taking 9 or sticking with 20 - much like Van Persie in the past week (he stuck with 20).

I'd probably give Bennett the #3 shirt in the hopes that it gives him a boost in pre-season and he comes out a better player the other side of it. We'll still bring in another LB but just because Benett has the number 3 doesn't mean he'll start for us. Don't give him the #3 though and I think the lad might just take it as another knock against him.

Where is Douglass these days ?   (the big CB - not the old chairman)

Douglas from Twente? Heavily linked with Liverpool. Would be a very smart pick up for them.

As for Milner whilst I think we would all like to see him back in claret and blue performing as he did in his final season for us. I think his wage demands would just be too high now and that it's probably time to let that pipedream go and look towards cheaper, younger and dare I say hungrier talent.

Hopefully Gary Gardner comes of age next season.

I think Lambert has already placed him in the squad as the second attacking midfielder next season (with the first to be bought in in the summer). The way he's returned and is mooted to be close to breaking back on to the subs bench says to me Lambert has a lot of faith in him coming good.

Of course there's a significant injury history with him too and although we all hope that's behind him now because he is a considerable talent, it's why I think they'll be bringing in another attacking mid in front of him over the summer.

That's fair. What I mean to say is he doesn't seem ready to contribute, or hasn't up till this point, certainly not over a long period. So we're left with N'Zogbia as a back up for out outside forwards and I'm not convinced he's a long term answer either.

This lad seems to have the pace, the graft and the ability (judging by 6 assists) to do that. I may well be wrong, he'd be moving up a division, but I think we do need someone like him.

You're right Bowery is nowhere near ready yet. In an ideal world I think he would've been loaned out this season but we didn't have a squad capable of being being able to do that.

I agree. From the bits and pieces being said he sounds like a lot like a younger Gabby. Could've been £6m if Peterborough stayed in the Championship. 4m + addons if he gets an England cap, that kind of stuff sounds more likely.

If any of this is in fact true.

Sure about this Gayle kid? He signed a contract for peterborough in december, seems like he went away very fast. Don`t know nothing about it but I like what I am hearing

£4m would seem about right for someone who signed a contract 6 months after a fee of £0.5m - then again a journo could have come up with that figure.

I'll say this though, he certainly sounds like he has the character Lambert looks for. Playing his way up through the lower divisions, passionate and hungry for the game.

I'd have to wonder how well he plays when forced further wide as he would likely be played in one of the wider striker positions in our front 3. Seems like he has the pace to deal with it.

Deals happen when they happen, not in the order of priority. Even if we don't shift Bent, Bowery hasn't really worked out either.

Bit unfair to say Bowery hasn't worked out. He was purchased as a project for half a million rather than a contributor right away - our hand has been forced from time to time and he's had to play and he's generally been poor I agree. I'd give any young player we spend just half a million on at least a couple of years before branding how good or bad a deal was.

 

We don't need to replace Bent! 

All these can play ST: Benteke, Gabby, Weimann, Delfonz, Bowery, Burke, Drennan.  

 

Delfouneso isn't good enough.

 

I'd also rather not rely on Bowery or Burke / Drennan.

 

If Bent does go we need another striker.

 

We either bring in a backup quality striker or a young player because they know Benteke is always going to be prefered to them or we bring in a guy who can play both wide and up front so if there's a game Benteke is out Gabby can play through the middle and the new signing can play wide. I'd prefer the latter but there are arguments regarding distrubtion of wages amongst the various positions.