dn1982

Dodgy knees? Look at how many minutes he plays! I think £15m was the start point and could easily have been negotiated. The difference in movement in Austin and Gestede is unreal he also has a desire in him that I haven't seen in Gestede. If we could get him for £8m in Jan it'd be good business. I'd even give them another £4m if we stayed up or got promoted next season. We need a striker and he's probably the best can get. 

20 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Can't see us being prepared to pay the amount and the wages it will take to get Austin here. 

he's probably as good as we can get it'd be an £8m gamble that if it never came off we'd either get our money back or have a 20+ goal scorer next season. 

Charlie Austin is looking sharp and his movement makes a mockery of Gestedes. If there's any chance we can get him we shouldn't hesitate. 

His fitness levels are finally getting up there like a lot of the players and it begs the question what did Sherwood do in the summer to get these so fit/unfit?? I've liked him from the start but it's hard getting half a team to settle at once. I think he'll be massive for us 2nd half if of the season but will it be too late? 

Every weekend is massive from here on in but if we can somehow reduce the gap this weekend it'll give such a boost to the squad. Playing our main rivals away from home in the coming weeks can be a big advantage as long as we perform. 

Guzan 

Hutton Okore Lescott Clark 

Veretout Sanchez Gana 

Traore Ayew Gabby 

we wont have that much possession so need a big counter attacking a threat 

9 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

You did, actually:

My point was that's not the ONLY question we should ask. We should also ask is that player the best one we could get?

That was in a reply to people giving reasons why we SHOULDN'T sign Cole! You interpret it anyway you want as you've conviently left out all the other responses we've had. I clearly stated we should be looking to get players in who will improve us in the short term and not think further than next summer. That's why the only question when signing a player is will they improve the team. It's a given you try for the best player you can get. Feel free to misquote. 

4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

No, my point was we shouldn't just be buying a player because he will improve us.

We should be buying a player because he will improve us the most out of everybody available.

I don't think anybody ever has said don't buy the best player possible. Cole is available you named Kolarov who isn't so it's a mute point. If there's a better LB than Cole buy him just no matter what improve the team. 

All the other teams around us have either pulled a rabbit out of the hat with very unexpected results and had a bit of luck at crucial times be it player mistakes or referee decisions. So far this season we've had neither hopefully we can nick a win on Sunday and get something going as the next 4 games will decide our season and i think our transfer policy in January. Go undefeated and get a couple of wins and we will have a chance if not we are doomed. 

50 minutes ago, YLN said:

This idea that he's 70% or 75% the player he was. Such meaningless figures based on nothing. What if he's 2% the player he once was. Yeah if he's still a good prem quality left back then sign him up. I think the fear is that he really isn't, and for the cash he'd be asking you'd hope there would be better options. 

Whether Cole is still good enough we'd have to wait and hope but as far as the financial side goes didn't he sign for 35k a week at Roma?? He took over 150k a week pay cut to play at a high level so it may not have worked out but at least he had a go. 

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

Not really.

What if someone like, I dunno, Kolarov was available (I know he isn't, bear with me) and we were still going for Cole?
 

By your logic we'd just stick with Cole.

Whereas Hanoi is pointing out further up that some people would be saying "erm, Cole might be better than Richardson, but wouldn't Kolarov be a better signing?"

I think you confused my logic with something else! We should be signing anybody that improves the team. We shouldn't be thinking longer than the end of this season. We have a squad that in the long run will be fine but we need a team to try to get us out of this crap. No where did I say we should sign Cole and no one else regardless. The club has had a policy of buying in the main under 27 that should be disregarded for the short term. I've no idea what your logic is but I hope I've cleared up mine!! 

26 minutes ago, Craigy1874 said:

This is the villa fan way.

Aww we dont want cole, he is shite.  Then we sign nobody and they moan as Richardson is shite.

It's annoying being a villa fan sometimes.

Is he better than what we currently have yes.  Are we in a dire position, yes.  GET HIM IN!

Spot on! The only question we should ask is are they an improvement on what we have. I don't care about next season we have half a season to to go and we have to gamble to stay up. We have a squad for the long term we need a team for the short.

4 hours ago, villarocker said:

People were mulling over whether Charlie Austin would be the right man for us last summer. When we go down, attracting Austin to us when we go down would be like attracting say Lukaku, Payet, Bolasie etc whilst still in the Premier League. Look at Brighton at the clubs at the top end of the Championship. Brighton have the likes of Zamora and Hemed up front, Middlesboro have Stuani & Fabbrini, Martin & Bent, Hull have Hernandez & Akpom. Look at Burnley lying in 5th place and their top signing cost a club record  - believed to be around £6m.

When we go down, we will not be seeing marquee signings of the past like Bent was. We need to get used to the fact that attracting players of a certain quality was difficult in the PL, in the Championship it will be almost impossible. We will be shopping around players that are going to make a lot of fans cringe.

Right now, in January, I would target Gray from Burnley. He has already scored 9 goals in 14 games for them this season. He scored 18 in 40+ for Brentford last season so he's already proven at that level. I would pay whatever it takes to bring him here in January in the hope that he can score straight away safe in the knowledge that, if he doesn't and we go down, we will have a proven goalscorer for that league who is already settled in at the club. I would seriously plan for buying the better players, in positions that we need to strengthen, from the Championship so that they are settled before the start of the season and have had some PL experience too. I think that would give us a stronger chance of coming back at the first attempt and, at coming back stronger.

 

So instead of targeting a player like Austin who has 6 months left and is proven in both the PL and Championship you'd target a striker who signed for about £9m in the summer and who's at a club that'll be there or there abouts for promotion? We should go all out for Austin who I reckon you'll get for £5m ish but if you are willing to spend £10m plus on a gamble they'll be better ones abroad .    

57 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

He wants to be France's number one right-back in time for the European Championships. No way is he going to come to a crap team 20th in the table and cut adrift. The rest of the French national team, apart from Lloris, play for teams in the Champions League. A variety of top European teams will be more than happy to take Debuchy. 

People are absolutely dreaming about the quality of players we're going to be able to attract. Anyone who comes is basically guaranteed to be playing in the Championship next season. Jedinak, Kramaric - these are actual possibilities. Ospina, Campbell, Debuchy - these players can play for teams in the Champions League. It's never ever ever going to happen. 

He can't get a game so he needs to be playing its nothing to do with showing his quality or anything long term it's showing your fit and in form. Other teams might go in for him but if we were his only option in the PL there's no reason he wouldn't come IMO. The same goes for a few others not currently playing in their 1st teams. The only thing that'll stop us signing loan players is competition not our league position. Convincing people to come full time may be a trickier issue though. 

17 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

Kozak is good enough in my opinion, you should've seen him tonight for the u21s, he was outstanding

Outstanding?? Bloody hell we've let our standards slip this year! He was decent. Worked hard scored a couple but far from outstanding! He deserves a chance though and is definitely more mobile and seems more willing to graft. 

2 hours ago, DCJonah said:

A Leicester city ST holder i'm friends with, consistently said last season that the results didn't reflect the way they were playing and that they deserved more. 

Very different to us being fortunate getting 2 points from 4 games. 

We've showed absolutely nothing this season to suggest we're capable of putting a run of results together. 

We should've beat Watford last week. We had way more chances but bad defending and low confidence cost us badly! We also deserved more points whilst we had Sherwood but his inept management cost us Leicester away being a prime example. So who's to say we won't go on a similar run as they did? After 19 games they had 13 pts so from the next 4 we need 7 to match it but picking an arbitrary date to try yo prove a point is silly we need another 30 pts by May simple as that. It's going to be hard but we need to keep the faith especially with the games have coming up. Our run till the end of Jan is huge! 

On 3 December 2015 at 13:58:42, bobzy said:

We already have a few of those (N'Zogbia, Lescott, Hutton for example) and then added youth - just like Q.P.R. did.  They bought Fer, Caulker, Sandro and Mutch (prob others) who will have cost a fair amount and been paid a fair amount.

On dropping down, they've basically got rid of the older players but not been able to bring in any meaningful players as they're "stuck" with some of the Premier League waged-ones (Austin (I'd assume pay rise), Fer, Green, Sandro).

Loans are a good route, sure.  Mirallas in the Championship, though?

You're planning for next year I'm planning to fight to stay up! Get the loans in in Jan then if we go they go 

13 minutes ago, bobzy said:

"Disastrous" might be a bit far, in hindsight, but I think it would stifle our club.

We'll be paying Premier League wages to a whole load of players on decent-length contracts with the additional loss of TV revenue and a further £30m (plus agents fees etc. etc.).  I think we'd then struggle to re-build or add 'experienced' players to help us bounce straight back up.

For example:  Q.P.R.

It depends on who you buy and the wages they command. QPR bought loads of ageing players on massive wages. We have a young squad. We could easily carry a couple of older players in the hope we stay up. If we never we'd still have a better blend for next season. I think we can use the loan system well though. Players not getting game time with the Euros like Mirallas etc 

Origi anyone? He surely needs more games and I think they'd want him to get PL experience maybe worth asking for a loan? 

2 hours ago, KHV said:

Houllier didn't have a squad that was a complete bag of wank either

Till Xmas it was as most were injured yet Bannan and Hogg out played man united! 

It took a good 4/5 months for Houllier to get the players playing good stuff with the required fitness levels unfortunately Garde doesn't have 4/5 months to get it right after the next 2 games we have to go on a run to get ourselves clear. I've said all season the players look unfit hopefully Duverne can get them fit enough to scrap for 90 min. We need to pick up a couple of lucky results to get confidence going then if that happens I can see us going on a run. 

One thing that might go for us is the fact the Euros are in the summer. Any international not getting game time will,be desperate to get away in Jan. Hopefully we can get a couple of loans and a couple of signings. At present I'd try for Austin, Townsend and  Trippier. Bring back Cissokoho and Bennett. We are desperate for an experienced old head in CM just to calm things when games look like getting away from us but I've no idea who! I'd even bring Vlaar back for 6 months if he fancied it and was fit enough to start! 

Our ticket office like so much at the club is crap. We should be pro active in selling tickets not relying on our good supporter base. We have I think 4 away games in the next 30 add days all of them the furthest we can go yet the club don't push any deals or try to drum up further support. Getting he same fans to go time and again isn't a way to grow a fan base. When tickets make general sale push them to fans who never get the opportunity normally. Take the extra allocation if we sell out 4/5 weeks in advance and then push to sell the remainder. Fair play to all who are going on Saturday after Everton I need a weekend off! 

It only takes a bit of luck to turn your way and confidence comes flooding back. Leicester are the prime example of players playing with confidence being unrecognisable. Garde some how has to instill resolve into the side but we've been brittle all year. We need 3 players in Jan minimum to boost the team but who will sign for us if we are virtually down? Some how we have to nick a win then go undefeated against the teams around us. I just can't see it. 

7 hours ago, NeilS said:

I was in the "still remained hopeful" category a few weeks ago, but that hope has now totally been knocked out of me after the last couple of results. I have pretty much resigned myself to the fact we are down. This team echos the 86/87 team in that we had young hopefuls then who turned out to be duds.

We made a big mistake in the summer by not buying a couple of decent centre backs. Richards was always a massive gamble, and Clark has reverted to type after a half decent season last year. With Hutton and Richardson either side of them and Guzan behind them, that defence reeks of disaster. We don't stand a hope of surviving with so many mistakes and goals being gifted to the opposition. Yes mistakes happen, but not to the level we are experiencing. I think Garde is going to struggle to organise these clowns into any kind of cohesive unit.

You brought up net spend as spending money was a guarantee. You've now explained it and I think we all agree on it. The biggest thing we had to do it he summer was replace Bentekes goals. We haven't. Instead we buy Gestede but don't have any players who can cross the ball to him! It's one big **** up!