Winter transfer window 2020/1

[HalfTimePost]

6 minutes ago, useless said:

You can get promising championship players before their transfer fees become £20m plus or whatever, players like Sibley or Olise wouldn't cost anywhere near that, probably could have got Eze a couple of summers ago for around £10m, it was obvious then that he was going to be a very good player, Robinson is doing well at Fulham, they got him cheaper because of Wigan's situation, but even without that he still would have been gettable for not much more than £10m.

Fulham did well with him, can only imagine the failed medical for AC Milan put a few off. Imagine he'd be gettable if Fulham went down, he can play both sides can't he? 

[useless]

I don't know if he can play at rightback, but did cross my mind that we could go for him if they go down. But because he will have had a season in the premier league will probably cost a lot of money, maybe more than we'd want to spend on a leftback that might not even be first choice. I guess the point is you have to try and get them before they become expensive.

 

[TrentVilla]

18 minutes ago, useless said:

You can get promising championship players before their transfer fees become £20m plus or whatever, players like Sibley or Olise wouldn't cost anywhere near that, probably could have got Eze a couple of summers ago for around £10m, it was obvious then that he was going to be a very good player, Robinson is doing well at Fulham, they got him cheaper because of Wigan's situation, but even without that he still would have been gettable for not much more than £10m.

I wanted us to go for him.

[DaveAV1]

31 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

I wouldn't go quite that far yet. In 2008/09 and I think 09/10 aswell we were 3rd/4th in the league and had very strong 11s but lack of depth did for us as the season went on.

Now the key question is can we really push on and do something we haven't done for a long time e.g. win a trophy or play in european cup in next few years?

Always felt in past there's been a bit of negativity in that people didn't believe we were as good as an Arsenal or Liverpool so why bother and it all fizzled out.

Wes and Nas I feel won't make that mistake.

I agree with most of what you’ve said Chris, except I do think we’re in a stronger position now than then. I’m not necessarily comparing squads, that’s not easy when MON thought we only ever had 11 players but that’s a different story.
 

Where I think we’re currently much better placed is as an entire club. Our owners are motivated and intelligent businessmen.  They’re not just chucking money at the club and hoping all goes well. They’ve set up properly run departments for everything that is required to be a successful modern football club. We have proper football people running things and experts for somethings that most of us didn’t know was a thing! Especially those of us old enough to have witnessed winning the European Cup. 

[sharkyvilla]

39 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

What was Bowen? I thought was £25 million. Webster a CB went to Brighton previous season +20m. I think Leicester got Justin from Luton for somewhere in region of 8-12m but good players for 5-15m from Championship mentioned previously is fantasy

I think Justin was a bit less than that.  I'd like the equivalent of Justin and Fofana, though I didn't realise Fofana actually cost £30m.

[Lord Willard]

Eze was CP best player yesterday. A few of us wanted him in the summer. Watkins, Cash, Konsa are all great examples of talent in the Championship. 

Saka might be abit like us with Grealish we could be naive about getting him. 

Buendia, Saka and Eze(defo not going to happen) would be my dream list currently

 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Lord Willard

[fightoffyour]

14 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

Eze was CP best player yesterday. A few of us wanted him in the summer. Watkins, Cash, Konsa are all great examples of talent in the Championship. 

Saka might be abit like us with Grealish we could be naive about getting him. 

Buendia, Saka and Eze(defo not going to happen) would be my dream list currently

 

And then there's Ivan Toney, who many people suggested we should sign directly before he went to our feeder club.

[paul514]

5 hours ago, Awol said:

We know at least four are out of contract in the summer, two CMs, a LB and a RB. Do they leave signing all four replacements until then or try to get one or two in Jan, to help them settle before next season? 

I’d also be expecting another striker in before next season so same question as to whether they leave it or try to buy in Jan - if the right player is available? 

They might want to avoid 5-6 new faces all arriving at once, but who knows? 

Some would argue that Guilbert is cover for right back when Elmo goes.

I wouldn’t, Arrons is a no brainer to me for that. Still what’s the budget 

[paul514]

2 hours ago, MaVilla said:

iirc Maxim has recently signed a new contract?

Also, the money that would be needed to sign him would probably be literally insane currently.

Although he is good, we are probably best looking elsewhere currently.

I’d have Buendia over him anyway, he’s far more productive and could play at 10 as well.

[Lord Willard]

4 minutes ago, paul514 said:

Some would argue that Guilbert is cover for right back when Elmo goes.

I wouldn’t, Arrons is a no brainer to me for that. Still what’s the budget 

I really like Freddie and I think he has been unlucky but I agree Arron's is a no brainer.

IF we carry on the road we are on, we'll have out grown Freddie as a player. 

[paul514]

3 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

I really like Freddie and I think he has been unlucky but I agree Arron's is a no brainer.

IF we carry on the road we are on, we'll have out grown Freddie as a player. 

We already have 

[TRO]

33 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

Eze was CP best player yesterday. A few of us wanted him in the summer. Watkins, Cash, Konsa are all great examples of talent in the Championship. 

Saka might be abit like us with Grealish we could be naive about getting him. 

Buendia, Saka and Eze(defo not going to happen) would be my dream list currently

 

He was in the QPR team who put 3 past us at villa park a few years ago.....but was a shining light then....i know we can't sign everybody and the kids need a passage to pursue.....but always liked his play.

[Keener window-cleaner]

2 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

Seem him a lot more than that and he's rubbish. I could care less about a 1 off game against us. What do you think about his performances and Blades form this season? 

I think Blades overachieved last season and I was confident they would be a relegation candidate this season. The "overlapping fullback-tactic" was fun to see, but nothing they could live on in the long run and I'm surprised they wern't found out earlier. I was surprised their slump didn't come earlier last year. Think they have mostly shit players who wouldn't get in any other PL team. Berge may have potential, they have one or two CB who could do a job and then they have Lundstram. He was arguably their player of the season last season. He was the only player that stood out imo. Not that he in any way is a top class PL player or will improve us massively. But I think he is a perfect fit as cover, mainly because he is out of contract and would come cheap so we can save the money on other players, but also because he is the type of player who is very usful to have in the squad, a hard working grafter who also can play a bit, another McGinn type of player.

This season he has been underperforming, of the reasons I wrote above, Wilder overlooking him as he wont sign a new contract. His game against us was not a 1 off game, it was how he performed constantly last season.

If we could get a good back up to McGinn on the cheap and who would be an upgrade on Hourihane, give us more energy and graft and goals, why not.

[Kiwivillan]

27 minutes ago, paul514 said:

I’d have Buendia over him anyway, he’s far more productive and could play at 10 as well.

Agreed but Norwich won't let go of their best player if they get promoted which is looking highly likely atm

[Keener window-cleaner]

2 hours ago, VillaChris said:

He did well last season but this season has really shown how much of Sheffield players massively over achieved last year.

For next few windows it's all about quality now. 2-3 signings who can turn us into top 6 finishers like Carew and Ashley Young did in 2007. One a proven international striker who'd played in many top leagues, other one of best young players in championship and who'd played a few games in premier league. Similar player to him is someone like Lookman who I think would be a realistic target if Fulham go down.

Someone mentioned Tielemens a few pages back. That's a brilliant example of club signing a player when they were mid table and he's helped Leicester move into being top 6 regulars in last 18 months. They got him from Monaco so you'd think with what's happening in French league we'll be looking at some decent players from top 6 clubs there next month particularly as we've already signed Traore who was semi regular at usual top 4 club from that league.

Ross Barkley is another obvious one to get in full time as he meets the criteria.

It's all about improving the first 11 and then the squad becomes much stronger. I can see a time in near future where Mings, McGinn and Trez aren't automatic starters and have to take their turn to sit on the bench for periods during the season so then our bench has some decent impact options on it.

Fully agree that they over achieved. It would be great if we could bring in someone like Tielemans, but I'm not sure how realistic that is. I think our team is working so well at the minute that I would like to continue with Luiz and McGinn as first choice in midfield. If we could bring in a real top class CM then great, if we could get for example Phillips from Leeds then excellent. I just don't think that's realistic in this window. And I wouldn't really want us to gamble on a player from abroad who needs time to adapt and we don't know how he will fit into the team or in the dressing room.

Imo it would be good with a cover at CM. And as a realistic target, I don't see many better opportunities than Lundstram at the moment. Soon out of contract so he will come cheap, he wont demand to be first choice, but will be a big upgrade on our bench and a cover for McGinn.

I think it's more realistic to get the 2-3 real quality signings next summer.

[cheltenham_villa]

2 hours ago, maqroll said:

We are in a stronger position now than at any point in MONs tenure.

what makes you say that? i want to remain positive but are we really better off than the start of his final year. strong squad, majority internationals went on to challenge top 4, both cups and europe.

lets not get carried away and rememer how good we actually were at that point

[Keener window-cleaner]

57 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

Eze was CP best player yesterday. A few of us wanted him in the summer. Watkins, Cash, Konsa are all great examples of talent in the Championship. 

Saka might be abit like us with Grealish we could be naive about getting him. 

Buendia, Saka and Eze(defo not going to happen) would be my dream list currently

 

I was thinking of that as well. I thought we had more or less Benrahma, Eza, Buendia and Traoré as our wide forward alternatives this summer. It will be interesting to see who will perform the best this season (Buendia stayed at Norwich obviously). I think Eze preferred a move to a London club, so I'm not sure we could have gotten him anyway. I agree he looked good, at least offensively. But I don't think he helped out enough in defence, and that's what he has been criticized for at QPR. He is not the fastest either. In the first half I thought Traoré was as good for us as Eze was for them, and Traoré scored, Eze didn't.

I think we could do with another wide forward, with the form and improvement of El Ghazi and Trez I'm not sure it is pressing in January, but otherwise in the summer. I'm surprised Buendia is still att Norwich and I'm not sure what Norwich would demand for him, but I'd love to see him at Villa.

[ROTTERDAM1982]

Podence would be my no 1 target in the summer.

I like Eze, but thought he looked lazy yday.

[Steero113]

4 minutes ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

Podence would be my no 1 target in the summer.

I like Eze, but thought he looked lazy yday.

Why the hell would Wolves sell one of the 3 players they have put their faith in (podence, Neto and silva) in the rebuild after Jota was sold? 

Edited December 27, 2020 by Steero113

[maqroll]

56 minutes ago, cheltenham_villa said:

what makes you say that? i want to remain positive but are we really better off than the start of his final year. strong squad, majority internationals went on to challenge top 4, both cups and europe.

lets not get carried away and rememer how good we actually were at that point

The primary difference is that those MON teams were unsustainable due to absurd wages.