TJVillan

It doesn't set my pulse racing either, but it's hard to deny he's EXACTLY the kind of player we need to link midfield and attack. So as far as i'm concerned GET HIM IN Whether it's Hoolahan for 3m or some fancy foreign bloke i've never heard of for more. At least the glaringly obvious hole in our team has been noticed at long last by Lambert. I'm incredibly glad he's gone from "number 10? attacking midfielder? no I don't think we're short there, I've got Weimann etc who can play off the striker" in September to "we desperately need a specialist number 10" in January.

And the reason why the strikers isn't scoring regularily is because the midfield is a total mess. Get some quality in midfield, try keeping possession and the goals will come. All IMO of course... I totally agree that we need more quality in midfield. That is the priority. But our strikers are really struggling for form as well. The few chances that are created are consistently squandered by Benteke and Weimann - neither have scored for 4 months! Kozak now injured and Helenius has only had 1 successful sub cameo. My point is more that Lambert has clearly been after him for a while and Wells is now playing so well that if we don't make a move this window we will probably miss out on him. And, of course, that he won't be the only signing we make. Im sure on current form Wells would be a huge improvement on Weimann, not sure if Lambert would pick him before Andi thou. The worry is that if we do have a limited transfer & wage budget should we spend it on striker #9 (counting Bent and Delfouneso) or is it better spent in other areas like midfield? I'm pretty sure an extra £10k/week is not going to stretch us when we have the bomb squad earning the best part of £300k/week, and his transfer fee will not be that high (if it is we won't pay it). He is a cheap, longer term investment that Lambert seems to have been after for over a year. I really can't see Lerner having any problem funding it on top of any other business we might do.

Bit of a difference between scoring regularly in League One and scoring regularly in the Premier League. On to the question what 'number 10' I would sign if I had 3.5m and around 20k on wages, thinking I would sign Lewis Holtby on loan for the season. Lewis Holtby allegedly earns £3.5 million per year. Or £67,000 per week. http://www.sportrichlist.com/football/tottenham-hotspur-players-salaries/

This. Jack Grealish, widely regarded as a future Villa star, is currently playing for a team at the bottom of league 1. Nakhi Wells is tearing up the same division.

And the reason why the strikers isn't scoring regularily is because the midfield is a total mess. Get some quality in midfield, try keeping possession and the goals will come. All IMO of course... I totally agree that we need more quality in midfield. That is the priority. But our strikers are really struggling for form as well. The few chances that are created are consistently squandered by Benteke and Weimann - neither have scored for 4 months! Kozak now injured and Helenius has only had 1 successful sub cameo. My point is more that Lambert has clearly been after him for a while and Wells is now playing so well that if we don't make a move this window we will probably miss out on him. And, of course, that he won't be the only signing we make.

Yep. Definitely something going on. https://twitter.com/MatKendrick/status/420633937023492096 I'd be really happy with it. Carruthers and Grealish both playing well in that position for their League 1 clubs, would like to see what they can learn from Hoolahan when they return to Villa.

Prepare for the embargo to be lifted at "10pm ish" and several outlets reporting Hoolahan handing a transfer request in. That was my guess

Interesting. https://twitter.com/MickDennisReal/status/420637615713705984 "I have Wes Hoolahan scoop (the truth) from 10pm ish" - Mick Dennis (The Express, 5 Live, former Norwich City correspondent).

"We don't need him at the moment" - remind me, how is our attack doing? Benteke - hasn't scored in 4 months. Kozak - out for the season. Weimann - in horrible form, 1 goal this season. Helenius - clearly out of favour and not cutting it, only 3 sub appearances in the league. Bowery - yet to score or show even the slightest threat for Villa. Yes, it's League 1, but Wells has scored 14 goals in 19 games this season. He got plenty last season too. He knows where the goal is. But that's not even the point. The point is if we don't sign him, somebody else will. We will miss out. We've been linked with him before we were even drawn against Bradford in the cup last season. Lambert clearly sees something in him and wants him for the long term. And that's not even the main point. The REAL point is of course we are not going to sign Wells if it means we can't afford to buy our other main targets! Lambert has come out and said "we need experience" and "we need a number 10". Those are clearly the priority. If we sign Wells it will be AS WELL AS our other targets.

We can afford them.

I don't get the hate surrounding any potential signing of Nakhi Wells. Of course we need a couple more experienced players but we will still look to bring in young talent too. Wells scores goals. He has good technique, he's very quick and seems pretty composed. I think he'd make a very good low cost low risk signing. The only risk would be if he was our if he came in at the expense of a player that could help our team immediately. Which clearly won't happen as Lambert has come out and said "we need experience" and "we need a number 10". Wells is certainly a much better signing than say Bowery, who never scored goals even in league 2. Wells scored plenty last season and is the 2nd top scorer in League 1 this season having missed several games. Who knows how he would do in the Premier League but it is worth taking a chance on him.

Screenshot? As far as I can see on here and twitter you are the only one who spotted it... If you google Wes Hoolahan, one of the top results is a Telegraph link from an hour ago..... when you click it it says Error 404 not found. Aha! Your detective work is clearly superior to mine. Nice spot. Could be that they just got it wrong, or are they not supposed to announce it yet? We'll see!

Screenshot? As far as I can see on here and twitter you are the only one who spotted it...

I get the feeling this one is reeeallly going to sting in a few years. The latest video of Dan Crowley for Arsenal under 18s.

Silly season now officially in full flow. http://bwinbetting.com/leagues/premier-league/rickie-lambert-man-save-aston-villas-season,50496.html?

If half his wages are say 45k a week, i hardly see how that's not affordable especially seeing as (a) we have current first teamers earning more than that and ( we have a estimated income of 100m a year Yeah, and we're desperately trying to get rid of any first teamer earning that much apart from Gabby. Perhaps we'd be willing to pay 45k/week for a 6 month loan deal but I highly doubt City would go through with that when a) other clubs would be willing to pay more of his wages and they are still competing in 4 different competitions so they could use the squad depth. Edit - now understand the random sunglasses in your comment as it happened to me as well!

If Lescott signs for Villa this window I will eat my hat. I can make it a flippin' sombrero if you like. He earns nearly ten times as much as most players in our squad. Even if City paid half his wages, it would still be more than we can currently afford. HH also hinted that the enquiry for Lescott was what Lambert was alluding to when he said he "nearly fell off his chair" asking about a player. It just ain't happening.

£6 million with 6 months left on his contract If this is the kind of inside knowledge Warren Haughton brings, we can totally disregard anything he said about Hoolahan the other day.

actually its a spurs itk who's reliable A bored, imaginative Twitter user. Spurs ITKs weren't too reliable last summer. To say the very least. They make it up as they go along. Any Villa fan reading their ITK insights on Benteke would know they were talking utter s**t. I agree when its their fans making up shit about players. But why would they create such a random rumour about Holtby going to Villa? Seems odd. Who knows. Time will tell. It's not that random. We've been linked with him in the last year or 2 and Spurs have so many midfielders they can afford to let him go. It's a very easy link to make. We could be after him, but they sure as hell don't have any inside information to back it up.

actually its a spurs itk who's reliable A bored, imaginative Twitter user. Spurs ITKs weren't too reliable last summer. To say the very least. They make it up as they go along. Any Villa fan reading their ITK insights on Benteke would know they were talking utter s**t.

What about when he tore us apart at Villa Park earlier in the season? He's a top quality player and would be a fantastic signing.

Lerner is a bigger problem, but Lambert still doesn't have what it takes. We are an absolute embarrassment, even with the players we have we should be playing a lot better, they proved they can do it between February and May last season. He's got to go.

That also means he's cup tied. Even if Lambert isn't interested in the early rounds of the cup, it's not ideal if we were to progress a couple of rounds. True, but I doubt the cup is Lambert's priority. He's playing RB today but plays centre back too and has played for the Beligian national team too. Can't imagine he'd be on massive wages. A good stand-in for Okore potentially. Had a shocker today, now sent off for a 2nd yellow. On this evidence - no thanks.

You would hope if we got Defour and Hoolahan we wouldn't have such low possession. There will be much more movement and more intention to pass the ball to players that can do something with it than just hoof it.

Won 4 titles in 2 different leagues, 5 cups and 42 international caps. Still starts regularly in a very good Belgium side. Part of a Porto team that has lost 1 league game since he arrived. In 2011. 74 games. 1 loss.