lexicon

They were great passes, for sure, but are hardly indicative of his overall passing ability. It's all about consistency at this level; if he could do that a lot more frequently, he'd be a much better player but he's just as likely to give it to the opposition as he is play a scintillating through ball. It's really not "all about consistency". At any level of football. It's about scoring more goals than the opposition and you could argue that is really all it is about. In that respect for me, Bacuna is worth his defensive deficiencies. So it's not about consistency, unless you score more goals than the opposition as regularly as possible...

Yeah but Bacuna gets taken to the cleaner by QPR level teams.

Thanks Ron - gave us a good three years and was a snip at the price we signed him for. Best of luck.

Hutton is a lot more defensively solid though - that's why I'd prefer him to Bacuna. Really though, I'd like us to sign someone better than both of them.

They were great passes, for sure, but are hardly indicative of his overall passing ability. It's all about consistency at this level; if he could do that a lot more frequently, he'd be a much better player but he's just as likely to give it to the opposition as he is play a scintillating through ball.

He's just turned 26, so 15/18mil for a guy just entering his prime is decent enough. Could get 5 good seasons out of him.

Far from being the best I've seen, Lexicon, but that is probably down to our respective ages. I'm soon to be 29, for the record - so obviously missed out on most of the greats. Who would you say is the best you've seen?

He's the best player I've ever seen play for Villa. I really hope he does stay but it certainly doesn't look like that'll be the case. If I had to hazard a guess, he'll be a Liverpool player this time next week.

I take it you haven't seen my posts BOF

You can't coach talent P3te, you really can't. People have different ceilings of ability and I just don't think he's got it in him. I really hope I'm wrong and he turns out to be a big success but I'm doubtful, obviously.

I'm not surprised that Joe Cole writes like an eight-year-old but it still made me cringe a bit. I like jam. I also like toast. They are really good and tasty.

Yeah, that too. I think the likeliest transfer to go through next will be Mason Holgate for some reason.

Markovic is a risk - young and with potential but we shouldn't be taking risks with the Benteke money, we need some proven talent.

It's an odd link this Darder one - maybe he was plan B in case the Gueye move fell through for some reason (e.g. work permit problems)? He's seemingly very similar to Gueye.

Jacobs seems to make lots of predictions and then quote himself on the ones that come off - seems like he could be a chancer to me. anyone can put 2 and 2 together here, with them getting a big wedge and then bidding for Benteke.

He's almost 24 - you can't improve your dribbling or passing THAT much if the talent isn't there.

Truth being told, I'd rather get Adebayor than Balotelli. Sherwood has a very good working relationship with the former and got a lot out of him - Balotelli continues to be an enigma.

Yeah, looks that way - Praet can track back and hassle too as needed though. Both of them look able to play as a traditional do-it-all CM but with slightly different strengths/tendencies.

'And here's Gueye, flaming up the pitch..'

Looks like Darder is plan B after Praet fell through. Looks to be a CM who can do most things, sits deep to tackle/win headers, can dribble up the pitch comfortably, can play an array of passes and is partial to the odd thunderbastard. Basically, a massive upgrade on Westwood. Makes me think that Sherwood wants a flat 3 of midfielders, who have great stamina and can do just about everything.

Don't you like goals? He's scored a few goals and got a few assists but it doesn't make up for his negative sides IMO. He's worth about 3 million quid, tops. I'd sell him. What is the point of selling him really? 3m's hardly going to make a major difference to our budget and he shows quality at times ans can still improve further, Sherwood reckons anyway. He's got more long term value to the club than Alan Hutton I'd say so of the two I'd let Hutton go. I don't think he's a short or long term answer, so I'd sell him now. I'd go with Hutton for the time being and look to spend a larger amount on a good wing back in the future, dependant on what our budget is looking like at the moment.

I'm delighted - it's about time he came to his senses RE: Brad.

Fair enough, yeah - in terms of minutes to assists, he's done reasonably well there. He can take set pieces and cross well, I'm not going to dispute that but I think that if we played him regularly at RB, he'd make mistakes that cost us at least as many goals as he'd provide. I don't trust him defensively at all.

Over the years we've had some great defenders - standards are high for that here.

His definitive position is right back surely? He's played there consistently for 2 seasons. I wouldn't be surprised to hear he has more assists/goals over that time period than anyone else but named Benteke. He's an attacking full back. He doesn't have to start every game to be useful to the squad surely? He's not a good right back though, defensively he just doesn't have what it takes. I think you're overselling his goals and assists somewhat. From what I can make out, he's had 6 of each in two seasons - so averaging out to 3 of each per season, it's not exactly immense, is it?