Wes

They're all professionals doing their job. Don't particularly see it as a humiliation. It's the nature of the business.

Seen a bunch of twitter talk about Leeds being interested in taking Albrighton on loan. But it's twitter, not seen anything more concrete than that.

It was Hazard. Who kept telling media outlets that he would release the news on which club he would go to on various dates. Then via twitter. Then at special events. Just went on forever.

My first reaction when someone mentioned him was that Nuremberg would almost definitely not sell. Bought for a low price. Only been there a year. Huge success story. Fan favourite. In some ways it's a lesser cost equivalent of someone trying to take Benteke from us. That said there is speculation that there is a clause in his contract (unlike in Benteke's currently I believe) which we may be able to trigger. If he managed to adapt to our league then I'd happily give Nuremberg £6m or £7m for him, which would be a 6 fold increase on their original fee. They have a recent history of letting people go for fees in that region. For now I'll take it as there is interest but we probably need to ship some out before we go back to them with another offer.

Large Japanese news site running a story we have made an enquiry about Kiyotake of Nuremberg. I've put a thread up. So the rumours would appear to be true...

News from large sources require new threads right? This is an article taken from the 14th most viewed website in Japan, goo.ne.jp I've translated the relevant parts of the article. Very sketchy but I think you can get the gist of it. Google translation Bing translation

Georgi Milanov? Hmmm where have I heard that name... Now I remember.

A bunch of people have mentioned this guy since the close of the season (villanwesty88 in particular if memory serves) and I mentioned him in this post. He's certainly a good player. I'd best describe him as a trickier version of Agbonlahor. An adapted winger who is more a goalscorer than supplier. Where as Gabby relies on his pace and movement to beat a player, Chadli, whilst by no means slow, has a fair bit more on the ball trickery. Whilst he can play in every position of the winger//attacking midfield roles, in this past season he has been playing exclusively on the left and cutting in on his right foot. This is exactly what Agbonlahor does for us currently and exactly what I expect Tonev to be rotated in to do too. I guess they could be after one more versatile attacking player but I would be surprised. So whilst he certainly is a decent player and would likely adapt well to the premier league, I think with us already having a starter in his primary position (left wing) and having signed a guy already to likely rotate in that same position, I consider this signing unlikely. It would be a luxury rotation/depth transfer that we don't have the resources for. If he is bought in then I would guess it would be for two reasons: firstly to appease Benteke and secondly, to be adapted to play the central attacking midfield role. Personally, I'd rather have someone more accustomed to that position than Chadli but that's not to say the scouts haven't seen something in him which means he'd be more than capable of that role. My guess is, with one year left on his contract, his agent is using our name to engineer a move to England by getting his player's name in our press. I think he had been linked with Fulham and Ajax earlier this month. I couldn't find out if he had dogs. I would guess he is a cat person.

I'd be very happy if we finished in the top 10. As long as we show improvement in attack, in defence, in being able to hold on to a lead and we're not threatened by relegation around February then I'd be happy wherever we finish! I try not to make too bold a set of predictions in case I end up disappointed. I'm sure other sets of fans are saying stuff like Benteke wont have a strong a second year for us, or other reasosn why we may not imrpove next season. Each club has their potential reasons why they may improve or falter. I'm just taking the cautious approach with regards to ours.

I'd say no. We've gone through a rather radical overhaul of the squad with ins and outs this summer and Lambert is still in the early stages of putting his imprint on the club. You have to remember all around us clubs are similiarly improving. Southampton plonked £8m on a centre back. Swansea and Norwich are bringing in proven goalscorers. Newcastle are unlikely to be as poor as they were this year a second time around. To me, Belhanda coming in would mean one thing: outside of the Champions League contenders we'll be one of the most, if not the most, exciting side going forward. We are still fragile in defence however. Hopefully that unit grows a greater sense of harmony and understanding with each other over the summer. There'll be excitement and attacking football at Villa Park next season for sure, but I personally don't like to burden the squad with heavy expectations, particularly with so much yet to unfold over the summer. For the moment my opinion is for a safe 12th and another decent cup run, with anything above that being most welcome.

I've talked about so many players if Lambert listened to me we'd end up having to play 2-2-5-1! I just like learning about teams and players from other leagues. I don't consider myself any kind of authority at all. Really, not in the slightest. That's why I aggregate from a lot of other people's opinions a lot, particularly from fans from the player's respective leagues, as well as relying on my own knowledge. As for Kiyotake, sure I like him, he'd probably be the most gifted on the ball player we have in the club if he joined. I would be very concerned about how well he adapts to living in the country though. We don't really have another player like him in the team, maybe N'Zogbia, which makes me worry that if he ever had to leave the lineup we would have to change how we play quite dramatically. I think we'd be even more deadly on the counter though.

No idea.

He is a good attacking pivot. He's the kind of guy you look for the ball to get to if you're initating a counter attack as he has the skill to control and deliver it quicky and generally in stride of the main attacking threats. He had 5th best key passes in the Bundesliga. 4th most assists this year too. He is a playmaker, not a finisher, although he is capable of scoring the odd goal. His best ability is his set piece delivery. He offers hardly anything backwards though. He'd have to work on that side of the game in the premier league. His skill on the ball to escape tackles will only go so far - but who doesn't need to work on a specific area when joining the top English league. It would be a gamble to see how he adjusts and trains under us. He could be almost hitting his limit or, considering he's only played outside of Japan for a year, he could be about to make another big stride forward in his ability. At a guess I would guess his release clause, if as previously mentioned he is believed to have one, could be around £5-6m.

In more "other" news, Cornelius has gone to Cardiff for a fee around £7.5m. Good deal for them but also means the Helenius deal sure could turn in to a real steal for us.

Reportedly Everton have offered £6m for Honda. AC Milan have offered £1.7m

Fair play to them then.

Do you have a link to their earliest mention of Steer? Earliest I saw was 12th on June on Twitter so I'm wondering if they saw the same thing or they knew before then.

I'll try to post some more detailed stuff later tonight or this week but just as it's a lazy afternoon I thought I'd mention one player I keep coming back to with this "#10 Striker" and "more goals from outside the box" idea.... That's Alain Traore of FC Lorient. Obligatory youtube videos: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LCts9_nzO_k https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1g0xpdWl_k He's had some long injuries this past season but when he did play he played really well. 6 goals and 5 assists in 14 games. Averaging 5th most shots taken and 21st most key passes made per game in Ligue 1. Capable of the behind the striker role or as a forward he has a really true left foot strike. Reports are he was going to move to Arsenal in January for around £5m despite being at Lorient for only 6 months but was cancelled when he went down with injury.

Great stuff Gareth. I'd seen Zulj and Orsic before. I'll have to look in to these other two you mention, very interesting.

Indeed, if it was a creator and tempo controlling player we wanted. Read the first half of this good blogpost that focused on Herrera and just try not to want him on your team.

Interesting that he's used the striker term twice in a row. Not sure if it's Nursey just adding the 'striker' part to the '#10 role' or the exact terminology mentioned to him by a source. Some people see #10 as more of a link man, some as a second goalscorer. Let's just run with this a little bit... Striker means goals. So from the sound of it they're looking for more of a finisher than a creator (although both would be ideal). If it's a goalscoring attacking midfielder they're after that would ring true with the information we got from either Tonev or Popov (I forget who exactly), that they were looking to add more goals from long range, and more goals from midfield in general. I'm going to go back up in my scout balloon and see if I can narrow down some people that fit this specific criteria.

In response to a question about us potentially being interested in Charlie Austin (who is about to sign for Hull I think): @JamesNursey 7m @stewartcole79 told #AVFC Lambert v pleased with signings so far. Now wants rid of Bent/Ireland & will then buy a No.10 striker. Last part of the tweet is the key. Makes a lot of sense.

That's a ridiculously good price.

Omariqy asked in the Belhanda thread what other AMs are available, seeing as how the Belhanda link has been doused quite heavily today, Along with Popov who we have already had a strong link with, I thought I would add a few I noted down a monthor so ago. I have no idea if their contract information has changed since then (I didn't know Belhanda had added an extra year) nor have I done further research in to their playing ability (I mentioned Eikrem, who I liked from looking at his stats and knowing he would settle back in England easily, but two regular viewers of his said he wouldn't suit us at all - information which I think trumps my own), but just for a bit of fun I thought I'd post them anyway. Tonny Trindade de Vilhena, 18, Feyenoord. When Ajax manager Frank de Boer was asked who could replace the likely leaving Christian Erikkson in the squad he listed just three names; Adam Maher (Linked with Premier League sides in Europe for a £8-£10m fee), Van Ginkel (Likely going to Chelsea for £8m) and lastly the 18 year old central midfielder from Feyenoord de Vilhena. Whilst he more often plays in a similiar position to Delph for us as the left sided midfielder in a central two, he can play the advanced role linking the midfielder to the attacking three. As evident in this video his first touch and weight of pass can be absolutely sublime at times. For someone so young he has a good amount of physicality about his play too, an area you must think can only improve as he grows in to his body more. He's only played one full season in the Eredivisie however so perhaps he's more of one to look to in the future if he isn't snapped up by the likes of Ajax. Bibars Natcho, 25, Rubin Kazan I only came to notice this guy by his profilic stats in the Europa league and in the World Cup qualifiers for Israel. In those two competitions combined he has scored 3 and assisted 8 in 17 games. In further research he has scored 9 and assisted 6 in 30 games in the league. His contract at Rubin expires at the end of this month. In reports a few months ago linking him with a move to Spurs it was stated he was keen to turn down any new contract by Rubin Kazan to seek a move away. Sevilla have also been linked. But heck, if we can be linked with Honda who is on a free, we can likewise also be linked with the Israeli international and with Spurs increasingly certain on signign Paulinho may there be the slimmest of slim chances...? Georgi Milanov, 21, Litex Lovetch I've mentioned this guy before on VT. I thought if there was any Bulgarian International we would be after it would be this guy rather than Popov for the AM role. He is the young star of Bulgarian football, likely to usurp Popov's place in that advanced central role for the national side more regularly as he gets older. http://youtu.be/9DsTJE5EBsU He's another one I noticed purely by stats, this time from the league. He scored 16 goals in 27 matches last year, assisting 9 times along the way. Hsi best season by far having only score 4 and 6 respectively in the previous two seasons. Ander Herrera, 23, Atlhletic Bilbao In my dreams Ander would complete an intriguing summer transfer window for us. He would cost a small fortune however as Bilbao are actually one of the few clubs in Spain not riddled with debt. He is the metronome that makes Bilbao tick. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlhsL4aiAFE For his importance to the team you have to dig a bit deeper than goals (1) and assists (2 this season). He averaged the 6th most tackles in La Liga. He also averaged the 8th highest number of passes a game and 13th most successful dribbles per game. He's a playmaker going forward and dogged tracking back. I think this is by far the least likely of the bunch but I'm just a fan of his so thought best to include him! Some other names which I won't delve in to in much detail due to lack of time: Dennis Praet, Anderlecht Mislav Orsic, Inter Zapresic Ryad Boudebouz, Sochaux Lucas Paizon, Chelsea (on a loan) Vladimir Darida, Viktoria Plzen Valon Berisha, Red Bull Salzburg (maybe vandaq and pappillon can shine some light here)

There is maybe a reason why he isn't going somewhere else. I am no huge fan of him and I have seen him lots of times in the Norwegian Tippeliga. He is decent there and can hit a good pass or two, but to paint a picture, so would Barry Bannan. Eikrem turns 23 in August and I haven't seen that much development the last two seasons. Glad we didn't sign him, we have enough "up and coming" in our team already and now is the time for proven ability. I'll take yours and vandaq's judgment over mine. Sounds like you have both seen more of him than I have.