Wes

Anyone seen a reported fee?

That additional keeper will be Jed Steer from Norwich should the twitter ramblings be believed.

I agree though, there'll be a left back brought in to provide competition and, depending upon outgoings, a forward thinking central midfielder.

Fantastic! Welcome Jores!

Welcome Leandro!

Seems there'll be a friendly match between us and FC Groningen as part of the deal. May be next year though.

@con_villa or something like that

Yep. He has since, wisely, deleted his tweet as he would've likely got his mate in a lot of trouble.

Dutch reports say it's done. Waiting for additional info. Seems a deal was in place last Saturday.

Three year deal.

Maybe Lambert plans to use him at left back?

I think he'll be our swiss-army knife. The 7th name on the subs bench. Can be played almost anywhere.

If he's replacing anyone I would think it would be Holman. Unless the coaching staff have a specific role for him in mind he could played as the attack minded central midfielder that has been mooted to be incoming.

hes almost signed and we didnt even have a thread running for the poor lad.

It was created and immediately closed last night because the only concrete link at the time was traced back to a Villa fan's tweet. Seems he actually did have information from the club.

This kid seems incredibly versatile.

In his last season he played:

AM: 7 times

CM: 4 times

RB: 5 times

LW: 1 time

RW: 16 times

If we're really in for Bacuna, then I don't think we're after Belhanda anymore as they'd be playing in same position unless we're getting rid of KEA and/or Holman.

Holman is widely expected to be on the way out. Lambert gave him a fair shot but he was McLeish's signing.

Time to open up the main thread. Looks like Bacuna is real. Which also means the Norwich keeper link is true.

When do we stop signing wingers and forwards and start looking at the defence. Not that im complaining about Bacuna. Saw him playing once and was excellent

Yes we should only sign players in rotation. One attacker in. One defender in. Then an attacker. Then a defender again.

Or we could get the players we've obviously targetted for some reason, no matter what their position, as soon as we can!

Just shows the power of social media. One fan tweets something that we don't know the validity of, which is read by a fan of another club, and then that appears on a fansite's main page, which is noticed by a larger site, which then gets picked up by a Sky journalist back here.

@GraemeBailey 1m

Reports in Holland say Aston Villa are making a move for Groningen winger Leandro Bacuna, who in-turn want Southampton's Steve de Ridder.

If a Sky sports journo is tweeting about it then maybe there is more to this then....

I still say wait until we see a newspaper or website article, not from a fan site, before we get too excited.

Apparently the account tagged in it @Voetbalzonenl tweeted it first.... in dutch.. lol So maybe... Just maybe...

Aye, but I think he got his information from this Villa fan's tweet posted earlier in the day.

TWITTER BULL SHIT ALERT.... PLEASE LOOK AWAY IF YOU DON'T WANT TO READ

 

Dutch Football ‏@football_oranje 51s

Aston Villa agree a fee for FC Groningen's Leandro Bacuna (via @voetbalzonenl ) #avfc #eredivisie

 

Seen this a few times this last hour..... He's a Winger akin to Lens from PSV...

I've seen a handful of mentions of Leandro Bacuna of FC Groningen expected to move to an English club this summer, potentially us.

Beware though. It seems all the talk linking us to this guy comes back to one tweet from one Villa fan's account so take that in to account.

File under sketchy twitter rumour for the time being.

Petrov possibly suggesting Tonev, Laursen possibly suggesting Okore...

Which other ex-Villa players could be suggesting players for us? It does appear we're using our connections well!

Carew suggesting Valon Berisha.

Very promising signing indeed.

Story is still on the site, just have to click through to all latest news.

 

So, people who have seen him play, what's he like? A tip from Martin Laursen would also be nice.

 

He'll help Okore settle in too... Ah fantastic news.

As I said in my May 23rd post, he is basically a bag full of raw potential.

For such a tall player he flashes very good ball control skills. Much like Benteke he is not afraid to run at defenders. He's very cool with regards his shot making. Not as much of a solid unit as Benteke by any means but still a presence who is capable of linking up play up front.

He could become something special, likewise there is a risk as with all youngsters he may never reach those heights. He'll certainly have a fair bit of adapting to do to the Premier League but Danish players have usually been a success over here. In interviews I've read he seems to come across very well showing a keen desire to improve his abilities as a player.

From the sounds of it he will come across with Okore to help them both settle in easier. I imagine we're still interested in Popov for the same reasons with Tonev too.

Frankly, I love the way the club is doing their transfer business this summer thus far. Picking out emerging talents who are eager to improve.

 

Just announced on sky, followed up with "what does this mean for benteke"

dont tell me sky focused on the negative?

 

I think this means more that Bowery will be sent on loan to further his development and Helenius will play back up to Benteke.

I think Wes mentioned him earlier and he sounds great. 

 

Is that their official site?

 

 

Edit: Dodgy music

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3RYJHjYqLQU

Yeah I did. Here is my post from the 23rd of May:

I mentioned Cornelius earlier today as someone who I think could play Benteke's role rather well. I'm kicking myself now for forgetting to mention this other Dane (in fact there's 3 or 4 stupidly tall strikers playing in the Danish Superliga right now), Nicklas Helenius of Aalborg.

 

22 years old. 6'5". He flashes good composure and placement with his finishing and for someone his size seems comfortable dribbling the ball at people.

 

Some stats:

12/13 - 16 goals and 7 assists in 33 games

11/12 - 14 goals and 8 assists in 32 games

10/11 - 5 goals and 4 assists in 29 games (17 as sub)

 

OYV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2RT-L6UsP2c

 

Cornelius is the more talented of the two but this guy deserves to get some notice too. He has said in the past he would consider a move to England but would prefer a move to the Bundesliga or Eredivise, "unless a Premier League team showed genuine interest in helping him develop as a footballer." I think that sounds a lot like something we would strive to do.

This is about where I am as well.

I really hope he comes in and hits the ground running but it is a massive ask for a 20 year old CB to step up and fix our defence. Even Baker is older and more experienced than him and CB is a position where experience really counts for something.

Okore and Baker have almost identical number of first team appearances. Okore is also a full international and has had two seasons playing in European competition too. But yes, he is younger than Baker.

Edit: I see Packoman already mentioned this by the time I posted.

Could have done a lot lot worse.

Prefer the logo to Genting's at first glance but need to see it on the shirt.