Wes

Widely known in Germany that he will be moving to Schalke. He's at Molde in Norway. Solskjaer's club. Doing very well there (although the club have had a bad start to the season this year). I like him a bunch as an upgrade to our whole squad, not sure if he's the difference maker we need to inject in to our midfield though. He's be a great acquisition all the same as the fee would likely be low and as he's lived in the country already and wouldn't take as long to adapt as others may do. Shame things didn't work out for us before when he was on trial with us. No need to replace anyone and he fits the 4-3-3 we've been playing in the run in to the end of the season. The three would be great in a rotation system. If you were the opposing team you would hate to see any of them coming on from the bench after 60 minutes.

The Mertens rumour all stems from a season ticket holder on twitter. All the other "Transfer Twitter Accounts" and "Twitter ITKs" are all echoing his original comment which was that Villa are going to enquire PSV about his availability. This was first mentioned Friday evening. Everything since then is just echos rebounding off other people claiming to know information. Just because the number of people talking about it is increasing, don't read anything further in to it beyond "somebody on Twitter said so" (no matter what they claim to have got true in the past - correct or otherwise) until there's been a more concrete report in a media publication. As for the player himself postionally he makes sense as he would be an upgrade to our wide forwards of Gabby and Weimann. I would think clubs with a larger wage and transfer budget, including those in European competitions next year, would have a stronger chance of enticing him to join them rather than us at the moment.

Nothing has changed. The English media are missquoting the missquoted Belgian article based on another Belgian article. It's standard Chinese whispers.

A snippet regarding Paul Lambert's transfer philosophy from the Footballer's Football Show: David Jones: Are you anticipating a busy summer, not just in terms of trying to keep hold of the ones you do want to keep hold of, but also bringing in some more bodies to help your boys whilst also reducing your wage bill no doubt? Paul Lambert: That's probably it in a nutshell really. You have to try to improve on what you have each year. It'll still be hard. But we'll still get the ones in who'll actually play for that shirt and play for the club. DJ: Will those be experienced ones or will you carry on with your way.... PL: No we'll stick to our philosophies and beliefs. I wont change from it. I think when people keep on saying about getting experienced players and experienced players - as soon as you go to an experienced player the first thing they'll say is "Ok. How much?" So you think right away "I'm not sure he's going to come here to play for this club". I don't want players like that. I want players that want to go and compete, have a right good career for themselves plus play for the shirt.

Would like to hear this, where can the podcast be found? The audio is up on iTunes here. You need to be a Sky subscriber to get the video from their site I think. They show free edited down clips eventually too I believe.

I loved his quote about the transfer policy going forward. Waiting for the podcast so I can accurately quote him over in the transfer thread. I'm thrilled as I think this is the best policy to have.

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.

Carroll is a weird prospect because he's probably, alongside perhaps Benteke and Kiebling, the best Striking winner of an aerial ball in Europe at the moment. He doesn't have any kind of guile to trick someone though and whilst incredibly effective in the right scheme (hence why Big Sam is desperate to land him) he's always come across as rather sluggish and may not be truly effective as a counter attacking threat. It would be hard to replace Benteke because he's really good at a lot of things but Carroll would be more than an adequate replacement with regards giving someone the ball and having it stick to them. It's just he lacks the same level of ability to link up play that Benteke has shown this season and would have to be surrounded by two or three more gifted finishers. You could say we have two of those already so it's not unfathomable to suggest he would work for us. His injury history would also be a cause for concern.

I saw your post but didn't feel well informed enough to give a good judgment. I'm sure there are more people on here who can give a better verdict on him. I think he's a promising player for sure. He has good speed, decent ball control but probably most impressive is his strength and size. It's not typical to see someone with his height and speed combination. I'm not sure if he fits the way Lambert currently has us playing though. His rare speed/size for a winger should mean he should dominate more than his stats indicate he does - he's only got 3 goals all season. Now this may be down to a remit to supply crosses more than finish them and he's done ok there this season with 7 assists. He's never been prolific throughout his career thusfar. If we stick with two forwards/wingers either side of a tall target man then I would ideally want them to have more of a proven goalscoring record before coming in to the side. That said, the goals may come if someone can work with him in a position a bit further forward than he's used to. In all I'd say he's slightly more promising than Albrighton, who is the same age as him, just because of his unusual physical combination of height, strength and speed, but like I say he suffers the same problem of not truly fitting the positions Lambert had us playing towards the end of the season. This is of course only my view on how we play. For all we know Lambert may want to play with true wide men more but was limited in choice with Albrighton's injury and what not. This could indeed all change in which case Bolasie would be a fair pick up - if Holloway would be willing to deal with us (which I find unlikely).

I think the budget will be approx. £20m again. I don't see any reason for that to immediately change.I think extra cash generated through sales may be set aside to dip in to the market again in January.

Exactly. I wish him all the best for the future.

I agree without fundamentally changing the system you would need someone who is good in the air, can hold up the ball, but tricky enough to beat a defender. First person that came to mind was Andreas Cornelius from FC Copenhagen. Would take a fair bit to convince him to join when we're not in Europe though. I'll have to check my notes later for others.

All I've taken from the news is that another team is interested to the half dozen we already know about and more importantly a decision wont be made until after Belgium's qualifier with Serbia on June the 7th. Two weeks away. Anything between now and then will be in the media purely to increase Benteke's bargaining position when a contract or move away is discussed. No need to worry for a while yet.

Unfortunately given that he only joined Nuremburg last summer it's unlikely he'd be on the move unless it was for a massively inflated fee. Fun player to watch though all the same. Mollo's situation is interesting. I have no idea what's going on with his loan and contract scenario and if Nancy are in a position to sell. I can't imagine St Etienne wanting to get rid of a creative player like him especially with them likely to lose Aubameyang too. I would imagine they're desperate to sign him for a longer deal - I just don't know if that was part of the loan deal or not. Illic is another fun one to watch. An unorthodox build for an attacking midfielder and has surprising good touch considering his size. I think it's widely expected he'll go to an Italian team in one of the European competitions though. Same goes for Abel Hernandez. Has had a disappointing season stats-wise but still considered a great young talent. He'll be picked up by a top Serie A side I would think. And as I've said before I really like Will Hughes but I think he could be incredibly expensive.

You're right of course. An ideal situation is that you have starter quality players to fill your starting 11 and bench but only a handful of clubs in the league have the resources to manage that and we're not one of them at this stage of our transition. The goal of course is continual gradual improvement of the quality of the players throughout the club but this isn't going to happen instantaneously. Clubs fall down sharpish when they try to do this (ie. QPR). I would rather keep Herd likely on a wage around £10k as he is someone we know can play anywhere across the back or base of midfield if we're completely pushed with regards injuries and suspensions instead of bringing in a new third choice right back, centre back and defensive midfielder to cater for those eventualities. Even if we promoted youth players to fufill these versatile roles they'll be asking for wages similiar to Herd. That said, Herd is in the final year of his contract and may be looking for first team opportunities himself so selling him this year may be the best situation for both camps. I'm just a fan of versatile players is all

I know I don't rate Clark as low as other people on VT do but if we were to get rid of Clark we're left with two centre backs. There's no chance he goes, particularly considering he is young and on relatively low wages. Herd likewise is a versatile backup player. Every team has them. We shouldn't get rid of him.

Oh I absolutely agree in terms of what will actually happen, those were just who I would like. I would like us to sign Will Hughes but don't see it happening. Luke Murphy seems nailed on and makes a lot of sense. We could even be back in for Cresswell with a year off his contract he should be a bit cheaper. I just like to throw perhaps unfamiliar names around in here

That's because I change my mind every day as I do further research and try to second-guess what direction Lambert might go in. Right now I'd "like" to see: LB: Fabrice N'Sakala (Troyes) CB: Bruno Ecuele (Lorient) CM: Marco van Ginkel (Vitesse) W: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PqfmakUcQNQ(Bastia) ST: Cenk Tosun (Gaziantepspor) But as I say, this list could change tomorrow!

That's unfortunate. Can't blame Baker there.

Can't stop that kind of header but weak by Lowton in closing down.

What a challenge by Baker.

Gabby provided the pass. I wondered why I'd never seen Delph do a turn and lose his man like that before!

Lovely finish by Bent but great work by Delph (I think it was) to set him up.

Good mention. I like this kid a lot. I imagine clubs further up the pecking order, someone in Europe, would be after him unfortunately. Undoubtedly would be a very interesting signing. He'd play in Agbonlahor's position to the left of Benteke predominantly but I imagine he'd be just as good cutting in from the right. Thing I like about him most is he shows evidence of having a good control of his weight of pass which would be handy in a counter attacking side. Even though he's in his last contract year he's a marked man in regards to scounting, being so young and having such great stats in his first full year in the Jupiler Pro League as a starter. I would be surprised if he went for less than £5m.