Wes

In terms of transfer planning I think the concept is great. Signing them together is a hark back to the classic days, before international transfers were commonplace. Teams would always try to sign two players of the same nationality, language or previous team so that they would have someone to help aclimatise with in the new country. Petrov being in the same building would be a big bonus too.

You can see, for example, that Benteke and Sylla are good mates off the pitch, and Sylla has said in an interview how important N'Zogbia was for him initially settling in.

He'll be 26 in October. 6ft. Behind the Striker player most of the time it would appear.

His last three seasons:

12/13 - 34 Games (7 sub). 10 Goals. 4 Assists

11/12 - 41 Games (5 sub). 6 Goals. 4 Assists.

10/11 - 55 Games (3 sub). 9 Goals. 9 Assists.

Has played 38 times for his country, currently their captain, scoring 9 times, 1 assist

He is named in the Bulgarian National team playing away against Kazakhstan in a friendly tomorrow.

Sounds like a versatile attacking midfielder to me.

This is the article from sport1.bg Lamski is referring to (i think!)

The best thing about it is there are direct quotes from the player.

Pretty sure it's to do with the Waterford Hurling team losing in their match today. From his previous tweets I would suggest he was in the crowd.

Yep we couldn't possibly be scouting anyone else, those links prove it.

That's not what I meant at all. I was suggesting that it looks likely any new centre-back would probably be under 25, rather than an old hand to replace the outgoing playing experience that Dunne offered.

But who can tell. It's still very early days.

We're not scouting for an experienced CB then.

Correct, If this link and the one with James Chester are to believed. Chester (24) has 3 full seasons experience. Mirin Isimat (21) has 2.

According to a Belgian website we had been following the 21 year old centre back Nicolas Mirin Isimat before Monaco agreed a 4m Euro fee with Valenciennes for him today.

Almost all European based contracts end on the 30th of June. Likewise transfer of players aren't "completed" until July the 1st. So whilst the likes of Falcao, Gotze, Moutinho have all already agreed to sign for other clubs those transfers wont actually go through until July 1st.

Dunne has still got four weeks wages coming from us.

whos that Alex bloke? reporter?

"Freelance football Reporter/Broadcaster/Summariser/Pundit."

Is what he describes himself as on twitter. No idea as to his reliability as I haven't heard of him before.

Although he does seem to know a few people in the British media.

 

Looking at some Poznan stats, who play a 4-2-3-1, he played the left winger role almost exclusively. Matching that up to how we play he would predominantly play in the spot Gabby plays - whether or not that's a role deeper than Gabby played this season we wont know until the friendlies. Sounds like a good rotation buy with potential.

 

Or he may want gabby to play up front and offer an alternative to Benteke it would be nice not having him to rely on him so much

 

I think you're exactly right. Gabby could well be played in that sole striker position when Benteke is out. In which case bringing in some versatile wide players makes a lot of sense in this scenario.

It'll be interesting to see if a "replacement" for Bent is bought in. Personally I think we'll see more wingers/attacking midfielders bought in as I think PL and the staff have faith in Benteke/Gabby/Weimann being the #1/2/3 in that sole striker position for when injuries/suspensions occur, and the new players will replace Gabby and Andy in those wider positions.

If we're going to get Petrov luring some of his fellow countrymen to play for us then I hope he starts talking to Georgi Milanov too!

Looking at some Poznan stats, who play a 4-2-3-1, he played the left winger role almost exclusively. Matching that up to how we play he would predominantly play in the spot Gabby plays - whether or not that's a role deeper than Gabby played this season we wont know until the friendlies. Sounds like a good rotation buy with potential.

If we're going after a Bulgarian we should also look at Georgi Milanov then. Has had a great season and already seems integral to the national side.

I'm annoyed to see Van Ginkel being linked with Chelsea today. £8m is likely how much he'll move for and he has the potential to be the next Lampard for that team for the next decade once he settles in.

If 4.5m is going to 'be too steep for us' then Lerner needs to do one.

I mean in terms of any specific deal for Cresswell. They may just not consider it good value for money. Then again they could! I'm just speculating.

Was it not the price tag that put us off cresswell last time? Can't imagine the price would be cheaper this summer.

A year less on his contract can make a fair difference. The quoted price last year was £6m so a year less and the price is rumoured to have dropped 25%.

In fact he'll be in the last year of his contract so Ipswich will be looking to cash in whilst they still can. I doubt he signs a new deal with them, not after he knows Premier League teams are after him.

£4.5m may still be too steep for us. Unless it's divided in to clauses and such.

Just seen that Santana is leaving Dortmund - could be useful for a couple of years at most?

Widely known in Germany that he will be moving to Schalke.

What ever happened to Eikrem? 22 years of age, can play anywhere in midfield. Didn't have a great season last time around I don't think but there could be a reason why?

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.

If we did get Mertens, who would you lot want him to replace? Gabby or Weimann?

Or do you reckon we'll completely change our formation again?

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.

 

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.

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.

probably the worst centre back in Premier League this season and this is a competition with Clark and Cuellar. No way would I touch him

 

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.

If we sold Benteke to Borussia Dortmund, would Andy Carroll for £12m be an acceptable replacement?

 

Carroll is stalling on a move to West Ham. Perhaps the agent grapevine is telling him Villa will lose Benteke, and he would rather play for us.

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.

Wes? Would be interested to see what your usual thorough research reveals about Yannick Balasie?

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).