TheRivieraKid

53 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

Don't like Toulalan he's got hairy legs

He can play centre-back too I believe.

Yep, apparently so. Would be ideal for us but he's very highly rated and I would think we have next to no chance of signing him.

Maybe we should have a look at Victor Moses this summer.

Unwanted by Chelsea and barely played by Liverpool while on loan there - can play a number of positions, is relatively young, quick and strong with plenty of Premier League experience. Will probably cost less than the £9m Chelsea paid for him though wages could potentially be a stumbling block.

Oh and Kiyotake has one year left on his deal this summer so he'll be probably cost £4m-£5m rather than the £8m-£10m being kicked around last summer 

 

I think Gabby is a lazy player, and if hes on £50k a week, then imho hes not worth it.

You look at his game yday, his movement off the ball, touch, pass choice was all poor, when Albrighton came on for him, could you see Gabby picking Delph out like Albrighton did?....not for me.

Hes a Villa fan, and fair play to him for that, but, for me hes not doing it, and hasn't been for a couple of years now.With all his ability he should be Englands CF, his lack of concentration, and attitude means hes not.

Get a good striker in the summer to play off CB, and a good midfielder, we should improve rapidly.

Crazy to say that gabby couldn't of picked delph out, have you seen some of his assists this season?

Albirghton really hasn't done a lot and is playing for a contract, why change what's working well?

 

Well, Gabby has the most assists this season for us with 5 (6 if you include the one in the League Cup and that also doesn't include the 2 penalties he won at the Emirates on the first day of the season). 

Interesting point about Gabby though is that all of those assists came away from home (apart from the League Cup assist).  If you look at WhoScored ratings (which I admit are only an indicator but still useful for making this point) his match ratings away from home are markedly better than at home.  

(and before anyone says it, that is not indicative of the team as a whole - our total home points now matches our away points after yesterday)

 

I think off the ball he's probably our best player, on the ball he's probably our worst.

 

Tonev. Sylla. Bowery. Herd. Baker.

 

Not even close.

 

I agree with that without the ball he's very good. He's generally one of the more advanced of our midfielders when we press the ball, and he has a very high tackle count (according to Squawka he's the 8th highest in the entire league : http://www.squawka.com/football-stats/english-barclays-premier-league-season-2013-2014).

He's been consistently doing this all season which makes me wonder where some of the vitriol aimed at him has come from to be honest. I agree that he did have a patchy first season and he's not the most creative player, but like Agbonlahor said just recently, he does a lot of stuff that goes unnoticed and he has chipped in with a couple of important goals as well.

I think if we want to progress further up the table then we still need to get more quality in midfield (beyond Delph, Westwood and him we really don't have anyone else up to standard), however I still think there's room for him as part of our squad next season and beyond. I expect him to get offered a contract extension at the end of this season. 

 

I actually don't see the fuss over us not getting any more in, we've got 2 in already, 1 maybe not needed, 1 looks very good so far

thing is what does signing 2/3 players now actually achieve? give us a push to catch Southampton in 9th 5 points ahead of us? or really push the boat out and try and catch Newcastle in 8th 10 points ahead of us?

we'll be safely mid table, as many predicted, boring as it may be, spending £10-15m now on harder to get maybe not 1st choice targets might not do anything, save the energy and the cash till the summer

is that saying that we've given up or gone small time, not in my mind its a realistic view of both villa and the January transfer window as a whole

But if we could get that one quality midfielder who vastly improves the team, that 9th or 8th place would generate more prize money meaning more could be spent in the summer. It would also mean that the player would be acclimatised to our ram and players hopefully meaning that we could push on next yr and not have a complete rebuild again next summer

 

According to this :

http://anfieldindex.com/5707/the-financial-importance-of-a-good-premier-league-finish-for-liverpool.html

Each place up the league table in 2013/14 is worth an additional £1,126,750, which is quite a jump from the £755,062 last year.

So if we were to finish 10th this year that would mean a prize money receipt of £12,394,250, as opposed to the £4,530,372 we got last year for finishing 15th - nearly an £8m difference.  Given how close the table is this year, a bit of an investment now might be a good idea. 

 

I'm only doubting it because he was on the subs bench less than 24 hours ago.  It would need a remarkably quick turnaround - ie for Kozak to get injured, taken to hospital, necessary scans done and reviewed etc to say he is ruled out for the season.

 

Unless he got badly injured today during practice.

 

Well... ummm. yes....?! Unless he injured himself in a freak shaving accident this morning 

I'm only doubting it because he was on the subs bench less than 24 hours ago.  It would need a remarkably quick turnaround - ie for Kozak to get injured, taken to hospital, necessary scans done and reviewed etc to say he is ruled out for the season.

Do we have a source for this other than HH? 
He was on the bench yesterday....

I only mentioned the Heitinga thing because he sort of fitted the supposed criteria we're using for potential players 

ie

experienced in the Premier League

In one of the positions we may strengthen

May not cost an arm and a leg

Might consider a move to us given current playing/contract circumstances

Back to wildly speculating about other players it is then 

 

 

Jack Sullivan ‏@jsullivanwhu 7m 

SADLY HEITINGA will not be joining us. We think he’s chosen Newcastle ahead of us

Looks like Heitinga is going to Newcastle.

Spurs are apparently in for Lescott according to the Telegraph.

De Bruyne at Chelsea? 

One can dream.

Afternoon everyone 

Thought I'd sign up on to here and say hello after lurking for many months... been a Villa fan for 20 years although I am currently living in the West Country so don't get a chance to go to many games, so I am limited to keeping a close eye on proceedings on the TV at the moment!!

UTV