KMitch

This is exactly why I'm sticking by Smith for another two seasons. This squad is garbage, through and through. We're kidding ourselves to think that this team is going to make the playoffs because just about all of them won't be here next season. Deano is also going to make mistakes. He isn't the finished article as a manager, which is why he is here at Villa Park instead of at a Premier League club chasing Champions League football. Plus, he's one of us and he has shown glimpses of how he wants us to play so far, so we owe him that much. In his post match pressers, he says exactly what I'm feeling about the game. He took responsibility for that loss, and IMO, he needs to shoulder the blame for those awful substitutions. It's time to learn from our mistakes and try to kick on, but I'm afraid our players need to do the same. Someone besides McGinn needs to stand up and hold themselves accountable.

Interesting comments from Deano about young Hause. Called him a "project" and says he has proven to be more than capable at the Championship level and can get a lot better. Says that the key attribute we're looking for in new players is the ability to learn and he believes Hause personifies this.

Sorry, buddy. You have to take off those Claret & Blue tinted glasses for a minute. Nobody in their right mind will pay 40 mil for Jacky boy. People called Leicester crazy for buying James Maddison from Norwich for 25 mil last summer and he's looking like a better player than Grealish is. I like Jack, but if the owners can get 40 mil for him this summer, we would be stupid to turn the offer down. That one transfer buys us 3 seasons of FFP losses in the Championship and can be used to bankroll the club back into the Premier League.

Dude, that happens with every single transfer. First, the two clubs agree to a fee, then the buying club has permission from the selling club to negotiate a contract with the player. The player can refuse the contract and the move. This has nothing to do with the original discussion about putting in fixed fees in loan agreements with the two clubs.

Been reading a lot about FFP rules in the Championship today... http://www.financialfairplay.co.uk/financial-fair-play-explained.php This is a good explanation of the rules. In a nutshell: Assuming the loss limits don't increase this next assessment, we'll be in the first category. The club cannot make more than a combined loss of £39 over a period covering the past 3 years from the assessment.

No, not necessarily. First option is different from a fixed future transfer fee. Contracts are written all kinds of different ways, it depends on what the two clubs agree to.

Didn't the Blose have a transfer embargo in place against them for failure to comply with FFP rules? There was talk about them getting deducted points this season as a result of ignoring the embargo and signing a player in August, but that seems to have gone away all together. After those stories broke, no action ended up being taken against that club for violating the restrictions placed on them by the EFL. Sounds like FFP is a joke.

Is he better than Hutton at Left Back? I honestly think that Taylor hasn't been bad at LB under Smith. He's had some solid performances already, but we've looked dreadful with Hutton filling in for him this past month. If this loan is to just provide cover for Taylor, I'm for it. We can sign a long term left back this summer.

I wish him the best. Good luck, Rushie! Bag some goals this season.

Honestly, I'm hoping that Purslow/Suso/Smith are planning on just getting us through this season to the summer before we start the massive rebuild. I think we tried to get our first choice targets done quickly, but if the price isn't right, we aren't going to be baited into overspending this window. If we get promoted, great! We'll sign a higher caliber of player this summer. If not, we'll still replace the players out of contract with better signings. If this summer rolls around and we're still penny-pinching, I'll start to get worried. I'm confident that this isn't the case, though.

I'm not expecting promotion this season and if we fall short, it shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone. If we somehow win promotion through the playoffs, that'll be a huge bonus and will massively change our summer plans, but I don't think the powers that be at the club are counting on getting promoted this season. Purslow mentioned a 3 year promotion plan when he came on board, so I think they're going to do some massive rebuilding over the next two summers. With all the contracts expiring this summer, it should free up 200-250k/week in wages. I'm going to guess that the club will sign 6-8 players on Frees/Permanent transfers and we'll probably get in another 3-5 on loans with options to buy. This is based on nothing but my own gut instinct.

The "Reo-Coker Syndrome". The longer he sat on the bench, the better he got. Hell, some were saying we didn't need to replace Barry when he left, because NRC could "do the job" there. hahaha

He has been playing well enough to be linked to even bigger clubs than Fiorentina this window. Honestly, I was surprised we even signed him in the first place. It's such a shame that we had a clown like Sherwood managing the club that season. Another manager would have kept us up and avoided signing garbage like Gestede and Lescott.

I've seen several Fiorentina games this season and Veretout is playing the same role as McGinn is for us. He's much more of a "Box-To-Box" type player.

I'm very surprised that we haven't gotten in a DM yet... I think a DM which fits Deano's system is more important this month than a LB to challenge Taylor. There were rumblings in Spain that we made inquiries into 2 different DMs around Christmas, and I saw an article that we're also looking into possibly doing a deal for James McCarthy.

With all the loans we have right now... Does anyone know if we can still loan Januzaj???

He has the vision and passing ability of what we need in that deep midfield position, but I don't think he has the mobility/defensive side of the game required. We'll see, though.

If you include all the U23s out of contract too, we'll have ~£240k-250k/week off the wage bill. This is why I don't expect a lot of ins this month. Maybe one more permanent signing, but that's it.

Hutton, Jedi, Whelan, Bunn, Steer, Elphick, De Laet, and Richards are all out of contract this summer.

He has 67 appearances for Wolves... He isn't unproven at this level. The question marks are over his current fitness and if he is the same player he was 2 years ago for Wolves.

What if we only wanted to pay 2 mil for him, but Wolves wanted 4 mil, and the loan with an option to buy for 4 mil was the agreed upon compromise? If he is as good as Wolves rates, 4 mil will be a steal. If he isn't, we send him back while only spending a fraction of what we would have to begin with. It doesn't mean we don't have money, it could mean we're trying to be frugal for once.

I don't like writing off the remainder of the season, but I'd rather get some conservative deals done this month for another 1-2 players, then open the coffers this summer. I know a lot of fans would like to see us go for broke this month with signings, but I don't want to see the club in the same financial situation we were in at the end of last season. With the contracts we currently have expiring, we can free up 200-250k/week off the wage bill, not to mention any players we sell on top to generate funds. If we can get more signings in the mold of Kalinic/McGinn, we'll have a team solid enough to push for promotion while playing Deano's way. Tammy is a big loss, but now it's time for Kodja/Hogan to step up and show why we paid so much money for them in the first place. I'm confident that one of them will find their footing for us, once Jack comes back from injury. I'm also happy with more loans like with Hause, promising players not getting game time at bigger clubs, with an option to buy if they turn out to be good. I still feel like for the first time I can remember, we finally have the right people in place at the club to rebuild us properly and take us back to the Premier League and beyond. We have to remember to be patient and remember that Rome wasn't built in a day. Need to give the club time to rebuild the squad to take us up.

Have to look at the marketing potential of Pulisic for Chelsea, though. He's possibly the best American player of all time and will sell a lot of shirts/create a lot of Chelsea fans over here. Fulham has a fairly big following in the USA just because of the former American nationals who played for them over the years (McBride, Dempsey, Bocanegra, Ream, etc.). Pulisic can possibly be the first true "superstar" we've ever had. Has a lot of work to do still, but he is a talent.

He actually crosses the ball now? I thought he just tried to dribble past 7 defenders every time he has possession...

Remember reports of Bruce chasing Joe Bryan down the freeway? The press doesn't know what they're spouting most of the time. Don't let some unfounded rumor flip your opinion on this kid. He gave his all for us in every single performance this season. If he actually does go to Wolves this week fair play to him. He deserves his chance to play in the Premier League and I won't begrudge him in any way.