electronicmaji

You know for 6-7 million pounds we could get a decent attacking midfielder with some creativity in Freddy Guarin who is available from Inter. But we'd need to pay him like 1.5m a year in wages

nvm

Selling Benteke for a good amount is not a bad option but it won't be 40m and we won't get to spend the entire amount he sells for. We would have to 100% have someone we know for sure is good enough to replace him lined up too if we do that. Not some young upstart from a unknown league or the championship. Either a veteran player that is beyond his prime or a quality striker from at top 5 league that has proved himself.

Well those are all defensive players. And our defense is one of the least scored on in the league..you see....

What about Nathan Redmond?

I just want to remind everyone that the Sanchez purchase almost didn't happen because third party ownership caused the player to cost 1 million pounds more than they had originally expected. 3.5m vs 2.5m. That's how poor this club is. They almost had to call off a transfer of a player of Sanchez's level because of 1m measly pounds.

We need any kind of wide player we can get and beggars can't really be choosers now can we?

Guys it could be worse. He could be Jozy Altidore.

I think Lambert's biggest failure is the unwillingness to chastise his players for poor performances. I would think that is what they need at this point in time. I do not doubt his tactics. I do not doubt his signings. I doubt the amount of money he has and the options on hand. It really is near impossible to survive in this league spending less than 10m pounds a year on transfers. When we had our biggest recent successes playing in Europe back in the early 2000s we were still spending more that we do now and the price of a player is ten times what it used to be. Juan Pablo Angel cost 9m. Benteke cost 7.5m. We desperately need investment. We are 2 or 3 players away from competing for europa league spots in my opinion. Our defense is one of the most solid ones in the league. If we could hold on to Delph and Vlaar and invest in a young talented attacking midfielder with tons of creativity like Dennis Praet or Juan Fernando Quintero, and some decent wingers, there's no telling how far this team could go.

I bet next match he'll give up a goal and everyone will be back to hating him.

The real surprise is that a team that invests the least in it's squad of any Premiere league side still has managed to not be relegated when there are teams out there that have spent in one year what we've spent in the last 3 and have been relegated.

I doubt there is a single championship player that has the creativity we need. In fact most when you are looking for creativity you probably want to cross english players off the list. You need latins.

I'd like to see us bring in someone like Denis Praet, Marcel Sabitzer, Jordan Veretout, or someone similiar; but I think outside of those three young talented creative offensive minded players are not going to be in our budget. A loan of Joel Campbell I think would also work very well I think he could do well in Weiman's position. Also next year I'd look into the possibility of purchasing someone like Rocky Van Wolfswinkel who I feel still has a lot to show in British Football.

I simply do not believe this model is sustainable in the Premier League. It is too competitive and the risks are too high. How many teams have we seen come up from the championship with big budgets that fail the relegation challenge? A lot of these teams are spending double or triple what we spend. Make no mistake Benteke was not a unknown or cheap player. He cost 10 million euros; no small fee for a player of his age and experience; and we have not spent that amount on a player since. While Benteke is a great player he has been severely handicapped having to play for a team whose creativity is mediocre at best. If we were willing to spend what is needed on a good playmaker this team would be a hell of a lot higher than it is and actually be scoring goals. We're not. So far it has been a miracle what Lambert has been able to due. We consistently are the team that spends the least in the entire league. At this point I think the best thing for the team would be for us to sell Benteke for 30-40m Euros and invest the money in the offensive half of the team. Replace him with a forward that costs 15-20m. Buy a creative midfielder and a offensive midfielder or winger that's worth something. Around the 10m mark. Then we'll be talking. There are plenty of excellent signings to be had in those price ranges and other teams have done well with players like Pelle, Charlie Austin, Wilfried Bony, Diafra Sakho, and Loic Remy all easily within that price range. In fact a lot of higher quality strikers are. Creatively in that price range you see players like Sigurdson, Tadic, or Puncheon On the offensive mid end of things there are acquisitions like Jefferson Montero, Remy Cabella, to name a few. Imagine the team with any 3 of those listed players.

We need to spend big on a quality midfielder. We have a very big break of luck coming up for teams like ours in that all players in Russian League are going to be looking to leave NOW. With 7-8m we can mop up and pull in some quality players. There are quality defenders out there to replace Vlaar if need be. Cesar Navas, Salvatore Bocchetti, Serdar Tasci, and many other excellent targets out there. In midfield there are players like Jose Manuel Jurado, Patrick Ebert, Tino Costa, Zoran Tosic, Rasmus Elm, Manuel Fernandes, who honestly I think would all be better offensively than our current offensive midfield picks, mostly due to the poor level of our team in that regards. There are also big guns we could go after with so many it's not unlikely at least one or two will end in smaller teams. You have Hulk, Witsel, Danny, Tymoshchuk, Maicon, Valbuena, Criscito, and Lombaerts who would make a excellent replacement for Vlaar IMO . We need to focus on this it's a excellent chance to bringing in a quality attacking midfielder and that would put our team much more competitive and probably stop our worrying about relegation.

From what I saw had a very good game today.

He was the highest rated player on whoscored for Villa this match. I really expected him to be utter shit for the first 6 months and then slowly get better. Few defenders coming from any external league have ever adapted quickly or easily to the Premier League and few Premier League players going abroad have done well either. The way defensive lines play is completely different and I wouldn't expect anyone to easily make that change. He plays best when he's playing directly between two centrebacks during the defending phase then moving forward on the attacking phase. Watch the Colombia vs USA game that occurred a few weeks ago in London to get an idea of that.

How we deal with the horrid line up of dates coming up. If we get even a single win and a tie from those 5 matches I think our season will go very well. If we are sitting outside of the relegation zone at the end of those matches there is no way we are being relegated.

Good for squad depth imo. He can't be worse than any of our backups for the positions and possibly he's better than N'zogbia or Westwood. Play him next to Delph for a few matches and we should have a decent midfield for a mid-tableish team. Combine that with the good defensive line we have now and things are looking good if Benteke ever gets back to form.

From Redcafe LOL

You are not going to get a player that wont the europa league last season and has a 35m release clause and is rumoured for arsenal sorry. unrealistic beyond unrealistic. He's better than Benteke.

I just want to die....

**** bad day for me. Mendes is total scum and has way too much control over his clients. Probably illegally so.

He's not even championship level anymore tbh

If only it were that simple. 2 strikers means two central midfielders. Now, if Sanchez turns out to be great then this may work going forward. But if you assume our midfield two would be Delph and Westwood for now, then they aren't strong enough as a pairing for that to work. Imo. You use two defensive midfielders. One with a mixed profile deep lying playmaker a la Xabi Alonso and one with a more pure defensive Makelele kind role. You use two wingers alongside them and and your fullbacks that function more like wingbacks than fullbacks. It's a formation that seems more offensive than it is. The second defensive midfielder in the makelele role can compress back and form a line of three when the fullbacks are diving forward if need be.