January Transfer Window - 2022

[Mazrim]

11 hours ago, YLN said:

Have you been to the loan thread recently? I can save you a trip if you like

 

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

...

In fairness, we had 1 academy player starting the game and 1 on the bench. And at times recently we've had a few on the bench.

We need to be more selective who we send our kids to though. The Barry situation in particular is unacceptable.

Edited November 29, 2021 by Mazrim

[MaVilla]

3 hours ago, sne said:

Nakamba, Traore and Trez will be away for a large part of January and February due to the AFCON, squad will be pretty slim.

good point, sure i read somewhere that Bailey would be away also?

[Mozzavfc]

13 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

good point, sure i read somewhere that Bailey would be away also?

Bailey will only be away on WC qualifiers. We might lose him if quarantine rules change, but other that he'll be fine

[villalad21]

14 hours ago, Xela said:

As good and exciting as our youngsters are, not all will make it and possibly only one or two will go on to be top top players. It's just the way it is. So rare to get a 'class of 92'. 

If  1or 2 of them makes it as pl footballers we've done extremely well. 

 Most of them won't make it. Unfortunately. 

Premier League football is such a high level. 

[Mic09]

2 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

If  1or 2 of them makes it as pl footballers we've done extremely well. 

 Most of them won't make it. Unfortunately. 

Premier League football is such a high level. 

Exactly. For every Ramsey, there are 200 European teenagers at the same level who could have played instead of him.

It's a lot of skill, desire, hard work, but also an unbelievable amount of luck. 

[newhavenhibby]

On 28/11/2021 at 14:12, OutByEaster? said:

Are the two young Scottish fullbacks any good?

 

They are both great prospects . Watched Hickey when at Hearts but haven't seen as much now due to his move to Bologna in serie A. By all accounts he is doing well.

Patterson got a good run of games when the more experienced Rangers fullbacks were out but now struggles to get a start. Came on I think yesterday against Livi as a second half sub. Believe he will get his chance and does look a great prospect. Will possibly see more of him on Wednesday night when Rangers are at Easter Road.

Hickey would be the better bet as he has been playing regularly so that experience will count. He can also play midfield.

According to the press up here Gerrard is the favourite to sign Ryan Kent. A player I like and has done well in Scotland. Whether he can make the switch in class to the Premier League only time will tell.

[Adam2003]

12 hours ago, sne said:

Nakamba, Traore and Trez will be away for a large part of January and February due to the AFCON, squad will be pretty slim.

On the other hand between those three players with injuries they have probably played less than 5 full games in the last 6 months, so not a noticeable difference in numbers.

[hippo]

11 hours ago, villalad21 said:

If  1or 2 of them makes it as pl footballers we've done extremely well. 

 Most of them won't make it. Unfortunately. 

Premier League football is such a high level. 

Yup. If you consider the PL attracts the best players from around the globe - the idea of you having half a dozen such players in your u23s really is a non starter.

[HalfTimePost]

On 28/11/2021 at 21:36, YLN said:

Have you been to the loan thread recently? I can save you a trip if you like

 

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

Not in the squad

...

I get your point (and I agree with you) but also Kaine Kesler Hayden is going places and has been a mainstay of the Swindon team since he arrived there.

If we get 2 of Kesler, Chuk, JPB, Archer, Barry, Bogarde, Iroegbunam and the Ramseys to be a genuine important part of the squad, the academy has done its job. The talent is certainly there - hopefully we'll get better at blooding that talent than we have been.

But I agree we certainly shouldn't be looking at it and thinking we're done for those positions as the U23s are going to save us, as nice as it would be

[alreadyexists]

And Arjan Raikhy, still only 19 and I think is a fantastic prospect.

[HalfTimePost]

1 minute ago, alreadyexists said:

And Arjan Raikhy, still only 19 and I think is a fantastic prospect.

Oh there are lots of exciting talent in there for sure. I could absolutely make a case for about 10 of them making it. But we'll be doing very well if 2-3 end up good enough for where we want to go. Which 2 or 3 is very much up to them as the talent in the academy is huge.

Be interesting to see if our purchases in January highlight who we think is closest.

For example if there's no DM, would it signal Iroegbunam is expected to step up. (Not saying him specifically just as an example)

[HalfTimePost]

For me, we should be going for:

DM: Kamara (Boubacar, but imagine we'll go for Glen)

LB: David Raum (Hoffenheim) but imagine Hickey is the obvious one with the links.

Those two positions are musts for me. The rest is going to be interesting.

Wing: Neither Bailey or Buendia have yet had the desired impact on either wing. AEG and Trez are likely to be moved on before the end of the summer. Bidace is nowhere to be seen just yet and Traore if fit will be at AFCON. So despite having 6 Wingers, there may actually be a gap for another.

CAM: JJ is doing well but isn't a 10. Buendia isn't doing well and isn't a 10. What we do here is interesting, don't want to stifle and push out Chukweumeka or Aaron Ramsey. But there is a gap here. I think a dynamic 10 who can play across the midfield would be a nice signing and allow opportunities to JJ, AJ and Chuk still. Who? No idea. Nkunku would've been great but that ships sailed. Houssem Auoar maybe.

CB: Gomez linked, a very good player. Massive upgrade on Tuanzebe and Hause. But to join he'll want guaranteed games, and he'd likely be on loan at first. Not sure about that.

Can't see us signing anybody that aren't those 5 positions. GK maybe. Maybe an experienced veteran who will be happy on the bench. Not sure who though, if he wasn't the starter for Lazio a return of Pepe Reina would be the obvious one with links to both us and Liverpool. 

 

Edited November 30, 2021 by HalfTimePost

[alreadyexists]

44 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

Oh there are lots of exciting talent in there for sure. I could absolutely make a case for about 10 of them making it. But we'll be doing very well if 2-3 end up good enough for where we want to go. Which 2 or 3 is very much up to them as the talent in the academy is huge.

Be interesting to see if our purchases in January highlight who we think is closest.

For example if there's no DM, would it signal Iroegbunam is expected to step up. (Not saying him specifically just as an example)

Yeah, some of the most successful academies in Europe still only put out one or two real stars in each generation. 

[nick76]

13 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

For me, we should be going for:

DM: Kamara (Boubacar, but imagine we'll go for Glen)

LB: David Raum (Hoffenheim) but imagine Hickey is the obvious one with the links.

Those two positions are musts for me. The rest is going to be interesting.

Wing: Neither Bailey or Buendia have yet had the desired impact on either wing. AEG and Trez are likely to be moved on before the end of the summer. Bidace is nowhere to be seen just yet and Traore if fit will be at AFCON. So despite having 6 Wingers, there may actually be a gap for another.

CAM: JJ is doing well but isn't a 10. Buendia isn't doing well and isn't a 10. What we do here is interesting, don't want to stifle and push out Chukweumeka or Aaron Ramsey. But there is a gap here. I think a dynamic 10 who can play across the midfield would be a nice signing and allow opportunities to JJ, AJ and Chuk still. Who? No idea. Nkunku would've been great but that ships sailed. Houssem Auoar maybe.

CB: Gomez linked, a very good player. Massive upgrade on Tuanzebe and Hause. But to join he'll want guaranteed games, and he'd likely be on loan at first. Not sure about that.

Can't see us signing anybody that aren't those 5 positions. GK maybe. Maybe an experienced veteran who will be happy on the bench. Not sure who though, if he wasn't the starter for Lazio a return of Pepe Reina would be the obvious one with links to both us and Liverpool. 

 

To be honest, anybody but Martinez is upgradable.  New manager will have his own ideas so it wouldn’t surprise me if there were changes we weren’t expecting.  Gerrard has come in to improve us, that will have to include improvement in quality across the board which will be a mix of current players improvement and unexpected new players.

[lexicon]

3 hours ago, HalfTimePost said:

I get your point (and I agree with you) but also Kaine Kesler Hayden is going places and has been a mainstay of the Swindon team since he arrived there.

If we get 2 of Kesler, Chuk, JPB, Archer, Barry, Bogarde, Iroegbunam and the Ramseys to be a genuine important part of the squad, the academy has done its job. The talent is certainly there - hopefully we'll get better at blooding that talent than we have been.

But I agree we certainly shouldn't be looking at it and thinking we're done for those positions as the U23s are going to save us, as nice as it would be

Quite. First team players at Villa are in the 20-30m bracket for the most part, so it's definitely a success if we can produce players that are worth that kind of dough. 

[John]

3 hours ago, HalfTimePost said:

I get your point (and I agree with you) but also Kaine Kesler Hayden is going places and has been a mainstay of the Swindon team since he arrived there.

If we get 2 of Kesler, Chuk, JPB, Archer, Barry, Bogarde, Iroegbunam and the Ramseys to be a genuine important part of the squad, the academy has done its job. The talent is certainly there - hopefully we'll get better at blooding that talent than we have been.

But I agree we certainly shouldn't be looking at it and thinking we're done for those positions as the U23s are going to save us, as nice as it would be

I think that we may be looking to do a bit of a Chelsea by bringing through players, some of whom might make it into the first team squad and some of those that don't can then be sold to fund the work that we are doing with the youngsters. I think we will still be in the market for players (as Chelsea are) and we will look to supplement those with our own. if we can bring through a couple of players, as they have in recent years then that would be a real result and I think at least a couple of those that you mention can make a mark in the future.   

[romavillan]

17 hours ago, newhavenhibby said:

They are both great prospects . Watched Hickey when at Hearts but haven't seen as much now due to his move to Bologna in serie A. By all accounts he is doing well.

Patterson got a good run of games when the more experienced Rangers fullbacks were out but now struggles to get a start. Came on I think yesterday against Livi as a second half sub. Believe he will get his chance and does look a great prospect. Will possibly see more of him on Wednesday night when Rangers are at Easter Road.

Hickey would be the better bet as he has been playing regularly so that experience will count. He can also play midfield.

According to the press up here Gerrard is the favourite to sign Ryan Kent. A player I like and has done well in Scotland. Whether he can make the switch in class to the Premier League only time will tell.

Hickey's doing great at Bologna, Mihailovic rates him, got more freedom to attack now. Looks good to me even though he looks about nine years old!

[Awol]

19 hours ago, newhavenhibby said:

According to the press up here Gerrard is the favourite to sign Ryan Kent. A player I like and has done well in Scotland. Whether he can make the switch in class to the Premier League only time will tell.

If we sign Kent instead of Alvarez I’ll be gutted. 

[MaVilla]

19 hours ago, newhavenhibby said:

According to the press up here Gerrard is the favourite to sign Ryan Kent. A player I like and has done well in Scotland. Whether he can make the switch in class to the Premier League only time will tell.

got to say, whenever i have seen Kent, or watched youtube vids of him, i think he looks very one dimensional and a bit of a one trick pony, always seems to do the same cut back "move", if thats all he has in his locker, correct he will get found out quickly in the prem.

What do i know though ay.

[hippo]

Cheeky loan bid for Grealish ?