Jan transfer window - rumours, speculation & suggestions

[MR.Smalljob]

And say Hallo to James Beattie

Middlesbrough, Villa eyeing Everton's Beattie

tribalfooball.com - December 03, 2006

Everton striker James Beattie appears to be on his way next month from Goodison Park.

The People says a host of Premiership clubs are fighting to take the £6 million-man on-loan after he spent most of the season on the Goodison Park bench.

Middlesbrough and Aston Villa lead the chase.

http://tinyurl.com/ybx9y2

[BOF]

Those Milner quotes don't seem to rule anything out. Just seems to be him ingratiating himself to the fans in case it doesn't happen. No harm in that, but it's certainly not a 'go away Villa I don't want to be in the top half of the Premiership' type quote.

As for Beattie - I think he's gone stale at Everton. A class act on his day and I think he needs a move to get his career going again. Whether it's here I don't know. I'll trust MON. I do think he has more potential than Smith though - as at least Beattie is a goalscorer on his day.

[Demitri_C]

Beattie? no thanks.

[Straggler]

Beattie? Yes please.

[MR.Smalljob]

Yeah maybe Mon can get something good out of beattie.... Rather beattie then Smith no doubt!

[Denis_B]

As is said above Milner is playing the right game and saying exactly the right things. Do you really think he would stay in Scotland if MON came calling?

[uncy_chris]

Beattie would be such a boring, uninspiring signing. "He's good on his day" some will say, but when his day is once every 10 games, he's not worth it at all. 20 goals a season? I don't think so. I'd be dissapointed if we went for him.

[sam100]

beattie - on loan yes please permanent no thanks.

griffin for hendrie! FFS

i suspected milner might change his mind tbh

if bridge goes to newcastle i'll be abit pissed off

im more of a pessimistic person when it comes to who i think we can sign, but even i want us to sign players who can atleast get in there first team at there clubs unless there in the top 4, getting andy griffin for anything longer than 6 months is utterly ridiculous IMO, and beattie just looks a bag of shit everytime i've sin him lately, i'd rather get kevin davies on the cheap tbh.

i've spoke to celtic fans about MON, and they said his main weaknesses are wasting money on bad signings and bad substitutions. Maybe thats why i'm more wary of the players we are linked with.

[BOF]

He can make all the bad signings he wants if he gives us half the success he brought Celtic. I'd say if you ask those same Celtic fans what his strengths were, they'd say "winning cups and league titles, getting 100% from players".

[sam100]

for me his biggest success was with leicester, but i was listening to merson the other day and i agree with him, the premiership has moved on now and you can't buy players because of there attitude and spirit etc you need to get quality in, and if you want success in the premiership you need to get the best quality players in, and players like griffin however determined they are won't get you any success IMO

[BOF]

Let's wait and see who he goes in for then. MON is no eejit and he will KNOW the Preeemiership has moved on. He did what he needed at Leicester to get success at that time. Now he'll do what he needs here to be successful.

[sam100]

i know and i realise that, all i said was because of his weakness in buying players, it makes me wary of who he signs, and when we get linked with the likes of andy griffin it highlights that, but it more than likely won't be true anyway..

[PauloBarnesi]

What is quality? quantify?

The whole thing is we could have 11 good, but not great players all pulling in the same direction and under MON we would do well. We could have 11 fantastic players, but it doesn’t mean the same at all. The whole thing is all about the mix and getting that right. I am not saying that we shouldn’t sign world class players, but look at West Ham. Two quality world class players (amongst some other great players) and its gone belly up. Benitez signed some ‘quality’ players, but somehow the mix isn’t right. I think people are under the impression that we need to add 11 quality players for us to get somewhere. I think just a couple would make a massive difference.

The most important thing for Aston Villa has been getting the right manager in. This is more important than any other signing we could have made. If Merson had said that a quality manager was the key I would have agreed with him, but I get the feeling that he would blame his lack of success on lack of signings, rather than him perhaps not being a great manager?

[sam100]

i agree with you in what you say, but i'm talking about success in the uefa cup as well as the league, we are a long way from europe yet, but when we get to it we need quality and not just players pulling in the same direction, its martins job to bring in better players and them intergrate them so they are part of the team, like tevez is starting to do.

I realise its a long road and you can't just click your fingers to get world class players but we need to be looking for better quality than we have, and i think tbh hughes is better than griffin.

As i've said griffin and beattie if they are short term they would be good signings, but i can't see how they can take us forward to achieve martin and randy's ambitons.

west ham in the long haul will inevitably be better off with having two world class players, they have stutterd because of all the controvesy surrounding the deal,and the fact they didn't know what the future of the club was going to be.

IMO if we want success in europe & the league we need more than just good players pulling in the right direction, we need to have a team that are of the level or better of the likes of petrov, barry, laursen, mellberg and baros on form.

I might be wrong but in this day and age you need more than just a good manager and players pulling in the same direction to be successful on both fronts, and if the likes of griffin was that good, why is tottenham's former back up and a chelsea reject keeping him knowhere near the first team.

IMO we should be looking to be similar to spurs, they have plenty of young english players, as we do but they also have plenty of high quality players, where as we only have a few.

I hope to see us sign players on the level of SWP, Appiah, Keane and Bellamy, some might be unlikely but they will take us truely forward and regularly competing in the top 6 and in europe.

[uncy_chris]

If M'ON has £25M to spend in Jan, as has widely been reported, I'm sure he won't go after a cheap fix. He's going to look for quality and he won't just pick up squad fillers. I'd be very surprised if there was any truth of the Griffin rumour.

[Digsby]

If M'ON has £25M to spend in Jan, as has widely been reported, I'm sure he won't go after a cheap fix. He's going to look for quality and he won't just pick up squad fillers. I'd be very surprised if there was any truth of the Griffin rumour.

Where has that been widely reported?

I must have missed it.....

[BOF]

If M'ON has £25M to spend in Jan, as has widely been reported, I'm sure he won't go after a cheap fix. He's going to look for quality and he won't just pick up squad fillers. I'd be very surprised if there was any truth of the Griffin rumour.

I'll just say that I doubt anyone within Villa Towers will release how much there is to spend in January so I'd rephrase that to be "as has widely been speculated by the press".

[uncy_chris]

Yeah okay, the press think its £25 mil.

But I doubt that will be too far off the mark, unlike that transfer window where Ellis claimed we'd have significant funds to buy with (£20M was reported in the press) and then the net spend in the window turned out to be pretty measily.

[ml1dch]

I'd be happy with £10 million, and delighted with £15 million.

I'd be amazed if it were anymore than that.

[villab0y]

2 player of the the standard of Barry would be great, ny more than that I will be extremley happy!