Jan transfer window - rumours, speculation & suggestions

[sam100]

as i say 12 mill's silly money

but like 8 - 10 i would pay it considering the relegation factors

other clubs would also know that we were panic buying because we are trying to save relegation, but in the summer we won't be in the position to panic, so won't be pushing the price up

IMO if we pay 4 - 5 million more for 2 quality players its worth it(2 mill more for 1 and 2 mill more for the other)

especially players who MON see's as long term investments, who will remember that extra 2 mill when they are banging goals in in 3 seasons time

[OutByEaster?]

I wonder if Doyles injury for Reading today will serve to push prices for strikers up even further ?

Hope not.

Like Oaks, I think we'll see one this week. I've got no evidence, just a feeling.

[steve-67]

Paying £12m for Bellamy will also show other clubs were panic buyers and mugs and anyone we want in future they can double the price Chelsea and Newcastle style .

I wouldn't disagree with you on this but I would say that there is a fine line between being taken for mugs and showing ambition. The first time that MON pays over the top for a signing he may well be setting a precedence, a la Chelsea, and have to pay over the odds for most players. I wonder if this is why we are so slow in signing players. Perhaps Villa would prefer to sign 2 or 3 all at once to disguise paying over the odds. Very unlikely, but we can dream.

[aj2k77]

Its not an extra £2m for Bellamy though its double what he's worth , i cant stomach that :shock:

Is another pacy forward our real need anyway ? Id like to see a big guy up there who can hold the ball up and link up play well and have Moore and Agbonlahor bouncing off it .

No one else is panic buying so why should we ? Theres better deals out there than Bellamy .

[sam100]

12 million is only paper talk, it started off as 6 mill, then it went to 9 mill now its gone to 12

they obviously wouldn't sell for 6, otherwise signing him would have been pointless, but MON wouldn't go over 10 mill

we will never have prices pushed up like chelsea either, they have been consistently playing sums of 18 million, 30 million, 21 million, 25 million etc

we won't ever pay more than 15 mill for 1 player IMO.

we need to panic buy more than others IMO, west ham are flashing cash around and already had a bigger squad

boro, newcastle, wigan and sheff u already have bigger squads

we really need the quality and quantity to match other teams, we have some higher quality playeres than the lieks of wigan and sheff u, but they can afford to make changes when players are tired, and don't have to rely on youth players

[bully]

Sam, can you stop posting please. It is taking me twice as long to read the threads with that avatar. 8)

[aj2k77]

I dont think things have gotten so bad we have to sign the biggest rocket polisher for double his actual value to stay up because Wigan and Sheff Utds squads are better than ours .

Do we really need Bellamy ? How well were we playing in the 4-3-3 formation with Angel working as the Target man with 2 wide players coming in . Get the big man upfront and pay big bucks but keep mouthy rocket polishers like Bellamy away from the dressing room where he'd have a bad influence on our younger players .

As ive said theres better deals out there than Bellamy for £12m . Theres more panic amongst the fans than the club i hope .

[sam100]

sorry bully, i'm too addicted to VT for that! :winkold:

im confident that 12 million is just a shot in the dark from jorunos, martin wouldn't pay over 10 million for him, i doubt he would even pay 10 mill

if he was going to pay 12 millon for bellamy he might as well try and get bent for 13 - 15 mill

to avoid being in a very tight relegation fight IMO we need atleast two players 1 forward and 1 right mid, and if we pay a couple of mill over for them its worth it, so we don't end up losing shedloads of money by a possible relegation.

we need someone to freshen us up attacking wise and on the right, and in the last quarter of the season teams like wigan and sheff u will have players who are up for the fight and they can rotate, and we will have tired players, probably demoralised and a host of youngsters who won't be use to this sort of pressure

[aj2k77]

Yes theyre the 2 key positions for me too . Right Midfield and Centre Forward . By the players we've been linked with O'Neill knows this too if its to be believed so i trust that come the 1st February they will have been fixed .

Hopefully not Bellamy for £10-12m though . Charlton took another beating at the weekend id test there resolve over Bent again , they need to spend some decent money .

[runetune]

I am wondering if Robbie Keane is still in the frame? He's known to be a fan of MON, isn't perhaps getting the games he would like, and while injured atm, I think is well worth a shot at getting. In fact, being injured could explain perhaps no news - Would give more time to see how his rehabilitation is progressing? It was initially considered a 6 week lay off and he apparently started light training in late December.

I personally think he is the most likely of the targets available to us for now - at least from the Premier League.

[jellycopter]

Robbie came on today, late on in the game against Newcastle. While he's a damn good player, he's not one to hold up the ball. While I would love us to sign him, to get the best out of him we'd need a big man beside him.

I reckon 9M for Keane would be a fair price.

[runetune]

Haven't caught up with the footie news today, so interesting to know Robbie came on. Another person I do think might be worth a punt and is certainly in the area of the larger holding man - is James Beattie. I don't know though if Everton have enough cover with strikers to consider letting him go, but he does seem to be out of favour and another only coming on mainly off the bench.

[jellycopter]

Hehe, Beattie had his own thread here recently, with nine out of ten cats saying they hate him. Personally I'd give him a chance, but for no more than a couple of million. I see Watford are mulling over an offer for Young. I know Spurs and the Hammers are being linked, but I have a feeling it might be our bid.

[Rodders]

west ham have had accepted a 10 million pound bid for ashley young

they can have him for that price, no wonder managers buy overseas

[Jez]

Where is that?

[Rodders]

Hammers have £10m bid for Young accepted

By RICHARD COPEMAN and STEVE CURRY - More by this author » Last updated at 22:27pm on 14th January 2007

West Ham have had a £10million bid accepted for Watford forward Ashley Young.

The Upton Park board were successful at the fourth attempt for the England Under 21 international, having previously had offers of £7m, £8m and then £9m rejected.

The development is a major boost for manager Alan Curbishley, who learned yesterday that he will be without injured defender Danny Gabbidon (groin) and Argentina striker Carlos Tevez (calf) for the next six weeks.

Curbishley will now be desperate for Young to agree personal terms and play a major part in his side’s battle against relegation.

He will be hoping to seal the deal over the next few days, with Aston Villa still in the hunt for a player who made his name in the Championship last season before continuing his impressive development in the top flight this term.

Villa, financed by the millions of new owner Randy Lerner, could table a counter bid.

Curbishley has a £50million treasure chest from his new Icelandic owner to try to stave off relegation from the Premiership, but can it buy him the kind of combative spirit that will be needed in the West Ham dressing room as the dark clouds gather?

After Fulham had scrapped and skirmished their way to a valuable point at Upton Park on Saturday, their boss Chris Coleman said : "To get out of relegation battles you can sometimes substitute a bit of talent for a few dogs of war.

"The dressing room spirit has to be right. The players have to be with each other, together. I can say ours are because we are further up the table than they are and, luckily for us this season, we have not been in the bottom three."

Anxiety is the one thing coaching does not dispel. Only results do that. Disquiet and angst are pervading every corner of the Boleyn Ground.

"They are getting in deeper and deeper," said Coleman.

"You can just sense the nervousness. The crowd are uneasy as well. It doesn’t matter if Curbs has £50m to spend. It takes new players time to settle and maybe some are not used to being in a relegation battle.

"West Ham have a demanding crowd. What they want to see is energy and enthusiasm and rightly so. It is not just about throwing money at it and I am sure Alan knows that.

"This will feel like a defeat to them. But when we went 1-0 up early on through Tomasz Radzinski they weren’t moving the ball as you expect West Ham to do, nice and sharp. That is nerves. It is hard when you are down there."

Curbishley had looked at the last three home matches against Portsmouth, Manchester City and Fulham as an opportunity to turn the corner. Instead they collected only one point, conceding too many goals from set pieces, with seven in all and two in this match.

The former Charlton boss has been in charge for seven games now. Apart from the splendid start of a one-goal victory over Manchester United, they have not been in a winning position in a league match.

"All kinds of things have gone on in the four weeks I have been in charge and it would have been nice today to have had a result at the start of what will be a clear week," said Curbishley.

This was very much a match of ifs and buts.

If Fulham’s Philippe Christanval had been sent off in the sixth minute for bringing down Tevez, who looked to have a goalscoring chance, the outcome might have been different.

If West Ham had not lost both James Collins and Tevez in the first 12 minutes, they would have had the resources to take off players injured late in the game — having been reduced to 10 men by the dismissal of Bobby Zamora, who earlier had netted a 24th-minute equaliser.

If Graham Poll had awarded West Ham a free-kick for what they claimed was a foul by Moritz Volz on Christian Dailly in the fourth of five minutes of stoppage time, Christanval would have been denied the final equaliser.

The breaks evened themselves out, however, since two-goal Yossi Benayoun looked well behind the line when he cleared from the excellent Brian McBride, who had already scored in the 59th minute.

But Curbishley insisted Poll, who flashed 10 yellow cards and one red, should have spotted Volz’s shove on Dailly.

"I don’t know where the referee got all that extra time from," said Curbishley.

"But there was a clear foul before the goal went in. Poll was right there and it was disappointing he didn’t give it.’

Curbishley is an honest man and knew the size of the mantle he was trying to pick up. Although he had expected more points at this stage, he says: "I am confident we will be all right and that this club can become really strong."

Coleman believes West Ham need to win eight of their last 15 matches — a tall order. But if they showed some of the fighting spirit he used to bring to Fulham’s defence, they would certainly have a chance.

taken off another forum though so can't provide exact link. Steve Curry's Dail Mail though isn't he?

[aj2k77]

If Young is a £10m player then Bellamy is a £12M player . Looks like the crazy transfer prices are back again in force .

[OutByEaster?]

Here

Although the article also says we could counter.

And it's in the Daily Mail :roll:

It's not yet being reported anywhere else. SSN hasn't "gone yellow."

[kkr]

Ashley Young would be a clown to swap watford for wham, both are stuck in a relegation dogfight so i can see plenty of players turning down the spammers, that 50mil might not go a long way!

10mil for Young is a crazy price, maybe they would sell at 8mil to us when he rejects wham!!

[Rodders]

yes it would be bloody funny to see Young just turn around and go " erm yeah right mate, I want the GOOD side in claret and blue"