Reconstruction time again: the summer 2018 transfer thread

[Mar]

Has Earing left? I liked the look of him the one game I saw.

Hardly building for the future but I see Jon Walters was telling Burnley today that he might have to look elsewhere for football after getting very little there. As someone who could play in both the hold up role and wide left (if we're playing the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation) he'd be a good loan signing for me

He would be useful I'd suspect.

Can't see him wanting to come here and not too sure I'd be keen after he was celebrating and doing his utmost to relegate us on that fateful day.

[mullayo]

GK: Ben Alnwick, Ben Amos, Jake Turner
RB: Mark Little, Stephen Darby
LB: Andrew Taylor
CB: David Wheater, Mark Beevers
DM:Darren Pratley, Karl Henry
AM: Josh Vela
RW: Sammy Ameobi, Filipe Morais, Craig Noone
LW: Will Buckley
ST: Adam Le Fondre
TS:Aaron Wilbraham

Ta DSB,
And the others to the U23s?
If that is the state of the squad we need: Target striker, left back, quick centreback, championship level mid, left wing...

[Bruce Rioja]

Has Earing left? I liked the look of him the one game I saw.

Hardly building for the future but I see Jon Walters was telling Burnley today that he might have to look elsewhere for football after getting very little there. As someone who could play in both the hold up role and wide left (if we're playing the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation) he'd be a good loan signing for me

He would be useful I'd suspect.

Can't see him wanting to come here and not too sure I'd be keen after he was celebrating and doing his utmost to relegate us on that fateful day.

Absolutely. I still think that John McGinlay and Kevin Davies are a couple of c*nts for having the temerity to score hat-tricks against us. And Bob Taylor. c*nts!

[Mar]

Has Earing left? I liked the look of him the one game I saw.

Hardly building for the future but I see Jon Walters was telling Burnley today that he might have to look elsewhere for football after getting very little there. As someone who could play in both the hold up role and wide left (if we're playing the 4-5-1/4-3-3 formation) he'd be a good loan signing for me

He would be useful I'd suspect.

Can't see him wanting to come here and not too sure I'd be keen after he was celebrating and doing his utmost to relegate us on that fateful day.

Absolutely. I still think that John McGinlay and Kevin Davies are a couple of c*nts for having the temerity to score hat-tricks against us. And Bob Taylor. c*nts!

Har de har har. Davies and Mcginlay did that before playing for us. I don't mind Walters doing his best to play as well as he can but as he's an ex white I would hope he would try it with a little class, especially given the magnitude of the game.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

I don't mind Walters doing his best to play as well as he can but as he's an ex white I would hope he would try it with a little class

Given the way he left Blackburn, "a bit of class" may not be an option.

Anyway, a transfer tickle: we're said to be interested in Bristol City goalkeeper Frank Fielding. Former England U21 (now 30). Their No.1 this season.

https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/foo ... rn-1612628

Blackburn-born, former Rovers, and Rovers are said to be interested, as are Wigan. Said to be thinking of coming back up north and has been "maintaining good contact" with former BCFC players Mark Little and Aaron Wilbraham; "should Fielding express real desire to move on it is expected that the club would not stand in his way."

This rumour comes from a former colleague of mine who's not prone to making things up. Whether Fielding's agent is, I don't know.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Some interesting developments might arise out of the play off finals currently taking place:

Villa were beaten by a wonderful Fulham side who imho fully deserve their promotion this season. Villa by all accounts may have big problems staying within Financial Fair Play limitations, and may have to make some drastic cuts this summer. Grealish is the one player who could bring in big money,but he is home grown and their best player so it is a difficult decision. From our perspective they aren't going to say no to some fringe players going out on loan, or even being transferred for modest fees. Ritchie De Laet is an experienced Championship RB who has been out on loan with Royal Antwerp in his native Belgium for the second half of the season, Gary Gardner is a 25 year old midfielder who played a season on loan at Barnsley last season, whilst Keinan Davis is a home grown 20 year old, 6ft 3in striker who even without further additions to the Villa squad is 3rd choice behind Jonathan Kodjia and Scott Hogan, and might benefit from a loan move.

Shrewsbury, despite an outstanding season where they came third with 87 points, one more point than we achieved last season in coming 2nd, lost to Rotherham in the L1 play off final, meaning all three clubs relegated from the Championship last year have been promoted back into it. Perhaps this shows just how wide the gulf between these two leagues has become. Manager Paul Hurst is expected to move on to bigger things, and a number of their players might be of interest to us. Aristote Nsiala is a 6ft 4in athletic no-nonsense CB, Ben Godfrey is an athletic 20 year old defensive midfielder currently on loan from Norwich, Jon Nolan looks a good attacking midfielder with 9 goals from 40 games in a relatively low scoring side, and Stefan Payne with 10 goals from 17 starts and 19 sub appearances and Carlton Morris (on loan from Norwich) 6 goals from 27 starts are both strong, athletic target men.

[mullayo]

Some interesting developments might arise out of the play off finals currently taking place:

Villa were beaten by a wonderful Fulham side who imho fully deserve their promotion this season.

Shrewsbury, despite an outstanding season where they came third with 87 points, one more point than we achieved last season in coming 2nd, lost to Rotherham in the L1 play off final, meaning all three clubs relegated from the Championship last year have been promoted back into it.

Aristote Nsiala is a 6ft 4in athletic no-nonsense CB, Ben Godfrey is an athletic 20 year old defensive midfielder currently on loan from Norwich, Jon Nolan looks a good attacking midfielder with 9 goals from 40 games in a relatively low scoring side, and Stefan Payne with 10 goals from 17 starts and 19 sub appearances and Carlton Morris (on loan from Norwich) 6 goals from 27 starts are both strong, athletic target men.

Yes, take advantage of the beaten man lying in the street and pick his pockets!
Seriously though, good scouting out!
We may have some money but we don't have a lot and bargain basement is where we dwell.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Some interesting developments might arise out of the play off finals currently taking place

If Villa are under the FFP cosh, they won't really benefit by loaning out young'uns - they'll need to shift old wage-grabbers on Premier payment plans.

If Transfermarkt is to be believed (which isn't always the case), the players out of contract now are John Terry (37), Alan Hutton (33), Gabby Agbonlahor (31) and Chris Samba (34) plus back-up keeper Mark Bunn (33); waving those off will help cut the big red number in the bottom-right corner of their spreadsheet. They may also try to shunt Premier emigres with a year's contract to run - Glenn Whelan (33), Mile Jedinak (34) and Micah Richards (29) – while I'm sure Steve Bruce would love to be shut of Ross McCormack, who's on £45k per week until 2020 and hasn't kicked a single ball for Villa this season.

All that's their problem, though. I can't see it helping us much unless they're happy for us to pay a small slice of someone's wage, but that isn't likely – and neither is it probable that such players will be beating a path to Bolton.

More of a chance with Shrewsbury. I don't know much about them and I know there'll be some who say they're not worth the risk, but (again, per Transfermarkt) they have a lot of freebies this summer: captain Abu Ogogo (CM, 28), Junior Brown (LB, 28), Lenell John-Lewis (CF, 29), Alex Rodman (LW, 31), AJ Leitch-Smith (CF, 28), Joe Riley (RB, ex-BWFC, 26), Craig MacGillivray (GK, 25), Dominic Smith (CB, 22), Arthur Gnahoua (CF, 25), Shaun Rowley (GK, 21).

Of the Shrews players you mention, Aristote Nsiala has one year left, as does Stefan Payne. Nolan's contracted to 2020 so would be a bit dearer. Carlton Morris has a Norwich contract for two years but he's 22 now so they might be hoping he can cut it in our division; a loan to us would make sense for him and them, if not necessarily for us (6 from 27 isn't stunning). Ben Godfrey is only 20 and contracted to 2021 but again if we wanted him I'm sure they'd be happy to let us take the risk.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

Some interesting developments might arise out of the play off finals currently taking place

If Villa are under the FFP cosh, they won't really benefit by loaning out young'uns - they'll need to shift old wage-grabbers on Premier payment plans.

If Transfermarkt is to be believed (which isn't always the case), the players out of contract now are John Terry (37), Alan Hutton (33), Gabby Agbonlahor (31) and Chris Samba (34) plus back-up keeper Mark Bunn (33); waving those off will help cut the big red number in the bottom-right corner of their spreadsheet. They may also try to shunt Premier emigres with a year's contract to run - Glenn Whelan (33), Mile Jedinak (34) and Micah Richards (29) – while I'm sure Steve Bruce would love to be shut of Ross McCormack, who's on £45k per week until 2020 and hasn't kicked a single ball for Villa this season.

All that's their problem, though. I can't see it helping us much unless they're happy for us to pay a small slice of someone's wage, but that isn't likely – and neither is it probable that such players will be beating a path to Bolton.

I think the FFP issues they have might be more severe than that DSB by all accounts. Just getting rid of the out of contract players won't be enough. Just looking at their financials, their wage bill in 2016/17 was £61.5m, against revenues of £73.8m. They lost £14m overall, but profit on player sales of £27m (They actually went on a crazy spending spree and bought £77m of new players, and sold approx £45m, I think transfer fees paid out are spread over the length of a players contract for accounting purposes) mitigated an operating loss of £41m. Since then they have lost £8m of that revenue this season due to reduced parachute payments, and they have added Terry's reported £100kpw and Samba to the wage bill. They have sold some players (five players for around £20m) and loaned some more out, and loaned some in, but hard to see how they reduced that wage bill significantly this season. And next season those revenues drop by a further £18m, and will drop another £15m the season after. Reports are suggesting that even a potential £25m sale of Grealish wouldn't come close to getting them on track, which looking at those financials seems accurate.

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 7433870336

Jedinak is reportedly on £35kpw, and Whelan is likely to be on decent wages too, nobody is going to buy them. And Richards and McCormack must certainly be candidates for the Jack Rodwell award of the most costly, disastrous signings a club can make. If Richards is selected for the first game of next season, it will be his first game in over 650 days, and on £35kpw!! They might have to take whatever they can get, though I agree there aren't many there that would be suitable for us, Gardner and Davis looking the closest.

[Harry Genshaw]

Could Ross McCormack or similar not be our version of Ben Amos? They loan him to us just to get him out of the place. We pay 5% of his salary for the privilege

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

Oh I agree, Briz, they won't get by just by chopping the old guys out of contract - I'm just saying that will be their priority. When you're talking about that size of cost-cutting, sending a 20-year-old Academy lad who might be on £50k per *year* ain't gonna help much. Indeed, such players are more likely to be in the team: as we found out, you can't sell everyone. If they did manage to shift say Whelan and Jedinak then Gardner's closer to the first team.

HG: I'm sure they'll try to "do an Amos" with McCormack, but it probably doesn't help that Bruce has been quite so open about saying the striker's an awful trainer, unfit, never turns up &c. "Ooh yes please."

[palindromeofbolton]

Tweet from Nixon this morning:

Bolton. Seem to be very active on free agent and loan front. No sign of the new cash yet.

Resign Obasi!

[TANGODANCER]

Tweet from Nixon this morning:

Bolton. Seem to be very active on free agent and loan front. No sign of the new cash yet.

Resign Obasi!

I think possibly any sign of cash deals at this stage might (might, note) have an effect on free/loan agents looking to get a slice of it. Early days yet and one thing Ken Anderson is careful with is money....

[Harry Genshaw]

HG: I'm sure they'll try to "do an Amos" with McCormack, but it probably doesn't help that Bruce has been quite so open about saying the striker's an awful trainer, unfit, never turns up &c. "Ooh yes please."

Aye he's not selling him well is he?!

Micah Richards is an odd one. His profile was so high at one time you'd never expect him to be a championship reserve at 29. Injury, permanent loss of form or lifestyle?

[bristol_Wanderer3]

HG: I'm sure they'll try to "do an Amos" with McCormack, but it probably doesn't help that Bruce has been quite so open about saying the striker's an awful trainer, unfit, never turns up &c. "Ooh yes please."

Aye he's not selling him well is he?!

Micah Richards is an odd one. His profile was so high at one time you'd never expect him to be a championship reserve at 29. Injury, permanent loss of form or lifestyle?

Good article on Micah Richards here:

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/ ... c-14126402

Interesting to see that Derby's owner Mel Morris has stated today that they are about to embark on a more austere approach, having tried to buy their way out of the Championship over the last few seasons. That is going to be a terrible first job for Frank Lampard if he does get the job.

In the absence of any news from BWFC I am forced to try and conjure a scenario where financial troubles elsewhere keep us out of the bottom three Sheffield Wednesday, Birmingham and QPR all seem to have potential financial problems, and Norwich are facing a loss of £33m in parachute payments (because they were relegated in their first season after promotion to the Prem, they don't qualify for the third year of £15m parachute payments that Villa get), and they are one of the very few teams not bankrolled by a rich owner.

[TANGODANCER]

Makes you wonder if we'd actually be better off without a rich owner (hypothetically). We had one and look what happened. At least we aren't pretending we belong to the "bottomless pit" money society. Today's football's a victim of its own success, like most commodities. The minute you buy a new T.V., washing machine, mobile laptop etc (even your car) somebody is on T.V next day advertising something newer and better. "Manage with what we've got" is an old and outdated adage, but....

[BWFC_Insane]

Makes you wonder if we'd actually be better off without a rich owner (hypothetically). We had one and look what happened. At least we aren't pretending we belong to the "bottomless pit" money society. Today's football's a victim of its own success, like most commodities. The minute you buy a new T.V., washing machine, mobile laptop etc (even your car) somebody is on T.V next day advertising something newer and better. "Manage with what we've got" is an old and outdated adage, but....

Having a rich owner is only a good thing, so long as they aren't mental. The key is how you run the club and how you spend the money.

We won't survive in this division without some relaxation on the purse strings.

[Dave Sutton's barnet]

On Villa: Swiss Ramble reckons they've got to shave off £45m this summer, "by cuts in wage bill or player sales."

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 8983534593 (and thread below it)

[BWFC_Insane]

On Villa: Swiss Ramble reckons they've got to shave off £45m this summer, "by cuts in wage bill or player sales."

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 8983534593 (and thread below it)

I still do not agree with FFP. And Villa's predicament makes no odds to us really.

BUT, it couldn't happen to a less pleasant club. Hope they stagnate for decades.

[bristol_Wanderer3]

On Villa: Swiss Ramble reckons they've got to shave off £45m this summer, "by cuts in wage bill or player sales."

https://twitter.com/SwissRamble/status/ ... 8983534593 (and thread below it)

I still do not agree with FFP. And Villa's predicament makes no odds to us really.

BUT, it couldn't happen to a less pleasant club. Hope they stagnate for decades.

Swiss Ramble is the expert, but that looks more on the optimistic side to me.

The problem Villa have is that everyone knows they are in a predicament and have to sell, meaning they are in a poor negotiating position and vulnerable to having to accept deals that aren't good for them. Also, Bruce being Bruce, he has loaded the squad with older players, so not many of the squad have much resale value. Grealish is the only player who can bring in a substantial fee, they have to cash in on him now whilst his stock is high. That might bring in £25m-£30m, plus the savings on his wages. The five players out of contract this summer look to be worth a saving of £11m-£12m. That still leaves them without a decent keeper, and without Terry, Hutton, Snodgrass, Grealish and Grabban.

Whether you like FFP or not, you have to say it adds an interesting dynamic to the Championship equation. It might be relevant to us. Bruce usually doesn't have much appetite for managing clubs who aren't able to compete financially. Villa without Bruce and their best five or six players, and with an aging squad, and on a general downer, might well find themselves lower mid table, where we aim to be...