January 2017 Transfer Speculation

IronHerb

baracks_a_hammer said:

Right now I'd take Sturridge on loan if the fallback option to the fragile pair was Calleri

But I guess Liverpool wouldn't be interested in anything but a straight sale

He's not 'fragile' then? ;hmm

baracks_a_hammer

Totally, but the odds on three fragile players being unavailable are probably less ;lol

Apparently talksport pundit Micky Quinn reckons the Dave's are trying to do a deal for him today

Kuchinghammer

oh not Sulky Sturridge... we only just got shot of Pouting Payet! ;hmm

Ravel49

If you don't know then get to know..

PL DEAL SHEET EXPLAINED

As in the previous window, Premier League clubs can complete deals by 1am, thanks to the Deal Sheet.

Clubs and players must do the following to get any last-minute deals over the line...
•Form must be submitted to Premier League 9pm – 11pm;

•It must be submitted by the clubs involved and signed by the player;

•Info required includes total fee, add-ons and player signature confirming they have agreed personal terms

•If Premier League receive Deal Sheet by 11pm, clubs have until 1am (midnight for international deals) to legally complete

Ravel49

BREAKING NEWS

Aston Villa have agreed a fee in the region of £15m for Brentford striker Scott Hogan, according to Sky sources

OldCastleSwift

Villa have agreed a deal with Brentford for Hogan and SSN stating that Bilic has said there'll be no signings at all today.

Oh good.

grey_til_I_dye

Twist

If Slav is saying what the board want him to, and it isn't true, he is lying.

Simple.

I don't think he is lying.

I think he is the one who had the doubts about Hogan.

I'm basing this on what he said, and on what Diddy Dee said.

To suggest that Slav would go along with what he is told to keep his job safe is, imo, to suggest he has no backbone.

I believe, and certainly hope, that if the DD's told him to do or say something he wasn't happy with, he would refuse, and walk if necessary.

baracks_a_hammer

Demba ba has joined besiktas on loan

Vorselaarhammer

;hmm ;whome

Trevor Sinclair
Ex-Man City & West Ham winger
I feel like we need a right-back and Ashley Young would be ideal. He’s been playing there for them, and could do a great job for West Ham.

baracks_a_hammer

Can you imagine after signing snodgrass if we signed Ashley young - who would be next, Tom Daley?? ;hmm

Swissiron

ahem
;ccole

alderz

Is Trev talking about us or City though

OldCastleSwift

Hang on, so on the one hand we have Bilic saying we have really good strikers at the club so don’t need Hogan, and on the other Sully saying that we were looking to bring in Demba Ba ;hmm

Is it just me or is that completely contradictory? Either we need/want a striker or we don’t.

MrsGrey

Not completely contradictory, if the sub-text of what Slav is saying is that he thinks Hogan's not very good.

I think the message has always been 'we want players who can improve the 1st XI'.

grey_til_I_dye

OCS

Slav said:

“We’re not looking for [any late deals]. We got Fonte who we really wanted, we got Snodgrass who we really wanted from day one, and we were maybe looking for a right-back. We couldn’t find someone who would improve our squad or first eleven and that’s why we didn’t get one. I’m very happy with the squad now.

“For example Demba Ba; He’s a player who has proved himself in the Premier League and he’s a player who I managed at Besiktas.

“I spoke to him on the phone a couple of weeks ago and the problem was that he got very badly injured and he told me he would be fit in March. That’s too late for us.

Read more at http://www.whufc.com/news/articles/2017/january/31-january/bilic-im-happy-my-squad#m24ukPSXgqDiEdmv.99

Which I take to mean, he thought if we got Ba that would be an improvement, and if we got Hogan, it wouldn't.

So, we were on the lookout for a striker if we could find one Slav was happy would improve us.

MrsGrey

;whistle

OldCastleSwift

"He’s definitely a good player, he’s young and scoring goals in the Championship but it’s not a question of 'Is he good enough?'; it’s a question of what we have.

We have Andy Carroll, Michail Antonio, Ashley Fletcher and Jonathan Calleri and plus players who can play second striker like Andre Ayew and Robert Snodgrass. We have to stay fit but that’s the reason behind my decision.”

Don't agree Greys. The above suggests to me that he thinks we have enough with the players he's listed.

The fact that we would have taken Ba doesn't really back that up, IMO

grey_til_I_dye

OCS

Only, imo, because you are not reading the whole article.

I would say, from Slav's point of view

Ba = worth getting in considering what we already have
Hogan = not worth getting in considering what we already have

I don't see how they are contradictory.

baracks_a_hammer

I think the daves and Slav want as good as a guarantee that any striker they sign would get goals in the Prem. That's why I guess they wouldn't have been interested in gabbiadini. To me the only options would have been

Defoe (whose price, even if Sunderland relented would have put them off as he'd have no resale value)

Ba (injured till march - yet still besiktas signed him on loan ;hmm )

Sturridge (who Liverpool may only let go at the end of the season not now)

OldCastleSwift

grey_til_I_dye said:

Ba = worth getting in considering what we already have
Hogan = not worth getting in considering what we already have

I have read the whole article Grey, and if the above was true then maybe he shouldn't have said, "it’s not a question of 'Is he good enough?'; it’s a question of what we have."

Maybe I'm the only one that see's that as a contradiction ;ok

Yeoldhammer

how is BA worthgetting the guy broke his leg dont need more injured players

grey_til_I_dye

Yeold

Well, that's pretty much what Slav said.

alderz

OCS

Tbh, I take Slav saying "it's not about if he's good enough" to be a polite way of saying that he doesn't think he's good enough. It doesn't really help anyone if Slav comes out and says "we looked at Hogan but I think he's rubbish".

baracks_a_hammer

I find it very hard to believe that there weren't approaches/enquiries made about Scott Hogan.

So if he was already satisfied with what he had where Hogan was concerned what would have been the point of wasting Brentford fc's time?

alderz

That article that (I think) Grey posted earlier claimed there were no official bids for Hogan, and neither club have said that there was either (as far as I have seen).

brookingsirons

We had all summer to get a good quality RB and Striker there was talk about
Hogan all of January on sky , I didn't expect us to sign a top striker in January because they are just not out there or available its a bad time to try and sign a player .

But fully expect Sullivan to come up trumps in this next window and please learn from the past mistakes .

yoyo

BBC quote .....Plamen Enchev: According to Bulgarian Telegraph Agency Dimitar Berbatov is in final talks with West Ham. Looks like a joke, but who knows.
surely not!

McHammer

I think i mentioned him a while back as i heard he was looking for a return to london. Maybe not so crazy an idea.

Bazshuayi

Perhaps, with Hogan in mind, they would've taken him but just not at the price Brentford were asking? Its one thing believing a player has the potential to be decent for us and perhaps another to fork out 15M. There are plenty of players like Rhodes touted for decent money and the lad Dwight Gayle who Palace sold to Newcastle who can score plenty in the Championship but dont come even close to replicating in the Prem. I would've liked us to have got Hogan, but perhaps thats because I am/was greedy for us to bag a predatory striker.

(as for Berbatov, I wanted him 2 years ago but surely he's now way too long in the tooth. Those past couple of seasons havent seen him set him club(s) alight. A great player in the past, but now?)

claretandbluesky

Should we not bring in a striker then the owners/Slav have taken a gamble that Carroll will stay fit as with him in the side we will score goals and achieve an appropriate position, should he break down again however we will be woefully short once again and they will have only themselves to blame. With the extra points on the board they may feel it is a gamble worth taking, but it could backfire as we are not so far clear that without Payet and Carroll we could find ourselves short of class.