So who are we signing?

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Just thought I'd try and narrow this down a bit!

The firmest rumour seems to be that of Djibril Cisse. Everyone is claiming we have signed him on loan, with City paying £25,000 per week and QPR paying the rest. He's also the Bellamy link, as they played together at 'Pool and left at the same time. He's an eccentric character, but I think he would cause serious damage at this level. He scored almost a goal a game in the Greek top league and the standard probably isn't dissimilar, although he's struggled at QPR this season (but hasn't everyone?).

After Cisse, there was rumours of Darren Bent...but are Villa really going to contribute towards his £80,000 a week wages, as I'm sure we wouldn't pay the whole amount? And he isn't likely to take a drop in wages. Skybet dropped him from 16/1 to 5/1 for the move to City however. Dwight Gayle has now signed for Peterborough, so that rules that out. Charlie Austin will probably stay until the end of the season with Burnley or move to the Premiership, Danny Graham is wanted by Reading and Norwich and he doesn't want to drop a level. And West Brom's Chris Wood keeps popping up (ahem) and he's available for £1.5million, could be a good punt as apparently Dave Jones wants Velcro at Sheffield Wednesday.

Frank Lampard has been told to find another club, and Big Sam wants him back at West Ham, which sparked Twitter rumours we were after Kevin Nolan. And there was a lot of talk on that one and I, for one, would love to see us sign Nolan. Beckham and Giggs are probably a no, as Malky seems to have ruled both out...although you can never say never with VT I suppose!

At the back, there was talk of a £2million bid for Celtic's Emilio Izaguirre, although that's gone quiet now that Celtic are in the next round in the Champions League. This is more likely to happen at the end of the season when we go up. Derby have publicly stated that we are not talking to them about signing John Brayford, which means we probably are. Don't know much about him, but West Ham were interested as well. Back at QPR, where the Malaysian link is pretty strong and seems to be working well for us, Jose Bosingwa has been fined two weeks wages and 'Arry has said he may or may not play for the team again, sparking another Twitter loan rumour, similar to the one about Nedum Onuoha, although both of these look unlikely.

Either way it should be a pretty exciting January and any of the above players would have a massive impact.

Anything I've missed?

I'm genuinely excited about the upcoming window! Lets hope its not a damp squib like last year!

Rhys wrote:I'm genuinely excited about the upcoming window! Lets hope its not a damp squib like last year!

The talk in the Premier Club on Saturday is that the signing of John Brayford from Derby is a done deal.
Another player mentioned was Jay Rodrigues of Southampton. If you remember we made a bid of £6 million for him in the close season from Burnley but he went to Southampton instead. He is struggling to tie down a regular place there, so Southampton might be interested in recouping their investment.

Brayford would be a great addition. I know he's a right back naturally but like Connoly he's proved in the past he can play either side comfortably and cover the centre too. He might be expensive though, he cost Derby a million and. He's proved very much worth that since then. Plus he only signed a three year extension last year.

Rodriguez, not sure how I feel on that. As you have already said he cost Southampton a fortune that appears to of been wasted. They'll want that back and I'm not sure he's worth it. If we were going to spend what could well be in the region of three or four million on a striker, I could probably give you a list of names I'd much prefer.

Jay Rodrigues would be a bit of a disappointment for me. I'd rather take a punt and sign Bilbo Baggins aka Alfred Finnbogason or bite the bullet and throw £6million at Frazier Campbell. If we can't get a good striker I'd rather reinforce elsewhere in the team. We have one of the best strike rates even without a prolific goalscorer.

Interesting article in The Times tomorrow focusing on Aston Villa and Paul Lambert, the underlying tone of which is saying that they want Darren Bent off the wagebill (along with Shay Given) in order to give Lambert more funds to pursue younger, rawer talent. It's all part of Randy Lerner's plan to make the club financially viable in time for the Fair Play Regulations and also so he can stop pumping in loads of his own personal wealth just to keep the club afloat.

So, maybe that rumour is not so stupid after all?


(I still can't see it happening mind)

Arkay v2.0 wrote:Interesting article in The Times tomorrow focusing on Aston Villa and Paul Lambert, the underlying tone of which is saying that they want Darren Bent off the wagebill (along with Shay Given) in order to give Lambert more funds to pursue younger, rawer talent. It's all part of Randy Lerner's plan to make the club financially viable in time for the Fair Play Regulations and also so he can stop pumping in loads of his own personal wealth just to keep the club afloat.

So, maybe that rumour is not so stupid after all?


(I still can't see it happening mind)

That's the reason I gave the rumour some credibility.

I could see City taking him on loan until the end of the season and paying a chunk of his wages to help Villa. The proviso would be that at the end of the season we sign him permanently provided we get promoted.

I can't see it happening either, unless it's a loan deal. His goal scoring record is excellent though and he'd score for fun in the Championship.

Does he have something of an attitude problem though? Or am I just imagining that?

I think he tends to fall out with managers. But I'd probably fall out with Paul Lambert and Steve Bruce

Swansea's Laudrup today told the press that he has allowed Danny Graham to leave the club if the right deal is found, as he is unhappy with his lack of game time. Could this be another rumour becoming more and more plausible?

Tony Rivers said on Twitter that Malky was definitely interested in Graham

Exciting times, :thumbup:

Graham looks like a good bet after all. Would be happy if he did come obviously

Rhys wrote:Graham looks like a good bet after all. Would be happy if he did come obviously

Would love him here and tbf Malky doesn't need to do a background check on this 1