Adlene Guedioura
Algerian midfielder is deemed surplus to requirements at Vicarage Road following the arrival or former Villa loanee Tom Cleverley.
Reports indicate that the price tag of around £3m appeals to Bruce, with the need to rectify our abysmal midfield now reaching crisis point.
Any deal would be comfortably funded by the proceeds from the sale of Rudy Gestede to Middlesbrough.
Guedioura carries the nickname “Rocket Factory” on account of his “powerful long range shots”.
The fact that Villa are now broadening their searched beyond the likes of Henri Lansbury, suggests that patience is wearing thin.
Bruce is now faced with the dilemma of acting swiftly or see January’s results determining whether we will be able to make the playoffs or not.
JORDAN RHODES
The latest news suggests that Rhodes is available with the permanent arrival of Patrick Bamford on Teeside.
Villa are and continue to be heavily linked with the prolific Championship striker. The 26 year old looks set to be moved on without really having had a chance to prove himself at Premier League level.
This will present a big decision for Bruce and Villa. Any purchase would see Villa have to commit to a fee of at least £10 million.
This would be without any wage demands, which are likely to be significant to lure the striker down a division.
The dilemma emerging concerns how many £10m+ strikers Villa can reasonably accommodate.
It may also give further fuel to the rumours that Ross McCormack could see himself prematurely offloaded.
HENRI LANSBURY
This “will he, won’t he”, transfer continues to frustrate.
The delay to date has largely been borne out of Nottingham Forests protracted takeover, which has now fallen through. This essentially put everything on hold until now.
The lack of an update is a concern at this stage as that matter is resolved, but has given rival teams an opportunity to counter Villa’s offer.
Equally, given the lack of certainty as to the outcome, Villa appear to have been sounding out alternatives.
Norwich are now heavily linked with a bid to hijack the deal, with Villa presumably mulling their options for alternative midfield reinforcements.
Teed off with all of this why don’t the club just come out and tell the truth, I can’t see any signings this window, seems like we haven’t any funds, I can honestly see us in a relegation battle again, and at the moment we are playing like a league 1 team. Haven’t had any confidence in Bruce from the beginning and this just compounds it, were just sliding into oblivion.
I think this is right we have no funds Dr x is very quiet not speaking to fans any more think we will do well to stop up with this team its gon all belly up
Bring back Sanchez, (ball winning tough midfielder), and Gil, (a classy player, dangerous if used correctly). Ship out Hutton, Elphick, Cissoko, Amavi, (a liability, why did we turn down £25m, he is lightweight and constantly making errors don’t know why people rave about him), Ayew, (too slow and selfish acts and looks like a petulant kid) Westwood (think it has all been said total waste of time) Gardner (simply not good enough), McCormack (not producing the goods, we can’t wait forever), Bacuna,(constantly gives the ball away(as do most of the team) cannot lift the ball over the first defender), Gabby,(sorry, used to be a big fan but his time is up). The Bruce team selection amazes me, he should always select the best eleven, not wait until we are behind and then start chasing the game, his substitutions beggar belief, he has been there long enough now, what is he doing in training, there is no system no organisation we are far too slow and being shown how to play football every week by hitherto unheard of clubs with much lower budgets, but much bigger hearts, aggression and effort go a long way and we have none. Why all the dithering in the window? don’t know what he is doing. would be very happy for him to prove me wrong. Why is English football full with one legged players, we don’t even have the basics right.
Oh! forgot RHM, totally mishandled very poor man management, let the lad play a full 90 mins, if management really want to keep him, they have a funny way of showing it, what has Gabby got that he has’nt???
was it 2 weeks back, when owner Tony promised 25m funds – plus we could use money from player sales? Well Henri Lansbury 3.5m and Conor Hourahine aprox 1m (with Villa prepping an offer we are told), doesnt seem a lot of money to fans in our hour of need. Especially considering Rudy Gestede was 5m sale or thereabouts so the maths doesn’t hold up and we seem full of hesitation to nail down deals for players who would like to play for us and we desparately need and not at a lot of money. Where else will you have opportunity to buy players of this caliber and current need to the club so cheaply? We seem to be at a critical point of needing the team balanced and sorted. Now we are linked again with striker Jordan Rhodes again at 10m maybe, plus big wages but this doesn’t seem to help the team with a fundamental identified weakness in midfield that most people seem to agree is our most pressing problem now. Yes, how many strikers do you need Villa? Selling Gestede without tying it in with a deal for Rhodes at the same time seems strange way to do business. And so does selling your second highest goalscorer at a time when you know you will be losing two key strikers on International duty for 4 – 6 weeks? Are you still out there Tony? fans are starting to get worried again