It sounds like Fulham are in contention to sign Defour, I would like to think we will be putting in a bid. If he is interested in them then theres no reason why we shouldnt try our luck. Its rumoured that Porto want £6.5m which I dont think is unreasonable.
Quite a lot of coverage of that as well! Seems reliant on Stoke signing Catermole, which I can't really see happening unless Sunderland have a serious replacement lined up. Of course!
No way will we sign Glenn Whelan. His wages are too high, he's no better than the substantial cover that we already have. Unless someone has put in a stupid bid for Johnson (didn't Swansea go for him in the summer?) I can't see this happening at all. Not too fussed about Mata going to Man U (although it is complete madness on Chelsea's part IMO). Our trip to Old Trafford will either be a write-off, or they will have their feet up at that stage and Mata will make no difference. In the meantime, he should stop Man U haemorrhaging points against our rivals.
I wanted Defour last year but he has spent basically all this season rotting at Porto and I don't think he would be much use to us. Would probably take him the rest of the season to get up to speed.
Sounds as though Ayala might finally get a permanent move (to Boro). I was casually scrolling through his appearance record for us and discovered that I'd completely forgotten he played 5 full Prem games in a row for us in 2011/12, including a draw and clean sheet against Chelsea (see link below), and victories over QPR and West Brom. http://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/en/norwich-city-chelsea-fc/index/spielbericht_1131561.html
Swansea apparently in discussions with Bolton over David NGog according to Dougie Freedman. Surprising as he's hardly been prolific this season.
Got to say that if we're being linked with the likes of Whelan and Guthrie in January I would rather we kept the money until the summer and went with what we have for now. They're both decent players but I think there will be better value and quality around in the next window.
Whelan I understand less because of his age and Prem wages, but if Guthrie was available cheaply I wouldn't object too much. Fox isn't getting used, so if we sold him and replaced him with Guthrie, at perhaps a net cost of £1m + a bit in wages, then that looks like reasonable business to me. We're replacing an unused 30 year old with a 26 year old that Hughton might be prepared to use as rotation, or at least feel more comfortable using if we get short on players through injuries. It's a squad game, and we need quality throughout the 25 man squad. Guthrie might not be the signing to turn our season around, but having a bit more depth is no bad thing.
Really? He's bloody awful, even worse than that tosser Chamakh. Has to be one of the worst players to ever play for Liverpool and as you say he's not been pulling up many trees in the Championship.
Some of the Irish Press reporting that Villa are moving on from Wes. Whoever suggested to him to hand in a a transfer request should be sacked! http://www.independent.ie/sport/soccer/hoolahan-marooned-29945674.html
The Telegraph is now saying the same: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/fo...rwichs-unsettled-midfielder-Wes-Hoolahan.html
its a game of cat and mouse and all rather embarrassing from both clubs if you ask me. there's a certain amount of bullying going on from villa. if you have a look at who keeps writing these stories they all emanate from 'journos of choice', ie the one above is written by 'villa-friendly' john percy, who has clearly been given a carefully designed leak that villa are now moving on to other targets. from our side we have mick dennis who was blatantly leaked the story about how wes refuses to play and how villa are being reported for tapping up etc. villa are trying to get wes to kick up a fuss. if he is unhappy at norwich either our club have to give in and sell at a price which suits villa more than us (presumably as they think we wouldn't want an unhappy player loitering in the background) or at worst villa have made life at norwich much harder for the rest of the season as there is discontent from a useful player. i doubt if lambert cares too much if he gets hoolahan. its all just a game that lambert can't lose and its bloody painful to watch. and little wesley doesn't come out of this very well either. at the end of the day, norwich can stand their ground on this one as any fee we get for him isn't worth our while. so we are better off holding on to him even if he is unhappy and selling to the club of our choice in the summer. all very childish from villa and all a bit amateurish from norwich. i don't particularly care if he goes though i'd rather he stayed but i don't think he is a vital player - useful yes, important, no. he's had his head turned but its not as if he's been frozen out completely - he's played in three of the last five league games. wes claims his only gripe is that he isn't playing. keep picking him, either on the bench or in the team. let's see how much respect he has for the club by giving his all as he always has done. there could be a way back for him. personally i think we should just carry on as if none of this embarrassing episode ever happened but others will probably disagree.
Glad to see your somewhat regular lengthy posts back on here, and encouraging me to be frequently distracted from work Supers!
