With a year left on his contract and with a team on the slide - hopefully we are getting him as a cover for a reasonable price - I am assuming (hoping) we are after a a quality replacement for Lovren...
I think Ron Vlaar would be a very good signing., Would offer a lot of experience, tactical nous., Stability to the squad. He was v. good for Villa, But he had youngsters around him all the time.. a defense always changing... Hard to get a real grip of defence.
Ronald did mention when talking about Pelle that the squad needs experience and I agree with that assessment. Vlaar and a CB in their early 20s would be good business
If we ended up replacing Lovren with Vlaar, I would be very disappointed. There's no doubting that Vlaar had a good World Cup. But I'd rather we didn't base our transfer decisions of what a player does for their country in the biggest competition in the world, which they only have the privilege to play in once every four years. He has rarely impressed me at Villa, and more often than not I find myself watching him play for them and wondering how on earth he can be first choice for a country like Holland. Now if it were Vlaar for Fonte - or even better, Vlaar for Yoshida/Jos - then fine, I'd have no issue with that. But Vlaar for Lovren? I'd want to vomit.
I don't see a young, yet experienced CB with England potential to be underwhelming. Nor do I see a player who starred against some of the best players in the world on the way to a 3rd place finish at the World Cup underwhelming. I wasn't expecting Pique here. They would both be suitable together, or one of them plus one of the other CBs who have been linked.
I agree with this. I think some people have their expectations waaaaay too high and are expecting us to sign Thiago Silva and Vincent Kompany. Ron Vlaar would be a solid addition to our fairly crappy pool of CBs and I for one would be pleased if he signed, for the right price of course. Plus, he's got PL experience which is something we are definitely going to need in amongst all these new signings and youngsters.
He did have a good W/C, but boy is he an accident waiting to happen. Could have given 2 or three penalties away, he had lady luck on his side, he truly did.
A surprisngly good World Cup makes me a bit suspicious. But we need centre backs, I wouldn't complain.
He's never really shone in a poor Villa side. World Cup aside, he'd be an underwhelming signing in my opinion.
I'd be quite happy with him. Neither Fonte or Lovren are that strong or that great in the air, so would offer us something different. I know we have Hooiveld who's a good headerer, and if he's replacing him then that's good business. If Lovren goes, we need another CB.
We need two CBs this season, one to replace Lovren & Jos H Would like to see one experienced (Vlaar) and one younger with a bit of real pace
RK is saying Vlaar is an option, "but an expensive one". In this case I'm hoping we're actually priced out. I say, by all means let a foreign team stump up for him on his WC performances, but if we sign him it should be a price reflecting his PL performances. 29 with a year left on his contract, he should be priced at the fee Villa acquired him.
I wouldn't go quite that far, but Vlaar is really at his best when you have a pile of people back defending and his area of responsibility is consequently shrunk...a setup where one attempts to keep a lot of men behind the ball, basically. I don't much fancy playing in such a system.
