Aston Villa January Transfer Rumours 2014 – One Week to Deadline Day

Aston Villa January transfer rumours 2014 as the circus of deadline day draws closer

With one week to go, Aston Villa supporters are starting to get twitchy about a lack of attacking midfielder walking through the gates of Villa Park. So far, as is typical with Paul Lambert signings, mooted press transfer rumours have beared little relation to actual signings. Take for example, Grant Holt and Ryan Bertrand, both drafted in on loan during this window, with no media outlet being able to call their transfers in advance. Of course, the media doesn’t care, as long as it’s making money out of all the suckers who are avidly reading their transfer links. At the moment though, it’s gone fairly quite with new transfer links – apart from a clutch of young strikers – in a few days time expect things to crank up a notch, with Lambert surely bringing in at least one new face. UTV

Dale Stephens (Charlton)

Seemingly out of desperation the Stephens link has been rehashed from the summer of 2012 day. When you see that the main pushers of the story are ‘Sports Direct News’, who aren’t proper journalists, with the site principally existing to help market their sports merchandise and get a bit of advertising revenue along the way, you’re pretty much wasting your time clicking their links.

Verdict

Well, Villa brought Ashley Westwood in the end. The kind of midfielder Lambert is looking at the moment is to bring experience and proven ability to the ranks. Stephens would just be more of what Villa already have.

Scott Dann – Blackburn Rovers

I’m sorry but Dann to Villa was always pure ITK rubbish speculation. When news appeared last week that Villa were making a signing ‘tomorrow’ all the ITK’s thought it would either be Defour or Dann. Totally wrong. The player it turned out to be Ryan Bertrand, was a player that none of the rumour merchants or those Twitter ‘know it alls’ had a sniff of.

Verdict:

With Jores Okore on the mend and back in March, I’d be surprised if Lambert brings in any other defenders. The problematic left-back spot has been hopefully sorted at the third attempt. so that should be it, in terms of the backline. Expect the likes of Crystal Palace to chase Dann, if he goes anywhere.

Joleon Lescott – Manchester City

We dealt with Lescott in the previous January Transfer review article. It ain’t going happen. With Manchester City still going for four trophies,  in terms of winning things this could potentially be a great swan song season to Lescott’s career. He’ll then be on a free transfer in the summer,  so he could pocket a nice signing-on fee.  The wages necessary to bring Lescott to Villa Park, especially at his age, just aren’t worth paying. There’s a reason Lambert bought Okore and he’ll be back soon enough.

Verdict

As before. Not happening. Villa are unlikely to use up their last opportunity for a Premiership loan on the player, with midfield an urgency. Lescott would certainly been keen to stay at City this season for medals, unless some team offered him a long-term contract on big wages. That isn’t going to be Villa.

Wes Hoolahan – Norwich City

Hoolahan is another player we covered previously and have updated his situation since. The latest situation was Hoolahan’s transfer request rejection by Norwich City.  Considering Norwich don’t pick up the phone to Aston Villa and view us as a potential relegation rival, it’s unlikely business will be done. As we’ve stated before, it’s really no biggie though.

Verdict

Can’t see if happening. It doesn’t actually make much sense from Norwich’s point of view either, unless Villa really splashed the cash, but why would they? Hoolahan turns 32 in a few months time, and was always a short-term fix.

Steven Defour – Porto

Has been the most exotic transfer rumour linked to Villa since the beginning of January window. This increasingly sounds like a player’s agent fishing around. One day, Defour’s agent is talking bout Villa, another day it’s Spurs, then it’s Fulham. Has he exactly spoken to any of the respective managers? Unlikely. The Defour link was certainly news to Lambert (although he had been to watch Porto in December). As we hinted at before, Defour hasn’t really deserved the big move his ego (or agent) probably wants.

Verdict

The only time Aston Villa will sign Defour, is if someone is playing them on Football Manager. The good news is he’s probably a better player on there, than in the real world. Still, if he did end up at Villa, it would prove popular with supporters.

In terms of the transfer rumours of Gael Kakuta (Chelsea), Jean Marie Dongou (Barcelona) and Jelle Vossen (Genk), check out this dedicated post to Aston Villa striker links

If you’ve heard of any other Aston Villa January transfer rumours drop them in a comment below.

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