As we approach the final hours of the summer transfer window, it’s hard to see any of the rumours out though baring fruit apart from the link to Joleon Lescott, so expect a quiet final day with anything happening a bonus and a left-field surprise. Will we get that striker, now that the Adebayor link seems dead? Although Sherwood recently suggested the door may still be left ajar for the Togo international…
Striker Links
Reims forward Gaëtan Charbonnier has been linked but I can’t see it. The French striker just doesn’t add up as a proper Sherwood target. His goal ratio of 1-in-6 in recent seasons is fairly poor, plus Villa would be interested more in a poacher-type striker. Charbonnier wouldn’t be adding anything to the party that Libor Kozak or Rudy Gestede couldn’t bring.
It’s hard to make a case for Charbonnier under the Moneyball theory either, that Sherwood seemed to have been practising with the French league this transfer window.
A more ridiculous rumour doing the rounds is that Swansea City striker Bafatimbi Gomis has a £7m release clause which Villa, Spurs and a host of other clubs will be looking to test Swansea City with. Unfortunately, there’s no way Gomis would leave Swansea at this moment in time and it’s an insult to Swansea to even suggest it. If I was Gomis i would stay at Swansea too. They have a good thing going at the moment and are a more settled team than most of the teams in the Premier League.
Links to Roma striker Adem Ljajić also seemed pointless, he hasn’t exactly proved himself in Serie A to suggest he’d make an impression on the Premier League. A move to another Italian club was always more likely.
Charlie Austin remains a curious one. It seems Randy Lerner doesn’t have the cash to front up to get Austin, as Sherwood’s close relationship with QPR boss Chris Ramsay would surely have helped smooth any deal over by now.
Currently Bournemouth seem to be the favourites for the QPR striker’s signature. It’s odd that more established Premier League teams haven’t already snapped Austin up. MOMS predicted weeks ago that Austin’s future would go down to the wire, and so it has proven.
Will Villa chance their hand at the 11th hour on Austin, or even go back and test Adebayor’s actual desire to play Premier League football.
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In a Deck-of-Cards-type way – Prince Far I version – every time I think of Austin I think of Grant Holt,
One swallow doesn’t make a summer transfer window. Plus Lerner refuses to keep spending pace with the rest so it’s academic in any case. All that’s changed is the manager ie TS can do better with the same resources as Dilbert, who could have sold Benteke etc at any point and have had the same “free rein” with the proceeds (heaven help us). Choosing between Adebayor and Berbatov is like choosing between Seals and Crofts (or maybe Brewer and Shipley).