Lansbury

[Steve1956]

Can't even get in a poor Villa side,we dodged a bullet there.

[ClaretTony]

Left out only because Bruce was rotating his squad because of them having played on Friday. Other than that he's been a regular in the Villa side.

At the time of our interest - January 2015 and August 2015 - he would have been a very good signing for us. He'd agreed the deal in August 2015, had his medical and was sat at the Turf waiting to sign when the idiot at Forest pulled the plug.

We've moved on since - we've got a much stronger midfield by some distance than we had when we tried to sign him. I certainly don't think we dodged any bullet.

[Roosterbooster]

A few months ago I was asked, would I rather we had signed Lansbury or Hendrick. My answer was Lansbury. I'm not sure I'd still answer the same, but I'm still to be absolutely convinced by the price tag. Despite him being a permanent fixture in the side, and almost certainly in everyone's starting XI every week, I'm not sure we got a £10m player. Although in the current market I don't know how to quantify fees anymore. Looking back, Lansbury would have been a bargain at £3-4m. Dyche was clearly a fan, and although he's not as good as Defour in my opinion, he does have that creative edge that I feel we have lacked this season. He might also have been given the chance to play unlike Defour. So despite Hendrick being in my preferred starting XI every week, I still feel we are missing a Dyche choice player with creativity. Lansbury might just be the one that got away...

[HendricksHair]

Fed up of hearing people complain about the Hendrick fee. He's massively contributed to at least 3 wins this season. Without those 3 wins we'd be down there fighting for our lives instead of heading for a comfortable mid table finish.

[Roosterbooster]

I don't have a huge problem with the Hendrick fee, I think it would have been naive to not pay it given he was a player Dyche desperately wanted, and the PL money means we can afford it. My main issue is with all fees being inflated for domestic (those already playing in England) players. As I said, he's a certain starter in pretty much everyone's eyes. I just think we are missing that creative link up player that SD actually wants in his team

[jlup1980]

The Hendrick fee was high but completely in line with prices for homegrown players. People will always complain about this but I'm sure they won't complain when we flip the coin and get 30 million for Keane!

[joey13]

Can't even get in a poor Villa side,we dodged a bullet there.

Did we ? We gave Villa 5 million for Westwood.

[Woodleyclaret]

I for one will be less than happy of we give Keane away for £30m giving the fact Man U will trouser 25% we need to asking £40 m at least

[Papabendi]

We gave up on a player who didnt want to come - time to move on.

[Steve1956]

We gave up on a player who didnt want to come - time to move on.

Apparently he was sat in the chairman's office at the Turf pen in hand,but his chairman pulled the plug...gimme Hendrick any day.

[ClaretTony]

We gave up on a player who didnt want to come - time to move on.

Amazing that he was sat at the Turf waiting for the green light then - and yes, I saw him.

[Papabendi]

Were you part of the contract negotiations Claret Tony?