Bellamy, Bale, Dawson, Caulker …And Gaston Ramires?

Good afternoon.

After nothing very much at all and along comes a whole host of bits and pieces. In the interest of sanity I’m just going to run through them without bothering to weed out which ITK ought to be accredited with what because quite frankly none of them are blazing a trail and there is more than a fair amount of duplication and if anyone thinks I’m spending my afternoon cross referencing hearsay they can *ahem* think again.

To kick us off, one from the archive is the tale of Arry wanting to sign Craig Bellamy. And Bellamy wanting to sign for Arry. That transfer hit the skids when Levy & Co were presented with the notion that the player would train in Cardiff and just commute into London for tactics and the game.

Needless to say Arry, the players agent and their plan were all escorted by security into the West Stand car park.

AVB apparently sees Bale as a deep lying forward they have been working on this in training and will continue to use this as and when new signing’s come in. He thinks it will be back four then 2 defensive midfielder’s a play-maker just in front of them and then Gareth on the deep left of a main target striker and someone on the deep right side. This is mooted as possibly being Moussa Dembele from Fulham.

Liverpool next and they have enquired about buying Steven Caulker. Also they have asked about Michael Dawson and it is thought that a figure of about £10M or so could do the trick if Daniel Agger gets sold.

Dawson hasn’t impressed Villas-Boas so far. His standing off the forwards and his general style of play haven’t won any praise and there is a suggestion that he’s lost some pace after various injuries. Speaking of pace, Tommy Huddlestone is having a tough time trying to convince that he’s ready for the AVB revolution. Both these bits will irritate some, but it does explain the selection process for the pre-season games.

Last up is the reported sighting of Gaston Ramires at the Lodge yesterday with his advisors supposedly a fee has been agreed with his club and we’re all just waiting on personal demands medical etc…

Every other name, Damiao, Lorente, Hulk etc the song remains the same. Money. Fees, buy out clauses, wages and structuring of payments all make for one almighty mess. But the recurring message is that they are working on it.

It is to the everlasting credit of those who can retain some dignity while they wait. Nobody likes a whiner.