McCormack wants to join us and fee agreed with fulham

[Jim Smith 2,314]

£12m plus add-ons in the event of promotion they are stating is what Villa are offering. Since promotion is worth a guaranteed £100m plus then offering £3m of "add-ons" if promoted is hardly a risk really is it?

[king canary 7,562]

You yourself have said you think Fulham want to sell. If Fulham want £15m and we can''t pay £15m then we should have dropped it and moved on to other targets. So either getting the deal done is out of our price range but we wasted time trying to haggle OR a deal could be done for less than £15m but we couldn''t get it worked out.

It seems similar to last summer where we spent time bidding for players who were possibly over ambitious and ended up missing out.

[hogesar 9,611]

Would be frustrating to lose out this late in proceedings. 

It''s not really a case of if us fans are happy or not with the player himself, or if we think we should be signing someone else.

The key is Ross was clearly AN''s preferred, and main target. The fact we look like we''re not going to get him now will undoubtedly be a blow to him as presumably, options B, C and D are probably poorer players.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

I think Fulham would have sold him for £12m, if no one else was interested, however someone else was and the price was pushed back up £15m.

AN made it sound pretty clear that this wasn''t the only option - ''not putting all my eggs in one basket'' was the quote from him I believe. Clubs don''t only negotiate one deal at a time, so notion that they were wasting all their time on McCormack is false.

[king canary 7,562]

So we should have worked harder to get the deal done when they were open to £12m and before Villa got back involved.

To me it seems us and Villa were originally linked, we pursued it and Villa went to look at other targets. Having failed to get those in they''ve gone back to McCormack due to us not getting the deal done swiftly enough and now driven the price up a chunk.

I know clubs don''t work on one deal at a time but we''re clearly only spending this sort of money on one player and McCormack seems to be the number one target- so the longer we''ve worked on McCormack without success, the longer it also delays any moves for targets B, C or D in this position.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

How would you speed up Fulham making a decision?

They hold all the cards in this situation and they were correct to not make a quick decision as they have coined some extra money out of it.

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

It''s all oh, so easy from our side of things isn''t it - but we know few of the facts. The simple point that we probably don''t have as much ££ as Fulham want is not something we can readily do anything about. I''m sure the club has done what it can, if it''s not enough then that''s life, we move on and hopefully pull in someone who does well. I personally rate RM but not at £15m, even if we had it (which we don''t).

[Essjayess 307]

It was clear at the weekend that we would not ever get McCormack, and its why ive been saying since then City and Alex needed to absolutely start looking elsewhere right now...in fact Villa coming back and paying the going rate have done City a service, as i could have seen Alex and City fannying around with this saga for another week or two and still get nowhere. Alex clearly said after the Hannover match that City had bid  what City think McCormacks worth and would not go any higher, but Fulham insisted on a full 15 mill package,so in effect since Saturday times been wasted messing around on this nonsense.But remember, Villa have come back in for McCormack  because theyve had no luck finding a striker around the Champs, so you can tell City are going to find it very hard to get any new striker before the window closes unless they search the Prem, lower leagues or abroad. Forget Assambolonga at Forest, the suggestion there is of very slowly introducing hin to Champs action, could be 2 or 3 months before hes completely up to speed, never mind have full confidence that his new kneecap will hold up. Kodjia at Bristol? has a huge price tag, Bristol so intent keeping him may be more even than the 11-12 mill City seem to have for a striker. Wells at Huddersfield?..who knows what Alex even wants.All in all, considering last season we had 7 differnt strikers at varying stages, and the cry was to desperately thin them out, now the reverse is the case, we are down to Laffs and Camjam, and heck knows who City will find, if anyone at all.

[Jim Smith 2,314]

The required price has been reported as £12m since last week now so if that is what it ends up being (leaving aside promotion related add-ons but as I have stated above if you have to agree £3m of those to hit the headline £15m so be it) and we have been offering a deal worth £12m then we have screwed up in my opinion.

[Stone 0]

This is something of a double-edged sword - yes it makes our approach to transfer dealings look a bit pathetic and amateurish, but I personally aren''t in favour of this transfer being completed anyway.

If he does go to Villa perhaps it would open up the door for us to go in for Kodjia from Bristol City who Villa had been previously linked with? I''m not going to profess to know a huge amount about him but from snippets I''ve seen he''s performed in the Championship and does seem to be a better ''fit'' for our style of play.

[king canary 7,562]

@Bethnal

By paying the amount they want. Which was apparently £12m. But is now £15m.

If what you are saying is that Fulham were never going to make a decision until later in the window then fine- but that should surely rule us out as we can''t really afford to hang around too long with our current striking options.

[Yorkshire Canary 118]

here we go again 4 days until the season starts and 1 decent striker in the squad. I must admit that £15m sounds and indeed is a lot but championship players fees have risen with the extra PL money. Our scouting is poor and our ability to negotiate seems more akin to dads Army , but what do we expect we have seen it all before and we will see it again. lack of prompt investment relegated us last season and the same failings may confine us to the championship this season. Lets hope in the available time something can still be salvaged

[Temp the Revelator 0]

[quote user="Essjayess"]so in effect since Saturday times been wasted messing around on this nonsense.[/quote]

Do we know that for fact? For all we know, Norwich made their offer before Saturday and haven''t budged since. Nothing has come out of Norwich to suggest anything other than that - other than rumour, agents, sky etc. we may well have been spending all our time, effort and energies on a different target since Saturday for all we know....

[City 2nd 191]

Bethnal Yellow and Green wrote the following post at 2016-08-02 7:13 PM:

How would you speed up Fulham making a decision?

They hold all the cards in this situation and they were correct to not make a quick decision as they have coined some extra money out of it.

A fee has reportedly been accepted by Fulham from villa which usurps the NCFC offer. He is expected to sign for villa in next 24 hours so that one can be kissed goodbye. Sorry to say same old same old!

[King Klose 0]

[quote user="Essjayess"]It was clear at the weekend that we would not ever get McCormack, and its why ive been saying since then City and Alex needed to absolutely start looking elsewhere right now...in fact Villa coming back and paying the going rate have done City a service, as i could have seen Alex and City fannying around with this saga for another week or two and still get nowhere. Alex clearly said after the Hannover match that City had bid  what City think McCormacks worth and would not go any higher, but Fulham insisted on a full 15 mill package,so in effect since Saturday times been wasted messing around on this nonsense.But remember, Villa have come back in for McCormack  because theyve had no luck finding a striker around the Champs, so you can tell City are going to find it very hard to get any new striker before the window closes unless they search the Prem, lower leagues or abroad. Forget Assambolonga at Forest, the suggestion there is of very slowly introducing hin to Champs action, could be 2 or 3 months before hes completely up to speed, never mind have full confidence that his new kneecap will hold up. Kodjia at Bristol? has a huge price tag, Bristol so intent keeping him may be more even than the 11-12 mill City seem to have for a striker. Wells at Huddersfield?..who knows what Alex even wants.All in all, considering last season we had 7 differnt strikers at varying stages, and the cry was to desperately thin them out, now the reverse is the case, we are down to Laffs and Camjam, and heck knows who City will find, if anyone at all.[/quote]

Complete bollox. He put this on Twitter earlier:-

"Pre season finally done & i am fit & sharp ready for the long season ahead!!"

You don''t half talk some shoite on here.

[93vintage 16]

If only the club took a fraction of that £12m and spend it on overseas scouting. We might then avoid the need to fanny about and concern ourselves with overpriced players such as McCormack.

[Jools 584]

[quote user="93vintage"]If only the club took a fraction of that £12m and spend it on overseas scouting. We might then avoid the need to fanny about and concern ourselves with overpriced players such as McCormack.[/quote][Y]

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

Yes 93, because overseas signings never fail, do they?!

IMO if we''ve missed out due to affordability there''s little we could do - what we have done us ensure Villa have paid absolute top-dollar, though. We move on, there''s other players out there that''ll do a job for us.

[westcoastcanary 0]

Whether people like it or not, the transfer window is open for another month even if the Championship season does start on Friday.

[cornish sam 940]

[quote user="king canary"]@Bethnal

By paying the amount they want. Which was apparently £12m. But is now £15m.

If what you are saying is that Fulham were never going to make a decision until later in the window then fine- but that should surely rule us out as we can''t really afford to hang around too long with our current striking options.[/quote]

It''s all well and good saying that we shouldn''t have hung around if Fulham weren''t going to make a decision until later but they weren''t likely to tell us that were they? How many times have you been left waiting for something when the other party strings it out and says I''ll let you know tomorrow or in a couple of days?

This doesn''t reflect that badly on our board, we had a price that we were willing to go to, seemingly Fulham led us to believe that would be sufficient and it could be worked out with having little intention of actually sticking to that within our timelines. There does come a point when you have to cut your losses but how much more gutted/annoyed/angry at the board would you have been had we walked away from the deal only for someone else to close it a few days later at the price we had already offered?

And as an aside, thanks to Bethnal for being a sensible head in all of this, one of the few posters I actually trust to have some knowledge of how things actually work behind the scenes and not just at Norwich.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

The fee represents a massive gamble and it''s clear the club arent 100% behind taking this gamble. So be it. Hopefully we get assombalonga instead. I prefer him anyway as long as he avoids injury

[Essjayess 307]

[quote user="Temp the Revelator"][quote user="Essjayess"]so in effect since Saturday times been wasted messing around on this nonsense.[/quote]

Do we know that for fact? For all we know, Norwich made their offer before Saturday and haven''t budged since. Nothing has come out of Norwich to suggest anything other than that - other than rumour, agents, sky etc. we may well have been spending all our time, effort and energies on a different target since Saturday for all we know....[/quote]After Saturdays match Alex Neil admitted City and Fulham were locked in advance discussions over McCormack..thats from the Pink Un..so does that not suggest that discussions were contiuing?..Have you any evidence at all that City have indeed been doing something else?..no of course not. Besides...if City had finally decided to walk away from this saga, do you not think it would have been reported as such? Alex also said City had spent a considerable amount already on this and no need to spend more..so saying City would not be  reaching Fulhams desired value of 15 mill, which incidentally theyve stated all along...the qouted 12 mill from last week was media talk, not official Fulham talk.

[paul moy 235]

15 million is the release clause in his contract and Fulham have announced today that they will not budge on that. 

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

Tettey''s Jig

It won''t be Assambalonga as no way Forest will sell in the middle of a take over. That isn''t suppose to be getting sorted out until sometime in late August/September.

[Essjayess 307]

[quote user="Timmy Time"][quote user="Essjayess"]It was clear at the weekend that we would not ever get McCormack, and its why ive been saying since then City and Alex needed to absolutely start looking elsewhere right now...in fact Villa coming back and paying the going rate have done City a service, as i could have seen Alex and City fannying around with this saga for another week or two and still get nowhere. Alex clearly said after the Hannover match that City had bid  what City think McCormacks worth and would not go any higher, but Fulham insisted on a full 15 mill package,so in effect since Saturday times been wasted messing around on this nonsense.But remember, Villa have come back in for McCormack  because theyve had no luck finding a striker around the Champs, so you can tell City are going to find it very hard to get any new striker before the window closes unless they search the Prem, lower leagues or abroad. Forget Assambolonga at Forest, the suggestion there is of very slowly introducing hin to Champs action, could be 2 or 3 months before hes completely up to speed, never mind have full confidence that his new kneecap will hold up. Kodjia at Bristol? has a huge price tag, Bristol so intent keeping him may be more even than the 11-12 mill City seem to have for a striker. Wells at Huddersfield?..who knows what Alex even wants.All in all, considering last season we had 7 differnt strikers at varying stages, and the cry was to desperately thin them out, now the reverse is the case, we are down to Laffs and Camjam, and heck knows who City will find, if anyone at all.[/quote]

Complete bollox. He put this on Twitter earlier:-

"Pre season finally done & i am fit & sharp ready for the long season ahead!!"

You don''t half talk some shoite on here.[/quote]Yes Timmy  the player himself feels hes ready, but its not complete B  as u suggest, theres more to it than that, but anyway, que sera sera.

[Tetteys Jig 830]

Maybe we should have just got Ched Evans back...

[ABC (A Basingstoke Canary) 26]

As somebody wrote earlier - players are humans, not commodities.

So as a human how do you think that McC feels about Villa? They dropped interest, looked for someone "better", failed, then come back to McC, effectively saying, well buddy you''re not really what we wanted, but we can''t get any of the better players, so you will have to do!

Maybe he is happy with that assessment, along with a diminished likelihood of ever getting to PL - but he knows that this is last chance of getting to PL and he has to be responsible for his own decision.

[93vintage 16]

[quote user="Branston Pickle"]Yes 93, because overseas signings never fail, do they?!

IMO if we''ve missed out due to affordability there''s little we could do - what we have done us ensure Villa have paid absolute top-dollar, though. We move on, there''s other players out there that''ll do a job for us.[/quote]I never said overseas signings never fail. But they tend to be better value, plus we''d give ourselves a fair bit more choice.

[Diane 500]

Im probably in the minority but Im glad we''re not paying £15m for McCormack would rather have a young hungry prolific striker from L1.

[Chemical Bro 0]

The thing that is worrying me now is, if Aston Villa have come in late as they drew blanks on their other targets. Are those other targets the ones we''re now going to have to go after? Presuming we miss out here of course

Maybe why we''ve been so persistent on Mccormack is because we already knew others weren''t available.

For example assombalonga and the Bristol city chap (can''t remember his name now)

Could have dropped ourselves right in it here