Cutting a bit of a story short, I’m currently sunning my bony butt in Crete for three nights (the equivalent of a booze cruise, only it’s for cigarettes. The money you can save is mad).
Well, I will be tomorrow, as I’ve only just arrived, hence me being a bit late in knowing that Wesley Moraes has actually signed for us
£22 million apparently and that’s a massive sign of intent.
I can’t say I know anything about him, but he sounds decent, having scored 17 goals with numerous assists last season in the Belgian league.
Which is just about what the press know too, as he wasn’t anywhere near on the radar.
It all backs up my previous point about them not having a clue and just guessing, in the hope that if they aim enough darts, one will hit the target.
Anyway, the point is that it proves we are going to spend serious money on certain positions.
And it seems to me that if you take the attempt to sign Butland, coupled with a decent defensive midfielder speculation to be true, we’re looking to add to the backbone of a side.
Which makes extremely good sense.
I think signing Wesley means Tammy Abraham will not be coming back.
Dean Smith prefers one up front and there’s no way I can see Abraham playing second fiddle to another striker.
Much more likely that we’ll sign an older, proven Prem striker as backup, in my opinion; the likes of Gayle.
With Kodjia and Davies in reserve, I’d suggest that’s about as good as it could get, given that we aren’t going to be spending supid amounts of money.
Something else that crosses my mind is that we haven’t spent this money on a gamble and someone has been watching Moraes very, very, closely
You can bet your boots that we have at least another two unknown signings of a similar standard in the spotlight and again, the press won’t have a clue.
This signing has massively encouraged me, as, as I’ve hinted, I think we’d do well to survive with the current squad.
Add some more quality and we’ll have a very good chance of survival.
A final thought is that surely Hogan will be sold, seeing as he has no chance of getting the 40 games he wants?
That one just didn’t work out did it?
Here’s looking forward to the new season.
UTV
Definitely seems like an excellent signing to me. I watched a bit of him on youtube and he looks decent on the ball. Big presence as well. Whatever Dean Smith and his crew seem to do nowadays seems praise-worthy. I think we’re finally going in the right direction, gents.
UTV
I’m sure he’ll prove to be a hit. However, I’m reserving judgement until he does prove it. A Mr Helenius of Denmark also looked great on YouTube a few years back. I was very excited when I saw the highlights reel. No further comment needed!
Apart from the excitement of signing new players, I am impressed that transfers are occurring this early in the transfer window.
I am a great believer in getting new players in early so they can acclimatise to their new surroundings, style of play required and practice with their new team mates. 3 new players already in and I would not be surprised if another 3 came in the next fortnight.
On a differing point, a bluenose I work with told me the other day, which I’ve now seen in print, that they are going to loose their manager over Villa signing Jota. This really could be a great transfer window for us.
Yes, I read that about Monk having fallen out with Blues owners over the Jota deal. Anyway that’s their problem – smart piece of business by Smith / Purslow.
Purslow pretty much said ignore the media hype (over transfers) – we know who we want and we’ll just get on with it. Not just words then?
Agree with Badger that Hogan will now move on and I suspect he won’t be the last.
Final thought – whilst Villa’s strategy is to look for young, exciting talent I think signing someone with Prem experience like Cahill for a couple of years wouldn’t be such a bad idea. I don’t think his age would be the downside but I suspect he would want assurances over starting which he wouldn’t (and shouldn’t) get. Having said that, I think releasing Whelan is a pretty strong message that it’s unlikely to happen.
UTV
He was supposed to be on the Arsenal and Newcastle radars….fantastic that we went for it and got him…need a good pre- season from everyone….whoever they are….and with the decent fixtures early on we can get some comfort points on the board.
Cahill is a must in my opinion.
He still has a couple of years in him at PL level, he has a wealth of experience, and he’s a very good player.
I do not believe in just having players under a certain age, there should be at least one player at the heart of the team that has the experience of someone like Cahill.
A lot of people bemoaned us getting Terry at 36 and he was an outstanding signing.
Lazio almost got him for £10m this time last year
£22m is a big jump but trust as always in Smith
With regard to ‘experienced Prem players’ I’m just wondering how many Wolves had when they started last season?
They did alright and I think we could too. It’s more about getting the right players, the experience will come with time.
Well then lets re-phrase that, PL quality players.
Wolves had Moutinho, Neves, Jiminez, Doherty, Johnny, Patricio … shall i go on?
What PL quality do we have?
Grealish, perhaps El Ghazi, If we sign Mings then perhaps him, other than that i’m scratching my head, regardless of what you may think, we need more quality.
I wouldn’t be so quick to write players off. All of the Wolves players you mention were unproven in the Prem when they went up and I’d bet that no-one thought that Doherty for one would perform as well as he did in the upper ranks.
I think that potentially Hourihane, Chester and Davis might contribute. I’d also put a shout in for Kodjia as I’ve got a funny feeling that he might actually perform better in the Prem than he has in the Championship.
Anyway I’m happy to let Smith and his team get on with it. So far, so good.
Out of those players mentioned, Chester is the only one that may cut it, the others have struggled a hell of a lot, Davis? really?
Sorry but i would much rather we aimed higher than that.
I don’t quite get it with cahill.
We all love the blues goal but for me has always been better in the opposition box than his own. Bit slow when turned.
I wouldn’t have him back.
Great memories but move on.
Champions league winner, Premier league winner, FA cup winner …. Available for nothing, still a very good player, still got a couple of years left at the top level.
Yeah i just don’t get it either.
Well, I dare say that JT will have a big say and he knows Cahill well so, if Villa don’t go for Cahill, then you can be sure that there’s something we aren’t aware of.
Anyway, if we get MIngs we won’t be doing too badly for CBs.
……….…”Champions league winner, Premier league winner, FA cup winner “…all too much in the past …
No wonder we are considered fickle.
Would it not make sense to bring in a couple of free transfers so that we can spend competitively in other areas or do you envisage we have an endless pot of money?
What about FFP? Surely we should try and be savvy?
I wouldn’t object to signing Cahill on a free as long as we don’t pay same wages he gets at Chelsea. We will need 4 good CB’s so assuming we get Mings, we would have Chester and Hause with another one needed. First choice for me would be Tuanzebe, which I still think could happen depending on Man Ures spending. Other than that it could be Dunk for £30m if reports are true, which we know are nearly always off the mark, or someone like Cahill. As with Moreas, Smith knows who he wants and players will have to fit into his playing style. It’s fun to speculate although I think we will have more surprise names signed.
Exactly my point Holte66.
I’d say we could do with two good defensive midfielders too, and we need a good left back, we have to adhere to FFP so there isn’t an endless pot of cash, we should utilise a couple of freebies if we can.
Not sure that FFP will be a problem for the new financial year now that we are in the Prem. The transfer fee can be amortised over the length of the contract – hence 5 years for Wesley (£4.5m / year) but a shorter contract for Jota is affordable. Daft isn’t it 🙂
So we can go out and spend what we want?
I wouldn’t say that exactly but, given the ability of our owners to finance significant spend then imho we can afford to spend substantially more than we have to date. The balance is wanting to be certain about future financial prudence if, for example, (heaven forbid) we were to be relegated and also not repeating Fulham’s mistake of £100m spend on players that didn’t fit into the team.
Cardiff did better than Fulham last season by keeping the core of the promoted team and attempting to strengthen with just a modest spend.
I have no information but I’m going to guess that we’ll spend around £75m plus income from any further sales such as Hogan which would probably amortise somewhere around £20/£25m per annum with little or no increase in the wage bill – definitely affordable. Just have to wait and see.
Just a rider – part of the plan is to buy younger players with a good resale value. Sensible financial planning as the whole of any transfer fee from a sale is accountable in the year in which it’s received.
One of the reasons we could dump McCormack is that it costs no more (with one year left on his contract) than keeping him – in fact possibly less dependant on the terms of the variation agreement.
I hope we sell Hogan and Kodjia for around 10-12 million combined and use it to buy another PL quality striker, even if it means adding another 10 million. I’d prefer Wesley and Tammy competing for the main role, with Keinan as back up, rather than Hogan, Kodj and Keinan all pointlessly playing second fiddle to Wesley. The new man will need some serious competition to keep him on his toes. I agree that it looks unlikely Tammy will return, but I don’t think signing Wesley makes it a bad idea. Strength in depth is essential, especially at this level!
Just checked Sky and we’re the second match of the new season on TV after Liverpool v Norwich. Actually looking forward to it.
Welcome to Kortney Hause – completed transfer this morning. After an iffy start showed himself to be more than decent and can lay left side CB or at left back. Another good bit of business.
Mings next hopefully…
Yes, you can’t knock that deal at £3 million.
Excellent business!
I am glad Hause has signed. I liked what I saw of him. I know we would like Mings and there is now a rumour about us going after a Huddersfield defender. I assume either we are stocking up due to limited number of defenders or Chester’s players injury may be worse than previously thought.
We possibly need another right footed CB, I’d say Sid.
Hence it won’t be that Huddersfield player, who I think is left footed (I read about it this morning and can’t be arsed to re-check)?
In other news, it seems clubs are after Kalinic.
I’m guessing this is mostly coming from his agent, who isn’t happy.
I’d stick with him for a while, give him more time to settle and get rid of Nyland, fwiw.
It seems Badger, if you believe the rumours, that Kalinic will either be sold or, more likely, loaned out with Steer our no2 and Nyland in the shadows! I suspect that scenario makes the most financial sense!
I’d go with that, as I don’t really rate either of Nyland or Kalinic.
The latter deserves more time, imo, but I suspect he’s not happy at the Villa.
Steer’s decent, but not not top notch.
I can see the sense in us looking for another goalie, but doubt it’s a priority.
I’m with Holte on this, I don’t think Steer should have any criticism levelled at him , i believe he was one of our players that put us in the premiership. We dont know whats gone on in the Villa camp to warrant a new goalkeeper, ok Butland is one of the best but we need to stay faithful to the player’s that worked their socks off for the club.We could going down this road bring in bad feels over who gets what.and who done what. I say concentrate on defence and strikers plus wingers and have a happy club.
I disagree that Steer isn’t good enough for premier league. When Nyland and Kalinic were injured and Steer became No. 1 keeper, our form picked up and errors were omitted. Mings signing also made a big difference of course. We wouldn’t be as keen on Butland if he wasn’t British IMO. I think he is overrated and way overpriced. Etheridge for a lower fee would be a better option but even so we would probably need to offload Nyland AND Kalinic if we sign him because neither would accept 3rd choice. I’m surprised that there is criticism of Steer when just over a month ago everyone was praising him. What’s changed since then?
Are we criticising Steer? I think the debate is around whether he can step up to the Premier League. I agree completely that he is better than both Kalinic and Nyland – poor buys imho.
So the other side of the debate is would Etheridge or Butland improve us and are they value for money?
With the transfer window closing before the start of the season we can’t afford to wait and see!
Maybe criticism can be interpreted in different ways. There seems to be a feeling on this site that he isn’t good enough for premier league. However, that argument could be applied to nearly all of our current squad who haven’t played premier league football. Should Smith sign more proven premier league players? Or trust in players abilities and capability to make the step up. Personally I think there needs to be a few additions to compensate for losing the likes of Whelan, Hutton and Jedinak. Keeping Terry will be valuable for his influence although I’m feeling the worst if Lampard goes to Chelsea.
Here’s one that made me laugh;
We’re going to offer £15 mill and a player for Maupay;
https://www.footballfancast.com/championship/aston-villa/hes-lethal-villa-fans-react-to-update-on-maupay-future
Oh, hang on, that can’t right. He’s available for £9 mill according to this;
https://www.sheffieldunited.news/news/sheffield-united-target-neal-maupay-reportedly-available-for-just-9m/
I doubt we’re in for him, tbh.
As for Steer, yes he did well for us, but even in the final, he had a couple of dodgy moments and wasn’t convincing, although it could have been down to nerves.
I think the issue is more that while he did well for us in the Championship, would he do as well against better attacks?
I’d personally like to see him stay, even if it’s only as backup and involves a payrise, which I’m sure would convince him.
Not that I’m suggesting that he’s greedy, but we all know it’s about the money.
Coincidently, here’s an article asking a similar question about goalies;
https://underagaslitlamp.com/2019/06/18/do-aston-villa-need-a-new-goalkeeper/
My post went into the wrong position, it should’ve followed Badgers about strengths as goalkeeper. Steer done no wrong.
No, he hasn’t Bill, you’re right.
But it’s all about improving the squad and if Smith thinks we need better, I’m not going to argue.
But it seems out of the three we have now , two are deemed not good enough, which means we need another.
In the meantime, Axel for £8mill?, I’d be amazed if we got him for that;
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-7154325/Aston-Villa-set-launch-bid-Axel-Tuanzebe.html
Hope it’s true. I’m certain that Villa will look at getting him in on a permanent deal. If they are prepared to pay £20m plus for a player who hasn’t played in a top league then I would think £8m for Tuanzebe is a snip. I think they will have to up the offer more likely.
So Garry Monk has been sacked! What a bunch of idiots are Blues owners.
Just read that Holte (Monk) – I have to say Blues owners seem bent on self destruction. Having read (their) statement it suggests they fell out over transfer policy – in short it seems Blues owners want to sell players and use the kids!
Aston Villa are considering making a move for Bristol City defender Adam Webster, according to The Sun.
£12 mill apparently. Which indeed makes Tuanzebe a bargain.
Something can’t be right with those prices somewhere, surely?
Blues have sacked Monk eh?
It would seem the rumour about him not being happy with the Jota sale was true.
And we think we’ve had a couple of bad owners?
Blues’ record is terrible in that sense.
Just who do Blues think they could get that would be even as good as Monk let alone better? Talk about shooting themselves in the foot.
Hope this talk of Tuanzebe is right.
The Mail – “Xavier Calm, a little-known Spanish coach whose last job was in charge of Spanish third-tier side UE Cornella, is the betting favourite to replace ex-Birmingham manager Garry Monk, who was sacked on Tuesday.”
Wow, I’ll bet that all the noses are happy about that. For the record there is a club based at Cornella, a suburb of Barcelona, and they’re called Espanyol. Historically they’ve been very much the Birmingham City to Barcelona’s Aston Villa.
However, UE Cornella isn’t even up to Espanyol’s standards being in the equivalent of our second division. They hold their games at the Nou Camp, no not that one, this one only holds 1,500.
Talk about scraping the barrel.
As much as I detest our poor rivals Pat, I don’t see any legs in that one.
Just shows the level of the mail’s reprting too
Badger you might be right yet you have to ask what half decent manager would touch the club with a bargepole after what they did to Rowett and now Monk?
Apparently the caretaker manager Clotet has just shortened his odds but Calm is still up there.
TBH I could see them easily disappear into the First Division at this rate.
BTW I had a look at one of the Blues blogs and the main thread was around whether they could cancel their season tickets and get their money back.
As much as I hate the noses I still can’t help feeling sorry for them.
Jota gone and Che Adams bound to go and as you say, you can see them seriously struggling this season.
Villa are in talks to extend McGinn’s contract, even though there’s still 3 years left on it.
That should be a nice payrise and fair play, he’s earned it.