So it appears Aston Villa were under some kind of “soft” embargo, after the clubs recent meeting with the EFL.
I’m guessing that meant that we couldn’t sign anyone without certain assurances or guarantees.
It’s quite rightly pointed out that if you miss a transfer payment, your’re automatically embargoed and I’d say these issues have now been sorted out, because the official line from the EFL is;
“The EFL can further confirm that the Club is not subject to a registration embargo.”
This is great news and surely means that we should see players coming in.
It’s a shame it’s so late in the day, but it seems we’re going to employ Jorge Mendes to gain access to his pool of talented young players.
I’m not sure what to think about that, as it seems a bit hypocritical of the club, given that we recently complained about Wolves using the super-agent.
But there’s no doubt Wolves got some great players via Mendes and I guess it’s a case of “if you can’t beat them, join them”.
We’ve probably teamed up with Mendes because of his access to decent players at short notice and it’s a case of needs must.
But it’ll be interesting to see what the players cost.
Happy days?
The issue with Mendes and Wolves was his business relationship with Wolves owners (who have a significant investment in his agency) and his role in ‘advising’ the club which taken together was felt (by a number of clubs) to breach the EFL’s rule that agents shouldn’t have undue influence within a club.
On that basis, and given as far as I know, that Villa’s is an arms length arrangement I don’t see it as being hypocritical of the club – just good business sense.
Ah, ok Hitch, I stand corrected. Cheers 🙂
I’m probably going to sound stupid but I would imagine that Mendes and Wolves worked well because of Nuno Santo. Very much doubt that the same effect would happen with Bruce as manager. Does it mean the hands on role of signing players has been taken out of Bruce’s hands? Bruce likes players with an understanding of the English game, preferably championship football. It will be interesting to see how he fits Mendes’ round pegs into his square holes.
bruce will never get any recognition or praise if he succeeds with villa. last season good dressing room was all down to terry. wrong bruce identified villa weakness in the dressing room and badgered terry to come. knowing he was a great player and leader of men, that and he could take the instructions onto the field. if a player like green scores a beautiful goal or two playing out of position its great play from green, but if he has a bad game its all bruces fault for playing him out of position, wrong again. bruce or the coaches have seen this lad whack in goals around the box and outside, they realised he should be there more, if you watch green now from corners hes lurking just outside the box for such balls to drop around him. he took the 1st goal in germany without a thought. he was alive to the opportunity, he has been coached well. because the ball he hit would have flown in row z had most other players hit it. technically perfect and its no fluke seen a few of his just carbon copies of that
bruce will be trying to recruit players his squad are lacking now. he will try to bring in the right characters, but with limited time its a big ask. i reckon he will have the last say on signings but i agree with who ever said this other day. we will be going down the coach way and a sporting director type doing the recruiting like the wolves done and most europe do
i am really hopeful this season. we are not gonna be fancied by anybody but ourselves, which will work in our favour. if we can get a defender and striker i would fancy auto promotion. with grealish and green hayes our midfield will have lots of ideas this term.
if they play the 3 at back i would like hayes to be the deepest mid because he has such a great range of passing. players like green and grealish wouldnt need to drop so deep to collect the ball
so give bruce a chance he wont be here long / i did vote to sack or get rid off but hes here and we need harmony so support him or the team
From what I’ve read, Mendes and the scouts will put the names forward, but Bruce will have the final say.
Which is exactly how I believe it should be.
It’s all well and good saying a coach has to work with what he’s given, but Bruce isn’t just a coach.
He’s a good man-manager that has revitalised the dressing room; a point that shouldn’t be missed and indeed hasn’t by many commenters on various sites.
But at the same time, it means he’ll fall out with the odd player.
RM is a classic example of that.
And Bruce should be allowed to man-manage as he sees fit, imo.
I’d put money it’s one of his conditions for continuing in the job.
Mendes is symptomatic of all that is wrong with the game, leading to the obscene amounts changing hands for one bloke that can kick a ball better than another bloke. And this is all because it suits our historic club at this moment in time because we suddenly appear to have a few quid. And we’re suddenly happy with that? Sorry Badger, but I’d rather stay in the Championship than sell my soul to compete with the other 10 or so clubs doing the same. This is f*****g bullshit.
Football fans fickle? Seems like O’Leary was spot on.
Fwiw, I agree with you Bum Bum.
It’s why I put the question mark in the “happy days?” reply.
Yes, it’s fickle, but what can you do?
If you want to compete, you have to play the same game.
I don’t like it one bit, but I don’t want to stay in the Championship for donkey’s years either.
There were a few rumours flying around about Woods from Brentford today. Think they were prob fake but what a signing he would be!
If we can now go out and buy I would love to see us sign him, although a centre back and left back would be my priority if I were SB.
At least we dont have an embargo lol
MOMS have said that’s definitely fake news particularly at the suggested price of £3m which, in their words, is laughable.
IF Villa are going to sell JG to Spuds at a price north of £25m then they have to get in a top midfielder to replace him. I suppose Woods might be on the radar under those circumstances but at significantly more than £3m.
Villa can use the January transfer window to sort out any FFP issues although they risk getting hardballed on the price of any players being sold in January. On balance I don’t see JG going in this window but possibly in January particularly if we aren’t in with a good chance of promotion …… but then again every player has their price.
I concur Hitch.
It wouldn’t surprise me, if indeed the “Jack wants to go” stories are true, that he’s more likely to go in the winter.
While it could work against us, it could also work for us, with players costing more in the winter.
Personally, I’d be happy if Jack came out with a “we’re going for it” type of tweet to give us some encouragement.
The fact that he hasn’t tells me things are still up in the air, but I still firmly believe he’ll be here come the close of this window.
Gossip is that Bruce is trying to sign West Ham’s striker Jordan Hugill and Wigan midfielder Nick Powell apparently to show the new owners that he can buy good players without using a super-agent.
Also hearing that Woodburn might be going to Sheffield Utd and not the Villa. This actually might be good news as it might mean that Jack is staying.
Anyway it’s all just talk, isn’t it? I think I’ll wait until I see a picture of a player holding a Villa shirt with his name on it before I believe anything.
Happy as pig in shit, could be the beer, good news that even the sun is shining now I say don’t worry they’ve been working behind our backs and players on the way.
Not really happy with Mendez to be honest. Think we are making ourselves look desperate and a bit of an embarrasment considering last seasons jealous complaints. Id much rather let Bruce pick his targets and be the only one that has a say on who he wants in and out. We will just have to see what materialises. Anyway ive raved about Green since start of last season and it was such a shame he and Grealish were injured as that could have been the points difference we needed for automatic. he looks very determined this season which is great news. I think we should be in for another exciting season. Love for us to get Snodgrass back and another solid CB and we are good to go! UtV
Forest also using Mendes and appear to have signed a couple of decent players through his agency. I’m in Bum Bum’s camp in that I dislike the agency intrusion into football and the amount of money they cream off but it is what it is and, rather like the loan system, to ignore it on a principle sadly puts the club at a disadvantage.
As long as Bruce has the final say and the owners respect that then I’m content to accept it as a positive …. for now.
See that since the embargo has been lifted the transfer rumour mill for Villa has gone viral! Given our striker problem (after spending about £30m on them that is!!) wouldn’t mind Tammy Abraham’s or Hugill on loan.
Totally agree with Bum Bums comments about agents and the sorry amounts of money spent on average players to try and get in the premier league and push forward to reach that illusive 7th place. Personally I wouldn’t mind if top six had a European breakaway super league so normality could resume. The champions league is almost there anyway. I have enjoyed the last two seasons more than I thought I would. Maybe it’s the connection between players and fans seems more genuine. The wages are still too high but not quite as obscene as premier league. I actually think FFP is a good thing because the principal behind it is clubs operating within their means, preventing clubs going out of business. Pity premier league clubs can cheat their way round it and widen the gap between the two leagues. Regarding transfer news, I would be happy if window was shut now if it meant keeping Jack. I think we have a squad already that can do well.
I really feel that JT has unfinished business and can see him back in a Villa shirt. I got the impression he really gelled with the lads in the dressing room, and I for one hope that he’s convinced to come back for another try.
Actually, that’s a decent shout Johnny.
It’s all about the money, isn’t it?
Interesting point TJ and it wouldn’t surprise me if the owners were up for a ‘marquee’ announcement on the final day of the window. Lots of rumours about JT going to Derby, then retiring and joining Sky – he denied the latter and it’s all gone quiet on the former.
The scary bit is that they may see him as a replacement for Bruce – eat your heart out Henry LOL
Not that scary Hitch.
I’d take Terry over Henry all day.
At least he knows the league!
True Badger, true
There is a rumour that JT spotted at Marseille training ground!
Reported on Sky
Just read the same. I still hope he comes back – he was a great influence for the team.
Latest rumour is that we’re in for a loan deal for Andre Grey at Watford – link is he’s in Mendes stable and not sure of game time at Watford.
Could be a 2+2 = a lot more than 4 – on the other hand…..?
Andre = Andy?
Omens and all that, 🙂
We have had two Andy Grays in my memory. Andre Grey is close enough to make it an omen. Plus it will be a commentator headache if Andre Green is playing as well.
There can be only one, Holte 😉
Sign him up!
There were 2 – they were average grey because one was white and one was black.
I wonder if Grey does join us if we’ll be hearing them singing ‘Andre, Andre in the air, in the air, in the air’.
As far as I remember it was first sung for the great Andy Lochhead and then resurrected for Andy Gray.
Fingers crossed that the Holte have something to sing about this season.
I had a strange thought occur to me today. If we had got promotion last year, Xia would not have had to find new investment. The fact that we didn’t, and the subsequent involvement of Sawiris and Eden, may be a blessing. If we can manage to get up this season we will be much stronger financially and can hopefully capitalise in a way that maybe Xia couldn’t have done.
Apologies if that point has been made on here before.
Clouds and silver linings DS
I think we have lots of transfer activity still to be finalised, with some exciting prospects inwards. I know it appears strange for our new billionaire owners to sell their prised asset, but I can still see Jack going on transfer deadline day, which will be a shame but one player never made a club 🙂
i don’t want to be a killjoy, but if we don’t have grealish we wont be going up this season thats almost certain for the way i see it. don’t be fooled into thinking no man is bigger than the club, or hes just one man. he has been the difference last season, before he returned from injury, we were pants no ideas in games. before that the semi final against pool, he was the difference that day too. he is class and defiantly better than anything else in championship. why do you think hes being chopped down in every game.
we have a good chance again this season but jack has to stay. if i were bruce i would tie the kid up until the window shuts. reassess the options at january window. if we are not in the running for promotion then sell him. but without him i cant see how this squad, can have any hopes of promotion.
I agree Nath. Moreover it is a test of the new owners mettle, and political savvy. You do not buy a club and sell their talisman unless he is old and over the hill. Selling a young star when you are allegedly rich enough not to – is daft. it alienates the fans from day 1.