So those of you who have been reading/contributing or whatever for a while will know that I’m not a fan of speculation because 95% of it is typically absolutely rubbish. But at the same time, I know some of you love it and given that I’ve just realised I haven’t written anything for over a fortnight and tomorrow is the start of the transfer window, it seems a good time to start this thread.
As per usual, we’re selling most of the team and buying a whole new premier league for our squad. Hmm.
It does seem though, that if you try and read in between the lines a couple of possible moves might prove to be reality. First is Douglas Luiz to leave at £50 million or whatever. While this is miles lower than the £80-100 million that has been talked about I think this might be a good deal for us.
I haven’t previously wanted him to go, but I now have a sneaky feeling that his agent and him have been trying to engineer a move. I know some have said his form dropped in the last couple of months, but I think it’s more than that. I think there’s been something very strange in his attitude and it was demonstrated by his sudden terrible disciplinary record. I’m going to go so far as to say that was some small form of a protest and demonstrative that he quite simply wants out.
I don’t think it’s a money thing. He wants a new challenge and his agent thinks Juventus is the place. Good. If you want to go that much, clear off. With my blessing. The club is bigger than you. I can’t say I’m particularly interested in Winston McKennie and the other lad coming our way, but we do need numbers in.
Second, is Jhon Duran to Chelsea for £50 million. That’s frankly laughable and half of that would be a good deal. I’m convinced the lad has a serious attitude problem, as much as I believe he actually has a somewhat valid reason for having it. The fact is Emery doesn’t yet deem him to be good enough to outdo Watkins and it’s as simple as that. And if he doesn’t have the patience to listen to the manager he can go. Particularly if he’s giving the manager a problem, which I think he is.
Having had another glance at the news, it appears Chelsea have agreed a £42 million fee. I’m inclined to think he could be a bargain signing for them, but if it isn’t working for him at the Villa, that’s a lovely amount of money in the pot to stave off this PSR rubbish.
Then, there’s Matty Cash. We’ve apparently slapped a £30 million price on his head. Where do these stories come from? I’d take half that if we have a replacement lined up.
And finally (although I’m sure there’s plenty of other stories) there’s Diegos Carlos, who cost us a fortune, given his age. I liked the look of him early on, but wouldn’t miss him now. That said, we need better defenders and I’m not convinced Mings is ever going to get back to where he was. Maybe we might do better keeping Carlos as a back up? No doubt he’s on big wages though, so I’ll trust the club’s judgement on that one.
Anyway, this is just a starting point. I’m sure many of you will be more interested in the speculation and chat about other rumours.
Me, I’m only interested in deals inked, whether in or out.
Romano posted that we’re not pursuing Beier and our prime target remains Felix.
On the Duran story it seems West Ham have walked away from any deal not being able to reach agreement with Villa. It does make one wonder whether Villa have, effectively, blocked his move to West Ham in response to his disrespectful behaviour.
I don’t like the term ‘bomb squad’ but I suspect Duran could find himself training with the ‘kids’. If you behave like one ……..
Rumours / stories are that Felix is holding out for Barcelona. Unless a player is keen to sign then I wouldn’t pursue them. Time to move on if there is any truth that is and get players excited to join Villa and want to play their part in the project.
I don’t think it’s worth the risk with his spiralling career and high wages that would only cause unrest. We could probably get Connor Gallagher and Mateta from Palace for the same total spend!
Fair points Holte; I totally agree that we only want players, like Onana, who are committed to the Emery project.
I suspect Felix will be disappointed as Barcelona seem keen on Williams and I don’t think they have the money for two major signings – plus wouldn’t they have converted his loan signing if they were that keen?
Ramsey is in USA – on latest training gallery photographs but hasn’t yet made an appearance in any preseason games which suggests he’s not fully fit.
WTF!!! Is this an April Fools joke? Even to the claret & blue kit!!!!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oNbjn5Dj76U
No joke. Apparently Emery’s dad and granddad played for Real Union in years gone by but now they’ve fallen on hard times so Emery and his family bought a majority stake. Emery’s brother is the chairman –
https://realunionclub.com/consejo-de-administracion/
The kit looks fabulous doesn’t it? If you look out you might see a few appearing at VP in the months to come.
No joke. Apparently Emery’s dad and granddad played for Real Union in years gone by but now they’ve fallen on hard times so Emery and his family bought a majority stake. Emery’s brother is the chairman –
https://realunionclub.com/consejo-de-administracion/
The kit looks fabulous doesn’t it? If you look out you might see a few appearing at VP in the months to come.
The WSL is no different to the EPL with a cabal of the same teams in the top 4.
Since Villa finished fifth they’ve been systematically ‘stealing’ our best players including two international goalkeepers.
With Luiz’s girlfriend also going to Juventus Villa will be among the also rans once again this season.
Makes me mad.
It seems women in football have as little integrity as the men.
I still can’t believe Diaby has gone to Saudi. What a waste of a career.
Yeh, but think of all the moolah!
As if he wasn’t paid enough at Villa!!!!!
What time do we kick off tonight? Is it on TV anywhere?
Yeh but he wants more! Show me the money! Show me the money!
What was Carlos up to last night? Lack of discipline was embarassing. I wonder if growing his hair out has anything to do with it? Can’t let standards slip! Hope he got a bollocking. And hope we can get an upgrade soon!
Apparently, Conor Gallagher rejected Villa after the clubs agreed a fee back in June. Meanwhile, McInally is on record saying he’s not good enough for ‘my club’. Thoughts? I think he’d have really bolstered the midfield, especially at PL – not sure at CL, as there’s no evidence that he can hack it there.
To be honest I’ve always thought he was very ‘workman’ like, less a player, more a football players labourer?
A ‘water carrier’, as Cantona once (disparagingly) dubbed Deschamps? Looking at his goal at VP last season, there might be a bit more to him; I recall him scoring good goals on loan at Palace, too. Maybe he’s being told to play as a 6, when he’s better as an 8, much like the problem Luiz had before Unai sorted it.
Anyway, this right-back at Juve looks interesting; apparently, Spurs are also after him. No surprise there, then.
He runs around like a headless chicken.
https://www.theguardian.com/football/article/2024/jul/31/unai-emery-aston-villa-squad-younger-team-squad
Good analysis.
Good read. Thanks for the link BFR.
Awful news about Craig Shakespeare. 60 is far too young to go. RIP.
Very sad RIP
Oh, really??? :(((
According to a number of reports we’ve reached agreement with Chelsea for Lukaku but he wants to link up with Conte at Napoli.
Not sure what to make of this – assuming it’s true that is?
It’s also been reported we reached agreement for Gallagher in June but he didn’t want to move to Villa.
We only want players committed to the club – no matter how good they are.
Like the way Onana was decisive. Fully agree.
At 31 years old, no thank you. Doubt it’s true anyway, looking at Villa’s apparent transfer policy this summer.
It’s just what the sporting media do. Puff up a plausible story about a player and a club and then, when it becomes clear that he might be going elsewhere, create another BS story about him turning down the club.
Anyway I can’t see Emery swapping a 20 year old for a 31 year old besides which Lukaku hasn’t exactly been knocking in too many goals lately, has he.
Strange how everyone seems to be ‘rejecting’ Villa recently. Lying media wankers.
I completely agree that reshaping the squad is with an eye on sustainability. Notwithstanding it’s sensible to sprinkle a few more experienced players within it.
For me Lukaku is not one I’d like to see at VP – another ego we don’t need.
If you haven’t seen the kit launch in Times Square – take a look at the photographs on the OS.
Heck and our owners are not messing about when it comes to globalising the brand!
UTMV
It’s extremely impressive, Hitch. 👏👏👏 👌👌👌
If Emery didn’t already know it then the results in USA must have conclusively demonstrated that we need another top class striker.
I hate seeing Villa lose – even in a friendly – but not scoring goals without Watkins is a real concern.
Surely another proven striker must be the main priority this month?
Hitch, it’s not that. How many goals and assists have gone with Luiz’s and Diaby’s departures? I daren’t look at the numbers. Unless those goal contributions are replaced, there may be troubles (and disappointments) ahead. Even Ollie needs someone to set him up. Can anyone in this squad produce defence splitting passes like the ones Dougie played at Arsenal and Brammal Lane? That’s a massive, elite level attacking weapon lost. It will show. Unless the club replace it. I wait on earnest…
*in earnest
I see that West Ham are close to signing Fullkrug so I wonder how Duran is feeling now? I wonder if he’ll be the founding (and only) member of a new Bomb Squad?
Personally, I’d like him to see him gone ASAP.
Me too.
Looks like Wolves have found a gem in Gomes – scoring for fun in pre-season.
Weston McKennie in the Juve bomb squad…We dodged a bullet there.
Some interesting comments by Emery on Duran,
I get the impression that Emery respects his talent and recognises that he needs to work very closely with him both as a coach and as a mentor. Duran is clearly immature and is probably being badly advised.
Standing back, putting emotion to one side, and trying to be objective I think Emery is implying that all these recent problems with his behaviour is because he’s away from his (Emery’s) guiding hand whilst with Columbia.
Duran’s behaviour over the West Spam farrago possibly means he stays with Villa which may prove to be a good thing.
The question is – if Duran stays do we still need another proven striker / playmaker to replace Diaby and can we afford the quality of player we should ideally be looking for?
I’m concerned the turnaround of playing staff, which looks by no means complete, will result in a slow and inconsistent start to the season. Any thoughts?
It’s hard to draw a conclusion BFR although I agree that it seems there will be more transfer activity before the end of August. It’s going to be tough to bring the number of changes together for the beginning of the season but if anyone can do it then Emery can.
Notwithstanding, we can recover from a slow EPL start but we need to be on the ball for the CL when it starts (for us) in September (I think that’s correct)’
Emery hasn’t yet put out his first eleven in any half in any of the warm up games. The three teams we played in USA were all top sides, two of which are in the middle of their seasons. Add to that we were missing Watkins, Konsa, Martinez ……. and Duran so we played all games without a recognised central striker.
I don’t think I’m grasping at straws but will be interested to see how we do in the next two – again against two top teams.
I would rather we played teams of the quality we expect to meet in the CL in pre-season rather than lesser quality teams to produce ‘easy’ wins.
I’m not too worried about the three defeats in America. Emery didn’t play his first eleven with Watkins, Konsa and Martinez not available. The biggest issue is getting these key players up and ready with only two more friendlies to come. One thing that really worries me is if any of them get an injury because we simply don’t have any cover for them.
The issue of Duran needs to be addressed immediately as we can’t have another bomb squad forming. I would flog him for any profit although it seems the hierarchy are playing the waiting game to maximise a sale. The blokes a numpty and there’s no way back for him at Villa IMO.
It’s interesting to see how varied everyone is forecasting our league position. I’ve seen anything from 3rd to 9th! I’m going to make a prediction which could change if there are quality incomings. I reckon 7th and that’s based on results since January and not just the friendlies.
We have to finish 4th again, Holte. That has to be the minimum target.
What would the team at West Ham be, as things stand?
Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Pau, Maatsen, Onana, McGinn, Tielemans, Bailey, Watkins…that’s 10. The big question is who replaces Diaby? Will be be Philogene or Buendia? Is Buendia ready? Or will it be Felix? There’s a gaping creative hole in the team and if it isn’t filled, there will be problems. We trust that things are in motion…
On that point Atletico have just shelled out over £80 million on Alvarez and have agreed a fee to buy Gallagher from Chelsea having already bought Sorloth and Le Normand. They may sell their young striker Samu but will only recoup around £30 million so it seems very probable that Felix is going to be sold to someone fairly soon.
I don’t believe the question is whether Felix will be sold, more would he come to Villa if the two clubs agreed a deal.
Athletico want a sale and Felix wants Barcelona – they’re mutually exclusive as Barcelona can’t afford to buy him – but, then again, Villa are reported as wanting a loan to buy deal.
On balance I don’t think he’s coming to Villa so I hope they have a top quality alternative lined up as we do need to replace Diaby.
All complicated further by the behaviour of Duran and, I suspect, his agent.
Good grief. I’ve forgotten Ramsey and Rogers! There’s a bit of depth there if everyone’s fit. If.
Barkley can also play the 10 role. Still think we need the jewel in the crown to tale us to the next level though…
Oooooor. Will it be Grealish??
No, imo. No way.
He’s not what we need, imo.
He can split defences with his vision though, Badger. Due to his age now, could he adapt his game and play ‘in the hole’ with less running at people from the left and more guile in picking out the strikers for assists? I can imagine his heat map would be very condensed on that basis, which could mitigate injuries and maximise effect. I think he could; he has more than enough footballing intelligence to do that. And that is what we need. It would also save a few bob in the short term on a blockbuster signing who could do that job.
Personally, I think it would be fitting for him to come back to a stronger Villa than he left and complete in the CL; his experience of that would also be valuable. I wouldn’t be against it if he came to play behind the striker(s) (not on the left, as we’re well-stocked there). All’s forgiven!
*compete
Jack’s only 28, btw. Plenty to offer and a point to prove? Not to mention, removing the leash that Pep’s tied to his arse for the last 3 years might just relaunch his status as one of the PL’s best, at a top 4 club, might I add…
If you mean top 4 nightclub, I’ll go along with it.
He hardly plays because while he’s great in the dressing room and popular with the other players, he’s terrible for discipline and Pep doesn’t like that.
I don’t think for one minute Emery would either.
My money says we’re not interested and he won’t be coming.
Dobbin to Albion on season long loan.
Now there’s a surprise! 🙂