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.
So EUFA in their wisdom appoint a referee – who was banned for 6 months for accepting a bribe – for the semi final with the Netherlands. Further there is history between him and Bellingham which resulted in Bellingham receiving a large fine.
It makes one wonder?
This can’t end well!
In other rumoured news – Spuds are reported as still being interested in Ramsey with a Lo Celso. Plus cash deal.
It seems Lo Celsi worked under Emery at PSG and Villareal.
Now every player has his price and Emery might fancy this deal if Spuds put up enough cash – after all PSR rule rule – don’t they?
I could actually see this deal happening if Levy grows longer arms or buys trousers with shallower pockets 🙂
Tell Levy to get stretched…
£4om plus Lo Celso might be accepted but for me we would be weakening our squad and improving a rival. Unless we spend the £40m on a player with the same strengths as Ramsey then I wouldn’t even contemplate a deal. We are not a selling club and selling Dougie has already weakened our squad. We have met the PSR / FFP criteria so why would we?
Very minded to agree Holte.
But I also partly agree with Hitch too. Yes, we seem to have alleviated our PSR concerns for this year, but we’ll probably have similar next year, especially if we spend a few bob on a couple of decent players, as we all expect.
I very much think that Ramsey’s own opinion would be sought, where it boils down to the bright lights of London and the media’s lovechild or the champion’s league.
From a footballer’s pov, it’s a no brainer, but a lot would depend on his advisors and how level-headed he is.
As for Luiz, he obviously wanted out, imo and any player who isn’t satisfied with the club’s current position of being in the CL can clear off, with my blessing.
Duran included.
Philogene to Everton for rumoured £16m which we presumably can’t match because of the Hull promotion caveat.
I’m convinced Philogene is another PSR casualty – the EPL need to get real about these stupid rules.
Romano saying Villa / West Ham have all but agreed a deal for Duran – £35m plus 10% sell on clause – not their first offer.
Don’t think Emery fancies him despite his potential – too much of a liability and McGinns comments suggest chaotic. I wonder whether he’s actually manageable and in London – who knows?
Will always remember his goal against Palace and the two against Liverpool though.
If rumours are to be believed we seem to be open to selling players of quality whereas we need to shift players like Dendonker and Chambers! Hope Emery and Monchi know what they’re doing!
Was just about to post the same Hitch.
It’s great business, imo, particularly given my personal thoughts about him being close to being a troublemaker.
So much for him being a Chelsea fan, it seems.
And good luck with qualifying for the CL this season, not (they won’t, imo).
But, yes, they might have got a bargain and he’ll surely have a good chance of starting if they sell Antonio and Ings is the only competition (!)
https://x.com/FabrizioRomano/status/1810643052727287932
He will get 20 league goals. Comfortably.
I am in the in Emery I trust brigade. I really would be disappointed if we sell Ramsey, as I believe he will be a truly international class player.
I did watch a Villa YouTube recently on Villa in the Champions league. I believe that a team can have 25 player squad. However, 4 must be home grown. Currently in the 1st team squad only Ramsey is a regular. Thereafter Kesler Hayden is the only home grown player to have played in the premier. This means we forfeit 3-4 players. Thereafter, we have enough players in the next categories.
My concern is like last season running out of steam, due to limited options. If Ramsey goes we could only have 21 player squad. I understand why these players have had to be sold, but it is reducing our champions league squad: A Ramsey, Philogene, Iroegbunam, Kellyman & Chukwuemeka and assume Archie is off again.
Sid, I don’t think anyone would want to sell Ramsey, including Emery.
But it’s more about the club having no choice, given these ridiculous rules.
And in that sense, it’s more down to “do you trust the hierarchy?”
Fwiw, I do.
And as much as I think he’s a great manager, Emery won’t be making this sort of decision and it’s down to the bean counters.
Is that Monchi or NSWE?
Who knows, but it’s higher than Emery’s pay grade, imo.
We’re a business now, more than a football club, after all, aren’t we?
As much as it hurts me to say it 🙂
Exactly my previous point Badger.
Our academy products are our most valuable assets until Heck can drive our revenue to a point where it becomes less so. As important is qualifying for Europe on a regular basis – two seasons isn’t anywhere near enough – even if it’s the Europe League or Conference.
Liverpool sold Coutinho to fund acquisitions which turned out to be a master stroke so it’s not just us and £50m for Ramsey (considering he hardly kicked a ball last season) would be a good deal; now we’re OK on PSR no need for NSWE to give in to Levy’s miserly tactics 🙂
I totally agree Hitch.
But there’s the rub, imo.
Villa will never be able to drive our revenue to levels where we can compete at the top.
For that, you need to seriously invest in a new ground and basically a shopping/leisure centre like Spurs have.
Watch Everton’s revenue rocket once they open their new ground.
No, strike that. It’s a whole new money-spinning district.
If we truly want to compete, we need to steal a march on the likes of Man U and Newcastle, imo.
But we won’t, as our tradition, albeit a good thing, is so strong.
Basically, Heck messing around at the edges will never achieve what the club needs.
I think Ramsey’s value has dropped because of injury and limited games last season. If he gets back to where he was under Emery in the second half of the previous season, we could see a player going closer to £100m! Yes I really think he has the potential to become that value. £50m which would probably end up £25m plus Lo Celso who I don’t rate and hardly figured at Spurs until injuries. Trust me in saying that we will end up with egg on our face when Spurs finish above us, helped by Ramsey’s goals and contributions.
And Ramsey might prove to be an injury prone flop.
That’s the thing, isn’t it Holte? You’re selling/buying potential, more than ever was the case before.
And if you think about it, it’s obvious why.
The ultimate top prices for players has become totally unsustainable and if it carrys on, we’ll be looking at the first £1billion pound player.
We, as fans have known the game/prices have been crazy for ages.
It seems finally, the clubs are starting to see it too.
Spurs might sign Ramsey and he could get injured. We might get Lo Celso in part exchange and he gets injured too. I don’t think Ramsey is injury prone. He fractured a bone in his foot (thanks England U21’s) and came back too quickly.
I think Emery rates Ramsey highly FWIW. I reckon Maatsen and Ramsey could form a formidable left side pairing. We don’t need to sell him and it would alienate our fan base if they see another one of our own who isn’t pushing for a move going to a rival top 6 club!
Ramsey is neither injury prone nor ‘potential’. He is top line, homegrown, proven PL talent, who could play for Real Madrid in a few years IF his injury issues of last season are behind him. He is unplayable when in form and has nowhere near reached his peak. Someone on here has stated in the past that he is far better than Grealish at the same age. That is 100% accurate.
Of course the Ramsey – Spuds rumours could be a large bag of bo**ocks!
Just to make it clear I don’t want us to sell him to a rival.
I’m trying to reconcile why I’m saying what I’m saying, as it goes against everything I’ve thought until now 🙁
And I think the answer is that when we weren’t competing at the highest level, I very much wanted us to retain our traditions as an honourable club, which is how I believe we’re still known.
Now though, my belief is that if we want to truly compete with those at the top, we need to do what the others do and go balls out for the money.
And no, that doesn’t make me happy, in the slightest 🙁
And fwiw, I think rebuilding the North stand has been knocked back because the club want to build a new grounnd.
Would that be a bad thing?
Chris Heck said we won’t be moving from Villa Park in his lifetime. We should have taken the hit of reducing capacity for a couple of years to get 50,000. It stinks of backtracking on the Purslow project because it wasn’t his idea. Maybe a bit babyish in attitude me thinks.
Badger – some very interesting thoughts in your last two posts.
Particularly the conflict for older (longer supporting?) Villa fans between what we hold dear about our club – family, traditional, morally good and, in some ways, naive in a nod to the ‘flat cap’ traditions of the game and the financially driven necessity of Villa being (once again) at the forefront of the top European clubs.
What exactly do we want? Keep with the traditions which include staying at VP or embracing the future reality which may include a brand new stadium!
I don’t know honestly how to answer that – maybe I want both but that’s unrealistic.
I remember Bill saying, on numerous occasions, that he feared he would not see a successful Villa again in his lifetime. NSWE principally, with Emery latterly, have offered the vision of a Villa winning trophies and competing at the very top, not as a ‘once off’ but, for a sustainable period.
Having supported Villa for over 60 years during which, apart from some notable (1982 et at) occasions, have been years of unfulfilled promises and desperate disappointment I for one want to see Villa at the top in Europe for how many years I have left to watch them play.
I’m going to call Alfie in, for his thoughts on this, as a young lad.
I suspect I know what he’s going to say, but let’s see.
From reading these comments, I believe that what I’m about to say is also the thoughts of everyone who’s contributed, and that’s that by no means have the last 3 years been “successful” in overall football terms. Maybe in comparison to where we was, yes, but to be called successful you need at least one hint of silverware to show for it, some may disagree, though.
I agree that we need money to drive closer to the goal, which in my opinion is consistent Champions League finishes, with a few domestic trophies. I’d go further, but I think Arsenal, Man City and Chelsea will be virtually unstoppable in three years time, and in all fairness to Arsenal they have been the least money-driven of the three, which is why I like them and if they were to win the Premiership I’d see it as an extremely credible achievement.
In relation to the Villa again, do I think that we need to move from Villa Park? No.
Do I want us to move from Villa Park? No. That’s because 1) it’d be on the other side of town from me, that’s a guarantee. 2) our stadium has a fairly high capacity and is one of the traditional stadiums that is backed up with decent numbers. I’m not a “tradition merchant” by any means, but I love VP.
We need to increase our seat numbers, though. We should be aiming to turn the North Stand into something more like 10,000+ seats, as opposed to the current 6,000 odd. And we might need to join the corners up, which pains me to say but it can increase seat numbers by thousands if all was joined up, and it doesnt exactly look bad in the Holte / Trinity.
That’s just my thoughts. I don’t think any of that is without reason. It’s up to the fans to fix the atmosphere, which slacks at home apart from big games, which is a shame. I know it’s slacking because I’m finding myself checking for every away game there is now because I need that non-stop buzz of atmosphere. Managed to get to 2/5 in the last 5 games, which isn’t bad for a ST holder with no away game reference. Long story short: it’s not just the stadium itself, it’s the atmosphere inside of it too. And do we further sacrifice that by taking a hint of traditionalism out of the stadium by modernising it? That’s up to the club. I think it’s worth it, fans create atmosphere.
UTV
A very reasoned reply, Alfie.
Tbf, I’ve often criticised the atmosphere at VP, but can’t think of why it is. Certainly for top games it’s amongst the very best of anywhere.
I’ve often cited Villa’s constant under-achievement and lack of expectation as the reason. The old Tommy Docherty line of “put 11 shirts on a washing line and you’ll get 40,000 fans” doesn’t quite apply, but it’s still not far off.
That said, it’s quite different at the moment and I’m sure we’d fill a 60k stadium, no danger, atm.
The trouble is, if you expand the stadium, do you risk copying Arsenal’s recipe of turning Highbury the library (loved that ground in the 70’s, fwiw) into another Emirates, which also known for it’s poor vocal support?
Alfie – good balanced response.
I’m actually against relocating from VP – it’s an iconic stadium and if, as you suggest, we could massage the capacity to between 50 and 55,00 or thereabouts then that’s more than sufficient.
Stadium atmosphere is the vital ingredient not seat receipts. The reality is that the major revenue comes from TV money, playing in Europe, prize money (finishing as high as possible in the EPL), merchandising (global reach) and sponsorships. An extra few thousand seats adds very little in real terms. Therefore spending £100’s of millions on a new stadium seems pointless.
If Heck is to be believed he thinks along similar lines and will, I suspect, look to squeeze extra seats out of the stadium.
A separate issue is the problem with the concourses – particularly in the North Stand but not forgetting the Holte. How the club deal with these challenges without losing substantial seating – and potentially atmosphere – over one (or more) seasons will be interesting.
At least we talking about positive rather than negative challenges.
UTMV
There is always the added bonus of the rail seats, which should help re the atmosphere.
Enforcing seating was the biggest atmosphere killer, but enforcing a no smoking and drinking ban, while probably admirable and necessary, were also contributors, for me.
Prisoners are probably allowed to do more than fans in grounds!
Apparently, Villa have matched an £18 mill bid for Philogene-Bidace.
It’s obviously to do with homegrowns (good shout Sid).
A hefty £13 mill cost to the club, but worth it, I think.
Will he chose Villa though. It seems he has three options – Ipswich, Everton or Villa.
If I was him, probably not, as he won’t play many games.
But was he settled here and does he want to come home?
Ipswich will most likely go straight back down, lots of playing time.
Everton will probably scrape through again. Pretty good playing time there too.
Villa? He’ll be an outlier, which means it probably boils down to the money, imo.
Probably Everton then, at a guess.
So Man U have lost £71 mill this season, but their Adidas sponsorship will be £900 million over 10 years. These figures really are crazy.
Makes y wonder what ‘favours’ the Glazers are doing in return for the Adidas empire? It’s all horse trading.
It looks like basically the same team from England.
No Konsa.
I can’t stand the bloke, but it looks like he’s going to be knighted whatever happens.
Just wow.
Coutinho season long loan to Vasco de Gama. Assume a loan fee and they pick up a % of his wages.
Probably about 20 % of his wages, sadly.
A total disaster signing, by his friend, the clown.
If you look at the most recent dictionary definition of ‘Leech’, Coutinho is used as an example.