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.
DS looks like you are right about Philogene – according to reports he will be at BH next week.
Can you let me have the winning lottery numbers please 🙂
The money would spoil you Hitch so I’ll keep them to myself😂
LMAO
But seriously – it’s good news to see him back – I reckon there’s some player there and I was gutted when we sold him.
Supposedly Chiesa was first choice last year but he turned us down (for similar to what we paid for Diaby), but he’s available for between 20-25m and wonder if we’re quietly making a play for him now? JPB will be a solid addition but he’s not got CL experience that Diaby does and I can see us going for both – but is JBP ready to fill that hole? Not for me. I can’t help feeling like there’s a few surprises here.
I honestly don’t think that Chiesa is the same player he was before his big injury. I’ve seen him play a few time for Juve last season and he doesn’t seem to have the pace that he once had and it seems that Vlahovic and Yilmaz might be ahead of him in the pecking order which is probably why Juve might want to offload him.
I’d be surprised if Emery is going to be willing pay top dollar for him.
Sky reporting we’re in discussion with Everton for Onana at £50m.
Presumably this is the replacement for Luiz?
Don’t know much about him but it seems he’s attracted interest from a number of clubs.
Just read that Hitch! So we obviously have both the resources and the bandwidth for FFP or whatever the twats call it nowadays…So who’s leaving? Our squad seems to be over the allowed 25, or has that number changed?
Oops! He’s a midfielder!!!
Piece on Brum Live about Onana.
Given its Brum Live’s awful web site it may be a problem to load!
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-set-sign-80m-29536751
What’s interesting is the comment that Onana didn’t suit Dyche’s style of play which is direct often missing out the midfield – Iroegbunam’s not going to get much game time then but he’ll be a cheaper option on the bench 🙂
Interesting run down of Onana’s stats on Lets Talk Villa – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JTw3TgyM0_w
They give him 10/10 and explain where he would fit into the team. Worth a watch
No doubt we’ll now knight Southgate for being a loser,
The Aussies can’t understand us celebrating winning a semi-final as if it’s something special. As they say – you’ve won nothing!
The best thing that come out of this is seeing no more of Southgate as manager. His football is uninspiring, boring and he fails to get the best out of our young talent.
Compare that with Spain!
Southgate is a reactive manager when we needed a proactive manager. Definition of madness is…….. Well we all know that. We have got to the final by luck mostly and as we all expected, we got beat when coming up against a good team. Will he give someone else a chance and step down? We need to hope he will or we might as well not bother with the World Cup.
Spot on Holte
He will step down. But his successor will not only fail to do better, he will do worse. Simply because the only way to do better is to win either the World Cup or the Euros, which is as near to impossible as you can get without it being literally impossible. Southgate did do better that his predecessors, partly because the bar was lower when he arrived. Like it or not, he has raised the bar. Maybe not to where we bystanders demand, but certainly higher than all the managers before him. So good luck to the next lucky loser; you’ll need it.
Having said all of that, if his successor wants a chance of raising the bar further with a tournament win, the first decision he must make is to never pick Mr. H Kane for an England squad ever again. Then he will have half a chance.
As for Mr Bigbollocks Bellingham, I think we can say he failed to rise to the occasion. “Who else?” Well, not you, clearly. Next time, let your feet do the talking, if possible.
Happy holidays.
To add context, we all sympathised with Unai and the Villa boys when they spluttered and limped over the line, totally exhausted before the season’s end. Look at the last few results. Not pleasant reading. So why not afford the England manager the same sympathy? Gary Neville said it looked like Spain had more players. I said the same. Why is that? Because Spain moved the ball and their arses much quicker than England. Why is that? Could it be because the nature of Premier League combined with all the European escapades drains the players mentally and physically by the time a tournament begins?
BFR – understand what you’re saying but England do have the players but Southgate refused to use them.
Spain used their squad; they’re manager was proactive in using substitutes.
One has to wonder why Southgate took so many players and then refused to use them.
Kane was anonymous but is going to share the Golden Boot – what does that say about football? And Bellingham – what is that all about? He neither inspired nor showed any form that suggested his high reputation in European football with Madrid.
Rather a new exciting manager than more of the same.
Awful manager who has held back some of the best players we have ever had we should of won the last 3 tournaments but this out of his depth manager has blown it as for phil foden beyond awful the best player in the Premier league is emi martinez by s country mile
Well I haven’t said much as late but reading your comments like you’ve read my mind , BFR , bang on maté Kane is his maté friend and got away doing nothing, I’ve said in posts before the euros we will not win , Southgate was lucky in many ways, The FA favourite having players that was top of their game and ran with them for years. It was the players that helped him get ? Yes knighted but to me he was a very very lucky man that knew nothing about the beloved game of football. Glad to see him go hope
Man Utd have him at sometime and ruin them .
Let’s talk about a winner for a change.
Congratulations to Emi Martinez for winning another Copa America. What a player! What a man!
Hope that they get him to show his medal off at the first home game.
I hope he did some more willy waving with his trophy!!! 🙂
On the England front, not starting with Gordon, Palmer and Ollie/Toney was unforgivable.
And Bellingham is the most overrated player in the squad. That goal aside, he was the worst player on the pitch. Kane was clearly not fit either. Whoever takes over from Horseface, needs to confront the fact you can’t play with 2 number 10s in Bellingham AND Foden. You have to decide. Make the decision like previous managers filed to with Gerrard and Lampard.
Anyway, who are we signing next???!!! I bloody well wish we’d have spotted Cole before Chel$ea…
I noticed Dendoncker is back training again at BH. We should rename him herpes because he keeps coming back.
Amadou Onana?
£50m?
Having watched Everton a few times last season and obviously I must have missed something?
RSS – the points been made that Dyche’s direct football – missing out the midfield doesn’t suit Onana’s box to box creative qualities. Dyche left him out of the side as a result and no doubt lies behind Everton’s willingness to sell (rather than selling Branthwaite).
Notwithstanding, a number of top EPL clubs were interested in him and he was selected in Equipe’s team of the qualifying games despite Belgiums (overall) poor showing.
I don’t know too much about the fella but he never was a stand out for me at Everton but I suppose Hitch – In Unai we trust?
Wasn’t Herpes a Greek God? 😂
Waiting for Southgate clone Graeme Potter to traipse in at FA HQ (as predicted months ago)…
Shouldn’t Cole Palmer be asking Ollie how to get a move to Villa rather than trying to persuade him to move to Chelsea? I’ll refrain from adding a personal slur.
It seems Villa are prepared to let Diaby go to Saudi for £60m.
That would be a decent piece of business if we have a ‘replacement’ lined up – Nico Williams perhaps? Now that would be a statement although I think unlikely if Barcelona are interested.
As for Cole ‘tapping up’ Watkins – arrogant and disrespectful but what else do you expect from a Citeh / Chelsea trained player?
Diaby, did he ever really cut the mustard? Fits and starts but lacked consistency and imo, struggled with the physicality of the premier league.
I liked him but I agree RSS about his physical shortcomings.
Diaby is a very expensive gamble of the bench. Why not sell for a small or even decent profit and re-invest in a potential starter. Could even have some change left over.
Poor Diaby never stood a chance after his arrival awoke the beast from Jamaica. Agree with previous comments and struggling with physicality of the premier league but he found the goal often enough and certainly played a part last season. Two things come to my mind when I think about this potential move to Saudi. Number 1, you are 25 and just qualified for the champions league under a manager who is up there with some of the best at the moment, surely you are chomping at the bit???
My second thought if Diaby leaves and you are given 60mill, would you buy him back for 60? 50? 40? …..30?? Or are you looking at someone else?
Some players take a while to get used to the physicality of the Prem. I’d keep him. He could be the next Mane or Kante.
Mate I don’t think either make a good comparison…
Mane hit the flor running at Liverpool with 13 goals in 29 appearances.
Kante played 40 games for Leicester in his first season in the prem, winning the title along the way.
Don’t think you could say that either struggled with the demands of the league?
Even the incredible Bergkamp took half a season to acclimatise. De Bryne and Mo Salah were considered rejects before they came back and took us all by storm…
If we sell Diaby, and assuming Emery has the level of control that’s been suggested, then Emery is supporting the sale. Maybe he’s not convinced and learned his lesson from hanging onto Pepe at Arsenal which was a factor in his down fall.
On the other hand (why is there always a counter argument 🙂 ), it’s being reported that Emery was against selling Philogene. Perhaps it was a compromise because of PSR restraints with Emery insisting on a buy back clause supported by a pre-contract agreement signed by Philogene as part of the deal? On that front, it seems that Philogene’s contract includes a release clause linked to appearances – interesting.
Is he good enough to fill Diaby’s vacated seat?
Agree. Drogba turned into a monster after a year.
Bit of a difference physically between Drogba and Diaby!
Anyone seen the kit we are wearing for the walls all game absolute knockout
Have that for the away kit all day
Interesting to see Louie Barry and Dendonker feature on Villa’s friendly at Walsall.