There’s been loads of clamour for us to sign Tyrone Mings and quite rightly so.
He proved a confident, play-out type of defender that we know Dean Smith wants.
He was also vocal on the pitch, which is always important.
While I think at times he seems so relaxed he can be sloppy, which might find him caught out at Premier league level, he’ll improve.
There’s more to it for me though, in that he inspires confidence, with a seemingly never ending smile on his face and most importantly of all, the rapport he has developed with the fans, with his singing with us and even wearing the kit on his arrival home after the play-off victory.
It’s that last part that makes him a player we must sign.
So why haven’t we, yet?
It’s quite simple, really and it’s the fact that we have a matching clause, where if we match any incoming bid, we get him, simple. Well, depending on wages, of course.
And as far as I know, no-one else has bid for him yet.
We have to be clinical and wonder why if he’s that good, there’s been no other offers as yet?
We could go straight in and offer £15 million or so and get it done, but that would be really poor business.
Why do it, when there may be no other offers and we could buy him at the minimal fee that’s probably been set in the agreement (I’ll guess around £8 million)?
Not that it matters.
I’m totally convinced he wants to come to us and we’ll easily match any last minute offer that might come in.
I really wouldn’t expect Mings in before deadline day and suspect he half knows he’s coming to us, whatever happens.
We’re not just buying him for his ability.
We also want him for what he’s added to the positive feeling that we’re currently experiencing.
It’s being suggested that Axel Tuanzebe is going to sign a long term contract for Man Utd and I find it questionable, myself.
Why would he, if, as much as OGS promises to have a look at him and even hints he’ll play him, there’s nothing concrete behind it?
Man U are never going to guarantee that a young lad plays. They can’t afford too.
And I’d rate OGS as one of the favourites for the sack anyway, so his opinion possibly doesn’t count for much.
It’s probably more about trying to get the best price on Man U’s part, combined with the best wages on his agent’s part.
It all depends on Axel himself. He knows he’ll get a start for us, week in, week out.
If he doesn’t come to us, so be it. We move on and no doubt have other targets.
Phillips is a different kettle of fish and it reminds me of the Grealish situation last year.
We apparently seriously want him and it makes sense, as he’s a player I reckon could easily make the step up to the Prem. It’s an area we’re seriously light on too.
Yet, he admirably wants to stay at Leeds. You can’t fault any player for loyalty.
It would seem Leeds are going to offer him a better contract, but I very much doubt they could match the money that we could offer him and it’s the money that talks.
As much as it grates, I really hope he ignores his agent, signs that contract and stays at Leeds for another year, just as Jack did with us.
Then, if he and the team continue to do well, Leeds benefit from a higher sale price, the player gets a better offer and everyone’s a winner.
The difference from the Grealish situation though, is that Phillips is being offered the Premier league now, if we really are in for him.
Which makes it a little tricky.
A guaranteed step up in leagues has to be a tempter.
I think he’ll stay.
Whatever, I’m sure things are going on in the background and while it’s frustrating that not much is happening, things will happen.
I’m pretty sanguine about it all.
Wow, I’m amazed at some of the replies here.
Look, I’m chuffed that we’ve apparently signed Mings.
But I wanted us to sign him at the right price and not be had over a barrel, which it seems we have been.
It was only this time last year we were in very serious trouble and couldn’t pay the taxman!
And what we’re spending now could see us in the same sort of jeopardy if we don’t stay up this season because of FFP.
Yet it seems we’re going to spend the Prem money all in one season.
It’s not fickle. It’s common sense.
We’ve overpaid for players before and where did it get us?
As much as I hope all the optimists are right and we finish top half easily, I think we’re getting ahead of ourselves.
Survive this season and I’ll be happy.
I wonder how much input Dean Smith has had in all this, given that he finds cheap gems and improves them?
The fact that we’re looking at an Egyptian player, with Sawaris on board, concerns me.
Who’s calling the shots?
Hey, if it all goes well, great!
But we should temper things, imo.
Badger the comment about looking at an Egyptian player and our owner being Egyptian is misjudged.
Do any of us on this website have eminent knowledge of Egyptian football? I do believe Liverpool have an Egyptian player, who is rather good from the what I’ve seen. Plus we already have one Egyptian already.
With the infrastructure that has been put in place with Purslow and chief scout (whose name I can’t recall) I do not see some form of owner vanity project. If they have found a good Egyptian player go for it. I don’t care if they find someone from the Sudan, as long as they are good enough. Plus I reckon potential signings from smaller footballing nations may be cheaper than the inflated Premiership, which lots if fans have been harping in about.
Egypt…the Sudan…they will be buying from Small Heath next….OH….
Whats all the FEZ about
Hidden gems El Ghazi, Hause and Jota for a combined fee of c. £17m – that’s not a lot of money in today’s market. Imho he’s already improved the first two and if he can get Jota playing like he did at Brentford where he took us to the cleaners……
We have never been in this position before with two unquestionably mega wealthy owners who are also successful partners in business and in sport. We also appear to have a proper CEO and the beginnings of a new international scouting system.
It’s hard to dismiss the fears that go with our recent experiences but we should embrace the new Villa.
Proud History, Bright Future ….at last
UTV
Yes, that’s fair comment Hitch.
To think I was suggesting just a couple of weeks ago that we probably need to spend the best part of £100 mill to survive.
it’s just that I didn’t see such a large chunk of it being spent on Mings alone and now we’re actually spending it, it just has me a bit concerned!
I still don’t understand what’s gone on here, but I am happy we’ve got him.
Absolutely delighted we have signed Mings and for £20m – £26.5m in today’s inflated prices is a bargain IMO. Well done to our owners for bringing in the players we hoped would be signed.
We can’t whinge about the fee because we knew that if loaned players brought success, then we would have to pay over the odds to keep them. From now on with Purslow and Smith with the backing of our owners we could be the ones loaning out players on the fringes of the first team and making tidy profits later.
Sky are saying we’ve ended our interest in Butland as we’re not prepared to meet their valuation – rumoured to be £25m. Evidence that our owners working with Purslow and Smith are clear on the value to Villa of any player and will not be held to ransom.
On that note, how would Villa fans have reacted if we hadn’t gone all out for Mings after risking £22m on Wesley?
Mings officially announced as a Villa player. Probably the most important signing of the summer recognised by Deano and our owners.
Welcome home Tyrone.
Bring it on.
UTV
That’s a good point. At least with Mings we know what we can expect, whereas Wesley is a bit of an unknown to us.
Read that Mings has signed a three year contract
Sensible. I’m sure there will be an extension on the table if he has a strong first season!
Talk of Tuanzebe coming in on loan again. Might make a lot of sense for both clubs, especially given the money we have already spent.
Then we can go and buy Maupay and Phillips! 🙂
Agreed! I’d be stunned if Webster turned up now. Need to spend the money on a holding midfielder and a proven goalscorer.
If we can get a class GK, a strong holding MF, and a goal-poacher (think of the supply he’ll get!), then we’ve got a damn good team that I believe we’ll be extremely competitive!
UTV!
It’s being reported that we’ve made a £7 million bid for Heaton. Could be an excellent move IMHO.
He’d be easily worth 10 points to us this season and at 33 he’ll have a few good years left in him yet.
It is a sad thing – once when England’s outfield players were second rate we could always say our goalkeepers were top drawer.
Sadly that is no longer true, it probably ended with Seaman. Butland and Heaton aren’t good enough to keep a team in the top half of the Premiership, even though they have recent International caps. Villa, if they want to get a keeper who will earn us points against better teams, will need to look abroad.
Much better value than Butland and arguable a better GK. Should get 5 years out of him. Look how Burnley’s form changed dramatically when he came back in for Harte. Hope we can get him in! I think I’d still prefer Etheridge at 12 million, though…
Agree on Heaton; 33 is OK for a GK and we should get him at a reasonable price. Also allows time for Steer to develop into our No. 1.
Also being suggested that Tuanzebe might be available on loan again – think that would also be a good move.
Definitely need a quality holding mid and another striker – will we keep hold of Hogan?
Sawiris and Edens have injected another £30m of cash into Villa via a further allocation of shares by Recon – only 70% taken up to date so another £11m can be injected at a future date.
Oh Dear we have made a terrible mistake, Newcastle want Steve Bruce, what were we thinking?
🙂 🙂
Hopefully SB can book one of the bottom 3 spots for NUFC in the Premiership.
Not sure what the issue is with spending £25m on Mings in todays market, if Perez can go to Leicester for £30m then Mings is easily worth £50m.
Hope Steve Bruce gets the Newcastle job. I still wish him well despite it not working out with Villa. He did sign McGinn of course! That could mean 4 premier league clubs with managers / coaches who support the club. Lampard is questionable because he was a West Ham fan as a kid but now proclaims to be Chelsea. 🤔
Did anyone else read the article that says we were offered a clause where we could have signed Mings for £17 mill, in the January window?
That still would have been ridiculously expensive, as he was basically testing himself at a Championship club, but with 20-20 hindsight we should have taken it up,
Indicates to me that we thought we’d get him cheaper though.
Heaton for 7m….Maupay for 15m…Phillips for 15m…Tuanzebe on loan….that will do for me!
I like your wish list although I think we will have to pay more than those figures. Tuanzebe on loan only if we can sign him at the end otherwise get someone else.
Holte – agree on Tuanzebe. I like the idea of Hegazi from Albion (they’d hate that) with Mings Hause and Chester as CB’s, bring in Heaton and with both full back positions covered that would give us a more than useful defensive squad – key to survival imho.
Bring in a defensive mid – Phillips – and a striker, although not sure Maupay is the man depends very much on price and the squad looks pretty tasty.
Don’t know anything about Trezeguet; understand he’s a winger and got good reports from the African Cup – the new Salah 🙂 Anyway Smith and Suso went out to Egypt to see him play so must be on the radar.
Exciting times to be a Villa fan once again.
News Flash – according to reports we have made an offer for Trezeguet. It’s also reported he wants to leave his present club for the Prem.
OK new link with reports saying we are in talks with Brentford over their England U21 CB Ezri Kansa for around £10m. Smith brought him to Brentford from Charlton and thinks very highly of him. Also suggested the signing of Jansson paves the way for him to leave (as an aside I thought the Jansson signing was an excellent move by Brentford for £5m)
Konsa deal now being reported by Sky at £12m which triggers a release clause in his contract.
Really don’t know anything about him other than Smith is reputed to rate him very highly. Fits the Purslow / Smith profile.
Does that mean that Tuanzebe is unlikely to come back if we buy Konsa?
That would be a shame but, if Konsa is as good as Smith thinks he is, then it might be the best thing as Konsa will be ours and not just a loanee.
It seems that that Smith is building a squad not just a team and some players may be competing for places. That’s a good thing in my book.
So far, so good 🙂
According to the Sun Konsa is undergoing a medical and should be signed within the next day or so –
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9478977/ezri-konsa-aston-villa-medical-brentford-transfer/
Konsa is young and for the future perhaps and will presumably provide cover at CB. As I said before Smith is building a squad not just a team.
Are anyone else slightly concerned we haven’t got many proven premier league players. I believe Smith has captured the signings most fans would have wanted. For me preferably Smith should bring in experienced names to compliment the exciting young talent we already have. He still might do so but having let go Whelan, Jedinak, Hutton and Elphick, these are the types of players we have to replace albeit a few years younger.
Well we’ve got one proven and very experienced Prem player – our Assistant Manager. I’m sure that JT’s experience and input will be crucial in helping our younger players come to terms with the pace of the game in the Prem.
I don’t think there’s anything overly special in being ‘experienced’, if you’re good enough then you’ll do well. Look at Wolves.