Because it’s currently the factory summer shutdown, I’m up to my proverbials in work at the moment.
This means I really don’t have much time to look at what’s been going on down the Villa.
Even when I look in on here, it’s only been cursory glances at what people are saying, so short is my time.
It’s a hard life, isn’t it?
Whatever, I’ve noticed a fair bit of doom and gloom on here, of late when it comes to our transfer dealings and find myself wondering WHY?
Ok, losing Benteke and Delph, were for me, major blows. I’ve stated my case on both of those players and simply put, they are major losses; there’s no getting away from it.
I’m also on record as saying I wish Benteke all the best.
As opposed to Delph.
I’m not really a bitter person, but did I really read that he might be out for a year, because he’s done his Cruciate? If so, Karma springs to mind, but it also strikes me that it’s a good reason as to why he wouldn’t have got a game at Citeh anyway.
Vlaar’s crocked too, but never mind, he’ll walk into a “better” club, won’t he? Two hopes, in my opinion.
Is that a bit of the wizard that is Sherwood at play, I wonder, as in “leave the mighty Villa and see what you get” type of thing?
Probably not, but I’m afraid I do have to smile sometimes.
Anyway, going back to it, let’s see what’s happened up to now, with Adam’s listed deals;
Season 2015/16:
IN:
Scott Sinclair (Man. City) £2.5 million
Micah Richards (Man. City) Free
Mark Bunn (Norwich) Free
Idrissa Gueye (Lille) Undisclosed (£9 million)
Jordan Amavi (Nice) £8 million
Jose Angel Crespo (Cordoba CF) £750,000
Ayew = £10 million
Total: £30.25 million
OUT:
Darren Bent (Derby) Released
Enda Stevens (Portsmouth) Released
Graham Burke (Notts County) Released
Andi Weimann (Derby) £2.75 million
Yacouba Sylla (Rennes) £1.05 million
Mathew Lowton (Burnley) Undisclosed (£1 million)
Nicklas Helenius (Aalborg BK) Free
Antonio Luna (Eibar) Free
Shay Given (Stoke) Free
Fabian Delph (Manchester City) £8 million
Christian Benteke (Liverpool) £32.5 million
Total: £45.3 million
Apart from the last two and Weimann, who I think was a mistake, I can’t see much wrong with any of those who have left, leaving.
Indeed, there’s plenty more who should go, but that’s by the by.
More important, is who’s come in.
While we know what Sinclair and Richards have in their locker on a good day, Bunn and Crespo are most likely just back-up.
We don’t really know about Gueye and Amavi though, but they’re highly rated, with Amavi in particular being seen as a bit of a coup signing.
So where do I see us going in the next couple of weeks?
I don’t have a clue, but one thing’s for sure and that is NO-ONE had a clue about Crespo.
Hence I have plenty of reason to think that we’re looking at players that no-one has a clue about too.
According to Adam’s figures, we’re still about £15 mill in profit with our deals up to now, although there are sell-on clauses, which might reduce it to say, £8 mill
Add in the (miserly, in my opinion, but usual) £15 million that Lerner might throw in and that’s possibly a tasty £25ish mill still to spend. Enough to buy another three players at around £7 mill, plus wages, at a push.
Don’t spread it about though, as the selling clubs will only jack the price up.
I know some of us might be worried in that we seem to be leaving it a bit late, because the squad needs time to gel, but the way I see it, is deals are incredibly difficult to agree these days.
It isn’t like the old days, where a verbal deal, coupled with a brown paper bag and a nudge and a wink, was good enough.
My point is, I think we’ll get at least another three players in before the window shuts.
I think business up to now, albeit slower than I’d like, has been ok.
What do you think?
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keep them coming sherwood and show the door to
guzan hutton sendross baker bennet sissko cole gardnertonev richardson zog
Badger – you missed Ayew at circa £10m but your £12m in profit is correct (including the Ayew deal) although I think we have to pay Genk around £4m which reduces the headroom to around £8m. Lerner has habitually spent between £12 & £15m in the window so would still leave around £20m in the kitty. Adebayor and Cambiasso (loan/free) and we can still get two more decent players. I also think a two or three more will go possibly Baker, Cole and Tonev.
H60, I realised I messed up with the figures, so had another look at them.
I’ve revised them and probably have still messed them up.
Long shifts and lack of sleep; apologies.
Still, we have money to spend and we aren’t finished yet, imo, is the point.
I’m encouraged and whatever happens, it isn’t going to be anything like it was under Lambert or the Ginge.
I just don’t see why there’s such a downer.
It’s plain that we’re at least trying and that has to be a plus, imo.
Fair play Badger – wasn’t meant as a criticism, more of an observation. If we do sign Veretout we will have ‘replaced’ both Delph and Cleverly which means having replaced the spine of the team ( if Ayew replaces Benteke), added a quality LB and good central defence RB cover (Crespo). That all looks sensible business but reinforcements are still needed in mid field and up front or am I being greedy?
And I still think another quality CB would be a good investment.
Lerner should spend double that with new TV deal and vlaar of wage bill imo. Fat chance of that though
is sinclair not a lambert deal and was that money not last years budget
It might have been allocated under Lambert’s budget, but I doubt it.
Who knows with Lerner’s tricky accounting, which I personally don’t believe for one minute?
Part of Delph fee went onto Leeds also if I’m correct? If adebayor comes on loan then expect one more quality attacking mid/winger and maybe other loans or cheap back-up buys.
Good transfer period so far, looking for the right type of player in my opinion.
Did it?
We did Leeds a right favour and the Delph money saved their training ground, for which Ken Bates praised us highly in the way we did business and blanked any other offers.
I was chuffed about that, in that we helped a struggling big club out, although in fairness, it might have been another sign of MON’s profligacy.
Im happy with our signings, but we have some major holes to fill with Vlaar, Benteke and Delph all leaving. You gotta remember even with the players we had, we could well have gone down.
I cant figure out what we formation we’re going to play. I think trying 4-4-2 might be naive given that most good teams are playing a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 formation. But unless we sign a real placement for Benteke, Im not sure we can play that formation. Kozak could maybe do a job up there, but Ayew doesnt seem like a target man.
I still think we need another central midfielder at least and possibly a couple more players. In theory we have money to spend, but who knows.
Benno, I’ve come to the conclusion that as much as I thought Vlaar was ok, he really wasn’t all that good.
In fact, he was either great or a bloody disaster, with some of the mistakes he made.
And more importantly, unreliable because of his injuries.
He’s no loss.
Delph, I’ve always liked, but he was ruined by the way we played under the previous two managers. What happened to the marauding box to box type, he was at Leeds?
Bitterness at the way he left, aside, I still think he’s a good mid.
But as Oohah is so fond of saying, he only looked good amid a bunch of rubbish mids.
I suspect he has it about him to improve. If he can get a game for Citeh.
Benteke?
That’s a wounder and there’s no getting away from it, imo.
That said, I’m sure Sherwood will be looking for a more rounded team, where the mids actually get some goals and the defenders pop up with a few too.
How long has it been since we’ve seen a mid add 8-10 goals?
I suspect it’ll happen this season.
As for formation, god knows.
But I’ll bet it’s more like one up front, with one behind, at times.
Which is why I think the Adebayor thing might have some legs, as he can knock the ball around intelligently.
It isn’t purely about goalscoring, sometimes.
However good Benteke proves to be as a player in future [& personally I still believe it depends on whether he can maintain consistent form/fitness for rather longer than he ever showed for Villa], having him in the side made Villa somewhat predictable – and the better opposition soon found ways of exploiting the one-dimensional play that we relied upon with him in the team.
If we have a couple of players each capable of adding those 8-10 goals from midfield, as well as a decent striker who can get maybe 15 a season, then the team will be far more difficult to play against than anything we’ve put out in the last few years.
As for Vlaar: IMO nowhere near as good as Mellberg or Laursen – to name just of the not-so-long-departed central defenders we’ve had at VP, and won’t be missed, not least because of his attitude since he came back from Brazil last summer!
Ardent, I’m firmly in the “Benteke is the mutt’s nuts” camp, as I’m sure you know 🙂
I constantly got the impression that his attitude was that he was playing in a poor side and he knew it.
And who could blame him?
Which is why I can’t begrudge him his move.
He’ll be better in a better team, imo, where he won’t be the only player that’s frankly any bloody use.
That said, he should have waited another season, got another load of goals and moved to a proper CL club.
Still, he’s gone, so we have to move on.
A couple of mids getting 8-10?
That’s ambitious, imo, but I hope you’re right.
Realistically, I worry about how “gung-ho” we’re going to be.
Which I would hope is where Wilkins comes in.
Benteke should of held out for a sky four team though Liverpool are the next best thing and a least have a realistic chance of at least challenging for fourth esp as no CL
Badger I had the same thought about us being too attack minded. That’s maybe where the Cambiasso link comes from……an experienced, calm player who will sit tight and cover when needed. Plus he is younger than Wilkins who I don’t think will get a game!!;)
Vlaar has been replaced by Richards and Delph is replaced by gueye
Exactly. And both improvements, imo. Delph always had a yellow card in him and often a heavy first touch, which lost possession or floundered run of play. Vlaar? Pfft. No love lost.
And I’d be happy to see any goals from our mids. That was our one-dimension. Yes, we lost Benteke who was either our savior or our achilles heel. But none of our mids stepped up pressure. Does anyone know the goal totals from them last season? I bet the avg is less than 1 at best. We’ve now got ones who could get 4-5 each and a multi-dimensional attack.
I think Tim and Tom are trying to wake the giant.
vlaar was and is shit.
delph sometimes looked good in a bad team i am confident in the little that i have seen that gueye will more than make up the loss if delph.
It does look like Gueye is a straight swap for Delph and Richards for Vlaar….but my point is we are only replacing players that we have lost since the end of the season.
Ayew seems more of a replacement for Weimann. Which means we still havent replaced Benteke or Cleverley…or added elsewhere to our squad.
I think Amavi will end up being an excellent signing as we havent seen a quality left back for a long time at VP but I reckon Mr. Sherwood is gonna be a busy man over the next few weeks
I’m happy with the signings so far, bit concerned about Ayew though, I watch quite a bit of French football and feel that Swansea have by far got the best Ayew in Andre. Jordan’s got a tendency to get a bit stroppy, could get a few red cards if he’s not careful!
I wish we could bring in Diego Rolan, he’s highly rated in Uruguay but may be beyond our budget now that we’ve bought Ayew.
I agree, I think business has been very good so far. I’d hope that Randy is going to give us another £15/20mil on top of the usual budget, to release some extra new TV money and make a statement about his ownership intentions.
I’m hoping we can do what saints did last yr when they sold their best players
http://m.leparisien.fr/sports/football/mercato-le-nantais-jordan-veretout-en-route-vers-aston-villa-27-07-2015-4973813.php
French linking us heavily to 10m euro bid
Lots of rumours saying the bid has been accepted. Good player who is quick and can run past defenders, though is more of a defensive midfielder. Has the ability for great set pieces too
Quality player… Link below to article written about him in December in the mirror
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/arsenal-target-jordan-veretout-undoubtedly-4869696
If we manage to bring in Veretout, and get Adebayor playing….. hold on to your hats people I think we may have a very exciting side this season.
Well I think we can safely say that the Villa this season will be definitely Tim’s team. If you include Sinclair with Gil and Kozak as near enough new signings then with the addition of Vertout we won’t be all that far off a brand new team!
As for an exciting season I find I’m getting excited already, in fact this is the most excited I’ve been about a Villa Team since….you know I can’t really remember!
UTV
That would be three Jordan’s – should put us in pole position for a fast start to the season!
Veretout is said to be really close to signing and his club saying everything is basically agreed and expect him to sign with villa as early as today. Saying he is moving to a great English club.
http://www.getfootballnewsfrance.com/2015/aston-villa-should-complete-deal-for-jordan-veretout-today/
Wikipedia saying veretout plays for Aston villa,though badger told me it can be bollox.
Ps it’s just been updated its now saying Nantes,badger your bang on MATE load of bollox & I will never rely on it.
Anyone can edit Wikipedia take no notice. Until it’s announced on OS it’s not happening.
There was a spoof spy caper inside a comedy show which was set in France at the Villa d’ Aston in the Rue de Remarques. The way things are going that could be a new name for Witton Lane. I am hoping for better luck and cohesion than Newcastle got when they went French.
Other than that I am excited – I posted this before but it is looking more and more like the truth, Sherwood looked at the Wembley losers and vowed to himself to replace nearly all of them. So we have almost a complete new team and I haven’t got a clue how they will play. A safe bet is we will be near the top of the yellow and red card list. I will recognise more of the Bournemouth players and their style of play than I will Villa on the opening day – amazing! United up second is a good one, both sides will have lots of new players and little clue what to expect from their opponents, that can only help level the odds in this fixture, which has been a manure benefit so far this century.
‘spoof spy caper’ – it was a spoof detective sketch from the Two Ronnies – Piggy Malone and Charlie Farley
Still makes me laugh
I think we need a prolific scorer, a good right bk and a decent centre half. If we get that we could easily finish in top ten imo
Feck me.. thats the most positive post i have ever seen from you.. who has hacked into OOHAAH’s computer lol
Lol :/)
I see there is no coincidence between what i feel is shrewd buying and business sense at the same time and a couple of ex Arsenal boys working in the upper echelons of the club now.
I’ve said this for 12 months to my mates, raid French football where 1) the exchange rate makes us far more competitive for buying decent players and 2) where there 75% higher income tax rate means offering not silly wages will result in massively increased NET earnings for these players and 3) players who are between 21 and 25 on the whole who have good potential re-sale value if needed whereby we aren’t wasting transfer money nor being saddled with huge wages if there turns out to be under performance.
Go Tim!
Still feel a few more needed. Would like Adebayor, Praet and Van Dijk on top of this other French lad if we get him. Think even then we’d only have spent £5-6m of Randy’s money and probably evened up on the wage bill! If we ship out Tonev Baker and a few others and get £5m, i think our squad is a million times stronger, great potential and Randy wins being a new spend of nothing even in a year of increased sky money…
Is N’Zogbia leaving . rumours on the internet last night saying he was leaving some strange messages on his twitter account , could we be about to pay him off and get him off the books. rumours are sherwood has lost patients with him .
i for one hope its true another wage thief off the books would be great.
ahh just read more rumours (i know its silly season for rumours but wtf) the rumour is we will loan N’Zogbia to Nantes as part of the deal to get Veretout. we would be paying his wages and by the time his loan contract runs out he will be out of contract and can leave for free. sounds ok to me.
Fuck him off absolutely SHITE
Waste of talent. He’s a bloody idiot. Was superb on his day.
Why are some people on here saying get rid of Baker? He’s a quality player, still young and has so much potential, if he can get over his injuries, [which I would agree he does have too frequently], he will go on to be one of the best English CB’s for years to come. Please don’t let this untapped potential blossom at another club, like we did with Cahill!
The signing of Veretout would be great by the way, but I feel he may take up the same position as Gil, exciting and interesting times ahead!
I must admit I’m a bit foxed on that one too. Remember his stunning game against the bin dippers last season…
Only problem with Baker is he gets injured too often. And he is a bit slow. oops that’s two problems. Would still like us to keep him though.
Dave C…..agree, I would keep Baker and Cissokho as back up. I know Cissokho is poor going forward but he is a good defender and would do a job coming on to defend a narrow lead.
Langford – I suspect TS sees Richardson as back up to LB as, rather like Crespo, he can play in a number of positions. I know he’s not flavour of the month but, to be fair, he’s one of the few players to come away from Wembley not having to feel ashamed!
H60….yes, Richardson was excellent in the final. Our only decent player on the day IMO. He’s worth keeping as a back up IMO!
I wonder what TS thinks of Tonev? I think he would have been shipped out by now if TS hadnt seen something in him that he likes. Zoggy has to go IMO, he’s had plenty of chances to impress. I get the feeling that Tim is not that bothered about anyone thats left in the summer (including Benteke and Delph) as the Cup Final display was both heartless and gutless, not to mention pathetic! No doubt that a few ‘home truths’ came out in that dressing room. Its hard to forget that non-performance on our biggest day since 2000!
We are slowly building the best team that we have had in the last 5 years IMO
Exciting times Langford – at last! Crespo signing today and I wonder whether TS sees him as the first choice RB with Mutton as back up rather than the assumption we have been making. Tonev is an enigma – he came with good write ups but perhaps tried too hard for the super ball / shot rather than playing it simple. Who knows but probably worth keeping as a squad player – rather Tonev than NZog who has really let us down IMHO.
I’ve put Wembley out of my mind – I just want to see what this side might be capable of. Last word (for now!) – getting Wilkins on board was a master stroke. He complements TS’s rather brash style, he’s well respected and gives a first class interview. Really excited.
Agree it means he could slot into left bk and amavi could play left mid as well
This looks like a great deal.. he is certainly a talent.. def happy if he comes in.. UTV
Adebayor move gaining impetus. Supposed to be at Villa Park today for talks. Loan move with option to buy and it looks like Spurs will compromise on wages. Adebayor and Ayew up front – that just might be a very tasty dish. What a difference a year makes. UTV
Disagree Adebeyor is too erratic for us a luxury player if u like. Inconsistent and past his best. Time will tell but he will be very hit and miss. Bit oif a ballotelli
Oh go back to bed OohAh! Sleep it off!!
Oohah NEVER sleeps, he just trawls the Internet looking for something negative to say about our great club 🙂
The pies are 10p dearer than last season 🙂
He’d moan if they were 10p cheaper! Just waiting to hear if Jordan 2 signs! Come on you Villains!
What really 10p ffs!!! 🙂