Despite the irony of the title, I must say I am very impressed with the business we have done in the last week. It’s been quite a crazy week for our club, but lets break down the transfer news so far;
Incomings:
Manzambi – 60M Euros
Gomes – 35M Pounds
Outgoings:
Rogers – 117M Pounds
Tielemans – 35M Pounds
Dobbin – 9M Pounds
Overall, I think this is fantastic business, particularly with Morgan and Youri costing a total of £12m! A very exciting time to be a Villa fan – change is inevitable. For me, the only key piece to the puzzle is Unai Emery, and arguably John McGinn. But key players arguably include Kamara and any goalkeeper, whether it is Dibu or not.
Rumours include Jackson, Garnacho and Palhinha, which is ironic considering he is hated by the fanbase – but lets hope that can change because I do think he is a good player!
One thing that shocked me was Rogers going to Chelsea. Where did that come from? I thought he was pretty much set on Arsenal if he was to be leaving, but apparently not. Tielemans to United strikes me as quite a realistic transfer – we’d have all thought that was realistic if he was still at Leicester.
Quick word on the World Cup – very impressive England performance. Funnily enough I actually took a shine to Rogers starting once the lineup had been announced, but then I quickly realised that I’d just read thirty minutes before that he was off to Chelsea! As for Konsa, probably the easiest header of all time but was glad to see him start and score in the World Cup – they all count!
A game that I really wasn’t fussed about and didn’t even move or react to any of our goals, but a game that would’ve really annoyed me had we have lost from 4-0 up because that would have just been extremely weak and embarrassing.
Now, the final. I generally have liked Argentina as a footballing nation, but this current group of players excluding Messi, Martinez and a few others are just so hateable. It is similar to Spurs – one of my more favoured clubs in the Premiership, but I just can’t stand the current group of players. Glad Spain won, they played much better anyway, but Argentina showed that you can go more than 90 minutes sitting back, and that it was actually our overall quality and poor defending that lost us the Semi-Final.
Overall a decent World Cup, and looking forward to getting club football back, but I must say I generally disconnect during the pre-season, and it’s going to be very difficult not making the Super Cup due to financial means, but priorities are priorities.
Has anyone noticed a change in the general font of the site? No idea how it’s happened – not gone on and done anything personally. Would like to revert it back, but don’t know what the old one is.
Alfie I believe Villa have an even better financial base to fund more transfers and attack SCR.
Malen’s £21m sale counts in this new financial period and even better is the removal of his £140k per week wages. Add in Barry for £3m and his alleged £35k per week wages. Then there is the loan savings on Sancho’s £200k+ per week salary and Elliott’s £70k per week. This little group have brought in £24m in transfer fees and saved £23.14m in wages. This is significant.
Don’t forget Barrenechea went for £9m, Digne likely to go for £7.5m and save £100k+ and Bailey to Hull rumoured to be £10-15m, plus £120k salary off the books.
I think there could be one if not two quality signings. Currently the squad is smaller than last year and needs to expand due to the demands of the champions league. Exciting times.
Sid, agree with the financial point. But Villa will need far more than one or two quality signings. Consider:
Tielemans out – Gomes replacement
Rogers out – Manzambi replacement (according to Canadian Pete)
Digne out – need a quality replacement
Garcia out – need a quality replacement
Elliot gone – need a quality replacement
Sancho gone – need a quality replacement
Bailey going – is Alysson the replacement? If not…
Guessand – will (hopefully) need a quality replacement
Barklay going – will need a very reliable replacement – is Bogarde enough?
Onana essentially out for the season – will need a top quality replacement (albeit a loan)
I’d also add that with CL football incoming, Tammy and Ollie will not necessarily be enough for a grueling season. Taking into account Ollie’s age, if offers of 30ish came in, I would not be at all surprised, although disappointed, if he also departed.
I’d say Villa need to sign at least 4, probably 5 quality players and unearth at least two quality loans, minimum. In other words, a new look Aston Villa and an overhaul of the team and squad has begun.
Thoughts, gents?
This is very much like 2019 when 10 players came in, many of whom are still at the club; the difference is the level of player coming in based on how far the club has come in 7 years.
I’d take Garcia, Bailey, Elliot out of that list as they hardly played and if they did come on, their impact was minimal.
Guessand hardly appeared so I’d also take him out.
Strikers: I think this will be Ollie’s last season due to his age. I also don’t think Tammy is our solution.
I heard Ross Barkley was staying?
I work out we’ve made over £182 from sales plus the Guessand money, so that’s over £207m.
Add to that the money from NEWS that we are allowed to spend. That to me looks a modest £250m. And don’t forget when Bailey goes, that’s more in the pot.
We’ve spent £105m of that already, leaving £145m. We desperately need 2 wingers who can also track back and defend. Konsa can cover for Cash, but we need cover on the left. It’ll be another season of asking the players for that bit more, but I think we can do it.
Bum Bum, I wouldn’t take them out. Elliot and Guessand were major signings but in a botched window. The numbers are needed. The quality needs raising, which shouldn’t be difficult. Bailey replaced Malen in Jan so a big upgrade needed, unless Unai goes with Alysson…
Bailey needs to be given away! He’s bloody useless.
There seems to be contradictory ideas about if Guessand is still our player of if he’s gone to Palace. Does he have a squad number?
Palace didn’t take up the option.
Al-Nassar have flogged Duran to Benfica. Do we get a sell on fee? 🙂
Question:
Would we have Rashford back for around 30 million, max?
I’d go yes. Big upgrade on all the outgoing attackers.
Hell yeah, BUT if his wages were sensible. I think the days of his massive salaries has gone.
£100k a week ain’t bad though! It was Emery that revived his career don’t forget. I think there’s too much bad blood for him to return to ManUre.
Alex Scott apparently available at Bournemouth. Another superb all-rounder in midfield.
Possible long-term replacement for McGinn? Gibbs-White is out of range and I think that, leadership qualities aside, both the new boys cover that skills set anyway.
Could also cash in on Onana when he gets backis Scott comes in?