Apologies.
I didn’t realise that comments had closed on the previous article. The site does that because old posts attract lots of spam and it’s just more work for me having to get rid of it.
The truth is I don’t really have much to say, but thought some of you might like somewhere you can continue to comment to each other, if you haven’t forgotten about the site that is.
You all know that I’m not in the slightest bit interested in speculation about who we might sign and it’s a view backed up by Smith-Rowe having signed a new contract with Arsenal after our signing him was in the bag.
Likewise, Grealish was a cert to move to Citeh and while I guess he still might, my opinion says it’s looking less likely. That’s after even I fell into the trap of posting that it was a done deal.
What is factual is that we beat Walsall last night either 4-0 or 4-1. I genuinely don’t know because I couldn’t even be bothered to read about it. Friendly results mean nothing to me after Villa players looking poor in pre-season, the year we won the league!
Am I just a tight git, or am I correct in saying watching the game on VillaTV for a fiver is bloody expensive?
I can understand a fiver if you’re going to watch at the ground, but…
Anyway, I actually found a site that was streaming it and started to watch it. Until every time I went fullscreen I was bombarded with adverts. I turned it off after a few minutes.
Buendia seems a great signing. I wasn’t at all convinced about us signing Ashley Young, but my son-in-law(ish) has convinced me that his versatilty will prove to be a big plus. It’s a very good point and apparently he looked the part last night. From the little I’ve read about his signing, he jumped at the chance to come back to Villa and didn’t want to go anywhere else. We also apparently aren’t paying him a massive wage.
The cynic in me wonders if he still owns a house around here, meaning the move doesn’t disturb much for him.
I think a big part of me was annoyed that he left us, but along with Barry, Delph and others, I don’t suppose you can’t blame him.
I’ll wish him luck. He does now play for us again, after all.
Elsewhere, we’re going to sign the world, as per usual.
August the 14th can’t come quick enough.
Reputations: Built over time and destroyed in an instant. Only one good reason why NSWE would sell Jack and that is because his shin injury is evidence of a permanent weakness. Otherwise the goodwill the new owners have accrued will be trashed. Anyone who gives a leg up to the Manchester duo is admitting for the future we play not even second fiddle to them but somewhere up the back. Also establishes them as weak owners.
Correct tactics even if Jack submits a formal request is to say you are here for 4 more years and can play in the reserves if your attitude is wrong.
Understand your thinking OLL but it’s not going to happen.
The owners have already stated they want Grealish to stay and they want to build a side around him. They will do everything to persuade him (including another new contract less than 12 months after his last one) to persuade him. If Grealish has decided he wants to go to pursue ‘cheap’ trinkets then he’s no use to them or to Villa and as good business men they will look to cash in (which is what I would want them to do). It’s Grealish’s call.
Perhaps Grealish should look to that great Italian Totti who played his whole career at ‘his’ club Roma and said ‘helping Roma to win one Serie A title is worth more than winning ten with Juventus’.
Up to you JG.
If you believe all the press talk we won’t have any of our ‘first eleven’ by the end of the transfer window. Grealish, McGinn, Martinez, Watkins and El Ghazi all linked with other clubs. I’m surprised Buendia hasn’t been mentioned because after all, Villa are a nursery club for the big six and the rest of the European elite.
Personally until it is announced officially by Villa, then i won’t be taking any interest in it whatsoever.
Just seen our away kit and it does look good, not that i would ever pay extortionate amounts for it. It will be interesting to know how many fans have had Grealish on the back of any new shirts purchased. Massive refunds possible i wonder.
Goodbye, Jack hello Leon and Tammy and Todd thank you VTID
So what city have offered £100 million. NSWE don’t need the money.
This is down to Jack and whether or not he wants to lead villa back to the top.
if he doesn’t it will set us back massively.
This is ‘THE STATEMENT’ are we on the up or not. if we can’t keep our best players others will follow (martinez, watkins) and we become less attractive.
The next few days are massive.
Steve, you’ve pretty much summed it up. We all like a bit of hyperbole, but your statement is what it boils down to.
It should be a case of do you want to win honours with Villa – your club, of City. Very simple. Because if he’s good enough for them, that means he’s capable of winning honours. Does he want to lead that at his club, or be a supporting act at a random club, which has been proven to cheat financially. He knows NSWE will and are funding a squad that can and will challenge for honours. He can have more money if he wants it. So I don’t see any reason why he should choose to leave, other than one more year without European football. City should be banned from Europe anyone, so they dodged that bullet very well.
Dodgy shins or not, everyone would be gutted if he left – fans, players, staff, owners. We can’t afford to let him go. I hope his chums in the England setup didn’t turn his head in the summer.
My point entirely BFR – this is Grealish’s decision and his alone. If he decides to go then he’s taking the easy option.
Steve, it will be a setback if Grealish decides to abandon ship and, I for one, will feel he’s let every single Villa fan down. BUT our owners are winners and they don’t want players not willing to fight for the cause.
Look what Eden’s has achieved in the NBA after persuading one of America’s top players to stay and fight the cause. The polar opposite to Randy!
If he goes they will invest in top, top players and I don’t see a procession of players leaving.
No one – not even Grealish – is bigger than our club.
UTV
Completely random comment: Umbro are still knocking out some very nice kits, looking at some of the new ones for this season. Love the Kappa gear, but would be nice to go ‘back to the future’ some day. Would like to see a yellow and sky blue third for us; the one in the early nineties was nice.
Apparently, Man City don’t expect to get Grealish for £100 mill. It’s an opening bid and they’re expecting to have to pay more.
Which is in line with my previous thoughts where £130 mill would be enough.
I get that selling Grealish at any price is really not a good thing, but any team isn’t about one player.
Personally, I think the Villa hierarchy will want to hear what Jack wants and that will dominate any decision. If it’s a question of wages and we can get near what City will pay him, he’ll stay. But if it’s about winning things, he’ll go.
Let’s face it, if he goes, he’s odds on to be a title winner this season.
£100+ million is not to be scoffed at and as much as you might not want him to go, the question has to be would a significant chunk or even all of that money spent on new players improve the team?
The answer is of course it would. It gets you 3 or 4 £30 mill players.
As much as the thought of Villa without Jack isn’t pleasant.
Yes 3 wesley’s would be fantastic
While three Ollys would be better Tom.
I don’t rate Wesley in the slightest and have said so plenty of times.
But fair’s fair and Smith/Lange’s signings have mostly been good.
Haha! Well played Badger. But did Grealish bring out the best of Ollie?
Badger, this is the point I keep trying to make. It’s Grealish’s decision and his alone.
If he wants to go the owners will respect that but will drive the hardest bargain they can – quite rightly – and I agree they will heavily reinvest the team. The only thing they will insist on is a quick decision and negotiation to give then plenty of time to invest in the team.
Like you, I hate the idea of Grealish leaving and him staying would make a far greater statement than securing a £130m fee reinvested.
No way is this going to rumble on to transfer dead line day.
Yes, agreed. If he does go, we’ll need to sign players fast.
I’d expect this to be done and dusted in a fortnight either way.
So Man City has made a bid of £100million if our owners are loaded whitch they are carry on building a team capable of completing in Europe and let JG play in the reserves for the next 4years that sounds horrible but I’m feeling like I have just been kicked in the nuts he’s been at the club since the age of six and we have grown to love him as one of own family I know he hasn’t gone yet but I feel let down so I hope he makes the right decision VTID UTV
On a different but probably connected note, it’s being reported that Villa have bid £25m for Ward-Prowse turned down by Southampton.
I say it’s connected not to suggest a replacement but that Grealish’s decision might impact on whether a player like JWP pushes for a move to Villa.
Expect Villa to go back with an improved bid.
Next week or so is going to be very interesting.
Grealish earning Ward-Prowse all those goal attempts from frees is a mouth-watering prospect.
I wonder if the Man City bid has led to that bid?
Warrior here I would like to withdraw my last message it was made in haste so sincere apologies VTID
No apologies needed, Warrior.
If he does leave, very many people will have similar feelings at first.
Thank you Badger 123 VTID
So it’s official ManC have bid £100m for Grealish.
Over to you Jack but if you go don’t expect all Villa fans to wish you well.
Fair comment Hitch imagine 40 000 fans booing him every time he touches the ball or enters Villa Park from Villan to Villain I remember a certain F Delph heart overhead crap go if you want to go go but don’t treat us loyal Villans with contempt £130 million sounds good. VTID
Exactly Warrior
Delph insulted the Villa fans, that’s why he’s hated.
Whereas I actually think many fans will be thinking that if Jack does go, it’ll have genuinely been a heart-wrenching decision and be more sympathetic.
I may well be wrong about that, but the thought of lots of fans booing the player who’s lit up Villa park more than any other in a very long time doesn’t sit well with me.
Sorry if I upset fellow Villans with my comments but I speak from my heart I travel from Wiltshire to Brum 194 miles round trip and go to every home game as I can and I’m a pensioner and have followed Villa all my life so VTID
If Jack goes i am afraid he will kill the dream.
One of our own will be saying he doesn’t believe in the project.
That sends a message to watkins martinez etc that you may as well go to the perceived bigger clubs when they come calling.
So Jack over to you. Back up what you have been telling us or just go.
I don’t like saying this but if spurs and man utd had made decent offers in the last couple of years i reckon he would have gone then.
I hope he stays and we maintain our upward momentum but i now fear the worst.
I think Jack could have gone to Spurs if he wanted to. But I don’t think he wanted it and was happy to help us improve.
We’ve done that and he may actually be thinking that the massive fee would help the club kick on again.
The thought of leaving for the champions must really appeal.
But as has been oft said, will he actually get in the side?
Pep has raved about him, but that doesn’t mean he’d start every game.
Whereas he’s a cert in any Villa side.
It must be a really difficult decision and I’ve seen it said that he really doesn’t know what to do.
Which means he’ll be in the hands of his advisors. And they’re going to tell him to go for the highest wage, pure and simple.
That seems crazy, when you consider we’re going to offer him £150k a week or more, but we have to remember that the next game could be career ending.
We as fans all want to see villa play in europe and the champions league. The next couple of years if jack stays with the owners we have is our best chance in a generation. Jack will blow all that if he goes purely because others will follow.
Winning with man city is not an achievement its expexted and losing is failure.
Winning with villa is immortal legend status.
For what its worth i believe this has nothing to do with the ambtion of NSWE. I Genuinely believe they want us to get to the top.
This is all on Jack
His decision will affect us for the foreseeable future.
The Last thing we need now is our owners losing interest as lerner did when o’neil left.
Don’t forget Jack signed a long contract extension when he didn’t have to. If we sell Jack gets his wish and a big payday. And Villa get a whacking transfer fee. Jack didn’t have to do this, could have been a free agent and pocketed even more.
When he was injured last season, initially we were rudderless but eventually we came good and realised he’s not the only talent in the team. I’m surprised if someone does pay a fortune for him as he is injury prone.
In saying this, don’t think for one minute I want him to go!
Bum Bum – JG has only played one full season in the last four! In the other three he managed an average of circa 60% of games.
Is he injury prone?
That’s a good point about him signing that contract. He’s helped the club out just by doing that.
At Man city, I’d be expecting him to get rests. Indeed, I’ve seen it said that he doesn’t really suit City’s style. Which is a fair point, as he can massively slow the game down sometimes. Hence I really wouldn’t expect him to play all games.
It’s interesting that Villa (it seems) have not rejected ManC’s bid out of hand. That suggests to me that the clubs have already informally agreed the fee (it’s been reported they have been in communication through out the summer) and it’s down to Grealish to make a decision.
I also suspect that Grealish already has Villa’s new contract offer so Villa will not give him a lot of time to decide. NSWE will not be ‘dicked about’ so expect this to be decided one way or another within a couple of days.
If Grealish isn’t able to buy into their vision for the club then perhaps it’s better he goes. It won’t change NSWE’s objectives and ultimately it’s the owners financial muscle that matters – sad but true.
Hitch, the bid was official yesterday, before I posted about it. The report that City don’t expect to get him for £100 mill came from the Manchester evening news and you would think they know better than most.
Whatever, it’s massive money.
Actually, thinking about it, I wonder if that might be so we can knock back the £100 mill and make it look like we’re fighting tooth and nail to resist?
While all the time, as you suggest, the deal’s already been done?
Heh, I love a good conspiracy 🙂
I hope Jack stays but he’s not a Messi or Ronaldo. In 2 of the last 3 seasons he has been out injured for a long spell so maybe it’s a case of all those kicks he gets is causing long term issues. What I’m trying to convince myself is that if we get £100m for him we can sign 2-3 top drawer players. Buendia will provide the quality lacking when Grealish isn’t available. Whatever happens, I hope it’s sorted in the next few days. We can’t allow this to drag on with the season starting in a couple of weeks.
We need a replacement for JT so why not someone who cares like a Mellberg or Laursen?
I hope we can get the Bailey deal sorted soon and it will be great signing if we can get Ward Prowse too. Offload Wesley, send Davis on loan and sign Tammy Abraham.
We potentially have a number of our youngsters getting close to breaking into the first team. Chukwuemeka I think is already good enough plus Ramsey has already got plenty of first team action.
NWSE are taking Villa to the top six without doubt. They have that 5 year plan and with 2 years to go, we are nicely poised to get there, with or without Jack!
Just watching Sky sports news with headline ‘Sky sports news expects Aston Villa to accept Manchester City’s £100m bid for Jack Grealish’ why not put ‘Sky sports news DEMANDS…..
I really hate the lack of respect they show for any club DARING to break into the top six.
Has anyone actually seen anything confirmed y either club yet or is it still all paper talk?
I like the way we now do business. I wonder who we’ve got our eyes on?
The bid is official, Bum bum.
That’s all we know.
Wtf? I’ve just noticed my name has changed. It’s me, Badger 🙂
That’s better 🙂
I think this deal could go either way. Imagine if we have a couple more great signings in the pipeline to add to what we already have…
Welcome back Badger 🙂
Changing the subject.
IF TRUE
Relatively a bid of £25 million for JWP is a bit of an insult. What game are we playing.
If JG goes we’ll be held to ransom on any deal.
I feel that Villa will look to Europe to replace him – better value at the market level they have to consider. Having said that I think we’ll go back for JWP with a big bid which Southampton will find hard to resist.
Steve, it’s a canny one, where we go for as low as we can get away with.
Every time we bid for someone, it gets knocked back with the expectation that we’ll up it anyway. You might as well go in low in that case and sound out how annoyed the other club are.
Levy has been doing it for years and has been much admired for it.
Betting on Grealish has changed from odds on staying Todd’s on leaving. Staying has gone out to around 3/1.
Whist bookies aren’t always right ………..
*to odds on leaving – duh
Isn’t grealish agent the same as bales.
Very rich but doesn’t play
I thought it was his dad, but might be wrong.
No, you’re right Steve. Jonathan Barnett.
I wonder how much of a factor Grealish’s reported close relationship with Dean Smith will play in all this. Despite his recent lapses, the Club have continually supported him and protected him from the worst of the press; perhaps Smith played a key role.
Away from Villa and his family will JG be more vulnerable to influences that might negatively affect his future career?