Any long time viewers of the site will know my position regarding the transfer windows.
I hate the speculation because the vast majority of it is utter rubbish.
That said, I know some of you love it, so I’m happy to talk about it.
Me, I’ll just remain very sceptical until it has been confirmed that a player has signed.
A typical example of what I believe is utter tosh, is a link I’ve seen to Charlie Austin, the Southampton striker.
There was me thinking he was an attacking midfielder. Did he get pushed up front some time back?
Whatever, he’s 29 and apparently on £70k a week, with two years left to run on his contract.
A cursory glance at the Premier league table tells me Southampton finshed 16th in the season just gone, which is surely at least where we’d hope to finish this season.
So, if he’s deemed not good enough for Southampton, why on earth does anyone think we’d want him?. And on those wages, when it’s blatantly obvious that we have FFP issues, now that it seems we’re under a soft transfer embargo?
For info, this is where a club agrees not to do any deals, after a request from the EFL. This would explain why the Jota and Hause deals were delayed.
But it now seems that the embargo has been lifted, as the latest news is that we’ve taken up our option to sign Hause and the Jota deal has been confirmed by Dean Smith himself.
Which is interesting, because it means that if we were under an embargo, something has happened very, very recently to allow the EFL to lift it.
I wonder what?
Or is it just that we had other irons in the fire and wanted to hold fire?
Jesus, even I’m being sucked into the speculation game now.
Anyway, while the Jota deal makes sense because Smith knows him, the Austin deal just doesn’t, in any way. At all.
Simply put, if we sign 5% of the players we’ve been linked with, the media will have done very well and better than usual.
I can’t remember the actual reason why windows were introduced, but logic tells me it was to prevent clubs reinforcing when they suffered a particular weakness, which gave the bigger clubs another advantage.
But since when have the powers that be been bothered about that?
Or maybe it was to stop “tapping-up” and undermining rival clubs at important times?
Yes, that doesn’t happen any more, does it?
I dont know, part of me wishes we could go back to the old system, as I detest reading pure guesswork.
Lot of gossip linking Villa to a bid for Butland – Villa 8/11 favourites with Sky Bet to sign him.
Although Nyland, on goals conceded, looks the worse option, actually overall his stats are better than Kalinic. The reality is Nyland played behind an absolutely awful defence. Notwithstanding, I think Nyland will be the one to leave.
I have my doubts about Steer at Premiership level. He has done well for us but can he perform at that level? Butland can, but it is clear that Smith wants us to play from the back (inc keeper) like Man City and Liverpool do, and England are now doing. Against West Brom it nearly cost us a goal on several occasions, so we need a keeper who can do this. I don’t know enough about Butland to say whether he is comfortable enough with the ball at his feet. Good shot stopper though.
Butland would be an improvement on Steer and, at 26, would have quite a few good years in him. I’d still keep Steer in as number two and play him in Cup games as I think he’s earned that.
Have to hand it to the Villa management team, when it comes to transfers they’re definitely keeping their cards close to their chest.
Pablo Fornals
The rumour mill is now in full swing and Aston Villa seem to be at the heart of it.
You see a link like this with the word ‘MEDICAL’ and it sets the social media frenzy off in style..
Pablo Fornals is the latest name being banded around, literally everywhere on Twitter.
£28m pound deals are mentioned and medicals booked in for Wednesday. Before you know it the rumour has swirled around quicker than Donald Trump’s toupee in a gale.
There doesn’t seem to be any real credible suggestion that Villa are in the running at all.
West Ham are being heavily linked with the Villareal stage and according to Sun hack Alan Nixon, there’s nothing to see here
Yes Bill, it looks like this one might be just paper talk…
Love the Donald Trump quip Bill – made me laugh 🙂
Sky have WHU in for Fornals. Someone got their claret & blues mixed up 🙂
David Cameron?
Yes seen that Hitch, they stand a better chance being a London club .
It’s being suggested that we only paid £4.5 mill for El Ghazi.
Probably because Lille are desperate for money and we paid cash with possibly a big sell on clause.
If that’s true, that’s brilliant business.
From Christian Purslow –
“We have a very well organised recruitment department now under Suso’s (Pitarch’s) leadership. We’ve got some really great young recruiters, and ones with experience.They’ve been working meticulously for many weeks.
We will be inundated with both suggestions and media speculation – that won’t impact us one iota. We will do it thoughtfully and carefully.”
Well said, just hope they keep to it.
Someone at work has told me there was a leaked fixture list which is due to be announced tomorrow morning. If the leak is genuine then we are at home to Leicester on Sunday for first game back in the premier league.
Has the Hause deal officially gone through yet?
Kalvin Philips from Leeds anyone?
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2019/06/12/aston-villa-target-leeds-united-midfielderkalvin-phillips-14m/
I must say I found him Leeds most annoying player when we played them which must mean he played well.He stood out for me every time I saw Leeds play.
He’s 23 and a very physical holding mid-fielder. At £14 million I honestly think he might be a good bet. I’ll watch this one with interest.
Spurs away! Not fake news this time.
https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2019/06/13/aston-villa-premier-league-fixtures
Apparently, Gary Monk didn’t want the Jota/Gardner swap deal and is now at odds with his board. I think we got the better deal, by the sounds of it, just as we thought!
Spurs away then Bournemouth and Everton at home, Palace away and then West Ham at home.
Not the hardest of starts so hopefully we can accrue a few points. I’m not too concerned about the Spurs game, even the best teams can suffer a slow start and we’ll be something of an unknown quantity.
Also now hoping that Erikson goes to Real.
Also some reaction from Leeds fans at the possibility of Kalvin Philips going to the Villa –
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/we-must-aston-villa-transfer-16423465
They’re quite upset about it and quite rightly too, he’s an excellent player. If he’s got any sense though he’ll come to Villa Park. There’s a Philips shaped hole in the team that Jedi and Whelan used to fill and he’d be in the Prem and playing against the best.
Here’s hoping…
Wesley Moreas anyone? 22m done deal supposedly.
I feel bad that I have never heard of Wesley Moreas. Birmingham Live saying deal is done and that he has signed for 5 years.
Just seen he is Brazilian and scored 17 goals for Club Brugge last season.
Wesley Moreas transfer now been carried by numerous media outlets. It looks like we just bought a £22m Brazilian striker.
This goes to show how they get it wrong , I bet nobody thought of him coming to Villa, this new scouting is paying off for us.
Waiting for AVFC confirmation – Sky reporting it as ?
Anybody know anything about him other than the comparison with the signing of Benteke who cost a lot less!
Everything cost less back then
Very true
Wow! Wesley Moraes…
He’s not even on the list, is he?. If true then well done the Villa team for keeping that one quiet.
Also well done as it shows that they’re not mucking about when it comes to strikers. Charlie Austin my arse!
Funny name for your arse Pat 🙂
Pat, I think Purslow is sticking to his pledge that most signings will be ‘young and hungry’ although I personally would welcome premier league experienced players too now that Whelan and Jedinak have gone. Experience is as vital as ability. Maybe Cahill on a free would be a good signing, even if Mings comes back.