The big transfer rumour news surrounding Aston Villa today was that Villa are favourites to sign Stoke City keeper Asmir Begovic. According to the Sentinel Aston Villa are willing match Chelsea’s offer for Begovic, offer a large wage package and first-team football incentive to Begovic. Sherwood is looking for a new first team keeper and hopes that he can sign Begovic. His family has been living in the Midlands area for 5 years now and are settled, plus he hopes to convince Begovic of Aston Villa’s long term project over being Chelsea’s number 2 keeper. It’s rumoured that Begovic would cost between a range of £7-10 million. Begovic would be a tremendous signing for Aston Villa, he’d be an improvement over Guzan and Given and at age 28 he could play in goal for long-term.
Jordan Cousins is linked against with Aston Villa, the young Charlton 21-year old midfield is high on Sherwood’s wanted list as he is looking to fill in the gap of the now departed Tom Cleverly. Charlton are a little reluctant to sell their young prize asset but Sherwood could offer him first team football and a platform to build his career on. Cousins is described as strong, technically gifted and energetic midfielder who had very impressive stats on Prozone. Cousins could be a good squad addition to Aston Villa, as long as we aren’t held hostage by a high transfer fee I see nothing wrong with bringing Cousins over.
In striker news, Aston Villa are looking at Ternana striker Felipe Avenatti who plays in the Serie B. The 22-year old striker has scored 10 goals this season for Ternana. Ternana could be looking to sell Avenatti since the club is suffering with some financial problems, but there is interest from Leeds United and now relegated Cagliari. I’m not interested in Avenatti, yes he could become a squad player but if he’s linked with Leeds and a relegated side what hope does he have to break into the Villa team? He is of similar height to Kozak but reports say that he’d be backup to Benteke and Kozak. I also don’t think this transfer will happen.
Lastly, Liverpool will still be interested in signing Christian Benteke despite signing Firmino for £29 million recently. Liverpool will look to bolster there attack and will most likely make a move for Benteke after selling Sterling. Liverpool are a little unsure of offering Villa the £32.5 million buy-out clause, but it’s believed that Aston Villa will not lower their valuation of the Belgian. With reports going around stating that Benteke doesn’t want to be here and wants to move, I’d be happy to take the £32.5 million and use that money to improve our team all around. So far, it seems as though little teams want to pay that fee. But as the weeks go by, some teams might get desperate.
All interesting stuff but does anyone know anything real about who’s taking over,it’s killing me that I don’t know if we are gonna be shopping at harrods or aldi once it’s done
Greg Evans claims we won’t be Begovic’s 10m price tag.
You sound surprised Andrew?
Nope, but I don’t believe it has to do with we can’t afford it, there’s just cheaper around that are as good as him.
Yeah Aston Villa won’t bid more than £7 million. But rumours are that Begovic would be interested in joining Aston Villa over Chelsea.
So the club would be ok with £7mill?
That means there might be room for manouevre, with add-ons etc.
He’d be a big signing, if we could get him.
I’d pay 7m for him, he’s worth that. I don’t think he’s worth the 3 extra million. Quality keeper who wants out of Stoke and I think we’d be a great move for him. Begovic isn’t going to want to be back up to anyone.
Paul, I heard on the Beeb news tonight that our prospective buyers only have six weeks exclusivity.
We’ll be getting news about this, one way or the other, very soon.
Yeah I’ve heard that also mate but I wanna know who it actually is that’s got exclusivity,I’ve heard rumours about the cruise liner guy and that Chinese company but nothing concrete,do you know anything?
Seeing it’s not legal currently for anyone to disclose anything, no one knows who or what it is.
Yep, Andrew sums it up.
Anyone suggesting they know who it is, is frankly talking balls.
no matter who comes in even the richest person in the world we are knackered for a few seasons http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-find-out-how-9525575
I’ve been making this claim on here since FFP came out. Don’t get how hard it is for some to understand.
Although FFP is now more lenient than it was.
What’s to stop say, Microsoft if they were to buy us, renaming the Witton Lane the “Microsoft stand” or similar for £200 mill over 10 years?
Or if that’s not possible, a subsidary company? or Gates’ trust fund?
An extra £20 mill a season at a stroke.
The rules can be bent or even broken, just as Man City have done.
It would only take the desire.
And that’s before I start about “restriction of trade” etc
It’s a moot point though, as we’re never that lucky.
Even when we thought we’d struck gold with Lerner, it proved a mess.
99.99 percent of clubs won’t be. Only what, Chelsea, City, PSG and for a season Malaga have been? United were at a time where no one was spending big money and they were breaking transfer records all the time. It’s not just us mate, it’s everyone.
I still think ffp will die on its arse. Not heard anymore about city paying a £50m fine. Clubs lawyers will tie uefa in knots for years which is why it’s being relaxed. It’s also anti competitive. When you think about it if I owed a company called McGraths mobile phones and badger owned badgers mobile phones we would both be allowed to spend whatever we want to promote and improve our business. Why should football be different. Ffp is a joke
I 100% agree,
FFP’s a joke and doesn’t take into account things like debt so it’s not saving any club. Parma have been relegated to Serie D after going bankrupt. FFP didn’t save them, shit owners killed them.
What is the punishment for breaking the FFP rules? Because if it means no European football than it could be worth spending a lot of money, (breaking the rules in the process) but during our climb to the top the punishment would have ended by the time we actually qualify to the Champions League
Giant fees up to 40m pounds, they can put a certain amount you’re allowed to spend like I believe City last year were only allowed a 30-40m net spend, and European suspension.
Sounds like kendrick has been told to write this by the club or new owners to prepare us for the worst! Ffp can be got round with imagination all they need to do is get some of their other businesses to sponsor us for a ridiculous amount exactly what city do
Haven’t you read what Kendrick’s been writing over the last year. Evans is our Birmingham Mail guy now, Kendrick writes anything he wants.
not by much need to show a three year plan on raising revenue
the real cost of o’neill’s failure to get us into champions league at that time is now apparent
FFP ….it will die on its arse once the top lawyers start to get a grip with it. ‘Restriction of trade’ legislation will kill it and it will be scrapped within the next 12 months IMO. Its a complete nonsense and more and more clubs will find a way around the rules.
city knew what they were doing when they gambled and broke the ffp rules, if they didn’t propel themselves into the champions league spot at that time they would’ve been hanging onto liverpools/spurs coat tales. if they had appealed there would of been a chance for the ffp to be abandoned,so they didn’t so closing the door behind them. the rules have been relaxed at the moment to allow platinis favorites psg to catch up then once uefa get the clubs they want in the elite class the rest can do one super league on the way
If Benteke was called Bentinho he would be worth 35 milly (minimum).
Anyone who has a name ending in ‘inho’ automtically increases in value by 10 milly
#footythoughtfortheday