There’s been loads of clamour for us to sign Tyrone Mings and quite rightly so.
He proved a confident, play-out type of defender that we know Dean Smith wants.
He was also vocal on the pitch, which is always important.
While I think at times he seems so relaxed he can be sloppy, which might find him caught out at Premier league level, he’ll improve.
There’s more to it for me though, in that he inspires confidence, with a seemingly never ending smile on his face and most importantly of all, the rapport he has developed with the fans, with his singing with us and even wearing the kit on his arrival home after the play-off victory.
It’s that last part that makes him a player we must sign.
So why haven’t we, yet?
It’s quite simple, really and it’s the fact that we have a matching clause, where if we match any incoming bid, we get him, simple. Well, depending on wages, of course.
And as far as I know, no-one else has bid for him yet.
We have to be clinical and wonder why if he’s that good, there’s been no other offers as yet?
We could go straight in and offer £15 million or so and get it done, but that would be really poor business.
Why do it, when there may be no other offers and we could buy him at the minimal fee that’s probably been set in the agreement (I’ll guess around £8 million)?
Not that it matters.
I’m totally convinced he wants to come to us and we’ll easily match any last minute offer that might come in.
I really wouldn’t expect Mings in before deadline day and suspect he half knows he’s coming to us, whatever happens.
We’re not just buying him for his ability.
We also want him for what he’s added to the positive feeling that we’re currently experiencing.
It’s being suggested that Axel Tuanzebe is going to sign a long term contract for Man Utd and I find it questionable, myself.
Why would he, if, as much as OGS promises to have a look at him and even hints he’ll play him, there’s nothing concrete behind it?
Man U are never going to guarantee that a young lad plays. They can’t afford too.
And I’d rate OGS as one of the favourites for the sack anyway, so his opinion possibly doesn’t count for much.
It’s probably more about trying to get the best price on Man U’s part, combined with the best wages on his agent’s part.
It all depends on Axel himself. He knows he’ll get a start for us, week in, week out.
If he doesn’t come to us, so be it. We move on and no doubt have other targets.
Phillips is a different kettle of fish and it reminds me of the Grealish situation last year.
We apparently seriously want him and it makes sense, as he’s a player I reckon could easily make the step up to the Prem. It’s an area we’re seriously light on too.
Yet, he admirably wants to stay at Leeds. You can’t fault any player for loyalty.
It would seem Leeds are going to offer him a better contract, but I very much doubt they could match the money that we could offer him and it’s the money that talks.
As much as it grates, I really hope he ignores his agent, signs that contract and stays at Leeds for another year, just as Jack did with us.
Then, if he and the team continue to do well, Leeds benefit from a higher sale price, the player gets a better offer and everyone’s a winner.
The difference from the Grealish situation though, is that Phillips is being offered the Premier league now, if we really are in for him.
Which makes it a little tricky.
A guaranteed step up in leagues has to be a tempter.
I think he’ll stay.
Whatever, I’m sure things are going on in the background and while it’s frustrating that not much is happening, things will happen.
I’m pretty sanguine about it all.
Comments
123 responses to “Why haven’t we signed Mings? or Tuanzebe? Or Phillips?”
Read that Mings has signed a three year contract
Sensible. I’m sure there will be an extension on the table if he has a strong first season!
Talk of Tuanzebe coming in on loan again. Might make a lot of sense for both clubs, especially given the money we have already spent.
Then we can go and buy Maupay and Phillips! 🙂
Agreed! I’d be stunned if Webster turned up now. Need to spend the money on a holding midfielder and a proven goalscorer.
If we can get a class GK, a strong holding MF, and a goal-poacher (think of the supply he’ll get!), then we’ve got a damn good team that I believe we’ll be extremely competitive!
UTV!
It’s being reported that we’ve made a £7 million bid for Heaton. Could be an excellent move IMHO.
He’d be easily worth 10 points to us this season and at 33 he’ll have a few good years left in him yet.
It is a sad thing – once when England’s outfield players were second rate we could always say our goalkeepers were top drawer.
Sadly that is no longer true, it probably ended with Seaman. Butland and Heaton aren’t good enough to keep a team in the top half of the Premiership, even though they have recent International caps. Villa, if they want to get a keeper who will earn us points against better teams, will need to look abroad.
Much better value than Butland and arguable a better GK. Should get 5 years out of him. Look how Burnley’s form changed dramatically when he came back in for Harte. Hope we can get him in! I think I’d still prefer Etheridge at 12 million, though…
Agree on Heaton; 33 is OK for a GK and we should get him at a reasonable price. Also allows time for Steer to develop into our No. 1.
Also being suggested that Tuanzebe might be available on loan again – think that would also be a good move.
Definitely need a quality holding mid and another striker – will we keep hold of Hogan?
Sawiris and Edens have injected another £30m of cash into Villa via a further allocation of shares by Recon – only 70% taken up to date so another £11m can be injected at a future date.
Oh Dear we have made a terrible mistake, Newcastle want Steve Bruce, what were we thinking?
🙂 🙂
Hopefully SB can book one of the bottom 3 spots for NUFC in the Premiership.
Not sure what the issue is with spending £25m on Mings in todays market, if Perez can go to Leicester for £30m then Mings is easily worth £50m.
Hope Steve Bruce gets the Newcastle job. I still wish him well despite it not working out with Villa. He did sign McGinn of course! That could mean 4 premier league clubs with managers / coaches who support the club. Lampard is questionable because he was a West Ham fan as a kid but now proclaims to be Chelsea. 🤔
Did anyone else read the article that says we were offered a clause where we could have signed Mings for £17 mill, in the January window?
That still would have been ridiculously expensive, as he was basically testing himself at a Championship club, but with 20-20 hindsight we should have taken it up,
Indicates to me that we thought we’d get him cheaper though.
Heaton for 7m….Maupay for 15m…Phillips for 15m…Tuanzebe on loan….that will do for me!
I like your wish list although I think we will have to pay more than those figures. Tuanzebe on loan only if we can sign him at the end otherwise get someone else.
Holte – agree on Tuanzebe. I like the idea of Hegazi from Albion (they’d hate that) with Mings Hause and Chester as CB’s, bring in Heaton and with both full back positions covered that would give us a more than useful defensive squad – key to survival imho.
Bring in a defensive mid – Phillips – and a striker, although not sure Maupay is the man depends very much on price and the squad looks pretty tasty.
Don’t know anything about Trezeguet; understand he’s a winger and got good reports from the African Cup – the new Salah 🙂 Anyway Smith and Suso went out to Egypt to see him play so must be on the radar.
Exciting times to be a Villa fan once again.
News Flash – according to reports we have made an offer for Trezeguet. It’s also reported he wants to leave his present club for the Prem.
OK new link with reports saying we are in talks with Brentford over their England U21 CB Ezri Kansa for around £10m. Smith brought him to Brentford from Charlton and thinks very highly of him. Also suggested the signing of Jansson paves the way for him to leave (as an aside I thought the Jansson signing was an excellent move by Brentford for £5m)
Konsa deal now being reported by Sky at £12m which triggers a release clause in his contract.
Really don’t know anything about him other than Smith is reputed to rate him very highly. Fits the Purslow / Smith profile.
Does that mean that Tuanzebe is unlikely to come back if we buy Konsa?
That would be a shame but, if Konsa is as good as Smith thinks he is, then it might be the best thing as Konsa will be ours and not just a loanee.
It seems that that Smith is building a squad not just a team and some players may be competing for places. That’s a good thing in my book.
So far, so good 🙂
According to the Sun Konsa is undergoing a medical and should be signed within the next day or so –
https://www.thesun.co.uk/sport/football/9478977/ezri-konsa-aston-villa-medical-brentford-transfer/
Konsa is young and for the future perhaps and will presumably provide cover at CB. As I said before Smith is building a squad not just a team.
Are anyone else slightly concerned we haven’t got many proven premier league players. I believe Smith has captured the signings most fans would have wanted. For me preferably Smith should bring in experienced names to compliment the exciting young talent we already have. He still might do so but having let go Whelan, Jedinak, Hutton and Elphick, these are the types of players we have to replace albeit a few years younger.
Well we’ve got one proven and very experienced Prem player – our Assistant Manager. I’m sure that JT’s experience and input will be crucial in helping our younger players come to terms with the pace of the game in the Prem.
I don’t think there’s anything overly special in being ‘experienced’, if you’re good enough then you’ll do well. Look at Wolves.
BBC reports that Konsa has signed –
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/48947281
Seems like the Sun was actually right for once.
Welcome to the Villa Ezri.
Useful round up by the BBC –
‘Since promotion, Villa have signed Mings for £20m, defender Kortney Hause from Wolves, winger Anwar El Ghazi from Lille, left-back Matt Targett from Southampton, forward Wesley from Club Brugge and midfielder Jota from Birmingham.’ And now Konsa. So seven players bought in all.
Good going but I’d still like Phillips though…
The season hinges on getting a proven goalscorer…
I would really like Maupay. I suspect that may happen but we are biding our time. I don’t get the impression that Smith rates Kodjia that highly. Another goalscorer is a must though. I suspect that we could find an alternative to Phillips for similar money to what we are offering at the moment, so maybe best do that and put the spare cash into the goalscoring position.
Exciting times
Bjorn Engels
Aston Villa are in ‘advanced negotiations’ to sign Belgian defender Björn Engels from Stade de Reims, reports in France are claiming.
The 24-year-old centre-back only joined Reims permanently from Greek side Olympiakos earlier this year but reports have now emerged to suggest he could be on his way to Villa Park.
Engels’ contract with Reims doesn’t expire until 2023 but L’Equipe – via Get French Football News – reckon the Ligue 1 side are ready to cash in.
Birmingham Live.
Could Engels play the holding role? Have we given up on Phillips? Or could he be competition and cover for Phillips if he comes in? I can’t see up putting 30 million on the table, and Leeds don’t need to sell, neither does the player want to leave. I think the sensible money is on Phillips staying put for season 2019/20.
Interesting article in the Guardian about why we’re not ‘doing a Fulham’ –
https://www.theguardian.com/football/who-scored-blog/2019/jul/11/aston-villa-mistakes-fulham-summer-transfer-window-signings
Get there early for Villa’s first game back in the EPL, and as you take your seat in the £58M stadium have a look around, and consider when the team walk out the value of Villa Park and contents will have tripled.
I wonder if you thought you would see the day when that happened.
The Telegraph have reported that “Villa have agreed a £15m deal with City and Douglas Luiz is set to fly out to USA to join up with the rest of his new squad.
Douglas has yet to make a first team appearance at The Etihad and has spent the last two seasons on-loan at Spanish club Girona. He is highly thought of by Pep Guardiola though, who was left frustrated when the FA declined to grant him a work permit to play on these shores.
Villa are understood to be confident of avoiding any such issues and are hoping to complete his signing in the next few days. Sources suggest the deal is approximately around the £15m mark. City are also understood to have inserted a buy-back clause.”
I saw him play for Girona a few times last season and he looked a decent player. As he’s a defensive mid-fielder I wonder if that means Phillips is staying at Leeds?
Possibly better value at £15m and City must rate him if they’ve inserted a buy back clause. I assume their problem with a work permit is the number of overseas players already registered to the club rather that the player himself not qualifying. Still we’ve been here before and failed in getting a work permit.
How many more players are we going to buy?
I hope there isn’t a buy out clause for Citeh. Basically if he does really well we lose him!! Where is the sense in that? Are we still a breeder club for the big six? I had hoped with our wealthy owners, now we are back in the premier league that we would no longer have these type of deals. Spend an extra 10m on Phillips and have a long term plan without contract concerns.
Realistically though, how good do you have to be to make it as a midfield player in Citeh?
Holte, I have no problem, in principle, with a but back clause as long as it allows us to sell back at a fair market value – after all Citeh are only likely to activate it if Luiz is good enough to play in their midfield (which is Tom’s point). That’s a much better scenario than a loan deal vis the Mings situation.
*buy back -duh
So if for example we insert a £30m buy back clause which is peanuts to Citeh, and he has an impact like McGinn did last season then we are powerless to hold onto him? I understand that contracts aren’t worth the paper they are written on, but it will always feel like he is Citehs player in waiting. Sorry, but for me I wouldn’t accept deals like that. I get the fact that we stand to make a profit if he does well, but we would have to spend the sale money to buy an equivalent player.
Holte, on the bright side a buy-back clause might be the only way that we can prise him away from City but, if he’s playing well and the team’s playing well, there’s a good chance that he might not want to go back to City anyway where he might be a bench-warmer at best.
Let’s hope that Douglas, as well as the rest of this fairly young squad, really buy into the Villa project and share the aspirations that our manager and owners clearly have for the club.
I don’t see it like that to be honest. At the end of the day, if a team like Man City wants a player, they usually have the resources to force that kind of deal (as we saw with Barry). I think all a buy back clause does is guarantee they’re letting go of a player that they’re not ready to completely let go of, and guarantees they get him back for not the going market rate. It’s not the best situation for us, but as Pat says, it does get the player through the door. And it’s not a glorified loan, since a loan has no resale return in the least. I highly doubt we’d follow this route unless there IS a substantial profit in the making for Villa, or then it really is a loan.
A piece on why Villa should get a work permit for Douglas while City could not –
https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/douglas-luiz-work-permit-villa-16576203
Unless Douglas gets into the Brazilian team this may hold true even if City want to buy him back. Just hoping that Pitarch and Purslow have done their due diligence on this one if there really is a buy-back clause..
I am so impressed with the transfer policy of Villa. No flash players. Players with ambition and room for improvement. This feels like a well thought out strategy, rather than the splurge we undertook the season we were relegated.
It appears City rated Luiz. That speaks volumes. I can’t wait to see who else joins. Well done to the Villa owners, Purslow, Smith etc. These new players all have age on their side. This could be the foundation of a team that could play together for years. It could mean that in future years we buy 1 / 2 players but of higher value. Who knows?
In the meantime, to all at Villa Park, please keep doing what you are doing.
UTV
https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11677/11761646/aston-villa-mean-business-in-the-summer-window-but-is-it-good-business
This is a good read
we are just killing this transfer window! Douglas Luiz now too!
Just think back to some of the players we were signing a couple of years ago! How times have changed in such a short time.
Crazy as it sounds, in some ways going down and getting the chance to completely rebuild was the best thing for this club. At the end of the Lerner regime, we were club that had lost its identity and were going nowhere fast.
I for one, cant wait for the season to start and prove all these idiots wrong about doing a Fulham!
Fulham signed 5 players on transfer deadline day which, remember, last year was after a month of the season having passed (unlike this). That smacks of panic buying with no clear strategy whereas Villa’s management team seem to have a clear understanding of what is required – even if it’s not all first choice.
Accepting that Mings / Wesley are exceptions then we are clearly unwilling to pay over the odds e.g. Phillips / Webster and move to the next target. I suspect Luiz is instead of Phillips and therefore offers a better value solution at this point.
UTV
Said the same yesterday re Phillips. It looks like we have got a player in for less than half the price to cover the DM position. That’s maybe £15M to go somewhere else. Good business by the club.