MessiWillSignForVilla

3 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

That guy has only tweeted 20 times. Seems a low amount for a sports journalist with the kind of contacts to know this. 

Dunno about the twitter account, but the Facebook one looks legit, it's verified and posted fairly regularly.

6 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

a watkins/wesley partnership excites me. whilst my opinions on samatta aren't at their highest currently, i've not given up on him. think his attitude is right. we need a decent 4th striker though and davis needs to go on loan.

the very real thought of starting next season with watkins, wes, sama, and davis is a little concerning.

I really like the idea of this, especially if we keep Grealish, I think a sort of floating front three of Grealish/Wesley/Watkins could be really good. Just need another CM to compliment McGinn and Douglas Luiz.

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

so we now have 3 assistant Head Coaches???

I'm guessing that due to Edens' involvement the roles are following american naming convention. I think I'm right in saying their sports teams have loads of assistant coaches.

9 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

How's this Mackenzie viewed in general would you say?

He's either very good or a magnificent blagger.

His constant moving around seems strange to me.

I imagine if you dig into it that people in those sorts of roles tend to move around quite a lot, as they get poached by other clubs and new managers come in who don't see eye to eye.

13 minutes ago, Genie said:

Marc Albrighton, maybe not 17 goals but would create a lot too

30 year old Marc Albrighton who got 0 goals and 5 assists all season? Compare that to El Ghazi, for example,  whogot 6 goals and 7 assists in a much worse team.

Yeah, it's a no thanks to Albrighton, especially compared to Benrahma.

1 minute ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

I dont exclude players we have loaned out. They are exactly the kind of players I want us to keep in mind as we recruit from the lower leagues again.

But they are players we bought in the championship, for the championship. Even then, it's only Hogan and Bree, and Bree was a cheap 19 y/o youth prospect when we bought him.

2 minutes ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Again Luiz did not come to us from a championship club. I just want to do like for like. Which players have we recruited from a championship club who is going to start for us next season in the PL?

I got Konsa and Conor..... thats a pretty bad return.

 

And the only other players in our squad (excluding players already loaned out) that we bought from a Championship side are Lansbury and Jota, so 50/50 isn't bad.

Don't think I've seen a bad hummel kit for next season yet, they've all been great.

God I hope that's a training kit

4 minutes ago, sparrow1988 said:

Was it? I thought Phillips said no. Anyway I’ll take your word for it. I only heard it on a podcast which regurgitated the article on the athletic. 

It was in the recent Athletic interview with him, Phillips had discussed it with his family and friends, they had all said he should join if he felt it was the right move and all involved thought he was going to join, then when Orta saw Phillips was still unsure, he pulled the deal.

Just now, sparrow1988 said:

You mean agree it all only for the player to decide he wants to stay?

It was Victor Orta that pulled the deal, not Phillips. Phillips has said he was basically about to join and Orta asked if knew that he wanted to leave, when Phillips told him he wasn't sure, Orta pulled the deal and said they weren't selling him.

2 hours ago, villan-scott said:

£3m + Hogan or no deal.

If this is true, then I say we should take the approach Leeds took with Phillips last summer, if Jack isn't sure if he wants to leave, then we're not selling him unless we get exactly what we want for him.

3 hours ago, ciggiesnbeer said:

Every club has its star players linked with an unwelcome move at some point. This is nothing special. We lived through years of it with Benteke,.When he got his move it turned out we had seen the best of him and the move was perfect for us. During the time Benetke was here though he really was world class.  Whether he got worse after he left or we just suited him or his injury got him we dont know. 

Anyway, if anyone stressing about Grealish leaving maybe recalling Benteke will help. Sometimes things just work out.

We got relegated and had to endure 3 years in the Championship after Benteke left, I wouldn't say selling him worked out for us.

26 minutes ago, Cliffy Biro said:

Really hope Bournemouth fall into oblivion now if they are going to act this pathetically, blame everyone else but themselves for their demise.

It was that point that kept us up but none of the points since right? You didn't have the chance to secure your own survival in the last 8 games right? Piss off.

Why do you think they're kicking up a fuss? They're **** screwed without the Premier League money, it's something like 88% of their revenue and they owe over £70m in transfers, they're about to sink like a stone, especially if the EFL introduce a salary cap.

Have Vitoria got any decent players? 

Also where Easah Suliman plays now, weird coincidence.

2 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

100+ mill now not 80 we want, he still has much work to do here at Villa, still plenty for him to do.

To be fair, that was a very conservative estimate, assuming Covid takes a bit off the fee, and Grealish pushes for a move too, but you're right, I reckon it would actually be much closer to £100m we'd want, which I think makes it even more unlikely he'll leave.

That's that then.

For me I think the biggest thing about whether he leaves will be the potential buyer. I think if we get a decent offer, we will sell, and Grealish will join a team playing in Europe/with European ambitions, but I really don't know who will buy him. Utd are most heavily linked, but they also want Sancho for £100m + and have been linked with James Rodriguez which'll be a decent sized fee, so will they be willing to part with £50m+ (conservative estimate) for a player that'll likely be a backup? I don't think Liverpool will be interested, for similar reasons, I don't see them spending that much on a backup. Man City would spend that much, and he would be a good fit, it's just whether they're interested. Chelsea have Mount/Pulisic/Gilmour that occupy similar positions, and are bringing in Werner and Ziyech, so again, not sure they'll spend the money. Spurs possibly, but Levy is a tight arse and I think Mourinho wouldn't want him.

I think that only leaves Arsenal as a realistic option for a long term step up in England, and whilst I think he would be perfect for them (suits their team, would walk in to their starting XI, the type of player they should be after), I think they would need to be in the Europa League to justify; 1) the transfer fee, and 2) Grealish agreeing to join.

I'm still ready to accept he'll leave this summer, but the more I think about, the more it makes sense that he'll stay. Plus that tweet gives hope he's staying, although it might be reading in to it.

It will probably be announced he's leaving tomorrow now!

4 minutes ago, Genie said:

Something doesn’t quite ring true, why would Dortmund over pay by about £25m on a promising youngster if they could get him for a nominal compensation fee?

Because Bellingham wouldn't have joined otherwise.

16 minutes ago, GENTLEMAN said:

Yeah it’s real noble of him. But you thank him, wish him luck and work towards making the club as competitive as possible next season, starting with the correct managerial appointment. You certainly don’t have a carnival. 
 

To be sure that is a Dong vanity parade. Absolute joke club. 
 

I’m grateful nonetheless

long live dong

15 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Is that not the same with any highly rated kid. 

Could Rooney not have done that or Theo? Blues seem to be acting like this is the first time this has happened.

Yeah it's stupid, but that's the reasoning I think.

23 minutes ago, The_Rev said:

They probably see the club is trending on Twitter and think it’s a good thing.  
Maybe they retired the number because they got a big (ish) fee? 

To be serious for a second depite how hilarious and ridiculous I find all of this, Bellingham had the opportunity to leave on a free as he is 17, but he demanded that any team interested in him would negotiate a transfer fee with Blues, which has eased their current financial issues, I think they owe something like £90m to their owner. It's still ridiculous, but I think that's the jist of why the number was retired.

7 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

You keep saying this, but he is right footed.

That video would suggest he's Left footed. Primarily dribbles with his left, most passes are with his left and his few goals are left footed.

If he's right footed then the miss is more concerning as he had time to shift on to his right.