skarroki

Ideal scenario is throw him into the top flight somewhere else if we were going to loan him out. I think the general feeling is the championship is done and dusted for him now. If he can get a season under his belt in France, Portugal or the Netherlands for example I feel that would really show he's ready, as he can handle a new environment and culture and still perform. As much as it would be good to get him into a different Prem team on loan, I do worry about the idea of that. If he does well then the liklihood is that they'll be able to convince him to stay with the loan club, as they've already proven they'll give him a chance at this level and help him perform. If he does badly, then you've got a player worth £10mil - £15mil currently and sent him somewhere for his price to tank and his confidence to take a kicking. At least a club in Europe means he's out of the eye of the British media unless he's doing well. I'm sure everyone here can name a bunch of British players that have done well in Europe recently, but you'd struggle to name any British players who are doing badly. I'd like to see what he can do staying at the club though.

There's not enough good strikers out there to be selling off one we brought through the academy. They're in hot demand currently, it's well worth keeping Archer around. Could save us £40mil if all goes well. That step up from Championship to the Prem is a complete unknown most the time. There's players who look ready-made for the Prem who cannot hack it and players that you'd think are struggling at that level that suddenly become Prem regulars. Because of that, if we need more numbers in the squad, I would want any academy players reaching the 21-22 age bracket where they need to be registered as one of the 25 to be kept on and hope they'll impress Unai. I don't know if this is a commonly held sentiment in modern football, but I think acheiving anything good this season will be better if the Ramsey's, Philogene, Archer, Iroegbunam et al had a hand in that success.

Would prefer he went to Lille if he goes on loan as their squad is ridiculously small so he's guaranteed to play.

Mings has made some lovely passes into midfield to be fair to him

Buendia and Philogene the highlights for me this half, but I'm a sucker for twinkly feet and a nice little dinked ball

I just think we should bite the bullet and go for it whilst we're in the mood for "omg Villa managed to get him?" Transfers

I doubt he knows the password to that account but still it's nice to know whoever he's paying is on the ball.

That sounds like someone who's on there way to the MLS or Saudi Arabia then I guess. If it's entirely money driven move.

I don't think Luton will ever sell for profit, he's not on a big contract and will be 30 by the next transfer window and his career highlight in England is doing a good job in midfield for a small Championship team for 6 months, unless you count sporadically playing for Villa over 3 years as a better achievement.

I feel like I've mentioned him a few times now and also in general football forums but get very little reaction. Is there something about him I don't know about? Why is no-one signing him and why did Frankfurt let him go?

Plymouth got Bali Mumba back for £1mil. He'll be ending up in the Prem I'm sure, hoping we're keeping tracks on him as an option if/when Digne goes. Would be an idea player for the tactics we played last season.

Announce Kamada

Dja-bee is definitely how I interpret it. Watching stuff on the bundesliga YouTube channel is jarring as the narrator says Deearrbee followed seconds later by a commentator saying dja-bee Love that video, finding all the players say their names in their native language really interesting until it cuts to Jeremie Frimpomg in a borderline cockney accent "JEREMY FRIM PON"

Has this got legs or are people more hopeful than anything?

Still think there's legs in the Wan-Bissaka rumours too

We're Aston Villa, we're terrified of squad depth.

Would anyone take a punt on Kamada or is it an open secret where he'll end up? Great player on a free. Lots of players in previous years I'd have loved us to go for, Zaha springs to mind. Kent going to Turkey seemed strange too as lots of English clubs seemed to want him a couple of years back.

Said it in the summer window but if I was replacing Olsen I would be looking at Vaclik. Won titles in 3 countries and the Europa league, of a good age for a goalkeeper.

I would think he has good potential and also fills a hole in the under 21 squad so that we can consistently put out an XI of players in their correct positions. I wouldn't expect to see him in the starting line up or loaned out. Hopefully he can really impress the coaches though and then get a loan out to a lower league club in January. Maybe I'm projecting how I manage my youth teams in FM

I'd rather keep Zych as 3rd choice and get Marschall out on loan. He's proven he's ready to be first choice in professional football at an early age and so it would be a shame to go from that experience to occasionally sitting on a bench in Europe and playing under 21 games.

He's done well in consecutive seasons with Gateshead, in the vanarama north then the national League. 14 clean sheets across 39 games is nothing to be sniffed at for a teenager. Hoping we can get him into the football league now with the next loan, there must be some admirers other than Gateshead out there.

My gut feeling based on the start of the pre-season is that we haven't quite cut our losses with Sinisalo. This loan seemed sorted quite early on, if we genuinely thought he wouldn't make it and we could sell him to a lower league side then I think we'd have waited till later in the window to see if a deal could be reached with a different team. We've got Marschal and Zych still at the club so be interesting now to see if either of them step up to be second choice. I think a new 2nd choice coming in without Olsen leaving would be damming for the younger lads. Be watching Sinisalo with interest and really hope he gets himself a clean sheet nice and early in the season

Be interesting to see where he ends up. I'm not sure I can think of a team in the championship that is desperate for that kind of midfielder. Full disclosure, I do have PNE links and there has been a former Villa academy graduate at the club for the last 10 or so seasons, with the likes of Daniel Johnson, Callum Robinson and of course Cameron Archer on loan with them recently. With Johnson leaving this summer I really hope we send someone out to Preston for the season. I think Tim or someone like Duran would be brilliant for them. Maybe Chrisene in a left wingback role too would get plenty of minutes.

I wouldn't mind keeping him here, training with the senior side, and not seeing a minute of senior football this season. Maybe we can throw him in against a league one or two team in the cup if we think he can handle it but I don't think there's much point risking it. Let him learn from the seniors and the coaches and put some muscle on and send him out when he's ready to compete mentally and physically.

Grealish was the furthest I could imagine from a Guardiola player even 12 months ago, now he's a key cog in a treble winning side. If you'd pointed out Haaland to me a year before he signed too I'd have said there's no chance of Guardiola wanting a player like him. Think the end result is Guardiola only has a type of player to fans and media, he's pretty broad with the players he works with and signings he makes.