Adam2003

I don’t think that’s a harsh thing to say either. He started at the bottom and has done his time in League 1 and 2. His natural level is as a good Championship player and the fact he has achieved beyond that by playing and scoring in the PL, playing in multiple playoff finals, playing in the League Cup final, winning a couple of dozen international caps etc is credit to him and a sign he’s making the most of his career. If Swansea don’t turn this round I would imagine another loan is on the cards next season.

Funny that 8 years after this thread was started I think people still debate the title. Like Zlatan he is one of those players who clearly has amazing talent but who there is a real split amongst fans on just how good they are - partly because they’ve basically ‘always had it easy’ being in the best team in their league.

But Foden is 21. Just. When Jack was his age he was making the odd appearance in our relegation season. Both are sensational players is the short answer though.

I lived in the Czech Republic 20+ years ago and it was a thing then, but this is the first time I’ve seen it officially like this for a football tournament or similar.

Who do we have at the tournament? Grealish, Watkins, Mings if they make the cut, plus McGinn?

Depends on the brand. He won’t be the face of a bank or an airline, but a clothing company or anything targeted at those under 25 won’t care about him being a bit of a badboy. Nike’s piece with him last year showed that. You’re right he’s never going to be Ronaldo level of endorsements though.

Chubby bugger.

What happens now? You send this to Purslow and they do the deal?

Giroud?

I think this fails to do him justice. He’s 21. At his age Grealish was a bit-part player in our relegation season. Personally I’d rather Pereira or Buendia than McNeil but what I will say is at some point someone will sign this kid (Spurs or Everton etc if it’s not us) and he will go on to play for England. He’s already better than the likes of Trez but I think he will go on to be very, very good indeed. If we dropped £40m on him I think in three years we would be saying it was an astute signing. And I’m not even saying “oh my god let’s sign him” - just that based on the times I have watched him he’s clearly going to have a very good career at a good top-half PL club.

I think the prices people are quoting in here will be low. Burnley will want top dollar for him.

Bruce will offer him a year at Newcastle you would think.

This is always the weird Taylor paradox for me! Good luck to him.

So I don’t think we will sell Grealish. I definitely don’t see it happening. But to your point above - Purslow DID sell Torres to Chelsea and famously said something like “I did a little dance across the Stamford Bridge turf after they signed because we knew he was never going to stay fit.” Liverpool fans were totally devastated but it turned out to be a smart move. Then they spunked most of the cash on Andy Carroll mind you.

Posted this in the Buendia thread but: McNeil’s stats have never been as impressive as they should be but every time I watch him I think there is a player there. I rate Pereira and would be delighted with any one of these three. Two of them just feels greedy...

McNeil’s stats have never been as impressive as they should be but every time I watch him I think there is a player there. I rate Pereira and would be delighted with any one of these three. Two of them just feels greedy...

I actually don’t think he flits in and out - every time I see them he’s dangerous. But like you I try not to see them too often so I’m no expert!

Don’t particularly think we should sign Benteke but I’m not sure where the “he will be on massive wages” comes from - presumably he’ll take the best he can get and I don’t see teams lining up to pay him £100,000 per week.

In a team that apart from him was absolute garbage top to bottom. He’s a great player.

This is the final decision for the club. They are sick of everyone moaning so they are just letting VillaTalk make the calls now. I am a rare Pereira voter by the way. I haven’t seen enough of Buendia but every time I see Pereira he looks dangerous and I think we would do more from set pieces with him, and Grealish wins a lot of free kicks. (Given 15x as many people have voted for Buendia I will assume I am wrong though!)

Sad for him to miss the Euros but then again not much over six months ago people were saying he would never play a PL game again so he’s certainly turned things around since last summer.

First day as a Villa fan?

Grealish - Buendia - Traore El Ghazi - Grealish - Buendia Would be our two main options I would think, assuming we added him and not another attacking mid. And I guess we would use a mix of them.

I beg your pardon but no-one loves his old man more than I do. Forget the kid, put Juan Pablo back in our first team now.

...and then another 6 we were miles better than as well. But I agree we can’t just assume we will continue to progress. This league only gets harder.