Wes

There was talk out of Canada earlier today that Lille might look to raise funds by selling David after just one year, and that Liverpool are very strong admirers. They were considering him last year before getting Jota.

They're at their mini-Summer camp this week. Everyone back from international duty (except Douglas Luiz who is in the Semi Finals of the Olympics tomorrow). Fabrizio Romano has said on Sky Sports News we should know more in the coming hours. He believes the Grealish situation will be resolved this week. Is in line with what we understand - there's meetings today involving player, agent, manager, board and owners.

Yep. Bets information I can find seems to be here. Basically says Sampdoria are expecting to receive a bid from us imminently. Edit: Done some more digging - reports today seem to suggest that Sampdoria are willing to let Damsgaard leave for a high fee. They are trying to generate a fee of around £30-£35m by generating an auction including Villa, Leeds, Liverpool and Spurs. Sampdoria in turn would then replace him with Lee Kang-In from Valencia. I think we have been "singled out" because of the news going on with Grealish, but certainly one to watch.

If you click on the link in the article in the tweet, he is simply repeating a report from ESPN: "According to a separate report by ESPN, Aston Villa are in contacts with his agent over a potential move to the Premier League. The club recently signed Leon Bailey but should the Copa America winner join them, he would become the third Argentine at the club alongside Emiliano Martinez and Emiliano Buendia." I think the ESPN link is from several weeks back, and is based on the initial reports we had about his Agent speaking to Ajax and Villa.

MLS side Orlando City have had a $7m+2m bonuses bid turned down. His agent: "We did not press or anything like that, they only asked us to ask River if they were interested in the player going to play MLS, I only acted as an interlocutor, forwarding the offer because I am not the one to hide an offer," "If the club is interested, they will respond to Orlando City and we will talk. Some time ago we had offers from MLS and Julian was not interested because he prefers to go to Europe ."

Don't disagree regarding the valuation being perhaps rather higher than we would expect, but hopefully was able to point out that I think the player himself fits the profile of the kind of person the current youth-recruitment team are trying to bring in to the club. Tried to separate the information about the player from the Grealish-related transfer aspect of it, but can understand at these times that's a really tricky thing to try to pull off!

Morgan Rogers is an attacking player, only just turned 19. Capped at England U-15,16,17 and 18 level. Can really play on either wing or centrally behind a striker. Came through West Brom academy (so there's a link there to our current academy staff) then was purchased by City for £4m when he was just 16 - a high price for someone so young. He is a very-highly regarded youth prospect. There was talk of Palace buying him this summer for their Vieira revolution. I'm not sure about £10m... but his value would certainly have increased from that £4m level from a few years ago. Still got a lot of room for development. Given how the recruiting staff have aggressively been targetting youth players to join the youth setups recently, with a keen look at the pathway through to the first-team, he would be someone of interest for us. Especially with the ex-West Brom link meaning staff will know him already. I guess the only issue would be the manner of which he might be joining us...

Including this here in this thread because it involves a link to a potential incoming player in Morgan Rogers. Former West Brom youth player, primarily a winger, who moved to City for quite a large fee for a youth player. Has been linked with a move to Crystal Palace this summer.

If there was to be any movement this window here, I think it's now likely to be after August 19th which is the 2nd leg of River Plates Copa Libertadores quarter final. Can't see them wanting to lose him before those matches (unless they had a replacement lined up in some form). This might be one where the timing simply doesn't work well for all parties and might be looked at again in the January window. We'll have to wait and see.

The timing makes some sense. First premier league game is two weeks away. City have the Charity Shield a week before. Grealish is back from holiday this weekend. Both Villa and City have friendly fixtures on Saturday, likely followed with a rest day on Sunday, before training resumes on Monday. He'll be reporting to one of the clubs on Monday you would think.

Basically said on his Twitch channel - if City meets Villa's valuation, Grealish will sign for City. If City don't meet Villa's asking price, Grealish will sign a new contract at Villa.

Came on as a substitute when River Plate were already winning 3-0 against Lanus yesterday. A lot of reports that he did not play well. In fact, since being back with River Plate after his stint with the National team at the Copa America, fans have been saying he hasn't played nearly as well as he did before that tournament. Distracted by talk of a move away? Tired from the long season? Lots of possible reasons - it'll be interesting to see if/how he plays in their next league game on Sunday.

Bettinelli is going to Chelsea so the number of back-up, experienced, home-grown Goalkeeper options are diminishing.

Mohamed Ihattaren, 19 year old attacking midfielder at PSV, has not flown to Turkey for their 2nd leg Champions League qualifier with Galatasaray. He was in their squad for the first leg but didn't start. Supposedly he is just sick but he has one year left on his contract so a transfer could be coming. He's a similar player to Smith-Rowe in some respects so could be one to watch. Can see him being linked with some English clubs in the coming days.

Daily Mail reporting Nakamba wanted by Everton and Crystal Palace.

Talk of Besiktas being interested in him. I would prefer to keep him. As others have said above, he has been good when called upon.

Just for fun: 1. Marcus Thuram - 23yo - Borussia Monchengladbach. French international who has two years left on his contract. Was highly expected to make a move to Spurs this summer, however with their Lamela swap move for Sevilla's Bryan Gil this may be off, unless Bergwijn is sold as well. 2. Jeremie Boga - 23yo - Sassulo. Ivory Coast international also with two years left on his deal in Italy. Pacey dribbler who had a bit of a down year this year compared to the seasonbefore last where he was considered an emerging star in Serie A. 3. Goncalo Guedes - 24yo - Valencia. Portugese international that is being offered around as Valencia unfortunately for them have a terrible owner and are likely to be happy to sell for the cash. Guedes also only has two years left on his contract. Was signed by PSG a few seasons ago but never cut it there before being sold on (still at a profit) to Valencia. 4. Mounir Chouiar - 22yo - Dijon. One of the best dribblers of the ball in Ligue 1. Much like Boga had a better 19-20 season than last year, this would be more of a speculative signing for depth with promise for improvement, rather than immediately ready for the first XI, so is more unlikely to occur. 5. Thiago Almada - 20yo - Velez. Another promising Argentinian prospect, currently with their national side at the Olympics. Has two years left on his contract and a £21.5m release clause. More of an attacking midfielder than a winger, he can play in any of those attacking three positions behind the striker. He would be more like Jack on the wings than an out-and-out wide player. Already an influential member of his team at such a young age. Was expected to go to Marseille earlier this window but they have very recently said they are not pursuing the player this summer. Other names we've been linked to in the past: Florinel Coman, Samuel Chukwueze

If Bettinelli and Bailey come in, by my maths we will be left with up-to 3 spaces left to register for players over the age of 21. The limit is 25. Martinez Steer Bettinelli (rumoured) Cash Konsa Mings Targett Guilbert Hause Young McGinn Douglas Luiz Sanson Nakamba Grealish Buendia Bailey (rumoured) Traore El Ghazi Trezeguet (even injured, would likely still be registered) Watkins Wesley I'm assuming Hourihane is on his way out and Davis goes on loan. Julian Alvarez would be classified as an under-21 due to being born in late January player so wouldn't count towards the 25. I think one of those three remaining spots (and we don't have to fill up all of them of course) will be on a fourth Centre Back as we lack cover there since Engels departure earlier this window. Also if we are getting another central midfielder, and it's not Pape Sarr, keep an eye on Getafe's Arambarri. More news today his agent is trying to get him a move to the Premier League.

One interesting tidbit in the Mail article is that "the club are willing to listen to offers for El Ghazi".

What seems to be a pretty small/local "journalist" who focuses on River Plate is suggesting he's heard that Villa are expecting to make a bid for Alvarez in the coming days. Wouldn't consider it anything concrete at all, but one to monitor over the rest of the week.

Bryan Gil going to Spurs in a Lamela + money deal. Someone I like, really promising creative player. If we hadn't got Buendia, I could see Gil having been on the list for that kind of role for Villa. Transfers slowly ramping up across the league...

Ashley Preece in the Birmingham Mail. The very last line. "...Villa are expected to keep hold of every one of their first-team roster, including Frederic Guilbert." Personally think this is a good move. No point spending an outlay on a position where we have a fine backup to Cash already in house. Fopcus our resources elsewhere.

Apologies - think my wording wasn't particularly great here. You are absolutely right - of course they're going to let him train ! What I was trying to imply was that I don't believe another Striker in is on the horizon at the moment. They seem to be happy with Wesley and monitoring his progress in training - for this window at least.

As it's quiet today lets summarise the rumours shall we: Another goalkeeper as backup/competition for Steer. A decision to be made about Guilbert as RB (personally, I hope he stays) Another Centre Back following Engels departure to bring us up to 4, and provide competition for Konsa and Mings A Centre Midfielder capable of Defensive/Staying Deep responsibilities A flexible Left Wing/Behind the Striker attacker Giving Wesley a chance in training so no immediate need for another Forward I think we will likely spend our largest outlay on that Left Wing/Attack Mid position. If we were willing to offer £35m for ESR, that would signal as such. This might be Alvarez, who despite reports, can play anywhere across the three behind the striker positions, but will just need time to get used to what's required of him in whichever position in our structure. Personally I think Alvarez is not so much a "this summer needs" target, but more a youth target to eventually take over from Trezeguet who I think will be sold next summer. Buying Alvarez early gives him a year to fully aclimatise. This is what good teams too - buy early, let them settle, integrate in team naturally. We could end up buying two to cover this slot - someone for the starting eleven, plus Alvarez. I think we will also spend considerably on that Centre Back option. Over £10m easy. We currently only have 3 senior Centre Backs. Should either Konsa or Mings get injured, we would curently be in a sticky sitution. The Defensive Midfielder is probably more of a "nice to have" option. We have players who can play there, although Luiz will be at the Olympics at the start. It's evident Smith would like more options here. If the talk of us not meeting Pepe Sarr's asking price is true (and I'm still thinking this is negotating talk at this stage) it would suggest we would only get someone here for the right price - no need to push it. I think for Goalkeeper we will pick up a free agent with Premier League experience. Someone like Paulo Gazzaniga. So anywhere between 3 to 6 further new signings would be my guess. Everyone who played in the latter stages Copa America or Euros is likely going to have three weeks off. Bare that in mind when thinking about when announcements might be made - they would either be this week, before holidays, or towards the start of August.

Not trusting an account created in March 2020, tweeted first in January 2021 to a Sheffield United fan account, then nothing again until suddenly yesterday has incredible transfer insight? Plus has just a couple hundred of followers. Until they have some kind of track record, ignore.