Wes

Starting today for PNE at home against Bristol City!

Uruguay play Venezuela in WCQualifiers on Tuesday so any accepted bid needs to be soon to allow for a member of the medical staff to get across to Uruguay for the medical.

To facilitate that, any bid would really need to be accepted in the next 24 hours for all the knock on things to be able to happen in time.

1 hour ago, Wes said:

Absolutely knew Spurs would get involved in this somehow.

So obvious. Spurs flailing around and latching on to any potential deal moving at the moment. They need to appease both their fans and Conte.

Absolutely knew Spurs would get involved in this somehow.

Can see an agreement eventually being reached somewhere in the middle, it's convincing the player (and also stopping other clubs swooping in - I can see a desperate Spurs for example coming in at the last minute) that I think will be the bigger hurdle. Hopefully those conversations have already happened behind the scenes though.

There's the 4th CB. Contract was up in the summer so it will be a low fee. Can also cover RB in a pinch.
Re-evaluate starting CBs in the summer. This is a good squad move.

With regards to the player, I would like Douglas Luiz to stay. To me he personifies our club at the moment; you can see there's great potential there, with moments of brilliance sprinkled in with a few lapses from time to time too. He also seems a great character and he's been here from the start of our journey back in the Premier League.

However, from a squad building point of view, I can see why it makes sense to accept a large enough offer. Couple of reasons for this:

• The emergence of Jacob Ramsey in the Left-sided midfield three position
• Gerrard's preferred profile of player in his base of midfield three
• Only 18 months left on contract

I think if Jacob Ramsey hadn't shown such great growth then our current preferred three would be Douglas Luiz - Nakamba - McGinn. I think Ramsey is simply ahead of him in the pecking order now for that Left-Mid-Three slot, and deservingly so. You also get many natural benefits when a youth player break through and plays regularly in the first XI, but primarily it shows the current youth team players (where Villa have invested very heavily the past few years) a clear pathway to the top.

Douglas Luiz offers a good amount of versatility. He can play in any of those three midfield slots, but it would not be in front of Ramsey, Nakamba or McGinn - definitely based on Nakamba's pre-injury form.

Considering the time remaining on his contract, if we can make a sizable profit on Douglas Luiz, bring in a player more in the mold of what Gerrard is after for a lesser fee and use that money elsewhere.... I think from a Squad-Building point of view this would be an understandable move for the club. That said, if he stays he will still be a good part of our squad.

Natural assumption the other club is Newcastle.

Evening Standard - Arsenal considering Douglas Luiz. Villa have already turned down a £30m bid from a Premier League team (not Arsenal) for him this window.

Related to our search for a Centre Mid.

Think it's going to come down to if Juve want money now (selling Bentancur) or are happy to simply reduce wagebill for time being (Arthur to Arsenal).
Then once that's been finalised, have to convince the player as previously stated.

Bentancur is the experienced signing. Regular international. Knows what it's like to win as a habit. These are the qualities Gerrard have spoken of that he wants.

Kamara is the more club-vision signing. Young, talented, and only going to get better. Fits the tactical shape Gerrard and his team deploy. If we did want him, we wouldn't be able to wait until Summer. As a free agent I think there would be too much competition.

Either would be a welcome addition to the squad.

Julian Alvarez looks like he's going to Manchester City. Or rather signed by them then loaned either back to River or somewhere to one of the City Group clubs.

I think we're going to rue the day we didn't go for him in the summer, as I had hoped back in June.

3 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

It’s a villareport imposter ? How can they have the same Twitter handle?

The fourth character in the imposter's twitter handle is an upper case I, not a lower case L.

Twitter have a terrible font choice where they look exactly the same.

Some good quotes from Gerrard on Sanson's reaction here.

Gerrard, asked Sanson about his reaction in the dressing room afterwards.
He said: "In terms of Morgan, I asked Morgan the question after the game: was the frustration at me or at you making an individual error?
"He assured me it was over the individual error. I'm OK with that. I'm OK with the mistakes in my team because the players are trying to do the right things.
"We've all made them throughout our careers so, I'll never point a finger at a player making a mistake trying to do the right thing.
"I would have had an issue if that was on the back of the decision and the reaction because you need to respect the person that's coming on the side and he assured me it was absolutely nothing to do with that so it wasn't an issue."

Gerrard said in post-match interview with BBC that he trained well this week and deserved his cameo: "Thought he looked really powerful".

Probably nothing, but Olsen has the same Agency as Zakaria...

5 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

What is 'international clearance' with a Scottish player?

 

"...must be completed for a player who is seeking to register for a club in England and has previously been registered for a club abroad (including the other Home Associations), or who is a foreign national seeking to register for the first time in England."

Also, as he's under-18, there's some additional FIFA related administration to do too.

24 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

Where’s our bloody £15m?  What happened to that? 

Became a lesser amount, via option to buy.

That BMail article, is referencing an older BMail article, which in turn is referencing this Daily Mail article from January 1st. It goes through every club and lists have a dozen potential transfer targets.

There's zero new news here.

Wish him well. Plenty of good memories. This is a good deal for us all things considered.