El-Reacho

32 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

In the immortal words of Bjork; it’s oh so quiet 

Wait until the chorus kicks in - then we're in business

2 hours ago, paul514 said:

Total click bait and I’m dead against signing a striker but with one caveat.

if someone wants Ollie for like 50m and we could get ramos for say 65m  then I would totally do that

Crazy gamble that - if he’s that certain to be a 15+ goal a season premier league striker he’ll be going to City/PSG/RM.

The chances of us signing someone who outperforms Watkins is very small IMHO. It’d be a massive gamble to offload a striker we know will get us goals.

Any idea what sort of money we’re likely to be paying for him? Record signing territory?

On 10/06/2023 at 10:59, VillaJ100 said:

The Houllier season was a bit odd. It looked like he was trying to create a certain style and in the nick of time it all started to click and we did enough to stay up and finish 9th. It all come to a halt though as was to ill to carry on 

Could be a sliding doors moment worthy of another thread but you wonder what may have been if he’d be healthy enough to continue for a few seasons. He obviously identified the like of Gabby as being toxic and tried to change that negative culture in the club. I remember Henry Winter saying Villa were in for an exciting summer just before his health deteriorated. 

He’d be a good option as a player for the U23s whilst coaching the underage groups - bit like Paul McShane at manure.

Thought Tyler Adams was superb in his role off the pitch at the World Cup. Really mature and smart for someone his age in those press conferences. Don’t really know what level he’s at as a player though.

On 06/06/2023 at 21:05, Xela said:

Cruyff especially. He would have been nothing without CP

Pretty sure Johan himself actually referred to the move as the 'Purslow Pirouette'.

He's just using us to get a better deal with Barca. James Ward Prowse all over again.... We're better off without. 

Wonder who’d be managing us now if Martin O’Neill had been offered the England job before he came to us in 2006?

Edit - Double post.

Great thread! Imagine we'd beaten United in that inaugural Premier League season. We were well matched clubs with a very similar history and pedigree. Look where they went to on the back of that title and look where we've been ever since.... 

On 21/05/2023 at 22:48, Mark Albrighton said:

Terry retired the summer before. 

He would have had some coaching input from Terry, I’m sure. But I guess it’s one thing having that experience on the training ground, it’s quite another to have it in a shirt next to you in a game.

Mings’ partner in the championship for the most part was Axel.

Odd that Tuanzebe has never kicked on. He looked as good as Mings during that run in to promotion - they were brilliant together. I think I heard on the radio the other night that United were due to release him on a free.

18 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Dunk is OK, got no problem with him being called up, same with Ben White even though he's played RB most of the season 

But that would mean that maguire is still in there, drop dier and guehi

Thought Ben White would be out of contention after the World Cup. Didn't he walk out because he wasn't getting picked?

52 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Some of you lot are nuts and have no idea about organisational structures or job roles. Not to mention forgetting the fact that Purslow has put his own money into the club - he is quite literally an investor!
What are you even calling him out for? do you even know? Sure he got involved in actual football matters a little more than he should have, but from the a business perspective, we are doing pretty well no? 

Craziness. 

Even that's hearsay - no one knows exactly what involvement he has had except those within the club.

57 minutes ago, gaz90 said:

I see people saying this a lot, but is there actually much evidence to suggest wages + signing fee for a free transfer equals the same as a standard transfer fee + wages + signing fee? I read an ESPN article last year that suggested an out of contract PL player with CL experience was looking for a £10m signing fee, though teams weren't willing to pay that much. The article didn't disclose who that player was, but a player with that type of profile and years left on their contract would have cost much more than £10m in last summer's market.

I guess it depends on the player and where he is in his career but certainly at the highest level where teams are competing for the best players that's the way it works. Teams know what they'll have to pay to have a champions league level player over three or four seasons, so if they pay a transfer fee plus wages over that four year period or pay a signing on fee and wages over that time it'll balance out to the market rate either way. We're paying Kamara a bucketload in lieu of paying OM a fee, but we're still essentially paying a total of £Xm to have him play for us for Y number of years.

13 minutes ago, TH said:

Ceballos is actually an interesting one, could be quite a smart signing. Good pedigree - Arsenal took him on loan for a second season, plenty of time at Madrid - it’s hard to replace the likes of Modric, Kroos, etc. About to turn 27. Experience in both CL and PL. On a free too. Makes sense?

Might be a replacement for Coutinho?

Free transfers generally work out as the same financial outlay as paying a transfer fee - we'll just be paying him a premium in wages and signing fee instead of a fee to his club. Can't really remember how well he did for Arsenal but I guess if Emery does want him again he must've done well.

28 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

yeah i didn't hear that either...and if it sounds like he did, i'm going to bet that it absolutely wasn't intentional. if it was that obvious, surely a bigger deal would've been made of it?

A few of the pundits commented on that video and how much sense it made to put it out, including Henry Winter and Gary Linekar. If Purslow had said that it would've been all over the media. He's a businessman he doesn't get emotional or bothered about this stuff. 

5 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

The defence is a strange one simply because, as mad as it sounds, Mings and Konsa were never supposed to get this good! 

As good as Mings/Konsa have been defensively since Emery arrived I guess the question now is can the like of Pau Torres be as good or better defensively but also improve how we start our attacks from the back? That's maybe were they've identified room for improvement - especially against top level sides. Emery will likely want to take us to a level where we are competing on every level against elite sides, rather than a 6-2-2 where we've hit them on the break. 

17 hours ago, Villatillidie95 said:

your right, palace have offered him a 4 year deal worth 200k per week. If thats the case we need to look elsewhere, it will be too disruptive for the dressing room atm

He'll be heading toward his mid 30s for the latter half of that contract. I don't think he's the elite talent he was even at this stage so £200k for 4 years is an insane contract to offer him. 

38 minutes ago, Indigo said:

Not so sure about this. Especially as the seasons have gone on he isn't a particularly attacking full back, and often times would be the more reserved of himself and Cancelo for City. I'd actually say his skillset is pretty well suited to being a more defensive full back where the other player bombs on.

He seems more suited to the right hand side of a back 3 at this stage. I think he’s ideal for the RB position in Emery’s current set up.

9 hours ago, paul514 said:

I can list off  whole series of names but it depends on what the manager wants from his centre forward.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/folarin-balogun/profil/spieler/503770
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jonathan-david/profil/spieler/533738
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/elye-wahi/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/659542
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/hugo-ekitike/profil/spieler/709726
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/goncalo-ramos/profil/spieler/550550
https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/enes-unal/leistungsdatendetails/spieler/251106

I'd have the stats team and scouts looking at them.

All I am saying is 60m is silly money for him considering that only about 40 players have ever been sold for that figure or more.

He is in fantastic form right now, but

He is still the same man that was just a decent top half striker before that
He still turns 28 in December, he isn't old but his resale value is effected from then on
He would turn a very large FFP profit allowing us to spend far more than the profit amount when you consider amortisation.
It shows players we are willing to sell when the big offer comes in, this is something people don't consider enough....... everyone wants to get the massive wages, play in the CL etc. We want to attract people on there way to being etc best.

It’d be crazy to start next season with an unproven PL striker regardless of what their stats are. Some of the best strikers in the world have come to the premier league and flopped. There’s no way we’ll be selling a proven PL scorer to replace him with an unknown.

It’ll be May on Monday and we’re in fifth. Unbelievable.