KMitch

SecretLyricMessiLad21 in tears...

Players turn nearly every club in the world down except maybe Madrid, Barcelona, & Man City. It's part of the game. Just because Asensio decided to take oil money over the Premier League doesn't mean our transfer plans were blown up. Emery doesn't strike me as a quitter or even someone who gets easily discouraged, so I doubt he's going to be sulking if top tier players don't want to join at this point in the project. He signed a 5 year deal when he came here and I'm sure he's more than aware that we need to push further up the table and into the Europa League/Champions League places before we can really start attracting the top tier players any manager would want. Also, keep in mind Villarreal spent a grand total of 5.5 million pounds in transfer fees on players this season and ~35 million pounds last season. Our wage bill is also massive compared to Villarreal. We aren't going to be able to compete with the top 6 for every player, but Emery will have enough to pull a few our way and poach good players from clubs in the next tier down around Europe (Villarreal, Betis, any French club not PSG, etc). He has significantly more resources than he did in Spain.

Why do people keep posting this? Emery came here from Villarreal, where he had a shoestring budget and still was able to attract very good players. He's not going to sign Mbappe, Messi, and Ronaldo for us, but he's going to find players which will improve us... FFS the window isn't even open yet officially and the Spanish, French, & Italian leagues just wrapped up less than 24 hours ago. You guys need to have patience.

I think Viega is just out of our reach right now, but it wouldn't surprise me to see Emery try to bend over backwards to convince him to come to the Villa. The kid is the real deal and would be a legitimate challenger for our midfielders to nail down a starting place. We should be trying for players like him instead of trash like Tielemans.

Not at all. I've actually watched a lot of Leicester this season which is why I don't want any of their players. Tielemans is incredibly overrated by the neutrals and goes missing most games. Leicester fans call him "the fat kid" because he's put on weight and didn't try at all this season. Pop over to FoxesTalk and see how much he's getting slated by their fans. They're all glad to be rid of him now, but he's somehow better than our best young player since Grealish and our resurgent captain, who has been a gladiator under Emery?

We need quality additions to the 1st team, forcing players like Bailey, Buendia, and JJ to the bench to be rotation options/bench players. Tielemans isn't better than anyone in our staring midfield, IMO. He would be a very expensive body for our bench demanding a big sign on fee and wages. You don't move up the table by upgrading your bench, you get better by buying better players for you starting 11 and pushing the former starters to the bench. We've been linked to quality players like this (Guendouzi, Merino, Ugarte, etc.) but Tielemans isn't on the same level. Again, if Emery wants him, I'll back him fully to succeed at Villa, but I don't think Emery will be looking at him or Barnes, or anyone from the relegated sides this summer.

Who does he upgrade? McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Kamara, & JJ are all better than him. He's be fighting with Dendoncker for rotation spots, IMO. If Emery wants him, I'll 100% back him to be a success, but I don't think we'll be interested in any of Leicester's players.

Just saw this as well... Scary stuff.

Neither... Pulisic is a significantly better player than Harvey Barnes and would really raise our profile in the USA (lots of new Chelsea fans recently because of him), but always without fail picks up an injury just as he hits form and it sets him back over and over again. I honestly think he's a realistic target for Villa, but he would demand a lot of money but that's not smart business for our club when he's in the treatment room for 10-20 games every season. Barnes does not fit our system at all and had one good season in his career so far... No idea why everyone is raving about him other than his performances against us recently. I'd be shocked if Emery actually wanted him.

Yes, he is... He's one of the best U20 players in the world and just had an amazing season in Holland. He is not coming to Villa, even if we really wanted him.

We're in the top 20 biggest clubs in the world right now, but there are ~15 of them that have more money and/or pulling power than we do. We could blow our entire transfer budget on this kid, theoretically, but every single one of those clubs you listed would offer him the same wages or better. We ultimately couldn't compete with just one of the clubs ahead of us (PSG) for Asensio, what makes you think we can beat out a dozen of them for one of the hottest properties in European football right now? The reason PSG haven't triggered his very cheap buy back clause is because he doesn't want to go back... He can tell them to fook off if they trigger the clause. He wants first team football and has publicly stated he wants to stay at PSV. Sorry, dude, but you need to take off your claret and blue tinted glasses. We're more likely to sign Messi than Xavi Simons, and I've already stated how ridiculous that suggestion is.

Should we start a Slabhead thread??? Screams like a West Ham/Everton type signing, but wouldn't be surprised to see him end up at Newcastle. No way we go for him... Doesn't fit Emery's system at all.

Sorry, the list came out earlier on this year and he's a year too old to be eligible. He was #27 last year and has passed most of the players ahead of him since then. https://www.goal.com/en-us/lists/nxgn-2022-50-best-wonderkids-in-football/blt20779a3d73329005#cs436a2f61dc11fce2 Regardless, it's a completely unrealistic signing. Everyone knows who he is and in the unlikely scenario he was to move this summer it'll be to one of the elite clubs.

He's one of the top young players in Europe and probably had one of the best individual seasons for any player under 20. 19 goals and 8 assists in 34 League games. If he signs a new contract at PSV which removes his buy back clause to PSG and has another season like that next year, he'll be a 100 million pound player. I guarantee when the NXGN top 50 list comes out this year, he'll be in the top 5. It's like saying 2 years ago "We should sign Haaland from Dortmund! They only signed him for 17 million, so he can't cost THAT much for us..."

My bad! That's wishful thinking on my part. lol

North Stand construction.

Why haven't the mods closed this thread yet? There still isn't a single credible transfer link for Messi to Villa other than a throwaway joke from Emi Martinez. Do we need to make 30 pages of fish puns in order to close this? I guess I'll have to tuna in tomorrow and see if it's open or not.

Xavi Simons???? Paul, I want some of what you're smoking, dude. Some of your suggestions are outright hilarious. Let's sign Jude Bellingham and Victor Osimhen while we're at it to go along with Xavi Simons and Paulo Dybala!

Being linked to a player in the rags does not mean we're actually interested in them. I remember some on here were on full blown suicide watch before Emery signed because the press was linking us to Sean Dyche. We've always done our business behind closed doors and don't leak things on our side. We're now a very attractive and ambitious side with European football on the offer, so we're starting to turn heads in the media and agents will use our name to try to drum up interest from other teams. It doesn't mean anything. One of the main things we've done very well so far under NSWE is consistently recruit players with good characters, no matter who the manager is. The squad's character was arguably one of the main reasons why Emery was able to so quickly turn things around and not let the new manager bounce fall off. I like the fact that Emery is going after genuine quality players like Asensio because it shows his and our ambition. He's a great player that would have improved us tremendously if we were able to pull it off, but it wasn't meant to be. No big deal, I virtually guarantee the club has a shortlist of others we'll now go after instead and eventually bring in someone else who will fit our ethos and improve us on the pitch.

I saw on Twitter someone already complaining about the recruitment team’s lack of ambition and how we need to get a move on already. Ffs the window isn’t even open for another two weeks and other leagues haven’t wrapped their seasons up yet.

...and that's the reason why they'll never win the Champions League.

I think the interest from other big clubs has plummeted since his Chelsea loan. He showed that he was a talented kid who can do a lot of tricks and flicks and occasionally dribble by a man, but his work rate and production was very low. He is a very immature player, plus there were rumors of him and his entourage having one too many nights out in London during the season. I think he has the potential to be an elite talent, but at 23 he needs to start putting in the work on the training ground and realizing it. I have a feeling that Atletico will try to sell him to Newcastle for big money because he's significantly better than Anthony Gordon and they saw how much money the Saudis threw at them. I know Emery was interested in him last January and he confirmed our interest in a prematch presser, but I think the only way we'd actually get Felix is if nobody else offered Atletico as much as we would be willing to fork over for the transfer, and I don't think Emery will spend that much of our transfer budget on him.

To be fair, there is a lot of genuine media speculation coming out about the Asensio situation on a daily basis. It's not like this is the Messi thread, which should have never allowed to be created in the first place.

Some of you must be fun at parties... Jesus... It's not like Percy has come out and said Asensio isn't signing for Villa, it's some muppet at the Birmingham Mail, who haven't had any insider info at the club since Matt Kendrick left.

You're right. Emery should just give up, pack his bags, and leave. Messi, Mbappe, and Haaland won't join us at the Villa, so what's the point in managing us then? We're talking about someone who managed Villarreal on a shoestring budget for years and kept them competitive with some really good players, not Pep who has only managed teams with the biggest budget in their respective leagues. We might not be able to attract most top Champions League quality players this summer, but if we're persistent and continue to go after players who fit the project, we'll end up with more quality than we have. Take Newcastle, for example. The didn't even have European footy when they signed Guimaraes and Isak, but they have a lot of money and so do we. You'd be surprised the pull we still have in the transfer market with Premier League footy, Premier League money, and an elite manager like Emery.