KMitch

3 hours ago, ender4 said:

What is Lequipe the equivalent to in the UK? Trash or ITK?

It's the French MARCA.  Lots of hilarious trash mixed in with some truth.  TBH, most of our French transfers over the past few years have been broke by L'Equipe (Traore, Sanson, etc.)

15 minutes ago, OhioVilla said:

So many other USMNT players I'd rather see Villa sign than McKennie. So so many...

Literally anyone...  He has an awful entourage, is lazy as **** in training apparently, and always seems to find himself involved in drama off the pitch.  His performances since he moved to Juve have dipped significantly for both club and country. 

Just now, wilko154 said:

It's almost as though the club have moved onto another level since he's been with us.

Bailey is a notable improvement on El Ghazi, Trezeguet and Traore. However we now need the next level of winger.

Overall so far he's been disappointing, and I wouldn't be against him if we can recoup the money invested. 

Was he though? 

• El Ghazi was like playing with 10 men at times, but he was significantly more prolific than Bailey ever was for us. 
• Trez was incredibly limited as a footballer but he still offered more for the team with his pressing and defensive contribution than Bailey.
• Traore doesn't have a right foot but still manages to score key goal after key goal whenever he's on the pitch for us (evidenced even last season).

Bailey on paper was supposed to be a huge upgrade, but in reality has been one of the biggest flops we've ever signed.  

In all seriousness, it's a huge coup to pull this signing off as well.  Diaby is a player you'd expect to go to someone like Arsenal, Bayern, or Juve for 50 million and no one would bat an eye.  Emery and Monchi quietly making huge moves so far with Pau Torres and hopefully  Diaby.  

Great...  Bailey 2.0 but with the height of Tommy Elphick...  Can't wait...  /s

4 hours ago, maqroll said:

What's the song, then?

Is it "Pau-P-Pau-Pau-Pau" to the tune of "The Thong Song" by my main man Cisco?

"Let me see that PAAAAAAAAAUUUUUUUUUUUU!!"

Me popping into the transfer thread and seeing there's no news, just more daily infighting:

3 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

Why do people keep mentioning Felix. We don't have finances to pay anyone £250k a week like he'd even want to come. Totally overrated anyway

Emery himself mentioned in the Chelsea prematch press conference that we tried to sign Felix in January but he decided to go to Chelsea instead.

47 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Is realistic speculation too much to ask for? It's not called the unrealistic wishlist thread

See above...  It's not unrealistic if Emery himself confirmed we tried to sign him last window...

Side note:  Are you alright, Kiwi?  Every day you're in here losing your mind going off on people for having an opinion you disagree with.

Shocked to see some turn their noses up at Ferran Torres but would love to see Brennan Johnson instead.  The gulf in class is huge between the two of them.  Johnson will most likely end up being another Everton/West Ham overhyped player they paid big for on a massive contract rotting on their bench, because he's not good enough and they can't get rid.  Torres is an actual class player who needs a manager to play him in one position and start him every game (something Pep and Xavi didn't do).   

Gnonto?  Great...  Someone who makes Tommy Elphick look like Paul Bunyan.

7 hours ago, DeadlyDirk said:

Ibanez is a left sided cb? Transfermarkt says otherwise... 

It says cb main but also RB and defensive midfielder.... 

 

Yeah...  He's a left sided CB...  I've watched him play several times for Roma this season.

22 minutes ago, nick76 said:

 

I think Ibanez was our alternative to Torres and not our current RB solution.  He is a ball playing left sided CB who isn't the finished product yet, but has the potential to be one of the best in the world.  

2 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

The likes of Emi Martinez, Bouba Kamara, Pau Torres, and Diego Carlos are huge names. These are players that have won things, that the whole footballing world knows, that are an indicator to the prospective targets we are a serious option. 

Whilst we don't have Champions League football yet,  we do have champions league footballers.

We also have a manager that is revered by a whole host of players, and I'm certain we can thank that angle for signing Pau Torres. 

Any target that is serious about the football, and not just the money,  will be an option for us.

I think a bigger surprise than Pau is on the cards. 

Absolutely.  We're going after high quality players now.  Asensio and Williams would be players that if any of the Sky 6 signed they would be getting plaudits by the media hype train all day, Asensio for his starting ability and the ceiling of Williams.  I'm seeing nothing but overwhelming praise by people who know football about our Torres signing, both for the class of player AND the incredibly discounted fee.  We're shopping in a very different market than we've ever been in before and now that Monchi will officially take the reins next week, I'm going to expect so see moves accelerating before our preseason trip to the USA.  

11 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I’d even say our GK, Defence along with Kamara and Dougie is better than Arsenal’s equivalent.  Our issue is further forward where they have Saka, Martinelli, Odegaard in the attacking midfield and wings…we don’t have anywhere close to that.

This, 100%.  Unfortunately, attacking players of that kind of caliber are incredibly expensive unless you buy them young and develop them for several seasons (like Martinelli).  

Just now, lexicon said:

He offers us less than Bailey does. I don't see the point in going after him, especially with the figures mooted. 

To address the bit in bold: He might run at defences, but he only averaged 1.01 in terms of successful take-ons - meaning he dribbled into trouble and lost the ball more often than not. Cutting the ball back - his assists per 90: 0.09, less than one assist per ten games played. He also completed, on average, 9 passes per game. His finishing isn't too bad, really, can't argue there. 

Brennan Johnson is the definition of a highlight player.  More frustrating than Bailey is to watch because of how wasteful his decision making is.  I don't rate Harvey Barnes and I would rather have us go for him than Johnson.  

Absolutely shocking how much Declan Rice went for... He's the most overrated player in England.  If he didn't change national teams and stayed Irish, he'd be a 40 million pound player max. 

11 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

And Kamara, Ramsey and Mcginn for £2.5m . 

Just wait...  Someone will still complain about how we don't sign/flip players for nothing like Brighton does.

What a signing!  A truly class player and our first ever out and out ball playing defender.  I don't think we would have had a chance at signing him if Emery didn't have a prior relationship with him.  

Listening to this podcast with Dan Bardell today talking about the Villa. Good listen, talks about a lot of different Villa related stuff.  One thing I found interesting is that Dan says one of his trusted sources told him that Tammy Abraham was all but signed to come back to Villa this summer before he did his ACL in the last game of the season and we've had to go back to the drawing board for another option.  

Am I the only one who doesn't want him to play RB?  I keep seeing "We should move Konsa to RB" everywhere.

• While Emery's system wants us to have our RB stay back most of the time, the role still needs to be able to pick a good forward pass to the RW or through traffic to the RAM or DM.  Konsa's passing is the worst in our backline and would be detrimental to our build up on the right side.
• Cash is actually one of the top defensive RBs in the Prem statistically, and is underrated by a lot on here.  He missed a lot of games due to his injuries and the form of Ashley Young last season, but he's still a very good defender with better passing range than Konsa.  Here are the defensive stats from 2 seasons ago under Slippy G.

Cash - Mings - Torres - Moreno

Has to be one of the best looking back lines in Premier League history, isn't it?  Imagine all the modeling sponsorships the club could get...

2 hours ago, RicRic said:

We could have done with swooping up Gabri Veiga from Celta who Man City have jumped in to join their oil money squad not sure if I mentioned him a few weeks ago on here, looks like a Emery type player too.

Never a realistic signing for us... He's one of the top prospects in Europe right now.  It's like moaning about us "not going for" Julian Alvarez before Man City when he never was interested in the first place.  Need Champions League footy before we can start convincing a lot of these players to come to us.  

1 hour ago, alreadyexists said:

 

 

 

 

That kit actually looks amazing without the sponsor on it...  I might have to send this guy my Luke kit for some erasing...

39 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

I'd class him as a meltdown signing.

26 year old CB who has not yet hit his prime or reached his ceiling, great passer, great reader of the game and a defender who has a completely different toolset to what we already have.

Also has CL experience and has a great chemistry with Unai.

Exactly.  He's a brilliant player and has been the best defender in a Europa League winning side and a side which went all the way to the Champions League semi finals.  I don't think we would have a shot at him if he didn't already have a prior relationship with Emery.