weedman

I like Hause, seems to have his head screwed on right and a nice lad, but I don't think he's good enough for PL football. I think he was just about OK for us in the Championship due to his ariel ability but he's a bit too suspect at this level. I'd be happy to see him move on but you know he'll be one of those players that we wish we'd never gotten rid of if we ever go down again

Does this make us the most pessimistic or Newcastle, what do these numbers even mean?!

We're not paying "double that for potential", you can't just ignore the wages in the discussion. Eriksen on 150k a week 3 year deal and £15m transfer fee is nearly £40m Watkins on 45k a week 3 year deal and £20m transfer fee is £27m. Closer to half than double. And Watkins will have resale potential and is on the up rather than on the decline. The likes of Eriksen only go to teams that are already pretty settled and are just having a player added for a short term boost who can afford the outlay, the likes of Spurs. We're not there yet, we're still building

It is irritating to me when people's arguments are so poorly thought out they need to harp back to points from years ago that literally nobody cares about anymore just to "win" as opposed to actually making a point on the subject in hand, but each to their own mate.

Oh my God. I swear every time I see TRO quoted on here it's someone bringing up Steve bloody Bruce completely off topic for no reason. Get over it mate. Steve Bruce lost the support of everyone by the end, some people got there sooner than others. It's been 2 **** years, move on On topic I'm amazed anyone would want James over Watkins. Watkins may never become the player that James was, but he's far more likely to get there in the next 10 years than James is to get back there. He's past it and will be earning unbelievable amounts of money. Honestly Real must be in a state of shock someone is actually going to pay for him, they'd give him away on a free to save on the wages

OK thanks for clarifying, makes more sense now!

I'm still confused, isn't the tweet just him saying he got a load of abuse for something to do with Zaha? I really don't get why that's so terrible about what he's said, have I missed something else that happened?

We are looking to do the exact same, this means negotiations are taking a little time amid cries of "just pay the asking price and get them in what are they playing at??!!11!"

If De Bruyne was English do we think Southgate would find a place for him? Because he's like Jack, not a pacey winger, not a striker, not a DM, where could he play him? The answer of course to both players is the same, play them anywhere at the top end of the pitch and let them roam a bit. We're not good enough for a dedicated AM 90% of the time, if we want Jack at the top end of the pitch the available positions for him are LW, RW or ST. Playing him in midfield means he'll inevitably drop too deep as we will be under more pressure and will need that 3rd midfielder helping out. Also De Bruyne spends a lot of time as a right winger for City putting in amazing crosses. He's not just a "stand in the middle and be a playmaker" player and is perfectly happy bursting down the line and swinging in a cross into an area rather than necessarily picking a perfect pass every time. It's what makes him the best player in the world IMO

Yes I remember I had lasagne

I mean, both Samatta and Davis would contribute far more than Sturridge, but people not wanting Sturridge is not because we're happy with our current options, it's because he's never going to play because he is always injured/can't really be bothered. Literally we'd be better off re-signing Baston than bringing in Sturridge on a free Even suggesting pay as you play is fantasy land, he would never accept it without a "base" salary to work off and that would likely be at least 20k given the amount he is used to earning. He's finished, not worth the discussion

I thought that was Smiths job?!

Its strange because as much as I really don't value stats from the Scottish league because it's pony, I'm still finding myself genuinely excited about the possibility of this chap signing. Hopefully he comes, proves the doubters wrong and turns out to be value for money!

I really don't like to block people because the whole point of a forum is to see contrary views, but we've reached a point where I'm not sure if you're a troll or just 7 or 8 years old, either way it's literally impossible to enjoy any conversation that you're involved in and for that reason

To everyone listing out successful players that have come from Scotland, no-one is saying "there are no good players in Scotland", people are saying it's such an awful league that signing a player from there represents a huge risk becsuse you have no idea if they'll make the step up. I'm sure there are good players in Scotland, but I'm sure there are good players in League 1 as well, and if we spunked £30m on them we'd all be a bit worried wouldn't we? The risk for Edouard is mitigated a bit by his France u21 record, but £30m is an awful lot of money for someone who scored a lot of goals in a league where Scott Sinclair was basically Neymar

Again, I've never asked for sources but I'll try and reiterate my point which may explain why others have asked you for sources and not me I have made it very clear that I am speculating and I am drawing what would very commonly be considered reasonable conclusions based on the limited information. If more information becomes available I am happy to re-evaluate my position based on the available evidence. You are presenting your own opinions as fact, making wild statements desperate to prove to everyone he doesn't want to be here, insinuating he is begging for a move to RBL and effectively giving us the finger. By presenting it as fact, you are rubbing people up the wrong way, especially when the conclusion that you have drawn is unreasonable to assume at this point, as Villa representatives would simply walk away from the deal if the player had no interest. This is why you're encountering such opposition to your posts

So basically exactly what's happening here with RBL?

Again I'm making reasonable assumptions based on the information we have so far, you are jumping to whatever conclusions you can to back up your posts and stating them as absolute facts, this is why you're encountering so much opposition to your posts. Also see: Which I think is a better way of wording the point I'm trying to make. And because I've just noticed it: Show 1 quote where he's begging in the media for a move, he's not. You are jumping to wild conclusions based on nothing but speculation and presenting it as absolute fact. This is why you encounter so much opposition to your posts.

I don't understand the question Its reasonable to assume he has some interest in joining us because if he didn't any negotiations would have been shut down immediately. If we decided to go for Ronaldo or Messi I don't think we'd get to the "haggling over a fee" stage before their lack of interest was made abundantly clear to us. Therefore the fact that the negotiations have been going on a while, it's reasonable to assume he has at least some interest in signing. We may not be his 1st choice, he may not be begging us for the chance to play for the mighty Villa, but he is at least open to that possibility It's also reasonable to assume he wants to play for RB and wants to play Champions League football, I just don't think anyone thinks that's as big a deal as you seem to

OK so I've just skimmed about 20 pages, and I really don't get you mate, you seem to be under the impression that if he's not jumping through hoops straight away he'll be a terrible signing or something? We're all only speculating here (despite some desperate to be ITK), and our belief that he is or is not interested will make no difference whatsoever to the club negotiating. Its not like our guys are on their hands and knees begging him to sign and throwing money at him like it's a strip club to make it happen. If he is not interested then that'll be made clear and we'll move on pretty quickly. It seems fairly reasonable to assume i) there is some interest from our side ii) he is open to the idea of signing for us, but still has some hope that he can get in with RB so he can play CL football. There will be some sort of waiting game now until either he rejects us, he joins, or we pull the plug and move on to our 2nd/3rd/4th choice signings If he joins, the fact that he was interested in playing in the CL won't make any difference to his performances for us. If I heard that some obscure CL club were interested in me I'd put the feelers out as well, but if it turned out to be nothing it wouldn't affect my performances for the over 35s local team I'm starting with next season (although it would give me a great "I could have gone pro" story) If you're worried that posts in here means the Villa officials will be too busy to do anything else I think you may be surprised to hear its mostly just fans in here, so the club can still carry on despite our speculation, and if not, to be honest I think you're responsible for about 80% of the posts in the last 20 pages so mostly repeating the same thing so just tone it down a bit maybe we could still sign some other players? Other than that I'm really not sure why you're so vehemently anti speculation in a speculation thread about a player you've even said you'd like us to sign

Oh my god all this chat about a players motivations, what are we only signing lifelong Villa fans now? Of course he'd choose Leipzig over us given the chance, what are we even discussing this for? It's like being annoyed they someone like Grealish would choose Man Utd over whatever team finished 17th in the German league, it's crazy One of our most successful signings over the last decade was Benteke and he thought he was joining a London team and openly spoke about his desire to play for Arsenal Players move where they think will be best for their careers, I'd seriously question the motivations of any player that would choose us over Champions League semi finalists, that player is showing a huge lack of ambition. If those Champions League semi finalists decline to make an acceptable offer then we have a chance. This is true of EVERY PLAYER WE WILL SIGN. Hell there's even question marks about whether our talisman and lifelong fan of the club would leave for Champions League football, let alone some guy that's probably never seen us play

That was a joke?! Damn I've spent too much time on Facebook comment sections because that seemed a reasonable question to me

It wouldn't work because of the way deals are structured, nothing is just paid in a lump sum anymore it's 50% now 50% after x appearances or x goals or winning the title. I suspect if we went to Brentford and just flat offered £20 odd million in cash monies they'd accept immediately