MrBlack

The result is definitely that it will have a few teams questioning his attitude like you. So the trade off for not risking injury over a one month pay day, is that he'll have ruled out a few potential destinations. I guess some teams won't give a rats arse though, as we've seen them happily employ players who have done far far worse. ex-convicts, people who strike to force a move and people who have openly served time for rape all get bought so he's going to find work somewhere, and no injury helps him guarantee that. Most teams are probably somewhere between the two and will see a footballer entering his prime that can do a job for very good value, and will take the potential attitude issue and say its minor in the scheme of things. Had he played on and saved Bournemouth he'd have a much bigger queue of people after him, had he got injured he'd have very few. He made a risk based decision on his livelihood at a time when the world future was as uncertain as its ever likely to be in modern times. Can't hold that against him for me. Wouldn't buy him though, don't rate him.

May well be a joke, but assume it is actually just caused by Nathan's extremely angled shoulders. As for the kit, this sleeves look abnormally long, and pretty sure they'd irritate the f*** out of me sitting right in my arm crease. Otherwise, could have been a nice shirt.

1. At what date do we sign our first player this summer? Aug 16th2. How many players have signed for Villa within Oct.5? 63 When the transfer window slams shut Monday, Oct. 5, what is Villa's gross expenditure on incoming players? £120m ? if we sell grealish add an extra signing and an extra 50m to the gross expenditure. Ignoring the Grealish caveat....any less than 5 we're in real trouble. Any more then 7 and the turnover is too much for my liking. Tough and important window ahead, but I'm feeling optimistic at the moment.

They weren't wrong tbf. Although the bit about him getting fouled may explain a significant part of his struggles in England so far. He's not getting fouled here. Or rather, he is but they're not getting given and bizarrely some fouls against him even get given as fouls by him. A bit of coaching in respect of how to be smarter when holding off or competing with a defender would work wonders for him. Still want another first choice striker, but still think he could make it here and be a great striker for us. That injury better not screw him up.

Come on NSWE, splash that cash and worry about the income next year when we're in Europe. With Fifa counting the next two years as a joint FFP assessment, this chance to spend big is likely the only chance we'll get to go big for a long time. Sell that vision to the Abrahams and the Tonalis of the World. Let's do this!

Not listening to the rumours more likely. But either way i take it as a good sign

What a player.

I agree. I was saying we need to buy 1 whatever. Samatta and davis as backup until Wes is fit I'm ok with. Would be unbelievably shit luck to lose both our preferred strikers ton long injuries and its something you need billions to account for. Given the other areas we also need to strengthen, I dont see us having spare cash to buy two strikers better than Wes

Expected a quick replacement, glad to see it happened and that the guy comes from a club that's doing well in respect of what a DoF is ultimately responsible for. Also offers further reassurance that our owners are very different from our recent failures. I think this appointment works in both the PL and the championship so hopefully was our number 1 choice in either situation. Fingers crossed it all works out and we go on to improve every year.

Would prefer to have AEG staying. Definitely need to keep one of him or Trez, but having both as backup next season would be my preferred choice. Having only one means we're without a viable sub if one of our future first choice options gets injured. Samatta being allowed to leave would be a surprise, but he's not been around long enough to cause any major disruption. Assuming they expect Wesley to be back soon i'm ok with this, others we need to buy two quality strikers instead of one. Glad to see no other first teamers on that list (wherever it is it was plucked from), the more i hear the more I belive stability is critical to us not having the same issues next year.

Would take over 40m to be even remotely worth considering. We have a core of 5 players in our registered squad that barely featured and need getting out of the door before anyone else. The second we start losing first teamers by choice is the second we start going downhill and throwing away the collective experience and good morale a season surviving relegation brings. Mings isn't just a first teamer. He's a pseudo captain, that has shown his love for the club on numerous occasions. Lose him and we will be hugely worse of for it. The only viable replacement would be someone that played in the premier league last season, that experienced playing against most of the strikers we'll face next season. Which £40m defender are we going to attract that fits that criteria? Even if you can think of one, you still lose stability, and you lose the presence that Mings brings. He has a mistake in him, sure...but so do 99.9% of the defenders in the world. Supplement the core of Mings, Konsa and Hause with one more experienced head and we're set for next season at centre back. If we lose Engels then another 20-24yr old can be brought in as well.

That January schedule looks outrageous. Can only see Uefa allowing games in UCL mid-weeks for this season. Can also see a revision to the League Cup in some way as well. Whether it's one legged semis or limited team entry. May have to sack off replays in favour of penalty shootouts in every competition too

Being in the team of the year, alongside the names he is, proves his value is at least 80m. Having got that recognition playing for a team that has looked collectively clueless for a lot of the season, just raises the bar. Can't see him going for less than 80m. Honestly, not sure I can see him going at all... going to be an interesting few weeks

You only have to look at how few goals our other strikers scored between them to know that Wesley had potential. He is our best striker (post injury verdict pending)

Thinking about this, its a very obvious choice to switch director. We're in a totally different position to when Suso was appointed, the challenge now is different. The groundwork is laid, and we need someone to push on. Can see this being an exciting post/pre season. Hopefully it is!

Fingers crossed this injury has no lasting psychological or physiological impacts. That's my biggest concern, as if he can overcome them he's got the potential to be very good. Given those concerns, however, we need a new first choice striker otherwise we are gambling massively

But if they didn't learn anything from last season about preparing two plans what effing hope do we have. They knew his contract was ending. They probably knew they weren't going to renew it. Its a simple task to look at two eventualities and come up with two lists of what they want depending on the league we're in. Absolutely not saying they haven't done this, I doubt they'd be where they are in business if they didn't know about planning ahead, but I really don't think this matters. I expect to see a like for like replacement soon, or a change in direction if that's what their plan is.

That is part of my fears, if it hangs around that is definitely what will happen. An expensive ad break slot for whoever wants to give sky even more money... sigh

Ah, do I not miss those days. A bigger bench is definitely the lesser of the evils for me, but even then it takes out an element of skill from picking the subs a manager is likely to need in a game. On the other hand it stops a club getting directly penalised for bad luck...such as an injury to a player for which they have no direct replacement on the bench because they only have 9 there. Still another slight favour for the existing top 6 though, but not as outrageous as the 5 subs rule. Drinks breaks really kill the flow of the game. Are they really necessary? Can't players take drinks off the sidelines at any point during the game if the ball has gone out and they're dying of thirst after running around for 20 minutes? Genuine question i'm sure I've seen players do that in matches before taking a thow-in, and definitely following a physio assessment for a non injury?

Is it confirmed that the 5 subs rule will still be in place next year? The PL is allowed to take up the option, but I didn't think they'd confirmed that they would. Madness that the IFAB allowed it to roll on, given part of the reasoning behind allowing it this year must have been due to the urgent restart with no preseason, and an expectation that playing into summer season may result in higher temperatures. The rule needs binning, as do the water breaks. On topic, I dont see them increasing the squad size to cater for it, but even if they did, 7 quality signings (as per my last breakdown post) to is probably still more than we can afford, so doubt it would help us.

£100m+

LOSE Drinkwater Borja Lansbury Jota Reina Taylor ADD Wesley Heaton (Douglas Luiz and Davis stay in but unregistered) Leaves space for 7 signings, all of which need to be quality. Plus replacing whoever we lose outside the above like for like (as best possible)

Scarily accurate summary. Especially about highlighting his best position when he hasn't historically played that role. For us it could also just be an extension of the classic Sunday league trait of playing your best player in CM (adjusted to DCM as we have less possesion than the opposition). He's so calm on the ball that anywhere else is wasting what he can offer to us. As we get better im sure he'd be fine further up the pitch, but we haven't reliably kept the ball from the CDM position for years (if not decades) and with Grealish only effective in the offensive role he naturally takes that position. Rated him since day 1, would be a travesty to lose him. If we lose him and Grealish I will be fearing for our survival next season. Partly because it will be indicative of the fact we couldnt persuade them to stay, which would mean we cant hope to persuade players of better or equivalent quality to replace them. And also partly because even if we did, we're into another season of major overhaul to our squad. Fingers crossed we keep both of them!

Largely my thoughts, especially on the "outs" side. Clear to everyone that Wingers and Strikers are our weakest positions. Seem to be some very different viewpoints on how to resolve them though. I'd keep AEG and Trez, buying one hugely expensive winger, and another in the slightly better than trez/aeg mould that should be good enough but isn't extorionately expensive. Reason for that is we need to spunk a load on a new striker, and I don't know enough about the market to think who this could be, but it needs to be someone proven and, hence, no doubt expensive. I'd be spending 40m+ on both those key positions, and dont see it leaving much money for the other roles. Maybe 20m on the other winger, 20m on a midfielder, and whatever we get in income/can afford on another CB. I can see a net spend of £120m being possible given the state of ffp and the money to be made by our owners in staying in the PL. Assumes that their respective businesses haven't been killed by Covid I guess though.

Cannot see a world where Jack leaves for less than 60m. I expect it to be higher if he does go. There's just no sense in us accepting any lower. We sure as hell can't replace him for 50m. And there is zero need for us to sell with him having a 3 year contract. If he wants to go now, having kept us up, it will be on our terms. The owners aren't stupid enough to sell him for less than 60m. Whether its any more than that depends on whether there are multiple teams after him and most importantly whether Jack submits a request. If he doesn't , he's due a HUGE payout, that will increase the cost to a buying team substantially. If you don't think he's worth that much, it just means you think he's staying with us.