OxfordVillan

Easier said than done, but to land that first statement transfer would be game changing for us. It would act as a signal to other potential signings that we were seriously looking to progress. Now more than ever we have to hope that our owners are looking to flex their financial muscle and try to get a foot in front of the likes of Everton and Wolves etc. The reality is that we will have to overpay once or twice to gain a foothold, that’s what Chelsea and Man City had to do to make the breakthrough.

I’m a little surprised that Iheanacho doesn’t seem to float too many people’s boat. The season he’s just had looked to me to be something like a breakthrough season, and I was really surprised when stories started surfacing that he might be available. He’s been around for quite a while and is still only 23. For where we currently are as a team I think he’d do really well if we could add some new, pacy players to the left and right of him. And we don’t seem to be talking about figures anywhere near £40-50m. Even if he didn’t turn out a roaring success in the next 2-3yrs he’d still only be 25-26yrs old with good sell-on potential. I’d be delighted if we were able to add him to our squad.

I’d be going all out to obtain Ismaila Sarr. Exactly what we need in our team. Pace, power, goals. Big threat to pressing teams. Combine him on the right wing with, say, Iheanacho as CF, and you’ve got some serious improvement in pace and power compared to ElGhazi and Samatta. Seriously more goal threat. In our position I’d happily part with circa £80m to get the pair of them. Huge upgrade.

If you were going solely on the evidence of last night’s playoff final then the players that looked better transfer prospects were probably Josh Onomah, Joe Bryan, and Rico Henry. And we know two of them very well. I think us fans can have a tendency to hype players far too much, and we should know better after the struggles of the season just gone. The Premier League is very different gravy to the championship (or Belgian, Scottish, insert many other countries leagues) and many creative/goal scoring players that have lit up other leagues simply cannot cut it in the Premier League, certainly not straight away. We need 2 or 3 players minimum who are at a level where the expectation is that they can and will hit the ground running, rather than players that you think and hope will come good. We have to seriously up our salary expectations as well as transfer fee expectations. I’m encouraged by the reports of a potential new contract for Grealish that’ll give him a 6 figure salary, players like him in the Premier League are on salaries in the region of £120k per week. If we don’t want players such as Mings having their heads turned by, say, an Everton, then we’re going to have to pay them accordingly. The reality is that clubs such as Bournemouth have been paying players 6 figure salaries. BOURNEMOUTH. We’ll seriously need to up our game in the season ahead, with clubs such as Leeds and Fulham replacing clubs like Bournemouth and Watford, the competition will be even more fierce.

This transfer window is probably Celtics last opportunity for a good size fee for Edouard, as I think his contract is up in 2022. Other than that, I couldn’t give any sort of judgement on the player as I’ve not seen a single minute of him playing. His goals and assists are incredible up there, but we have to balance that against the fact that the SPL is the equivalent of the Championship, at best. Let’s hope Villa have done their homework and whoever we sign helps us compete higher up the Premier League table. UTV

Have you heard of our owners? They have quite a few quid between them and they’re ambitious, and competitive. If they deem an offer for Grealish as too good to turn down, that it’d further Villa’s prospects, then so be it. I’d trust them. But I’m pretty certain that Villa progressing won’t be reliant on a Grealish sale. These owners will know what they want to succeed, and money isn’t an issue that’ll get in the way. As a spurs fan you should know this, what with Levy offering 2 pints of lager and a packet of crisps for Grealish around 2 years ago when probably £20m would have got him, but he pi55ed around trying to force a distressed sale until our new owners rolled in and Grealish signed a new contract. And we were a championship club then. Constantly selling your best players doesn’t move you forward, depending on how you define “moving forward”. Just over a decade ago Villa were finishing above Spurs quite often. Then we sold players such as Young, Milner, Barry, Benteke, etc. Ended up in the championship after pushing for top4. Look at it this way, if our owners bankroll another summer spree of circa £150m, then what’s to say we wouldn’t then have the players to compliment Jack Grealish and jump up the league places? Anything is possible.

Anyone is entitled to an off night. However, you’d still be expected to track back, to show desire, to show tenacity. I don’t see any of that from Benrahma, and he looks weak as Fosters. He’s nowhere near the level of Grealish

Update; that’s two full games I’ve watched Benrahma, small sample granted. But it’s a no from me. If he was 18/19yrs old you might take a speculative punt on him, but he’s the same age as Grealish, and Grealish bossed the championship and has bossed a few Premier League games. Benrahma has been bossed the games I’ve seen him and produced nothing. Just my opinion but he’s not what we need for premier league. For £30m I’d want pace, power, and tenacity as a minimum. I’d sooner pay £45m for Sarr from Watford.

Unpopular opinion on here but no way is Benrahma a £25-30m player. Looks lightweight to me, dare I say not too dissimilar to a certain Jota? If he can look this lightweight in a championship game then I’d be concerned about him in the weekly physical challenge of the Premier League. I’ve watched him in the 1st leg at Swansea and the 1st half today, and I’m not seeing enough to tell me he’s anything other than a £10-15m gamble. We’d have to put him on an immediate strength programme and be patient with him.

I’m scouting Benrahma this evening. Report to follow

It remains to be seen how much money Villa have to spend this transfer window, I’ve assumed it’ll be similar to last summer plus anything raised via sales. Incoming players that I think would improve us as well as being smart; (1) Josh King. Immediate starter. Can play across the front 3 roles. Knows the Premier League. I’d imagine he’d be priced around £15-20m as in last year of contract. Other clubs that we probably expect to be pushing next season also reportedly interested. A purchase for us is a dent to opposition clubs. (2) Iheanacho. Immediate starter. Pace, Dynamism, and can score. Still young enough (23) to make lots of improvement. Likely cost around £25-30m. (3) Chris Smalling. Immediate starter. Free. Apparently hasn’t been able to agree terms at Roma. Could be a superb partner next to Mings. Wealth of experience. (4) Ismaila Sarr. Immediate starter. Can play across the front 3. Excellent 1st Premier League season. Likely cost £35-40m. (5) Ryan Fraser. Free. Good competition for the left hand side/wing position. Undoubtedly an upgrade on Trezeguet or ElGhazi. Could easily be a starter. Obtaining Fraser also stops rival clubs making progress. (6) Joe Hart. Free. Don’t laugh. One season deal. Short term cover. Free. Yes, I mentioned free twice. (7) Nampalys Mendy. Free. Cover for defensive midfield. (8) Danny Rose. Year left on contract. I would think maybe £10-15m to get. Would likely be in front of Targett, could force Targett to raise levels. Loads of experience. Good for at least another couple of seasons. Here’s your potential starting lineup for September having spent in the region of £100m. I’m assuming Heaton and Wesley not available. ..............................Hart......................... Konsa......Smalling.....Mings........Rose ............................Luiz............................ .............McGinn..............Grealish........... .....Sarr............Iheanacho..........King.....

I think this transfer window will be more difficult than some imagine. As is generally the case, there’s a pecking order. Everyone has to wait whilst the established top 5-6 clubs hoover up the best picks, then the rest of us can fight over the lower hanging fruit. Without overpaying I think we’ll have to be very patient, and I don’t envisage us being big overpayers.

No way at £50m. Not much more than £30m for me.

I think Chelsea would be open to Abraham leaving, I also think they’d be seeking a fee in the £50m range. I think chelsea have managed to inflate any potential fee, and if they could get most of the money back that they’ve laid out for Werner they’d snap your arm off and laugh all the way to the bank. Giroud ended up being the CF of choice, and he scored few at the end of the season too. I wouldn’t pay it. I think we should look elsewhere as a 1st option, Tammy would be around 3rd on my wish list of CFs, unless the fee was around £30m.

Of the CFs linked in the media thus far, Iheanacho would be my preference. Belotti would be amazing but I just don’t think we’re capable of attracting that calibre of signing at this moment in time. There was a tweet yesterday by Acura that said we’d bid for Buendia once a Sporting Director had been appointed.....loads of ppl piled in on them but they seem to be one of very few that had some info on today’s appointment. So maybe a bid is imminent?

After seeing the statement from the owners today I can now see Grealish here next season. From a business point of view it makes sense. Had COVID-19 not happened and Euro2020 gone ahead it’s quite conceivable that Grealish would have played a part, and possibly returned as a renowned European talent which could have catapulted his worth to circa £100m. Now it’s been delayed until next summer it makes sense for the owners to hold on until then to see if Grealish does go on to enhance his value at a major tournament. If he does, great. He’ll then have a chance to decide to extend his deal (which would have 2yrs left) or to signal he’d like a move. He’ll have also had a season to see if Villa had progressed enough on the pitch to tempt him to stay. If not then Villa could cash out at close to peak value after Euro2021. For the first time in many a year Villa hold all the cards in relation to their best player. Thank god for avoiding relegation!

Let’s be fair to Grealish here; I’m reading posts above saying he’s never come out and committed to the club recently. Well there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation why he didn’t, and that’s because when he was asked the question it was still possible that Villa could end up in the championship, and so Grealish wasn’t going to categorically commit to play in the championship! I’d imagine some talks have happened with representatives of Grealish and Man Utd, based around certain outcomes/scenarios. I think the biggest outcome to trigger a move there has just come unstitched, that being Villa staying up. I think that’s a big obstacle for Utd now, it would have been a whole lot easier for both parties had Villa been relegated, as most expected. And the reality is that most of the stories surrounding this saga have come from the Mirror owned Birmingham Mail and from Manchester. Villa are now in the driving seat of any potential transfer, they hold all the cards. Grealish doesn’t have be sold because he’s got years on his contract and is still at a club in the Premier League, a club with billionaire owners and no financial worries that they had 2yrs ago. So just as Dean Smith said yesterday, it’ll take a massive amount of money to get Grealish away from Villa Park. And I don’t see Utd putting up the required sums involved, I’d imagine their entire strategy was based around Villa getting relegated and then paying circa £50m to a club that would have needed the money and a player that had to leave. Like I say, that’s all gone up in smoke now. I also read above that nothing could be read into the Grealish “MY club” social media post......well, quite obviously you can read something into that. You can read that if Grealish was going to leave then ppl would throw that post back at him and he’d look more than a bit stupid, so he’s made it harder for himself. Look, it could still happen, anything is possible in football. But I’m certain now that the sums involved would be very much to the advantage of Aston Villa.

Always worth remembering the position he started from. October 2018, Aston Villa were sat 12th in the championship table with 25% of the season played. 22months on and we look forward to a 2nd season in top flight football having won the playoff trophy at Wembley and been to a league cup final at Wembley. And we possess one of the most sought after Premier League players with a price tag ranging anything from £60-100m. I’d say Dean Smith has done very decently, very decently indeed! Here’s to two more years of similar progress.

Why would we be limited to “raiding the relegated clubs”? Aston Villa are the biggest club in this country’s 2nd City. We have billionaire owners with an ambition to succeed. An iconic and historic stadium. Yes we are some way behind the likes of Liverpool, City, Utd, Arsenal, Spurs, and Chelsea. But after those clubs who is there in the Premier League that can be realistically viewed as beyond the reach of Aston Villa, in terms of historical standing, stadium, fan base, and finance? Staying up should prove to be absolutely key for us, it allows us some forward continuity for the first time in over a decade. One or two other clubs might have had some decent league finishes in the last few seasons, but the top four still looks pretty much the same as it has done for a decade or more. Neither Spurs or Arsenal can offer champions league football, and for all the fanfare and drum beating, neither can Leicester or Wolves. If there has been a player who has stated that Europa league football is a prerequisite for signing for a team then I must have missed it. Very few are bothered about Europa league football, and most seem to view Europa league as a ball & chain around the ankles of clubs who want to compete in the Premier League. We’ve just pulled off what many before us have failed to do, that being we finished 5th in the championship last season and then had to completely overhaul the squad in one summer. Call it luck, whatever you want, but we pulled it off, we stayed in the Premier League. We’re Premier League again. Thus far I’ve seen no reason why Villa couldn’t put offers in to clubs such as Leicester and Everton for players, or any other club outside of the top 5 or 6. It’s about money, ambition, and direction. If our owners are serious then they shouldn’t have too many problems selling their vision for the club to prospective players. If we’re to progress up the league quickly then we have to be best of the rest in the transfer window after the top few clubs have helped themselves.

Exactly this. If we don’t want to flirt with relegation again then we need to add 3-4 good Premier League talents. Those 3-4 players would likely amount to £150-200m, with salaries to match. Let’s see what route the owners want to take. It’ll be an interesting summer window, much more interesting than had we been relegated. Fingers crossed that staying up means we can now start to try and bash shoulders with the likes of Everton in the transfer market for the first time in over a decade.

Regarding Tammy Abraham; my take is that he seems to get the bulk of his goals in “hot spells” in the first half of a season. Maybe that’ll even out with experience. He done that with us last season, and it’s sort of happened again this season at Chelsea. Like I say, maybe just age/experience related. I just think he’d cost an awful lot of money, wouldn’t be for me at this moment in time.

New contracts are merely a tool for protecting investment, maintaining value. It might increase the purchase cost but it doesn’t mean the player player isn’t obtainable.

Nope, very un-cheeky bids! Start at £35m

Put an offer in for Ward-Prowse at Southampton.

Put an offer in for Harvey Barnes at Leicester.