VillaFaninLondon

I'd have Axel back in a heartbeat even on a loan. I don't want our squad filled with loans and would rather a loan to buy with an agreed fee, but it's only one player in the squad on loan which is a much different situation to last year when nearly half the team was on loan. It also keeps the same continuity from last year and I think the Axel-Mings partnership worked really well. If the choice was between Axel, Cahill (on extortionate wages and probably wanting a 2-year deal as opposed to a 1-year deal) or Webster, it would be Tuanzebe for me. Then we have retained four of our five loans from last season and can put the extra investment into signing a quality GK, DM and RW which we need to do.

I hope that we can still get a deal over the line for Butland. I think we all agree we needed to sign Mings and he was worth the money given how important he was to us, but Butland is an established England goalkeeper and I fail to see how £23-25mil is too much for him. If we get say Hegazy and Trezeguet for £20mil combined, plus a decent DM for a reasonable fee, I think we could still potentially go after Butland. If not him, someone else would still need to come in I think. As much as I love Steer for helping us get promoted, I just don't see him dealing with shots from the likes of Aguero and Kane. We need a top level goalkeeper to gain us 10-15 points next season and I think Butland would be the sort of signing that would do that.

And a goalkeeper. Maybe not Butland (though I hope he still comes) but another one. Steer did great last season but don't think he's PL quality.

He looks a talent, as you say though his performances have probably upped his value and also will have alerted a few clubs. We should be looking at him though. The Argentinian winger, Pavon, could be a good signing too, plays predominantly on the right. He's very, very quick and has a decent cross on him, still plays in Argentina with Boca so is certainly available at the right price and would jump at the chance to play in the PL I'd imagine. Once we've got Mings signed up, I'm hoping we can nail down a GK, another CB, DM and RW fairly quickly and looking at some of the South American players wouldn't be a bad idea imo.

£20mil is a bit steep, £15mil would have been fairer, but he was amazing last season for us and glad he's coming back. He knows Dean's set up, has a great relationship with the fans, was a great leader for us, and very rarely put a foot wrong. Yes, this was in the Championship, but he looked far too good for that league and I really hope that means he steps up and becomes a really good PL CB for us. If he does I can see an England call-up in the not too distant future. Now I hope that we bring in another quality CB to play with him. Webster is far too expensive for an unproven player and we need to move on and find someone else imo. Cahill on a free + a punt on a foreign defender (or maybe even Janssen at Leeds) would mean we can focus all of our efforts on finding a DM, RW and GK to get us ready for Spurs.

This is very true. I don't think it will be quite like the disaster Lescott was, as I feel Cahill is a much better professional and a much better player overall. Lescott hid between top players at City and I think was always bang average, not sure how he won so many England caps. But I actually think Cahill has always been a good player, albeit maybe lacking at the truly top level with England. Would much prefer him over Webster, who I am very sceptical about especially at that fee and looks like just another good Championship player to me. Cahill and Mings as our centre halves for next season would be ok by me, if we can get a proven quality DM in front of them (not Phillips for me, maybe Nakamba) plus Butalnd in goal we could be decent defensively and with our forward players I'd be relatively optimistic of a decent first season back.

Come on guys, we can do a lot better than Gayle! He's basically a Championship striker, never done it in Prem Would rather just keep Kodj as the backup.

It is quite worrying that we still haven’t sorted out several positions, including GK, CB x 2, DM and RW. That’s five players we still need minimum. I fancy a couple from the Championship (Butland and Benrahma, maybe Maupay) but we’re getting priced out of moves for them by the looks of things. I think if we can get Mendy and Trézéguet for a combined £15mil we should put in the offer now - that strengthens 2 positions immediately and doesn’t take up too much in transfer fees. Both have played at a good level. My other choices would be Gbamin, Mings and Tuanzebe. I don’t understand all this messing around for Phillips, who is too expensive for a player who has ad one decent season in the Championship. We need a player in that position we know can step up, Gbamin is highly rated and young. We we just need to get it sorted, but if we get the required quality in then waiting a couple of weeks won’t be a bad thing. It’s even a relatively quiet window from everyone so far.

He got injured, then Sissoko came in and was outstanding for them, probably their best player last season. Wanyama was still getting in the squads, just couldn't get his first team place back. But to say his body is shot is premature, the guy's only 28.

He's definitely a better choice than the unproven Phillips, much less of a risk. Wanyama isn't even that old (just turned 28) and has done well in the Prem before for Spurs and Southampton. He'd be playing in a decent midfield with McGinn and Grealish and would shield our defence. And his wages wouldn't be that high as Spurs are one of the tightest top six teams. How much they ask for is another matter but I reckon as long as they get back what they paid for (£11mil) plus a little extra they would sell.

Agree it's good for us. And agree Wolves are being extremely well run and look very good on and off the pitch. Their progression should really help us push on and try to catch them and overtake them, touch wood. But I don't like them after reading what they've said about us on their forum. Ridiculing us and putting us down. Can't understand the arrogance of a club that's spent about 5 seasons of the last 25-30 years in the top flight. But then again, once any club gets any modicum of success, even if it is just a 7th placed finish, then all the ****s come out of the woodwork. Tinpot may seem a harsh term for a neighbour of ours, but actually yes before the last 2 years they were the very definition of tinpot. Not saying that means they were a small club, just run very badly and languishing in the 2nd tier. The last time before now they were any good was the 1950s.

Alderweireld would be amazing but almost certainly wouldn't come. It would impress me if the owners had the ambition to go for him but he would have better options. I think we've more chance of getting Dier or Wanyama from Spurs, neither getting much game time. Reckon Wanyama could be a decent shout, would take him over Phillips and reckon he'd be cheaper.

Tbh this Edouard Mendy goalkeeper and Trézéguet the winger look very good value in this market. £15mil for both would be good and I’d be for it, though I do like Butland. If we got those two we could target a higher profile and better DM than Phillips, someone like Tonali. I really don’t think Phillips is worth the money and not sure why we’re wasting our time chasing him. Hopefully we can bring Mings and Tuanzebe back (even on loan) and not spend £25mil on Webster who again isn’t worth it.

As long as we fleece as much money out of them as we can, that's fine. Pretty much what I said anyway. I know the likes of City have got more pulling power than us financially and in terms of success on the pitch (in last 10 years), but if we do sell to these rich clubs then I want us to be like Leicester and Palace and demand £90-£100mil for a player like Maguire (not worth that) or £80-£90mil minimum for Zaha (again not worth that). As long as we get more than they're worth and reinvest ALL the money sensibly that's fine. We can still grow and progress with that approach.

Wolves have never even finished in the top 6 of the Prem, they have a long way to go before they're considered as our equals. Don't care if they have a better team than us currently. Porto yes they would be considered bigger but they play in a much weaker league. Wolves got Neves through Mendes and because he wasn't yet a regular for them (Porto). The situation was a bit of an anomaly tbh.

We cannot go back to being a selling club again. If we do we'll only be a bit part player in the Prem or end up back in the Champ. If these players Dean is signing turn into stars then we have to play hardball as the likes of Spurs have done and either say 'not for sale, thanks', or demand much more than they're worth, then reinvest that money sensibly. The owners say they want to take us back to challenging for Europe, we can only do that by keeping our best players and building a competitive squad.

They’ve been a tinpot club most of their existence except the last 2 years. Another example of a club getting lucky through their links with Mendes, yet again at our expense. But I don’t really care what they think. Their players haven’t gone to them because they’re a big club, it’s because of their links. I’d rather we focus on ourselves and trying to be better than them rather than rising to their jibes. Hopefully we sign a couple of players that make them sit up and take notice.

Jota and Hourihane both decent bench options. Not starters for me though, if they are I think we'll struggle.

He's tall and can play there, but also has silky skills and been compared to Mbappe (who also started as a centre forward but moved to play wide). Would get quite a few assists as well as goals I'd imagine. Scored 8 in 24 for Lille last season despite only being 19.

Imagine this: ...................Grealish.......McGinn..................... Leao...................................................El Ghazi ..............................Wesley............................... All young with great potential as well. Might only be paper talk but Leao would be the sort of signing that would get absolutely get fans off their seats.

Tierney would have been my choice, even if there was talk that he was on his way to Arsenal. Lots of ambitious clubs have come from nowhere to beat bigger clubs to signings and we should have just put in a bid and seen what happened. Even if that wasn't likely, I'm sure there are some very good left backs in Europe that are better than Targett who are obtainable. Perhaps a couple at the under 21 tournament. As I said though, hopefully my judgement is wrong and Targett turns out to be a great signing.

Last decent left back we had was Bouma but was always injured. Signed by DOL as well. Targett wouldn't have been my preferred choice, but hopefully Dean turns his career around and perhaps turns him into an England regular. Seems slow and not great defensively which doesn't bode well, but he can cross and is good technically. Southampton fans don't seem that disappointed to see him go, so I'm slightly concerned - let's see how this one pans out. I'm hoping the next few signings we make are statement signings but that doesn't look like happening given who we are being linked with.

City were basically bought late-August 2008 and at that time were a midtable Prem side. So it was a slightly different situation as we're just up from the Championship. But that Robinho signing was massive for them. Even though he was never that good for them, that signing showed they could attract the best players and helped them build a side the following summer. In 2009, they got Barry from us but also signed Tevez, Adebayor, Kolo Toure and Lescott. They finished 5th. Then in 2010 as you say their signings went up a notch and they signed Yaya Toure and David Silva, unbelievable signings at the time. They finished 3rd but won the FA Cup. In 2011 they signed one of the best strikers in the world in Aguero then won the league that season. Their rise was pretty spectacular but right from the start of their ownership they showed massive ambition and moved for some of the best players in England and Europe. Their ambition was matched by action. I would like to see us show the levels of ambition the club have spoken about turned into action. We're being linked at the moment with predominantly Championship players. One or two incomings from that league is absolutely fine if they make the step up, but five or six signings from there for me would be bad news and we'd struggle next season. It's excited some of us fans because we were in such a difficult place this time last year, but we do need to see some proven quality come in. Hopefully July sees us linked with some new players from overseas, hopefully a few stellar names, and if we can attract two or three big signings to the club we might see us compete well next season.

Yes, our links so far have been pretty underwhelming that's for sure, and I feel we could have signed better than Targett for left back who seems to be an imminent arrival. But then in interviews Purslow and Sawiris have said they want Villa to be competing at the highest level so I don't think they want us just to survive. Don't want to big up Wolves too much as I don't like them, but their signings have been nothing short of spectacular the last two years. Those are the sort of signings that make you understand why they finished 7th last season and why they could easily break into the top six in the next couple of years. Unless we start making those kinds of ambitious moves ourselves, I really don't see how we'll do anything more than struggle next season, but of course we could go out next month and sign three genuine superstars for the positions we need.

McGinn is a vital part of our team, replacing him would be incredibly difficult even at that price and I do think he's gonna take to the PL like a duck to water. We need to strengthen the side not weaken it and our answer should be quite simply he is not for sale.