est1874

I love that he talks about wearing the "Iconic Number 9" at Newcastle, while wearing #27. Did he mean 9 x 3? Does that mean he thinks he scored 24 goals last season?

The season starts for most clubs in 5 days. We got "lucky" in being drawn to start off with a club that won't kick a ball until week 2, buying us an extra few days to recruit sensibly, but to pretend like we've got it all together and sorted and we can take as much time as we need is daft. Buying only gets harder and more desperate at the end of a transfer window - not easier and cheaper. But we've added a right-back, so everything's OK.

Don't understand the logic behind our transfer strategy anymore. We're very selective about whether or not to apply our own apparent criteria for new players, our valuations and bidding pattern appears to be random, and our scouting appears to be as poor as ever. There is still time, but the available evidence so far has left me slightly confused as to why we brought in a new Sporting Director at all. I'm sure Dean was capable of drawing up a shortlist and submitting enquires for Cash, Benrahma, Watkins, Wilson, Diangana and Abraham on his own.

It's not the fault of our owners or our negotiators if a player is a moron and thinks playing for Steve Bruce's Newcastle (or any Newcastle for that matter) is better than playing for Villa. On the other hand I'm still not at all convinced our interest in Wilson was as serious as what's been reported. If it's true we were/are refusing to pay £25m for 24-year-old EFL Player of the Year Ollie Watkins, it doesn't make sense to me that we would bid £21m for 8-goal Callum Wilson. He's fine but he wasn't the answer to our problems to begin with, certainly not at that price. I suspect there are fibs being told to the press (shock horror!)

Agreed. Regardless of what the year is, who the owners are, who the manager is, who the sporting director is, our scouting is always sh!te.

He knows nothing mate, like 99.9% of all ITKs. A quick look at that Twitter page shows me he's just re-tweeting all transfer news marked #avfc including the claim that we'd signed Romero last week with fee and terms all agreed, I doubt there is any insider info there at all.

Please don't. Don't give my heart this pathetically, desperately slim hope. I will let it in, knowing full well it will crush my dreams again.

A far superior detective.

The whole story has surely been bullshit from the get-go, likely fabricated by Wilson's agent to force Newcastle to meet Bournemouth's asking price. Why on earth would Villa get involved in a public bidding war for Wilson and then suffer the embarrassment of having to withdraw a higher bid because the player preferred to go to Newcastle of all places (in the North-East, when he's currently living and playing on the south coast?) The story doesn't make any sense, particularly in light of Villa not wanting to get involved in a bidding war for Watkins elsewhere. I'd say we file this under bullshit and move on.

Bjarnason misses FFS had to be an ex-Villan to take the pen didn't it.

Now he's taken off Foden for Ings with 3 forwards already on the pitch, which of course fits his philosophy of playing everyone in their rightful position What goes on in Southgate's head. You'd have to wonder.

Wasn't there a report that Jack was nursing a minor injury and didn't train fully during the week? If true, he probably hasn't a hope of coming on.

Agreed, not a hope

Good player, definite improvement on the wingers/AMs we have, and that's a very decent price too.

Here we thought we were only making 1 signing today. Turns out we signed the whole Cash family. And still no striker, smfh

It's a 5-year contract according to the lad's own social media.

Welcome to the noble and inimitable Aston Villa, Matty. Please don't be shit!

This is the Matty Cash thread, mate

Probably because when we were desperate, Smith played him there. I know, I know.......

He's a good player, an effective young striker, and young strikers these days cost a fortune. I'm afraid, while it may seem a lot of money to us, £25-28m is the minimum we can expect to pay for a talented young striker. His wages are not going to be astronomical. If we want him, we need to pay the price, simple as that.

Martinez is only 28 currently vs Romero at 33. Romero has had knee problems where Martinez has no real injury record to speak of. I would greatly prefer Emi Martinez to Romero personally, particularly as the quoted fees are similar (if there is truth to any of it).

Poised!

The irony Calm down dear or you'll give yourself a coronary. Also you're moving the goalposts in what is and isn't valid criteria again. In response to my OP, OxfordVillan asserted that I couldn't use 3-4 clubs as to prove we're in a minority, I expanded on this and now you've responded by using 3-4 clubs different clubs to attempt to argue otherwise. There's more than 1 way to see a situation, just as there are multiple ways of crunching the data, so settle down.