Peter Griffin

Money spent on the stadium or improving facilities is exempt from FFP calculations. NSWE can spend as much as they want to expanding Villa Park.

Only 12 months left on his contract so if they don't sell him now he is off on a free.

That would be a quality signing if he is over last year's injuries. I think there would be a lot of competition for him and from some big clubs too

From what I can see Spurs never bid for him. I really don't think Watkins chose Villa ahead of Spurs.

I understand with Ings but Watkins came from the Championship and was looking for a chance to play in the PL. I can't imagine he had the profile at the time to be demanding a starting role in every game

I wouldn't want to spend too much on Cantwell, I would be more in the 25m bracket. But I think he is a good player and he is the type of player that should increase in value and we should be able to sell him on. One thing that appeals to me about Cantwell is his relationship with Emi and that may help to get Emi up to speed a little quicker.

Agreed. I would bite their hand off for 15m. It would help us with P&S and would also give us the opportunity to upgrade a player, as someone suggested above. I would prefer Cantwell int he squad and JPB promoted to the sub role. I am sure we could survive with Ings taking our pens

Those deals are not quite as lucrative as they appear. It is more about budgeting and guaranteeing future revenues rather than actually being a huge windfall for the clubs. The level of sponsorship is based upon the amount of shirt / kit sales. Nike and Adidas take the lions share of all shirt sales for the 15 year period. The club only gets a small commission, generally in about 7%/8% of the shirt sales value. The elite clubs can push their commission up towards 20%. If Villa is planning on breaking into Europe and challenging in the Champions League then we would possibly be better off avoiding a 'mega' long term shirt sponsorship deal. Otherwise we could end up selling the rights to potentially very large future shirt sales if we start competing in the CL and we would end up with only about 8% of the revenue. I would expect that our next shirt sponsor will only be for 2 or maybe 3 years.

That is not how businesses the size of Adidas work. That last thing NS would want to do is get Adidas to sponsor Villa with a deal that in any way compromised his integrity. It would be crazy for him to try and get us a sweetheart deal. Yes, he could help us set up a meeting to discuss the opportunity but if anything, I think the fact that NS owns 6% of Adidas would probably hinder Villa's ability to get Adidas as a sponsor as opposed to help us.

I am not so sure about that. From an FFP/P&S perspective the value of any sponsorship deals must be at the market rate. This was implement to stop clubs doing what City did with the Etihad sponsorship deal.

I think Smith is too cautious to play 3 CB and have Cash and Targett as wingbacks. Particularly for the first game I think he will play a formation the players are used to and will start with as many of last year's players a possible. I expect the usual back 4. Nakamba and McGinn in the middle and El Ghazi to start. Fitness will determine if Buendia and Watkins start and I expect to see Traore start on the right.

On paper, I would agree. However, will Smith be playing the kids and B team in our cup games and keeping the 1st 11 for the push to a Europa place in the league? If so, then we could very easily get knocked out of a cup to a lower rated side

I agree, but unfortunately they are the type of companies that are prepared to pay the highest sponsorship fees. Hopefully, we can move to more ethical sponsorship as we raise our profile

I am still a newbie on here so I have only 5 posts a day thus I need to make the most of them. Apologies if I am commenting on discussions from much earlier today but I wasn't permitted to post then. Anyway... Ings versus Tammy I get the debate on this and I am sure NSWE and Purslow also understand the debate fully. As many people have said, clearly Tammy would offer a better long term financial return. I don't think anyone on this forum nor at Villa Park would disagree. So why then did we pay 25m +5m for a potentially injury prone Danny Ings when one of our heros from our promotion season is available for 34m? There must be some logic behind it. My view is that as we are not going for the better long term player, it means we want something in the short term. The only thing I can see Ings delivering in the short term is goals. He is proven to deliver goals at this level. But, I think we all believe, with or without Ings, that we are not going to be relegated this season so why do we want an immediate return of goals from Ings when Tammy is available and is the more financially prudent purchase of a returning hero? The only reason I can see for this is that CP and NSWE feel that we (will) have the squad this season to push for a Europa place and we need as much of a guaranteed goal scorer as possible. So Danny Ings, imo, has been bought to deliver European Football to AVFC this season. This is something I believe Tammy could not deliver. Saying all that I love Tammy and wish we would sign him. but AVFC have moved on from that type of purchase.

The problem is we can only start a game with 11 players. We are at risk of very quickly becoming a bloated squad. I am a little fearful we could return to the bad old days of having a bomb squad of highly paid players that not only don't get in the starting 11 but don't even see the bench.

I agree NSWE and CP want to keep Smith but I think that we have moved from from relegation being tolerable. The first season up I believe he would have kept his job if we were relegated but that level of support no longer available imo. Smith must continue to deliver to keep his job and it would not be accepted if we were in the bottom 3 in late Oct / Nov. I don't think we will be down there and hopefully we will be pushing for top 8 but I suspect NSWE and CP would be ruthless if they believe they need to be. BTW, I am only new to this forum and only permitted 5 posts a day so if I don't respond to a reply it is not because I am running for cover

The loss of JG will hurt Smith and I think it will either result in his sacking at the Oct International break or either and extension of his contract. This season is massive for Smith, owners have backed him and he now needs to prove himself again. He is steadily improving but there are a few weaknesses that concern me. If he can get team playing as a unit with the new guys integrated then he will be safe, even if the results aren't great. But if we are flirting with relegation then we may see some changes. Hopefully we will see smith remain as Head Coach for the full season as this would probably mean we are doing quite well

Me neither. I can't see a relegation scrap this season. However, I am at a real loss as to where we will finish. Last season I was hoping for 12th to 15th and got 11th so I was very happy with how we did. I would like to see improvement this season so I guess 8th to 10th should keep me happy. But, and a big but, if the players click as we all hope they will I think 6th or 7th is a possibility. I think any higher than that is probably a little beyond our reach for this season

Life long Villa fan. Unfortunately I am not a ST holder but it would be difficult to get to games as I live in Ireland. I haven't been on here before, I have read a few different blogs but was put off joining them as some posters just appear to want to abuse others and the mods do very little to stop it. Anyway,. I thought I would give VillaTalk a go. Really looking forward to an exciting season and I think (hope) that we will be a stronger team without Grealish but he is a huge loss to us all the same.