david-avfc

Without trying to be a buzzkill, the reality is we will only know if it’s a good transfer window when we see the players on the pitch and see how they get on over the full season

Is it just me or is it weird as hell to post a photo of a strangers baby on social media (the twitter account, not you)

Keinan Davis available this summer. In other news, water is wet! In all seriousness I think Davis could have a decent championship career if he stays fit, he’s never going to be a 20 goal a season striker, more like 10 goals + helps the team in lots of other ways. Would be a useful pick up for someone. As for Hause I find it baffling that we renewed his contract when he was clearly surplus to requirements. Just a waste of time for all involved.

Easy to say that from our perspective but we’re not the ones who have to choose between potentially forgoing tens of millions of pounds / euros to sign one way or the other I hope he does choose us, better league, better international chances and at his age he’d still have the option of signing a mega contract in a Micky mouse league later on in his career if it still exists and he stays fit, but it would be more difficult to guarantee he could return to a top tier league later if he wastes 4 or 5 years in Saudi first - I hope that’s what his advisers are telling him anyway

Only concern is if we gave him a buyout clause in his contract when he renewed, after all he held all the cards as he could have left this summer and it was pretty bleak under Gerrard at the time Otherwise there’d be no way we’d sell him, he’s a class player and fits Emery’s system perfectly. He seems happy here too so doubt he’d force a move.

Haven’t we loaned Sinisalo out? If so I think Marschall will be kept as 3rd choice keeper due to the European squad requirements as we are too light on club home-grown players and it doesn’t make much sense to waste a non-home grown slot on a new 3rd keeper

If we move a few players on then there’s no reason we couldn’t sign both. Diaby as a pacey winger / forward and Torres as a “second striker” type. Would probably need to see Coutinho moved on first though

It was true except it wasn’t because Luiz is still a villa player All these fake ITK journalists do is jump on other rumours, then make BS and/or vague statements which make it seem like they have some inside knowledge on the proposed deal - which of course they don’t - and then hope the transfer goes through which makes them appear credible and knew what was going on the whole time, and then quietly ignore or come up with some excuse for the ones they get wrong

Was going to put more but then cut it - yeah €50m is a big risk but show me a player who doesn’t have some risks, whether it’s a big fee, lack of experience, poor form, injuries, whatever it is all transfers are a risk. This lad has played a lot of games at a high level (not PL level but no league is IMO) with well over 100 starts in the last 3 seasons in all comps so in that regard he is tried and tested, certainly his current team trusts him. €50m is a big fee but the transfer market is so obscene nowadays so it’s not mega-money in the grand scheme of things, it’s only £5m more than Buendia (inc add ons) for example.

I get the point about the iffy record of Bundesliga players but ultimately villa need a wide forward and for the quality required there just aren’t that many options available in world football, and there all going to have risks of some description. Maybe Diaby is genuinely the best option identified with the lowest risk

I love FBref stats and the insight they provide, but sometimes it’s the basic stuff which provides the most insight. Last season he made 29 appearances in the league, but only 13 of them were starts. So clearly there’s a mismatch between these stats and the actual impact he has on the first team. My assumption would be that coming off the bench regularly leads to some distortions of the per 90 data. Hypothetical example 1 dribble in a 10 minute cameo against a tired defence = 9 dribbles per 90 which is the best in Europe, and in reality is completely different to a player who completes 9 successful dribbles in one game. Not saying he’s a bad player or anything, obviously he’s got a lot of talent but extra context is needed for the stats and in this case it’s probably over exaggerated some of his positive attributes.

Most of them are as bad as each other tbh

Yet he only started 13 times I only know a little about him, very rapid, good dribbler and high potential… but is he the finished article? Judging by 17 league starts in 2 years probably not, unless he’s just reached the tipping point very recently Would assume Diaby is more of a solid bet as he’s been a proper first choice player for Leverkusen for 3 seasons now. With the inconsistencies of Bailey, Coutinho, Buendia, Traore I’d rather go with Diaby

Nah it’s clearly legitimate, he’s gone through the effort of setting up an anonymous twitter account and has even gone on to google images to get a generic picture of a famous footballer/manager for his profile picture, that’s the hallmark of credibility right there

Yeah he was so good at Atletico the manager didn’t want him and then sent him away on loan, where he was so good Chelsea didn’t want to keep him when his loan expired

I’m sceptical of Felix, he was poor at Atletico and poor at Chelsea. We would just be signing him off of his reputation which is always a recipe for disaster, especially when he would be a mega earner and would probably cost a lot as Atletico need to recoup some of their wasted costs on him. He also fell out with his manager which is hardly a good sign of a player with the right attitude Maybe it is genuinely a case of “not fitting the system properly” and Emery can get him firing again in our system. But usually players who can never fit into a system eventually the penny drops that it’s a problem with the player not the system (which incidentally has been very successful for Atletico)

Actually thought Sancho was really underwhelming whenever he played for England even before his move I don’t think we’re interested nor do I think he’s available either

Only 17 years old, looks like he could be a real prospect. Would be great if he could be given some cameos off the bench this season especially in the cups

Bogarde looks like an interesting player, for a natural centre back he looks incredibly comfortable on the ball

He just won a penalty. I think he’s looked better than Aaron Ramsey on the other side. His problem though is he seems like a winger who wants to hug the touchline, not sure that’s what Emery wants

This is why you need proper scouts and analysts to cut through the hype and reputations of these players and just see the players for what they actually are. The bizarre thing is we apparently had it with Lange and the gang but then decided to start signing players on reputation at the whim of billy big bollocks Gerrard who wanted to take over recruitment despite barely knowing his arse from his elbow

But to save £5m we’d then have to buy another left back and pay them PL wages which overall costs a lot more than £5m, and we’re still stuck with the same problem a year down the line. Think it’s a case of sell him or utilise him. Hopefully a PL club makes the same mistake as us and buys him off of his reputation without any closer inspection.

The sold him to Southampton when the man Welsh man took over and then lost every game

Rubbish, look at all those players faster than him. Why isn’t he top? Monchi out.

Fabrizio just tweeted confirming the Diaby links, looks like it could happen