david-avfc

I thought he was in the last year of his contract which would have explained the low fee, but apparently last year he signed an extension so must be 2 years left at least. For £5m I don’t see the benefit when he could be a decent squad player, we aren’t going to buy anyone better than him for £5m and there’s going to be lots of opportunities for minutes across all competitions this season for him.

Yeah steer clear of players who see villa as a club of last resort. The way Felix appears to have burnt his bridges at Atletico isn’t a good sign nor are the comments that he only wants to sign for certain clubs as if he has some god given right to play for them. Despite the hype from some on here he just seems to be a fancier version of Coutinho, flashes of great skill and technique but has never hit the heights expected on a consistent basis

Yeah a back 4 of Konsa, Carlos, Pau and a left back looks pretty solid. I think a standard back 4 (i.e. with Cash at RB) with a centre back pairing of either Carlos/Konsa/Pau has risks either a little light aerially with Konsa and Pau, or relying on Carlos to provide the physicality when he’s still very much an unknown quantity in the PL I’m not sure I really trust Cash too much to be honest, he’s not quite defensively solid enough for that RB/CB hybrid role and going forward he’s decent but not exceptional. As a standard all round modern full back he’s a decent player, but seems like Emery doesn’t really want a player of that mould.

I doubt there are many who know for sure outside of the club and the agents. To me 50% of everything seems ridiculously high, whereas 50% of the profit is still high but reasonable considering they reportedly knocked €10m off the previously agreed price. But who knows what the club agreed to, Purslow and Gerrard and co were probably excited thinking they were joining the big boy club buying a player off Barcelona

Coutinho has looked bright in recent cameos but still felt more style over substance. Perfectly summed up against Everton he does an incredible bit of skill but then takes a shot from 35 yards which goes nowhere near the goal. Would much rather have a less flashy player who’s much more functional.

But then who’s translating what McGinn’s saying?

Our European squad has been published on the UEFA website: https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaconferenceleague/clubs/52683--aston-villa/squad/ We have the maximum number of players registered in our “A” list (21 + 2 homegrown club players (Ramsey and Archer (nb Philogene is on the B list)). Buendia and Mings are not on the registered list, nor is Zaniolo who I will assume will come in for the next round. Some players are on the “B” list which just means they qualify as u21 players. Note that not all players under the age of 21 qualify for the B list as they have to have been at the club for a certain time period first (eg Duran and Kellyman who are on the A list, plus Tim Iroegbunam who wasn’t registered at all). Of the 21 non-homegrown senior players it’s not like there are any no hopers making up the numbers (like Hause or Davis) who could easily be binned from the squad, apart from the young Kellyman who’ll presumably make way for Zaniolo. But it does seem like from here it is a case of one in, one out as there’s no space in our Europe squad for any additional numbers. Personally I think if we sell both Archer and Philogene it leaves us a little light on depth but Emery has said he wants 2 players in each position + a 3rd choice keeper, which technically we have covered already, so maybe he’s not bothered about depth beyond that

According to Wikipedia (great source, I know), Fati played for Sevilla between 2010 - 2012 so unless Monchi was creeping around the kids club I can’t believe there’s any connection whatsoever

Bailey was good yesterday, a few iffy moments where he gave the ball away ridiculously cheaply but everything else was bang on and got a really good assist and a decent goal too. Bailey obviously has talent but one good game for every 5 or 6 poor ones isn’t good enough, he needs to play like he did vs Everton every week not just once every couple of months

I like Keinan, but a permanent move is well overdue. Good luck to him, hopefully we get a few million in for him too

I wouldn’t be surprised if the club is trying to use the medical for leverage to negotiate better terms particularly around the option. I assume this is how Monchi operates, probably more comfortable playing these types of games than Purslow ever was.

I liked Baker’s commitment but half his tackles were with his head, he was far too last-ditch for the premier league and unfortunately had to retire due to a head injury I think, perhaps unsurprisingly

Things really turned sour at Roma and he had to leave for somewhere. The only concrete options were Bournemouth or Galatasary, he chose Galatasary probably under the agreement that they’d let him leave fairly easily if a team from a higher league came in for him. For Gala they get a good player for a while and the potential to make a quick profit, so it made sense to agree to that. As to why a loan deal, we are reportedly offering a loan fee and probably the “option” to buy will become mandatory under certain conditions. Galatasary probably know that his injury record will put a lot of teams off, probably why they were one of the only teams in for him in January, so by allowing a loan first that might be a way for them to add another few million to the deal. The total package reportedly offered is €3m loan fee, €20m + €7m optional transfer fee + add ons which is double the €15m they paid in January - that’s why it makes sense for them

Not sure if it's been posted already but according to whoscored stats he had a passing accuracy of 35% (giving the ball away 9 times), a crossing accuracy of 0% (giving the ball away 3 times) and was "dispossessed" 4 times and made one further unsuccessful dribble with success rate of 0%. He apparently touched the ball 28 times and gave it away at least 17 times. Those stats are up there with some of the worst I've ever seen, watching the game it was obvious he was playing poorly, but seeing the stats as they are, it's just shocking how remarkably bad they are. The guy had a big reputation, a big transfer free and big wages, a lot of hype from his agent etc but honestly he is no better than what we had before. It might sound knee-jerk but after that game yesterday I've just given up on him now, he has been too poor for too long and if he is still as useless after a full summer working with Emery then the writing is on the wall. Some might call me old fashioned but I prefer our players to help the team by not giving the ball to the opposition over half the times they touch it.

We had Watkins and Diaby playing up top so not sure why adding a 3rd striker into the mix would make a difference when our midfield kept giving the ball away and our defence was leaking chances all over the shop

Well I see my "Z-Theory" has well and truly been obliterated by the many posters on here. Anyway, I just hope Galatasary chiefs weren't watching the game yesterday as if they did they'd have whacked another €10m onto the asking price seeing how shite we were

The only players whose names begin with Z I can think of are Zidane and Zico. For that reason alone I hope we sign him. Edit I just remembered about Zaza

Judging by today's performance there are higher priorities than pushing Watkins, a replacement for Bailey, Cash and unfortunately Mings are the main standouts, and possibly a defensive midfielder to send a rocket up Kamara's arse too. However based on the rate of ACL injuries we're picking up no doubt by Tuesday tea time Watkins will have injured himself and will be out for the season as well so yeah maybe we do need someone

I know some don't like Mings but for me he was always the first outfield name on the team sheet, he's absolutely crucial and our record without him since we were promoted is calamitous, it's like 1 win in 20 or something. If he's out for the season it can't be ignored, maybe Carlos is the answer but we don't really know for sure due to his injury, and I'm not convinced a back 2 of Pau and Konsa will work as neither are strong aerially and that will be exposed over the course of a season. We either need a centre back as a like for like replacement or a right back and drop the idea of Konsa playing there. We were linked tenuously with Foyth the other day, perhaps a sensible option as he knows Emery's system, has some PL experience (although not great experience) and crucially would cover both right back and centre back so ticks two boxes. If he's available though is another question entirely

Not really a fan of the farcical levels of added time, the game is supposed to be 90 minutes not 110 minutes, will be very difficult for teams and players to adapt during a game when they have no idea how long is still to play, and the issue will very quickly become how (in)consistent the new rules will be applied by refs. “Time wasting” is only an issue because refs let the players get away with it most of the time and then only start applying the rules at completely arbitrary moments during a game, usually too late or other times just randomly if they have decided to take a dislike to a certain player. It’s really not a difficult rule to enforce, if anything it must be one of the easiest because there’s literally nothing else happening whilst the offence is being committed. But once again rather than telling the refs to just do their jobs properly on the pitch and to use their common sense, they have come up with a convoluted rule change which will only change the problem rather than fix it. It’s like a never ending whack-a-mole they just react to one thing until the next thing inevitably follows.

If it’s ACL it’s the same as Wesley / Trezeguet / Heaton right? It was about 6+ months for Trezeguet but well over a year for Wesley

Buendia injury confirmed so presumably Zaniolo will be his replacement

Someone had to be leaving surely. My guess would be Coutinho as this lad is an attacking playmaker as well and there’s no way both could fit in

Yeah agree with around 7 out of 10. The quality of signings is certainly there but a couple more additions would really elevate things. Think another forward would make a difference whether that’s a centre forward, another winger or more of a number 10 playmaker I don’t know but it looks like Emery wants to play with Watkins, Diaby + another as the advanced players, I’m not convinced Buendia, Bailey or Coutinho (plus Philogene, still a wildcard) as the + 1 are reliable / consistent enough if we want to break into that top 6 as permanent members

But if we sold or loaned him and then bought a new striker we’d be over the squad limits for non-homegrown players for Europe, so it would require some careful wheeling and dealing in the squad and/or potentially leaving another area light. If one striker leaves it would probably be Duran for that reason, unless we got rid of both to make way for 1 better striker which could happen I guess but starts to getting more complicated than just giving Archer a go in the cups