Leeroy

Olsen, Lenglet, Chambers, Carlos clearly not good enough. Digne needs upgrading and Konsa maybe does too although if he’s moved back into the middle he might come good again. 

I sometimes can’t believe we made top 4. Palace are in good form but they’re a mid table team. This could be embarrassing. Show some pride FFS.

Carlos really plays a lot of brainless passes. Totally avoidable. 

1 minute ago, VillaParkAvenue said:

That’s what getting a really good manager in can do (Glasner). Much like Watkins and Emery actually.

True although the turnaround has been instant in Mateta’s case. Ollie took a few months after Unai arrived.

3 minutes ago, foreveryoung said:

Not sure why your bothered. Most of the team certainly ain't.

I never like seeing us lose and defend pathetically. It’s a nothing game but Liverpool have got nothing to play for against wolves and still turn up.

Difference between us and serial winners I guess.

Mateta was absolutely useless up until about 2 months ago, now he’s playing like he’s better than Ollie, ridiculous.

It’s the same as it’s been for the last 3 months. Very easy to score against us, Palace should have had a couple more at the end of that half because we stupidly gave the ball away in midfield. And we’ve not taken good chances ourselves, Diaby missing a one one one again when he should buried it. I actually think we were the better side for much of the half but they can defend and we can’t.

Luckily nothing is riding on the game but this is why many have been moody the last few weeks despite it being a great season. The missing players aren’t helping of course.

Can we at least win the 2nd half and make a game of it, it would be horrible to end the season with another bad defeat.

1 minute ago, Callum said:

Add Digne into the mix aswell

Yeah he was good for much of this season but been useless for the last couple of months.

Thank God we won’t see Lenglet and Chambers again. Hopefully Carlos will be gone too and some new full backs who can both defend and attack.

Our defence is awful. We’ve been the better team, all they’ve had to do is defend 2 attacks and brainless on both occasions.

We should get Anderson from Palace, he’d walk into our team. Miles better than the useless Diego Carlos.

18 minutes ago, AndyM3000 said:

Olsen
Konsa - Carlos - Lenglet - Digne
KKH - Chambers - Tim - Diaby
Duran - Watkins

Looks like it's going to end up something like this to me.

Uuurgh what a horrible looking team. 

I suppose the result doesn't matter but we don't want to end the season with a shoeing. 

I see a lot of people picking a team of kids or reserves, don't see that happening, the result doesn't matter but I think Unai will want to win and pick the best team available. 

Lots of injuries so I think Tim will have to play but otherwise I think our best team available. I reckon it will be:

Martinez

Konsa Carlos Pau Digne

Tim Luiz

Bailey McGinn Diaby

Watkins

I really want to see Watkins score, he's been stuck on 19 goals since the Arsenal game, I just want to see him get to 20 so we finally have a player who's done it in the Premier League. Probably less likely, but I also want to see us keep a clean sheet. We've shipped too many goals this season and only kept 8 clean sheets, although it's going to be extremely difficult keeping out Olise, Eze and Mateta. Maybe Tim plays a blinder of a game assuming he starts. 

8 hours ago, GlobalVillan said:

Never in a million years is someone paying 40m for Jhon Duran.

More like 20m. 

We paid about £17m for him so I'm not sure why you think he's not increased his value by more than a couple of million. He was playing in the MLS at the time.

£40m is arguably too much but £20m is definitely too low. £30m would be a fair price for him in this day and age but if we were good negotiators we could get more.

44 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

That's the play I see the club doing.  Swap Gallagher for Duran and sell Luiz. 

We will be worse off if that happens. 2 out 1 in will be weakening the squad, Luiz is our best midfielder so it's a daft move, and Duran is our only backup striker and has a very high ceiling.

Happy to sign Gallagher to add depth to our midfield options, but no way would I want him as a Luiz replacement. 

I actually like him. A pressing monster, we really struggled playing against him this season in the games at Villa Park and he's got a decent shot on him.

Not the most elegant of footballers but a good player with his best years ahead of him. Also adds to our list of English players which is a bonus. 

10 hours ago, MaVilla said:

didnt make France's Euro squad.

And just like the World Cup, we have no Villa players in the French squad. Digne didn't make it either and Kamara is of course injured.

Don't think Diaby has had a great first season with us but I think he's unlucky, Deschamps only named a 25 man squad when he could have taken 26 (tat extra spot could have gone to Diaby).

He's picked an uncapped Barcola and Kolo Muani who has never impressed me that much and has had a worse season than Diaby..

I also think Olise should have been in the squad. I have no idea why Kante has been brought back, he's 33 and playing in Saudi and nowhere near the player he was.

7 minutes ago, duke313 said:

I'd give Moreno another season, not only his injury that set him back but the injuries to Buendia and Ramsey as he linked up well with them on the left.  We could see an improvement from him next season with all of them fit.

Yes give him one more season but he’ll be 32 at the end of next season so we will have to start thinking of younger options to replace him at some point. 

9 hours ago, paul514 said:

These are the players I would sell/release in the summer all figures are in euros and from Transfermarkt.

The amortized value is what he costs us per year on the accounts and the book value is the total amount of amortization left until he he has a value of zero for FFP. This means for an FFP profit on a player he must be sold for more than his book value.

I also think it is worth mentioning how these values are worked out.... lets say we sign a player on a 5 year contract for 50m. After 3 years we sign him to a new 5 year contract this means for the first 3 years he is with us he amortizes at 10m per year making his book value 20m when he signs a 5 year extension to his contract.
He will then amortize at 4m per year for the next five years. I hope that is simple to understand.

Lenglet - End of loan

Zaniolo - End of loan

Chambers - 29 in the summer, 1 year left on his deal brought for 0m, 

House - 29 in the summer, 1 year left on his deal brought for 3.4m, I don't have exact FFP figures for him as I didn't know the length of his first contract with us but it will be a negligible amount of amortisation left

Carlos - 31 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal brought for 31m
He is amortizing at 7.75m per year and his book value in the summer will be 15.5m

Digne - 31in the summer, 2 years left on his deal, brought for 30m.
He is amortizing at 6.66m per year and has a book value of 13.33m

Cash - 27 in the summer, 3 years left on his deal, brought for 15.75m
He is amortizing at 1.58m per year and has a book value of 4.74m

Dendonker - 29 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal, brought for 15m
He is amortizing at 3.75m per year and has a book value of 7.5m

Sanson - 30 in the summer, 1 year left on his deal, brought for 15.8 million euros
He is amortizing at 3.95m per year as he only has one year left on his deal his book value is also 3.95m

Coutinho - 32 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal, brought for 20 million euros
He is amortizing at 5m per year and has a book value of 10m

 

The total amortization per year of all the players mentioned is 28.69m Euros which is 24.61m Pounds
The total book value of all the players mentioned is 55.02m Euros which is 47.19m Pounds

My aim will be to cut the fat off the squad and then trying to bring in a smaller amount higher quality players as a whole without breaking FFP restrictions and reducing the wage bill as PSR (profit and sustainability rules) means we have to bring our wage bill down to 70% of our revenue within a couple of years.

So in short IF you can sell/release all those players and receive 47.2m for them we don't make an FFP loss on their book value and we don't have to amortised 24.6m on next years accounts for owning them

 

So moving on to incomings.

The price tags for my suggestions are from media reported figures
The links are for their transfermarkt profile and their scouting report from FBREF for their data.

Jean-Clair Todibo, 24 - Centre back,  Nice, 35m

I want this player as he is a lot like Pau Torres and we have all seen how much we missed him whilst he was injured taking the ball out of defence and his skill with progressive passes. He will be genuine competition for Konsa and will probably win out in that race.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jean-clair-todibo/profil/spieler/605184
https://fbref.com/en/players/88f130ed/scout/365_m1/Jean-Clair-Todibo-Scouting-Report

 

Adrien Truffert, 22 - Left back, Rennes, 20m

I think this guy is already as good as what we already have but he has a high ceiling and time on his side to reach that potential. 

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/adrien-truffert/profil/spieler/654539
https://fbref.com/en/players/5d0e0a1f/scout/365_m1/Adrien-Truffert-Scouting-Report

 

Lutsharel Geertruida, 24 in the summer, Right back, can play centre back too, Feyenoord, 30m

Very good passer and more of a defensive right back, fairly tall for a full back these days too.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/lutsharel-geertruida/profil/spieler/420210

https://fbref.com/en/players/242e1043/scout/365_m2/Lutsharel-Geertruida-Scouting-Report#all_scout_summary

 

Mats Wieffer 24, - Defensive Midfield, Feyenoord, 25m

Stats are off the charts, nice and tall too for all you heighists out there.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/mats-wieffer/profil/spieler/415381
https://fbref.com/en/players/4876c9ab/scout/365_m2/Mats-Wieffer-Scouting-Report

Maxence Caqueret - Central Midfield but very similar to Luiz, 24, Lyon, 25m

Great in tight spaces again off the chart stats.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/maxence-caqueret/profil/spieler/395237

https://fbref.com/en/players/f81ef10d/scout/365_m1/Maxence-Caqueret-Scouting-Report

Jonathan David, 24 - Striker, Lille, 25m (1 year left on contract)

I picked him as he should be relatively straight forward for us to pick up, he would be good back up for Watkins but he would also be good to play with him in the central role we see Diaby played in sometimes. His record last year was excellent and his data for this year is very good. If he had more shooting opportunities then his numbers would be much higher. He is the second highest scorer in Ligue 1 and doesn't get many shooting opportunities because of the team he plays for, you will get a peek at him in our next conference league game.

https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/jonathan-david/profil/spieler/533738
https://fbref.com/en/players/ce50fd99/scout/365_m1/Jonathan-David-Scouting-Report

So according to the figures I have used for purchasing these players that is 160m Pounds.

I can't know if we could get them to sign a 5 year or 4 year contract so I am going to list both and it would probably be somewhere in between.

So the 160m amortized over 5 years would be 32m per year or over 4 years it would be 40m

As the suggested sales/released are amortizing at 24.6m Pounds my suggestions increase amortization by 7.4m to 15.4m per year over what it is currently. I have been led to believe our three year FFP loss is 90m currently after all the deductions so with increased revenue and the wages of the departing players as far as I know that shopping list is affordable.

I think those players would effectively lock off all the positions throughout the team qnd It also brings down the age of the squad significantly, the players are signed for 'modest fees'  so we have better prospects of FFP profits moving forward with the squad
 

Solid list and business. Looks as though you haven’t got any key players leaving either (other than Digne who I like but who is getting old) and if your numbers add up and are realistic for us staying within the rules then it would be a very good window. I would prefer a more exciting attacking addition to Cacqueret myself, Williams or Baena, but the rest I agree with. I’m unsure why we haven’t shopped in the Dutch league more, some very good players there. Seen quite a bit of Geertruida and Wieffer and they fit the profile of player for Unai’s system, will try to watch them at the Euros too as I think they’ll be in the Dutch squad, although Wieffer is currently injured.
 

Our matchday squad for next season could look something like:

                    Martinez 

Geertruida Konsa Pau Moreno

                  Wieffer Luiz 

McGinn                      Tielemans

                Bailey Watkins

Subs from: Gauci, Kosta, Todibo, Mings, Truffert, Kamara (when fit), Cacqueret, Rogers, Ramsey, Buendia, Diaby, David, Duran

Lots of options to rotate and keep the squad fresh. When Kamara is fit again he will start and Todibo could oust one of the defenders in time. Moreno is getting old and didn’t do well this season, I’m unsure if Truffert is good enough to replace him in 25-26 season or if we buy someone else. Only concern would be keeping everyone happy because there’s lots of competition (24 first team squad players there), but we need to add that level of depth to be successful next season and Kamara will miss several months. I think if we sign David we would loan Duran out for the season to get game time and I also think we could loan Kosta out too so that takes our numbers down to 21/22 first team players. 

I feel the treatment he has got from some fans this season has been awful. 
 

I know I can have my tantrums after a loss but Zaniolo never deserved some of the stick he got, even when we were winning every week and he was starting there were attacks on him. Actually when he has played we’ve looked a better side, earlier in the season when we near the top of the league and his performance against Arsenal a few weeks ago was magnificent. He hasn’t got loads of goals or assists but stats aren’t everything and he’s played his part getting us to where we are, I still think he could become an incredible player in time, he’s got all the attributes to do so.

I really hope he doesn’t miss the Euros because of his commitment to us, that would suck big time, especially if he isn’t here next season.

Ugarte makes more sense than Soler from PSG but I’m not opposed to both.

I personally like Crazy Train and its playing at games coincided with is having our best season in nearly 30 years. 
 

Much like Sweet Caroline and High Ho Silver Lining I think it’s ingrained in the matchday experience now. Might change my mind in 12 months though if I start getting bored with it.

31 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

From the Athletic 

Link

 

 

If true then in our accounts next year or the year after, if we also include the Adidas and Betano deals, we could be looking at well over £300m in revenue which would be a huge commercial achievement and get us much closer to the Big Six teams financially. 

If Dortmund can get to the final then no reason why we can’t believe we can go far next season. They are experienced in the competition but wouldn’t necessarily say their squad is much better than ours especially if we have better luck with injuries and sign 2-3 quality players this summer in key positions. 
 

We struggled in the latter stages of the Conference which is my only concern, we will be playing teams much better than Olympiakos even early on in the competition, but we should have learned from our experiences this season. If we keep our squad fit then I think we could at the very least get to the knockout stages.

The challenge will be maintaining a strong league position and going far in the champions league, I wouldn’t be surprised if Unai again doesn’t take the domestic competitions too seriously so early exits in the FA Cup and League Cup. We have to get into Europe every season and go far in European competition to bridge the gap to the top teams.  

Crack open the champagne and get this thread closed!!!