Leeroy

Good to know not everyone on here is in denial.

Bizarre comment. Creatively and technically he's a level above any attacking midfielder we have. He's basically Leicester's version of Grealish. If you honestly think he wouldn't start over Buendia then I can't help you. Not that arsed anyway as if he's a Coventry boy then it was probably a no go. Hopefully we get Goncalves who I think is better albeit unproven in this league. Although I suspect we'll end up with Barnes who although not a bad player isn't as good as Maddison.

Absolute nonsense.

Wrong thread fella.

Stop what. I'm giving my God damn opinion. Buendia might work harder but his productivity is far worse than Maddison. Either way we need an improvement on him. With Maddison going to Spurs hopefully we get Goncalves from Sporting.

Really disappointed we didn't try to get him.

Very disappointing that we never were in the race to sign Maddison who appears to be ending up at 8th placed Tottenham, surely if we'd gone for him we'd have had a good chance there. Maybe he was too expensive for us but he'd have been a massive upgrade on Buendia.

It happens, I'm pretty confident he'll get back in. Mings was dropped for over a year from England yet you'd still say he's a very good defender. Kamara can't get a game for France yet he's a brilliant player, Luiz hasn't been called up to Brazil for 2 years but was our best player last season. International callups are quite often, excuse my French, a load of b*llocks. Torres would be our best ball playing centre by far and perfect for the way Emery wants to play. But like you I'd prefer him to play alongside Mings rather than in place of him.

He's worth twice that, it's a fantastic deal. Only reason he's potentially so cheap is because he has one year left on his contract.

Reckon this gets confirmed this week. Be a great signing for us.

He's a decent player for the squad, I don't think he'd start much in the Prem but probably would in Europe and the cups. However, we don't seem to be linked with many players in the positions of greater need. CM/DM is probably our strongest area of the squad, unless Donk is on his way out I don't see the need for Adams. We clearly need a right back, second striker and no 10/playmaker more than another central midfielder, and I'd argue we need a centre back more too particularly one who is comfortable on the ball. So not sure why we're trying to accumulate so many players in centre mid position, it baffles me.

Between us and West Ham would be close probably, but surely he'd choose Villa. Better manager, bigger club, brighter future I'd say, finished 7 places and over 20 points higher last season despite having Slippy for a third of the season. West Ham are also losing their captain and best player which will be a massive loss and they won't be buying anyone as good to replace him. In Torres' case in particular he'd be working with a manager he's worked with before too and he's probably not aware of who Moyes even is, plus they're more of a physical counter attacking team which wouldn't work for Torres whose style suits a team that plays possession football. Having said that, West Ham did win the Conference league, are in London which players seem to favour these days although West ham/Stratford area is a shithole and probably worse than a lot of areas in Birmingham. They have a few very good players too and clearly have managed to attract star players in the past like Pacqueta. If Torres doesn't get a move to City or Bayern I think we'd be favourites to land him. He's really good so I hope we get him.

Spurs have got as much chance as us of getting top 4 and that's probably being generous.

He's such a class player for us, I'm surprised the French don't rate him more highly. A lot of competition in that area with Tchouameni, Camavinga, Rabiot and young players coming through like Thuram and Kone but I'd have thought he'd be higher rated than Fofana as he was ahead of him 12 months ago but seems his injuries have messed up his selection for the national team. Pretty sure the likes of Kante and Pogba are out of the picture for France now so as long as he stays fit and plays well for us he should make the Euros squad.

It's depressing seeing England do so well without any Villa players involved, hence why I don't tend to watch. Nevertheless, I do like TAA in midfield with Rice and with Bellingham in there that would be really strong (with JJ an option as super sub if Southgate ever calls him up), we've also got an amazing front three with options off the bench. But the reason Southgate is such a pinocchio tw@t is he ignores potential weaknesses in the team that will be exposed against better teams and passes up opportunities to fix them. He is far too loyal to Pickford for example, but everyone knows Pope is a far better goalkeeper and playing in a team that wins most weeks. I know Pope was injured for these games but when he's been fit in the past he still picks that donkey Pickford over him. Slabhead at centre back is an actual joke, another donkey he continues to play. Colwill trained with the seniors so he could have played him against the mighty North Macedonia, or called up Tomori or Konsa, or even played another of his favourites Guehi instead of him. And the final gripe I have is Henderson in midfield, a player who has always been bang average and is now 33 years old. This is where our boy Ramsey should have been involved, if he'd started last night in a three with Rice and TAA it would have been a really exciting watch. Or even Eze who was already in the squad. To summarise, Southgate is a numpty and I don't like him.

As for Goncalves I would also be reluctant to pay the £68m release clause but £45-50m is probably about fair. He's better than Buendia and we paid £38m in total for him. I'd have thought we could break our transfer record to sign Goncalves and if he had a similar impact to Fernándes at Man Utd it would be worth it. His stats are very impressive but it is the Portuguese league.

We have far more resources than Brighton, it's not even close. Likewise Brentfird and Fulham too. Only the Sky 6 + Newcastle have more resources than us and Newcastle's turnover is still lower than ours so both of us have to come up with ways to increase this.

I hate Chelsea and feel we should do everything to start an FFP investigation against them as I'm sure they've fallen foul of the rules - however, I really ain't bothered about this one. Honestly if we signed this guy I'd be disappointed with the lack of ambition and don't think he'd get in our starting 11, so if that's who Chelsea want to sign then I'm happy. I have a suspicion they may have been knocked back by more illustrious targets if this is who they're going for. Man City sign Haaland as their centre forward, Chelsea sign Jackson, they're miles off the top teams. Jackson is young so can improve in a few years but it's a massive gamble and if I was a betting man I would bet it will be a huge failure and they'll be loaning him out in a year's time.

With Monchi finally on board I hope we start to make progress with bringing in some quality players, progress has been very slow it seems. Not panic mode yet but we could do with 2-3 more in by mid July and a few outs too like Sanson, Nakamba, Davis, Hause, Wesley etc and if we get decent offers for Coutinho and Traore should take them too. Chukwueze, Zaniolo and Foyth would be my realistic targets to add to Tielemans. Be nice if we could pull off a marquee signing too like Pau Torres or Joao Felix.

It kind of is though, firstly there's no speculation linking him with any other team and why on earth would we sell players and supporters player of the season. Just because we've signed Tielemans means absolutely sod all. A team playing in four competitions needs strength in depth and who's to say we don't push Luiz further forward. It's just more negativity from villa fans when there's absolutely no reason to be.

Stupid c*nts who think he's going anywhere.

Tw@t.

Don't really get this one after signing Tielemans. Used to like Ox as a player a few years ago but been far too injury prone in recent years and will be 30 in August, don't see the need for him here. It is Talksport though so take with a pinch of salt.

Very good signing on a free. Not had his best season admittedly but he's a really talented player and will give us great strength in depth in central midfield. Needs to get his fitness sorted out but I've no doubt Emery will work on that. No doubt we've offered Tielemans a good wage but getting him on a free means we should still have full funds to put towards players in other positions.

I believe next season the top 5 get Champions League so if we finish 5th we will be playing elite European competition. I think if we finish where we did this season (7th) we'll get Europa but not sure. So between 5th and 7th would be very good, anywhere above 5th would be an amazing season. I'd love a trophy but don't understand those happy to finish bottom half to get one. Next season and in the coming seasons we need to become consistent in the league and be looking to finish at least top 7 every season. That is how we build up our reputation again so we can compete for the best European players. 7th and a trophy would be a great season, 5th or above without a trophy would also be great. I'd probably prefer the latter if it meant Champions League, but we are long overdue a trophy too.