VillaJay

.I wouldn't be overly disappointed if we didn't get him as their might be concerns how he'd stack up in a possession based system with little space to run into, and Leon Bailey has been a disappointment too, which despite being different players puts a bit of caution on the deal.

However there's not too many obvious options available that have some pedigree. 

6 minutes ago, Mr_Dogg said:

I'm not sure how you can possibly say that after last season. And they are strengthening.

I think Rice improves them hugely despite the view of him being overrated by many, I just don't think they were overly convincing last season, and they outperformed their expected points by 10+ points too. Their fall away was no disgrace, but also no surprise and most could see it coming.

I think they'll be in around the top 4 again, but after such huge spending, huge fan expectation and still a very inexperienced manager it wouldn't surprise me to see them struggle in relation to fan expectation.

Not convinced by Arteta or Arsenal, wouldn't be surprised to see them struggle for top 4 if it wasn't for how average Chelsea, Utd and Spurs look right now.

9 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

That was a great interview, so much better than the norm

Seems a great guy, well done Moreno too!

Maybe we should seriously consider conducting all our interviews in a foreign language!

Very well informed about Villa, seems an intelligent enough fella too.

1 hour ago, Herman22 said:

I think after looking at Diaby videos the player I’d like most is Frimpong! He either scores or assists every goal Diaby is involved in. 

Maybe we could do a double deal? 

I agree, Frimpong looks very good going forward, and I believe plays right back too, stands out more than Diaby who looks quite similar to Bailey.

If we are signing him it's to play now, we won't be spending 30m and loaning him out. I haven't seen enough of him, personally would prefer someone with pace and composure, but I'd trust Emery if he feels he can make an impact, similarly to Asensio, he's not the quickest either so it looks like we're favouring technical ability.

Kessie would be a great pickup if we can move some on.

Kamara, Luiz, Tielemans and Kessie for the central midfield places with the option of playing a 433 would be a brilliant window.

Ramsay, Buendia, Bailey and another wide option plus Watkins/Archer and a wide forward like Ferran Torres and that would be an unbelievable window.

Most likely after Pain Torres I'd guess we'll see 2 more at most though which if it's any combo of Ferran Torress/Kessie/Diaby would be fantastic.

Adams could be a decent option, Kamara is almost too good to be the sitting midfielder, if Adams as his stats show he can replicate the defensive side of Kamara's game.

It could provide us with the option to utilize Kamara at centre half at times and help with building play from the back.

Players and staff are all either on international duty or on holiday right now, I'm sure there's plenty going on behind the scenes and we'll start seeing more movement in the market from the start of July.

There's been very little transfers domestically so far, June is generally that bit quieter and with the level of targets I'd expect us to be going for, it will take time, selling clubs can afford to wait it out a bit right now.

The most important thing is we've identified a sporting director who can work well with Unai in Alemany and when that fell through we went after another who will and has worked well with Unai. Proper planning, all too often you see conflict between sporting directors and managers at other clubs.

This will be a good move and if it doesn't happen, I've no doubt we will have another in mind.

This really shows the ambition of the owners too, they want success and are putting the structure in place to make that happen.

Did a very good job on the whole, his business and political acumen is his strong point and it sounds like Heck will take on a lot of the commercial side of things, but he was as strong as any this area, and will need someone similar to do this work, which is not a sporting director duty imo.

His football knowledge was never a strong point and his appointment of Gerrard only amplified that, a new sporting director will help us get more competitive on the pitch.

1 hour ago, useless said:

Just looked at last few pages on Rodrigo thread on Leeds forum Waccoe.

He's a million miles off Hernandez's passing ability, all his through balls have too much pace and go straight out of play
get this **** word removed out of our club
Too little too late for me , cant wait for him to leave. He irritates me massively with his pretend pressing.
Hopefully some other stupid words removed will buy the lazy rocket polisher now.
Spain must be desperate
God he's been shite overall really. We shouldn't bother with expensive signings anymore, waste of time
Best game I’ve seen him actually close players down and make a challenge... His 3rd season

And there were lots more negative comments beside those, there were some positive ones as well, such as might do a job in the Championship, better than Bamford, and 'he's our best finisher', but overall he hasn't been great at Leeds at all, feel like people are just looking at the fact he scored thirteen goals last season and the reported low transfer fee in coming to the conclusion that we should sign him but truth be told overall he's been poor, thirteen goals this season, but just eight and seven in the previous two, and only four assists across three seasons, also won't be as cheap as people think as wil cost a lot of money in wages.

We've just done well in selling Ings, an older player who we were paying a lot of money just to be a back-up option, why would we then replace him with Rodrigo who would have the same role, would be on similar wages, but is older and isn't as good in front of goal, it's not even as if Rodrigo's general play has been good.

 

I'm not saying Rodrigo is the answer, and he certainly hasn't impressed me when I've watched him, however, I took a look at the Leeds consensus a couple of days ago and it differs quite a bit from your summary. 

In general very mixed as expected for a relegated side but mostly slanted positively with many feeling he was their best striker who is quite a few regarded as the best finisher in the league(huge pinch of salt needed here) also just been called up into the Spain national team again. Their views up until the last 2 months of the season were considerably more positive than their latest comments.

Overall, wouldn't be my first choice but as long as a dynamic wide forward comes in, he could be a smart pickup on the cheap.

Ollie has the capability to score 20+ next season, how much would someone similar cost? I can see the arguments against Ollie, lacks that composure great strikers have and his technique could be better, however his other attributes make up for this.

Have a watch of the latest avfc video on YouTube of all our goals in 22/23 season and look how often Ollie is involved even when he's not scoring with either the assist or pass before the assist.

We do could do with another type of forward or at least 2 wide forwards who can play central.

9 minutes ago, Don_Simon said:

This is the one. If he chooses PSG over us, he wasn't right for us. Unai is a mentality monster, we know this now. Choosing the "project" in Paris is not demonstrable evidence of the mentality he wants from players in our squad.

I agree, even though Unai himself made the move to PSG, it was an upward move at the time, for Asensio any move will be a downwards move.

At Villa he can be a star, that won't happen at PSG.

I think he will end up here, he's won everything with Real, there's not really any sporting reason for him to go to PSG, a lot of the Spanish based signings PSG made recently were coming from the tier below in la Liga where PSG would feel like a big step up.

We will have offered him a huge contract, I've no doubt, and a chance to play in the PL with an ambitious project. If he does go to PSG, then maybe that's probably for the best as his hunger may not be there anyway.

I'm still optimistic on this one, looks a good fit for our side, may just lack that but of pace on the right side, but his tech ical quality makes up for it.

One of my fav villa players in that team this and last season, a great pro, leader and player. I was initially a little disappointed, however we need to create a pathway for our youth players to earn a chance to play and in that respect the decision makes sense.

Better for him to go out on a high too with his reputation at Villa back where it once was.

Auba is a lazy link because he did so well under Emery, can't see that one at all. Not a huge fan of Ziyech, but would be a decent loan option. The Luiz links look interesting, he looks very much an Emery player, tall, decent in the air and direct enough as a winger to play that inside forward role. I do however see concerns to some that he looks a very similar player to Bailey, but he looks to have more potentiatl to play that hybrid forward/winger role Emery likes to utilise.

He was a top player in his prime and on Saturday he showed those key skills, excellent performance.

Better footballer than Cash, but not sure he has the legs for more than occasional cameo, though he didn't look out of place against City.

Anything less than 6 points from the next 2 or he needs to go, even then we would need to show some semblance of a game plan also.

I could accept where we are right now temporarily if it looked like we had a plan or identity, and were building something, but nearly a year later and no improvements on the pitch and actually going backwards is not good enough for the backing and players at his disposal.

Luiz is going anyway, he's not going to sign a new contract so we should try get as much cash right now to re-invest for future windows.

A very decent player who probably can go up another level, but he's been a mainstay of our struggling midfield since our return to the prem, good player but currently being overhyped due to a combo or current poor coaching/tactics and midfield options.

Dawson on a 2 year deal would be decent business, knows the league and is highly rated at West Ham, they don't want him to go, but he apparently wants to move closer to home.

Not a ball playing centre half, and quite similar to Ming's but would make us more solid until Carlos returns.

Wouldn't be surprised if the other target is Tielemens and he's waiting to see if someone else comes in for him.

19 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

Depressing…

 

Actual quote from Gerrard

“There’s a lot of hard work going on in the background,” Gerrard added. “We’re trying to explore one or two different situations to add to the group. There’s still time left and, when there’s something to say that’s concrete for our supporters, we’ll say and we’ll tell you that news but, at the moment, we’re not close on anything.”

Our window shouldn't just be judged on this summer, we bought Digne in January because he became available then and it was an opportunistic deal, same with Coutinho.

Since Jan we've signed Digne, Kamara, Coutinho, Diego Carlos to improve our first 11

That's 4 new players on last season, and hugely ambitious signings too.

Some posters live in fantasy land, crying about players they want the club to buy and say we missed out on when there's no evidence we'd even be interested in those players. ( I also don't think even 1 of forests signings would get in our team)

Our owners have done a fantastic job thus far, out infrastructure and youth setup are fantastic and puts us in a strong position to grow the club. 

It might be a controversial opinion, but I think we've signed better than arsenal and anyone else in the league except for city in terms of improving our first 11.

I don't necessarily think we've a better side or should be challenging top 6 this season, but I do think we've strengthened significantly compared to most around us.

Also maybe controversial but I don't rate zinchenko and think he'll be very average outside that city team and same for Gabriel Jesus.

I don't expect us to be competing with arsenal next season, but also not convinced they've strenghtened ahead of us.

Leicester and west ham are the immediate target for us and we've strengthened on both so far.

Also it's July 16th, we're definitely not done.