VillaJay

Well run clubs don't go scrambling around buying players on deadline day. If an opportunistic deal comes available, I'm sure we'd move on it. This has been a brilliant window for us and anyone that says otherwise is talking rubbish. Someone put this on here the other day but over the last 2 windows we've bought: Coutinho, Digne, Leon Bailey, Danny Ings, Emi Buendia and more. No other club in our league has been as ambitious in that time.

There is just no way we are loaning Targett to Newcastle unless it's hugely beneficial to us, I trust the board on this. As mentioned, it's either a huge loan fee or mandatory purchase and we have someone else coming in to the team.

We've already got a lot of players bought for reasonable fees that have and could improve to become bargains - Luiz, Cash, Konsa and Sanson added to our youth prospects who are some of the best in the country. Gerrard will want to push on and add proven quality to the group like Digne and Coutinho and those players cost money. I'd expect we'll be in for Bissouma in the summer again once he has 12 months left on his deal. Will be a big ask trying to sign him then.

If we can't get our primary targets this window, there's no point signing players who don't improve on our starting 11. Chambers will cover CB/RB and DM until Nakamba is fit and I'm sure we'll look at a DM in the summer window. Overall it's been a very good transfer window.

I believe that "journalist" as much as any "expert in the transfer market" what type of clown puts that in their twitter bio! Bentancour will stay at juve.

I believe we're very interested, but outside our budget this window. Top player who would improve us, however there is definitely similar if not better talent to be had around Europe for considerably less than a potential 50m. FWIW he's not a dm either, he's a box to box no.8 who's much better at the defensive side of the game.

That's how I see it too, in an ideal scenario, every player we buy is if the quality to push our current starters out of the team. However we need to team and squad build over time, and this is a really clever signing. If we can get a top DM in before the end of the window it will have been our best window in 25+ years. We can then in the next window look to buy 2 top quality players capable of replacing our current starters.

This is a really smart low risk signing and he's got that unfulfilled talent/potential that could see him move up a level and potentially challenge as a starter in this team. Good age Played more pl football than mings and konsa Technically very good and potentially our most technical defender Covers 3 positions competently 3 International caps, played 30+ times in Europe, CL/EL experience He cost nothing or next to nothing in transfer fee Actually has some really good YouTube videos for a defender

I had a listen too, and I agree, he seemed to be stumbling for words and contradicting himself and didn't seem too sure or in control of what he was saying. I rate Luiz and honestly don't know if he will sign a new deal if offered, but if the club know he won't, he should be sold at the peak of his contract value which is right now. Either way I'm more confident that preece knows less than I do!

Crap music and yes its YouTube, but he can play football, looks very capable technically.

I wouldn't be shocked if he was brought in as cover for the CB and DM positions primarily. If we can't get the quality we want in DM this window he may be the stopgap which is clever as he can cover 3 positions and would have some resale value too

He won player of the season playing in midfield for Fulham in the 18/19 season in the PL Just turned 27 Can play RB, CB and DM Has 3 England Caps (from 2014) Is a free transfer Decent squad option

There is always a considerable risk signing players from foreign leagues and in particular Ligue 1, look at ndombele and more recently a villatalk and twitter darling in Soumare at Leicester who has been by all accounts terrible. The upside is you could get a gem for considerably cheaper than a proven prem player. I wouldn't swap Luiz for Guimaraes and Luiz with a new deal is a 30m player all day long in this market. My preference would be for proven quantities like Bissouma if we're serious about moving up a level again, if he's not in budget then Bentancur is as good a bet as you'll get in a foreign market - Good age, regular starter for a CL and international teams with good pedigree. If we can't land our preferred targets in this window Id rather we spend in the summer instead.

Eddie Howe has hired his nephew in a recruitment role at newcastle, he previously worked at Bournemouth as their u8's coach, and I am not joking!

Eddie Howe's nephew scouted him on juvetalk and said nah

I'd imagine any chance of this deal happening is heavily reliant on his afcon involvement and may go to the wire, It's probably fair to believe he's our number 1 target in this area.

A quick look at that Juve forum and it's fair to say the opinions in general are extreme! They seem to think every player is terrible, there are some posters who seem reasonably balanced and back up their views on him with stats too. For example it's widely seen that Bentancur was the best player on the pitch last night and played well, however some (including that elvin character) refuse to acknowledge that and just say he's terrible despite every good display or stats that prove his opinion wrong. I also am not convinced we'll sign him anyway, he's a first team regular at Juve and will he want to leave to join Villa at this time?

I'd imagine he's our number 1 target, I believe he would transform our midfield and we are most likely at a standstill on negotiations with Brighton and have moved on to our next target as an option, if we can't get this one over the line. Bentancur does look a similar player to Bissouma though, as long he's only asked to sit in front of the defense.

Can't say I've watched much of him, however he does look quite similar to Luiz. Bissouma would most likely be much more expensive, however he's a near guaranteed quantity. I'd rather get the best dedicated dm we can or no one at all this window and wait for the right player. Also stats are misleading, only a few tweets before that, VillaAnalytics was slating Digne as not an upgrade on targett based on his stats, when anyone who has actually watched him play football could tell you how wrong he is. Stats are important but only tell a small part of the story. If Gerrard and the scouting team think Bentacour is the man, I trust that.

I also think it's Bissouma we're waiting on based on Purslows comments and Gerrard's no smoke without fire comment when talking about transfer speculation pre-utd game on Monday. I'd imagine we're waiting on him to return from afcon, I also wouldn't be surprised if we go for phillips even though he's currently injured. If we can't get our targets now, we will probably just wait until summer. One other interesting comment from Purslows was that we view Jan and summer windows as one window not two, which suggests they deliberately waited review again in Jan. 2 more first xi players seems to be the target this window.

3 goals this season so far, and could have had at least that again. Off the top of my head the good goal ruled out vs leicester and near misses in a number of other games. Really talented footballer who funnily enough would fit into a pep team better than Grealish, he moves the ball so quickly and has power and pace. Excited to see how he can go, the great work in the academy over recent years is starting to pay off.

I said it when we signed him that he plays more similarly to de bruye than Jack, he's much less of a dribbler but always looking for the forward pass. Just needs to add some goals as the creativity has been there, even when he wasn't playing at his best earlier in the season. Great attitude and a winner, Bruno Fernandes is the same, a horrible player to play against but you want those time of characters on your side.

Important point, as we need to stop losing games. There will be ups and downs this season, but there is a clear identity in our football and in spells we are playing some of the best football I've seen us play in a very long time. Gerrard looks the real deal though and Purslows interview(see Purslows thread) that was released today is really promising.

Not the brightest thing to do in a covid environment, but cant fault his passion. Made a mistake, but solid as ever.

I personally thought Luiz was really poor first half, yet all the complaints in the match thread were about Ramsay, despite him actually getting on the ball and trying to make something happen.