VillaJay

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.

Wasn't great today, but needs to be played up top on his own. He has his weaknesses that were evident last season - poor hold up play and first touch but he is a workhorse who brings to much to our Frontline. I really like ings, a top player, but if it's one or the other, it Ollie for me.

Might shut a few up tonight, was poor first half, but still miles better than Luiz. Exceptional second half, he plays one step ahead of most of our team except for Buendia, Coutinho will help. A huuuge prospect.

Not a great opening half hour, but they're there for the taking, take the fluke goal away and there's not much in it. Get the next goal and we'll win this by 2.

What a **** comment, get a grip.

Coutinho for Ollie or Ings at half time, needs to be one or the other.

Whatever about Anwars ability, he's contributed massively in our recent history. I hear all these accusations about bottler, only scores pens etc., 93rd min against Wolves last season he scored a pen to win us the game. Balls of Steel. 44th min at Wembley against a team we were expected to beat but a nervy game, he puts us on our way to promotion. Loads of potential and he may never realise it, but there's a player there who has repaid what we paid for him in spades, more than can be said for many of our signings over the last 10 years.

That just shows how misleading stats alone in football can be, moneyball doesn't work in football. Martinez has been solid this season, having watched every game so far. Martinez is the best GK we've had since I've been watching villa the last 30 years. Straight off the top of my head his save vs Leicester in the 2-1 win earned us 2pts which the stats won't show. Stats are important, but not in isolation and particularly in football.

Looks a real talent and only just turned 17, playing first team football at 16 in any senior league is impressive, looks like he played 90mins vs Celtic in a 1-1 draw and played 20mins vs Rangers too so far this season. Based on his physicality it looks like he'll be in around the first team sooner than a lot of our youth prospects.

I personally was a little underwhelmed with the Gerrard signing, but was willing to give him a chance and to see what he can do with us. From what I've seen so far from Gerrard and our board since game 1, I'm very optimistic that Gerrard will be a huge success and see us progress as a team as expected. On the pitch I've seen a clear identity in our play and can see how he wants us to play, off the pitch I can see he's identified where we need to improve to play his way too. Based on the opening games, which included games against Man City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Utd and Leicester, I'm not sure any manager in world football could have done much more with our current team.