Speculation Summer Speculation 2015

[sir_gary_cahill]

Aston Villa’s offer for Asmir Begovic has been dismissed as derisory by Stoke City.

Stoke rate the Bosnia goalkeeper from £8 million to £10 million, but it is understood that Villa’s bid was around half of that valuation.

Begovic has just 12 months left on his deal at the Britannia Stadium and has offered no signs that he is willing to sign another one.

Stoke are determined to stop him leaving for free next summer, but are adamant that he will not be sold cheaply during this transfer window.

Chelsea are also keen on Begovic, but the player is worried about how much first-team football he would receive as understudy to Thibaut Courtois.

Villa could offer guaranteed first-team football, yet Begovic had been keen to join a side playing European football. A move across the Midlands would therefore amount to a surprise.

Sherwood has already persuaded Micah Richards to join this summer, as he looks to rebuild Villa into an established Barclays Premier League club after narrow escapes from relegation in each of the past five seasons.

Richards looks set to be a direct replacement for Ron Vlaar, who now looks increasingly unlikely to agree fresh terms with Villa.

Southampton, Sunderland and Newcastle are all keen on the Holland defender, who has also held talks with Besiktas, the Turkish side.

Let's assume it was half of the £10m. That's merely an opening offer and it's not a million miles from £8m. We might get him yet!

£4/5m would be great business.

He'll cost quite a lot more than that i'd imagine Edited June 26, 2015 by sir_gary_cahill

[useless]

£10M seems quite a lot, especially for a keeper and one who's in the last year of his contract.

[Gompedyret]

Daniel Ainsworth, Telegraph editor, claimed on Twitter that we enquired about Llorente - although the player wasn't interested. He eludes to our 'ambition'.

If that's true looks like Sherwood is trying to get a replacement for CB.

What it looks like IMO is Sherwood making contingency plans in case of Benteke's exit. Which, of course, is a very reasonable thing to do for a manager worth his salt when there is a very publicly known buy-out clause.

[Isa]

£10M seems quite a lot, especially for a keeper and one who's in the last year of his contract.

Agreed and I don't think we have any intention of going that high, thus the 'derisory' opening bid. If we do land him, it'll be nearer to the £7m mark.

[sir_gary_cahill]

£10M seems quite a lot, especially for a keeper and one who's in the last year of his contract.

Agreed and I don't think we have any intention of going that high, thus the 'derisory' opening bid. If we do land him, it'll be nearer to the £7m mark.

Agreed

[Rob182]

I'd go as high as £8m for Begovic, personally. If we can get £4m for Guzan, which I think is possible, then roughly £4m spent to improve our number one goalkeeper is decent business, in my opinion. I also think £8m is too good an offer for Stoke to turn down.

[Vancvillan]

In my humble opinion the Begovic bid is win-win.

 

1. If we get him for a cut price $4-$6 million we'll be able to sell on Guzan and the net of our GK transfer fee won't be that high.

 

2. If we don't get him for steal, Guzan knows that Sherwood is serious about replacing anyone with quality (fwiw I think Guzan is a decent keeper), and he's exactly the kind of player who reacts to that by getting his head down and doing everything he can to prove Sherwood wrong.

 

I think we'll either get a better keeper, or see a better version of Guzan next year. I'm fine with either.

[sir_gary_cahill]

I'd go as high as £8m for Begovic, personally. If we can get £4m for Guzan, which I think is possible, then roughly £4m spent to improve our number one goalkeeper is decent business, in my opinion. I also think £8m is too good an offer for Stoke to turn down.

Agreed

[mightysasquatch]

£8m for him with a year left/they have Buckland I can't see them turning that down. Then depends on the player, if he's told he'll be no1 & Sherwoods vision of how we want to play.

Sherwood strikes me as the kind of manager that if he can get to talk to the player 1v1 he can talk them round if they have reservations. Back to Begovic, he could very well be our keeper for many years. So 8m a few years on seems good & seemingly we are trying to get him now before clubs come in when his contract runs down.

[sir_gary_cahill]

Butland

[allani]

 

 

 

I like Guzan. I think he is an ok keeper but I have no confidence in him. So how must his defenders feel?

because of one out and out mistake and some occasionally dodgy distribution

you must have no confidence in 90% of the team then

Given that we have struggled consistently against relegation for the last few seasons - I think any one who does have confidence in 90% of the team must have pretty low expectations of where we now stand as a club. A seriously high percentage of the squad are not good enough for a team / club that should be challenging for Europe. How many of our players would realistically start for teams like Liverpool or Spurs? Answer is probably Benteke. Ergo 90% of the team are not good enough?? I don't think Guzan would stop us being a top 10 team, but in my opinion he isn't as good as the keepers that we had when we were challenging for Europe on a consistent basis.

Comparing our squad to that of a team in the top 8 is ridiculous. Is Guzan a top 8 goal keeper? No because if he was he'd already be there, is Guzan the best we could possibly do right now considering our plight the last few seasons? Yes, I'd argue we could in fact have a lesser keeper considering our last few seasons.

Last season the defence got chopped and changed, the midfield for the majority of games gave no protection to the back four. Keepers will always get the blame but when the teams racking up an average of just....what was it 25%-30% possession what do you expect.

 

????  The point I was replying to was about having no confidence in 90% of the team - which is absolutely the case.  My confidence levels in the club / team / squad will not be satisfied until we are back challenging for Europe every year.  We shouldn't be basing our confidence levels on avoiding relegation. 

 

I can't believe that Sherwood and Wilkins are here to try and finish 15th in the table.  Both have repeatedly mentioned finishing in the top half and alluded to conversations with Fox about that level of ambition.  So taking them at their word and assuming that the club's vision is on finishing in the top half then I maintain that 90% of the team are not good enough and it is up to Sherwood and Fox to change that.  And I'm sorry but I can't bring myself to having to consider which Villa players would walk into the starting XI at Southampton, Swansea or Stoke - that to me should be ridiculous (i.e. the answer should be 10 or 11 rather than maybe 3 or 4) not comparing ourselves to Spurs.  

 

PS - Maybe I am getting old but I still remember when we were only 1 or 2 players away from having a starting XI that would match any other team in the league.  The world has changed a lot since then though! :-(

[foreveryoung]

Im hoping we bring a few biggies in. With the likes of Bournemouth just spending 8m of one player, if we spend like we have been in the past, we will be left behind yet again. Im still thinking if we sell Benteke this season and don't bring in a marque or 2 we will be staring at relegation by the end of next seaon once again.

[mightysasquatch]

I like Guzan. I think he is an ok keeper but I have no confidence in him. So how must his defenders feel?

because of one out and out mistake and some occasionally dodgy distribution

you must have no confidence in 90% of the team then

Given that we have struggled consistently against relegation for the last few seasons - I think any one who does have confidence in 90% of the team must have pretty low expectations of where we now stand as a club. A seriously high percentage of the squad are not good enough for a team / club that should be challenging for Europe. How many of our players would realistically start for teams like Liverpool or Spurs? Answer is probably Benteke. Ergo 90% of the team are not good enough?? I don't think Guzan would stop us being a top 10 team, but in my opinion he isn't as good as the keepers that we had when we were challenging for Europe on a consistent basis.

Comparing our squad to that of a team in the top 8 is ridiculous. Is Guzan a top 8 goal keeper? No because if he was he'd already be there, is Guzan the best we could possibly do right now considering our plight the last few seasons? Yes, I'd argue we could in fact have a lesser keeper considering our last few seasons.

Last season the defence got chopped and changed, the midfield for the majority of games gave no protection to the back four. Keepers will always get the blame but when the teams racking up an average of just....what was it 25%-30% possession what do you expect.

???? The point I was replying to was about having no confidence in 90% of the team - which is absolutely the case. My confidence levels in the club / team / squad will not be satisfied until we are back challenging for Europe every year. We shouldn't be basing our confidence levels on avoiding relegation.

I can't believe that Sherwood and Wilkins are here to try and finish 15th in the table. Both have repeatedly mentioned finishing in the top half and alluded to conversations with Fox about that level of ambition. So taking them at their word and assuming that the club's vision is on finishing in the top half then I maintain that 90% of the team are not good enough and it is up to Sherwood and Fox to change that. And I'm sorry but I can't bring myself to having to consider which Villa players would walk into the starting XI at Southampton, Swansea or Stoke - that to me should be ridiculous (i.e. the answer should be 10 or 11 rather than maybe 3 or 4) not comparing ourselves to Spurs.

PS - Maybe I am getting old but I still remember when we were only 1 or 2 players away from having a starting XI that would match any other team in the league. The world has changed a lot since then though! :-(

About three times in my supporting villa life we were very close. First prem season, then it was either once under Little or twice under Gregory I can't remember right now. Gregory recently said Ellis wouldn't stump up the extra 500k for Muzzy Izzet when we were top much of the first half of the season, not that I believe Izzet could of been that player to get us over the line but you never know.

[Stevo985]

Daniel Ainsworth, Telegraph editor, claimed on Twitter that we enquired about Llorente - although the player wasn't interested. He eludes to our 'ambition'.

It would fit how I predicted Sherwood would approach transfers.

 

Overly ambitious. I'm just not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet!

[dont_do_it_doug.]

You can prove anything with "facts".

[avfcwills10]

 AFC_Andrew follows

Petr Čech Yourself ‏@18DialSquare86  Jun 21

Anyone that has ever been or is "Editor" at Telegraph. Don't see a Daniel Ainsworth there at all.

 

 

 

The guy then had a list of employees, Daniel Ainsworth doesn't exist.

[villan-scott]

James Nursey has an exclusive in tomorrow's Mirror according to Twitter, should be interesting, signing or takeover?

[Daniel]

James Nursey has an exclusive in tomorrow's Mirror according to Twitter, should be interesting, signing or takeover?

 

He hasn't tweeted anything about it.

[penguin]

Daniel Ainsworth, Telegraph editor, claimed on Twitter that we enquired about Llorente - although the player wasn't interested. He eludes to our 'ambition'.

It would fit how I predicted Sherwood would approach transfers.

 

Overly ambitious. I'm just not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing yet!

Can't see it being anything but a good thing myself. As long as there are more realistic Plan B's in place as well.

[villan-scott]

James Nursey has an exclusive in tomorrow's Mirror according to Twitter, should be interesting, signing or takeover?

He hasn't tweeted anything about it.

Yeah I saw that, but it's doing the rounds. A strange thing to make up. We will see come 10pm tonight.