Summer transfer window 2021

[nick76]

6 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

I can't see El Ghazi starting even with Bailey and Buendia out. If someone offers £17m for El Ghazi, which they won't, he'd be gone in an instant. 

Doubling our money on a player who isn't good enough to make our starting XI and where we want to be is a no brainer. 

I think if Bailey and Buendia dont start against Watford, I think AEG is a shoe in to start.  Dean seems to like him and he's played a lot of preseason so I would imagine he's likely to start anyway given Bailey hasnt trained yet with us and we dont know the status of Buendia.

[Beastmix]

1 minute ago, The Fun Factory said:

Yes but top clubs will play 10-15 games more than Villa next season.

Wouldn't harm Villa to start getting into such a mentality though. Can only be good for us.

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, Beastmix said:

I don't understand why so many people are trying to cram Watkins and Ings into the same starting line up. If we go our usual 'one up top' formation, we simply rotate them as starters (or select, based on opposition weaknesses), keeping them fresh and providing us with a plan b when games aren't going too well.

Just because you sign a player, doesn't mean they need to go straight into the starting XI every week, irrespective of how much they cost to buy. Top clubs have benches where every single player on it is worth £20m~30m minimum.

I think it's because we are likely to play slightly different this season.  Given who Ings was also linked with before coming to us and being 29 he'll want to play most games.  I dont think we'll go one up top as much this season it will likely be the 3 forwards of Ings, Watkins and Bailey as a forward three rather than the 2 wingers and striker front three as we have done for the last couple of seasons.  Dean has already talked about options in formation.  I think both Ings and Watkins will start most games in whatever formation we play.

I dont think it's anything to do with being a big club or anything, I think it's just how Dean will want to play

[Phil Silvers]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

I think if Bailey and Buendia dont start against Watford, I think AEG is a shoe in to start.  Dean seems to like him and he's played a lot of preseason so I would imagine he's likely to start anyway given Bailey hasnt trained yet with us and we dont know the status of Buendia.

Agree and I think he will almost certainly start for continuity, I'm probably out on this but I think we will ease most in, with the exception of buendia.

I'm expecting a starting lineup against Watford that's fairly close to the last game of last season.

[nick76]

10 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

Agreed. I would bite their hand off for 15m. It would help us with P&S and would also give us the opportunity to upgrade a player, as someone suggested above. I would prefer Cantwell int he squad and JPB promoted to the sub role. I am sure we could survive with Ings taking our pens

See I wouldnt want Cantwell, I just dont think that much of him.  I have no issue with AEG leaving but to upgrade (although slightly different position) and sell AEG for 17m and buy Cantwell for 30-40m just seems a waste of money for somebody that isnt that much better.

[eholm]

32 minutes ago, allani said:

I don't think either will be pushed "wide".  I think our front 3 (if all fit) will be Ollie, Ings and Bailey.  Ollie will start on the left of the three but in reality that just means that he will play in the gap between the full back and the right sided CB - not being stuck out on the wing.  If you look at his heat map from last season this is where he spent the vast majority of his time / had the majority of his touches anyway.  So he was already playing closer to a left sided inside forward than a traditional centre forward anyway.  The fact that Ings also tends to drift left suggests (to me) that the two will inter-change with each other pretty freely anyway.  I think there will be games when we only play 1 of Ings / Watkins (injuries, rest, suspensions but also maybe games where we think we can exploit the flanks rather than the more central channels).  I really don't believe that Ings or Ollie will play "wide left" / "left wing".

Exactly. I think we need to move on from the notion that any of our forwards will be wide forwards/wingers and so will contribute less in terms of goals.. Look at Liverpool - Mane and Salah both operate on the left and right of Firmino/Jota yet still score plenty of goals. OK, so obvs an upgrade in regards to quality but the premise still remains. As you say, our front 3 will play narrower as inside forwards instead of being wide/wingers although they will have the pace and running to provide more width when needed. I imagine DS sees the 2 Matts as providing a lot of width as well so imperative we get that CDM for covering those forward runs.

Overall a much more fluid system which will give flexibility and unpredictability - something we haven't had for years. 

[nick76]

2 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Agree and I think he will almost certainly start for continuity, I'm probably out on this but I think we will ease most in, with the exception of buendia.

I'm expecting a starting lineup against Watford that's fairly close to the last game of last season.

I agree, we may not even see Bailey until after the international break so we can bed him in.  That breaks start in less than two weeks and given he hasnt even trained we may keep him under wraps until the post internationals on the 11th September.

[PieFacE]

£17m for AEG would be incredible business. Can't see it tho at all. 

[The Fun Factory]

9 minutes ago, Beastmix said:

Wouldn't harm Villa to start getting into such a mentality though. Can only be good for us.

Wouldn't be so good for the wage bill and having a lot of bored players. Its a balancing act.

[Laughable Chimp]

10 minutes ago, Beastmix said:

I don't understand why so many people are trying to cram Watkins and Ings into the same starting line up. If we go our usual 'one up top' formation, we simply rotate them as starters (or select, based on opposition weaknesses), keeping them fresh and providing us with a plan b when games aren't going too well.

Just because you sign a player, doesn't mean they need to go straight into the starting XI every week, irrespective of how much they cost to buy. Top clubs have benches where every single player on it is worth £20m~30m minimum.

Top clubs have benches worth that much because their starting lineup is already worth much more. Our first team players are not worth much more than 20-30m so it'd be odd to bring in someone of that value and not have him be a starter.

[Peter Griffin]

6 minutes ago, nick76 said:

See I wouldnt want Cantwell, I just dont think that much of him.  I have no issue with AEG leaving but to upgrade (although slightly different position) and sell AEG for 17m and buy Cantwell for 30-40m just seems a waste of money for somebody that isnt that much better.

I wouldn't want to spend too much on Cantwell, I would be more in the 25m bracket. But I think he is a good player and he is the type of player that should increase in value and we should be able to sell him on. One thing that appeals to me about Cantwell is his relationship with Emi and that may help to get Emi up to speed a little quicker. 

[PieFacE]

Would still like us to sign Damsgaard. If we could sell AEG and put that money towards Damsgaard that would be a significant upgrade. 

[Phil Silvers]

6 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I agree, we may not even see Bailey until after the international break so we can bed him in.  That breaks start in less than two weeks and given he hasnt even trained we may keep him under wraps until the post internationals on the 11th September.

Makes total sense, I'd also add Ings to the .. can be started straight away list as I think he has the intelligence and prem experience to slot right in to whatever Deano fancies .

[CosmicVillan]

9 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

£17m for AEG would be incredible business. Can't see it tho at all. 

The word is the Roma Sporting Director is flying in to the UK to meet with Tammy, so maybe there's a meeting lined up with El Ghazi too if he's already here

[paul514]

I'd be so pleased if we got 17 million for him, you can get a serious upgrade for just a handful of millions more.

[VillanousOne]

I don't think we need to sell Anwar, we need to get used to having squad depth and tactical and rotation options.

I would even keep Connor for this reason.

As long as the players we keep as squad players can add some value when needed.

I think in a few years or less we will have youngsters coming through that will fill in a lot of gaps in depth but until then I honestly wouldn't sell anyone unless the player was desperate to go.

Only exceptions would be I think Wes and Davis should both go out on loan for different reasons, one to get his mojo back and the other to prove he can actually score goals.

[paul514]

Just now, VillanousOne said:

I don't think we need to sell Anwar, we need to get used to having squad depth and tactical and rotation options.

I would even keep Connor for this reason.

As long as the players we keep as squad players can add some value when needed.

I think in a few years or less we will have youngsters coming through that will fill in a lot of gaps in depth but until then I honestly wouldn't sell anyone unless the player was desperate to go.

Only exceptions would be I think Wes and Davis should both go out on loan for different reasons, one to get his mojo back and the other to prove he can actually score goals.

Sell and replace with better

[PerryBarrPet]

6 minutes ago, eholm said:

Exactly. I think we need to move on from the notion that any of our forwards will be wide forwards/wingers and so will contribute less in terms of goals.. Look at Liverpool - Mane and Salah both operate on the left and right of Firmino/Jota yet still score plenty of goals. OK, so obvs an upgrade in regards to quality but the premise still remains. As you say, our front 3 will play narrower as inside forwards instead of being wide/wingers although they will have the pace and running to provide more width when needed. I imagine DS sees the 2 Matts as providing a lot of width as well so imperative we get that CDM for covering those forward runs.

Overall a much more fluid system which will give flexibility and unpredictability - something we haven't had for years. 

Couldn’t agree more. Formations need not be rigid and, as Liverpool showed, a fluid approach is needed to win at the highest level. A front three of Watkins, Ings and Bailey with Buendia, Mc Ginn and Luiz/Nakamba/new CDM behind would trouble any team. Anybody remember one of the goals Olly scored in the 7-2 demolition of Liverpool where he cut in from the left and placed a right foot shot well wide of the goalkeeper? Hopefully more of that to come.

[PieFacE]

1 minute ago, VillanousOne said:

I don't think we need to sell Anwar, we need to get used to having squad depth and tactical and rotation options.
 

We don't need to sell him, no. But selling him would be a great opportunity to sign an upgrade. 

[DCJonah]

28 minutes ago, Beastmix said:

I don't understand why so many people are trying to cram Watkins and Ings into the same starting line up. If we go our usual 'one up top' formation, we simply rotate them as starters (or select, based on opposition weaknesses), keeping them fresh and providing us with a plan b when games aren't going too well.

Just because you sign a player, doesn't mean they need to go straight into the starting XI every week, irrespective of how much they cost to buy. Top clubs have benches where every single player on it is worth £20m~30m minimum.

Players like Ings and Watkins don't join clubs like ours to rotate.