Summer transfer window 2021

[Awol]

2 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

I'm not sure about the Buendia links.

If we were going to buy him then surely we would have taken him last summer after Norwich's relegation; his value will now have increased with their promotion and there willingness to sell decreased.

Pretty much every few pages this discussion takes another lap. Norwich are on record that he’s available this summer for the right price.

Things we don’t know: how much; where he wants to go; whether Villa want him. 

Things we can be confident about: Buendia will not start next season at Norwich. 

[OxfordVillan]

6 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

I'm not sure about the Buendia links.

If we were going to buy him then surely we would have taken him last summer after Norwich's relegation; his value will now have increased with their promotion and there willingness to sell decreased.

I honestly don’t know enough about Buendia as I don’t watch him week in week out. But I trust our recruitment enough that whoever they deem to sign is good enough for me.

[wilko154]

19 minutes ago, Awol said:

Pretty much every few pages this discussion takes another lap. Norwich are on record that he’s available this summer for the right price.

Things we don’t know: how much; where he wants to go; whether Villa want him. 

Things we can be confident about: Buendia will not start next season at Norwich. 

Ah fair, I hadn't heard that Norwich have said he's available.

[Awol]

4 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Ah fair, I hadn't heard that Norwich have said he's available.

Yes mate, their sporting director was all ‘we don’t want to lose him, but if a big club came in with the right offer...’ now it’s pretty much a Dutch auction. 

It’ll cost the thick end of £40m I reckon, but have the same effect on the team as Martinez and Ollie did in their respective positions. 

[wilko154]

 

Obviously take it with a pinch of salt as Villa Report has a reputation for making up rumours...

But interesting that Ornstein is now reporting this.

[AvfcRigo82]

20 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Ah fair, I hadn't heard that Norwich have said he's available.

Martinez will have had a word with him.  

[DaveAV1]

5 hours ago, paul514 said:

My eyes are metaphorically bleeding Reading all this striker talk I’m going to take a few things in turn which are facts, they aren’t debatable.

1. Whatever the budget is, it is finite and we can’t just spend whatever we want. The owners have an amount they are willing to put in and FFP exists.

2. We are not going to play Watkins as a wide forward. You don’t take your best striker for what 7 years? Then ram him out wide after he scores a good amount of goals with what I would consider poor service or at the very least inconsistent service.

3. We will not buy a striker unless one of two things happen. 
A, Wesleys medical condition is poor and we have no evidence to believe this.

B, We are going to spread the budget on a bunch of 15-25m pound players as we did last season.

That 3B point in my mind (this is the opinion part) is the only way a new striker comes through the door.

As a separate point, people keep saying we don’t have enough strikers…. How many do you want? We have 3 seniors an exceptional youngster and a wide forward who could fill in there as a 5th choice! We don’t even know if when we sign a new wide forward they could also play there.

Honesty reading about it over and over is inane.

We absolutely HAVE to purchase a left back as we now have one.

We absolutely must sign a DCM as we get played through too easily everyone has seen this all season.

When we allocate a budget those two positions are first two be signed off.

I’d find it amazing if more than just a few people disagreed we need a new high quality wide forward to take the pressure off Grealish, pen teams back into their own half because they are too scared to commit more men forward and to create more chances to score than we do currently.

I’d argue we need two.

Ollie gets a long term injury early in the season. You think Wesley and/or Davis will allow us to play the same way that we do with Ollie? 
 

If we lost Ollie, ideally we can find a striker that can press like he does, that may be difficult. However we at least need a striker that consistently scores goals. Davis definitely doesn’t do that. Wesley the jury is out on his goal scoring but I can’t see a high energy striker there I’m afraid. 
 

Perhaps Carney can fill in but that’s asking a lot from a young kid, regardless of how highly rated he is. Perhaps an experienced striker on a short deal would be useful. Giroud comes to mind but he’s off to Italy. 
 

Strikers are expensive and there’s a reason for that. Without a very good one and at least better than adequate back up a team can soon be in trouble. I don’t disagree that other positions need addressing too, but we can’t go into next season with our fingers crossed that Ollie can play 40+ games with no injuries or drop in form. 

[El-Reacho]

13 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Ollie gets a long term injury early in the season. You think Wesley and/or Davis will allow us to play the same way that we do with Ollie? 
 

If we lost Ollie, ideally we can find a striker that can press like he does, that may be difficult. However we at least need a striker that consistently scores goals. Davis definitely doesn’t do that. Wesley the jury is out on his goal scoring but I can’t see a high energy striker there I’m afraid. 
 

Perhaps Carney can fill in but that’s asking a lot from a young kid, regardless of how highly rated he is. Perhaps an experienced striker on a short deal would be useful. Giroud comes to mind but he’s off to Italy. 
 

Strikers are expensive and there’s a reason for that. Without a very good one and at least better than adequate back up a team can soon be in trouble. I don’t disagree that other positions need addressing too, but we can’t go into next season with our fingers crossed that Ollie can play 40+ games with no injuries or drop in form. 

I wouldn't consider Giroud to be anywhere close to the type of pressing striker that Ollie is. Surely he's the same type of striker that Davis and Wes are (albeit much better)?

[DaveAV1]

Just now, El-Reacho said:

I wouldn't consider Giroud to be anywhere close to the type of pressing striker that Ollie is. Surely he's the same type of striker that Davis and Wes are (albeit much better)?

I agree but at least he scores goals, so we would have to adapt our style but he has an end product. I was relieved he didn’t come on yesterday.

He’s off to Italy anyway I believe, he was just an example of an experienced goal scorer. 

[Loxstock92]

Open the thread!

[jacketspuds]

If we brought in Rashica and Buendia I’d be delighted.

Then we can focus our remaining budget on a LB and a DM.

[PieFacE]

Oh no not again with Rashica

[El-Reacho]

5 minutes ago, Loxstock92 said:

Open the thread!

Can't go through this all over again. I just can't.

[VillaJ100]

He didn't want to come, sod him

[DaveAV1]

2 minutes ago, El-Reacho said:

Can't go through this all over again. I just can't.

Take a deep breath and breathe. Don’t worry, the Rocket Man is coming. 

[thabucks]

Rashica is a known talent to the recruitment department so if they decide to proceed then I’ll be all for it... Makes sense to try and sign him at a reduced fee now relegation is confirmed. 

[It's Your Round]

If the price is right, then let the tits, fish and rocket polishing club begin! 
 

 

[El-Reacho]

4 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Rashica is a known talent to the recruitment department so if they decide to proceed then I’ll be all for it... Makes sense to try and sign him at a reduced fee now relegation is confirmed. 

If they are in for him again you'd like to think they'll have been watching him closely this season. Have to admit if he has been relegated from the Bundesliga and scored 3 goals in 26 appearances this season you'd have to question how much of an impact he'll have in getting us into the top six of a much harder league.

[Okonokos]

7 hours ago, paul514 said:

My eyes are metaphorically bleeding Reading all this striker talk I’m going to take a few things in turn which are facts, they aren’t debatable.

1. Whatever the budget is, it is finite and we can’t just spend whatever we want. The owners have an amount they are willing to put in and FFP exists.

2. We are not going to play Watkins as a wide forward. You don’t take your best striker for what 7 years? Then ram him out wide after he scores a good amount of goals with what I would consider poor service or at the very least inconsistent service.

3. We will not buy a striker unless one of two things happen. 
A, Wesleys medical condition is poor and we have no evidence to believe this.

B, We are going to spread the budget on a bunch of 15-25m pound players as we did last season.

That 3B point in my mind (this is the opinion part) is the only way a new striker comes through the door.

As a separate point, people keep saying we don’t have enough strikers…. How many do you want? We have 3 seniors an exceptional youngster and a wide forward who could fill in there as a 5th choice! We don’t even know if when we sign a new wide forward they could also play there.

Honesty reading about it over and over is inane.

We absolutely HAVE to purchase a left back as we now have one.

We absolutely must sign a DCM as we get played through too easily everyone has seen this all season.

When we allocate a budget those two positions are first two be signed off.

I’d find it amazing if more than just a few people disagreed we need a new high quality wide forward to take the pressure off Grealish, pen teams back into their own half because they are too scared to commit more men forward and to create more chances to score than we do currently.

I’d argue we need two.

At the moment our options up front are;

• Watkins
• Wesley
• Davis
• Barry

Barry is 18 next month. This is far too young to consider him a true option.

Davis has already requested a move to get first team football, which was denied in January. I fully expect him to request a move this summer again. He's already 23 years old and at that age he needs to be playing week in week out. He's got a lot of good assets as a striker but there's not a chance of him displacing Watkins. He's not going to want to play 10 minute cameos every other week and why should the club deny him the opportunity to play? I can see him requesting a move and it being granted this summer.

And that leaves Wesley, who has played about 20 minutes in 18 months. There are quotes out there that his ACL injury was one of the worst some people had ever seen and I know that not only was his career nearly ended but he was very lucky to not have much more serious concerns. The realist in me has accepted he is unlikely to ever play top level football again. It's going to be so hard for him.

That pretty much leaves us with Watkins. What if he gets injured? What if he goes off the boil next season for a few games? What would our plan B be?

We don't have to buy a £40m striker to compete with him but we absolutely do need another option. I think it would be reckless not to.

Why do some fans expect us to go with Plan A and just stick with it? What if some games this season Smith has wanted to play 2 central strikers and not had the option? Leicester have changed their system to bring in an in form striker so why don't we give ourselves the option too? If we don't it will be one up front as our only option all season.

I definitely wouldn't spend a large chunk of the budget on a striker but I'd be amazed if they haven't got one lined up.

For me, we need;

1 x backup/young left back

1 x DCM

2 x wide players

1 x striker

We'll have more than enough budget to cover that. This is how you build a football club; by having 2 quality options for every position.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Okonokos

[Dave-R]

17 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Nas is worth about 7 times as much as Wes, so that would be pretty crap for Wes...lol

It's even Stevens and equal partnership, can't one  put more in than the other just because of money differences.

Edited May 24, 2021 by Dave-R