January Transfer Window - 2023

[Vive_La_Villa]

Ok I just watched the last press conference and I think he makes it pretty clear that they wanted to sign another striker but only if he was the right player and if not in January then in Summer. He did say Duran is not Ings replacement so he will probably be frustrated that he hasn’t managed to get another striker but he did emphasis how important it is the striker is the right player.
 

But unless I missed it I didn’t sense any frustrations at all in the presser. 
 

Unless there’s been one I’ve missed since the Southampton one?

Edited February 1, 2023 by Vive_La_Villa

[DCJonah]

Emery might be frustrated. But his frustration might be with Marseille for a ridiculous asking price. Or frustrated that Delefeou injured himself again. 

Some seem desperate for a situation where Emery and the club fall out to justify their annoyance with our lack of spending.

[Folski]

I make out that we have 22 senior players, 3 of which are goal keepers and another 3 of which are injured (Carlos, McGinn, Bert), 1 who's never played a game in Europe.

Not overly bothered by the low numbers, as if we can shift Digne & Phil in the summer along with Marvellous, Keinan, Sanson & Wesley there will be a lot of space to build on.

 

[sidcow]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Ok I just watched the last press conference and I think he makes it pretty clear that they wanted to sign another striker but only if he was the right player and if not in January then in Summer. He did say Duran is not Ings replacement so he will probably be frustrated that he hasn’t managed to get another striker but he did emphasis how important it is the striker is the right player.
 

But unless I missed it he didn’t here him say anything about frustrations or see any frustrations at all in the presser. 
 

Unless there’s been one I’ve missed since the Southampton one?

if you want to seek out frustration it's easy to read into it.

[Adbo9]

whos starting the summer transfer thread ?

[nick76]

9 minutes ago, sidcow said:

if you want to seek out frustration it's easy to read into it.

I guess that’s true as well so fair point but reason I brought it up today was just in the comment, in response to the Birmingham Mail link somebody put up this morning on this thread where Preece and the fan were talking about the same thing.

Anyway I’m back off to work! Can’t believe I caused a drama

Edited February 1, 2023 by nick76

[est1874]

19 minutes ago, sidcow said:

Yeah, probably can't walk now then.

Twas just a joke of the VT obsession that anyone in their late 20's/early 30's are washed up.

Good thing we've got you here to keep the belly laughs coming Sid

[blunther]

I'm happy enough. Was getting concerned about our wage bill after some of the recent transfers, and it not leaving us much headroom for big signings, and it looks like we've started to deal with that. Before the window I expected to finish 9th-11th, and after the window I expect to finish 9th-11th. Steer clear of that mess below us and it's a good opportunity to give some minutes to a couple of youngsters towards the end of the season, blood Duran in and see what he's made of (this wasn't a cheap punt after all, he must have something about him for that amount of money), see if Bertie has what it takes to be part of the squad in the future and gives Emery more time to find out exactly what he needs. Yes we had an outside chance at Europe if we spent big, but it was still an outside chance and splurging now could have meant reigning it in in summer when there are more options available. Be good to get Carlos back up and running too, no need to rush him but get him fit and firing for next season, then make a real push on.

[KMitch]

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

Personally, I think the window has been a little disappointing. I'm happy with the two players we got, I think they've both got the potential to be really useful for us and I like the idea of us getting a really good prospect in Duran, but we're undeniably now a little light in some key areas that might cause us a problem.

I think the club will be disappointed about that too, I'm sure they'd have liked another midfielder, winger or striker or some some sort of combination of those - but, there's some skill and some luck in negotiating the transfer market and I suspect we've decided not to play our cards for a variety of reasons. 

One of those will be value - with Chelsea inflating markets and Arsenal offering £70m+ for Caceido, I would imagine that Marseille were putting a pretty big price on the head of their prized midfielder - they seem to have hinted at that in the press. Having money and throwing it around are different things and I guess that whilst Boehly and Chelsea have now got themselves into a position where clubs will demand the moon knowing that he'll pay up, we've maybe lost out on a player or two, but gained the idea that Aston Villa aren't just a fat Premier league cow for milking. That sort of fits into our (visible) practices on transfers; we don't seem to do a lot of long negotiation, we don't publicly negotiate in the press, in fact, from the outside it doesn't look like we negotiate an awful lot at all - it looks like we evaluate and make an offer and that our offer will be pretty near what we'll do. That's great in establishing how the club gets treated in the market, but frustrating when we don't get players in a world where other chairman throw cash around like a banker at a strip club.

Luck and skill means that we ought to have options and that we ought to be pitching some of those bids in the right places to have landed a player, to have grabbed someone off our list, and it's disappointing that we haven't. Maybe our timing was off, maybe our ambitions make our business more difficult; big fish are harder to catch, maybe we just didn't do a good enough job - I dunno, and in truth I'm not sure more than about four or five people do.

Usually in these windows, we'll also add a prospect, some sixteen year old wonderkid from somewhere or other for half a million or whatever and it's interesting that we haven't done that this January, although I'm not sure it tells us anything.

I think our outgoings have been generally positive, with a lot of money off the wage bill for players that weren't contributing, that comes with a little bit of a risk on numbers, but the club was still confident enough to be sending prospects out on loan right up until last night, so you sense they're comfortable.

Anyways, we'll plow on with what we have, we'll look forward to seeing what we've brought in (and the rumours are that Duran is impressing) and I guess we'll find out in the summer whether it's luck, judgement, desire or ability that's left us waiting.

Not the end of the world and perhaps valuable in the long term, but a little flat.

I agree with all of this...  I think Chelsea's spending inflated the hell out of the prices of some of our targets, but the fact that some reliable Spanish sources said we were prepared to activate Nico Williams's release clause and smash our transfer record shows we have money, we just won't overpay for value.  Williams could turn into one of the best players in the world in a few years and maybe £45-50 million was seen as more of a sure thing vs overpaying £30 million on Moleiro or £60 million on Guendouzi.  We were also apparently having discussions with Memphis Depay, but he ultimately chose to go to Atletico instead, which also shows that we're shopping for genuinely class players now and won't settle for bodies to fill the bench.  A bit like Newcastle struggled to get any of their ambitious transfer targets last January, we'll have to wait for this summer to convince them of our ambition and trajectory up the table. 

Overall, it's disappointing not to see us pull the trigger on a few deals this January, but I'm even more excited for this summer and who we decide to go after, because the huge spending of the 19/20 season will be off the books for FFP calculations, potentially freeing up £200-300m for next season's transfer kitty alone.

[gwi1890]

47 minutes ago, nick76 said:

In his presser recently, and the Birmingham Mail Q&A link a few pages back talks about that comment

Was that the presser where he said he was happy with the squad and that we would only bring players in if they improve the squad? And that we would be particular about the players we brought in? Or in his words so demanding. And yes he did say we would like a specialist winger.

[John]

2 hours ago, Lerner's Driver said:

The Birmingham Mail is 99% shite, so I rarely read it and often slag it, but for anyone who can't be arsed to trawl through yesterday's wankfest on here, this summary of the main issues and how they were perceived by fans is actually pretty good, I think...

OPINION £400m frustration and Aston Villa summer window transfer plan explained

https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-transfer-news-emery-26124642

Apologies if it has already been shared, though I can't imagine it has!

Thanks for the link. It seems to me it is pretty much a gathering of opinions on our window, other than where Ashley Preece chips in with, "I sensed a frustration with Emery at a recent press conference" " I'll ask Unai this week about the window and the final week and how it went. He'll say he's happy, of course he will, but he looked frustrated the other week". Interesting "insights" and "conclusions" rather than facts from  Mr P.....(in my opinion).

 

[rubberman]

It pretty clear that everyone (fans, club, Emery) wanted a couple more players in. For various reasons (clubs not willing to sell mid-season, price, players not willing to move now, injuries etc) the main targets weren't gettable in Jan. So rather than waste money now we've settled with the business that was possible while shifting a decent number of fringe players. I am sure that Emery was fully involved in the discussions and was happy to accept that for the rest of this season, including bringing back Bertie as a bit of extra cover. He's probably a bit frustrated that it wasn't exactly what he wanted, but he's been around for long enough to know that's how the window goes sometimes - I very much doubt he's lost faith in the job he's here to do or the backing that is there from the club/owners.

Summer will be a different market (european places confirmed etc) so we will go back after the key targets. I wouldn't be surprised if some of the deals are already in place. No doubt we'll break our transfer record a couple of times and bring in 3/4 new starters. It'll be really exciting. Hopefully the rest of the season continues the development of the current group of players and the team as a whole.

I'm optimistic about the way we are heading still and really, after the first quarter of this season, it's all pretty much a bonus that we can still consider the top half a real possibility.

[sidcow]

6 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Good thing we've got you here to keep the belly laughs coming Sid

No problemo

 

[paul514]

3 hours ago, John said:

Yes perhaps, but those rules have been bent out of all recognition by their long term contracts, to the extent that they are now being changed before anyone else tries to do the same.  

The opportunity has always been there, the point is no rules have been broken in response to someone saying why should we comply

[RicRic]

Didnt come on here again last night as i was semi annoyed that we wasn’t able to squeeze an additional signing which i felt was needed, Guendouzi in particular our midfield in the more advanced region needs strengthening, this move would have seen guendouzi play over buendia depending on merit of course, a winger would have been welcomed also , should have sealed Osorio at least. 

[TRO]

11 hours ago, Powehi said:

Great window all up.

Trimmed the deadwood for the first time in ages 
Implemented a tight-knit squad of 18-19 players and by doing so seem to have removed the toxicity of Gerrard's time here
Bought a quality and rapid left-back
Got 15m back for a 30 year old who wasn't starting regularly
Kept all our really good players 
Made a sensible loan recall

Shipping out Olsen and replacing him would have been the only difference for me. 

This is a good window as long as we do make those needed quality squad additions in the summer. The current players need regular starts now to see if they really are up to where we want to go. 

 

and that is the important Caveat.

If Unai Emery is happy with this window, then so am I.

[Zhan_Zhuang]

Emery may have some frustration with the transfer market, astronomical fees and perhaps Marseille.

Trimming the squad gives everyone the opportunity to impress or otherwise they will go in the Summer.

Personally it would be crazy to sign a bunch of players half-way through the season when Villa are already doing well.

The sense of frustration quote is presumable one person's perspective, this is coming from Preece right? It certainly doesn't make it true; negativity we could do without!

[TRO]

28 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Didnt come on here again last night as i was semi annoyed that we wasn’t able to squeeze an additional signing which i felt was needed, Guendouzi in particular our midfield in the more advanced region needs strengthening, this move would have seen guendouzi play over buendia depending on merit of course, a winger would have been welcomed also , should have sealed Osorio at least. 

I think my disappointment stems from, taking a whole month to establish, our main targets were not being released, by their parent clubs.

If the narrative of the "keeping our powder dry", was declared earlier, it would have made more rational thinking.

I get the bit about, not signing just anybody.......Fine....but why has it taken a month to realise that....The BS journalists have just had a field day, with this window.

I trust UE...If he is happy with the way this window has treated us....then so am I....Live to fight again.

Edited February 1, 2023 by TRO

[gwi1890]

16 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Didnt come on here again last night as i was semi annoyed that we wasn’t able to squeeze an additional signing which i felt was needed, Guendouzi in particular our midfield in the more advanced region needs strengthening, this move would have seen guendouzi play over buendia depending on merit of course, a winger would have been welcomed also , should have sealed Osorio at least. 

Osorio didn’t move to any team so he either didn’t want to move or the all the clubs linked with him were not that interested. Bring Traore back was probably the safer option,  hopefully we can  buy a forward that actually improves us in the summer.

[The_Steve]

Scenes when we sign Daichi Kamada or of similar calibre for free in the summer like we did with Bouba