Summer Transfer Window 2023

[KMitch]

1 hour ago, SecretVillaScout said:

Linked in the Spanish press with a 30 Million Euro move for André Almeida from Valencia who actually come through the Vitoria youth academy. 

Valencia has been the La Liga team I've always had a soft spot for over the years, but I haven't watched many of their games recently because their ownership is straight up asset stripping their club and it's likely they'll be relegated this season and quickly tumble down the football pyramid.  Their two best players are Jose Gaya (LB) and Almeida, but they're a horrific watch at the moment because Valencia have gone through more manager changes than Watford and the squad is lopsided and their confidence is shot.  

Almeida is a deep lying midfielder who keeps things ticking over with short passes out wide/forward, while has the vision/passing range for pinging balls into the channels or through balls into the striker when the opportunity opens up. Has a powerful long shot on him and is good at retaining the ball under pressure for his small stature but he isn't physically imposing enough to really make his mark on any of the games I've seen.  I will say that he most closely resembles Douglas Luiz of anyone in the Villa squad, but isn't as good as Dougie defensively.   Almeida would take some time to adapt to the Premier League, but he would be a good signing for depth and the future.  Valencia is a mess financially and will probably sell anyone they get an offer for this summer if they go down.  

[wict01]

Just now, KMitch said:

Valencia has been the La Liga team I've always had a soft spot for over the years, but I haven't watched many of their games recently because their ownership is straight up asset stripping their club and it's likely they'll be relegated this season and quickly tumble down the football pyramid.  Their two best players are Jose Gaya (LB) and Almeida, but they're a horrific watch at the moment because Valencia have gone through more manager changes than Watford and the squad is lopsided and their confidence is shot.  

Almeida is a deep lying midfielder who keeps things ticking over with short passes out wide/forward, while has the vision/passing range for pinging balls into the channels or through balls into the striker when the opportunity opens up. Has a powerful long shot on him and is good at retaining the ball under pressure for his small stature but he isn't physically imposing enough to really make his mark on any of the games I've seen.  I will say that he most closely resembles Douglas Luiz of anyone in the Villa squad, but isn't as good as Dougie defensively.   Almeida would take some time to adapt to the Premier League, but he would be a good signing for depth and the future.  Valencia is a mess financially and will probably sell anyone they get an offer for this summer if they go down.  

Was about to say this too, no chance anybody would cost £30m from Valencia this coming summer as their owners have been giving away their best players for sweet FA for years. 

[Delphinho123]

16 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

No chance we'd sign both

Yeh you’re probably right. 

[allani]

1 minute ago, KMitch said:

Valencia has been the La Liga team I've always had a soft spot for over the years, but I haven't watched many of their games recently because their ownership is straight up asset stripping their club and it's likely they'll be relegated this season and quickly tumble down the football pyramid.  Their two best players are Jose Gaya (LB) and Almeida, but they're a horrific watch at the moment because Valencia have gone through more manager changes than Watford and the squad is lopsided and their confidence is shot.  

Almeida is a deep lying midfielder who keeps things ticking over with short passes out wide/forward, while has the vision/passing range for pinging balls into the channels or through balls into the striker when the opportunity opens up. Has a powerful long shot on him and is good at retaining the ball under pressure for his small stature but he isn't physically imposing enough to really make his mark on any of the games I've seen.  I will say that he most closely resembles Douglas Luiz of anyone in the Villa squad, but isn't as good as Dougie defensively.   Almeida would take some time to adapt to the Premier League, but he would be a good signing for depth and the future.  Valencia is a mess financially and will probably sell anyone they get an offer for this summer if they go down.  

Whilst I would prefer to be signing players for the starting XI - would he be an improvement on Donk or Chambers in the case of Dougie / Kamara getting injured?  Although if we sign Guendouzi that in itself becomes slightly less of an issue.  I can't see us spending €30m on a back-up but maybe we're expecting to get him at a much lower figure given the issues at the club?

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, allani said:

We've not had Unai before.  There just seemed like more smoke from more reputable sources than normal (rather than lots of people jumping on the same bandwagon) and Marseilles seem to have already bought his replacement(s).  It just felt that Marseilles didn't want to sell in January but that a deal might have already been agreed (possibly based on our finishing position.  Maybe I am reading too much into that and the previous links with Emery at Arsenal.  I think he'd also be a near perfect fit for our midfield.  Him, Kamara and Luiz would be a pretty awesome combination and would allow players like McGinn, JJ or Buendia to concentrate more on the attacking side of their game.

I’m not disagreeing with his fit but Marseille side of this deal said they were never contacted by us in January.  Their owner or CEO, can’t remember which said that.  Now whether that is true we don’t know but it does seem like we didn’t try that hard to sign him and if that’s true from their head guy then we didn’t bid at all. We understand we contacted Guendouzi’s representatives directly but did we do any more.  A lot of the links were from the same sources and after the initial flurry of link it was bare the final week or so of the window re him.  I’m sure there was substance to the fire but something didn’t happen for a reason and I’m not totally convinced it was because it was waiting until the summer.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the summer with him.  His form dropping off is a concern, why, is something I’m interested in but whether he comes or not we should have a good summer transfers wise.

[nick76]

14 minutes ago, sne said:

Marseille fans tend to get a bit "testy" against their club and players when they don't act like they want them too so IF Guendouzi has already agreed to join another club it would make sense if they try and keep it under wraps for as long as possible.

Yeah good point and maybe he has agreed to join us.

[KMitch]

12 minutes ago, allani said:

Whilst I would prefer to be signing players for the starting XI - would he be an improvement on Donk or Chambers in the case of Dougie / Kamara getting injured?  Although if we sign Guendouzi that in itself becomes slightly less of an issue.  I can't see us spending €30m on a back-up but maybe we're expecting to get him at a much lower figure given the issues at the club?

Yeah, I see him more as an opportunity signing for ~20 million pounds if Valencia are relegated.  He's better than both Donk/Chambers with the ball and going forward, but not defensively.  

I think based on the profile of players we're being linked to abroad both in January and now, we're after a couple of different profiles of players.

1. Fast/strong forwards/Strikers who can start immediately (Thuram, Dembele, Luiz Henrique, etc.)
2. High work rate technical midfielders who can pass and start for us immediately (Guendouzi, Pote, Otavio, etc.)
3. Young technically gifted players with a high ceiling and top flight experience who need time to develop (Almeida, Lee, Nico Williams, Ibrahima Bamba)

Edited April 14, 2023 by KMitch

[duke313]

[allani]

15 minutes ago, KMitch said:

Yeah, I see him more as an opportunity signing for ~20 million pounds if Valencia are relegated.  He's better than both Donk/Chambers with the ball and going forward, but not defensively.  

I think based on the profile of players we're being linked to abroad both in January and now, we're after a couple of different profiles of players.

1. Fast/strong forwards/Strikers who can start immediately (Thuram, Dembele, Luiz Henrique, etc.)
2. High work rate technical midfielders who can pass and start for us immediately (Guendouzi, Pote, Otavio, etc.)
3. Young technically gifted players with a high ceiling and top flight experience who need time to develop (Almeida, Lee, Nico Williams, Ibrahima Bamba)

I think we will be looking for a versatile defender too - someone comfortable in a back 3, a back 2 or playing wider.  Good in possession and strong passing ability.

[WallisFrizz]

51 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Looks about right to be fair but let’s hope they’ve underestimated us.

[Made In Aston]

3 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

Not if they get CL we wont.

We've got a chance then. No way spurs get CL this season. 

[allani]

1 hour ago, nick76 said:

I’m not disagreeing with his fit but Marseille side of this deal said they were never contacted by us in January.  Their owner or CEO, can’t remember which said that.  Now whether that is true we don’t know but it does seem like we didn’t try that hard to sign him and if that’s true from their head guy then we didn’t bid at all. We understand we contacted Guendouzi’s representatives directly but did we do any more.  A lot of the links were from the same sources and after the initial flurry of link it was bare the final week or so of the window re him.  I’m sure there was substance to the fire but something didn’t happen for a reason and I’m not totally convinced it was because it was waiting until the summer.  It’ll be interesting to see what happens in the summer with him.  His form dropping off is a concern, why, is something I’m interested in but whether he comes or not we should have a good summer transfers wise.

I can't remember the exact words but I remember reading them at the time and thinking that it just appeared a bit like "the lady doth protest too much" and that there seemed to be some specific use of language that meant that they weren't not telling the truth but that things might have happened.  For example, we might have contacted them in December or we might have agreed a deal for us to put in a formal bid (that had aleady been agreed) in May / June.  It's never easy with stuff that has been translated and maybe I was trying to spin things the way that suited my thoughts - but I remember thinking that it was a response that sounded like it had been made by a (clever) politician rather than a straight out statement of fact.  We will see.

[burchy]

I wonder if the links to Antonio Silva at Benfica were due to us potentially looking to have him on the right of a back 3 in that RB/CB position.

His heat map suggests he plays out there predominantly this season so this might be the way to go. 

Would love us to sign Silva as he’s a classy defender and still only 19. If we could get Inacio as comp for the CBL as well then that would be our back four sorted. 

I’d like us to try and get Maatsen from Chelsea too but that’s me being greedy

[burchy]

If we’re after the alleged positions (ST, RW, RM, LM/AM, CM, backup DM, RB/CB, backup GK), who you picking?

I’m not saying we’ll go after all positions this summer but my stab at it is below

• Lois Openda
• Mohamed Kudus
• Otavio
• Xavi Simons
• Orkun Kokcu
• Manuel Ugarte or Lesley Ugochukwu
• Antonio Silva or Lutsharel Geertruida
• Lukasz Fabianski

Let’s see your names people

[burchy]

2 hours ago, Made In Aston said:

We've got a chance then. No way spurs get CL this season. 

I think we have more chance than they do

[villa4europe]

7 hours ago, KMitch said:

Valencia has been the La Liga team I've always had a soft spot for over the years, but I haven't watched many of their games recently because their ownership is straight up asset stripping their club and it's likely they'll be relegated this season and quickly tumble down the football pyramid.  Their two best players are Jose Gaya (LB) and Almeida, but they're a horrific watch at the moment because Valencia have gone through more manager changes than Watford and the squad is lopsided and their confidence is shot.  

Almeida is a deep lying midfielder who keeps things ticking over with short passes out wide/forward, while has the vision/passing range for pinging balls into the channels or through balls into the striker when the opportunity opens up. Has a powerful long shot on him and is good at retaining the ball under pressure for his small stature but he isn't physically imposing enough to really make his mark on any of the games I've seen.  I will say that he most closely resembles Douglas Luiz of anyone in the Villa squad, but isn't as good as Dougie defensively.   Almeida would take some time to adapt to the Premier League, but he would be a good signing for depth and the future.  Valencia is a mess financially and will probably sell anyone they get an offer for this summer if they go down.  

From you've seen, what about the American kid? Him that grew up in London played for England then switched

And Kluivert out of interest

[paul514]

4 hours ago, burchy said:

If we’re after the alleged positions (ST, RW, RM, LM/AM, CM, backup DM, RB/CB, backup GK), who you picking?

I’m not saying we’ll go after all positions this summer but my stab at it is below

• Lois Openda
• Mohamed Kudus
• Otavio
• Xavi Simons
• Orkun Kokcu
• Manuel Ugarte or Lesley Ugochukwu
• Antonio Silva or Lutsharel Geertruida
• Lukasz Fabianski

Let’s see your names people

I only know a few of them, I know who I would like for each position I feel is needed but an awful lot will depend who we can get out the door.

[KMitch]

5 hours ago, villa4europe said:

From you've seen, what about the American kid? Him that grew up in London played for England then switched

And Kluivert out of interest

Musah?  I think he's incredibly overrated, as is the case about most American youngsters.  He's a very physical and athletic defensive midfielder who works hard and will occasionally make a brilliant run or pass, but will frustrate you most of the time when he can't pick a 5 yard pass out to a teammate.  He's basically an American Reo Coker.

As for Kluivert, I really haven't seen enough of him to have an opinion, if I'm being honest.  The last game I watched was when Valencia beat Sociedad and I don't think he played.

[nick76]

9 hours ago, burchy said:

If we’re after the alleged positions (ST, RW, RM, LM/AM, CM, backup DM, RB/CB, backup GK), who you picking?

I’m not saying we’ll go after all positions this summer but my stab at it is below

• Lois Openda
• Mohamed Kudus
• Otavio
• Xavi Simons
• Orkun Kokcu
• Manuel Ugarte or Lesley Ugochukwu
• Antonio Silva or Lutsharel Geertruida
• Lukasz Fabianski

Let’s see your names people

Now you are just making peoples names up aren’t you?   I don’t most of these people nevermind picking them.  

I’d love to know how you know these people?  Do you watch loads of youth football? Watch loads of non-major leagues football? From YouTube clips, reviews or other social media stuff? Or even from computer games? I’d love to know because as I said yesterday I watch masses of football but somehow I miss many of these names that yourself and a few others suggest and I would like to enhance/improve my knowledge of these lesser known players generally because I’m sure I’m not efficient when I’m watching or looking at other players.  I generally only know some of these players after I look after you guys recommend them.  So any tips of how you see these players beforehand would be gratefully received.

[Shaun Teales Moustache]

PSG have a buy back clause with Simons and Barca are supposed to be very interested again too. His agent has been pimping him about since he was a foetus, and right now he's just adding zeros to his value by playing in a league way below his level. The only way he signs with Villa is if we get Ron Atkinson and Nii Lampteys agent involved again.