Mateu Alemany

[Demitri_C]

Man having him and purslow is a scary thought for other clubs.

We mean business

[Steero113]

12 minutes ago, Jareth said:

If he's a ruthless negotiator, who at our end is negotiating his contract? Must be the man Nassef himself. 

 

Alemany goes right up and 'takes the fruit he wants'. 

Nassef digs up the god damned tree. 

[wishywashy]

 

[wishywashy]

I wonder what this means in terms of access to Barcelona's analytics staff: going after a few of them would be grand. The Barcelona Innovation Hub is allegedly very, very good. IIRC their work does tend to get ignored by the powers that be: who im pretty sure rejected recommendations to sign Mbappe and Haaland in 2017...

[WallisFrizz]

Ornstein and Percy reporting on deal being finalised now. It’s definitely happening. Exciting stuff.

[The_Steve]

45 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Alemany goes right up and 'takes the fruit he wants'. 

Nassef digs up the god damned tree. 

A lot of other fans and media ignore how rich and ambitious and driven NSWE are - now they are realising when we play our hands more. You love to see it. 

[Beastmix]

We're certainly not prepared to be left behind. This is a big statement of intent (along with everything else we're doing).

An exciting summer ahead!

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, Hank Scorpio said:

So he isn't working for us until the summer window ends, not ideal. So he won't be working on anything in theory until next Jan?

In honestly... this is like when a player/club pretends there was no contact until right before they began official negotiations to sign for the club.

There is absolutely no way he won't be involved in our window in some capacity, even from the " shadows " lol

With the emergence of AI... we could even have him do Zoom meetings with a Lange creepy smile face digitally implanted on his head.

[Kiwivillan]

1 hour ago, Delphinho123 said:

Especially with more and more American owners. I wouldn’t be surprised if we start seeing fixtures played in America and relegation from the league is dropped to only 1/2 teams. 

Wasn't their inside rumour that Lerner was shocked after buying the club that relegation from the PL was a thing? Seems dubious I admit

[The_Rev]

2 hours ago, WallisFrizz said:

So, practically speaking. Can a sporting director work for two clubs during the same window? If he is committed to completing Barca transfer business this summer, what does that mean for us? Will he be arranging deals for both clubs? Or will he not impact our summer at all (which I would find hard to believe)?

 

Idle speculation on my part but I think there are multiple factors to consider here: 

 

• Villa's main targets for the Summer 2023 window have likely already been identified, NSWE have demonstrated they like to do business early and without prolonged transfer sagas.  
• The same is true for Barcelona.  It's highly likely they've already done the groundwork on this summer's transfers and Alemany has been a part of those deals for months so it's professional to see them through. 
• Is arranging deals for multiple clubs as a DOF that different to arranging deals for multiple clubs as an agent?  Even if our main targets were locked and loaded before Alemany was approached we've shown we also have flexibility and willingness to seize short notice opportunities.
• In terms of "the project" then a DOF is generally thinking medium to long term which will be purchases and sales over the next three or four transfer windows rather than getting him next month when he's worked his notice and giving him a blank piece of paper to sort out the immediate future on his first morning. 
• Relationships and contacts are important in football.  The moneyball approach of identifying players who fit and finding value in the market is important too, but everybody is doing that these days so the first mover advantage of people doing it ten years ago has basically disappeared.  Players are using data on themselves to secure agents, every big club has an internal analytics department and even the smaller ones can just buy data from third parties so we do need to have both ends of the spectrum covered. 

 

I'm not sure I can really draw any conclusions but it's an interesting and positive move by the club if we manage to land a guy who has been working at the very top of the game.   The club have been keeping their powder relatively dry in the transfer market recently, we broke even in 2021/22 because of the Grealish money and because we got money for fringe players this year (Targett, Ings, Chukwuemeka, El Ghazi, Trez) then the net spend has only been about £40m so have the board told Unai Emery and Mateu Alemany that we will be going big over the next couple of years?  

[Zatman]

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Alemany also negotiated the free signings of Kessie and Lewandowski. He’s one heck of a negotiator - especially with the constraints Barcelona found themselves in. 

He paid 45 million for a 33 year old Lewandowski and gave a 4 year deal on 10 million a year which increases per season up to 16 million in season 3

Kessie is on 250k a week 5 year contract

Not sure his negotiating skills on these should be praised

[PieFacE]

Maybe he's the only man who's able to sell Coutinho 

[Pez1974]

This is fairly astonishing.

You can't ignore that Barca are in a bit of a mess (despite going to win the league), and that outside of the PL and a few very rich clubs, football seems to be in a bit of a mess financially - so the financial comments about Barca can't compete is (in my opinion) probably more to do transfer budget and player salaries, than his own salary. 

But....this shows massive ambition, and will surely provide that boost in the transfer market this summer.
Players may now look at Villa differently compared to what we'd expect - this shows we mean business. Add Unai, our recent form, and the all round attraction of the PL. We are clearly on the up.

 

[MWARLEY2]

My boss always goes on about perception. 

And in this case its true. Mega rich owners with a world class manager and world class sporting director. Screams success. 

 Hi Jorge  it's Mateu . Go get Pedro. I have Unai on the line wishing to speak with him.

Or Jorge its Johan... who ? Johan. You know. The quiet serial killer looking geezer in Aston Villa photos... oh yes i know. 

 

Thats not me having a go at Johan. Its just perception   innit 

[Anything11]

9 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He paid 45 million for a 33 year old Lewandowski and gave a 4 year deal on 10 million a year which increases per season up to 16 million in season 3

Kessie is on 250k a week 5 year contract

Not sure his negotiating skills on these should be praised

Barca is a weird beast. I am more interested in his time before he got there. However, their situation with the debt/levers must have been a nightmare to navigate and I think you could say it has been handled well. They have a quality young spine to the team and the makings of something great if they keep improving the team.

Edited May 3, 2023 by Anything11

[Pez1974]

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He paid 45 million for a 33 year old Lewandowski and gave a 4 year deal on 10 million a year which increases per season up to 16 million in season 3

Kessie is on 250k a week 5 year contract

Not sure his negotiating skills on these should be praised

Remember - Kessie was a free transfer. His transfer value was what, €50m, when he left AC Milan? That 250k a week is £65m over 5 years, when he was a freebie. Sounds OK in that context, if your figures are right.

I don't think a DoF at Barca is judged on his ability to sign top players - I could do that; its Barcelona. I think its much more in the nuance about getting the right players across the squad, at the right prices, at the right time. 

[MWARLEY2]

7 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He paid 45 million for a 33 year old Lewandowski and gave a 4 year deal on 10 million a year which increases per season up to 16 million in season 3

Kessie is on 250k a week 5 year contract

Not sure his negotiating skills on these should be praised

Yep. Not great. Kind of standard Barca overpaying when the name alone would allow them to underpay just because a player would be living a dream. 

Either way. I am on board because under him i will not be bored. 

[SecretVillaScout]

10 minutes ago, Zatman said:

He paid 45 million for a 33 year old Lewandowski and gave a 4 year deal on 10 million a year which increases per season up to 16 million in season 3

Kessie is on 250k a week 5 year contract

Not sure his negotiating skills on these should be praised

Same Lewandowski who scored 29 goals to fire Barcelona to the title? 

 

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, SecretVillaScout said:

Same Lewandowski who scored 29 goals to fire Barcelona to the title? 

 

And  Champions and Europa League success?

[SecretVillaScout]

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

And  Champions and Europa League success?

Ask Mbappe about that. He's never won one.