January Transfer Window 2024

[Delphinho123]

7 minutes ago, MSvillain said:

Talks of £50m though, I think you could find the same profile elsewhere in Europe for much cheaper. 

And it could turn out wrong.

Look at Zaniolo. Wishful thinking to say he's been anything but terrible since arriving and he's going to cost £30m. At a stretch, you could make the case Diaby isn't exactly amazing at £45m. 

£50m is the going rate for a good PL player who is going to hit the ground running. That price tag doesn't bother me at all. If you want to go and spend £30m on the continent and try to find better, fine, but be prepared it may take time to get said player up to speed, if they get there at all. 

[DJBOB]

1 hour ago, burchy said:

If we were in for another LM/AM Thiago Almada would be a good one. I know he’s been mentioned a fair few times before now but he’d have crazier numbers than he currently has if his team mates could finish the chances he provides and he’s already on 11 goals and 16 assists!

I know it’s the MLS but think he’d do well here. His set piece delivery and free kicks are brilliant too. 

Almada would be great, but he's got his eyes set on a more named club than us unfortunately. Not the type that I would want here.

 

2 hours ago, burchy said:

I think Buendia is that playmaker as Emery played him loads before his injury. I think Emery likes him and could possibly explain us going for a younger No10 in Gloukh as opposed to a big money signing.

Would love to see us splash the cash on a Simons or Wirtz but not sure Emery and his team agree.

Think we missed a trick with Kudus though. 

Wirtz is a pipe dream and will probably go to City as he's the perfect #8/#10 link up player. Would be amazing under Unai though.

Simons I think we have little chance as well as his parent club is PSG.

[Stevo985]

16 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

I agree we do need a striker but for what money?  We signed Duran for 20m odd, a backup striker isn’t going to be anymore.  So what do we gain signing another striker foe 20m when we already have one?

I don’t know. But Duran is for the future. He can’t step in and lead the line for 10 games if we need him

[MaVilla]

37 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I'd move for Conor Gallagher. I think he'd be amazing under Emery and is versatile in playing a CDM Vs a regular 8 type. 

 

tbh, no thanks, he's decent player, but he's just bang average overall.

if you had asked me 18 months ago, possibly, but we need a higher calibre of player now imo.

40m for Gallagher would give me palpitations.

[CVByrne]

Just now, MaVilla said:

tbh, no thanks, he's decent player, but he's just bang average overall.

if you had asked me 18 months ago, possibly, but we need a higher calibre of player now imo.

40m for Gallagher would give me palpitations.

All players are bang average until Emery gets to coach them. 

[MaVilla]

1 minute ago, CVByrne said:

All players are bang average until Emery gets to coach them. 

still not worth it, 40m+ on gallagher would be a total waste of limited funds.

[Adam2003]

47 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

QUESTION TIME.

If we signed a top class right back, who would start at centre half for us in our best team? 

Spicy.

Zaniolo and Buendia 

[RicRic]

I genuinely believe we are a Nico Williams and a Right back away from keeping ourselves up there in the current mix for a title surge, we are in an unbelievable position but one extra player can boost us, Ramsey and Zaniolo on that side of the field don't quite push us there and i feel if we had that spark in that area we would be in an outstanding position.

[Adam2003]

10 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Probably think they could make themselves first choice.  Many players go to clubs that are seen as probable back up but perceive they can get first choice and back themselves.  We also don’t want “back up” we want genuine competition just like we did with Bailey/Diaby, Digne/Moreno, Pau/Ty/Konsa/Carlos, Luiz/Kamara/Tielemans/McGinn/Ramsey/Buendia

I think the striker situation is seen as different (rightly or wrongly) because we saw competition bring the worst out of Watkins, and he thrives as being the ‘undisputed’ striker. We can say “well he needs to grow a pair” but I’d rather do what keeps him scoring goals and just have to trust Emery to judge that.

In Jan all I’d be looking to sign is a top class right back, if one is available, and a better backup goalkeeper.

[DJBOB]

I suspect Gallagher would be great with Unai as he's essentially a McGinn profile for him in that he could shuttle him along the pivot, the wide mids, and probably even the second striker role. 

Unai values that utility but the question is the price tag. I'm not sure Monchi and Vidagany are going to pull the trigger at his valuation.

[Delphinho123]

7 minutes ago, DJBOB said:

I suspect Gallagher would be great with Unai as he's essentially a McGinn profile for him in that he could shuttle him along the pivot, the wide mids, and probably even the second striker role. 

Unai values that utility but the question is the price tag. I'm not sure Monchi and Vidagany are going to pull the trigger at his valuation.

He’s f*****g sh*t at clearing the ball too.

I’m out. 

[RicRic]

I dont even bother with transfer suggestions anymore i just know Unai and his team will figure it out thats what the confidence in these guys have done to me

[romavillan]

52 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Look at Zaniolo. Wishful thinking to say he's been anything but terrible since arriving

Played a lot of the games at the start of the season and helped us get points on the board whilst not being spectacular. He did a job though in a position he'd only played a couple of times. Did well when he came on against Brentford, scored a crucial and well taken goal to help us win our group in Europe.

He's not played to his potential, by a long way, but he definitely has not been terrible.

On the wider point, I think there is definitely better value to be had outside of Britain. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be looking to get another Watkins, Konsa, McGinn etc. but none of them were being touted for £50m and had a big reputation anyway. I really don't think we'll be in the market for players like Gallagher.

[Demitri_C]

If we are still in the mix for title come January i think of FFP allows it whoch i think we have room to manoeuvre, we should definitely try to make a couple high profile signings.  One to challenge ollie for striker spot, and one to challenge cash/konsa

I personally dont think konsa at rb is a long term solution.  My preference would be wan bissaka. He would be unbelievable under emery

[Philosopher]

1 hour ago, lexicon said:

It doesn't matter what it is in relation to TBF - other teams have to break them down too and the fact is we're 2nd highest scorers. 

The majority of our goals come from creating space via drawing teams onto us, or through winning the ball back and hitting teams hard a fast before they can fall back into their defensive shape.  If we take out the inferior opposition we faced in the ECL we have scored 11 goals against low blocks. Prem teams that employed low block we have faced are; Palace, Luton, Forest, Brentford, Wolves, and Bournemouth.  That's 1.83 goals per game against low blocks. Against teams that didn't employ a low block we have scored 28 goals in 11 games at a ratio of 2.5 (these 11 games include our hammerings at the hand of Newcastle and Liverpool). So there is a clear discrepancy between the two.

1.83 goals per game against low blocks is respectable. I'd say and we don't have a major problem there as the point of a low block is to prevent conceding goals. However I'd also say that ideally this ratio should be higher than 2. 

The other factor here is against those low block teams I mentioned we have conceded first to all but Luton. So 5 out of 6 low blocks have scored first against us. This means in order to win we need to score at least 2 goals against said low block teams. But our goals for versus low block teams is slightly less than 2. Also all of the low blocks teams have scored against us.

This points to a vulnerability in transition and that's at least in part down to our high line, but also to poor pressing at times. The only way to improve here is to be more defensive (but we'd then score less goals) or find a way to score more, while not weakening defensively. 

Part of the vulnerability of our highline is that you need pace in the back line to recover when the offside trap is broken through. Moreno and Konsa (currently) are the only defenders we have with a genuine turn of pace. And Moreno has been injured most of the season. This why I advocate a speed merchant right back (our right hand side is usually the source of the breach when it come to our defense). 

I also feel that this season our attacking of the left side has been stunted by having to shoehorn the likes of Tielemens and Zaniolo in there. So threat there has been reduced in Ramsey and Moreno's absence. On the right we have been stunted by Cash just being limited going forward, or by playing Konsa at RB.

The final piece of analysis is that Emery expects the player that partners Watkins to be left footed. (Hence why we signed 2 left footed fowards in the summer). I believe part of his tactical plan is having the strikers work the channel on their side, and part of this is the forwards having their stronger foot on the inside of the channel they're operating in.  

So if we sign any midfielders or forwards, they would ideally need to be fast and relentless in the press. And any defenders have to be able to pass and have pace.

The positions that will most likely be looked at in the near future, are right back, Left midfielder (no 8/10 type that can carry the ball - assuming Buendia doesn't have much of a future with us and is a current long term absentee), Right footed striker, and younger left back as we have two 30 years old there.

[Marka Ragnos]

Sorry, can't agree with Alan Shearer on Villa needing more depth up front in January window.

First of all, same could be said for almost any club in the Premier League. Everyone thinks that. Everyone wants another star forward, so the market will be awful and hyper-inflated in January. Secondly, unlike some players, Ollie actually seems to work better without "competition" on the squad breathing down his neck. He flourishes when he's King Ollie. When he feels threatened, he begins to make mistakes. Finally, we already have a complement of excellent forwards who can step in as CF's if not strikers. Diaby, Bailey, and even Zaniolo are all capable. 

Quote

 

My biggest concern with their squad would be their depth in forward positions, particularly as back-up to their leading scorer Ollie Watkins, who has started all 17 of their league games so far.

Watkins is such an integral part of what they do, and I am not sure how they would cope without him, although it is noticeable that Villa have done a good job of keeping most of their key players fit so far.

 

 

Edited December 18, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[Tomaszk]

The whole funny thing about depth up front was said on here somewhere earlier.

What sort of forward should Villa buy? A young up and comer ready to take his chance if Watkins can't play? Yes, we have large and silly Jhon Duran for that.

Or we have a different sort of forward in Zaniolo or Diaby or Bailey. I'd absolutely love John McGinn to be given a go as an emergency small fat target man. He'd be so so good at it.

We do need depth. But it isn't up front. Same reason buying Tammy was always stupid because we aren't City and can't afford a back-up striker on £100k a week...yet.

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Sorry, can't agree with Alan Shearer on Villa needing more depth up front in January window.

First of all, same could be said for almost any club in the Premier League. Everyone thinks that. Everyone wants another star forward, so the market will be awful and hyper-inflated in January. Secondly, unlike some players, Ollie actually seems to work better without "competition" on the squad breathing down his neck. He flourishes when he's King Ollie. When he feels threatened, he begins to make mistakes. Finally, we already have a complement of excellent forwards who can step in as CF's if not strikers. Diaby, Bailey, and even Zaniolo are all capable. 

 

Not a massive fan of Shearer’s punditry but I think he’s spot on there on striker position.

[nick76]

1 minute ago, Tomaszk said:

What sort of forward should Villa buy?

Whatever Emery wants and what he was hinting at twice earlier in the year after buying Duran.

[Marka Ragnos]

45 minutes ago, romavillan said:

Played a lot of the games at the start of the season and helped us get points on the board whilst not being spectacular. He did a job though in a position he'd only played a couple of times. Did well when he came on against Brentford, scored a crucial and well taken goal to help us win our group in Europe.

He's not played to his potential, by a long way, but he definitely has not been terrible.

On the wider point, I think there is definitely better value to be had outside of Britain. That doesn't mean that we shouldn't be looking to get another Watkins, Konsa, McGinn etc. but none of them were being touted for £50m and had a big reputation anyway. I really don't think we'll be in the market for players like Gallagher.

I enjoy @Delphinho123's posts, but that doesn't make them worth taking too seriously. Zanny's barely started his Villa career! Yeesh. He's versatile and creative, and I'm so glad we have him.