Summer Transfer Window (2024/25)

[lexicon]

11 hours ago, useless said:

Ben Sheaf of Coventry getting a lot of rave reviews as a DM, apparently his stats are totally off the scale, the verdict seems to be he will playing in the Premier League next season whether with Coventry or someone else

A firm no from me because he's not very good at all. I watch a lot of Coventry games because my old man supports them. 

[lexicon]

16 hours ago, thabucks said:

You’re right we have ONE 

In terms of 'top class' we can only really have one tbh - we definitely need another CDM who will be a good rotation option and is a solid player, though. 

[John]

5 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

That Archie Gray at Leeds will turn into a very, very good player. 

Agreed, but every other club knows it and he would have his choice of top clubs. He's also likely to extend his contract there, if they go up given his family's history with the club. Leeds would also want big money for him, so I doubt a cheeky bid would work.    

[villa4europe]

31 minutes ago, lexicon said:

In terms of 'top class' we can only really have one tbh - we definitely need another CDM who will be a good rotation option and is a solid player, though. 

that's where I am too, we need someone who can cover but at the same time is slightly different so that he can play alongside and compliment kamara and luiz too when they all rotate in together

we don't play 2 x DMCs and we cant feed a second one from the bench, we need someone with a skillset of both kamara and luiz, can wear both hats

[PaulMcGrath_5]

I'd love to hear a breakdown of our potential spending power should we/should not end up qualifying for the Champions League. If anyone has any idea? 

[DakotaVilla]

The general consensus appears to be that if we qualify for champions league we won’t have huge room to spend but won’t have to sell anyone significant either.

If we don’t qualify for champions league then it’s very likely we will have to sell a first teamer to avoid PSR issues and to create some spending room. 

Some of the posters have done some quite detailed analysis so hopefully can provide additional detail. 

[StefanAVFC]

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

[sharkyvilla]

Just now, StefanAVFC said:

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

Yeah I don't think we need a world class player, Unai no doubt knows 10 players who could do the role for not much money.  We just need someone who can allow Doug to do his thing in Kamara's absence.

[VillaChris]

16 hours ago, WooJung said:

Whoever we sign, I hope they have strong leadership skills as well as physical/technical

The game has changed now though, very few vocal leaders on the pitch now compared to 90s and early 2000s.

You look at the Chelsea backline and none of them ever say anything which is why they let in so many cheap goals.

It's also a big problem when it's Lenglet/Carlos as our CB duo. Look at the free headers we were conceding from crosses in the run of starts they had in Jan/Feb. That doesn't happen with good communication.

Defenders like Mings are very much the exception nowadays.

[VillaChris]

14 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

If Forest go down, I wonder if Morgan Gibbs-White would be stuck? His contract is still pretty new. 

Murillo is one to look at. Very young but he's a LCB with huge potential and quick and mobile and yet to break into the full Brazil squad so feels like the kind of transfer where his valuation could double pretty quickly.

Who knows what level Mings will get back to but it's a big ask to expect him to be anwhere near his level of 2023 so we need another decent option there if Pau misses a month or two next season.

What did Forest sign him for, 20m? So they'll be looking for 40m + and they still need to sell a player before June 30th 2024 to meet next season's FFP requirements.

Edited April 8 by VillaChris

[VillaChris]

13 hours ago, useless said:

Ben Sheaf of Coventry getting a lot of rave reviews as a DM, apparently his stats are totally off the scale, the verdict seems to be he will playing in the Premier League next season whether with Coventry or someone else

He was at Arsenal in the Youth team so might be one Emery knew about if their time there overlapped?

[NeilS]

My guess is that we will be in for Mikel Merino in the summer. According to www.transfermarkt.co.uk he is coming up to one year left on his deal this summer, so may be available at a reasonable price, we were linked a while back, he is at a good age, he is sponsored by Adidas and he is capable of playing CM or CDM so will fill a couple of roles in midfield and cover Kamara up until Christmas when he is due back.

[VillaChris]

7 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

They'll be playing pretty much every game in the first half of the season as Kamara won't be back until December at the earliest. Even then he'll need 4-5 sub cameos to get up to speed given Ramsey has broken down twice this season from starting games too early in his comeback.

[Pez1974]

18 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

I don't think modern players look at it quite like this (Digne and Moreno have swapped a lot and it worked, despite the injuries). 
IF (big IF) we get CL football, we could have 60+ games next season. Given Luiz and Kamara's tendency to get booked too - we really need 3 players there who can rotate seamlessly. There will be games where 2x CDMs would be a help, with Luiz playing slightly further forward. 
We'd then have McGinn, Youri and Tim who can also fill in. 

We are conceding way too many goals this season, and it isn't all the defenders fault - we get overrun too easily sometimes. 

[david-avfc]

20 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

Kamara is out until October, at best, and who knows when he will be fully fit and back in form, we’ve seen with Moreno and Ramsey the injury can cost more than just the initial recovery time

If we don’t sign a solid player to cover defensive midfield it’s lunacy, it’s clear how much we’ve struggled without one in the last couple of months.

[Rich192]

Biggest priority for me in the summer is a tall, dominant, beast of a centre half. We’re far too weak defensively, and concede from set pieces all the time. Konsa is a lovely player, but he’s not as good as Pau Torres on the ball, and I’m not convinced he’s a good enough right back going forward. 
 

Some difficult decisions will have to be made if we want to become an elite side, and a defence containing Pau Torres (who is our only defender who should be guaranteed a starting place next season) needs to have a defender like Mings alongside him. If we can find a right footed Mings, that’d be a dream. 
 

Ideally Konsa will master the right back position over the next couple of months, and Mings will come back as he was before, but I’m not hopeful of either. And we can’t afford to be sentimental. 
 

I’m expecting serious backlash for this. So go ahead. 

[paul514]

3 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

The general consensus appears to be that if we qualify for champions league we won’t have huge room to spend but won’t have to sell anyone significant either.

If we don’t qualify for champions league then it’s very likely we will have to sell a first teamer to avoid PSR issues and to create some spending room. 

Some of the posters have done some quite detailed analysis so hopefully can provide additional detail. 

CL or EL makes no difference to spending as it is a one off qualification.

The club can’t go, well we have an extra 50m so let’s buy 120m of players on 4 year deals because the fee is amortised so when you don’t get qualification the year after you are screwed.

The sensible way of looking at it is your top players are less likely to leave and it makes the club more financially healthy.

this of course changes if you qualify for a second or third time in succession as you have banked a bit of the profits.

The reality is we are 15m under the 105 for. 3 year period and we have a bunch of surplus players who will fetch their book value collectively with a few of the doing the heavy lifting which frees up about 25m a year in amortisation plus whatever their wages are.

if we shift them all and the owners are willing to put the cash into the club as they have previously then we can spend the kind of money I was saying on page 53 without breaking PSR or FFP

[VILLAMARV]

7 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

5.7 is not going to fly at all in such an important part of the pitch.

Oh I dunno, Edgar Davids wasn't a bad player. None out of Mascherano, Deschamps, Dunga, Makelele and Matthaus were more than 5'9"

Not that I know the lad from Cov or have an opinion on him, but there have been some truly great DMC's that were about the same height.

[PerryBarrPet]

32 minutes ago, VILLAMARV said:

Oh I dunno, Edgar Davids wasn't a bad player. None out of Mascherano, Deschamps, Dunga, Makelele and Matthaus were more than 5'9"

Not that I know the lad from Cov or have an opinion on him, but there have been some truly great DMC's that were about the same height.

For those old enough to remember Dave MacKay was 5’8” and feared no one.

[Czarnikjak]

4 hours ago, paul514 said:

CL or EL makes no difference to spending as it is a one off qualification.

The club can’t go, well we have an extra 50m so let’s buy 120m of players on 4 year deals because the fee is amortised so when you don’t get qualification the year after you are screwed.

The sensible way of looking at it is your top players are less likely to leave and it makes the club more financially healthy.

this of course changes if you qualify for a second or third time in succession as you have banked a bit of the profits.

The reality is we are 15m under the 105 for. 3 year period and we have a bunch of surplus players who will fetch their book value collectively with a few of the doing the heavy lifting which frees up about 25m a year in amortisation plus whatever their wages are.

if we shift them all and the owners are willing to put the cash into the club as they have previously then we can spend the kind of money I was saying on page 53 without breaking PSR or FFP

When you saying we are £15m under, do you include this season in your 3 year calculations, or you mean 3 year balance situation at the end of last season?

If you mean our situation now, I very much doubt it. It would need to take massive reduction in our losses this season to get us to £15m psr surplus. Our loss would need to essentially come down from £120m to £45m for us to end up with £15m psr surplus at the end of this season.