Aston Villa Team Talk/Gossip/Rumours Thread 2017

LeBash

Corholio wrote:

Villa have officially announced the signing of Amavi now. 5 year deal.

How much is the buy out clause?

JPA

CSF wrote: »

Don't know much about him, attacking fullback?

Seems to have it all.

rebelomar

Reached agreement with Liverpool for Benteke according to Sky.

Sad to see the big man go. Has scored vital goals now in two relegation run ins. Think he will do very well for them. Seems to perform best under pressure.

CSF

rebelomar wrote: »

Reached agreement with Liverpool for Benteke according to Sky.

Sad to see the big man go. Has scored vital goals now in two relegation run ins. Think he will do very well for them. Seems to perform best under pressure.

Me too. He will be missed. I do think the 32.5 mill will help ease the pain though

LeBash

What a disaster for Tim on his first real transfer window. At least there is money to spend. Unfortunately everyone knows it.

Maysa07

CSF wrote: »

Me too. He will be missed. I do think the 32.5 mill will help ease the pain though

Indeed, but why are they paying 16 million up front with further payments in due course?

artanevilla

Any word on how much Amavi cost?

Patser

matrim wrote: »

In a situation like that I'd rather have Clark in the centre of the three because I think he's the most organised and vocal to help keep it all together.

I'd only placed Clark on left of back 3 due to being left footed, and therefore Senderos in centre. But Senderos I'm not sure of, so Clark centre and Baker/Okore beside him equally good.


Sad news on Benteke, really was best player at VP in quite a while - proper World Class potential when on form. That's why it's understandable that given Villa's current state it's no surprise he's going.

JPA

artanevilla wrote: »

Any word on how much Amavi cost?

€11 million rising up to €18 million.

CSF

Maysa07 wrote: »

Indeed, but why are they paying 16 million up front with further payments in due course?

I don't know. I'd rather it was up front as well, but it's pretty common among transfers these days so it'll probably be offset against the payment plans for players Villa are signing so there should still be the same amount to spend this summer.

matrim

Maysa07 wrote: »

Indeed, but why are they paying 16 million up front with further payments in due course?

I'd say that's fairly common. I wouldn't be suprised if a lot of our transfers are probably structured in similar manner

LeBash

Maysa07 wrote:

Indeed, but why are they paying 16 million up front with further payments in due course?

Probably so they can show 16 million this year 8.25 next and 8.25 the year after. Basically kicking it down the road to fit into budgets or into the ffp bracket. It's fairly common but sometimes doesn't suit clubs who need cash. Man City might have something similar structured with Liverpool for Sterling which means they don't have 32 million in cash.

Bounty Hunter

Guzan available for 3m!

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-3167055/Brad-Guzan-available-3m-mass-exodus-Aston-Villa-continues.html?ITO=1490&ns_mchannel=rss&ns_campaign=1490%3C/div%3E

I thought he was safe after Begovic signed for Chelsea as I hadn't seen any other GKs linked but I guess we will be getting a new one. Ian Taylor was right, wholesale changes at Villa this summer. The signings have to keep on coming asap.

LeBash

Has to be worth more than that. Anyone looking for a goal keeper would be mad not to have a look.

LeBash

Just reading on ssn that Vlaar is out for 4 months. Thankfully he's not on our books for that.

CSF

LeBash wrote: »

Just reading on ssn that Vlaar is out for 4 months. Thankfully he's not on our books for that.

Thats what he gets for letting his contract run down really.

GHOST MGG

Hope tim can nab praet from anderlecht soonish.
Adebayor on loan would be good business,but im not sure buying him for 4m with 100k wages is the way to go.
Talking today about Watford's Odion Ighalo..not sure on that one,charlie austin i reckon could do a job for us along with obbi oulare from club brugge (another belgian beast)

LeBash

GHOST MGG wrote:

Adebayor on loan would be good business,but im not sure buying him for 4m with 100k wages is the way to go.

There's talk of his wage but where would he command that sort of money after his spell at Spurs? He might get 50k somewhere and Spurs may pay the balance if they want him out that badly. Can't see anyone mad enough to give him 100k a week in any reputable league.

listermint

Neil3030

Hopefully this doesn't cause any friction with fans:

http://www.espnfc.co.uk/story/2528701/aston-villa-signing-idrissa-gueye-wants-future-big-club-move

I mean, players hardly come to Brum for the weather...

pavb2

Neil3030 wrote: »

Hopefully this doesn't cause any friction with fans:

http://www.espnfc.co.uk/story/2528701/aston-villa-signing-idrissa-gueye-wants-future-big-club-move

I mean, players hardly come to Brum for the weather...

At least he's being honest

fullstop

Neil3030 wrote: »

Hopefully this doesn't cause any friction with fans:

http://www.espnfc.co.uk/story/2528701/aston-villa-signing-idrissa-gueye-wants-future-big-club-move

I mean, players hardly come to Brum for the weather...

Way to make a first impression with the fans, talking about moving on before even kicking a ball.

Neil3030

fullstop wrote: »

Way to make a first impression with the fans, talking about moving on before even kicking a ball.

Unless a player signs for Barcelona, Real or maybe Bayern, this is pretty much their motivation though. I would hope Villa that fans won't get precious about this.

CSF

pavb2 wrote: »

At least he's being honest

I'll have this over Delph's ****e talk any day.

fullstop

Neil3030 wrote: »

Unless a player signs for Barcelona, Real or maybe Bayern, this is pretty much their motivation though. I would hope Villa that fans won't get precious about this.

Of course it is, but you don't come out and say that in your first day!

Neil3030

fullstop wrote: »

Of course it is, but you don't come out and say that in your first day!

Technically he said it before his first day :P

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

First post (back) here. All things considered I don't think it's been as bad a summer as it could've been. I certainly don't think we're done in the transfer market yet, not if the decrease in wages is anything to go by. We're in the process of knocking a monstrous chunk off our regular outgoings.

In our last set of published accounts our wage expenditure was cited as being 69.3m, which was accurate to the end of the 2013-14 season. Since then we've managed to offload:

El Ahmadi ~25k p/w
Bowery ~5k p/w
Carruthers ~5k p/w
Johnson ~5k p/w
Delfouneso ~20k p/w
Albrighton ~20k p/w
Makoun ~25k p/w
Bannan ~20k p/w
Ireland ~55k p/w
Vlaar ~30k p/w
Bent ~60k p/w
Herd ~5k p/w
Stevens ~5k p/w
Helenius ~10k p/w
Luna ~10k p/w
Given ~55k p/w
Lowton ~20k p/w
Sylla ~5k p/w
Weimann ~25k p/w
Delph ~50k p/w
Benteke ~50k p/w
Total: ~505k p/w (~26m per year)

Without taking incomings into consideration, that's our wage bill at ~43m per year

Signings since then have been:

Cole ~25k p/w
Senderos ~20k p/w
Richardson ~20k p/w
Cissokho ~20k p/w
Gil ~15k p/w
Sanchez ~15k p/w
Sinclair ~35k p/w
Richards ~40k p/w
Bunn ~5k p/w
Amavi ~50k p/w
Total: ~245p/w (~12.75m)

Total Wage Bill ~55.75m

Massive savings there

Corholio

To be honest all talk of certain financial savings on wages, transfer fees will always be a bit clouded by the fact that the club is in a sort of takeover purgatory. Lerner has failed to sell the club, but the fact is he wants out so he's never going to give the same effort he would have otherwise. Sherwood will have money to spend but I don't think it'll ever be the potential support he could have had otherwise.

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

That's potentially true, but there's also the new company line that we'll spend what FFP allows us to spend. If there's any truth to that, then we've probably got a lot of money to spend on players this summer. 8m for Delph, 2.5m for Weimann and 32.5m for Benteke (even if half is in installments) means that there's a ballpark 50m for this window if there's even 7.5m in the club kitty for acquisitions. You'd have to assume there is at least that 7.5m, and you'd also have to assume that a lot of our own signings will include staggered payments, so the Benteke upfront fee not being the whole lot is essentially negated.

We've already spent about 18m, so there's maybe scope for another 30m or so. Based on what Sherwood has been doing so far, you'd have to think that'll be used on 3-4 players max. That could well see us come out of this pretty well.

It really boils down to whether it's better to have someone like Benteke, or 3 other players that are a lot better than what's in the squad.

Depending on how we play, it could be either or. We'll just have to wait and see

CSF

The problem is that I wouldn't trust Lerner to reinvest the savings. The net value of the transfer fees and wages combined will continue to diminish until he's gone IMO.

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

CSF wrote: »

The problem is that I wouldn't trust Lerner to reinvest the savings. The net value of the transfer fees and wages combined will continue to diminish until he's gone IMO.

He's never shown anything to suggest he won't though in fairness to him. He's taken nothing out and put a fortune in over his tenure. And if the current state of club finances are as reported, then he doesn't need to put any more in. This summer, at least, we should be able to spend reasonably handsomely on transfer fees, pay the kind of wages to get promising first teamers in (as we did with Amavi) and push on.

Next summer it's hard to see us having the same kind of financial windfalls we we have with Benteke and Delph leaving though. The bright side is that the new TV deal kicks in that season.

If anything we seem to be positioning ourselves in a far more "value for money" way. Young and hungry was a nice pipe dream, and we did very well with some of the signings, but you really need young, hungry and bloody talented if it's to work.

Amavi (21 years old) and Gueye (25) could well be worth double or triple what we paid in a couple of years, and no doubt that's been the thought process in signing that kind of player. Buy premium players, increase the quality on the pitch, sell for big profit, reinvest and repeat.

matrim

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker wrote: »

He's never shown anything to suggest he won't though in fairness to him. He's taken nothing out and put a fortune in over his tenure. And if the current state of club finances are as reported, then he doesn't need to put any more in. This summer, at least, we should be able to spend reasonably handsomely on transfer fees, pay the kind of wages to get promising first teamers in (as we did with Amavi) and push on.

We didn't reinvest the Milner or Young money

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

matrim wrote: »

We didn't reinvest the Milner or Young money

You reckon? You don't think it went on servicing the tens of millions we were hemorrhaging at the time?

Neil3030

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker wrote: »

First post (back) here.....

Helix?

Bounty Hunter

Telegraph running a story that Spurs might loan us Adebayor

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/tottenham-hotspur/11751701/Tottenham-consider-loaning-Emmanuel-Adebayor-to-Aston-Villa.html

Personally on a loan I think he would be great assuming we bring in someone else on a permanent deal, would also take a lot of pressure off that other striker and make them not be considered the Benteke replacement as such.

No idea who @indykaila is (though I know ive seen the name linked previously on such stories) but read on one Villa forum that they say we have put a bid in for Austin now.

The spurs links persist outside of Ade too with TS apparently a bid fan of Tom Caroll and Andros Townsend also being linked though I think his price is a little on the steep side atm (Spurs supposidly want close to 15m)

Meanwhile in random continental player links the latest is Nice's Alassane Pléa and Obbi Oulare of Club Brugge

LeBash

Bounty Hunter wrote:

Meanwhile in random continental player links the latest is Nice's Alassane Pléa and Obbi Oulare of Club Brugge

The Oulare lad looks the biz. Watched a highlights video on youtube and while they can be bias he only played 11 so even if that was all he did last season, he good.

CSF

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker wrote: »

You reckon? You don't think it went on servicing the tens of millions we were hemorrhaging at the time?

Well by definition, if it went on servicing that, it wasn't reinvested. My opinion is that Lerner has no interest in the club anymore and will only spend enough to ensure that the club remains/becomes a sellable asset.

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

CSF wrote: »

Well by definition, if it went on servicing that, it wasn't reinvested. My opinion is that Lerner has no interest in the club anymore and will only spend enough to ensure that the club remains/becomes a sellable asset.

It was invested in the club, no?

Lerner has said he has no interest in running the club, and also said we'll be appointing a chairman so that he no longer has any dealings with the club at all. To that end, it's fair enough to expect that everything that the club generates financially will be made available to to the club to be used on the club IMO

CSF

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker wrote: »

It was invested in the club, no?

Lerner has said he has no interest in running the club, and also said we'll be appointing a chairman so that he no longer has any dealings with the club at all. To that end, it's fair enough to expect that everything that the club generates financially will be made available to to the club to be used on the club IMO

Repayment of debts isn't usually classed as investment in my experience.

I don't think it is fair enough to expect that. He may not be running things on the ground, but he'll unquestionably be deciding how much money he puts in or takes out.

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

CSF wrote: »

he'll unquestionably be deciding how much money he puts in or takes out.

He's never really taken anything out, and the club is now (allegedly) at a point where he doesn't need to put any in, either.

CSF

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker wrote: »

He's never really taken anything out, and the club is now (allegedly) at a point where he doesn't need to put any in, either.

We've no idea whether that is really the case though, because since O'Neill left there hasn't been much by way of significant incomings, by and large the money that has come off the wagebill and transfer fees for players sold have exceeded that coming onto the wagebill and transfer fees for players bought.

It is great to see that Villa are willing to spend in the region of 10 million on players again, but until the window ends I'm not 100% convinced there is going to be a netspend on wages and transfer fees. This summer we've seen 40+ million come in through transfer fees for Delph and Benteke alone, and they'd have been 2 of the bigger earners at the club (possibly the 2 biggest). Given, Vlaar, Weimann, Bent, Luna and Cleverley off the wagebill from last season too. I can see that money exceeding the money that is spent on transfer fees and wages this summer. Therefore the club is not increasing its outlay at all and Sherwood has to do more with less.

LeBash

We have to live within a budget. Just cause we got rid of Bent and Given doesn't mean we have that money to spend. It's a kick in the rocks but we can't spend it twice

Corholio

You can't really compare what Lerner was doing all along to what he is doing now though. He has openly tried to sell the club, no fans worrying about it, no rumours, its now fact so he will act differently and accordingly to that. A club will always need to have money put in, especially in pre-season. The problem the club has is how much, enough to keep us up again? enough to push us on above this? For me, it's more likely the former.

CSF

Corholio wrote: »

You can't really compare what Lerner was doing all along to what he is doing now though. He has openly tried to sell the club, no fans worrying about it, no rumours, its now fact so he will act differently and accordingly to that. A club will always need to have money put in, especially in pre-season. The problem the club has is how much, enough to keep us up again? enough to push us on above this? For me, it's more likely the former.

I think you'd be looking at a bigger netspend if Benteke and Delph hadn't gone.

Raven Runner

first time poster here I'd just like to say about the recent goings ie Delph going and Benteke it's sad but the anger shown and hate towards them on social media is wrong, if they want to play champions league you can understand it but they were a major part of the team that kept us up I think every player that has played for Aston Villa should be shown respect and hopefully they won't do a Rooney if they score against us and kiss the badge. As far as a striker I know it might seem mad but what about the possibility of signing Balotelli on loan?

Corholio

CSF wrote: »

I think you'd be looking at a bigger netspend if Benteke and Delph hadn't gone.

Possibly but its 2 players that have to be replaced. 1 was sold for much less than their value, the other slightly above. If we replace a loan striker' Adebayor, for a £32m one then its already a problem on many levels. Id hate to think that the management didnt already have targets lined up for the, lets face it, inevitable Benteke departure.

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

It might well be that targets aren't available this summer and Adebayor is a stop gap to tide us over. If we paid him 65k a week then he'd only cost 3.4m overall. If he even managed double figures then that'd be a worthwhile amount to have to cough up to at least keep us ticking over til next summer. A permanent move, however, would not be a good one IMO. I don't particularly want him, but for the season I don't think I could make too many valid complaints.

If current players complained about the wages they need only be reminded that they're on multi-year contracts, which likely reduce in wages if we're relegated, and he's in to help ensure that doesn't happen.

That said, I'd really rather look elsewhere.

Shame Austin won't happen because of his medical issues, because he's a fine goalscorer

Ubiquitous Synergy Seeker

Raven Runner wrote: »

what about the possibility of signing Balotelli on loan?

Not even if they paid us a few million quid to take him

LeBash

Corholio wrote:

Possibly but its 2 players that have to be replaced. 1 was sold for much less than their value, the other slightly above. If we replace a loan striker' Adebayor, for a £32m one then its already a problem on many levels. Id hate to think that the management didnt already have targets lined up for the, lets face it, inevitable Benteke departure.

I would imagine Gueye is Delph s replacement unfortunately.

By the sound of it we will play 2 in midfield. We have 4 players and 5 if you count Richardson.

I know nothing of Gueye (I assume he's good with the excitement here over the signing) but Westy is class and hopefully Sanchez is up to speed this year.

Still think we need a RB and obviously a striker and a goalkeeper is a must if Guzan goes. Oulare looks the part, would like to see him on board.

Patser

A RB? We've Hutton, Bacuna and Richards all able to play RB. It's far from priority - Striker or 2 1st and sort out GK situation