SambaMaverick

Said it before and I'll say it again. Spend the 40m we've got on Armstrong and Edouard. They can't both be shit. Delaney in on a loan to buy and Lookman on loan and we've had a decent window. Anything other than 4 signings from this point would leave us perilously close to trouble.

Villa fans on Twitter have decided through a game of Chinese whispers that Grealish is staying so long as their board match his level of ambition. This is apparently how the Bailey deal has been rushed through and this news of the Prowsey deal (apparently Grealish has "personally asked" for the club to sign JWP) has come about. How deluded can you get?

Not really sure that needed dragging up if I'm totally honest.

Still think we'd need another CB to force Bednarek to buck his ideas up if Vestergaard went. Jan seemed way too comfortable last year. Sell Vestergaard for 20m and get someone else in for circa 10m.

I'm willing to give him a go even though I saw nothing of him first time round that suggested he could make it in the Championship, let alone the PL. What's a couple million these days? As above - maybe Scotland has given him the kick up the arse he needed, his stat lines certainly aren't bad.

Sell for 25m and get Armstrong and Edouard. They can't both be shit. 🤷‍♂️

Would anyone have Toby back as part of the Vestergaard deal? We could come down on price in order for them to pay a % of wages in a loan deal? Worth exploring IMO.

Januzaj linked. Would be a tidy addition for the price mooted.

I'd take PvA and Elmohamedy as back up options for a year or two. We are skint after all.

Precisely, was shocked when I saw we've given him 75k for two years. The only silver lining is we haven't done the same with Bertrand.

Bit much that mate

Not a rest but rather all three have been caught flouting guidelines by having a party in the week if you believe some of the rumours on Leicester's side of Twitter. All three will be back for the semi.

Hope we have half an eye on Daryl Dike from Orlando City (via Barnsley). Loaned in January and has torn up the Championship, looks to have all the qualities to make it in the English game. Unlikely to command a massive transfer fee either. Exciting prospect.

JWP > Ronaldo at free kicks. Ronaldo's technique is all about getting lucky with the swerve and dip whereas Prowsey is all about curve and precision to make the keeper work about 7 out of 10 attempts. Prowsey's free kicks are special - like Carlos, Juninho and Messi special.

Cut and run... £30m would be a great deal but we should take anything around £25m. Instead of trying to replace his goals outright, maybe we could take a Moneyball-type approach and try and make up the deficit across the front four by adding a goalscorer in the 10 to play with Armstrong (someone like Minamino) and try and pick up a shrewd signing up front early on in the window.

Sander Berge

We are one injured defender away from going supernova... worrying. Blackmore really is the club's cheerleader these days isn't he. The price of access I suppose.

We've gone in for Fredericks from West Ham

Grealish and Mings at least will be on wages higher than we will ever pay. Also, how many players have they still actually got that were integral to their promotion? Villa were paying silly wages even for the Championship at the time, so not sure you can state that as a factor really. True, West Ham sold Haller this window but the fee paid by Ajax just about pays off the outlay for his purchase from Frankfurt (£40m), as they only paid around 25% up front. So yes, even the dildo brothers have come out of COVID better than Gao. -------- The simple fact of the matter is that we will never go anywhere (Europa qualification and beyond) with Gao in charge and if this self-sustainable model continues we could well find ourselves in big trouble if our manager and best players head to pastures new. I don't disagree with the self sustainable model in principle, but the facts are that a big initial investment is needed to overhaul the squad before we can even think about resting on our laurels. The squad isn't good enough. The youth aren't good enough. Our success this season is just testament to the great job that Ralph and our best 11 have done. Hopefully we can see a change of ownership in summer.

^^ And yet Villa can bring in a midfielder for 15 odd million in January to add to a spend of almost 100 million in the summer... Our ownership has run us into the ground, COVID or not. Don't think anyone could blame Ralph or Ings if they decide to go.

JWP needs a rest based on today's showing - idiotic decision to play him against Shrewsbury imo. Best opportunity to do so will probably be against United, but just thought I'd add my 2 cents. Diallo should be nowhere near the full back positions, added too much quality through the middle today. Hopefully our bench can be bolstered over the next few weeks as there is simply nothing positive about the young reinforcements we currently have. Redmond should also come in for Walcott, as he offers much more when in form than Theo - so we need him to string a few games together. On reflection this post probably comes across as negative, so I'm sorry. This life we are all living at the moment tends to make one a little bitter.

Yep. We finessed about the same amount including wages for Cedric, so I think £5m is a relatively reasonable amount. I meant our shiteness pre-2020. Now performances have picked up he is starting to get found out. Again, I wasn't saying we have been shit this year but rather in seasons gone by.

Would be another poor use of our limited funds to give him a new contract (a la Shane Long - although I thought that was a good idea at the time). No reason why we can't flog him off for ~£5m with this Brexit uncertainty and swoop for a tidy EFL replacement. He is the weak link in the team at the moment, having had his below-par performances masked by the shiteness of the rest of the team for a while now. Too slow getting forward, and then too slow getting back when he eventually does amble forward. Also seems prone to at least one major lapse in concentration per match.

Get a life

Diallo and Capoue on loan would be my picks, with Veerman coming in January / next summer