tajjuk

That game similarly reminded me of the Columbia v England game in the World Cup last year, what VAR does is highlight the shocking gamesmanship and blatant cheating that is common place within a lot of teams, that they also seem to believe they should just get away with and before VAR they probably did. I remember the Columbian players surrounding the referee for the penalty given for the foul against Harry Kane which was more akin to a rugby tackle, no legitimately objective and rationale person could argue that was not a foul, but the Columboan players and management acted like it was the biggest injustice in football history. There is still of course issues with when and what it is used on and thus that creates room for referee error/potential bias, I think that decision should be taken out of the hands of the off field referee but be down to the assessment of someone off the pitch and detached from the atmosphere and emotions in the stadium. But like I saw someone say on twitter, almost all of these 'VAR controversies' are not controversial at all, they are one team making a big fuss against something that is pretty much clear cut.

He cost around £8 million so I think that article is overestimating both his fee and wages. Pretty sure his salary as well was more around the £40k a week margin.

And for a not very good team either that struggled most of the year, pretty much all the other high scorers last year in the Championship were playing for top 6 teams challenging for promotion. Except Che Adams and Jarrod Bowen who scored goals for average if not poor teams, which IMO makes their goal tallies even more impressive. I'd like to see us go for both these two young English players.

The same Charlie Austin who went on to score 18 PL goals in 35 games for a relegated team just a year after that 25 championship goals season, that Charlie Austin? And you must be blind to not see he has more pace than Austin. Even with all his injury issues, Austin still has a 1 in 3 record in the PL, probably closer to 1 in 2 for starts. So I have no idea why Austin is anything but a clear marker that people who score goals in the Championship, especially young players, can't go on and score decently in the PL.

IMO he's basically a less good Trippier, a more offensive full back with good offensive abilities like passing and crossing but lacks defensive ability and would be exposed for his lack pace with a consistent run at left back in back 4. And we are not as good as Spurs (Or England), have far less possession than them, and have worst centre-backs, and even Spurs it seems have decided that Trippiers defensive deficiencies mean they need an upgrade. We need a full back that can defend first and foremost and won't get completely done by the fast wingers in this league because it is likely our defenders will spend more time defending without the ball than having it. Even if he improves and has improved under Ralph, I can't see him imagining up pace and acceleration from somewhere. Positional play, tackling, interceptions, marking those things can be improved with experience and training, but pace not so much.

People saying Targett can step up, which I completely disagree with, should remember that most of the time he performed well in Bertrands absence he was playing as wing-back, not a conventional full back. That position compensates for his lack of pace because there is a centre-back who can step out wide to cover, but as far as I can tell Ralph is planning a back 4, and I just can't see Targett being good enough in a back four, he just isn't quick enough to be a modern Premier League full back IMO.

Seems a bit silly all round to be honest. It also makes zero sense to sell him to raise funds if we are only asking for £15 million but could get £10 million plus for Targett. If we were selling him for £25 - 30 million I might more understand it.

Like Bowen a lot, very good left foot, would suit Ralphs style as he has a very good work ethic and makes interceptions/tackles up the pitch, scores all sorts of goals, good dribbler and can take a set piece as well. Heavily uses his left foot but is actually decent on his right as well. Only slight worry might be that he lacks top level pace for the premier league. He's decently quick but not rapid like say Daniel James. Think he's a better option than Harry Wilson as well.

Sevilla are also apparently interested in Maupay, tough choice that Burnley or Sevilla, I mean probably on every level Sevilla win, I mean weather, nicer place to live, bigger club, Europa League football, play better football etc. etc. Burnley might be able to offer more wages I suppose. I wonder if Burnley's style of play means potential transfer targets are put off?

At the moment I'd reckon Boufal might be likely to stay, not seen any rumour at all about him leaving, if he does go I'd reckon its nearer the end of the transfer window once Ralf has seen him pre-season and probably will depend on whether Boufal gets on bored with this training methods. There is talent there, and probably out of our loanees he's probably had the most successful season, having some decent games for a relegation threatened Celta and beating Messi for completely dribbles in the league. Looks likely the striker is going to be Adams and from comments above seems a young French GK as well. So that would be - Djenepo Adams New GK New CB Then its a question of whether its a new DM or new RB.

Hopefully this is confirmed soon, I think £14 million for a promising young English player from the Championship is decent value in the current market. Considering Maddison was what £25 million last year and James just cost Utd £17 million.

Ralph apparently wants 5 according to that interview he did in German. So one could be a GK, especially I suppose with McCarthy being linked with various people and maybe not happy to sit as no.2 for us (but presumably might be ok being no.2 for a bigger club) You'd hope CB is a priority, and striker is the other one.The rest might depend on who goes, who stays etc. But I think, if I was going to highlight another position it would be DM, we only really have Romeu and he has his limitations, I'd like to see some more mobile there. The other is maybe a right back? Bit of an odd position that we are in there, in that Valery has come on massively that you wouldn't want to halt his development by placing a new signing in his way, but at the same time we lack cover and experience there. Plus we might not be able to shift Cedric. But I'd go for CB, RB, DM and Striker.

Letting him go would save about £2 million in wages anyway, but yeh AZ must be able to afford to pay some fee because they sold like over £25 million of players last year and only spent about £6 million, so asking them for £4-5 million doesn't seem absurd.

Yeh I think it was the transfer that sealed Les' fate, to sign such an average at best striker as a record transfer is just gross incompetence, if the guy was 22 maybe you could argue there was some potential there but he was basically at his peak and proven to be mediocre.

£25 million doesn't get you much these days, that to me seems a lot for a guy who got 5 goals and 6 assists in nearly 50 games last year, mainly playing as a number 10.

1 in 3 record in the Belgium league is not very impressive for a striker

Pretty much every source says he is 6' 1" It's difficult to find pictures of him standing next to people but in this one he is next to Zaha - And Zaha is 5' 11", and you can clearly see Shaw is taller.

Should remember that this is a Villa squad that until an almost miraculous run of form was looking more like it was going to get in a relegation battle than the play offs. So it probably does need a lot of work.

Depending on formation JWP actually covered right back/right back decently IMO. I'm not sure I'd necessarily want him playing as RB in a back 4, but I think in a back 5 where wingbacks have a little more defensive cover behind them he did pretty well. Luke Shaw is big for most full backs, he is 6' 1"

Its number of games for the national team over the last two years (but last year if the player is under 21), and it has to exceed 75% I think. But I think it only applies to the top 50 ranked international teams in the world and Mali are 65th I believe. So I think it has to move onto the 'special criteria' application, which involves stuff like the value of the transfer being a certain level, the value of the wages being a certain level (both compared to signings in the league over the last two years), number of games he played out of available games he could play for his league, games in european competitions etc. All give you points and you need a certain amount of points to qualify. Something like that.

Barcelona turned him down, they couldn't agree wages so just moved on elsewhere and bought De Jong, so now don't want him. And he can't get a contract at PSG as they have basically given up on him. But hes been linked with like Man Utd, Arsenal, Chelsea etc.

The rules are a bit weird, but I'd imagine the club had checked it was likely before they completed the signing. I think the fee alone and wages probably makes him eligible if his games for Mali don't, as they are outside the top 50 rankings, I think also him having played the Europa league also helps, if they have to do the points system.

Its on the Targett thread, Daily Echo article saying we are looking at selling him or Targett because they want Vokins to be the main back up.

I have no real issues with Valery being our first choice right back, the speed he has progressed in the last 6 months makes me think a full season next year under Ralph's training and we'll be struggling to hold on to him this time next year. I also quite like that we are trying to identify pathways into the first team for our academy players, its looks almost certain that our back up full backs next year are going to be Vokins and Ramsey, and I think that is a good thing.