SKD

Agree. On paper looks like a very good deal. Not getting too excited about the ‘future super star’ comments. If he’s that good, Chelsea will probably have a buy back clause and / or he’ll be gone before he reaches that level anyway. Hopefully he can have an impact like lamptey did at Brighton. Fair play saints.

Our mentality is appalling, when the going gets tough we give up and roll over. We have done for years, hence the amount of leads we’ve thrown away in the last 2/3 seasons. However, recently, I don’t think we’ve been helped by our manager who I don’t think could set up a team to defend a lead if his life depended on it. we’ve not had a leader since Fonte. We miss him, we need to replace him, ASAP. Cahill is probably 2 years to late now (we should have got him on a free), however just having him in the dressing room woulD be invaluable. Likewise with Phil jones.

Again, these still add no real context. A ‘progressive pass’ could be a 5 yard forward pass to his fellow CM rather than a defence splitting pass. ‘passes in final third’ again, could be a simple 5 yard sidewards pass which isn’t causing any trouble. ‘chances created from through passes’. I bet this includes set pieces. I don’t need stats to tell me that we’re massively lacking drive and creativity in the middle of the park, other than when Armstrong was played in there. It looks like his defensive stats are potentially pretty good, however, as duck has pointed out, not good enough to prevent embarrassing score lines season upon season. For me, he’s being massively overestimated by saints fans. I think if you were to look at the saints web equivalent for Villa fans, I doubt they’re salivating at the thought of signing him. Imo, he’s a ban average premier league Central midfielder who’s got a very good free kick / corner and is a model professional and teachers pet (hence captaincy).

Don’t think I could disagree more. Grealish is fantastic and imo, much better than sancho (at this moment). Given he’s an attacker, a much better and higher profile player than JWP, naturally he’ll command a much higher fee.

So not well run then? If moneys a premium and you’re wasting it, that’s a pretty poorly ran club imo.

Exactly. Didn’t see the uproar when we offered Blackburn half of what they want for Armstrong. Villa, like everyone, know we sell anything that’s not battened down. Of course they’re going to test the water with a low offer. It’s called negotiation.

The only reason he’ll leave is If the player wants to leave. In which case, he won’t go for as much as white. imo, he’ll stay this season and move next.

I agree with the opinion that he’ll stay. Which kind of proves he’s not worth 50£m, if other clubs aren’t willing to pay it though? No?

Do you honestly think villa are going to double the value of their first offer 😂😂 He’ll go for about 40m.

40m + another 40m (give or take) from Ings and Vestergaard would give us a very nice kitty to rebuild. Other than ings, the other 2 are replaceable imo. £20m each on a decent CM, CB and attacking midfielder. Use the rest on a decent replacement for ings. We’ll need to be quick however.

I don’t care about the stats. He won’t go for as much as White.

Ward Prowse wouldnt fetch as much as Ben White. No chance. FWIW, white was criminally over priced.

It’s the same argument with Ings / Everton and West Ham. Other than to be the main man, why would they want to stay at us? Villa with the backing they have, are a much better prospect than us at the moment. I can’t see a club higher in which JWP would get in, to be honest.

They wouldn’t have made an offer if they didn’t think they had a chance. The way these things work is clubs speak to agents to gage an interest first. I wonder what our price is? 35-40m and I think he’d go.

I agree. He’s actually the perfect owner in terms of lack of involvement and allowing the ‘football men’ running the club day to day. However, he lacks the most fundamental part you want from an owner… ability to spend.

Hang on. Aren’t they all about 16….

I think this highlights how bad the Theo deal was. Just another big standard attacking midfielder. From that above list, Armstrong is competent enough and Tella is looking promising, but raw, the others are way off the pace.

Probably the last thing I’d be worried about if we had to put up with him at Left Back for a sustained period of time. He’s good at pressing the ball and winning it high but 1-1 defending he is atrocious. I’d bet on a penalty a game against him. And I don’t think he has the intelligence to play there. Absolutely laughable If we are seriously considering him as an option at LB.

If you look at the squad that Puel had, other than maybe Ings, KWP and JWP (improving), across the board we are weaker than that. Over the past season our recruitment has certainly improved, I agree with that, but that wasn’t very hard given the dross we signed under the latter les Reed years. However, given we’re hamstrung with our lack of budget, the players were bringing in are going to keep our head above the water, at best. Imo (it’s a game of opinions), other than KWP & Salisu (early days for him, I’ve seen him play well and I’ve seen him play not so well), most of our recent signings wouldn’t look out of place in the championship (which is where I suspect we’ll be come the end of next season). I don’t think we’re signing any players of any real quality. Anyway, this isn’t a transfer thread. My point still stands, if you were in Danny’s shoes, why the hell would you want to stay with us in our current form!?

Agree. I like the look of Tangaga

We’re told this every window and every window an excuse comes out. We’ll likely replace what we lose (but with less quality).

Some fair points in there, let me expand; We’ve progressively reduced the quality within our squad for a number of years now' - Have we? So like the signings of Ings, Armstrong, KWP, Vestergaard, Salisu, to a lesser extent Diallo, Djenepo done that have they? Not IMO. We've also seen several players improve a lot under the current manager. With even a young player like Tella coming through. Most of our transfer duds, if not all were signed in a period before the current manager and board, for big fees and big wages, that have hamstrung the club financially. Also your statement makes out like they did it on purpose, all the players signed (aside the travesty signing of Carrillo that went outside of usual transfer strategy and against the recruitment department) were young, high rated players, who were internationals and had impressed in decent clubs like Juve or Lazio or in the Champions league, they were the exact profile the club had been successful with before and really the only sort of players we can sign if we want to improve because we don't have money to throw at players like the big 6 or clubs like West Ham or Everton. Ings and Vestergaard are off, we will not come Close to replacing them, well ings at least, with like for like quality. We’re looking at a championship striker. KWP, Armstrong and Salisu (too early to say about him, imo) are about the level we’re at. KWP is an upgrade on Cedric, granted, but Armstrong isn’t at the level of Tadic as an example. They’re about our level of bottom half fighting relegation. IMO, our squad is / has been getting worse but I guess that’s up for debate. Agree, we’ve got better scouting wise since the Crooker came in. 'Those around us are improving and we’re getting worse. We’re heading towards relegation.' - Other have covered this but this is also giant nonsense. Barely any PL clubs full stop have made major signings beyond Utd (who are IIRC the richest club in the world). Palace lost their experienced manager and replaced him with a guy who has no real managerial experience, lost many of their squad on frees and whilst they have made some decent signings, one of their best players is injured until at least December and they seem to be excited about signings a guy from Chelsea reserves who got nowhere near their first team. Newcastle signed literally no one and only stayed up last year basically because of a magical spell of form from a loanee they look unlikely to get back. Burnley have signed a centre-back from Stoke. Brighton are about to lose a key defender and likely their best centre-mid and still haven't sorted out their striker issue. Wolves have got a squad player in from Barcelona on loan, lost Portugal's no.1 keeper and replaced him basically his back up and have a manager unproven in this league. Promoted clubs are the promoted clubs, but Norwich have lost their best player hands down in Buendia, and the others haven't recruited much. I cannot see how in our current state we are any worse off than we were last year against the bottom half PL teams, if not better off, because we have potentially upgraded at left back and at the moment with Elyounissi and Valery currently around, we actually have a little more depth. We also have Romeu fit again who was a big loss for basically the whole second half of the season last year. AND we have cleared the likes of Lemina, Hoedt, Bertrand and Gunn off the wage bill giving us at very least scope to add some loans minimum. Fair point around Newcastle and Burnley. Not considering wolves as I think they’ll be well clear of us. In my mind I was thinking Villa, Brighton and palace (who I think will surprise people). 'No leadership from the owner. An owner who wants out; but no one wants to buy us.' - What does this even mean? What does 'leadership' from an owner do to a football club? He hasn't exactly destabilised the club and told the whole first team they are going to be sold, he just lets the board and football people get on with it. Not sure how this has any impact at all. He doesn't interfere, which is a GOOD thing. Agree him not interfering is a good thing, however what is his strategy? What direction does he want to take the club. Does anyone hear from the owner? 'we’re riddled with debt' - Are we? Or did we actually take out one major loan for a specific purpose to cover issues due to COVID, and something that other clubs IIRC did. Debt is debt regardless of what it’s for. 'A number of highly paid players who we’ve had to loan out season upon season and/or get rid for next to nothing.' Which we have finally got rid off and should now basically be a clean slate with more room to move in the wage bill. We have no money to sign anyone to worry about the wage bill. We may be paying for previous mistakes, however it’s contributing to us struggling to compete. 'not a dig at those running the club, I think given the circumstances are doing the best they can, with their hands tied behind their back.' - Hand tied behind their back by whom exactly? You say you are not 'having a dig' but it damn well looks like you are. Nope I’m really not. I think the club are in safe hands with crooker, Simmens and co. However, with Gao as owner, we’re heading for the championship. As a club; We’ve got no ambition. Why would a player like Ings want to commit to spending his last few years at a club who will be battling relegation at best.

It was to be expected from people like Lemina. Ings is 10x the professional that idiot is. It’s all relative, shall I say disinterested for him. To me it seemed like he coasted through a few games and his attitude / body language left a lot to be desired. I suspect it was a combination of his desire to leave for a bigger club, frustration about lack of opportunities and us being utter garbage. Plus perhaps not being 100% fit.

Clearly, if he got a serious injury, we’d take the contract away or at the very least amend the terms. the club, need to make a decision. If it’s not signed by x date, which it won’t be, do we sale at a reduced cost in January or take the hit and keep him until the end of the season.

He was offered a contract in January, which he hasn’t signed. Why do you think giving him a hard deadline of end of August will make any difference 😂