Summer transfer, gossip, speculation thread

[Dante Lavelli]

Webster is alright but presumably the price should be similar to what Bournemouth gubbed out for Mepham from Brentford I.e. circa £16m. I am not sure we would necessarily fancy him anyway. Is he right footed?

It will also influence what we can bid for Mings, as I’m sure ~Bournemouth will ask for £Webster+£5m as they know we consider Mings a more complete player.

[SoccerHQ]

Just get Mings in for 15m and signed a decent european CB for 5-10m. One of best CBs in premier league last year was Fabian Schar who Newcastle signed for about 3m.

Way I see it we need some top level experience and leadership in the key areas of centre back, DM and also international class striker. Get those three right and we'll be comfortable mid table.

Just sign all championship players and I fear the inital optimism at VP in August will quickly fade, similar to Lambert's first season.

[themossman]

Just thinking similar. If you went above £20m for a championship defender you’d be getting much worse value than shopping on the continent, without much reduction in risk.

[cheltenhamlion]

I wouldn't be shopping much in the home market either. And if Motherwell haven't sold Turnbull yet I would have four million on the table quick smart right about now.

[Hookeysmith]

£50 mil for a kid I doubt anyone has ever heard of is ridiculous.

I reckon anyone with even a passing interest in football will have heard of him.

Sorry but I paid no interest in the premier league last season as we were not in it. We have been for 5 minutes and already the over pricing is starting to grind.

I know the feeling that if you fill your team with championship grade players we will end up back there but I would rather be relegated by taking chances on more "unknown" talent that is coached into a motivated team than be held to ransom over ridiculous prices for one season wonders

Sorry

[SoccerHQ]

Times were different of course but think back 15 years ago 3/4 defence were Mellberg, Laursen and Bouma. That cost us barely 15m. 10 years ago we then signed likes of Shorey, Dunne and Collins for double that amount and didn't get great longevity from any of them, add in Curtis Davies and Zat Knight who came in 2007.

I have no problem with getting Mings in given his inspirational performances in the run in but would be disappointed if we signed another CB from the championship.

[Toronto Villa]

There are players who can step up to the PL from the Championship but the immense deals PL clubs (now including us off course) have got from TV just drives everything up. It's absolutely understandable that when a lower league team sees the money being lased around for players, some who have just emerged on the scene that they will want top money for their players. We did it with Jack, clubs are doing it to us. And especially in June. It just means the whole transfer business machine slows down unless you are willing to pay stupid money to just get it done.

[jwarry]

Well we do have a history of unearthing gem centre halves from the lower leagues or Scotland so who knows Webster might be worth a punt.  The absence of any YT clips doesn’t help though!

[AsTallAsLions]

£50 mil for a kid I doubt anyone has ever heard of is ridiculous.

I reckon anyone with even a passing interest in football will have heard of him.

Heard of him, sure. Heard enough about him or seen enough of him to think he could possibly warrant a £50m price tag at this moment in time? Different story

He might end up justifying it over time of course. Or be a cautionary tale about lacking any discernable scouting system for many years to come.

[Villafirst]

Pre-season training is fast approaching and the squad is wafer thin. Getting players in late doesn't give them adequate time to bed in, especially from abroad. At this rate someone else will steal in for Mings. Sorry,  but I'm not impressed.

[LukeJames]

Pre-season training is fast approaching and the squad is wafer thin. Getting players in late doesn't give them adequate time to bed in, especially from abroad. At this rate someone else will steal in for Mings. Sorry,  but I'm not impressed.

Really? You should've mentioned it.

[jwarry]

So is Webster right or left footed?? I can’t find anything to tell me

[Villafirst]

Pre-season training is fast approaching and the squad is wafer thin. Getting players in late doesn't give them adequate time to bed in, especially from abroad. At this rate someone else will steal in for Mings. Sorry,  but I'm not impressed.

Really? You should've mentioned it.

Sarcastic!

[Gareth]

I have to say as much as I am keen to see us making signings I can’t fail to be amused when I read some of the absolute garbage written on Twitter under #avfc - some of it outdoes the nonsense on sha forums :-) ‘pay whatever for Mings’, ‘why just crap from Championship’,’just swap him for him’,’get on with it Villa’

For me I fully trust the mgmt and will happily back whatever signings they chose to make, personally I actually don’t see a huge deal of difference between standard of good Championship sides and those 8th downwards in Premier League - sides like Watford with Cathcart, Deeney, Hughes - Leicester when they came up with Vardy, Drinkwater, Morgan - Burnley with Mee, Heaton, Tarkowski - Bournemouth with Cook, Francis, Daniels, Wilson - Brighton with Dunk, Duffy - skimming off the best that the Championship has to offer & moulding them into a team with good coaching and team spirit is fine, I would expect to see a couple of signings from the continent also to supplement those players....you know, like the 22m striker we’ve already signed.

Can’t say i’ve even noticed Webster (in fact it was after Christmas before realised Flint wasn’t at Bristol anymore and Baker wasn’t a starter!) but if Dean & co have seen something they can work with that’s fine.  Phillips & Butland a little more and would be quite happy with both.

[Dave]

£50 mil for a kid I doubt anyone has ever heard of is ridiculous.

I reckon anyone with even a passing interest in football will have heard of him.

Sorry but I paid no interest in the premier league last season as we were not in it. We have been for 5 minutes and already the over pricing is starting to grind.

I know the feeling that if you fill your team with championship grade players we will end up back there but I would rather be relegated by taking chances on more "unknown" talent that is coached into a motivated team than be held to ransom over ridiculous prices for one season wonders

Sorry

I'm not sure you have anything you need to apologise for.

As you say, you didn't really take an interest in leagues that Villa aren't in, so there's no reason you would have heard of him. Which is absolutely fine.

People who do take an interest though will have heard of him. More people follow the league he plays in than any other in the world, and he played well enough in it that he's about to move to one of the bigger teams in it for £45m. So anyone who does take an interest in it will have heard of him.

But "I'm not interested and I've never heard of him" and "I doubt anybody has ever heard of him" are a pretty long way apart.