Borja Baston

[brontebilly]

Is this a loan or a buy?

It's a fucking joke is what it is.

2 points outside the relegation zone and the likes of Drinkwater and Baston are who we end up with.

Perhaps if you could tell us who else we could have signed and would have wanted to join.

Nzonzi and Bowen.

[GarTomas]

Is this a loan or a buy?

It's a fucking joke is what it is.

2 points outside the relegation zone and the likes of Drinkwater and Baston are who we end up with.

Perhaps if you could tell us who else we could have signed and would have wanted to join.

Have said this consistently Dave. No deal has been done yet where I’ve though we should of been in for him.

[dicedlam]

Welcome to Aston Villa Borja.

[FatSam]

Assuming it’s a short term deal to the end of the season to provide cover, someone who is happy to be third choice in a team who only play one striker, someone who will be motivated to get their career back on track, then seems like a sensible deal to me. I don’t want us to be lumbered with someone on an expensive long-term contract - the objective this season is to stay-up whilst avoiding any FFP issues.

[dave.woodhall]

Is this a loan or a buy?

It's a fucking joke is what it is.

2 points outside the relegation zone and the likes of Drinkwater and Baston are who we end up with.

Perhaps if you could tell us who else we could have signed and would have wanted to join.

Nzonzi and Bowen.

And you know they wanted to sign for us?

[Ian.]

Is this a loan or a buy?

It's a fucking joke is what it is.

2 points outside the relegation zone and the likes of Drinkwater and Baston are who we end up with.

Perhaps if you could tell us who else we could have signed and would have wanted to join.

Nzonzi and Bowen.

You paying and donating?

I presume we have very rich owners who may have their hands very tied by certain regulations and restrictions.

[Risso]

You're asking people to answer the unanswerable to be fair. 

[GarTomas]

I’ll admit I don’t know a huge amount about Bowen - is the reported £60k a week value for money?

N’Zonzi turned down West Ham so maybe he didn’t fancy a move back to the Premier League.

[dave.woodhall]

You're asking people to answer the unanswerable to be fair. 

That's the whole point. We don't know how restricted we are, and what the alternatives might have been. I'm guessing that due to the last-minute nature of this transfer we've been looking at other targets and this is a fall-back. As I said earlier, it's very hard to persuade a player to become a third-choice striker for a team fighting relegation. 

[Toronto Villa]

Is this a loan or a buy?

It's a fucking joke is what it is.

2 points outside the relegation zone and the likes of Drinkwater and Baston are who we end up with.

Perhaps if you could tell us who else we could have signed and would have wanted to join.

Nzonzi and Bowen.

I imagine if we could have bought them while complying with FFP we might have gone for them. It’s not a case of being skint. We’re not. It’s what we can spend within the rules and having spent a lot in the summer clearly we had juggle numbers to stay compliant. It significantly narrows down what we can or can’t do.

[Ads]

You're asking people to answer the unanswerable to be fair. 

You can't be precise, but it should be clear that we cannot afford within the rules to spend £20m plus on Bowen and £60k wages. That would be £7m onto the accounts if it's a 4 year deal, on top of the £140m outlay so far, which probably equates to £35m for this season, not accounting for wages.

I imagine our wage bill is in excess of £81m so we're caught by a need to comply with the regs. With that in mind, we couldn't afford, within the framework (I suspect and as is being reported) to add further given the cap is £5m more than you earn across the 3 year period.

Stay up, which I think we're more than capable of and we can grow commercially, narrow the spend and add quality to push us higher.

[Toronto Villa]

Fuck it. I have no idea if he’ll be any good, but I’m getting fully behind him and out lot. This week has been superb and a win tomorrow and the world will look very rosy headed into the break. He could be a dud or he could look at this as a massive opportunity play in the top flight again. Let’s hope he takes that chance.

[brontebilly]

Is this a loan or a buy?

It's a fucking joke is what it is.

2 points outside the relegation zone and the likes of Drinkwater and Baston are who we end up with.

Perhaps if you could tell us who else we could have signed and would have wanted to join.

Nzonzi and Bowen.

And you know they wanted to sign for us?

With a smidge of ambition we could and should have signed players of that ilk. It wasn't as if our fabled scouting team haven't had all season to realise we were chronically short of quality in midfield and up top. If we go down, the finger of blame will be firmly placed at our recruitment team.

Sure it's only relegation, the club was only a whisker away from folding the last time...was great fun apart from that 

[villa `cross the mersey]

I'm assuming Suso is now down to the back pages of his little black  book of Spanish players you've never heard of ..........
As other clubs are struggling to secure deals for forwards it looks like the January transfer window has been a sluggish one - that said I am feeling somewhat underwhelmed tonight - would love to hear  Smith's` s thoughts on the matter - anyone know if he has a good working relationship with Suso?
Anyone else think Suso has been disappointing in his dealings since being at the club ?

[Legion]

Welcome. Whoever you are.