Summer transfer, gossip, speculation and the usual butter ollocks thread

[LeeB]

I see Stoke have reduced their asking price for Butland to £8m. Think we dodged a bullet there as he’s clearly gone down the Joe Hart route

He a funny one Butland, he’s been highly rated since the year dot but I’ve never watched him and thought ‘wow, what a keeper’.

[AsTallAsLions]

I see Stoke have reduced their asking price for Butland to £8m. Think we dodged a bullet there as he’s clearly gone down the Joe Hart route

He a funny one Butland, he’s been highly rated since the year dot but I’ve never watched him and thought ‘wow, what a keeper’.

Agreed, me neither. Wasn't long ago he was touted as a replacement for De Gea at Yanited, it's been weird to watch him languish in the Championship with no suitors clamoring for his signature.

[algy]

Playing devils advocate a little....

It seems the majority of players we are being linked with are the so called better players from teams who got relegated or in Bremen’s case just avoided said drop or players never tested at the top level....whilst these are obvious links to have been made just how many of those will significantly improve a team that finished 17th?

The goldfish bowl that is Villa with our fan base will write off players after a couple of sub par performances so the pressure to perform is massively higher with us than it is at Norwich, Watford, Bournemouth & Brentford.  Being tutted at for misplacing a pass at Carrow Road or the bungalow that Bournemouth play at is massively different to when Villa Park turns.  Alongside ability we need two or three big characters...the likes of Cantwell don’t strike me as those types.

Would particularly avoid anyone from Norwich, they did well to come up but didn’t try a lick to stay there, they’d waved the white flag by the end of first transfer window so it was easy for Cantwell / Buendia to look good because every game was a free hit in the knowledge that the club were trousering the Prem cash so zero accountability.

Personally I’d hope to see links for players in top half of Prem, Bundesliga, Serie A mixed in with the odd gamble like Benrahma / Watkins / Buendia rather than the current ones.

As I say a bit devils advocate but as I see it the scope is there for any team in the bottom half last season to aim for 7th/8th/9th if they get the recruitment right....quality, pace, physicality....not tricksters for me.

My thoughts are:

Jack Grealish plays for us, and we only narrowly avoided relegation. You'd still say, though, that he's at least a top half standard player, even judging conservatively. Roy Keane was signed from Nottingham Forest the season they were relegated, and that worked out ok for Man Utd. Personally, i think it's much less of a gamble signing players who look decent in a relegated Premier League side than ones who look good in the Championship.

Also, it's a lot easier to sign players who will see playing for Villa as a step up from where they are now. Realistically, if you were playing for West Ham right now, Villa would seem either a sideways or backwards move. To bring in ambitious players, we're going to have to look towards relegated teams, teams in a similar position to ours in a decent foreign league, or young players who can't break in to their own club's first team (e.g. Tammy 2 seasons ago). That's what we have to work with at the moment.

I don't think it's a bad thing. We're in a better position than we were 12 months ago, and even a half decent finish this coming season will make recruitment a lot easier.

[Pat Mustard]

I suspect Messi is going to be looking for a club that knows how to deal with Bayern Munich after tonight.

[ktvillan]

Liverpool have signed a fair few players from relegated teams over the years - Robertson, Wijnaldum and Shaqiri are three who are still there, but there were others like Danny Ings and a bit further back Peter Crouch and Charlie Adam.  Most haven't done too badly.

[dave17]

I suspect Messi is going to be looking for a club that knows how to deal with Bayern Munich after tonight.

Hes off to blues so he can finally shake that rainy night in stoke cliche

[JJ-AV]

I wonder if we could get Ainsley Maitland Niles - he'd be a good CM next to Luiz and McGinn, and can cover both fullback spots too. Great energy and engine and lots of quality. I like him a lot. Arsenal asking for £30m but the talk is he'll go closer to £20m. Not sure we'd need a fullback if we sign him as he can cover both spots.

I'd also look at Daniel James on loan from Man Utd.

[JD]

We need a new left back and I've said before we should sign the best left back in the Australian League. Sign him he will cost peanuts. Belive me, this kid id great.

English Championship clubs show interest in Wellington Phoenix ace Liberato Cacace
Two English Championship clubs have joined the race to sign Europe-bound Wellington Phoenix defender Liberato Cacace.

Phoenix legend Paul Ifill has revealed that scouts from separate second division clubs have contacted him in recent weeks to inquire about the sought-after teen, after Ifill mentioned his name as a player with huge potential during a podcast interview in the UK.

“When you get to my age and you’ve played as long as I have, all my friends are scouts, coaches, assistant coaches and managers so it’s pretty easy to pick up the phone,” Ifill said.

“The guy is a scout at a Championship club, I won’t say where, and he rang me and said I saw your podcast, we’ve been doing our homework and our gaffer here likes the look of him, what’s the story?

“I just passed the information onto Libby’s dad and left it with them. It’s nothing to do with me but I'm just happy to help anybody out that is good enough to play at a higher level.”

SCOTT BARBOUR/GETTY IMAGES
Former Victory coach Kevin Muscat has made a play to bring Liberato Cacace to Belgian club Sint-Truiden.
Cacace is almost certain to leave the Phoenix at the end of the current season, with Belgian Pro League club Sint-Truiden favoured to land the talented All Whites international given their strong A-League ties.

Sint-Truiden are coached by former Melbourne Victory boss Kevin Muscat and ex-Phoenix assistant coach Luciano Trani is one of Muscat’s right-hand men. That familiarity could swing Cacace’s decision.

Now the best left-back in the competition, Ifill believed Cacace was ready to take the next step in his young football career and felt Sint-Truiden would be the perfect landing pad for the 19-year-old who has offers on the table from multiple clubs in Belgium and the Netherlands.

“I think it’s ideal,” Ifill said. “For him to go to a club where the coach already knows him, and you’ve got Luciano Trani there as an assistant. Luc knows the Phoenix, he’ll know all the background of Libby and I think he even knows Libby’s father because we used to go to their restaurant and he would have sat down with his dad and broken bread.

A regular starter over the course of the past two seasons, Cacace has been the Phoenix’s most dangerous player since the A-League resumed last month. He has scored three goals in 24 appearances this campaign.

“I think he’s played with a hell of a lot of confidence, and that comes from people talking you up and playing well, and I think he probably realises now that he’s a little better than the level he’s playing at.

“You can see that in the way he’s playing every week. It’s been pretty cool to watch his progress.”

[JUAN PABLO]

lots of reports Manure wanting midfielder Saul Niguez . 
They wouldnt be interested in our Jack then would they?

[Damo70]

I see Stoke have reduced their asking price for Butland to £8m. Think we dodged a bullet there as he’s clearly gone down the Joe Hart route

I would have been all for signing him last summer but he had a shockingly bad season last season.

[gpbarr]

At what stage do we start to worry that we won’t make many signings in this window given circumstances - we have been linked with 20/30 players but with less than 4 weeks to go and what one would hope would be lessons learnt from having to start last season with so many new players with little time for assimilation, it’s a tad concerning to me we have yet to make one first team signing.

[PaulWinch again]

I think it’s fine now. There’s bound to be a bit of a lag with all the new appointments. I imagine we’ll see some movement this week.

[Clampy]

At what stage do we start to worry that we won’t make many signings in this window given circumstances - we have been linked with 20/30 players but with less than 4 weeks to go and what one would hope would be lessons learnt from having to start last season with so many new players with little time for assimilation, it’s a tad concerning to me we have yet to make one first team signing.

Why would you worry when the window does not close until October?

[kippaxvilla2]

when on song the Mings-Engels partnership was the best i saw last season

Mings doing the heavy duty defensive work and Engels the ball playing centre half dovetailed nicely i thought
at last a decent pair at the back hopefully for the long term unfortunately not to be

When did Engels do that as a matter of interest?  He looked quite good in the first game at Spurs heading everything away, but I honestly don't recall him looking good on the ball. Konsa is much more that player, surely?

He tried to play the ball against Spurs and look how that turned out.

[john2710]

It's less than 3 weeks since the season ended. Player's are on holiday & European competitions are still ongoing. Hardly anyone has made a signing & the window is open into October.

It would be ideal if everyone we want is signed well before the new season starts in 4 weeks but that's not going to happen.