Ross Barkley

[caster troy]

The danger is that he raised his game because it was Everton, seems more than a coincidence that after basically hiding in the past 5-10 appearances he suddenly put in a shift against his old club. He'a going to have to play like that for the remaining games for me to even consider changing my mind about him.

[Risso]

He did OK against West Brom, but then they're shit. Let's see how he does for the rest of the season, they should all be quite tough games with the possible exception of Palace.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

If he plays like he did at the weekend consistently for the rest of the season and we can get him for <£20m, then I'd buy him.

This is my thinking too.  It's been such an odd season there may be reasons we're not aware of for his poor form since the injury / Covid break. Dean and the staff will know if this is the case and have seen him train throughout.  If they think they've seen enough to want to go get him permanently then that would be good enough for me.  What I do know is we've played our best football this season when he has been on form.

One thing is buying him it's another paying him. Do we really want to make him the highest paid player at the club? He's reportedly on £104k a week at Chelsea though probably took a £10k hit for COVID reductions.

[algy]

The problem for Ross here is that there'll be a few clubs on the continent that will need to make COVID-enforced sales, and not so many clubs with the money to pay for them.  We're quite lucky in that respect - it's a buyer's market, and we could realistically be the biggest spenders in Europe again.

For Ross, he's going to have to be judged against the sort of prices we paid for Sanson and Traore.  At the moment, for me he's probably worth spending about £10m-£12m on as a squad player but nothing more.  Might be convinced to go up to the £15m-£18m bracket if he plays well for the rest of the season.  But not more than that - we'll get better players from the continent for that kind of money.

It's a shame - I quite like him - but you can't just go missing for half the season then expect to be high up the priority list, especially with a club like us (now) who'll no doubt be setting European qualification as a goal for next season.

[paul_e]

The problem for Ross here is that there'll be a few clubs on the continent that will need to make COVID-enforced sales, and not so many clubs with the money to pay for them.  We're quite lucky in that respect - it's a buyer's market, and we could realistically be the biggest spenders in Europe again.

For Ross, he's going to have to be judged against the sort of prices we paid for Sanson and Traore.  At the moment, for me he's probably worth spending about £10m-£12m on as a squad player but nothing more.  Might be convinced to go up to the £15m-£18m bracket if he plays well for the rest of the season.  But not more than that - we'll get better players from the continent for that kind of money.

It's a shame - I quite like him - but you can't just go missing for half the season then expect to be high up the priority list, especially with a club like us (now) who'll no doubt be setting European qualification as a goal for next season.

Yep, that's about where I'm at, similar for Tammy and McNeil as well, they're both too expensive because they aren't exactly what the squad needs, they're players that we think can do the job we want rather than players who have a record for the last 12-18months of doing it.

[dave.woodhall]

I would say Tammy is exactly the sort of player we need.

[chrisw1]

I would say Tammy is exactly the sort of player we need.

Absolutely.  It would be a great signing.  I get the squad needs work elsewhere, but turning down the opportunity to bring in Tammy would be nuts.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Algy makes some good points about Barkley, but even at £10-12m he would still work out at £21-23m if the loan fee for this season is taken into consideration and he's not worth that kind of money.
The only way I would consider him is if chelski just gave him to us (on the basis we've already paid £11m) with no further fee attached. Barkley was to take a significant reduction in his wages and attend intensive training on pressing, tackling and interceptions with the odd attitude tutorial thrown in.
This isn't going to happen, so after the next 4 games he's eligible for wish him the best and say thanks, but no thanks.

[dave.woodhall]

I would say Tammy is exactly the sort of player we need.

Absolutely.  It would be a great signing.  I get the squad needs work elsewhere, but turning down the opportunity to bring in Tammy would be nuts.

I think a few of our supporters are headed down the road travelled in 2006, when Thierry Henry wasn't what we wanted because IMG were going to get us Ronaldo.

[LeeB]

The temptation is still there because on his day (I know, I know), he's exactly what we need. On Saturday in the second half at one point, he took a pass in a tight spot, and just the way he shifted his body seemed to open up completely new dimensions of the pitch.
It's hard for me to describe exactly, but only Jack is capable of doing that in our team, and other players that can tend to be in the £50m + bracket.

His last couple of performances have seen a significant shift in levels of performance. I don't know what the problem was from Jan till the West Brom game, but I suspected something was afoot, and the fact he's back in the side suggests it wasn't down to not giving a shit.

I think if we feel we can get value we'll do a deal.

[dave.woodhall]

It could be that with Barkley we're getting the same as we did with John Carew. On his day he's world class but if he was more consistent he wouldn't come anywhere near us at the moment. Perhaps the reason Smiffy kept picking him was because he knew that the mystery reason for his drop in form was close to being resolved. Five more performances like his last one and he'd be well worth signing.

[Risso]

It could be that with Barkley we're getting the same as we did with John Carew. On his day he's world class but if he was more consistent he wouldn't come anywhere near us at the moment. Perhaps the reason Smiffy kept picking him was because he knew that the mystery reason for his drop in form was close to being resolved. Five more performances like his last one and he'd be well worth signing.

Barkley isn’t fit to be mentioned in the same sentence as Carew. I think it was the 08/09 season when he never seemed to go more than a couple of games without scoring.

[chrisw1]

Algy makes some good points about Barkley, but even at £10-12m he would still work out at £21-23m if the loan fee for this season is taken into consideration and he's not worth that kind of money.
The only way I would consider him is if chelski just gave him to us (on the basis we've already paid £11m) with no further fee attached. Barkley was to take a significant reduction in his wages and attend intensive training on pressing, tackling and interceptions with the odd attitude tutorial thrown in.
This isn't going to happen, so after the next 4 games he's eligible for wish him the best and say thanks, but no thanks.

Why would you take the loan fee for this season into consideration?  That money is gone whether we sign him or not.  If we did sign him at £10-12m (which there's no chance of) then it would work out at £10-£12m, which is either worth it or isn't depending on your point of view.

He's obviously been poor for a large part of this season.  Fortunately the best people to decide if there's sufficient mitigation for that are the people at Villa who will make the decision on whether we go for him or not.  I'm sure they'll take your suggested tutorials on board though.

[TelfordVilla]

Algy makes some good points about Barkley, but even at £10-12m he would still work out at £21-23m if the loan fee for this season is taken into consideration and he's not worth that kind of money.
The only way I would consider him is if chelski just gave him to us (on the basis we've already paid £11m) with no further fee attached. Barkley was to take a significant reduction in his wages and attend intensive training on pressing, tackling and interceptions with the odd attitude tutorial thrown in.
This isn't going to happen, so after the next 4 games he's eligible for wish him the best and say thanks, but no thanks.

Why would you take the loan fee for this season into consideration?  That money is gone whether we sign him or not.  If we did sign him at £10-12m (which there's no chance of) then it would work out at £10-£12m, which is either worth it or isn't depending on your point of view.

He's obviously been poor for a large part of this season.  Fortunately the best people to decide if there's sufficient mitigation for that are the people at Villa who will make the decision on whether we go for him or not.  I'm sure they'll take your suggested tutorials on board though.

Abbeyfealeavfc makes a perfectly well structured and sensible suggestion of a possible transfer option that Villa may consider. Any other type of deal should be fended off with a barge pole.

[paul_e]

I would say Tammy is exactly the sort of player we need.

Absolutely.  It would be a great signing.  I get the squad needs work elsewhere, but turning down the opportunity to bring in Tammy would be nuts.

I think a few of our supporters are headed down the road travelled in 2006, when Thierry Henry wasn't what we wanted because IMG were going to get us Ronaldo.

Just to be clear on this, I think with a 433 and a 25 man squad we have 7 'spots' for the front 3 and we're going into next season with 6 of them filled (with the 7th being Trez who won't play before Christmas). Bringing Tammy in gives us 4 players who are primarily centre forwards, Grealish as a floating option (between left-wing, 10 and AM) and 2 genuine wingers in AEG and Traore. That's just not the right balance for me when we rarely play with 2 centre forwards, the post you replied to was me saying I don't like the idea of signing Tammy because Watkins could play wide and Tammy says he likes playing wide as well, certainly not when it would be such a big fee.