Summer Transfer Thread and Gustavo Cisneros Type Rumours.

[Risso]

DS (via Express & Star)

He explained: “At the moment in midfield places I have John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Marvelous Nakamba, Carney Chukwuemeka, JJ (Jacob Ramsey), Conor Hourihane and Morgan Sanson coming back from injury.

“There are a lot of numbers in there and I think to add to that would be stockpiling players a little bit. Players would probably need to move out before we moved anyone in for that area.”

Which says to me there’s still every chance of a midfield signing but we need to move one on first.

Only one of those is a defensive midfielder, and he isn't good enough. Another is a completely untested kid, then there's someone else who was on loan in the Championship last year, and somebody who has hardly kicked a ball in anger because of being injured for months and months. Buy a defensive midfielder, FFS.

[KRS]

Bit of a ridiculous statement that from DS:

Nakamba: not good enough at this level and needs to be moved on.
Hourihane: not good enough at this level, was loaned out last season and needs to be moved on.
Chuk: has to fight for a place and prove he’s good enough.
Ramsey: has to fight for a place and prove he’s good enough.
Sanson: injured forever and fuck knows if he’s good.

So yeah…2 out of 7 isn’t exactly stockpiling players, so do your job…move on the ones that aren’t good enough and sign some players. If Europe is the genuine target then it’s plain for all to see that our midfield options don’t cut the mustard by any stretch of the imagination.

[Sexual Ealing]

His job isn't to move them on. It's to coach the ones that are here.

[brontebilly]

I reckon Harry winks is incoming. Plan b or c.

Was just going to type that. Seem an ominous August 31st, 11.59pm signing to me now we ain't getting in Ward Prowse.

Just watching Betis play and notice William Carvalho is on the bench. His stock isn't as high as a few years back when likes of West Ham were trying to sign him for 40m but he's an experienced DM for Portugal and Betis and they might move him on for 20m as imagine his contract is running down so for where we are we could do worse....like signing Harry Winks.

Carvalho was absolute rubbish in the Euros. Winks would be another Westwood. Might well be a case of working harder on Luiz to be that number six for us. Has the ability but needs a proper partner. I've been advocating for Thomas Delaney for the last couple of years, think he would be ideal.

[pauliewalnuts]

He explained: “At the moment in midfield places I have John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Marvelous Nakamba, Carney Chukwuemeka, JJ (Jacob Ramsey), Conor Hourihane and Morgan Sanson coming back from injury.

Pretty staggering this.

McGinn, yes, fair enough.
Luiz poor all last season.
Nakamba patently not good enough for where we want to be.
Chuk - about 13, clearly not going to be starting PL games for a long time.
Ramsey - unproven at best.
Hourihane - Championship quality at the very best.
Sanson - who knows? Perma-injured thus far.

The recurring theme last season was watching the midfield disintegrate. We saw it again last weekend.

I just don't see how he thinks flogging Grealish and using a chunk of the money to buy Ings, Bailey and Buendia addresses the fact that we are absolutely powder puff in midfield.

Coming out of this window having flogged an incredibly important and talented player to spend less than we bring in and neglect the exact area pretty much every single frequent viewer of ours would say we are weak in is absolutely spurning a great opportunity to crack on.

It will be a massive let down.

[edgysatsuma89]

He explained: “At the moment in midfield places I have John McGinn, Douglas Luiz, Marvelous Nakamba, Carney Chukwuemeka, JJ (Jacob Ramsey), Conor Hourihane and Morgan Sanson coming back from injury.

Pretty staggering this.

McGinn, yes, fair enough.
Luiz poor all last season.
Nakamba patently not good enough for where we want to be.
Chuk - about 13, clearly not going to be starting PL games for a long time.
Ramsey - unproven at best.
Hourihane - Championship quality at the very best.
Sanson - who knows? Perma-injured thus far.

The recurring theme last season was watching the midfield disintegrate. We saw it again last weekend.

I just don't see how he thinks flogging Grealish and using a chunk of the money to buy Ings, Bailey and Buendia addresses the fact that we are absolutely powder puff in midfield.

Coming out of this window having flogged an incredibly important and talented player to spend less than we bring in and neglect the exact area pretty much every single frequent viewer of ours would say we are weak in is absolutely spurning a great opportunity to crack on.

It will be a massive let down.

It HAS to be bollocks*, it makes no sense to bid for JWP if he is already 'stockpiling'.

*I repeat to myself, rocking back and forth

[ozzjim]

This stockpiling thing is bobbins. Top clubs buy better players to move them forward and sell, loan or let go worse ones, they don't wait till they are out the door first 90% of the time. Something isn't quite right atm, we look like we are sell to buy, which is a huge shift from where we have been and is a concerning turn of events if there is a tightening from the owners. They've been incredible, but I do wonder how much of a knock in confidence to the project losing the jewel has been.

JJ could be loaned to a good championship club for consistent football which would do him good.

Hourihane needs to be sold, albeit cheaply due to his contract, or loaned out with acceptance he's done an incredibly good turn for this club and he needs football

Nakamba needs to be a back up and could miss weeks with afcon this season

Dougie has all the talent but isn't a 6 in my view.

McGinn - needs to play higher to get him in the box, clearly able to score goals and get back in, so a very effective 8/10.

Chuck could be the same as McGinn but at 17, need gradual integration.

Trouble is central midfield is the place where a game is easily lost. Not always won, but the place you have to earn the right to play and get on the front foot. We look and are lightweight in there at the moment. It's a big week or so.

[Percy McCarthy]

It’s all a bit deflating at the moment. I thought we’d get JWP for whatever it cost because he’s much better than what we have, plus an accomplished DCM and maybe even Cantwell. Now I’m at the less ambitious ‘surely there’s better value out there’ stage, when once I thought that was pretty irrelevant compared to our ambition. I feel that soon I’ll be pinning my hopes on Ramsay & Chuk.

Come on Villa, restore my faith.

[Rigadon]

Yes, it feels all very 2010/11 at the moment. 

[Ian.]

Well at least this might be good news
https://twitter.com/thespursweb/status/1428699855644463110?s=21

I don’t understand why we would seriously bid twice for JWP then turn around after failing and  msaying we’re now done. I hope this isn’t Smith holding us back because if it is, it gives the feeling he’s not ruthless enough to manage a squad and rotate players during a long season. Is he too nice?

[ROBBO]

Using that list of so called midfielders is just plain daft, I would much rather he said nothing.

[caster troy]

We were told to only expect 2-3 major signings. I guess that was supposed to be Buendia, JWP and then Smith-Rowe as this year's Martinez style move. Then you know who said he was leaving and we picked up Bailey and Ings to replace him. So I'm surprised we haven't pressed on in the central midfield area because we were clearly looking to strengthen there.

Getting Bailey in proves we can punch about our weight in the European market, I'm disappointed we haven't yet done more of that. Hopefully we are bluffing and will pick someone up nearer to deadline day when clubs get desperate.

[john2710]

As fans we look no further ahead than season to season & in a lot of cases week to week. Expecting we can fix every issue in the next transfer window or by changing next week's starting 11 or formation. Happy to buy just to fill in the gaps or throw in the kids. Until we find out that they are no better than what we had. For too long that's how we've been run.

The club are looking 2-3 seasons ahead & building for the future. We're in good hands. We've got some great kids coming through. We're making good decisions that'll mean our progress over the last 3 years is sustainable. This isn't Doug or Lerner cutting corners. There will be setbacks & I think the Grealish sale has put us back 12 months. But we should only buy when it's a better option than what we have.

But we do need a defensive midfielder.

[Ian.]

That’s a very good point John, as fans we really only look at the last and next game and our vision is extremely distorted. The owners and management are in the long game.

Still, like you say this elusive specialty enforcer could really make a difference.

[Clark W Griswold]

This stockpiling thing is bobbins. Top clubs buy better players to move them forward and sell, loan or let go worse ones, they don't wait till they are out the door first 90% of the time. Something isn't quite right atm, we look like we are sell to buy, which is a huge shift from where we have been and is a concerning turn of events if there is a tightening from the owners. They've been incredible, but I do wonder how much of a knock in confidence to the project losing the jewel has been.

JJ could be loaned to a good championship club for consistent football which would do him good.

Hourihane needs to be sold, albeit cheaply due to his contract, or loaned out with acceptance he's done an incredibly good turn for this club and he needs football

Nakamba needs to be a back up and could miss weeks with afcon this season

Dougie has all the talent but isn't a 6 in my view.

McGinn - needs to play higher to get him in the box, clearly able to score goals and get back in, so a very effective 8/10.

Chuck could be the same as McGinn but at 17, need gradual integration.

Trouble is central midfield is the place where a game is easily lost. Not always won, but the place you have to earn the right to play and get on the front foot. We look and are lightweight in there at the moment. It's a big week or so.

Agree exactly with that and add Sanson - so far in his Villa career injured a lot and when he's played he's looked slightly better than Hourahane so the jury is definately out on whether he's any kind of answer. Oh, and again he's not a defensive mid.

My worry is that if many of the fans feel that we're 'settling' and 'holding back', what are our top players going to think? For all the 'loving being here' comments a player like Martinez is not going to hang around playing for a mid table team. Same with Watkins, Konsa and if he proves to be as good as we think, Bailey. You get one or two of those unsettled every summer and you're always fighting against the tide, having to replace good players before you can even look to improve the squad overall. We need to finish with a flourish, buy big in Jan or start next summer with a few big signings or in 12 months some of these are going to wonder about 'the plan'. Lets face it we've seen this so many times over the past 25 years or more.