2023 Summer transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[Drummond]

I can't wait for Diaby to be announced.... then we can say 'we ave a Diaby do!'

You already called it didn't you?

Oh hello lovey! Yes, it's happening.

[coreyfeldman]

I can't wait for Diaby to be announced.... then we can say 'we ave a Diaby do!'

You already called it didn't you?

Oh hello lovey! Yes, it's happening.

Do you know this?

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I can't wait for Diaby to be announced.... then we can say 'we ave a Diaby do!'

You already called it didn't you?

Oh hello lovey! Yes, it's happening.

Do you know this?

Everybody knows it. It's happening this evening. Are we off to the US tomorrow?

[PeterWithe]

There is also the cynic in me thinking that if Diaby goes to Saudia Arabia, we are being stopped from strengthening by the same people who own one of our top end of the table rivals in Newcastle United...

Is it a coincidence that they want Diaby in particular?

I expect so, given it was quite widely reported that Newcastle themselves wanted Diaby.

I really don’t think Villa would be the team Newcastle would be specifically focused on disrupting, even if there was some sort of labyrinthine plot underway.

Also true.

Are Al Nassr one of the PIF clubs?

Yes, as well as three others.

It was a Joyce book, Finnegans Wake I think, that holds my record for quickest abandonment, I didn't make much headway through the first chapter.

[Luffbralion]

Isn't stream of consciousness (a la Joyce and Woolf) a bit like 4-4-2 ?   Everybody's heard of it but nobody bothers with it any more.

[Sexual Ealing]

Isn't stream of consciousness (a la Joyce and Woolf) a bit like 4-4-2 ?   Everybody's heard of it but nobody bothers with it any more.

Unai Emery might disagree with that.

[coreyfeldman]

I can't wait for Diaby to be announced.... then we can say 'we ave a Diaby do!'

You already called it didn't you?

Oh hello lovey! Yes, it's happening.

Do you know this?

Everybody knows it. It's happening this evening. Are we off to the US tomorrow?

Do they? Is it? What's going on

[PeterWithe]

He’s no Andy McNab, thats for sure.

[Clampy]

Although Bravo Two Zero does improve with every read.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Do they? Is it? What's going on

I'm just trying to bring some understanding here today.

[Percy McCarthy]

There is also the cynic in me thinking that if Diaby goes to Saudia Arabia, we are being stopped from strengthening by the same people who own one of our top end of the table rivals in Newcastle United...

Is it a coincidence that they want Diaby in particular?

I expect so, given it was quite widely reported that Newcastle themselves wanted Diaby.

I really don’t think Villa would be the team Newcastle would be specifically focused on disrupting, even if there was some sort of labyrinthine plot underway.

Also true.

Are Al Nassr one of the PIF clubs?

Yes, as well as three others.

So, it is those four conspiring with Chelsea and Newcastle we need to look out for.

[PeterWithe]

Yes, I think it was discussed in more length either earlier in this thread or the 'other clubs transfers' one, PIF transparently own NUFC but seem to also be the major investor in the fund that own the majority of CFC as well.

[paul_e]

I think the Chelsea links are all a bit conspiracy nut territory. The simpler explanation is that Chelsea had a lot of overpaid has-beens on their books and those sort of players are the ones most likely to take a last big payday. It just happens to have coincided with PIF taking over a bunch of domestic clubs and offering last big paydays out to anyone willing to listen.

The Saudi 4 and Newcastle is far more shady, nothing has happened yet but any hint of a player signing for one of them and then being loaned to Newcastle will create a stink. In fact it'll be so obvious that I doubt it'll happen this summer, January will be interesting though when players like Neves start to get 'homesick' for Europe.

[Percy McCarthy]

I think the Chelsea links are all a bit conspiracy nut territory. The simpler explanation is that Chelsea had a lot of overpaid has-beens on their books and those sort of players are the ones most likely to take a last big payday. It just happens to have coincided with PIF taking over a bunch of domestic clubs and offering last big paydays out to anyone willing to listen.

Not so sure. They’ve helped Chelsea a fair bit haven’t they?

[Jon Crofts]

Lot of noise on Twitter from Arab sports sites that Diaby has agreed terms with the oil goblins.