Youri Tielemans

[Risso]

If we go into January still in the Champions League placings, I really do hope we have a crack at the transfer market. You have to seize the opportunity when it's in front of you, and you don't know what's going to happen to make things harder next year, eg Newcastle really getting going on the spending, or Man U/Chelsea finally stopping being shite.

[Rigadon]

If we go into January still in the Champions League placings, I really do hope we have a crack at the transfer market. You have to seize the opportunity when it's in front of you, and you don't know what's going to happen to make things harder next year, eg Newcastle really getting going on the spending, or Man U/Chelsea finally stopping being shite.

Yep.  This is our chance.  Have to go for it full pelt.

[Clark W Griswold]

I agree in that we need to keep momentum going but we have to be clever about it, as i also agree that we don't want to upset the blend / dressing room atmosphere. I would think between them that they will know what to do though.

I'd like to see us get the best up and coming youngish goalkeeper that we can get, plus a good specialist right back. The cherry on top would be that number 10 creative player / wide player if we can get a real star. Traore is surely going to be off, Coutinho probably won't play for us again, Bailey is proving to be excellent as a squad player / sub and Zaniolo is only on loan and not really convinced yet so i think there is room, even with Moussa and with Buendia to return.

[OCD]

We also don't want to be deducted 10 points in future for not complying with FFP.

[Mister E]

Good job the suspension is against Bournemouth rather than Arsenal or Man City, not that we should take anyone lightly, but I suspect we will sit with Luiz and Tielemans, McGinn and Ramsey.  No way does Dendonker get a start, I reckon Unai would rather start Chambers.  It does show that we need a suitable alternative to Bouba though.

The alternative to Bouba should be Tim; although he needs some game time to get into the Emery eay.

[SoccerHQ]

Sugawara would be a good shout.

Impressed me in both games v Alkmaar. Only 23 but already played over 100 games in Dutch league and played really well for Japan when they won 4-1 away to Germany so he feels like an up and coming full back with similar profile to Cash.

[Risso]

Good job the suspension is against Bournemouth rather than Arsenal or Man City, not that we should take anyone lightly, but I suspect we will sit with Luiz and Tielemans, McGinn and Ramsey.  No way does Dendonker get a start, I reckon Unai would rather start Chambers.  It does show that we need a suitable alternative to Bouba though.

The alternative to Bouba should be Tim; although he needs some game time to get into the Emery eay.

Tough call that, we still haven't really seen a lot of him to know if he's up to it long term.

[chrisw1]

If we go into January still in the Champions League placings, I really do hope we have a crack at the transfer market. You have to seize the opportunity when it's in front of you, and you don't know what's going to happen to make things harder next year, eg Newcastle really getting going on the spending, or Man U/Chelsea finally stopping being shite.

I'm not sure we have the FFP headroom tbh.

[Risso]

What are you basing that on?

[Smithy]

If we go into January still in the Champions League placings, I really do hope we have a crack at the transfer market. You have to seize the opportunity when it's in front of you, and you don't know what's going to happen to make things harder next year, eg Newcastle really getting going on the spending, or Man U/Chelsea finally stopping being shite.

I'm not sure we have the FFP headroom tbh.

I'd love to know what wiggle room we actually have, but my understanding is that the calculations are so complicated these days, with transfers being being amortised over the length of the initial contract, and many transfer fees/wages not being in the public domain, I don't know how we can know - with any degree of certainty - what we do or don't have?  I know the club announces losses, but not all of that counts for FFP.  I believe they can spend freely on developing the ground and youth facilities, for example.

I'm not sure Monchi is as keen to join us in the summer if he's told we have no FFP wiggle room and that we'll have to sell to buy. That's not a very compelling offer for someone like him?

[chrisw1]

What are you basing that on?

Just some stuff I read a while back.  The Jack money is off the books now, so the 'net spend' narrative isn't what it was.  I think the FFP maths is an awful lot tighter than people realise.

[AV84]

Going off the fact we basically cleared out our academy players at the end of the summer, and it was Digne out before Acuña could come in, we're either closer to the limit than most of us think, or, we were preemptively making wiggle room for January. (Which to be honest also sounds like things might be pretty tight)

[Garyth]

We sold off some of the younger players (Archer/Ramsay/Philogene) we’d probably have preferred to keep around - I recall reading somewhere that we preferred to do that rather than one ‘big’ sale (ie. a Luiz, Watkins, Martinez level player).

From the official site q&a with Monchi:
“It has been a very complicated and hard-working summer, but I think we should be satisfied with what we have done, as we have kept all the important players plus the arrival of the five,” he added.

“The sales have basically been to balance our FFP, but in most cases we have repurchase options, so I think we have covered our backs. I am happy with the work we have done, and I want to congratulate all the people involved.”

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2023/september/19/Monchi--A-Q-A-with-Villa-s-President-of-Football-Operations/

[Dave]

I guess that the position we're in will also have an impact.

If, in the middle of January we're third and ten points clear of fifth place then I imagine they'll feel more confident about pushing for the Champions League finish / money than if we're sixth and ten points away from fourth.

Plus, there are UK and UEFA FFP rules, and I think the UEFA ones are more strict. So before we'd qualified for Europe we didn't have to worry about the stricter ones, but now we do.

[paul_e]

What are you basing that on?

Just some stuff I read a while back.  The Jack money is off the books now, so the 'net spend' narrative isn't what it was.  I think the FFP maths is an awful lot tighter than people realise.

No it isn't the Jack money drops out after this season but I suspect that's why we were happy to add another ~£40m of academy sales in the summer.