2024 January transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[chrisw1]

I'm not sure many of us would be excited about us signing a 22 y/o striker who has scored 3 goals in 18 games for Sheffield this season.  Cam has great potential, but I doubt we'll see it at Villa.  Personally, I think he probably needs a couple of seasons in the Championship where he would likely excel and then get another chance either after promotion or a move at that point when he's more established and experienced.

[Smithy]

Archer has a great future ahead of him, whether we want him or not. I hope we do.

It's not really been a great move for him so far, but he is getting lots of excellent premier league experience.  His goal return isn't great, but he's playing for the side at the bottom of the league with only 10 points, so I wouldn't expect him to have bundles of goals (or chances).  He has 3 goals, but amongst the bottom three sides not one player has more than 5.

I would love him to bag a few in the second half of the season and come back to us with confidence, as I suspect given the current league table, the chances of them being relegated and us taking him back are very high indeed.  If he ends up with 7 or 8 prem goals, that would be a decent return I think.

[pauliewalnuts]

Let's be totally honest here, we spend so much time talking about Archer mostly because a popular forum legend knows him, and therefore we've followed his progress closer than we would most other players.

We need to accept, though, he's not our player any more, and he almost certainly never will be again. Two (three?) previous managers didn't rate him enough to play him frequently, and he didn't pull up any trees when he did get the chance, so he's been sold with a buy-back clause,.

What that has caused is people acting like he's just on loan - he isn't. Yeah, it's complicated, but at the same time, when Dougie was on his first deal with us and a clause was active, I don't remember us acting like he considered him on loan to us. Yes we have the option to have him back - but in exchange for a lot of money.

We sold him for £19m. Any buy back is going to be in excess of that figure. Probably around 25m. With 25m to strengthen the squad, would we really want to go out and spend it on Archer given his past with us?

I think we need to move on. It'd be better for the player, too, rather than getting bounced about like an unwanted step-child.

[Smoke]

If we bought him back for £25m on presumably a 4 year contract then loan him to another newly promoted team or upper championship team for a season we only need a loan fee of £6.25m to offset his cost for the season. sounds achievable? didn't we pay £8m for barkley for a season on loan?

[chrisw1]

Unfortunately I think we have to buy him back if they get relegated don't we?  I doubt we'll get £19m again this summer.

[Monty]

It is almost like a Tammy Abraham just for H&V. A near-obsession with the idea of getting Tammy in that wouldn't be there had he not scored goals for us in Div 2 actually a while ago now.

It's not that he's a bad player - it's just it's the closest we get to that Liverpool/Barça-style sentimental thing about how he 'gets' the club, as if that makes a real difference when the whistle blows and you've got to remember to track the left back inside.

Archer looks very promising, as does Philogene (who I want to call Philogenes, like a philosopher), as Tammy is a good player, but we do go a bit overboard with these connections.

[pauliewalnuts]

If we bought him back for £25m on presumably a 4 year contract then loan him to another newly promoted team or upper championship team for a season we only need a loan fee of £6.25m to offset his cost for the season. sounds achievable? didn't we pay £8m for barkley for a season on loan?

Why would we want to do that? And why would the player want that?

And paying 8m for a player with a career behind him like Barkley is different to paying almost as much for one who has never proved himself in the PL.

[ASHTONVILLA]

Let's be totally honest here, we spend so much time talking about Archer mostly because a popular forum legend knows him, and therefore we've followed his progress closer than we would most other players.

We need to accept, though, he's not our player any more, and he almost certainly never will be again. Two (three?) previous managers didn't rate him enough to play him frequently, and he didn't pull up any trees when he did get the chance, so he's been sold with a buy-back clause,.

What that has caused is people acting like he's just on loan - he isn't. Yeah, it's complicated, but at the same time, when Dougie was on his first deal with us and a clause was active, I don't remember us acting like he considered him on loan to us. Yes we have the option to have him back - but in exchange for a lot of money.

We sold him for £19m. Any buy back is going to be in excess of that figure. Probably around 25m. With 25m to strengthen the squad, would we really want to go out and spend it on Archer given his past with us?

I think we need to move on. It'd be better for the player, too, rather than getting bounced about like an unwanted step-child.

As I understand it the buy back is compulsory should Sheffield Utd be relegated, which looks nailed on. So it isn't a case of wanting him back or not, he is likely to be a Villa player again next season.

We don't need both Archer and Duran, so whichever one gets any interest will likely be sold.

[john e]

Wilder is a British manager who is going to like a big lump upfront, That’s the way British managers are that’s the way they think that’s all they know

So maybe Archer finds himself at the wrong club to be starting every week
That’s the fates of football though, finding a perfect fit to play your football involves a bit of luck

[Nii Lamptey]

If we go for a striker in the summer, it should be for someone higher up the food chain than Archer. Any signings we make should be better than what we currently have - PROPER competition for Ollie.

Whilst showing a lot of potential, Cam has flattered to deceive, and re-signing him would just be squad filler and we'd be no better off. With potential Champions League football on the horizon, we should be setting our sights a lot higher.

[LeeB]

I think it is more or less a loan deal but the 'transfer' probably nudges us over the 3 year cycle for FFP and the 'purchase' next summer would be in the new cycle.

I think Cam needs to work on being an effective wide forward if he's going to make it at the top level, he doesn't have the physical presence to be the centre forward and is going to struggle to get games otherwise with how teams set up these days.

Of the three that went out I think it's only Philogene that has a realistic chance of coming back and playing for us.

[pauliewalnuts]

Let's be totally honest here, we spend so much time talking about Archer mostly because a popular forum legend knows him, and therefore we've followed his progress closer than we would most other players.

We need to accept, though, he's not our player any more, and he almost certainly never will be again. Two (three?) previous managers didn't rate him enough to play him frequently, and he didn't pull up any trees when he did get the chance, so he's been sold with a buy-back clause,.

What that has caused is people acting like he's just on loan - he isn't. Yeah, it's complicated, but at the same time, when Dougie was on his first deal with us and a clause was active, I don't remember us acting like he considered him on loan to us. Yes we have the option to have him back - but in exchange for a lot of money.

We sold him for £19m. Any buy back is going to be in excess of that figure. Probably around 25m. With 25m to strengthen the squad, would we really want to go out and spend it on Archer given his past with us?

I think we need to move on. It'd be better for the player, too, rather than getting bounced about like an unwanted step-child.

As I understand it the buy back is compulsory should Sheffield Utd be relegated, which looks nailed on. So it isn't a case of wanting him back or not, he is likely to be a Villa player again next season.

We don't need both Archer and Duran, so whichever one gets any interest will likely be sold.

If the buy back is triggered at the end of the season, he'll almost certainly get sold in the summer, so I doubt very much he is ever playing for us again.

I wonder if we sold both Duran and Archer, if we got what we paid for Duran, that'd be 35m to play around with.

[pauliewalnuts]

Of the three that went out I think it's only Philogene that has a realistic chance of coming back and playing for us.

For me, and even given far fewer opportunities, he is the one that has looked like he might make the grade out of the three.

[aj2k77]

That's a proper shit deal if we have to sign a relegated player back for more than we sold him for with no consideration as to how he performed or anything.

[chrisw1]

Let's be totally honest here, we spend so much time talking about Archer mostly because a popular forum legend knows him, and therefore we've followed his progress closer than we would most other players.

We need to accept, though, he's not our player any more, and he almost certainly never will be again. Two (three?) previous managers didn't rate him enough to play him frequently, and he didn't pull up any trees when he did get the chance, so he's been sold with a buy-back clause,.

What that has caused is people acting like he's just on loan - he isn't. Yeah, it's complicated, but at the same time, when Dougie was on his first deal with us and a clause was active, I don't remember us acting like he considered him on loan to us. Yes we have the option to have him back - but in exchange for a lot of money.

We sold him for £19m. Any buy back is going to be in excess of that figure. Probably around 25m. With 25m to strengthen the squad, would we really want to go out and spend it on Archer given his past with us?

I think we need to move on. It'd be better for the player, too, rather than getting bounced about like an unwanted step-child.

As I understand it the buy back is compulsory should Sheffield Utd be relegated, which looks nailed on. So it isn't a case of wanting him back or not, he is likely to be a Villa player again next season.

We don't need both Archer and Duran, so whichever one gets any interest will likely be sold.

If the buy back is triggered at the end of the season, he'll almost certainly get sold in the summer, so I doubt very much he is ever playing for us again.

I wonder if we sold both Duran and Archer, if we got what we paid for Duran, that'd be 35m to play around with.

Not really, we've already had the Archer money.  I'd guess we'd be down on the deal if we have to buy him back and sell on again (unless he has a storming second half of the season which seems unlikely with Wilder).  Do you think we'll get £20m again?