Summer 2024 Transfer Window - hopes, speculation, rumours etc.

[nigel]

McKennie looked shit, if we absolutely have no other choice but to sell Doug then I hope we replace him with someone better than this lump.

He doesn’t always look ahit:

https://x.com/dcfcnetti/status/1798427984732487842?s=46&t=GdM6cpVxe5IloByNCRheWA

Seems to me he was on good trajectory with Juve until he got injured then struggled to get back to where he was - and then made a bad decision by going Leeds on 30 January for a 4 month loan where he was never going to get up to PL speed in a shit team.  But he seems to have got his act back together and been a regular starter for Juve last season.  Hadn’t realised he is 6ft too

Didn’t realise in his 6 months at Leeds they had 3 manager!
It’s little wonder he struggled.
How on earth would you expect any player to settle let alone from a different league?

By at least being physically fit, which he wasn't. A bit "lumpy". I rate McKennie but you can't ignore that spell with Leeds and reports of off field distractions. To be fair to him it does seem like he turned things around at Juve last season.

I’m not ignoring his time at Leeds, mate, and I agree he didn’t look fit for purpose, but I don’t think going to a different league, with a struggling team and a 3 manager turnover in six months could have helped.

[Rigadon]

McKennie in part exchange for Luiz would be very underwhelming.

[AV84]

All 3 players we've been linked with so far have undergone the H&V transition from "WTF no way" to "maybe he could do a job...."

Barkley is one of us now.
Gallagher we're mostly come around on.
McKennie is in the "maybe he's not awful" stage now.

Gonna be so disappointed when we don't sign any of them 😄

[LeeB]

All 3 players we've been linked with so far have undergone the H&V transition from "WTF no way" to "maybe he could do a job...."

Barkley is one of us now.
Gallagher we're mostly come around on.
McKennie is in the "maybe he's not awful" stage now.

Gonna be so disappointed when we don't sign any of them 😄

It's funny I've gone from yes please to no way, and then back to yes please on all 3 of them throughout their careers, and with Barkley in particular, and extra yes please/no way just for the season he was with us.

[Clark W Griswold]

On the one hand, you'd think someone who played thirty odd games for Juventus last season can't be bad, and it's a bigger deal really than someone who 'starred' for Luton. He's also a lot younger. On the other hand i don't like players with questionable pasts, related to attitude as well as poor performance and i wouldn't go near either of them (even if we have already signed Barkley). I'd sooner us just have the money for Luiz if he does go there. We've just qualified for the CL, surely we must have a pretty wide pool of players that we could consider at the moment and can pick players with the right mentality and track record.

[Dogtanian]

Who predicted this?

https://sportwitness.co.uk/aston-villa-presented-former-chelsea-player-platter-deal-wanted-month-accounts-loom/

Talk of us 'rekindling' our desire for bringing a certain Tammy Abraham back. Talk of them needed EUR 10m asap...

[Risso]

On the one hand, you'd think someone who played thirty odd games for Juventus last season can't be bad, and it's a bigger deal really than someone who 'starred' for Luton. He's also a lot younger. On the other hand i don't like players with questionable pasts, related to attitude as well as poor performance and i wouldn't go near either of them (even if we have already signed Barkley). I'd sooner us just have the money for Luiz if he does go there. We've just qualified for the CL, surely we must have a pretty wide pool of players that we could consider at the moment and can pick players with the right mentality and track record.

I guess if you judged most of our players solely on the last few weeks of either the Smith or Gerrard eras, most people wouldn't choose any of them either. McGinn was getting roundly booed at one point.

[Clark W Griswold]

On the one hand, you'd think someone who played thirty odd games for Juventus last season can't be bad, and it's a bigger deal really than someone who 'starred' for Luton. He's also a lot younger. On the other hand i don't like players with questionable pasts, related to attitude as well as poor performance and i wouldn't go near either of them (even if we have already signed Barkley). I'd sooner us just have the money for Luiz if he does go there. We've just qualified for the CL, surely we must have a pretty wide pool of players that we could consider at the moment and can pick players with the right mentality and track record.

I guess if you judged most of our players solely on the last few weeks of either the Smith or Gerrard eras, most people wouldn't choose any of them either. McGinn was getting roundly booed at one point.

I think they probably would be in demand to an extent but not by teams in the middle of the PL let alone the top half. That's Unai for you. I don't think any of them had been anything but good pro's though, it's more that they just didn't seem particularly good for where we were trying to get to. I would never boo McGinn by the way, that sounds crazy even for back then.

[AV84]

I think the thing about players with questionable pasts is that I'd trust the people making decisions now to be sure of who they were bringing in, and I'd trust them to get the best out of anyone who does come in. The only problem I'd have with it is if everyone we bring in are "projects". Would be nice to get a couple of Moreno or Torres like players in, who at most would only need a game or two to adjust to the prem, and not need a complete mental/physical rehabilitation.

[UK Redsox]

Ian Darke on ESPN

With Villa playing in the Champions League next season, they should think big. Napoli's impressive winger Khvicha Kvaratskhelia is available and would give them a new dimension.

  probably north of 80m Euros on another winger. That ain't happening

[paul_e]

Barkley worries me because he's only ever looked decent when he's been the key player for his team, as soon as he's a support act he looks like he doesn't care. Maybe he's grown out of that and given it seems a dead cert that he's coming i really fucking hope he has but he'd not have been on my list. I do think though that he's been signed with a view to complimenting what we have not replacing anyone so I'm less bothered than I am by the other links which I suspect would mean Luiz leaving.

I could accept Gallagher because whilst I think he is a bit of a bull in a china shop I think there's enough there to work with.

McKennie is just not very good, I remember a few years back loads of people on here wanted him and I just couldn't see what the appeal was and I've never changed my mind.

Fundamentally I think losing Luiz and replacing him with Gallagher or McKennie would see a big drop off in technical ability in favour of physicality and whi;lst I agree we need to add some more power in the squad I don't think either of them are worth the drop off we'd see. Personally I'd prefer to see a big but technically proficient player come in who can play DM or CB and give us a bit of cover for both Kamra and Mings as they get back up to speed and then in the long term that player replaces Carlos as our 4th CB.

[KevinGage]

All 3 players we've been linked with so far have undergone the H&V transition from "WTF no way" to "maybe he could do a job...."

Barkley is one of us now.
Gallagher we're mostly come around on.
McKennie is in the "maybe he's not awful" stage now.

Gonna be so disappointed when we don't sign any of them 😄

I reckon if Yanited had pursued their supposed interest in Barkley we'd take it as proof positive of how messed up their TF policy is and we'd be having laugh riots off the scale.

So I'm not going to volte-face and say it actually looks like a canny bit of business.

I allow for the possibility it *may* work, purely as an upgrade on Chambers, Dendonker, Tim or whoever.

And of course there's the whole "If it's good enough for Emery it's good enough for me," mantra. But that (a) totally invalidates just about all contrary opinions on a football messageboard and (b) ignores we heard similar around here when questionable deals were overseen by DOL, MON and even that berk Lambert at the height of their popularity.

Sometimes you can't totally ignore the sight test. Marlon Harewood and Emile Heskey, for example, looked liked bollocks deals at the time. And so it proved.

[Risso]

Sometimes you can't totally ignore the sight test. Marlon Harewood and Emile Heskey, for example, looked liked bollocks deals at the time. And so it proved.

I can see your point, but Barkley is undoubtedly a talented player. He's just never shown it regularly enough and at times it's looked like he can have a questionable attitude. He wouldn't be coming in to be a mainstay of the squad though, he could just be a very useful addition to cover a number of spots.

Emile Heskey was never a bad player, he'd just had year after year of running around up front, not scoring many goals. As a prop to Michael Owen for England it worked up to a point, but as the regular goalscorer we needed at the time to challenge John Carew it was a terrible purchase. Harewood was never anything other than a completely ordinary, meat and two veg English striker. Another terrible signing from the master of paying too much for bog standard English players.

[LeeB]

Sometimes you can't totally ignore the sight test. Marlon Harewood and Emile Heskey, for example, looked liked bollocks deals at the time. And so it proved.

I can see your point, but Barkley is undoubtedly a talented player. He's just never shown it regularly enough and at times it's looked like he can have a questionable attitude. He wouldn't be coming in to be a mainstay of the squad though, he could just be a very useful addition to cover a number of spots.

Emile Heskey was never a bad player, he'd just had year after year of running around up front, not scoring many goals. As a prop to Michael Owen for England it worked up to a point, but as the regular goalscorer we needed at the time to challenge John Carew it was a terrible purchase. Harewood was never anything other than a completely ordinary, meat and two veg English striker. Another terrible signing from the master of paying too much for bog standard English players.

Plus, as we suspected but are now hearing from players that were there, the training we did was pathetic and unlikely to produce any improvement back then which is clearly not the case now.

[OCD]

Sometimes you can't totally ignore the sight test. Marlon Harewood and Emile Heskey, for example, looked liked bollocks deals at the time. And so it proved.

I can see your point, but Barkley is undoubtedly a talented player. He's just never shown it regularly enough and at times it's looked like he can have a questionable attitude. He wouldn't be coming in to be a mainstay of the squad though, he could just be a very useful addition to cover a number of spots.

Emile Heskey was never a bad player, he'd just had year after year of running around up front, not scoring many goals. As a prop to Michael Owen for England it worked up to a point, but as the regular goalscorer we needed at the time to challenge John Carew it was a terrible purchase. Harewood was never anything other than a completely ordinary, meat and two veg English striker. Another terrible signing from the master of paying too much for bog standard English players.

For the bit in bold, I think that's fair if we're not in Europe and we can mostly play a similar starting 11. But with the number of testing games we'll be playing next season, everyone is likely to get enough games to keep them happy.