Claret Blue and Green
Aston Villa are among several Premier League clubs considering a move for Paris St-Germain's Senegal forward Ibrahim Mbaye, 18, this summer. (Sky Sports)
They’re on about us being skint again in the Daily Heil.Wilson, Sancho, Sinesi, Mingueza on frees? Dougie and Mbaye in?Guessand, Malen and Elliott out?Senesi being linked again today.
Think it depends on how we do for the rest of the season - going in to the Champions League having just won the Europa League and finishing 3rd in the PL (i.e. looking like an outside shot for Champions League winners) is a very different proposition from finishing 6th & getting knocked out of the QF of the Europa League to a mid-table Serie A side.Definite outs:Guessand, Malen, Elliott, Sancho, Barrenechea. Quite probably one or both of Buendia and Bailey. Should get us about £50m-£60m (assuming nothing from the 2 loans, very little from Bailey & Buendia, and pre-agreed fees for the others). There's a few players who clearly aren't going to make it with us (Dobbin, Iling-Junior, Gauci, Ned, ..), so if we can punt all of those out for £10m or so combined that'll probably represent decent business for us.Can't see us letting go of many/any of the current first team if I'm honest.Definite ins:Dougie is the only one I think we'll definitely get. At the price - what is it? £20m? - he's a bargain. We're not going to find a better player at that price point.Probably wages will be more of a thing than transfer fees, so can see us going for young & promising rather than free transfers (at least ones that are likely to come with big wages attached). Assuming the UEFA sanctions are lifted, of course. But maybe that's why we've been holding off playing Elliot ... no way can we spend 70% of our transfer budget on 1 player when realistically over the next few years we're going to have to completely overhaul the majority of our first team.