Summer 26 Transfer Window - hopes, speculation, rumours etc.

[Hookeysmith]

Whatever happened to the geezer Unai always was linked with CDM in France Gwendoozi or something like that - had stupid hair

Where is he at now?

[brontebilly]

Onana's better than Ampadu, this is just silly now. Don't be a pub bore, man - you're not arguing and presenting evidence or whatever, you're just asserting your pet thoughts over and over again and taking no efforts to actually prove them.

Last orders soon?

I've already outlined my main issues with Onana - availability, technical, leadership - top 3. Challenge them if you wish.

Others here may have seen Ampadu play a lot more often than I have. From my admittedly limited viewings for Leeds and Wales I've been very impressed, think he could be the ideal Kamara medium/long term replacement.

I'll give it a go and I'll start with a win for you because I don't think anyone will argue that he hasn't had too many injuries so yes, tick for availability. I hope you aren't just adding it for him though and ignoring the other players who've had fitness problems.

Leadership though puts us straight into a problem area because it isn't a one-size fits all definitive term where you can say a player is a food leader and everyone knows that will mean he does x, y and z during the game. Therefore you need to give some examples of things you think he should be doing and isn't and show where that is having an impact.

And then technical. I know why you're saying this, it's so you can repeat your 2can't play on the half turn" line that you think is some sort of magic bullet but by expanding it up to such a broad category you've made this rebuttal particularly easy because I can counter it by just saying his tackling technique is the best at the club by miles, so 1 example each, remove it from the list.

Feel free to rethink your post, cite specifics and evidence them with where they have actually occurred and we can go for round 2 if you like.

For my part Onana is a destructive ball-winning midfielder who is great at regaining possession and scores highly on all the core defensive turnover stats, is a massive asset in both boxes and who is an excellent option in transition (both ways) due to his pace and power. He is good at retaining possession, rarely misplacing passes, having a poor touch or having the ball taken off him and has a great rapport with the fans, playing a big part in why our squad is so likeable. He needs to add a few more goals to his game (because he has the capability to be hitting double figures every season) and needs to get through the injury problems.

Leadership - he crumbled during our poor spell when we needed him to step up. That was the time for a 50m signing to shine. Often outshone by a half fit Luiz. Ampadu ran rings around them at Villa Park as just one example. Sitting in midfield with Kamara v Man City is a different type of test. It's a specific destructive role but for one we don't have many of those games and two it's increasingly rare both of them are fit. Johnny Giles often referred to moral courage in terms of midfield play. In summary, most see courage as steaming into tackles (not that Giles was shy at it!) or playing to the gallery, arm waving or even fist pumping...but for Giles moral courage for a midfielder was taking the ball off the back under pressure and getting turned on it. When the game was live too, not just at 0-2 down or 2-0 up. Onana fails this test for me, he simply hides far too often. Go Ahead Eagles comes to mind. Easy street for every player early on but they got stuck into us and he simply disappeared.

He can't pass wind so you are just plain wrong there. Unless passing back to the centre back when getting pressed is being counted. He definitely is strong in both boxes, important with the lack of height in our team and how game was refereed last season, but it's the area in between both boxes that midfielders should be judged. Agreed on his ability to regain possession too, turning over Bowen from memory led to the break for a goal. Useful attribute for sure but not exactly critical to how we play.

Rapport with fans is neither here nor there. Can't simply gloss over his availability issues, especially when tallied with Kamara's in the same position. Some of his better performances (Forest and Arsenal away come to mind) he limped off early and then he is ages getting back to that level. If transfermarkt is to believed he has missed 22 x PL games for us with injury over the past two seasons (not in the squad). Kamara has missed 30 x PL games in the same time. That's a major issue in the squad and should be rectified this summer.

[Dave]

Whatever happened to the geezer Unai always was linked with CDM in France Gwendoozi or something like that - had stupid hair

Where is he at now?

Fenerbahce.

[LeeB]

Onana's better than Ampadu, this is just silly now. Don't be a pub bore, man - you're not arguing and presenting evidence or whatever, you're just asserting your pet thoughts over and over again and taking no efforts to actually prove them.

Last orders soon?

I've already outlined my main issues with Onana - availability, technical, leadership - top 3. Challenge them if you wish.

Others here may have seen Ampadu play a lot more often than I have. From my admittedly limited viewings for Leeds and Wales I've been very impressed, think he could be the ideal Kamara medium/long term replacement.

I'll give it a go and I'll start with a win for you because I don't think anyone will argue that he hasn't had too many injuries so yes, tick for availability. I hope you aren't just adding it for him though and ignoring the other players who've had fitness problems.

Leadership though puts us straight into a problem area because it isn't a one-size fits all definitive term where you can say a player is a food leader and everyone knows that will mean he does x, y and z during the game. Therefore you need to give some examples of things you think he should be doing and isn't and show where that is having an impact.

And then technical. I know why you're saying this, it's so you can repeat your 2can't play on the half turn" line that you think is some sort of magic bullet but by expanding it up to such a broad category you've made this rebuttal particularly easy because I can counter it by just saying his tackling technique is the best at the club by miles, so 1 example each, remove it from the list.

Feel free to rethink your post, cite specifics and evidence them with where they have actually occurred and we can go for round 2 if you like.

For my part Onana is a destructive ball-winning midfielder who is great at regaining possession and scores highly on all the core defensive turnover stats, is a massive asset in both boxes and who is an excellent option in transition (both ways) due to his pace and power. He is good at retaining possession, rarely misplacing passes, having a poor touch or having the ball taken off him and has a great rapport with the fans, playing a big part in why our squad is so likeable. He needs to add a few more goals to his game (because he has the capability to be hitting double figures every season) and needs to get through the injury problems.

Leadership - he crumbled during our poor spell when we needed him to step up. That was the time for a 50m signing to shine. Often outshone by a half fit Luiz. Ampadu ran rings around them at Villa Park as just one example. Sitting in midfield with Kamara v Man City is a different type of test. It's a specific destructive role but for one we don't have many of those games and two it's increasingly rare both of them are fit. Johnny Giles often referred to moral courage in terms of midfield play. In summary, most see courage as steaming into tackles (not that Giles was shy at it!) or playing to the gallery, arm waving or even fist pumping...but for Giles moral courage for a midfielder was taking the ball off the back under pressure and getting turned on it. When the game was live too, not just at 0-2 down or 2-0 up. Onana fails this test for me, he simply hides far too often. Go Ahead Eagles comes to mind. Easy street for every player early on but they got stuck into us and he simply disappeared.

He can't pass wind so you are just plain wrong there. Unless passing back to the centre back when getting pressed is being counted. He definitely is strong in both boxes, important with the lack of height in our team and how game was refereed last season, but it's the area in between both boxes that midfielders should be judged. Agreed on his ability to regain possession too, turning over Bowen from memory led to the break for a goal. Useful attribute for sure but not exactly critical to how we play.

Rapport with fans is neither here nor there. Can't simply gloss over his availability issues, especially when tallied with Kamara's in the same position. Some of his better performances (Forest and Arsenal away come to mind) he limped off early and then he is ages getting back to that level. If transfermarkt is to believed he has missed 22 x PL games for us with injury over the past two seasons (not in the squad). Kamara has missed 30 x PL games in the same time. That's a major issue in the squad and should be rectified this summer.

It's honestly a bizarre take, especially given your cheerleading of dross like Neco Williams or Ampadu.

[PaulWinch again]

Onana is a different player to Ampadu, but he’s also better and offers our team more. Neco Williams isn’t good enough either.

[brontebilly]

Onana's better than Ampadu, this is just silly now. Don't be a pub bore, man - you're not arguing and presenting evidence or whatever, you're just asserting your pet thoughts over and over again and taking no efforts to actually prove them.

Last orders soon?

I've already outlined my main issues with Onana - availability, technical, leadership - top 3. Challenge them if you wish.

Others here may have seen Ampadu play a lot more often than I have. From my admittedly limited viewings for Leeds and Wales I've been very impressed, think he could be the ideal Kamara medium/long term replacement.

I'll give it a go and I'll start with a win for you because I don't think anyone will argue that he hasn't had too many injuries so yes, tick for availability. I hope you aren't just adding it for him though and ignoring the other players who've had fitness problems.

Leadership though puts us straight into a problem area because it isn't a one-size fits all definitive term where you can say a player is a food leader and everyone knows that will mean he does x, y and z during the game. Therefore you need to give some examples of things you think he should be doing and isn't and show where that is having an impact.

And then technical. I know why you're saying this, it's so you can repeat your 2can't play on the half turn" line that you think is some sort of magic bullet but by expanding it up to such a broad category you've made this rebuttal particularly easy because I can counter it by just saying his tackling technique is the best at the club by miles, so 1 example each, remove it from the list.

Feel free to rethink your post, cite specifics and evidence them with where they have actually occurred and we can go for round 2 if you like.

For my part Onana is a destructive ball-winning midfielder who is great at regaining possession and scores highly on all the core defensive turnover stats, is a massive asset in both boxes and who is an excellent option in transition (both ways) due to his pace and power. He is good at retaining possession, rarely misplacing passes, having a poor touch or having the ball taken off him and has a great rapport with the fans, playing a big part in why our squad is so likeable. He needs to add a few more goals to his game (because he has the capability to be hitting double figures every season) and needs to get through the injury problems.

Leadership - he crumbled during our poor spell when we needed him to step up. That was the time for a 50m signing to shine. Often outshone by a half fit Luiz. Ampadu ran rings around them at Villa Park as just one example. Sitting in midfield with Kamara v Man City is a different type of test. It's a specific destructive role but for one we don't have many of those games and two it's increasingly rare both of them are fit. Johnny Giles often referred to moral courage in terms of midfield play. In summary, most see courage as steaming into tackles (not that Giles was shy at it!) or playing to the gallery, arm waving or even fist pumping...but for Giles moral courage for a midfielder was taking the ball off the back under pressure and getting turned on it. When the game was live too, not just at 0-2 down or 2-0 up. Onana fails this test for me, he simply hides far too often. Go Ahead Eagles comes to mind. Easy street for every player early on but they got stuck into us and he simply disappeared.

He can't pass wind so you are just plain wrong there. Unless passing back to the centre back when getting pressed is being counted. He definitely is strong in both boxes, important with the lack of height in our team and how game was refereed last season, but it's the area in between both boxes that midfielders should be judged. Agreed on his ability to regain possession too, turning over Bowen from memory led to the break for a goal. Useful attribute for sure but not exactly critical to how we play.

Rapport with fans is neither here nor there. Can't simply gloss over his availability issues, especially when tallied with Kamara's in the same position. Some of his better performances (Forest and Arsenal away come to mind) he limped off early and then he is ages getting back to that level. If transfermarkt is to believed he has missed 22 x PL games for us with injury over the past two seasons (not in the squad). Kamara has missed 30 x PL games in the same time. That's a major issue in the squad and should be rectified this summer.

It's honestly a bizarre take, especially given your cheerleading of dross like Neco Williams or Ampadu.

Whataboutery, if you don't rate those two fair enough. But if you don't agree with those criticisms of Onana then challenge them, or the combined issue of Onana/Kamara being unavailable so often - fire away.

[David_Nab]

Grealish played for the most part on the left for City. Always seems to play within himself , keeping the ball not really going at player's so on face of it that looks like direction from Pep. However Doku plays that position now and is always running at player's so its a little confusing really.

At Everton he was much more like the version we had.IIRC he was top of assists in the early month's of the season so much so an England recall look a possibility.

I'm sure Everton will take him if they can make sums work , but I wouldn't be against him. In hindsight taking him on loan would have given us more than Elliot , Guessand and Sancho combined.

I'd add that whilst Emery builds structure he give's Roger's free reign to do what he want's alot of the time.

[PaulWinch again]

I don’t think we should set the bar as being can players offer more than Elliott, Sancho, and Guessand though. Grealish strikes me as a really useful option for a midtable team, and that’s what he was for Everton. But we need to be thinking bigger than that.

[Dogtanian]

To be honest, I'd rather have Rashford back than Grealish.

His salary is going to be a massive sticking point, but I suspect clubs will be using it as a bargaining chip with Man U to get the fee down.

If Rashford is willing to come down a little, and have a non-Champions League reduction clause, and Man U will come down on the price... I think it could be tempting.

If Man U want to save his £17m a year AND get £25m in the bank to boot, I'm not sure who is going to bite.

[brontebilly]

Are we really in the market for a player like Rashford, more his wages really?

[Dave]

Are we really in the market for a player like Rashford, more his wages really?

Had we qualified for the Champions League, we were a year ago. So now that we have qualified for the Champions League, why wouldn't we be now?

[Dante Lavelli]

He needs to add a few more goals to his game (because he has the capability to be hitting double figures every season) and needs to get through the injury problems.

Considering how good we are at set-pieces, how massive he is and how it took about 180 seconds of his Villa career to score from a corner, it seems ludicrous that he's not getting ten goals a season for us from that route.

Yep, that one and then the 'fox in the box' goal against Leicester a couple of games later had me convinced he could become a big goalscorer for us. I really hope we can find a way to unlock that in him because it's all there.

Onana is arguably a decent decoy for most moves.  Defenses doubling up on him so space is created elsewhere. 

IMO The objective of our set piece moves isn't gaining an advantage in 50/50 duels inside the six yard box (a la Arsenal) its finding space and time for shots from the edge of the area (scrabbling the xG calculator in the process).

[Dave]

He needs to add a few more goals to his game (because he has the capability to be hitting double figures every season) and needs to get through the injury problems.

Considering how good we are at set-pieces, how massive he is and how it took about 180 seconds of his Villa career to score from a corner, it seems ludicrous that he's not getting ten goals a season for us from that route.

Yep, that one and then the 'fox in the box' goal against Leicester a couple of games later had me convinced he could become a big goalscorer for us. I really hope we can find a way to unlock that in him because it's all there.

Onana is arguably a decent decoy for most moves.  Defenses doubling up on him so space is created elsewhere. 

IMO The objective of our set piece moves isn't gaining an advantage in 50/50 duels inside the six yard box (a la Arsenal) its finding space and time for shots from the edge of the area (scrabbling the xG calculator in the process).

A very fair point.

Although I'd counter that by the fact that we have scored several over the last couple of seasons by launching it into the six yard box (a couple for Barkley, a couple for Watkins, one for Tammy, Onana got one against Brighton), so it's not as if we're not doing it at all.

[Smithy]

Rashford news.

We even get a mention.

wouldn't be against us going for him. A no brainer at the quoted price. I can't see anyone matching his Utd salary though, including us. I'd have thought £200K a week is where he is at now? With Dougie/Sancho/Elliot/ gone, and Guessand /Bailey likely off, possibly others, would we have the finances to get him in?

The article mentions £17.5m pa, so that would put his weekly salary at upwards of £335k.

And he has 2 years left on his contract, so to move this summer and take £200k a week anywhere, he would be "giving up" about £15m in wages.  Which is the only reason he's not moved. If he was on £150-200k a week, he would have moved by now, but Man Utd decided to make him their highest earner on a long contract, and I don't blame him for wanting to make sure he gets it.

But given Man Utd's purse-tightening, there is no way they're paying him £10m+ to piss off, so my guess is it'll be another loan next season, with a negotiation over how much of his wages are paid by Man Utd.

I'd take him at the 150-200k level, but I don't see any way in which a deal like that is made, unless Man Utd agree to pay him off.

[brontebilly]

Grealish did well under Deano, as he was just asked to go out and play. I don't think he would like Unai's structure

At the risk of opening this particular can of worms, he seemed to like Peps structure well enough. There are untold reasons why we shouldn't and wont go for him, but with him wide left and an attacking quick left back, that's still pretty potent.

He didn't have that attacking left back at Everton, and won't under Moyes, but still did well when he was fit but it's a slog there. Think he should be looking for a move into the 10 position at this stage of his career though but in saying that his shooting has gone to pot in recent seasons. Not sure what's happened there. If it was going to happen it would have 12 months ago, that ship has sailed now.

Another option covering the left and 10 position is required.