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

[PaulWinch again]

That’s just really clumsy wording isn’t it. We can’t be simultaneously adamant we won’t sell and also acknowledge every player has a price.

[aev]

"...in the eyes of rivals..."

[Dogtanian]

Yes, I think the stance is we are adamant we don't want to sell and if you want us to, you have to really make it worth our while.

[Drummond]

Aston Villa have expressed a strong interest in West Ham United’s Jarrod Bowen. No club-to-club discussions have taken place and Villa view an agreement as currently difficult to do because they need to make player sales. Unai Emery is a huge admirer of the forward, but the 29-year-old, who has four years left on his contract, has not decided whether he wishes to leave. Industry sources say they would expect talks for the player to start at £50m, but sources at West Ham, who were relegated to the Championship last season, have indicated they are not looking to sell.

Jacob Tanswell and Roshane Thomas


Aston Villa trio Mohamed Kone, Kadan Young and Zepiqueno Redmond are expected to join Ligue 2 side FC Annecy on loan. Annecy, who are incorporated in Villa’s multi-club network, will sign highly-rated midfielder Kone, 18, winger Young, 20, and forward Redmond, 20, who joined from Feyenoord last summer for the duration of the 2026-27 season.

Jacob Tanswell

[aj2k77]

Bowen would be £25m max for me, seems to be on a downward curve, would command really high wages and is at the wrong age profile. I'm probably on the verge of declaring it a lazy signing with better value out there. Good that we don't seem to be taking the lazy bait of Harry Wilson.

[kippaxvilla2]

I just hope this does not end up being another Grealish saga.  Dragging on all summer with us not having time to find decent replacements (I don't count Ings as one).  I know we don't normally comment on such things but something like 'Villa have confirmed Rogers will not be sold this summer' might help.  I mean we do hold all the cards after all.

[kippaxvilla2]

Also I did see a quote from Emery saying he needs to continue his development with us and it is natural that Arsenal would be interested.  I don't know if a) it is a true statement and b) if it is how old it is.

[Dave]

I know we don't normally comment on such things but something like 'Villa have confirmed Rogers will not be sold this summer' might help.  I mean we do hold all the cards after all.

Wouldn't we look a bit daft if we did then sell him?

[boozey182]

This is a really tricky window for us, but with massive potential. We overperformed last season, I don't think that's too controversial an opinion. For a lot of it, we weren't very good, and I think it's probably the poorest squad Unai has had to work with since he joined us. Add in the start we had, the fact that Watkins was not scoring for most the season, Rogers often failing to pass to our players for entire games, the injuries we had all at once etc, and I think what we managed to achieve last season was unbelievable.

It leaves us with a bit of a dilemma this year. Even if you ignore the financial rules (which feels a bit like a holiday), there is the fact that at the moment, most of our players will be worth more than they probably ever will in their entire careers. I would argue that only Rogers has a chance of increasing his value from here, due to his age and his unique profile. But even that is going to be tricky. How many players in the world are worth more than him at the moment?

I don't want to sell any of our first team this summer - I really like all of our players. (It's amazing what a trophy will do, though, as I'm pretty sure that a few months ago I'd have sold any of them. It's easy to forget quite how bad they all were given how it all turned out.) But, we're going to need some financial wiggle room at some point, and the best way to do that is sell one player for a load of money. Until the Leon Bailey bidding war commences, that's likely to be one of our first team. (There is a fair amount of conjecture there - I don't think we will make enough selling our fringe players to make any discernible difference to what we can spend, but I don't know for sure. I don't know how you're supposed to work that out).

There is also the fact that not many of our signings have worked out under Emery. There is a very simple explanation for why - we're only good because of Emery's system/tactics, which take a long time for players to learn. Any new player coming in is highly unlikely to hit the ground running, because it takes months/years to fully understand - to a point where it all comes as second nature. Which is what we need.

So if we sell a first team player, their replacement is unlikely to be anywhere near as effective in the short term. Especially when you consider the disruption to pre-season that the World Cup will cause.

The three players that we might consider selling from the first team are Martinez, Rogers and Konsa. Martinez will need to be replaced at some point, but his value is so low due to his age that the fee will have very little impact on any financial rules. But with amortisation (zzzz), even £15 million might make the transition easier. Plus, £15 million towards his replacement is better than £0, which we will be looking at in a year or two.

Rogers is fascinating. I don't know how you even start to work out his value. There isn't another player like him in the world. He single-handedly won us so many games last season, especially in that period before Christmas when we were one of the best teams in the world. He's strong, powerful, skilful, clever, can shoot, dribble and pass. And he's still very young. However, every one of us has seen him at his worst, and those poor games aren't just one every three or four games. Sometimes, they last for months. A quick look at his thread on here will show you that. I don't think anyone will be able to say with any real certainty whether he'll become one of the best players in the world, or whether this will be his ceiling. I'd like to be the team to find out, but can we really afford to pass up £125 million on a player that goes missing so often?

Then there's Konsa - probably one of the most consistent defenders in the league. Very seldom beaten by his man, and quick enough to recover if he is. However, very safety-first on the ball (90% of his passes must go to Cash, Martinez or Pau), and always seems more keen to win a free-kick than a header. He's been a staple of our back line under Emery, but his value is at its peak. Would a more dominant CB be a better fit to partner Pau? Could we find one for less money than we might get for Ezri?

Frustratingly, the answers to all these questions all depend on exactly what financial restrictions we find ourselves under, and what plans we have for improving the squad. Emery is about as far from a chequebook manager as you'll find, but he can't be expected to keep performing miracles with the same set of (ageing) players. He wants to win more trophies, and for that, we'll need some better players. I don't envy Roberto Olabe at all, because none of the routes to success are clear. There is logic behind so many different options, but it also feels like everything is so delicately balanced that one wrong move and it could come crashing down. But at the same time, if you look at what this squad achieved last season, without any additional quality last summer - what could a few really good players do for us?
(Apologies for the long post!)