At this point, in Emi and Bizot we have brilliant options. If a good keeper comes along and wants to stick around and wait for Emi’s contract to expire then fine. But I wouldn’t be pushing Emi out. Getting £15-£20M and wages of our books helps of course but I’d rather keep him for the immense tangible and intangible value he continues to provide us.
Zych is apparently turning into a very reliable keeper and Proctor looks a great prospect. Given their respective ages I'm not against letting the current 2 stay until the ends of their contracts and see if we have options in house ready to replace them over that time.
I know it's not really done in football but I'm a fan of Northampton in the rugby and I love to see Villa get to a similar point where the academy is driving who we are and how we play and transfers are used to augment that rather than the approach being that transfer are always the answer. I know it's difficult and we'll never really get there but I'd like us to at least give the young players room to try, where we can.
That's the dream, pull that off and our 'rivals' can have three mega stadiums with Coldplay in residence and it won't make a blind bit of difference.
It’s worth adding that Northampton’s aggregate salary is one of the lowest in the league (8/10) yet they won the league this year and lost in the equivalent of the champions league final last season, all whilst losing their best players along the way.
Did you know that Northampton were owned by a well known Villa fan Mack The Sock? He's a proper character, in his 80s now.. He was brawling on Wembley Way with Man U in 2010 in his 70s.
