Summer transfer window 2017/18

Just thought I'd start this as we've been linked with a few names recently.

The first link is Sam Gallagher HERE. The 21 year old striker at Blackburn who's on loan from Southampton. I must say I've watched him a few times and he's very impressive. Holds the ball up very well, has some decent pace, good in the air and can finish well. Only has a year left on his contract at Southampton and with them already have Gabbiadini and Austin I'd like to think our chances of getting him would be good. HERE is a video of him from this season.

Second link is to a lad from Chester fc named Sam Hughes HERE. 19 year old defender who apparently has a lot of championship and even a few premiership clubs looking at him.

Third link is to Oxford United's highly rated left winger Marvin Johnson HERE. Don't know much about him but in THIS video he scores the first and plays a role in the second. Scottish press are linking him with Celtic and Man City, the latter I very much doubt but with him being from Solihull apparently then I'd like to think he'd see Villa as a good choice.

And lastly, Bruce wants to make the Sam Johnstone deal permanent according to THIS report. While Steve Bruce has spoken about making "two or three signings" in the summer HERE which echoes what Keith Wyness said in his recent INTERVIEW this month.

So the question is do we believe it will be just "two of three" signings? And who do we expect to leave the club aswell? Personally with the pressure on us to get promotion next season I think we'll make more than just three signings. Although tbh I think a lot may depend on the sales. I've got a feeling we'll lose a few players for big fees and that will give us enough to bring in four or five players.

Kodjia= 18-20m
Amavi= 10-13m
Bunn= free
Kozak= free
Richards= 2m
Elphick= 2m
Gollini= 4m
Sanchez= 2.5m (apparently already agreed according to THIS )
Cissokho= 1m
MCcormack= 6-8m

And then we have the two gems that are Veretout and Gill too. Who could be worth a combined 14m or somewhere close. So we COULD potentially end up with fees of over 50m coming into the club in the summer IF all of those were to leave for those fees. And if we bring in that much money I can't see us not spending at least 25-30m of it surely? We'd be mad not to really push on and make sure we're as strong as possible going into the next campaign. If Koj stays then that would be great but I just get the feeling someone from abroad or the prem will come in. And even if we he does stay the fees coming in would still be around the 40m mark so the difference is the same. And this is where we'll excell over our rivals because non of the current play-off chasers have the gems up their sleeve that we do, so their summer expenditure should be way lower than ours. The prem clubs coming down might have some money but again if we have 40m in parachute payments coming in, plus we bring in 40-50m in sales then that should help to counter the 100m they'll be bringing down with them.

I think it's time to let Hutton go too. He has always played a bit better when his contract is nearly up and whilst he would be ok cover for this division i think we should change him out whilst we have the opportunity.

Not worried about Amavi going one iota as he is a liability currently although has potential in there somewhere. I can't see Veretout or Gil wanting to come back tbh so likely they will be off too.

AstonThriller wrote:Just thought I'd start this as we've been linked with a few names recently.

The first link is Sam Gallagher HERE. The 21 year old striker at Blackburn who's on loan from Southampton. I must say I've watched him a few times and he's very impressive. Holds the ball up very well, has some decent pace, good in the air and can finish well. Only has a year left on his contract at Southampton and with them already have Gabbiadini and Austin I'd like to think our chances of getting him would be good. HERE is a video of him from this season.

Second link is to a lad from Chester fc named Sam Hughes HERE. 19 year old defender who apparently has a lot of championship and even a few premiership clubs looking at him.

Third link is to Oxford United's highly rated left winger Marvin Johnson HERE. Don't know much about him but in THIS video he scores the first and plays a role in the second. Scottish press are linking him with Celtic and Man City, the latter I very much doubt but with him being from Solihull apparently then I'd like to think he'd see Villa as a good choice.

And lastly, Bruce wants to make the Sam Johnstone deal permanent according to THIS report. While Steve Bruce has spoken about making "two or three signings" in the summer HERE which echoes what Keith Wyness said in his recent INTERVIEW this month.

So the question is do we believe it will be just "two of three" signings? And who do we expect to leave the club aswell? Personally with the pressure on us to get promotion next season I think we'll make more than just three signings. Although tbh I think a lot may depend on the sales. I've got a feeling we'll lose a few players for big fees and that will give us enough to bring in four or five players.

Kodjia= 18-20m
Amavi= 10-13m
Bunn= free
Kozak= free
Richards= 2m
Elphick= 2m
Gollini= 4m
Sanchez= 2.5m (apparently already agreed according to THIS )
Cissokho= 1m
MCcormack= 6-8m

And then we have the two gems that are Veretout and Gill too. Who could be worth a combined 14m or somewhere close. So we COULD potentially end up with fees of over 50m coming into the club in the summer IF all of those were to leave for those fees. And if we bring in that much money I can't see us not spending at least 25-30m of it surely? We'd be mad not to really push on and make sure we're as strong as possible going into the next campaign. If Koj stays then that would be great but I just get the feeling someone from abroad or the prem will come in. And even if we he does stay the fees coming in would still be around the 40m mark so the difference is the same. And this is where we'll excell over our rivals because non of the current play-off chasers have the gems up their sleeve that we do, so their summer expenditure should be way lower than ours. The prem clubs coming down might have some money but again if we have 40m in parachute payments coming in, plus we bring in 40-50m in sales then that should help to counter the 100m they'll be bringing down with them.

Why on earth would you even put a price tag on Kodjia? Are you saying if we get offered a few peanuts more than we paid for him we should sell? I'm wondering who scores the goals, as without Kodjia this season would look a whole lot different

Dazzle wrote:

Why on earth would you even put a price tag on Kodjia? Are you saying if we get offered a few peanuts more than we paid for him we should sell? I'm wondering who scores the goals, as without Kodjia this season would look a whole lot different

We've got to be realistic my friend. We apparently signed him for 11m rising to 15m if we go up. So IF we get a bid in the region of 18-20m that would be a damn good profit for someone who's only been here six months. Yes losing him would be a killer but life goes on. Just saw Benteke score the winner at Stamford Bridge for Palace. He was our hero not long ago, and now Kodjia is. Hopefully, another one will pop up after Jimmy departs aswell.

AstonThriller wrote:

Dazzle wrote:

Why on earth would you even put a price tag on Kodjia? Are you saying if we get offered a few peanuts more than we paid for him we should sell? I'm wondering who scores the goals, as without Kodjia this season would look a whole lot different

We've got to be realistic my friend. We apparently signed him for 11m rising to 15m if we go up. So IF we get a bid in the region of 18-20m that would be a damn good profit for someone who's only been here six months. Yes losing him would be a killer by life goes on. Just saw Benteke score the winner at Stamford Bridge for Palace. He was our hero no long ago, and now Kodjia is. Hopefully another one will pop up after Jimmy departs aswell.

Unfortunately as soon as we sold Benteke we plummeted, the £30m didn't really amount to much did it? I don't understand the logic that some have of selling a proven goal scorer to buy in someone else in the hope they might do the same job?! Priority HAS to be to retain the proven talent you have and add to it. Of all those players bought with the Benteke money how many have been a success?

P.s we paid out £12m on McFatmack thinking we were getting a proven goal scorer, and Hogan has/could cost £12-15m. Where's the value?

Dazzle wrote:

Unfortunately as soon as we sold Benteke we plummeted, the £30m didn't really amount to much did it? I don't understand the logic that some have of selling a proven goal scorer to buy in someone else in the hope they might do the same job?! Priority HAS to be to retain the proven talent you have and add to it. Of all those players bought with the Benteke money how many have been a success?

P.s we paid out £12m on McFatmack  thinking we were getting a proven goal scorer, and Hogan has/could cost £12-15m. Where's the value?

I'm not saying I want the man to go, Of course I don't. But as Bruce just said today If a top team comes in for him at a decent price would it be fair to stand in the man's way? Replacing Benteke in the premiership was always gonna be difficult, but in the championship things are different. I mean Chris Wood is the top scorer FFS!!!..I have every confidence that Hogan will come good next season and if we get someone like Sam Gallagher or Forrestiari then we'll be just fine. The key is adding extra quality to a side that on paper is already one of the top three in the division imo. And when you consider the funds we might have coming in this summer then we should be able to really dominate next term if we get things right.

Linked to a young Blackpool midfielder HERE

And The Sun are claiming we want to sell Mccormack and Jedinak in the summer in what could be a major summer spend HERE

Anyway just thinking about potential replacements for super Koj if he does leave and my list looks like this right now..

Gallagher
Abraham= loan
Forrestieri
Assombalonga
Hernandez (If Hull get relegated)

Are some of the names that come to mind.

We need to consider making smarter and cheaper purchases though. I know Xia has money and we've spent stupid amounts the last 18 months, but we gotta be careful with these FFP stuff.

Secondly I think it would be easier for players to succeed at this club if they didn't come with a ridiculous price tag.

Definitely like Sam Gallagher here, I think he would link up brilliantly with Hogan.
I am certain we will get a bid for Kodjia, whether we accept it or not is another matter but at his age I can see him wanting to try the premiership if a premiership club comes in for him.
We really need to score more goals and spread them around more.

I wouldn't mind it if we got Gallagher.

I don't think we will see that many incomings, or outgoings of the ones we want to shift, I think Brucie will just be tweaking things for next year UNLESS we pull off the miracle.

I think we should shift fatmac to Aberdeen. Mate of mine who used to work there said that the local dish is macaroni cheese in a pie, then the whole pie deep fried. With a delicacy like that on offer, I can't see lard arse refusing the deal....

As a matter of interest what is going to happen with Grealish, he can't get in the side and doesn't even get on as a sub anymore?
Is it time he moved on?

Grealish can go. Overrated

achilles wrote:As a matter of interest what is going to happen with Grealish, he can't get in the side and doesn't even get on as a sub anymore?
Is it time he moved on?

He doesn't work hard enough, doesn't produce enough, is now not getting any minutes. Finally some common sense seems to be creeping in at Villa. I reckon Bruce will give him the summer and up to Christmas to prove himself, after that we may well see him moved on, summer 2018 latest. I want Grealish to succeed, we all do. But he has to improve so much you are left wondering where he will slot in.

Dazzle wrote:

achilles wrote:As a matter of interest what is going to happen with Grealish, he can't get in the side and doesn't even get on as a sub anymore?
Is it time he moved on?

He doesn't work hard enough, doesn't produce enough, is now not getting any minutes. Finally some common sense seems to be creeping in at Villa. I reckon Bruce will give him the summer and up to Christmas to prove himself, after that we may well see him moved on, summer 2018 latest. I want Grealish to succeed, we all do. But he has to improve so much you are left wondering where he will slot in.

Exactly, also a change of temperment would be nice as well!

If the past has taught us anything, it's that we must keep hold of Kodjia.

As has already been said, it's a false economy, no matter how much we're offered.

I also agree with Joppe. I think we're in for a lean summer window, following the news that we lost £81M last season.

Our acceptable losses must not exceed £83M by the time we submit our accounts in March 2018 (with full equity injection from both Lerner & Xia).

Considering that we have now posted losses of £27M and £81M in the last two seasons, it's not looking great.

Hopefully parachute payments will see us through. If we don't get promoted next season though, things could get uncomfortable.

This is why I think Bruce will be tweaking in the summer, rather than splashing out.

achilles wrote:Definitely like Sam Gallagher here, I think he would link up brilliantly with Hogan.
I am certain we will get a bid for Kodjia, whether we accept it or not is another matter but at his age I can see him wanting to try the premiership if a premiership club comes in for him.
We really need to score more goals and spread them around more.

Spot on. I really like the look of Gallagher and hope we move heaven and earth to secure his services in the summer. Him and Hogan would be lethal imo and then we could spend the Kodjia funds on other areas of the team. Because as I said we could potentially end up with upwards of 50m coming in if Koj goes along with Veretout, Richards, Gill, Elphick etc.

NARLA24 wrote:Grealish can go. Overrated

I've said for eons that the only way he will be a professional footballer at the utter top level is if he learns the trade of a deep laying playmaker.

The fact that he himself and others think he is suited to be a winger, CAM or any other role up front is utterly bizarre. He is slow, he isn't direct, his dribbling is normally a response to being pressured rather than being direct and attacking about it, his shots is piss weak (and I know he had that one shot he got lucky with). He doesn't cross for toffee.

I'm absolutely 100% certain that if he bulked up, got tougher, learned to play deeper and utilized his vision, passing and football intelligence he would come all the way as a footballer in central midfield. As an attacking outlet he simply doesn't have the skill set even if he would like to think so himself. That's why I thought Green was the better option out on the wing and I'd say that has proven to be correct.

But if he doesn't understand that he has to reestablish himself as a CM, then we should just move him on. He will never ever be a good attacking player to where we want to be. Which is a shame, cause he definitely is a talented ballplayer.

Anyone else think that if we need another striker we should go forth lasse vibe. Played well with Hogan and I think he's really underrated in this league

Jae1411 wrote:Anyone else think that if we need another striker we should go forth lasse vibe. Played well with Hogan and I think he's really underrated in this league

He looked absolute class when they played us off the park in February.

I would take Jota any day as well.

Villa Ranger wrote:

Jae1411 wrote:Anyone else think that if we need another striker we should go forth lasse vibe. Played well with Hogan and I think he's really underrated in this league

He looked absolute class when they played us off the park in February.

I would take Jota any day as well.

Agreed, I was going to mention jota too. Vibe has really impressed me all season. Really really good player

I think it will be mainly deadwood moving out this summer, with 3 or 4 coming in mainly, a keeper, central defender, winger and striker (unless he sees RHM as enough cover for JK and SH). Then maybe some young potentials.

Our biggest priority should be hanging om to Kodjia. Regarding new players I want 1) a goal keeper that's not on loan. 2) young replacement for Jedi.

A report on twitter mentions that Bruce has been a big fan of Januzaj in the past. Would anyone like him here? Must say having a natural left-winger would be nice and there's no doubt the lad has talent. Taking a step down and rebuilding his confidence may be the best thing for him I think.