January '17 Transfer Window

achilles wrote:

achilles wrote:

AstonThriller wrote:There's not a chance in hell that we'd swap Ayew for Taylor and nothing else. Either we get something like 5 or 6m PLUS Taylor or we get Barrow in the deal aswell so it would be Taylor & Barrow for Ayew. I can't see it going any other way.

I also think we'll nab Rhodes on deadlines day!!..the longer it drags the better our chances are because the lad simply isn't getting a sniff down there and I'm sure Boro want him off their books.

Agree with this, Ayew is definitely worth them both not just Taylor and Rhodes I think will end up here at the last minute!

Apparently a straight swap has been agreed between Swansea and AV, Taylor for Ayew (which I don't particularly agree with)!

Does this spell the end of Amavi as he won't start anymore?

I don't believe this one, terrible deal for Villa? Ayew is poor but not Taylor poor!

Could Bruce be thinking Taylor in at LB and Amavi pushed to left wing?

That's exactly what I was about to write Dan. Burka Bananasson apparently prefers the middle of the park so perhaps Bruce is thinking 4-3-2-1or 3-5-2.

Your all assuming that all of the signings are first teamers and not bench warmers. Birkir may be first change bringing frsh legs and plenty of energy with 30 minutes to go.

Ayew for Taylor? Taylor is a good LB but not worth what Ayew is so there has to be cash or another player in there somewhere. The other benefit would be to be rid of Mr Sulky, his attitude seems all wrong to me. Plus if Hourihane is the type of character I suspect he is (A Roy Keane type?) I don't see them as happy team mates. Hourihane and Bree, to a lesser extent, have worked their way up after early disappointments. They hopefully have that 'try hardest' mindset that we haven't seen for years.

Birkir may well be similar though there have been some 'money is more important' moments in his career. Without knowing more it is difficult to judge. Just hope he isn't Holman 2. It would abviously be great if he could be a Melberg 2.

Its all about options and competition for places, building a squad for all occasions.

We're still a couple of players away and then there will, IMO, be no excuse for not making the playoffs, then its up to McGrath !

achilles wrote:
Apparently a straight swap has been agreed between Swansea and AV, Taylor for Ayew (which I don't particularly agree with)!

Does this spell the end of Amavi as he won't start anymore?

Not true

AstonThriller wrote:

achilles wrote:
Apparently a straight swap has been agreed between Swansea and AV, Taylor for Ayew (which I don't particularly agree with)!

Does this spell the end of Amavi as he won't start anymore?

Not true

That is what has been reported although not officially!

http://www.90min.com/teams/aston-villa

Trotters wrote:

The Utterer wrote:Regards Grealish i think it's difficult to find the best way to utilise his undoubted talent because his strengths are a bit one dimensional from what i've seen.

I think this highlights it below:

Dribbling ability - 9
Pace                - 6
Heading           - 5
Shooting         - 5
Crossing          - 5
Intelligence       - 6 (Strong in some aspects weak in others)
Attitude           - 3
Strength          - 4
Determination   - 5

I stand by to be corrected on my assessment above but It's all a bit weak isn't it? His main attribute appears to be how he manipulates the ball in tight situations but then once he's done some smart trickery his end product isn't there regards assists and goals. His main strength appears to be enticing fowls with his ball skills occasionally leading to penalties and free kicks but he often goes down way to easily too.

I notice you didn't put a rating for tackling. Can't imagine why. I think the rest of your scores are pretty spot on, though his dribbling you've been a tad generous and i cant say I recall ever seeing him mess his hair up heading the ball so I couldn't give him a 5 there either.

I'm in Joppe's camp on my way to see a hung-over De Kuip. I think he's a overrated little oik (Grealish that is ) but just maybe he'll step up now we've got some serious footballers for him to come up to standard with. But fail, and I'd like to see him moved on in the next window. He has fooled so many people off the back of one game and I just can't understand why people love him. I don't think they actually watch the game to realise he contributes very little.

utterer if Jacks main strength is attracting domesticated birds kept for their flesh and eggs ie chickens ducks or geese (Oxford English dictionary definition) then he's not got a chance in hell of making it as a top player anywhere!!!!!!!!!!!!!! mind you Gabbys has a right old reputation for attracting birds and impregnating their eggs but that's a different story

I have to admit the month or so I have been pretty depressed about Villa as I really thought we would be in amongst the playoffs at least. The transfer window has given me a positive step again because it seems that Round, Wyness, Xia and Bruce are identifying the areas of weakness (at last) It will be great if we can shift a couple out the door and add 1 or 2 before the window shuts. I just hope Bruce lets the shackles off now because draws are no good to us and It is extremely likely for us to be dragged back into the relegation zone.

Whatever happens now .... brilliant transfer window! Feeling really positive about the business done. Think we will see a transformed Villa playing committed and attractive football going forward.The play offs are still a possibility albeit difficult because of RDM. Must admit to being a Bruce sceptic at the start but he and Round have played a blinder.
Think of the Noses... let Rowett go and disaster ever since! Nearly as bad a decision as Swansea letting Monk go.

If as reported Norwich are keen on McCormack, surely a straight swap or swap & cash from us for Brady should be on the cards??

Saunders82 wrote:If as reported Norwich are keen on McCormack, surely a straight swap or swap & cash from us for Brady should be on the cards??

I don't think we need Brady anymore!

Villa_Dan wrote:Could Bruce be thinking Taylor in at LB and Amavi pushed to left wing?

Didnt K Mac say that Amavi was one of the best crossers in the club and played him there before?

Tshibola gone on loan to Forest, according to John Percy.

Nixon saying that Ayew to Swansea is on, meaning money for Rhodes.

achilles wrote:

AstonThriller wrote:

achilles wrote:
Apparently a straight swap has been agreed between Swansea and AV, Taylor for Ayew (which I don't particularly agree with)!

Does this spell the end of Amavi as he won't start anymore?

Not true

That is what has been reported although not officially!

http://www.90min.com/teams/aston-villa

90min is nothing but a gossip website, you may as well ask your gran to make a rumour up...

Wriggle wrote:

achilles wrote:

AstonThriller wrote:

achilles wrote:
Apparently a straight swap has been agreed between Swansea and AV, Taylor for Ayew (which I don't particularly agree with)!

Does this spell the end of Amavi as he won't start anymore?

Not true

That is what has been reported although not officially!

http://www.90min.com/teams/aston-villa

90min is nothing but a gossip website, you may as well ask your gran to make a rumour up...

We shall see as I think it is a bit more than that!

They (90minutes) basically make a story out of every rumour, so I wouldn't go by what they say. They got the Ayew swap for Taylor from the DiMarzio website, who in turn probably got it from John Percy's article in the telegraph, but his version was that we were signing Taylor and swapping Ayew for Barrow.

smetro wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:I think I read that Bree was closer to £1.5M than £3M, Hourihane I think we got for around the same, probably why both fees were undisclosed. But they reportedly both have sell on clauses in their contracts.

I've seen a few people suggest we're going to be in financial trouble if we don't go up in the next few seasons, mostly fans of other clubs. I'm not sure why though, all we're doing is spending parachute money and money made from player sales, plus owners are allowed to put some of their own money in too. On the wages issue I suspect players will have clauses in their contracts where they have to take a reduction if we don't get promoted, whilst parachute payments last.

If we don't go up within in the next few seasons we might be weakened financially (unless we have a way around FFP), but I suspect the club will still be fairly healthy.

If we were starting from a blank balance sheet maybe so. But as a premiership club we were racking up massive losses - weve spent pretty heavily in the transfer market - so given,even with parachute money we are going to be making a loss - you can understand the doomsday scenario when it stops.
Losses don't matter if Dr Tony is prepared to underwrite them - but at some point FFP Kicks in

Does nobody read my posts on FFP?!  

See page 33 of the locked archive thread for the Jan 17 transfer window.

It doesn't matter if Dr Tone has £10 billion in a bank account marked "Aston Villa Piggy Bank", he is only allowed to put in an average of £8M per season in the Championship. Any more he puts in over and above that will not be counted where FFP rules are concerned.

As a Premier League club I believe he would be allowed to inject an average of £30M per season.

Also, even if we fall foul of FFP this season (based on this season's projected accounts plus the two previous seasons) we cannot be punished with a transfer embargo, as we have a one-year period of grace to get our house in order. However that doesn't mean we can go mental and spend what we like because FFP is measured over 3 rolling seasons so, what we spend this season will still be counted in the following season's reckoning.

In terms of parachute payments, according to the Birmingham Mail at least, we will get around £87M over the course of 3 seasons (should we stay out of the Premier League that long). The distribution is as follows:

This season: £40M

Next season: £33M

Following season: £14M

It's a lot of money, so whilst we've been splashing the cash it's true to say that the parachute payments will be going some way towards balancing the books.

As I said before we've seen only a small part of the FFP puzzle. The £27M loss Lerner's Villa made in 2014/15. We won't see 2015/16's accounts till March and this season's accounts will be a projection (but post Jan transfer window - so a pretty accurate projection)

All we can do is trust the Good Doctor that he understands FFP and knew what he was letting himself in for when he bought the Club.

Anyone speculating that we will be in trouble over FFP is doing just that...speculating.

FFP is such utter rubbish. City has proven that to boot.

Gordonsleftboot wrote:...Plus if Hourihane is the type of character I suspect he is (A Roy Keane type?)...

Blimey, the lad hasn't set foot on the Villa Park pitch yet and you've already labelled him a massive sugarbag with a shitty homeless-beard.

Joppe84 wrote:FFP is such utter rubbish. City has proven that to boot.

Been saying this for ages.

If you've got the money FFP hardly matters, look at City and the likes of PSG etc... It's there to basically stop people doing a Leeds to a club.

If Xia has the money we all expect he does, then simply expect some decent sponsorship deals coming out of China in the next year.

Interestingly whoscored rates Ayew as our second best player on 7.15 (Kodjia is on 7.19) while Rhodes is on 6.24, exactly the same as... Gabby.

Sure, stats can be misleading, especially when a striker is being played on the wing.

I like Ayew, I think he's wasted without a good enough team around him, and that might be what we're about to have. I hope he doesn't go.

I think Ayew has been suffering a big-fish, small pond syndrome. No, Villa shouldn't be considered a small pond but let's face it, the other players are absolute shit with the odd exception so of course he's going to want to do it all on his own and have a face on him.

I really hope we keep him to see what he can do.

Wriggle wrote:

Joppe84 wrote:FFP is such utter rubbish. City has proven that to boot.

Been saying this for ages.

If you've got the money FFP hardly matters, look at City and the likes of PSG etc... It's there to basically stop people doing a Leeds to a club.

If Xia has the money we all expect he does, then simply expect some decent sponsorship deals coming out of China in the next year.

Wrong.

Fulham and Notts Forest both received transfer embargos for exceeding FFP limits and Bolton received one for failing to submit their accounts. Millwall also breached the rules but escaped punishment as they were relegated to League 1. I believe Cardiff City were also handed a transfer embargo last January.

You cannot look to the likes of PSG and Man City for comfort because, trust me, if we breach the rules we will be punished.

And I don't believe for one minute that FFP was invented to "stop people doing a Leeds to a club".

Rather, it's a conspiracy by the established 'European Elite' clubs to 'lock the doors to the banquet hall' so the clubs that sit at the top table now, will always sit at the top table.

Ironic that you mention Man City, because FFP suddenly made it's way onto the agenda when City were taken over. The Man City takeover panicked the elite European clubs. It seems City were the last ones in the door before it was firmly bolted.