Rightdm00

18 minutes ago, TRO said:

You called him a CM....but he plays for us as a DM.....unless, I should be looking at another player, to stop the opposition, win the ball and drive on offensively. i accept his attributes are more aligned with a CM, I grant you that.

I respect your view but it is entirely different to mine, on this role he plays.

He does anything but dictate the play, thats the issue...I don't see an issue with his passing ability, but a DM requires more than just that.

Look, I get he is a favourite player of yours and I don't want to burst the bubble....I actually wished you was right and me wrong.....but we can only value Doug on the role he is asked to play.

but you have still not answered, who is responsible for stopping the raids through the middle if its not Dougie, because he doesn't do it.

you say he has a good strike on him....he has scored one goal in my recollection, but not holding that against him in the role he plays.

The stats which I don't always cling to do not suggest the picture you paint of him.

2 goals, both of which were absolute worldies from outside the box. That's besides the point though. You asked whose job it is to stop raids through the middle?

I want to speak to the idea of a players job on the field.  Some seem to look a DM, see the defensive part of his name, and solely apply the job of defending to him.  Their is only one job that falls to a single player in football and that's the goalkeeper. He is the only player who can use his hands to prevent a goal. No other player can help in that endeavor. Every other job is performed by multiple individuals. Defense especially. 

Douglas looked great the first half of the season. Actually, the entire team looked good from a defensive standpoint. Then Barkley tweaked his hammy and became a non-entity from a defensive standpoint for the rest of the season.  That threw the entire balance of our midfield off and we never really got it back. 

Could Douglas improve his game, absolutely. He is only 23 and has not even gotten close to entering his prime years. Defending is a team game though. Everyone must track their runners. Fullbacks can't be left on an island 2V1 and the same goes for our midfielders. 

2 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

This thread is **** up shit.

Go back 10 months and this was the guy we were worried about losing to City not the snake who ultimately achieved his desire of leaving. 
 

Mans just got to Copa America final, winning the Olympic final but apparently isn’t good enough for us. Give your head a wobble and then give him a big contract - duggie will be a champions league midfielder with or without us. 
 

 

You don't understand it's only the players that have to show loyal, undying fealty to the club. The fans are allowed to berate them, sell them on, and declare them untalented waste of spaces. 

3 minutes ago, thejoker said:

I get the impression that he’s not planning a long stay at Villa. But thats ok, if he rips the league up and leaves in 2 years then we’ll probably more than double our money and re-invest again. 

Absolutely, that's the way it works. If your players aren't in demand by the top teams then honestly they probably aren't that good. 

It took Spurs about a solid 10 years of re-investment before they cracked the Top 4. Hopefully selling Jack for a British transfer record will allow us to cut a couple years off that timeline. 

4 hours ago, Killeen30 said:

Surprised given his ages we didn’t give him a five year deal, rather than the four year deal given. Let’s say he has a fantastic first two years then a five year deal would have given us much more protection in our investment.

Definitely his management team that asked for only 4 years. Gives him a bit of leverage in case he wants to move on or resign for a higher salary in 2 years. 

51 minutes ago, CarryOnVilla said:

are people really getting pissy over supportive messages to a friend?

 

The travesty 

Agree. Looks like people are looking for reasons to be upset. 

He posted 3 emojis. We are bigger than this, right?

5-10 points on average a season would be excellent each season going forward. Progress is not always a straight line and this is probably not the last time a Big 6 club poaches one of our talented footballers. 

The money won't go bad if we don't spend it all this summer. It's a process. 

12 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

yes, he didnt say we werent buying more players, he said effectively that they have looked to replace Grealish in the aggregate, with Buendia, Ings and Bailey, ie: matched his output by improving 3 key areas specifically.

More likely improve on his output since they probably all won't miss a huge chunk of the season. 

1 minute ago, MotoMkali said:

Why do we have to announce we rejected a bid. We could easily refuse and city ask us to keep quiet to agitate kane. Which we'd do because spurs are competition for top 6 atm.

Because that puts an incredibly harsh spotlight on Jack. Why would Villa push that level of attention on Jack to help City unsettle Kane. It's hilarious how many knots people will twist themselves into to justify a narrative that suits them. 

I always go back to Occam's Razor for stuff like this. Just keep it simple. Transfer deals can take weeks. Sancho's took over a year. This deal could shatter the British transfer record. The fact that the negotiations are dragging on should be expected. At least that way we know that the club did its due diligence on getting the best deal possible. 

Put it like this, if he didn't want the move this transfer BS would be dead and buried. 

Now it's a question of what could be holding up the move. Is it the club trying to negotiate a better fee or Jack suddenly getting cold feet. 

Just now, Davkaus said:

It could quite simply be in Jack's hands to make his mind up. It's all speculation. 

Which is why the club has been silent. Not wanting to put undue stress on Jack during what has to be a very stressful time. 

Just imagine if Villa announced we had accepted the bid and the decision now hinged on Jack. The social media hysteria would be absolutely insane. I think the club are handling this the best they can. 

Their is so little information the social media trolls don't know who to abuse so everyone is just sitting around puzzled. 

2 minutes ago, est1874 said:

If that's true, why are we negotiating with them at all. That's what I want to know. The message should be loud and clear: it's £150m or nothing. Put the money down or piss off.

My guess is that £100 million number was agreed upon when jack signed the new deal last year just never formalized. 

So I guess Villa could behave like Levy and act like no agreement was ever made but I think we have chosen the more honorable path here. 

1 minute ago, Keyblade said:

I like how Percy reported the 100m bid and then bounced. He let the Sam Lees, CJ Golsons, Stan Collymores of the world duke it out in the darkness.

That's the last piece of factual info on this saga. I guess their would be more but that would require someone within the Villa camp to leak it. 

It's like we are getting this entire saga from one side, City's. 

If this is how we are going to spend the Grealish money then . 

1 minute ago, Wes said:

Morgan Rogers is an attacking player, only just turned 19. Capped at England U-15,16,17 and 18 level. Can really play on either wing or centrally behind a striker. Came through West Brom academy (so there's a link there to our current academy staff) then was purchased by City for £4m when he was just 16 - a high price for someone so young.

He is a very-highly regarded youth prospect. There was talk of Palace buying him this summer for their Vieira revolution. I'm not sure about £10m... but his value would certainly have increased from that £4m level from a few years ago.

Still got a lot of room for development. Given how the recruiting staff have aggressively been targetting youth players to join the youth setups recently, with a keen look at the pathway through to the first-team, he would be someone of interest for us. Especially with the ex-West Brom link meaning staff will know him already.

I guess the only issue would be the manner of which he might be joining us...

We paid 12 million for Konsa this dude ain't worth anywhere near 10 million. Full faith the board will reject this lame opening bid outright. 

5 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

thing is, i can see a scenario where selling Jack for 120m would actually be beneficial for the team.

thats IF, we spent the full 120m on 3-4 very very good players, plus the 80m we were already gonna spend, ie: a full 200m.

BUT, those players we bought for 200m, would need to be top keck and actually take us to the next level without Grealish.

It could be done, but the recruitment team would 100% have to ensure they had their weetabix, and NWSE would have to show their cahoona's by reinvesting every penny.

the risk is we have 200m to spend, and spunk it on trash, im more confident now than at any time in the last 20 years that we have the right recruitment team....but you just....can never be 100% sure. (especially with our transfer istory over the last decade).

Obviously i would prefer to keep jack, but gotta be realistic also, i mean...Leicester managed it......maybe we could too.

 

Selling him 15 days before the season starts, with numerous players to bring in if it happens, is super risky.

If we get £120 million in hard currency, not player swaps or hard to achieve clauses then it will absolutely propell us forward. Everyone except for the most elite clubs are in the end selling clubs. Sucks but that's the way it is. The goal should be to use that money to always propell us forward. 

2 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

You're right, not a direct comparison at all. But, Wes knows what he's doing and isn't fazed with the amounts. The guy's track record is strong. I believe in him.

I believe in Wes and the management team as well but this has little to do with them. They have offered Jack a pay raise for the 2nd year running. That's almost unheard of. 

This is solely down to Jack and his desires. 

12 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

Giannis was at the end of his contract, so he was free to leave anywhere. Wes and co went all in, gave him the supermax deal and stripped the club from any valuable draft picks and got Holiday to give enough support to Giannis. It was a huge achievement and Wes was in the middle of it. I trust he'll play this one right too.

Not a direct one to one comparison. The NBA has it setup that the original team can offer more years and a higher salary than competing teams for a player. 

This is the exact opposite Jack can get far more money from Man City than he could ever dream of here. 

The NBA forces a much more level playing field and doesn't allow teams like a City to just hoover up talent. Maybe the Prem should think about doing the same, otherwise deals like this will continue to happen. 

1 minute ago, Kiwivillan said:

£100 million vs Jack's dodgy shins

That's where I'm at. If Jack wants to go then negotiate the best deal and go get some guys who can finish a whole season. 

Always have to reject the first offer but if they go higher you have to listen.  When offers get this high the selling club almost always comes out on top. 

Damn that is a huge amount of money, especially for an opening bid. 

5 minutes ago, Eastie said:

Not sure he’d be a rotten egg - didn’t Gareth Barry stay another year when Liverpool wanted him - he gave his all for that year before finally leaving to join city - I don’t think Jack would underperform , 

He needs to deliver on the pitch for his World Cup hopes 

I can see that side as well.  So either way it all comes down to Jack. What does he want?  Guess we will find out soon enough. 

5 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

I think this is the best way of looking at it. I don't see any way they decide to sell, but all we can do is trust them.

If Jack wants out and City meet their valuation they sell. Dean is always talking about team spirit.  No way he keeps a rotten egg around to cloud the dressing room. 

4 minutes ago, KMitch said:

Spurs did the same after the sold Bale...  They reinvested poorly...  Lamela, Soldado, Paulinho, Capoue, Chiriches, Chadli, & Eriksen.  Eriksen was the only standout and Lamela turned into a decent rotation option but the rest were busts and it set the team back several years.  

Liverpool sold Coutinho and won the title with the players they purchased from that fee.  If he goes I trust our recruitment team to make some inspired signings.