striker Posted June 4 Visiting Supporter Share Posted June 4 1 hour ago, Dillon66 said: Maybe we should buy Koopmeiners and really piss on their chips.......he's a great player. Have watched Koop several times and never been impressed. No thanks. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Follyfoot Posted June 4 VT Supporter Share Posted June 4 10 minutes ago, S-Platt said: Where is Lehman playing next season could have a bearing on his decision in her ladygarden Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 10 hours ago, Rightdm00 said: We just watched Diaby have a ropey first season. Bailey took almost 2 seasons to come good. Tielemens half a season. You put the entire champions league campaign at risk if our signings don't immediately hit the ground running. Big clubs don't sell the premier assets, especially when they have a champions league campaign in front of them. It's great that we qualified for the Champions League, but the idea that we 'have a Champions League campaign in front of us' sounds a bit too presumptious. We'll be lucky to get out of the group stage, and I personally doubt we will. The advantage of qualifying is it's fun, it's novel, and most importantly it's a big pay-day that hopefully helps the club buy better players and assume a more stable position in the top half of the league going forward. When looked at it in that light, it would be nice but is definitely not crucial for players to 'hit the ground running' in August. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 Just now, HanoiVillan said: It's great that we qualified for the Champions League, but the idea that we 'have a Champions League campaign in front of us' sounds a bit too presumptious. We'll be lucky to get out of the group stage, and I personally doubt we will. The advantage of qualifying is it's fun, it's novel, and most importantly it's a big pay-day that hopefully helps the club buy better players and assume a more stable position in the top half of the league going forward. When looked at it in that light, it would be nice but is definitely not crucial for players to 'hit the ground running' in August. There is no group stage in the new format, it's a league now and we have 8 games minimum, that is the campaign, anything after that is a bonus. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 1 minute ago, duke313 said: There is no group stage in the new format, it's a league now and we have 8 games minimum, that is the campaign, anything after that is a bonus. That's what I meant by 'the group stage' tbh, sorry if that was unclear. I guess I should have said 'the league stage' or something. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 (edited) Noises on Doug - Juve getting louder. The " McKennie " swap notion is hilarious though. If there is any truth to us doing a deal with Juve, it certainly won't be that one Would most likely be a large chunk of cash and maybe 2 - 3 players imo. Either this, or it's just US who are actually interested in a player or two from Juve, and the media are playing 2 + 2 = 3 Edited June 4 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLillis Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 6 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: That's what I meant by 'the group stage' tbh, sorry if that was unclear. I guess I should have said 'the league stage' or something. but it is a campaign though. It does need to be planned for...its not presumptuous. There are a lot of fans (mostly Bluenoses i might add) that think this will be over before its started. It wont. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HanoiVillan Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 1 minute ago, MarkLillis said: but it is a campaign though. It does need to be planned for...its not presumptuous. There are a lot of fans (mostly Bluenoses i might add) that think this will be over before its started. It wont. To my mind, the word 'campaign' suggests some realistic prospect of winning it or getting to the latter stages, which I obviously do not agree we have. I agree our CL commitments need to be planned for, but that can equally mean 'having a sufficiently large squad that rotation is a real possibility', which in turn might mean selling one or two of our best players. My dispute really is with the idea that it will be some kind of disaster if we don't get players who are brilliant immediately from minute one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villarule123 Posted June 4 VT Supporter Share Posted June 4 Luiz for Vlahovic Duran for Gallagher Simples. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 8 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Noises on Doug - Juve getting louder. The " McKennie " swap notion is hilarious though. If there is any truth to us doing a deal with Juve, it certainly won't be that one Would most likely be a large chunk of cash and maybe 2 - 3 players imo. Either this, or it's just US who are actually interested in a player or two from Juve, and the media are playing 2 + 2 = 3 It’s just Italian media BS and baseless speculation… the player they might actually want is Koopmeiners (that’s also being reported on)… seems like we are giving far too much airtime and credence to the crap they are spouting, it’s what they do. We aren’t selling Dougie for 40m FFS and why would he want to leave now, when we are doing the best we possibly could and going to be playing in the CL? The lad stuck around when we were struggling to stay up, now he wants out all of a sudden? Yeah right Clearly loves the club, shows his passion and celebrates our wins and achievements with joy… these lads are going to enjoy showing their best for us on the best competition. N no thanks to McKennie… we don’t want Juve’s deadwood. Nonsense rubbish. Noise is all it is and it’s going to be persistent all summer… the window hasn’t even opened and we’re having to see all this shite how much worse is it going to get?! Should really not believe it and fan the flames… 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 On 02/06/2024 at 13:33, VillaChris said: Yeah Barca take the pee so much with comings and goings. Ultimately their calling card is location and general size of club so they'll always have endless players wanting to join them regardless of their chaotic finances. Luiz also played for Girona for a season before joining us. I guess the only unknown was we quickly concluded the Lenglet deal after Mings injury so there might have been a secret agreement for them to get first dibs on a Luiz if that player becomes available. Don't they still owe the Baggies 250k for Louie Barrie?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rightdm00 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 10 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said: It's great that we qualified for the Champions League, but the idea that we 'have a Champions League campaign in front of us' sounds a bit too presumptious. We'll be lucky to get out of the group stage, and I personally doubt we will. The advantage of qualifying is it's fun, it's novel, and most importantly it's a big pay-day that hopefully helps the club buy better players and assume a more stable position in the top half of the league going forward. When looked at it in that light, it would be nice but is definitely not crucial for players to 'hit the ground running' in August. I highly doubt a manager as competitive as Unai is looking at the champions league as a fun night out. He will want to win it, at the bare minimum look to lay a marker showing Europe that Villa are a serious club with real ambition. Also, with the goal to establish Villa as a CL club we will need to once again compete for a top 4 position. With a player like Douglas, the only clubs looking to purchase him are your direct rivals. Whether that be in your domestic league or European competition. That just isn't smart. Big clubs don't sell key players to their direct rivals, peripheral players like Palmer to Chelsea happen but definitely not a player who started the 2nd most games in the previous campaign. If we sell Douglas it will be because we are forced to sell due to the player refusing to reup his contract. Which if it happens, fine, you make do and figure out the best way to move forward. The idea that we should look to actively flog one of our key players, in the prime of his career, on the market is serious crazy talk. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 Cue the new contract… 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 2 minutes ago, Jas10 said: It’s just Italian media BS and baseless speculation… the player they might actually want is Koopmeiners (that’s also being reported on)… seems like we are giving far too much airtime and credence to the crap they are spouting, it’s what they do. We aren’t selling Dougie for 40m FFS and why would he want to leave now, when we are doing the best we possibly could and going to be playing in the CL? The lad stuck around when we were struggling to stay up, now he wants out all of a sudden? Yeah right Clearly loves the club, shows his passion and celebrates our wins and achievements with joy… these lads are going to enjoy showing their best for us on the best competition. N no thanks to McKennie… we don’t want Juve’s deadwood. Nonsense rubbish. Noise is all it is and it’s going to be persistent all summer… the window hasn’t even opened and we’re having to see all this shite how much worse is it going to get?! Should really not believe it and fan the flames… Koopmeiners is to @paul514 what Chiesa is to you.... And what any player over 6 ft 3 is to TRO. Scenes and head explosions when we sign Chiesa AND Koopmeiners! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
duke313 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 2 minutes ago, Jas10 said: Cue the new contract… This is the most simple explanation IMO. His contract is up in two years, he's our best midfielder and is earning half of what Kamara and Tielemans are on. All this is, is his agent stoking the flames to get him a better deal. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Czarnikjak Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 3 minutes ago, duke313 said: This is the most simple explanation IMO. His contract is up in two years, he's our best midfielder and is earning half of what Kamara and Tielemans are on. All this is, is his agent stoking the flames to get him a better deal. Why was Monchi in Turin then? Sightseeing? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 1 minute ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: Koopmeiners is to @paul514 what Chiesa is to you.... And what any player over 6 ft 3 is to TRO. Scenes and head explosions when we sign Chiesa AND Koopmeiners! Bring me this midfield and attack Watkins Bailey Chiesa Luiz Koopmeiners McGinn Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 5 minutes ago, duke313 said: This is the most simple explanation IMO. His contract is up in two years, he's our best midfielder and is earning half of what Kamara and Tielemans are on. All this is, is his agent stoking the flames to get him a better deal. He deserves it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 I would agree that he’s our most valuable, sellable/profitable player but that doesn’t mean we’re looking to sell… and he’s not the only asset we have. There are other “candidates” if people want to have that conversation… not one for me though. I can’t believe we’ll let anyone go for anything other than a monstrous offer… if big bids don’t arrive, we retain our core and spine and add with savvy, sensible deals without taking big financial risks… we don’t need to spend lavishly and can’t. Sure we won’t undersell anyone and I’m certainly not going to believe BS spouting journos… they’re just not credible. And I feel the FFP/PSR thing is being overblown… club have got their finger on the pulse and no one on the outside is going to know the details. We’ve arguably managed to do the best that we could - get into CL and boost revenue streams already. I don’t get the negativity and pessimism… there’s a lot to be excited and enthusiastic about. We’re not going to go backwards and Unai wouldn’t stand for it. We’ve put ourselves in the best possible situation to kick on and I’m sure players like Dougie are delighted, excited and invested… big Emi is a great example and influence for them all too. Woild be madness to disturb, disrupt and weaken a side that have just qualified for CL and taken a big step up…we have to be stronger and more competitive. Selling a key component, especially below peak/optimum value, would be stupid and harmful. We have enough cast offs to move on… Also… I can’t imagine there are any/many players that played regularly who would want to leave… after all we have achieved and the progress we have made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
barry'sboots Posted June 4 Share Posted June 4 On 02/06/2024 at 16:26, striker said: I'm glad I amuse you and I'm going to amuse you some more. When Luiz was out injured and Tielemans in the DM role Villa played better football. Luiz wasn't missed until Tielemans picked up an injury. I've also read on here that Luiz is Villa's most technically gifted midfielder. In fact the best midfielder Villa have. I'm obviously in the minority but for me McGinn is better and much more consistent. Apart from one fantastic pass to Watkins I've seen nothing from Luiz to suggest he is more technically gifted than McGinn or Tielemans. Both Tielemans and McGinn affect the game consistently more and are more forward thinking in their play. I also see someone has turned their nose up at 40m for Luiz. Considering a few seasons ago Arsenal were prepared to pay 25m - 30m. 40m and I'd drive him to whatever club offered that. Luiz is vastly overrated on here and is continually excused when having a bad game which is far too often for my liking. He is a lightweight midfielder that contributes 1 in 6 games and is another reason why Villa are too easy to play through at times. Sell him, put the money towards Gallagher and Villa will have a far more efficient and effective midfield! Lots of debate on here as to who is our best midfielder. I think our best side would feature SJM - Kamara - Luiz - Ramsey. I think that's a fantastic set of midfielders, especially when you consider it's cost us circa £18m! For me, Kamara and Luiz are up there with the best double pivot pairing in the league and are both still young enough to really develop. Our problems have come when one of those can't play and we have to shuffle them around. Tielemans, Barkley and now Buendia and Rogers are great options that mean we can rotate, sub, suffer injuries without a drop off, which is what you need to compete especially with UCL football next year. The one hole that we currently have is an alternative for Kamara. Without him currently, Luiz has to play 6 and he is nowhere near as effective there. I think that this has led to an apparent drop off in Luiz's form in the second half of the season. Someone mentioned comparing PPG with and without Kamara - I think that this would show a significant drop off but not necessarily because he is our best midfielder but because the squad can't cover for his loss. If you asked Leicester fans, the same was true with Tielemans with and without Ndidi alongside. We had the same for the first half of the year with Ramsey out but bringing in Rogers, and with Buendia back, means we have good options for cover. It doesn't look like Tim is trusted to be Kamara's cover/has developed as quickly as we might have hoped. If we were to bring in Ndidi, again on a free, or, say, Arblaster, I think we would have a really strong midfield that is capable of competing on all fronts. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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