João Félix

[_AA_786]

3 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

If Emery wanted him that badly, and strip everything else away, and he was open to joining us, then I imagine Emery will be fairly annoyed that we didn't land him and he still has Duran instead. 

My sense is we have tried to be too clever by half in recent weeks on sales and purchases.

If Emery loves this lad, has him in his mind as an integral part of his team and he knows the player is happy to move... I don't see su not signing him and then selling after. Our owners have cash so it's not a cash flow issue, it's an accounting issue. So Business sense would be to secure the prized asset now and then sell Duran after. If you have to take a hit on your initial valuation then so be but you've secured the signing you wanted most of all.

This is why is sounds like a lot of BS with regards to how desperately Unai wanted him. Probably said "yeah i like him, if he's available for £30m do it" as he never got there, we didn't go for it fully

[VillaParkAvenue]

8 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Apparently Chelsea and Atletico tensions are high now.. could work in our favour. Pay the money Monchi! 

Please don’t, even If we have it.

[Supervillan78]

I’m disappointed not angry.

Emery would have been the perfect manager to unlock his full potential. 
 

Time to move on…next! 

 

[The Fun Factory]

So have we signed him yet then?

[rodders0223]

It probably would have worked and as much as fans get agitated, sitting tight on a player a club is desperate to get rid is absolutely the best thing to do.

 

It's just a shame Chelsea are ran by a 12 year old.

[Demitri_C]

Its not suprising.  Was always potential this could happen when we rejected the duran deal.

I still mainatain if it was 30m + adds on that was the biggwst error monchi made so far here 

[Leeroy]

Just now, The_Steve said:

But if you believe the West Ham itks they were the ones who went back on things. West Ham spent £20m on a lad from Brazil with no league experience. They had the money but instead gave a 31-year-old a four year deal. Why should we sell players cheap though? That's not how it works. People are just finding excuses to get mad about a deal they know nothing about and because of the clips people put out from one journalist. It's all so embarrassing.  

I've no idea about the specifics of the deal but it was reported as £32m + a youth player + a sell on clause. I'm a Duran fan too (unlike some on here) and I would have accepted that if it meant bringing in a player that we actually wanted. If that money could have funded Felix and we wanted him and we've passed it up because we were playing the waiting game in the hopes of bringing the price down then we've obviously screwed up in our judgement haven't we.

 

It was always possible Felix would get snapped up by someone the longer we wait and I thought we were a club that gets its deals done early these days. Monchi has come in and seemingly taken us in another direction, playing the waiting game and it could cost us with a poor start to the season.

 

And now we have Duran, who wants to be elsewhere, and not the player we want. It's a catastrophe whichever way you try to spin it. 

[Marka Ragnos]

I feel like the quality of discussion on VT is lower when we start using categories or "groups" to describe fellow VTs instead of simply dealing with the words, claims, reasoning, evidence, even the emotional appeals posted by the individual. Just my tuppence.

This is one of those divisive topics, to be sure. If I were a betting person, I'd wager that Joao is going to end up signing for ... oh, but I'm not a betting person. He's not my favorite sort of transfer for us. I like the slightly under-the-radar types, but the problem is, people are usually under the radar for good reasons. The whole situation is largely inscrutable. I'm still not convinced we've ever been more than a leveraging tool for Jorge Mendes, and a deliberate distraction meant to unbalance our transfer approach. Why wouldn't a club like Chelsea not want us foiled? Or perhaps Monchi is pulling the strings from way, way above, and things are unfolding precisely as he hopes for now.

Edited August 12 by Marka Ragnos

[est1874]

People are losing their marbles over this guy whose output as a footballer is remarkably average. But he once nutmegged two players in one game, so some Villa fans would be happy to see us break our record for the second time in one window to get him.

Would Unai coach him into a decent player? Probably, but surely that can be true of hundreds of players we could get much cheaper who don't have his inflated sense of self and would cost less in wages. 

Edited August 12 by est1874

[catanzaro]

Surely the power triangle or whatever they call it, work in priority order. So this chap, who’s not wanted at Madrid, was not that important!

[skarroki]

I like to think we've played 4D chess here and we're going to end up talking Chelsea into paying for Felix whilst we get a cut price deal on Samu joining as Watkins backup, with Duran going to Atleti 

[thunderball]

11 minutes ago, est1874 said:

People are losing their marbles over this guy whose output as a footballer is remarkably average. But he once nutmegged two players in one game, so some Villa fans would be happy to see us break our record for the second time in one window to get him.

Would Unai coach him into a decent player? Probably, but surely that can be true of hundreds of players we could get much cheaper who don't have his inflated sense of self and would cost less in wages. 

In fairness Unai has gone big with this one so he must see something he can work with that is difference making. Thats enough for me to be enthralled and optimistic. Having looked at Baena, he would be a very satisfactory plan B if it cam eto it. WHat I do know is we do need another two or three first 11 contenders to demostrate an overall improvement on match day over last season.

[est1874]

5 minutes ago, thunderball said:

In fairness Unai has gone big with this one so he must see something he can work with that is difference making. Thats enough for me to be enthralled and optimistic. Having looked at Baena, he would be a very satisfactory plan B if it cam eto it. WHat I do know is we do need another two or three first 11 contenders to demostrate an overall improvement on match day over last season.

And how do you know that exactly?

All we know is Fabrizio Romano has said we're interested as Unai likes him.

That's literally it, that's all the info you or any of us have.

[VillaParkAvenue]

7 minutes ago, thunderball said:

WHat I do know is we do need another two or three first 11 contenders to demostrate an overall improvement on match day over last season.

The thing is, Villa have gone big financially for a couple of years. We sadly don’t have a right to demonstrate anything. We want to rejuvenate, cut wage costs, and stay competitive.

[Delphinho123]

Don’t forget we apparently have a very good relationship with Chelsea off the pitch. There are probably lots of conversations going on behind the scenes.

[smokingzen]

25 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

I've no idea about the specifics of the deal but it was reported as £32m + a youth player + a sell on clause. I'm a Duran fan too (unlike some on here) and I would have accepted that if it meant bringing in a player that we actually wanted. If that money could have funded Felix and we wanted him and we've passed it up because we were playing the waiting game in the hopes of bringing the price down then we've obviously screwed up in our judgement haven't we.

 

It was always possible Felix would get snapped up by someone the longer we wait and I thought we were a club that gets its deals done early these days. Monchi has come in and seemingly taken us in another direction, playing the waiting game and it could cost us with a poor start to the season.

 

And now we have Duran, who wants to be elsewhere, and not the player we want. It's a catastrophe whichever way you try to spin it. 

I think you need to look at the definition of catastrophe.

Storm in a tea cup maybe, catastrophe in your mind maybe, but in reality?

You've made a presumption about the deal structure (there was a good video posted here from a West Ham blogger who seemed ITK on this subject and the ever changing clause heavy deals they supposedly offered).

You've presumed that what is acceptable to you for a deal should be acceptable to the club.

You've also presumed that we have to sell to buy,  we're near the start of the FFP year so could have bought now sold later.

You've also presumed we've been playing a waiting game and that Felix wants to come here, and you've assumed we want rid of Duran.

A lot of very big assumptions required there to manufacture a catastrophe, but I do applaud your imagination  

[Marka Ragnos]

10 minutes ago, est1874 said:

And how do you know that exactly?

All we know is Fabrizio Romano has said we're interested as Unai likes him.

That's literally it, that's all the info you or any of us have.

You're 90% right. I'd go further, but not much. We also have information about Joao's patterns of transfer-window behavior, or at least, his agent's. Call it what you will but he's never seemed more than momentarily interested in Villa in these patterns. I go back to my post of last week -- the same I've been saying for about a year. (And I may well be proven wrong, I realise.)

 

[villabromsgrove]

As good as Felix is I do have concerns about too much of our (legally) disposable finances being tied up in one deal.

So far Joao has failed to make himself a nailed on first choice for any of his managers .... Can we afford this kind of gamble?

I've looked closely at his stats and was surprised by how few minutes per season he's actually played considering that he is perceived as a 'top player'. It seems he starts seasons fairly well as that is when he's played his most minutes, but then tails off to become a lesser used sub after a while.

There are also a worrying number of "ankle injuries" on his record.

I'm not trying to belittle his obvious superior skills, but worry that his ability to contribute enough productive minutes could become a real issue for us.

The PL is a tough place to play if your intrinsic attributes don't suit its very physically demanding style.

Unlikely as it currently seems I'd still be excited if he does sign for us, but at the back of mind I would be preparing for it to go wrong after an initial honeymoon period based on his career history so far. 

 

[Leeroy]

19 minutes ago, smokingzen said:

I think you need to look at the definition of catastrophe.

Storm in a tea cup maybe, catastrophe in your mind maybe, but in reality?

You've made a presumption about the deal structure (there was a good video posted here from a West Ham blogger who seemed ITK on this subject and the ever changing clause heavy deals they supposedly offered).

You've presumed that what is acceptable to you for a deal should be acceptable to the club.

You've also presumed that we have to sell to buy,  we're near the start of the FFP year so could have bought now sold later.

You've also presumed we've been playing a waiting game and that Felix wants to come here, and you've assumed we want rid of Duran.

A lot of very big assumptions required there to manufacture a catastrophe, but I do applaud your imagination  

In simple terms, it is a bit of a catastrophe. 

 

1. We are stuck with an unhappy player in Duran (am I presuming? No we know he wants to go)

2. We didn't get the player we wanted in Felix (am I presuming? Probably not, it's been widely reported we wanted Felix)

3. We are about to kick off the season in a not very good state, no high quality attacking additions this summer and our borderline world class striker hasn't seen a single minute of preseason, and we haven't even got the defence sorted either.

 

Yes I'm melodramatic but I'm also talking truth.

[Skruff]

Would have been great if we signed him, don't care if we don't. Next