Summer Transfer Window (2024/25)

[Keyblade]

24 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Gallagher cannot match Super John Mcginn for tenacity and those lovely low spins… lets stop this sillyness now Mcginn at times is pure class the way he can wriggle away from 2/3 players and ping a perfect ball across the field, you wont see those type of magic moments from gallagher no way! 

Gallagher's whole deal is his industriousness and tenacity. I think SJM is irreplaceable for what he means to this club but in footballing terms, what he does for the team can much more easily be replaced than someone who can control the tempo of a match. The arse roll is cool and all, but is it more valuable than someone who can keep possession under pressure? Those kinds of players are becoming extinct, and the good ones are like gold dust. We happen to have one, and I'd caution we shouldn't so easily part with him.

[bobzy]

7 hours ago, Keyblade said:

I think it's the opposite. McGinn you can replace as a footballer. Gallagher would do just fine in replicating his energy and tenacity as well as chipping in with goals. Luiz's ability to dictate play and be calm under pressure, and just overall ability to truly play box to box is not easy to find. Lest we forget he's also put set piece and penalty taker. I'm actually taken aback at how underrated he is by our fanbase. He's in the Martinez/Watkins tier of damn near irreplaceable for whatever fee we might get.

There aren’t many footballers out there who play like McGinn and give us what he does. Similar to Watkins. You can replace them both as footballers and there are better midfielders and strikers out there (Luiz is technically superior to McGinn, for example) but for the way in which we play they are almost perfect for us.

Luiz is “just” a good midfielder. You could replace him relatively easily (it would just cost a lot of money). Other players can take free kicks and penalties.

We’ve had periods without Martinez and Luiz this season. Without Martinez, we’ve been poor. Without Luiz we’ve been… the same as usual?

[jimmygreaves]

We need to build a squad with depth, strength and options. If we want to challenge at the top end of the table and compete in cup competitions we need to have players who aren't flogged to death when we're on the home straight. 

We all saw the struggle we had February onwards. Everyone was knackered and performances dipped.

All these conversations of selling X player or buying this new guy to replace [first team regular] isn't what we're doing.

Everyone in the squad going forward should be of high enough quality to start matches. We'll have very good players on the bench. Gallagher, potentially, coming in means others won't have to play 55 games.

We'll perpetually struggle if our rotation choices are of the ilk of Chambers.

[theboyangel]

Daily Heil linking Watkins with a move to Liverpool

The modern day sports journalist must be the easiest job in the world…

make up a rumour and get paid for it! 

[jacketspuds]

Other than Man City, I'm pretty sure all of the other clubs in the Top 6 would love to have Watkins in their team as they all need a striker.

Thankfully he's our player and they can all get ****.

Edited May 30 by jacketspuds

[burchy]

It would be good to have a CM that can ping decent long balls in transition for the likes of Watkins, Bailey etc. would be a good foil to have when against the higher placed sides. It’s the reason why I’ve suggested Veerman at PSV as he has about 15 assists this season or something silly like that. 

[DaoDeMings]

9 minutes ago, burchy said:

It would be good to have a CM that can ping decent long balls in transition for the likes of Watkins, Bailey etc. would be a good foil to have when against the higher placed sides. It’s the reason why I’ve suggested Veerman at PSV as he has about 15 assists this season or something silly like that. 

Would love a midfielder who can do that. Since teams started sitting deep against us we've been crying out for a player with great vision and passing. Tielemans filled the role to some extent but was of course in and out of the team with injury.

[Herman22]

48 minutes ago, theboyangel said:

Daily Heil linking Watkins with a move to Liverpool

The modern day sports journalist must be the easiest job in the world…

make up a rumour and get paid for it! 

They said United, now Liverpool. Next week it will be Arsenal (you know he’s an Arsenal fan?????) and the week after it will be Spurs. The reality is no one can afford him and Ollie will be leading the line for a Villa team in the CL for the first time ever! 

[HeyAnty]

24 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

They said United, now Liverpool. Next week it will be Arsenal (you know he’s an Arsenal fan?????) and the week after it will be Spurs. The reality is no one can afford him and Ollie will be leading the line for a Villa team in the CL for the first time ever! 

Obvs its BS, but for Arguments sake what would Villa sell him for.  If 100m came, i think they would sell.

[Dillon66]

1 hour ago, theboyangel said:

Daily Heil linking Watkins with a move to Liverpool

The modern day sports journalist must be the easiest job in the world…

make up a rumour and get paid for it! 

The Mirror and Express all carrying same story this morning........presumably from same BS source ?

[Dillon66]

6 minutes ago, HeyAnty said:

Obvs its BS, but for Arguments sake what would Villa sell him for.  If 100m came, i think they would sell.

I'm pretty sure we would too......

[Delphinho123]

I’m really comfortable about the links on Watkins moving away.

If he were ever to be sold, he’d cost somebody a f****** fortune. 

[DaoDeMings]

1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said:

I’m really comfortable about the links on Watkins moving away.

If he were ever to be sold, he’d cost somebody a f****** fortune. 

Agreed. Obviously want him to stay, but if someone really insists on buying him we're getting a ridiculous fee that probably helps us out in the long run

[Delphinho123]

1 minute ago, DaoDeMings said:

Agreed. Obviously want him to stay, but if someone really insists on buying him we're getting a ridiculous fee that probably helps us out in the long run

Yep. It would be £90m+. 

He’s not irreplaceable, but it would be extremely difficult for us to get anybody that can do what he did last season.

I don’t want him to be sold, but if there is a mad bidding war (like what happened with Caicedo), then it would be interesting to see what happens. 

[Awol]

1 minute ago, DaoDeMings said:

Agreed. Obviously want him to stay, but if someone really insists on buying him we're getting a ridiculous fee that probably helps us out in the long run

Replacing his goals and assists would likely cost us the same fee that we got for him, players at his level are rare as rocking horse **** and scarcity dictates value. 

If we need to balance the books then it’s Duran plus whatever else we need to offload from the periphery of the squad. Ollie, Martinez, Dougie, SJM, etc. are the untouchables. 

[DaoDeMings]

Just now, Awol said:

Replacing his goals and assists would likely cost us the same fee that we got for him, players at his level are rare as rocking horse **** and scarcity dictates value. 

If we need to balance the books then it’s Duran plus whatever else we need to offload from the periphery of the squad. Ollie, Martinez, Dougie, SJM, etc. are the untouchables. 

Obviously I'd rather offload Duran etc. instead. It's just if someone really insists on buying Watkins we're getting £80m probably. With that money you can replace his contributions, no doubt.

[nick76]

not specifically linked to Villa though

[M_Afro]

We’ll never sell Watkins. His output’s, consistency and availability are incredible. We’d need to buy two players to replace him. I suspect that him and Martinez are the two untouchables in our squad.

[Mic09]

1 minute ago, M_Afro said:

We’ll never sell Watkins. His output’s, consistency and availability are incredible. We’d need to buy two players to replace him. I suspect that him and Martinez are the two untouchables in our squad.

[sheepyvillian]

4 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

We’ll never sell Watkins. His output’s, consistency and availability are incredible. We’d need to buy two players to replace him. I suspect that him and Martinez are the two untouchables in our squad.

It's naive to say we'll never sell players. If there's a clause in their contracts there's not much you can do to stop them leaving, especially if the player wants to leave.