Summer Transfer Window (2024/25)

[OutByEaster?]

Just now, Leeroy said:

You’ve also missed out Ramsey and Duran (unless you were assuming we were selling them).

Duran I missed out because he's going - Ramsey I put in the starting eleven then removed and forgot to put back on the bench

Edited now.

[ferguson1]

5 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I guess if you were to look at a potential matchday squad (and this is just one I'm picking off the top of my head) and including our summer signings, (I'm adding Barkley) right now it'd look like this:

Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Maatsen, Barkley, Tielemans, McGinn, Bailey, Diaby, Watkins

subs Olsen, Gauci, Cash, Mings, Digne, Barrenechea, Buendia, Rogers, Illing-Junior.

There's only really Nedljkovic, Dobbin and Kamara missing there and for me it shows we're both short of quality in the middle of the park and a few short on numbers in general.

Right now, Chambers and Dendoncker would still be in with a shout of getting in our matchday squad.

 

Ramsey?  Duran hasn’t left (yet).

[OutByEaster?]

Just now, ferguson1 said:

Ramsey?  Duran hasn’t left (yet).

Ramsey was an oops - Illing-Junior, Barrenechea and Barkely haven't arrived yet either, but I've made some assumptions.

[allani]

56 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think Maatsen is the only player of those bought so far that I'd expect to play a significant part in our first team this season, many of the others won't be in the match day squad for the most part. 

We've strengthened at a position where we were already pretty good, and weakened significantly in the position where we had least depth at the end of last season. 

I think we'll spend heavily on one or two central midfielders and I think that'll make us a better side and give us more options - but right now, I'd say we're weaker than we were in May.

It's been a while since I have disagreed with you.  But I do on this.  I think Enzo and SIJ will both play a lot this season.  All reports suggests that SIJ was one of the first players we asked Juve about and most reports suggest that Juve were pretty reluctant to include Enzo until it became clear that that was the only way they were going to be able to guarantee getting Luiz.  Do they definitely improve our starting XI (assuming no injuries to any player in our squad)?  Maybe not.  Have they improved our squad?  Undoubtedly.  Might they be seen to have improved our starting XI in 1 or 2 years?  I think "yes" as I think they both have really high ceilings talent wise (as endorsed by some of the views I've been hearing from Italy).

As for the are we better or weaker at the end of June than the end of May - I'd probably agree with you.  But I think that will be very different by the middle / end of July (maybe even by the end of next week).

[Tomaszk]

5 minutes ago, useless said:

Gray would probably cost thirty or forty million, definitley wouldn't be someone to just make a profit on, although wouldn't come straight into our first team either, he isn't really a standout at Championship level, it's the fact that he's as good as he is at such a young that makes him so valuable and sought after, contines on the same trajectory, will be a big player

Agree with all that.

I wouldn't drop him straight into a Premier League midfield, don't think he's quite there yet.

Coming in alongside an older head who can definitely play the position but might need some rotating like, I don't know....Ross Barkley? Now that would line-up perfectly.

And he's played a lot at RB and CB so can pick up plenty of minutes there.

This lad is good.

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

26 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Let’s just cut out the catty comments shall we, this isn’t a playground, maybe I was harsh on @allani in my response but I’m not sure why you couldn’t let him answer for himself.

 

We are not going to be able to keep picking up central midfielders for free or on the cheap like we did with McGinn, Kamara and Tielemans, eventually we are going to have to invest in this area and right now it needs investment. If you can suggest a quality midfielder we can get on the cheap go ahead but the truth is (and I’m not alone here reading through the comments) we are going to have to go into the market and spend a bit of money here. 
 

Until we start hearing of potential signings in this part of the pitch I will keep going on about it because it needs fixing. And currently we aren’t being strongly linked with any real quality central midfield players.

In fairness I never even realised it was @allani you were going back and forth with.

Aside from this, I've seen you make the same or similar comments consistently.

So again, what indication have you been given that we won't be signing more players or players of a high quality?

We just signed a Left Back worth 37 mill and it's widely reported that Unai wants more players. ( Yes I know Maatsen is basically part ex but still )

Do you think Unai Emery and the club aren't aware that we need to improve the overall quality of the squad?

Improving the SQUAD is just as important as improving the first team at this point.

I feel we have similar mini anxiety attacks every window.

In truth, we've already improved the overall squad, and have players like Buendia and JJ plus Mings coming back from injury who played no part last season.

Edited Saturday at 15:00 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[CVByrne]

10 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I guess if you were to look at a potential matchday squad (and this is just one I'm picking off the top of my head) and including our summer signings, (I'm adding Barkley) right now it'd look like this:

Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Maatsen, Barkley, Tielemans, McGinn, Bailey, Diaby, Watkins

subs Olsen, Gauci, Cash, Mings, Digne, Barrenechea, Buendia, Ramsey, Rogers..

There's only really Nedljkovic, Dobbin, Illing-Junior and Kamara missing there and for me it shows we're both short of quality in the middle of the park and a few short on numbers in general.

Right now, Chambers and Dendoncker would still be in with a shout of getting in our matchday squad.

 

I'd say Cash over Carlos and JJ or Rogers over Barkley. I think Tielemans and McGinn were very good as a 2 when they played together. 

I think there's not a massive amount to the first 11 were going to do. Unless new CM we bring in is like Gallagher and if bring in a new RB for Cash. 

[STO]

We need a dominant central midfielder as that lot can go missing at times. 

[OutByEaster?]

13 minutes ago, allani said:

It's been a while since I have disagreed with you.  But I do on this.  I think Enzo and SIJ will both play a lot this season.  All reports suggests that SIJ was one of the first players we asked Juve about and most reports suggest that Juve were pretty reluctant to include Enzo until it became clear that that was the only way they were going to be able to guarantee getting Luiz.  Do they definitely improve our starting XI (assuming no injuries to any player in our squad)?  Maybe not.  Have they improved our squad?  Undoubtedly.  Might they be seen to have improved our starting XI in 1 or 2 years?  I think "yes" as I think they both have really high ceilings talent wise (as endorsed by some of the views I've been hearing from Italy).

Illing-Junior is the one that's a little mysterious for me - I think Barrenechea replaces Iroegbunam and that makes sense, and I guess Illing-Junior replaces Zaniolo - but I think we've already done that with Rogers and having Ramsey back. I'm hoping his arrival doesn't indicate the end of Ramsey, but if it doesn't then I think he'll have to be some player to push past Ramsey and Rogers to play a lot.

I think we're bringing in some excellent prospects and we'll be fascinating to watch if we get the right draws in the domestic cups, but I'm not sure at the moment whether anyone but Maatsen makes the matchday squad or bench come August.

Quote

As for the are we better or weaker at the end of June than the end of May - I'd probably agree with you.  But I think that will be very different by the middle / end of July (maybe even by the end of next week).

Absolutely, I'm comfortable enough with where we are right now - I think there's plenty of time to do business and I think we know what we want to do - it'll be interesting to see who comes in.

[allani]

11 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Ok my apologies for being short with you. I agree that up to now our business has been brilliant in the CM positions, and you’re right spending lots of money doesn’t guarantee success. From our point of view, it would be much better if we could sign a quality player on the cheap.

 

I think what my point was is that I’d like us to be prepared to spend big in that area. We’ve just lost 2 crucial players in that part of the pitch, and I don’t think it will be fixed by Barkley and Barrenechea. It doesn’t even have to be a huge fee - Fofana for example is available for £25m because he has one year left on his contract. Anyway there is plenty of time to get it fixed so no need to panic just yet, but I do hope we can make progress in the next couple of weeks before preseason starts. 

No probs.  And ditto in response.  I agree that Fofana would be an excellent signing and would work well - in that I like the fact that he can play instead of Kamara or Tielemans / Barkley (albeit not the same type of player) but that he can also play with Kamara and Tielemans / Barkley.  I think it also gives us some cover with Enzo so that we can blood him a bit more gently if we need to (which we might not).  I can certainly see a few games where a Enzo / Fofana / Tielemans midfield would be very beneficial to the cause.

[OutByEaster?]

4 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I'd say Cash over Carlos and JJ or Rogers over Barkley. I think Tielemans and McGinn were very good as a 2 when they played together. 

Personally, I think that both McGinn and Tielemans are out of position when asked to be the central pivot - you get the best of both of them further up the pitch.

[pintpotvilla]

I think Goncalves and Ugarte would sort our midfield very nicely. They would cost a small fortune but they would make a real force to be reckoned with

[MaVilla]

40 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Personally, I think that both McGinn and Tielemans are out of position when asked to be the central pivot - you get the best of both of them further up the pitch.

Not sure about Tielemans, he looked superb there at times, but i do agree that it isnt his best position, and we should be playing him elsewhere.

McGinn on the other hand looked terrible whenever he played centrally, its 100% not his position.

I just hope we buy two central midfielders (1 x DM - no.6, 1 x CM - no.8 ).

if we could get a real technical and dominant CM pairing, it would change our team i reckon.

so Barrenchea, Barkley and 2 more midfielders, then rogers, buendia, bailey, diaby, tielemans, mcginn, ramsey, Iling Jr can compete for the 3 other midfield positions of left inside mid, right inside mid, and the SS/AM role, tielemans can also cover CM if needed.

if anything, we are overly stacked in the forward areas, and way too light in the CM positions.

Edited Saturday at 15:48 by MaVilla

[RicRic]

5 hours ago, Leeroy said:

I've been looking through the squad and it is clear we have underinvested in the central midfield compared to the rest of the squad. 

 

In attack we have spent big money on Watkins, Bailey, Buendia and Diaby. In defence big money on Carlos, Mings, Torres and Maatsen. Martinez for a goalkeeper wasn't cheap (although brilliantly spent).

 

Luiz was our most expensive central midfielder at £15m and he's off. McGinn - £3m, Tielemans - free, Kamara - free, Barkley - £5m. Obviously Kamara, Tielemans and McGinn are worth far more than we paid for them but Kamara is now injured for a while. I'd like to see us spend £30-40m on at least one central midfielder in July because it is necessary.

 

In contrast our rivals have spent much more than us in this area of the pitch:

• Spurs - Hojbjerg, Bentancur, Bissouma were all £20m+
• Chelsea - hundreds of millions spent
• Newcastle - spent about £100m on Guimaeres and Tonali 
• Man Utd - poor midfield but spent a lot on likes of Mount and Casemiro (badly spent of course)
• Liverpool - spent summer 2023 fixing their midfield by spending around £100m on MaCallister and Szoboszlai 

 

And of course Arsenal and Man City have spent a fortune on their midfield too. All those midfields except maybe Man Utd are a fair bit better than ours. 

 

If we don't sort this area of the pitch out ASAP we will be in trouble going into next season. 

We will mate plenty time left keep the faithb

[allani]

1 minute ago, OutByEaster? said:

Illing-Junior is the one that's a little mysterious for me - I think Barrenechea replaces Iroegbunam and that makes sense, and I guess Illing-Junior replaces Zaniolo - but I think we've already done that with Rogers and having Ramsey back. I'm hoping his arrival doesn't indicate the end of Ramsey, but if it doesn't then I think he'll have to be some player to push past Ramsey and Rogers to play a lot.

I think we're bringing in some excellent prospects and we'll be fascinating to watch if we get the right draws in the domestic cups, but I'm not sure at the moment whether anyone but Maatsen makes the bench come August.

Absolutely, I'm comfortable enough with where we are right now - I think there's plenty of time to do business and I think we know what we want to do - it'll be interesting to see who comes in.

I think you will be pleasantly surprised by Enzo.  I think he's somewhere between Kamara and Tim - but will be ready to play in August (at the very least as a sub).  Three or four guys I listen to a lot when it comes to Serie A think he'll be top class and that he would have been involved at Juve this season. 

SIJ is an interesting one - he's quite different to Ramsey and Rogers and I can really see a Maatsen / SIJ partnership working well down the left.

[CVByrne]

19 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Personally, I think that both McGinn and Tielemans are out of position when asked to be the central pivot - you get the best of both of them further up the pitch.

Agreed on McGinn, disagree on Tielemans. Think his passing ability is needed in a 2 ideally with Kamara. Tielemans also a good defender 

[Pongo Waring]

Gray signed for Brentford

 

 

[villa4europe]

Brentford buying 18 year olds for £35m

The PL is the super league 

[gwi1890]

1 minute ago, Pongo Waring said:

Gray signed for Brentford

 

 

35m for a lad who’s never played premier league football how dare they inflate prices like this…..

[CarryOnVilla]

1 minute ago, Pongo Waring said:

Gray signed for Brentford

 

 

“Fair market value”