The College Dropout

Tonali and Isak. Big in fee and reputation. Trippier was a massive coup at the time too. Botman and Bruno were highly rated too. Linked to some other big clubs. Maybe not mega but close. We’ve done really well in getting players top clubs were having a look at but had not pulled the trigger. And we got one from a big club and beat that same big club to another one.

We’ve made at least a couple mega signings and a few players for big money that are either proven or have high upside. Madueke was less productive than Minteh was in the Eredivisie. There must be better options than him for £40m.

Fully agreed.

Shopping in Milan and Chelsea is always an expensive endeavour. I don’t know why we would follow that route? Doesn’t seem like Mitchell signings.

Can do better than Madueke for £40m man.

Nah man - surely not.

There’s zero evidence that Howe intended to play Gordon RW. Barnes joined in July and only started a game in September due to the CL games kicking in. All evidence is that’s the role he was brought in for. Rotation and competition with Gordon. Thats a decision with some logic but not a wise one imo considering our limited budget and more pressing concerns. Signing Barnes would be like us signing a £30m left back in January last season because Hall had not settled in yet. We knew Gordon wasn’t the finished article when we signed him. He was a long term investment. We should’ve done what we’ve now done at LB. Get in a relatively cheap option on loan or permanently to provide competition. It was oppportunistic because the player was available.

Lad just gone to Bournemouth has a Lucius comp. Some great passing. Tall looks quick. Thiaw looks aggressive and wiick enough and tall enough. But doesn’t have that sexy passing range. Thiaw looks like the kind of lad you should be at 20 for like £12m. Hes still young tbf. Fee seems reasonable.

Nah he did all the transfer dealings. He may not have identified players. But he got deals done. Helped negotiate fee and wages. He went to Sociedad to get Isak. He was dealing with the Joelinton contract.

Aye so it’s not a disaster. It’s just not ideal. And we have one in.

The delays are understandable due to the changes. It’s far from ideal but the transfer window is very much ‘alls well that ends well’. I’m blaming Staveley and co. for a lot of this. Which is the kindest thing I can do to the club. They’re gone now. Professionals in place. I trust them to get it right.

I assume he means that we knew Ashworth was gone from February. So we should have brought in a new SDin time to plan for the next transfer window. Or at least - have a workable plan to execute without his direct input while he gets up to speed. Neither happened.

That’s a view. At the time it was being reported that Ashworth wanted to keep the sale option open. Joelinton had 15 months left - Ashworth was definitely considering the sale. As soon as he was on gardening leave - Eddie Staveley and co. moved to secure Joelinton. That’s what was reported at the time. I think Ashworth wanted multiple cards in his deck for FFP. Staveley, Eddie and co. were less concerned. And that’s the best case scenario imo. Because we can blame the Ashworth BS and the other leadership people have left and it wasn’t their jobs or skill set to make us FFP compliant.

Sorry why is that a fact? That suggests the best deals to be had in the window are at the very end? That goes directly against common thought. Clubs don’t need PSR sales in August. What you do get is clubs with players to loan. Quality players are usually signed at a premium towards the end of a window. Or there’s deadwood available. Im sorry. Judicious clubs do their work early. We lost half our leadership team in July and hired a new point man for transfers who needs to assess everything about the club which is taking time. That’s the most logical reason for moving slowly in the market. And that we may need to shift more players to ensure we can afford the players we want come next June.

Having the release clause expire in June I think is a clear strategy by the club to ensure that if he is sold - he helps the current seasons FFP. He continued his fantastic form. I think that was a sensible route to before ffp issues, get spending money and act like we didn’t want to sell him. That all makes sense - no? You see a took a fact - which led to an idea based on that fact. Clearly examples by using the words ‘the fact.. leads me to think’. It’s an idea that could be wrong but one based on what we do know. Not presented as fact. But a logical thought. Where there’s rumour - I’ve said so. Again could be wrong. I can’t believe we would pin our FFP strategy in August of the same FFP financial year on a 19 year old from Odensse quadrupling his value that season so we could sell him by July. I shouldn’t have to say this…….. that’s not good planning. Those responsible for that plan aren’t here anymore anyway. So we move.

Aye right tbf Chelsea are the shadiest. Forgot about their hotel shit.

To add - I also think the plan was to buy the Atalanta Ederson. From what I could tell - a similar profile. Younger. And at least it’s a coherent plan with forethought. That’s what I’m commending Villa for. Having a plan to reconcile their spending spree for FFP that they could execute comfortably. I can accept our plan A was selling Bruno - and I hate that. I love Bruno. Think he’s hard to replace. I hate that plan. But it’s clear and coherent. We didn’t have a plan B, so Minteh saved the day by doing so well at Feyenoord and we did the SHADIEST FFP deals out of all the clubs. Because we had no other decent plans. That’s poor leadership and management. I think Ashworth would’ve prevented it becoming so desperate. And so would Mitchell if he was in place and Staveley and co. Weren’t. PIF recognise that wasn’t a good way to handle it.

The fact we did all our deals for 1st July makes me think we needed that money to be compliant. Not that it gives us tremendous headroom for new transfers. And the rumours seem to suggest we aren’t looking at the top of our wish lists either (Thiaw). And we are still actively trying to sell a few more. IMO it’s those transfers that will give us the real wriggle room to invest. Why did we not know Almiron had no desire to go Saudi? If not Saudi, it would be silly to expect decent money for Almiron. I had this discussion loads last season - always maintained the European market for Almiron wouldn’t pay a good fee for him. TCD being right again. I’m sure the club knew that too. Never getting £50m for Almiron and Wilson in Europe. I’m sure the club knew that.

We ended up being desperate. Why did we end up in a desperate situation? When did we realise nobody would want Almiron and Longstaff??? for the last time - we didn’t even get the best fee. We secured no sell on or buyback. And that ended up being the best outcome. By far. And not one we knew we could leverage when we should’ve been planning our escape route.

Agree about their previous spending. I was critical of it then but I didn’t realise they had buybacks for their young players. They’ve seemingly stopped signing players 28+ for FFP reasons. Agree fortunate on the Diaby money. Unfortunate on the Luiz deal. But Saudi wanted Diaby last year too. And if not Saudi - they would’ve still received decent money for him. They knew they needed to do shady deals so secured some bright young talent from Chelsea.

The HG players they’ve sold - seem to all have buy back options. The shady deals they’ve brought in are for young players with high ceilings. They could sell all of them next summer and at least break even PSR accounting wise. Luiz they got a bad fee. But they got a great fee for Diaby. Only questionable one is the Onana fee and I don’t think they’ve brought in a passer for midfield. Maatsen fee a tad high too.

Yes. He was at the peak of his value. I’m a big fan but I don’t think he’s irreplaceable. It looks like we were lining up a potential replacement in Ederson. Now he’s going to be hard to shift due to his age, salary and ability (in Europe anyway).

Not really. Because these transfers help them out with PSR going forward. They’ve bought young players with high reputations they can continue to trade in future transfer windows. As someone Said, low risk high ceiling. Philogene could have a bad season and be sold for a gross profit next season. The drawback is they might be prioritising that over the exact profiles they need. I don’t think they needed Maatsen for example. But as a FFP favour he improves the first team, high ceiling, could sell him for good money going forward. Our FFP favour signing doesnt improve the first team, is unlikely to play, and we’ll not get good money for him. It looks like we couldn’t agree a deal for any of their players we wouldn’t actually want (Elanga rumours) so we took someone on low wages for a fee that would make us and Forest FFP compliant.

To have an actionable plan from Jan/Feb 2024. Selling Minteh couldn’t have been the plan in Jan/Feb. I think Ashworths plan was to sell Joelinton and I wouldn’t have been mad at that. Yeh in June we had no other alternatives. I didn’t even think we had PSR issues when Villa sold Luiz. They were no strongly rumoured sales. We rushed it at the end. Anywys - new leadership team won’t let that happen again.

I think they did. Luiz was in the same position Joelinton was about to be in. 24 months left on his contract. They weren’t discussing renewals so clearly a sale was on the cards. Letting valuable players get to less than 24 months left on their contracts is bad business. You sell or renew by that point. They would’ve hoped for more money though I’m sure. City sell-on clause also would’ve been another issue.