Great goals, but my only question would be about his abilities defensively given how much Emi did when the ball was lost. Besides the goals, however, I love the way he ghosts by defenders at pace - that could really make a difference next season.
He has more pace than Buendia. I would be surprised if he is as good defensively, otherwise I think he would have cost us much more than 9.4 million . But genuine pace is something we have been lacking and I am exited to see what he can offer.
From what I know of Rashica, which isn’t a huge amount but I’ve watched him a few times: he’s a quick player with an eye for a shot, got a powerful strike and a decent dribbler. He will not offer as much on the defensive side as Buendia, but I think we would struggle to find a player that we could afford that can offer as much as Buendia. This is an exciting signing, he’s been linked with Villa and Liverpool in previous years and was apparently valued at £20m last year but upon relegation triggered a relegation release clause. £9.4m he is our new record signing. I think this is as good as we could hope for in terms of a signing to playin Buendias position but no one will directly replace Emi.
Strong rumours at the moment are that Gunn will be announced in the next 24hours, Ajer is very close to being done and Gilmour is genuine potential of signing.
Should also say he can play either wing, CAM and ST, I imagine this may end the interest in Armstrong maybe although I’d love him as well.
So Rashica for £9.4m plus £8m for Gibson and £6m for Giannoulis that’s £23.4m spend so far. Potentially only £10m left in the pot, with Gunn reported to be costing £2.5m that leaves us with £7.5m roughly which I am sure will all go on Ajer.
Rashica had a rather strange year at Werder Bremen last season, with only 17 starts which were spread over all four attacking positions. Nine of those were as a striker, five were at AMC and only two were at WR. I wonder whether he's been recruited to play mainly as an AMC/Striker option rather than a replacement for Emi.
Try as we might, we can never guess what Webber is going to come up with. The video looks promising (although videos always do). Just nice to have something positive.
This may depend on how many of these transactions are paid in installments, which will spread the costs into the future. We're said to have received all of the £33m for Buendia 'up front' from Villa, who were, incidentally, trying to negotiate a deal for Rashica last September and again last January. Where they failed, SW succeeded.
He was injured for quite a lot of the last season. I think you could be on to something with this RER, perhaps he and Pukki could play up front together in a 5-3-2
Villa fans reckon he turned them down last season as he didn’t want to be involved in a relegation battle
Pinkun/EDP think the budget this summer is around £30m, with Gibson and Giannoulis not included in that figure. Rashica £10m Gunn £5m Ajer £10m Gilmour £2m loan fee (complete speculation) Skipp £2m loan fee (complete speculation) Some change left for another cheap player, free agent? Krul Aarons Hanley Gibson Giannoulis Ajer/Skipp Gilmour/McLean Rashica Dowell Cantwell Pukki ?
That could be, but Bremen's most common formation was a 3-4-2-1 which is similar but slightly more attacking. If so, it could be that we're not looking to replace Buendia at all, but change the formation instead. Given that Ajer can also play as a DM, he could be the CB to move further forward when we have the ball, dropping back into the back 3 when we don't. The WBs could also change the formation by moving forward in attack (3-2-4-1) then dropping back into a 5-4-1 when we're under pressure.
Sky reporting Spurs have apparently renewed their interest in Aarons, while Man Utd and Everton are also keeping an eye on him
