Heh, I don't think anyone doubted that JWP was a Premier League player at age 24...he already had 200+ games under his belt! There have been questions as to whether JWP met our needs, but you'd be hard-pressed to find someone who thought he'd be playing out his days with Crawley. Hesketh has 2 PL games to his name at age 25, and didn't set the world alight in League 2 last year. Hopefully he's over his injury woes and can put together a solid career in the lower divisions, but it's an awfully long road from non-league to the Championship given the number of years he has lost, sadly.
I take your point about conversion rates but by your reckoning though Libby, should we only be looking at EPL strikers and talent from overseas where we know nothing about the football? Not being impressed with a good - record in League 1 and Championship teams implies as much. I mean, are there many players with a record better than that?
I'm happy with scouring the lower leagues, and Armstrong is hardly a guaranteed failure, but the concern that Libby/I/a couple others share is that his scoring came via such an odd route, namely by seemingly shooting every time he touched the ball. That doesn't necessarily bode poorly (he could be exceptionally good at working possession into shooting opportunities for himself), but it's a bit of cause for consternation that wasn't present with Che, as an example, who was also sourced from the Championship but converted his shots into goals at a much better rate.
Aston Villa have made a second bid for Southampton's 26-year-old England midfielder James Ward-Prowse after their initial £25m offer was rejected. (Mail)
I cannot see Villa being successful but I can see this prompting a bidding war with some other club who may have more appeal to JWP.
I get the feeling that there must be some traction here if there are multiple bids. I wonder what disappointingly small amount we will get for Ward-Prowse before reinvesting a fraction.
Aston Villa are taking the pi$$. Their limit for players is £30million. They won't offer much more than that. However, they think they are a bigger draw than they are. They think I'll flash the cash and players will come running.
Said this earlier in the thread, but my mate works with JWP's brother and he basically said there's no chance JWP would go to Villa. Adam Blackmore seems to echo this. Things change in football but I think he'll only go to a big club/CL team. I also don't think we'd sell him this summer, next year possibly.
As captain and all that, and given our horrid recent history of losing so many star players, you'd think he'd want to reassure the fans a bit, if he really did have no intention of joining Villa. Just seems strange.
He is just being professional. Not every player needs to speak out in public every time someone bids. Villa were sure they'd get Smith rowe and that was dealt with 3 nos... they believe there own hype, Watch them struggle without grealish as they did last year.
Yeah maybe, but he's not particularly active on social media and he's not played in pre-season, so hasn't been in any interviews yet (that I can remember). Equally he may not feel the need to speak out if he has no intention of leaving. If he wants to make the World Cup squad next year, he knows he'll play for us every minute he's fit with us, and that's not guaranteed anywhere else.
How many bids did they make for Emile Smith Rowe? I am sure it was two. And they got told to **** off. Someone with a better memory will know how many reasonably high profile cases there are of multiple bids being made for someone but the move not happening. It has been suggested elsewhere that Villa might be a stalking horse to see if there is any intention of us selling and then a bigger team comes in. For example Liverpool have a Gini’s slot that I don’t think they have filled.
I can’t see any of the big teams being interested in JWP. If Villa get close to our asking price (which seems unlikely given their opening offer) then he has a decision to make
I’m sure you’re probably right. I’m just genuinely curious how these things work. I would have thought the first thing Villa would need to do, is contact JWP’s agent, to inquire as to whether he is up for the move or not.
Would love to know the process. Would JWP maybe even use it to get a better deal? Remember we've offered to make Ings our highest paid player in our history. Prowsie might want something in line with that, despite only extending last summer. Not sure Villa are approaching the window particularly well though. Seems like both Smith-Rowe and Ward-Prowse were/are non-starters but now most clubs know they are desperate for a player or two, flush with cash and likely to have even more if Grealish goes.
