Not sure how much Dusan would fit Ralph's high pressing style but he'd be an asset to the squad playing under any Manager other than Pellegrino!.
Looks like Sheffield Utd have shopped elsewhere instead of pursuing Charlie boy. Preston North End have accepted an £8m bid from Premier League side Sheffield United for 24-year-old forward Callum Robinson. (Lancashire Evening Telegraph)
Villa have spent almost £100m! Problem is, aside from Wesley, they haven’t actually signed anyone that good (Sorry Matty). Think they will still go down.
Given up trying to predict relegation candidates...some teams without apparent stars gain promotion by good management and having players that work well together. The difficulty is to make judicious signings without disrupting what got them promotion in the first place. The question is are they better than the usual bottom feeders of the PL....sadly us in recent years (but not anymore ). What they need are some early good results before teams suss them out or nerves set in.
I think they were better side than the bottom 6 prem teams last year tbh. Played some really nice stuff. Mcginn and Grealish are absolute quality. Will be interesting to see how they do, but they definitely have enough to stay up IMO.
I think he’s a good striker but as you said untested. So a big risk. Mings is ok, but I certainly wouldn’t shell out £25m on him. Mings and Targett for £40-45m . Just let that sink in.
The thing with the mings thing though, is that he was their defensive leader last season. It's like if we paid 25mil to keep Fonte just after promotion. The fee looks a lot, but to them it actually makes loads of sense. Keep the continuity and he was immense
They’re rumoured to be signing a midfielder from City (who’s never played for them) and another centre back. They’re certainly spending and they’ll need the majority of their signings to work. Pretty much a brand new defence.
And their manager is a newby in the Premier League, so will have to learn the job at the same time as getting his team to play.
Villa have spent a lot but half that money was keeping the team together that went on that crazy run to get them up in the first place. Mings, Hause and El Ghazi were all there on loan and have just made the move permanent. Interested to see how they do next year, could be a Fulham where it doesn't click, but could be a Wolves where they end up challenging best of the rest. If I had to guess I'd say the latter.
Didn't Villa have a crazy amount of loans last year? You can have 8 in the Championship. Three of the signed players were loans last season. With the other loans not being made permanent and oldies like Jedenak, Whelan and Micah Richards, Alan Hutton being released they need to replace a lot of players.
Douglas Luiz from City could be a class signing for Villa. He only hasn’t played for them because of work permits, and he has a buyback clause so City obviously still rate him. Could be a dud but £15 million compared with the £20-25 million price tag of Kalvin Phillips for a similar risk is good business.
