From the sounds of it transfer deadline day might be a quiet affair for Aston Villa. Maybe Joleon Lescott will be heading Villa’s way and that’s about it. The bigger question is who’s leaving, as Sherwood would need a player exodus of three or so players to maybe give him room to bring in a late surprise addition to the squad.
After the farce of the ‘Bomb Squad’, Villa have started to get the knack of shifting the deadwood out of Villa Park. Lets hope it continues…
Out Already
Aleksandar Tonev
We’ll mention Tonev here as we haven’t been bothered to mention him leaving the club yet. The Bulgarian was always going to be a tricky one to offload due to being banned for seven games for racism (despite Celtic backing him on the issue) and the fact that he isn’t the greatest of players. But Villa managed to offload him without too much fuss to Frosinone, who will be playing in Italy’s Serie A for the first time ever.
Moving to the Lazio-based club in the top-tier of Italian football is actually is a decent move for the Bulgarian. Considering his agent has already got him moves to Villa and Celtic, someone is certainly earning their money.
Potential Transfer Deadline Day Casualties
Philippe Senderos
Senderos seems to have escaped media attention altogether. Where is he? Is he fit? Has he retired from football!? Certainly the rumours of Jole Lescott making a late move to Villa seem to put the final nail in the Swiss centre-back’s Villa career.
Surely he’s good enough to earn a new club, he’s still only 30, so has a few years in him yet. You’d expect him to be out the door come deadline day, unless he has an incompetent agent.
Charles N’Zogbia
Charles N’Zogbia is like red wine. A good red wine is great, but the longer it lingers after being opened it goes off. As a £9.5m transfer, N’Zogbia should have been a decent French vintage, but it’s like somebody switched the bottle before we got to drink it.
Because Villa pay him a fair whack, he’s always been a difficult player to shift, reports that UAE outfit Bani Yas might be willing to shell out some cash are encouraging. If Villa have to pay part of his wages, so be it, just get rid.
Aston Villa manager Tim Sherwood gave the French winger a final chance at the end of last season (he even let him play in an FA Cup final), but N’Zogbia squandered it once again.
Surely he has to go in the next few days?
Libor Kozak
Since no experienced striker has made their way to Villa Park in the summer transfer window, then it would be wise to keep Libor Kozak. Kozak hasn’t done much wrong to be fair to him with his latest injury wiping out a whole season.
It is important for the Czech though that he now stays fit and injury-free.
Rudy Gestede is not proven yet at Premier League level and Kozak will fancy he has more chance displacing Gestede than Benteke.
Kozak showed he still knows where the goal is in preseason and his future will depend on whether Sherwood actually rates him.
You wouldn’t be surprised if Kozak left this transfer window, or even the next one, though.
Kieran Richardson
The one-time Manchester United player and England international has turned into something of a journeyman in recent seasons. Not even the player himself would have thought he’d have played at Wembley twice when he moved to Villa, but Richardson was always going to be squad filler at Villa Park.
There were rumours of a return to Sunderland, but the 30-year-old would be lucky to get a move to a Premier League club now, which is exactly the reason he shouldn’t be in the Villa squad anymore. He’d make a decent acquisition for a Championship club though.
One last thought…what do you think of transfer deadline day? Do you think all transfers should be done and dusted before the season starts? Comment below.
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i think that tim has done quite well in the transfers but i would love to see him add javier hernandez from m/und given a fair crack up front with either kozak or gestede i think he will score the goals and i also think we need a new goalkeeper
firstly I think the transfer window shut be done and dusted before the season starts theres plenty of time in the summer break to get things sorted……. as for strikers I really think Austin would be a good acquisition I have always rated defoe as dan mentioned but he wont come here neither would remy …. I watch the mls and theres a few good American players id like to see in the premier with villa but I think English teams overlook players from there dunno why ………
Yeh I agree. Get Richardson and especially N’zogbia off our contract expenses so we can make way for remy or Austin. I don’t know why we are so hesitant. We bought shitty ayew for 5 million less then we can get Charlie for. As fo Defoe. His wages are too big and he is getting on a bit so we would only have him for 2 seasons maybe. Kozok was great in preseason so we should keep him and he is only 26 still. Sender is was decent with Vlaar last season but now Vlaar is gone he doesn’t fit in anywhere
Where did it all go so wrong for N’Zogbia? He was scintillating for Wigan, but for us he’s never gotten better than one rung above pure shite.
I have very little to say about Senderos or Richardson. For a few games they looked like they might do a decent job for us. Now, they are just an after nasty after taste of Lambert’s ultimate failure.
I hope we keep Kozak. From what I’ve seen so far, (possibly the wrong) Ayew will either need a lot of time to settle in, or he’s also a bit shite too.
It depends on the funds available. I’m not guzan’s biggest fan currently so I think a first choice goalie would be good. I’m also concerned about striking options. Gestede and kozak offer the same style and Ayew and gabby haven’t shown much ability goal wise this season, even though it’s only just begun. I wouldn’t say Austin is the answer to the solution. I’d be pleased with a fox in the box type of player aka defoe. However if Chelsea need a few quid to fund stones’ transfer id certainly look at remy.