With the January window a third of the way through the only sign of transfer window cavalry beyond the loan signing of Sam Johnstone has been the tweets of Tony Xia and the occasional murmurs out of press conferences.
The Villa owner’s latest tweet suggested they were looking at seven or eight potential players and expected to bring in three, if not four. One should be the Nottingham Forest midfielder Henri Lansbury with reports a fee has been accepted, but that same £3m has been on the table for a while now.
Lansbury Limbo
When the Birmingham Mail ran a story about Henri Lansbury under the headline ‘Villa and Henry (sic) Lansbury – fee, wage and everything we know’, it turned out it wasn’t a lot, considering they’d be running several stories a day on the player (basically different headlines with Steve Bruce quotes re-jigged)
The fact they spelt his name wrong in the headline (with a ‘y’ instead of an ‘i’) wasn’t a great sign they knew much about him.
The latest news is Forest have accepted a £3 million bid and a medical is imminent (as it was at the weekend).
The truth is the bare bones of the potential deal, as we covered here, have been known for a while and the Forest ownership situation has held up proceedings. Remembering how long it took Lerner to sell Villa will give you an insight that it’s hard to put deadlines and completion dates on such matters.
In terms of the Birmingham Mail, one last question regarding Lansbury…what happened to their fledgling campaign to get the Forest midfielder to play for the Blues?
Gollini Guesswork
There’s been news that Gollini is being chased by Italian side Atlanta. The reports though seem to stem from the fact that Atalanta have sent keeper Marco Sportiello to Fiorentina for a long-term 18-month loan (bridging loan to eventual sale).
There’s mention of advanced talks of a loan to Atlanta for Gollini, but is he already waving the white flag to English football? Obviously the Italian connection of a countryman manager and goalkeeping coach has deserted him, but Gollini didn’t come cheap to Villa and they’ll want three keepers at the club in case of injury.
if Gollini does go off on loan, especially to Italy, it’ll probably mean that Bruce has doubts about him and the young Italian’s future may not be claret and blue.
Ayew Going to China?
The good thing about having a Chinese owner is there is the in-built infrastructure to potentially ship out a few of the current squad to the Chinese Super League. MOMS has already written and laughed about a supposed £25m bid for Jordan Amavi, but now it’s Jordan Ayew’s turn.
MOMS previously wrote that Ayew more than likely would have got his agent to survey the landscape of the transfer window while he was at the African Cup of Nations. Certainly his final weeks before departing to Gabon, would have left a sour taste in his mouth (not even getting on the pitch against Cardiff, despite holding off his departure to ACON).
Ayew must know he’s not in the starting XI of a Championship side at the moment, which isn’t good for anybody’s ego.
Shanghai SIPG have allegedly registered an interest with maybe another club in the picture too. Whatever the facts of the matter are, if Villa can get a fee above the £10m or so they (over) paid for him, then they should seal the deal. Ayew will increase his wages substantially and they’ll be no complaints.
Yes, the boy’s got skills, but Villa need team players if the club are to make a serious run at the play-offs.
Jeffrey Schlupp
Villa have already got a right-winger who can’t get in the Ghanaian squad for the ACON, so will they really spend £12m on a left-winger who also can’t make the squad?
On the fringes of the Leicester City squad, talk is that Villa have joined Crystal Palace and West Brom in courting the winger. A loan might make sense, if the player was agreeable, but not an outlay of £12m – it would never happen!
Is it me, or are Villa getting linked in with any player that Premier League clubs out of the top six might be interested in? Is it lazy journalism or cunning journalism, considering they’ll increase their readership with a Villa link?
As it’s been stated on this site already, don’t be surprised if Villa don’t splash the cash this window.
When these £10m+ player links come up, before you click, remember Bruce’s words:
“THE CLUB SPENT FORTUNES LAST SUMMER AND FORTUNES THE PREVIOUS SUMMER. THAT WASN’T THE ANSWER.” – STEVE BRUCE
Follow MOMS on Twitter – @oldmansaid
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