Player Sales
Lets remember one stat before we go on – the players in last season’s Aston Villa team only won three league games. Now, of course, it doesn’t necessarily equate to them being bad players individually, but it’s not exactly going to inflate their transfer fee values.
Last summer, Villa’s ultimately disastrous rebuilding of the team was financed with the £40 million or so received from the sales of Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph. From the reports of the players that the club will move on during this summer, the British media seems to suggest the club will have a lot more money to rebuild for the Championship, before the new owner Tony Xia has to dip his hands in his own pockets.
Grealish – £20 million?
First of all the Daily Telegraph reported at the end of May that Stoke City were leading a bunch of clubs, including Spurs and Everton, looking to obtain the services of Jack Grealish. Some hacks claimed the England U21 player was valued up to £20 million (are there two Jack Grealish’s in this world?!)
We won’t go into the merits/hype/potential of Grealish here, but if someone offered you £20 million, you’d bite their arm off. If you think like MOMS that £20m is pie in the sky, then what about Mr Tim Sherwood’s valuation? It’s a big shame that Tim Sherwood isn’t currently a manager of a wealthy team, because Villa would be really be laughing all the way to the bank. Sherwood’s valuation of Grealish was £40 million higher than even the pie in the sky.
“I wouldn’t want to sell Jack Grealish for £60m today, put it that way,” said Sherwood, while he was Villa manager. “I know what he could possibly be.”
Lets me honest though, at the moment, the value of Grealish is likely to be less than £10m, even taking into account the price would be inflated by him being English.
While it would be very good to see what Jack could do given 35+ games in the Championship for Villa, if a club offered £8m, you’d give it serious thought, considering his lightweight contribution to Villa so far.
Ciaran Clark – £5 million?
Last month, The Daily Telegraph and others reported that Ciaran Clark was being monitored by both Sunderland and WBA, citing he had a release clause of £5 million. Would any Premier League club trigger that? Judging by his errors at Euro 2016, so far, I doubt it.
If they did, then so long Clarky. Now is not the time for “well, he might develop into a decent centre back”
Jordan Veretout – £7.5 million?
If recent reports are to be believed Jordan Veretout is rumoured to be attracting the interest of Celta Vigo and Real Betis, amongst others for around £7.5 million. That amount is close enough to what Villa first bought him for, so happy days.
Veretout has never settled in at Villa Park and while he was mooted to potentially be the best of Villa’s summer signings, you wouldn’t say no to any offer that got the club their money back.
I know it’s hard to believe, but maybe Sherwood was actually right about Veretout not being a Premier League player?
Jordan Amavi – £12 million?
There’s been a lot of hot air in the press about the prospect of Jordan Amavi attracting the interests of AC Milan, Liverpool, Lyon and Arsenal. One reoccurring figure, in terms of the transfer fee, seems to be 14 million Euros.
Now, if you’ve read some football blogs that have cut and pasted the ‘Amavi to AC Milan’ story, they’ve quoted £14 million. Some people still have a serious problem with converting Euros to pounds.
A lot of national press have converted 14m euros to £12 million, but it’s actually just under £11m. Even at the lowest amount of all the media reports, £11 million in the coffers to aid a complete squad overhaul would be a ‘yes, please’. Especially if this represented around a £1-2m profit.
Yes, Amavi looks a good prospect, but he only played 12 games in total for Villa and has had a long lay-off. So, pretend it never happened and just take the cash. I would be very surprised if any team paid over £10m for him though.
Jordan Ayew – £6 million
Interestingly, the late April reports of West Ham’s interest in Jordan Ayew at £6m, were the first reports of any of Villa’s new recruits devaluing. To be fair, £6m is closer to the actual value of the Ghanian even though it represents a loss around £2.5m on what Villa paid for him.
While Roberto Di Matteo has expressed an interest in keeping Ayew, he has admitted it’s perhaps unlikely, as Ayew is keen to play at a higher level than the Championship.
To be honest, MOMS only saw Ayew as a third striker anyway, an extra option up front (in a half-decent Villa team), so if the club can get closer to the £8.5m they are reported to have paid, then you’d take it.
Idrissa Gueye – £7.1 million
The Daily Mail reported last month that Idrissa Gueye was interested in a return to the Premier League ahead of a move by to France, after Marseille had shown an interest in the Villa midfielder.
The paper also reported Gueye had a release clause of £7.1m, the question is though, would a Premier League club pay that? While Gueye’s stats added up in the Premier League, in the real world, he didn’t exactly have much influence on games judging by the real stats of the club having a 17 point season.
The release clause would represent a £1-2 million loss on the player, but considering the inflated price they paid, that surely wouldn’t be an issue.
In MOMS opinion, a Premier club would think twice about parting with £7m for the services of Gueye, so his future is not as clean-cut as you’d think. Maybe a deal closer to £6m would have to be accepted, if Villa were ok to let the player go at that price.
Xia Purse
If you added up all the media reported potential transfer fees of the above players, Villa would have a sizeable injection of £57.6m into the coffers to rebuild a squad. Even if you reduced Grealish’s amount by £12m, you’re still over what Benteke & Delph brought in last summer.
If new owner Tony Xia believes what he reads in the papers, then the deal to buy Villa was a no brainer and potentially done on the cheap. Factor in a potential of £80m parachute payments and this extra income from player sales and it would mean Xia wouldn’t actually have to touch much of his own cash in the early years of owning Villa.
The main issue about the aforementioned players though and the more obvious players that need offloading, is the timing. Di Matteo would ideally like to get rid of the deadwood early doors in the window, which would mean Villa may accept early lower offers, rather than haggle all the way to deadline day for a better price.
Feel free to point it out to MOMS later, if we’re wrong, but most of the above valuations by the press are unrealistic. In saying that, there should still be a considerable amount available to Di Matteo to be reinvested, if the likes of Veretout, Gueye and Ayew do go.
UTV
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Get whatever we can for any player from last season. The more go the better. Personally I doubt if we sold every player on our books we would get more than £30m. Even at today’s crazy prices Remember how these lot performed not just the lack of quality but their attitude. If we could get rid of everyone id be happy. The club along with its players was rotten to the core. We need a complete rebuild. As much of last season we can dump the better
I think it will be a fire sale and from reports regarding the new owners view on the matter he just wants to get rid, much the same as the view held by the majority of fans. The squad needs trimming and current players need to be replaced by quality. As for Grealish, I am not a fan I think he flatters to deceive but maybe RDM can do something with him. I live in hope.
A fresh start, new owner, new manager, new board. That just leaves new players. Those 5 twats who let us down last season have to go even if we give them away for the good of the club, Otherwise with our patients all burnt up the boos will start ringing with their first mistake. Not good for the team Not good for the club Not good for the fans. Fuk them off NOW NOW NOW
Aye the twats will continue with their hate coz they know no different .
But this is a new league & a fresh start & until the team starts training nobody knows what team we will have come the start of the new season . Of course there are some who will leave but some of those who performed badly last season may be successes for us in a proper team , as that is what Villa has lacked in the recent seasons . But everyone makes mistakes & frequently those who point grubby fingers make the most . So lets have the fresh start and give the team a chance !
All those reports about geralish suggested he had a great campaign in the under21s… he played one game against Guinea… what a load of shite…
Sorry, but this is a sloppy and inaccurate piece of writing. Why would Villa take substantial losses on the prices paid for players who are only one year into their contracts? Why would there be a release clause for Gana that is less than the fee paid?
If we can keep a Gana, Amavi and Ayew we will have three of the best players in the Championship next season.
Don’t agree. All prices are from newspaper reports (that’s where the sloppiness is) – this was the point that is being made. The Gana clause amount is attributed to a newspaper. Why would it be less than fee paid? Because it’s there for the player to escape in case Villa got relegated. Why would Villa make substantial losses? Well, for starters, they paid inflated prices and also the player’s performances last season would have also decreased their value. Villa will struggle to get the amounts they paid back, that is the simple physics of it. Those three players have all made noises about leaving and unless they are committed to the cause in the Championship, they’ll be a waste of space. Better to cash out, unless they REALLY want to play for Villa. Now, there’s a chance they might not get as good personal terms elsewhere (unless their wages drop due to relegation), so they will be forced to knuckle down.
It’s not sloppy, it is simply speculative. It is based on what papers are talking about, which as even MOMS knows, is not reality. It is a kind of thought experiment – ‘what if …’.
Contracts mean nothing if players want to be away so let’s not get hung up on that Jim and no one can deny that Villa’s stables need clearing out before the stench from last season infects the one coming.
The key point here is, just what is Xia actually going to invest in Villa’s first team squad? Is it money on top of what sales produce? Or does it include monies from sales? This question will only be answered when the window closes and the season starts.
bauna 3 mill,,, lescott 2 mill kozac 3 mill, guzan 2 mill,,, richards 3 mill baker 2 mill gil 2 mill sanchez 3 mill
westwood 4 mill gabby 1p sinclair 3 mill
there could be another 20 to 25 in the squad too,,,,,,,