Hernandez Halt
It’s run all summer and despite a recent last gasp effort by Villa owner Tony Xia to get the deal over the line, it looks like Villa’s pursuit of Hull City’s Abel Hernandez is finally over.
It’s a story that has run and run, but now any life in the story seems to be more down to a rehashing of the story. Take Sky Sports story today making out Villa have made a last ditch attempt at a £20m bid. Hmmm, sounds like a rehash of The Sun’s story of Villa’s £20m bid last week, which was made up of an upfront £14m, followed by a further £3m of add-ons linked to ‘promotion achievements’ and a further £3m for ‘goals and appearances.’
As MOMS wrote yesterday, recent indications from Xia suggests it’s over too.
It looks like Villa and Hull did get around the negotiating table, but Hernandez ultimately wasn’t happy with the personal terms. With the striker facing a drop in division and Hull needing to find a replacement sharpish, it was a deal that had too many factors against it.
Kodjia Pole Position
It seems now Villa are very much focused on Bristol City’s Jonathan Kodjia, with the BBC’s Pat Murphy confirming advanced talks.
Jonathan Kodjia close to signing for @AVFCOfficial in a £15m deal from @bcfctweets but Derby,WBA,Hull all in as well. But talks with 1/2
— Pat Murphy (@patmurphybbc) August 30, 2016
2/2 Villa at advanced stage. Also,move 4 Abel Hernandez fell thro’ over personal terms after Hull finally agreed 2 negotiate.Told deal dead
— Pat Murphy (@patmurphybbc) August 30, 2016
With Kodjia sitting out Villa’s recent trip to Ashton Gate, it looks like he’s certainly heading out to pastures now. Since the above tweets, Murphy has ruled out any Baggies interest in the striker, which would seem to suggest Villa are in pole position for the signature which is likely to beat the recent Championship transfer record that was recently set when RB Leipzig signed Nottingham Forest winger Oliver Burke for £13m.
With a fee reported to be around £14m, it would top the £12m spend on Ross McCormack, which was the previous Championship record and second biggest fee spent by Villa, after their purchase of Darren Bent.
One issue though is that Kodjia has only really shined in one season at Bristol City, while before that, he was mainly out on loan while at Reims. Also, having recently broken into the Ivory Coast national team set-up, he may go AWOL in January during the Africa Nations Cup.
The Kodjia situation looks like it will roll into deadline day, but is it to be considered a panic buy by Villa? Since they will now perhaps pay almost double what they were looking to spend on him a month ago.
UTV
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Looks like the slow start to the season has opened the wallet more than we could have expected.
They’ve been chasing Jonathan Kodjia since the start of the window, but a series of events have had to play out for the opportunity of the deal to happen.
Dunno, want Ayew gone, then 17M for Kodija would be easier to swallow. We’re paying a premium for players and distorting the Championship transfer market. Will be harder next season if we don’t go up this one, which isn’t looking likely based on past results. Also whoever we get in, must be willing to work for the team, ie defend from the front. We are short of Centre Backs now, and there’s talk of wanting an Attacking Midfielder, as long as they can tackle and defend fine, another rider up front waiting for the ball to be played to them isn’t what is needed.