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With Aston Villa seemingly heading for the play-offs, some big decisions will have to be made in regards to the current crop of loan stars. Depending on their position come the evening of May 27th, should the club stick, or twist?
Words by Alan Wilson (@VILLAlan54)
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Aston Villa’s remarkable eight match unbeaten run has almost certainly secured them a place in the end of season play-offs. In every department of the team there have been brilliant performances from the players, both young and old alike. The big five ‘on loan’ stars have been no exception.
Tammy Abraham has been a scoring sensation weighing-in with 24 goals in his 36 appearances so far this season. He is everybody’s obvious choice for Villa to negotiate a permanent deal with his parent club Chelsea. However, given the strong interest shown by Wolves in the January window, what are the chances of other clubs from the Premier League clamouring to sign the young hit-man?
Furthermore Chelsea, who are strangled by a two year transfer ban due to their breaching of regulations surrounding the signing of players, may just decide that he’s going nowhere.
Tyrone Mings has become an overnight favourite for the Villa fans, after a string of solid performances with the added spice of scoring two goals in just 12 appearances as well. Reports seem to indicate that he has no real future with the Cherries, so many fans feel he is a strong possibility for Aston Villa to secure on a permanent deal.
Axel Tuanzebe is the last of the players who Villa do not have an option to buy. Despite being out for a long spell this term with injury, the young English defender has been outstanding, slotting straight back into the defence when Mings and Hause were ruled out by suspension and injury respectively.
In his second of two years on loan from Manchester United, the 21 year-old defender seems perfectly at home in the Villa side and delighted the Holte End by singing with them at the end of Saturday’s vital win over Bristol City!
Kortney Hause is one of two players whom Villa do have an option to buy. Despite suffering an untimely injury recently, the young defender who labels himself a ‘perfectionist’ was beginning to show exactly what he was capable of when the injury struck. In just 9 appearances for Villa, he has achieved an average match rating of 6.96, which is 7th best at the club this season. Having also scored one goal already, his partnership in central defence with Mings is in no small way, a key factor in Villa’s remarkable winning run.
Finally, Anwar El Ghazi has wowed the fans with some scintillating performances capped by a head turning show in the win over the Robins on Saturday. Boasting 5 goals and 5 assists in 22 starts so far, his balance, mind bending ball control and explosive shooting makes him a handful for any defence to deal with and in all honesty, he looks perhaps the best equipped of the five loanees to shine in the Premier League. He surely must be secured under the ‘option to buy’.
So, in conclusion. If Villa allow the fabulous five to all return to their parent clubs in the summer, their team will be decimated and some will argue wrecked by losing these players. If you look at the relative costs involved, Villa’s owners would need to stump up more than £70,000,000 to secure them all. It would be sound business done, in order to keep the nucleus of a young winning team together, to meet the challenges of next season whichever division the club finds itself in – but increasingly unlikely should the club remain in the Sky Bet Championship.
So what should Aston Villa do…
Stick, or twist?
What are the individual prices you think they will be asking? 30 Mill for Tammy i can see, but over 5 for any of the others would seem expensive for a recently promoted club to me. If we are paying 10 million per player we should probably be looking at proven premier league players rather than the untried . Tyrone is the only one with any experience of the rest.
Let’s have a look at it, it’ll be 25-30m for Tammy. Let’s say that’s the upper side of that at 30. Kortney and Anwar would be around £7.5m between them. Tyrone would be anywhere from £2.5 – £5m.
The main other expense over Tammy? That’s Axel Tuanzebe. There’s no way he leaves United for less than £20m.
I cant see us paying 20 million for Axel. The others i can see, and apart from Tammy are reasonable prices. Axel for 20 million is an Arsenal/top 4 gamble, not a recently promoted move. Also we need to spend more time developing the youngsters coming through, especially Green and Davis who was excellent when he came on against City.
I think after his goal tally this season Tammy’s price would be closer to £40m, because other Premier League teams (and maybe one or two European spenders) may join in the bidding for him. Mings would cost about £7-8m, Hause I think will be about £3m, El Ghazi £10m. However, maybe the surprise would be Tuanzebe who I think Man United would look for about £10m for. All adds up to around £70m for all five.
We have a £4.5m price set for El Ghazi, £4m for Hause, no agreement for Tammy, Tyrone or Axel, so there is £8.5m we ‘have’ the option to spend and I would take both in an instant! I would like to get Tyrone for around £8m, not sure how much Axel would cost but he is great player and would take him too……….as for Tammy 1. HE wants to play for Chelsea 2. Chelsea have a transfer ban hanging over them and may HAVE to keep him 3. For the same reason I said he shouldn’t join Wolves in Jan, he’s not good enough for the Premier League and I wouldn’t pay £30m for him (before anyone starts, I love Tammy and he is amazing for us in the Championship, but £30m+ ?? Not worth it, if he wasn’t English we’d get him for half that)
Think your spot on with all the prices. Apart from Mings. If it turns into a bidding war I can see him getting towards the £20m mark. Didn’t bournemouth pay £10ish for him in 1st place.
He signed for Bournemouth in June 2015 for an undisclosed fee, which was thought to be around £8m. I think Villa’s argument in the negotiations would be that he has been injury prone for a good spell at Bournemouth and has played relatively few games in his four years with the Cherries. So, I would hope we could secure him for £10-12m.
It would be worth paying a bit more if we had to, in today’s inflated transfer market.