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With just under a month left of the transfer window, the club are being held to ransom with fees for talents from British clubs.
Words by Regan Foy | @FindFoy
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Aston Villa have been linked with a number of foreign talents (such as Baptiste Santamaria and Valentin Rongier, both pictured above), and whilst they have signed Wesley Moraes from the Jupiler League this season, many of the players that the club are apparently interested in are from the domestic leagues.
These players, including former loanee Tyrone Mings, Leeds United’s Kalvin Phillips, as well as others including Adam Webster are being touted in the press as being priced well beyond what they are worth. If the three aforementioned players were to sign for what their ‘apparent’ cost is, then they would be paying £85,000,000 for their signature.
That amount, to put things into perspective, is £43,000,000 more than the club have already paid for the signings of Jota Peleteiro, Anwar El Ghazi, Kortney Hause, Wesley Moraes, and Matt Targett.
The way that the current market works, is that teams are playing more for younger talents, and then there’s a premium on top of that if said players are English. Unless a player is Cristiano Ronaldo, you’re not going to be playing mega-money for them when they’re edging thirty or past that. If a player has a good season in the Premier League and they’re below 20? Then that price could be anywhere north of £50,000,000 as shown by the signing of Aaron Wan-Bissaka at Manchester United.
It is, granted, a sellers market. You only have to look at the fact that Tottenham Hotspur purchased Tanguy Ndombele for £65,000,000 to see that. Ndombele is a highly rated talent – but Lyon didn’t need to sell and asked for the biggest price they could.
The most important thing about these transfers, and these prices, is perspective. Leicester City are close to signing Youri Tielemans for a believed £40,000,000 fee. Tielemans spent half a season on loan at the King Power stadium last year, appearing 13 times, scoring three goals and assisting four – whilst averaging a 7.14 rating. And most importantly, he did that in the Premier League. The same club just signed Ayoze Perez, who has spades of experience in the Premier League, for £30,000,000.
Now whilst they’re inherently different players, how does that mean that Kalvin Phillips, who had an impressive season in the Sky Bet Championship, is worth £30,000,000? The answer is it doesn’t – but that’s what Leeds United value him at. In the case of Bournemouth and Mings, it’s more likely that they are fully aware of Aston Villa’s want for the player, and they have no need to sell so are going to try and hold out for as much as they possibly can.
There’s plenty of non-domestic talents out there that may take time to adjust to the league, like El Ghazi did in the Sky Bet Championship, that will cost less than £20,000,000 – or even less than £10,000,000 – take a look at the link for Egyptian winger Trezeguet, who’s apparent value is only £8,000,000, even after an impressive African Cup of Nations.
It’s likely that big prices will drop closer to the closing of the window, but as Dean Smith expressed his want to have the majority of his deals done before Aston Villa’s pre-season tour of America, it might be time to let go with some of the clubs apparent targets.
