Steal in my opinion.

What was his contract situation? Because I do wonder if not best to hold onto him to increase your changes of staying and teams will be richer with fan revenues whereas it's difficult to see his value going much lower than this

His contract wasn’t up for another few years. I reckon it is a good deal, he looked very good last season and buying from the Championship tends to come with affordable wages.

Idk why Norwich would sell at that price unless Buendia has a release clause

Yeah, not sure what the plan is from Norwich’s point of view...they were PL punching bags with him. Obv. unaware if they’ve since improved at all elsewhere in the squad though.

Wanted him for a decent while now, but oh well I guess. Him and Grealish will be fun to watch next year.

Buendia is at the level where I would have liked to sign him, but I wouldn't be upset if we missed out as long as we still get a different AM.

Still wouldn't be shocked if City really go for it and get Grealish/Kane. That's who they want.

lmao arse really have fallen havent they.

We want Odegaard and Buendia wouldn't be guaranteed to start for us. The current reporting says that's why Villa are favored to get him.

Don't ya just love silly season?

From not knowing anything about buendia...then reading constantly how there's no chance villa sign him with there being arsenal interest and he will just wait it out for them. To really wanting to sign him to just stfu fans....To then 12 hours later arsena bid rejected and essentiallynot being able to afford him and he signs for villa lol.

And then the best part is that it means grealish is off to arsenal lol.


Arsenal got way too many players they need to sign this season, haggling over small amount of money on all of them could cost them. Where do they go from here if odegaard isn't possible.

Sell nakamba and let's go get bissouma to make it round 2 (yeh I know this ain't happening but would be amazing. Love to know where that squad would finish)

No way Grealish is going to Arsenal.

Swap deal with Willian.

In all honesty tho, Villa beating us for a player at that price does not imply that we in fact would have a plan or that the Kroenkes would like to spend money.

Think it is more likely that, rather than having a transfer window, they are waiting to airlift the stadium with drones to the US and rename us Seattle Walmart Gunners.

No reasonable person believes this. Plenty think he's off to City though.

I still like Buendia, but I can't get upset over missing out on a player who would be a rotation option. He played basically all of his minutes on RW. We played Saka or Pepe there once Willian stopped getting minutes.
Pepe/Auba/Saka is the front 3, I think getting a #10 is more important than a Grealish/Payet type that are AM that drift inside as wingers.

Disagree with mind. We bid 30m. He is seemingly going for 40. The plan seems to be "don't spend 40 on that dude." Villa are apparently comfortable buying at that price, which is probably a slight overpay.

I think you could have Kamada or Aouar for 25ish and I think both are slightly better players and fit.

given norwich fans reaction, they say its a steal even at 40m and that he should have been waiting for top 4 club.

doubt many of us have watched him over the last 12 months to decide what his actual worth is. or how good he is compared to the other fellas u probably hrdly watched

few villa guys were saying that theyre selling the project with grealish being there so i dont think hes going this year. unless of course like 120m happens which i cant see. next year hes probably gone though if we dont get europa

Grealish has two years left to move and no one is giving 100+ for any player over 25 in this market.
Sancho is 5 years younger and will cost 80. Haland has a release clause next year for 70. These are world class players under 21, no one is paying 50m more for Grealish who isn't as good.

Does Grealish want to be 27 and still never have played I'm the CL? Do Villa next year only want to be able to get 50m for him? Perhaps, but it doesn't seem ideal.

With both Buendia and Grealish, both fans are really overrating what their players are worth, especially in this market. You are going to see younger players who are as talented leave from Germany/France for inexpensive sums. It's why Norwich are selling Buendia. You get the money early then get a replacement.

Grealish could at least start for a t4 club, but Buendia wouldn't. Maybe those fans meant top 4 in Italy?

1. dont think people are overvaluing grealish. dont think he gets sold for under 100m this year. villa wouldnt be able to buy anyone close to his talent, hes a generational player.

2. from all the talk it seems like there was an agreement that buendia can move next year after 1 season in championship. thats sounds like why its happened.

3. kane not going for less than 100m? could be a close one

4. decline 80m/90m for him and hope for a miracle bink in europe to accept 50m/60m season after does seem quite ideal.

Your second point is obviously correct.

Kane might be the one exception, but I think it would be closer to 100 than 150. City are the only potential buyer and can think about Haland next year for half the price. Kane for double Haland is stupid.

Grealish is great, but generational is two steps too far. He's not a starter for England and he's never made a team of the season. A generational talent is someone like Mbappe. What they've accomplished at a younger age is worthy of that label.

lol. when grealish is being talked about the best player to ever played for us. technically gifted. Hes a generational talent for us.

hes never made a team of the season? hes quite clearly in there this season if it wasnt for 12game or whatever it was injury and recency bias. Hes only played in the prem for 2 years at his peak and he would have been talked about for player of the year if he stayed fit. (obviously wouldnt win it but he would have been there)

Looks like we're in for Odsonne Édouard.

Wait, I thought you specifically compared Aouar to Buendia when we had a plan to sign him and I didn't exactly like the idea.

Think Buendia will be an absolute great signing for Villa, but I think we should be aiming a lot higher. Now from this post, it seems like Aouar would be the better choice, which I tend to agree with, but some contradictions here.

Also I fully believe that we must overpay for players now. There were times we had other factors brining in players for their careers, but currently we can offer solid, mid-table range footy and big slogans for our processes.

We should be doing our outmost in securing some top talent. Meaning doing everything to get the really top-top quality players in. Following the Partey model, but with more than 1 such signings per window - I know he had the worst season ever, but think that is the way to go.

CAM and RB should be our no1 priorities. No arguments here.

We overpaid for Pepe and that was a mess. The reason to overpay for a player is because other clubs are interested so you're in a bidding war. I can't think of many players who Arsenal should overpay to get that would go to Arsenal for x price or a different club for slightly less these days. You shouldn't overpay for someone like Buendia.

Arsenal aren't competitive for the top shelf. We don't pay City or barca wages. When an Mbappe or Haland is moving, we are not on the list. We're getting from a tier or two down. That's fine, but you can't pay the same prices. Pepe for 72m was a massive problem. You just can't do that again this window.

wow GINI

Are we discussing EPL transfers in here?

After Brexit would have assumed EPL got its own thread.

Ill point it out to avoid flaming derails, but this is a low quality joke post.

wtf is a wjdalmnum

Apparently Villa are in for JWP. I really can't see anyone meeting our valuation given how important he is to our system.

If we believe Buendia is what and who we need, Im not sure we should budge when Villa comes in with added 5 million.

Maybe he was a sideproject or one of the many options, but as you said we operate in different tiers now.

That said Athletic reporting we are in for Ruben Neves instead. Which Im all for tbh, all midfielders welcome.

So there is no way Big Carlo lets Odegaard go right?

Portuguese Darron Gibson, perfect Xhaka replacement.