What are Aston Villa going to do with £117m?

Hey everyone, a quick programming note up top. For the next few weeks, the newsletter will have reduced frequency. The World Cup was a lot, and our upcoming Premier League previews and transfer grades are going to be even more work than that. On top of that, our non-public facing work with Crux never stops, and I personally have not had a summer holiday. So until the Premier League season starts, we’ll have free rumour roundup newsletters twice a week. Normal service resumes in mid-August.

If you missed the news while caring a bit more about the World Cup, Chelsea have agreed to sign Morgan Rogers from Aston Villa for £117m. The Boys went into detail on that bit of insanity on the podcast. Long story short on that: It’s a crazy price for a good player, but one whose production suggests he’s worth half that. We’ll need to wait and see if Chelsea make any corresponding sales to offset the apparent financial irresponsibility.

Villa now need a Rogers replacement, and if rumours are to be believed (lol), they’re looking to the team they just got a lot of money out of. David Ornstein is reporting that Villa have made an offer to Chelsea to loan Alejandro Garnacho with a conditional purchase obligation.

Garnacho is a controversial player, often making selfish looking decisions instead of playing for the team. He’s reportedly pissed off every coach he’s ever played for with his attitude, and his brother has been a disruptive influence as well. But as we continue to insist on this newsletter, there’s a good player in there, if you can fix his apparently repugnant personality.

In case that doesn’t work out, Villa are looking into other options as well. Another one is Jonathan Rowe, who like Garnacho, might be undervalued due to attitude-related problems. He was sold by Marseille to Bologna at cut price last summer after getting into a fight with teammates, and he was sent off for throwing a punch in a friendly last weekend.

Once again, there’s a good player in there if you can fix the personality. Apparently Villa believe Unai Emery is as good of a therapist as he is a tactician.

Some rumours have also popped up around Crysencio Summerville, though I suspect that’s just West Ham or his agent trying to get Roma to move things along instead of bartering over a couple million euros.

As for central midfield, Villa have added a couple of sorely needed new players there as well. Youri Tielemans has joined Manchester United, while Andre Onana could be out for the entire season with a knee injury. Johan Manzambi arrived to fill one of those spots for £52m, and you can read more about him here. Yesterday, Villa filled the other hole with Joao Gomes, who joins from Wolves for £38m.

Gomes was one of the lone bright spots on a poor Wolves side last year. He’s a pretty consistent all-rounder, and should solidify the Villa midfield. It’s an unsexy signing and not one likely to generate a ton of resale value, but he’s good enough to help them right now and not going to drop in value anytime soon either. It’s a sensible pickup.

It’s been a wild transfer window so far for Aston Villa, and it might get even more active, with Emiliano Martínez, Ezri Konsa and Ollie Watkins linked to high profile moves away as well. So far, Villa’s doing a sensible job replacing what they’re losing, and rumoured signings all make sense. But there’s a ton of work left to do, and the squad is probably going to look much different a month from now.

More transfer rumours:

• Lots of Arsenal stuff to cover. First off, the Bruno Guimaraes rumours are not going away. Here’s a report that Arsenal are going to bid more than £70m. That’s a lot for a 28-year-old, from a team that could probably use a young midfielder to go with all their existing 28-year-olds. (I know that Declan Rice is 27 until he’s 28, don’t @ me.)

• Next, we’re getting fresh Nico Williams rumours. He was heavily linked to Arsenal last year until he decided to stay at Athletic, where he had a bit of a down year. But he was just a key part of Spain’s World Cup run, and he’d cost a solid £50m less than Morgan Rogers or Bradley Barcola.

• And finally, the injury to William Saliba has the Gunners interested in John Stones. Previously, he was assumed to be taking a step down from the level of Manchester City, but a 1-year deal with Arsenal could make a lot of sense.

• Bournemouth are close to signing Benfica center back Antonio Silva, who could replace Marcos Senesi’s ball-carrying ability.

• More “guy who had a good World Cup” rumours: Manchester United and Liverpool are both interested in Manu Kone, who Roma might cash in on after his solid performances with France. He’s fine. He’d be an OK Premier League DM.

• United might also get lucky with a Joshua Zirkzee sale, as Juventus are now interested due to PSG playing hardball over Randal Kolo Muami. I’m not sure why Juventus aren’t interested in any good strikers, but hey, it’s not my money.

• Tottenham are going to sell academy product Will Lankshear to Middlesbrough for £14m + add-ons and a sell-on clause. While fans are never thrilled to see top youngsters get sold and Lankshear is certainly an interesting talent, I think Spurs are doing a good piece of business to lock in a big fee with some future protections for a guy who’s yet to prove he’s more than an OK Championship striker.

• Ferran Torres only has a year left on his deal, and Barcelona are scared he might run it down to join Real Madrid on a free. They’d like to keep him, but they also might sell him to PSG or an English club to stop that from happening.

• Newcastle and Leeds are among the teams interested in Midtjylland striker Franculino, who has some of the most electric highlights you’ll ever see. He also spent the second half of last season injured and doesn’t actually have much shot volume. At £20m, he might be worth the risk, but I assess this as being very high risk.

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