Our Harv.

[LarryHagman]

Villa are still a bit skint, I think.

Looks like Malen's been sold without consulting Emery hence his pissedoffness.

 

[dee]

Dave OC Kop suggesting McGinn's injury may force Villa's hand

 

[KopRed]

Nah, they won't pay 35m for him regardless.

Back when he played that few games he didn't impress anyway. He's not going to play.

 

[darkstarexodus]

They should play him if they're light, trigger the signing and then flip him in the summer.

Making Champions League should be top priority for them, both in terms of attracting/retaining players and generating revenue.

 

[dee]

They should play him if they're light, trigger the signing and then flip him in the summer.

Making Champions League should be top priority for them, both in terms of attracting/retaining players and generating revenue.

Exactly. They’re paying his wages whatever. It’s not like he’ll only be worth £10.15. He’s still young, English and very talented

Emery needs to coach him instead of trying to buy even more players

 

[Beamrider]

The thing is, Villa are past 31/12/2025 now, which I believe will have been their concern re FFP - they're probably fine under the super-generous PL rules but stuffed under UEFA's rules, but UEFA reporting is calendar year whereas PL is financial year (I think it's to June for Villa). That means that any impact on their ratios and reporting if they were to trigger the deal would now fall into UEFA's assessment for NEXT season, not the current one (where they almost certainly have issues which would get worse if they'd triggered the deal pre 31/12).
Which means if they did intend to buy him, they could trigger the deal now (and that was what I assumed they were planning to do originally - although I'd have expected them to have put more appearances on the buy obligation - they must have known they'd want to play him more than 10 times before the end of 2025, all being well).
The fact they're short of bodies and he's still not even on the bench suggests to me it's not about finances now, Emery mustn't fancy him.
They shafted our boy, the twats.