All the latest transfer rumour, news and updates from Villa Park:
There is increasingly scary news emerging from Villa Park about the genuine threat that Fabian Delph could leave the club. Manchester City are desperate to add quality English players to their squad and have identified Delph as a solid target, having been put off by a £40 million price tag for Jack Wilshire. Delph only signed a four year extension at the club mid-way last season and made many positive comments about seeing out the better part of his career at Aston VIlla. However, with his form having begun to establish the former Leeds man as an England regular, relatively low release clause (believed to be £10m) and greater professional ambitions he likely harbours, Villa have a major problem.
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Concerningly, this has alerted other clubs to Delph’s possible availability, incentive to move and comparatively low transfer fee in comparison to other English targets; Tottenham are also monitoring the situation.
There is no doubt that losing Delph would represent a significant blow to Sherwood’s rebuilding efforts. Not only would we lose the only obvious choice for club captain and our midfield general, but it would also raise questions about where we see ourselves heading. Whilst Villa may struggle to ward off the advances of super rich sides like Manchester City, and the wages they offer, it will underline our inability to retain our top talent. It begs the question; how can we reinvent ourselves in an environment where we have so few players who we can afford to part with anyway? Don’t forget, this is not a Villa team (as under O’Neill) that has spoils aplenty to plunder. Lose Delph, possibly lose Benteke and matters become very challenging indeed. This may be a transfer window as important in terms of who we retain, rather than who we manage to recruit.
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In slightly more positive news, Villa are putting the pressure on Stoke to agree a fee for wantaway goalkeeper Begovic. This transfer has been simmering for a week as the Bosnian ‘keeper looks to step up a bigger club. I’ll permit the fishing rod to dangle there for a moment. The one lingering problem is that Chelsea retain an interest in the £10 million rated player. However, Begovic may take a view that merely swapping the Potteries for the bench at Chelsea would serve little purpose, particularly as Courtois is their certain number 1 having despatched the equally impressive Petr Cech. Man Utd are also watching from afar with the likely transfer of David De Gea to Real Madrid coming to fruition. Signing Begovic would be a significant step in shoring up a position which for many years has been nothing short of average within the Villa side, but it remains to be seen if he can be convinced that we are the team to come to.
Villa are lining up a surprise bid for Carroll (don’t worry, not Andy Carroll), Tottenham’s Tom Carroll who had a productive season on loan at Swansea City. The 23 year old is surplus to requirements at White Hart Lane and may form part of a triple swoop by Sherwood, who has been strongly linked with both Andros Townsend and (*gulp) Adebeyor. Carroll looks the right fit for Villa, impressing in Wales last term. Townsend would improve Villa & with a run of games and coaching could be a shrewd purchase. Adebeyor, for me at least, would represent a massive gamble and one which ultimately I fear we would live to regret.
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