Tweet
When Aston Villa sent out a call for help, few would have expected outspoken Juventus manager Andy Banks to answer the call, but that’s exactly what has happened.
New Villa manager Keith Drummond has stepped aside from his role as Aston Villa manager for the next few weeks and with many decisions to be made in preparation for next season, the club needed a new leader if only for a matter of days.
Up stepped the Juventus manager and he quickly got to work. Plan to increase the stadium capacity by 5,000 seats were instantly approved costing the club just £10,000,000 with the return on investment expected to take just 3 seasons.
Banks then turned his attention to the Villa academy as he splashed the cash again, spending £12,000,000 on another addition to the youth squad preparing the Premier League team for the future.
The final thing that Banks did before taking a step back was to list the entire squad for sale with a list of requirements for the squad to move forwards. Key areas such as a defensive midfield role & attacking midfield role were key but Villa would have to sacrifice other players in order to improve the team as a whole with stars such as Eder_Militao & Luiz_Diaz expected to leave in order to bring in new faces.
After spending £22,000,000 on things away from the playing field, Banks went on a 3 mile walk to clear his head and wait for offers to come in and the news of Banks’ short term appointment must have been miscommunicated as the vultures began to circle as if one of Drummond’s back room staff had taken over.
First to take a pop were Manchester United and their manager Steven Outten.
Outten is widely known for being hard to negotiate with and over valuing his own players whilst simultaneously under valuing the players value who he’s bidding on and no finer example of this could be made than when Outten paid a visit to Banks’ office in Birmingham.
An insulting offer of 22 year old P_Hincapie in exchange for star defender Eder_Militao blew the socks off of caretaker manager Andy Banks as he was quoted as saying it’s one of the worst offers he’s ever received.
The offer was rejected and the clubs parted ways, Banks had the following to say on the offer;
‘It was insulting, Hincapie may be 5 years younger than Eder but the gulf, and I mean GULF, in class between the two is massive. I originally asked who else was accompanying Hincapie to Villa Park but I was told by Manchester United representatives that it was a 1 for 1 offer.
I was astounded, it’s the worst I’ve had in years, perhaps ever.
When I was told that Manchester United wanted to see me I expected much better but it seems like certain clubs think they can come in like vultures and pick the bones of this club, so there’s a lot of disappointment there on our side but we moved quickly past it.’
The next offer came from West Ham United. Their offer was a 2 for 2 which involved J_Todibo & J_Alvarez.
In return Aston Villa would receive 22 year old Scottish defender A_Hickey & 30 year old Austrian M_Sabitzer.
Negotiations were short in this one as Banks felt that Hickey would never be able to be good enough for the Villa first team which leads us onto the second reason why J_Alvarez didn’t go to West Ham United.
Banks had the following to say;
‘Hickey is a nice young player and Sabitzer is a very good player with a lot of experience but the deal just wasn’t right for the club and in the same time that we received the West Ham United bid, we received one from Everton which was much more appealing to us overall so we had to decline this offer.’
The next deal came in the form of an enquiry from caretaker manager Mike Bridge at Everton, the two managers Bridge & Banks have a deep respect for each other and have done business earlier this month with their main clubs Juventus & Stockport County and this deal was just as easy as the others in the past between the two with the deal being agreed and completed within minutes.
Aston Villa were looking to offload World Cup winner J_Alvarez in favour of an attacking midfielder and the 27 year old Argentine attracted former Arsenal & Chelsea player A_Correa who, considering he’s been at Arsenal for the last few seasons has now had more clubs this off season than trophies in his career.
The 30 year old was sent to Villa Park in exchange for Alvarez who has since been moved on again.
While Correa is 30 years old, he gives Villa a real attacking threat from midfield that Banks felt the squad was missing.
Here’s what the temporary gaffer had to say on the deal;
‘It’s a good deal for both parties, Mike is easy to deal with as he knows a fair deal when he sees one and doesn’t try to push for more like some others.
Correa isn’t the player we want long term due to his age and he comes to the club knowing we’d be looking to move him on but his skill set is what we want in a player eventually so it’s a very strong start.’
Late last night, Aston Villa did indeed complete their next transfer as they concluded lengthy talks with EFL 2 Champions Fiorentina which culminated in a whopping 4 for 4 transfer which saw Villa stars Eder_Militao & Luiz_Dias leave the club alongside 32 year old midfielder I_Gundogan & backup goalkeeper A_Bachmann while Fiorentina sent 24 year old defender J_Sulato, 28 year old star defensive midfielder S_Lobotka, 29 year old striker G_Jesus and backup goalkeeper J_Heekeren to England.
The Premier League team would also pay Fiorentina £40,000,000 potentially leaving the club cash strapped and without their star players moving forwards. This deal was seen by many as controversial but Banks remained confident that his decision was the right one for the club as a whole;
‘Dias & Militao were very good servants for the club and they’ll be missed, however Jesus & Lobotka was just as good if not better or more influential to the club and considering before my arrival the club couldn’t give Gundogan away and we now have a solid defender in Sulato, I’d say that the overall deal benefited Villa more than Fiorentina.
We may have had to pay through the nose in terms of the cash but that’s just what Neil Kirby is like, deep pockets and short arms when he’s buying but expects the world when he’s selling. Unfortunately the world of football is full of that.
We’re extremely happy to bring the new lads in, Jesus is likely to lead the team out in the first game against Barnsley at Oakwell, Sulato will help to plug the gap that Militao has left and we now finally have an elite defensive midfielder to add to W_Ndidi.
It was a lot of hard work but we got there in the end. I think Kirby saw us as an easy target considering his offers early on in negotiations but we soon sorted that out and showed that we meant business and we wanted to get the best deal for the Villa team.’
Moving onto today and early offers came in from the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Lazio and Arsenal.
The offers from Blackburn Rovers & Lazio were rejected for different reasons. Ranging from ages of the players to creating an imbalance in the team.
Banks had this to say;
‘We respect the offers from the two clubs in question but having made a few deals already we felt like the bid from Lazio wouldn’t be right for the club as we wished to keep J_Todibo in the squad and the offer from Blackburn would have undone the work we did yesterday to bring Lobotka to the club so for those reasons we had to politely decline despite some of the players being offered having a lot of quality.’
The final offer to date that Aston Villa received and rejected was an approach from Arsenal.
The Arsenal manager Darren Humphries is well known for pushing as far as he can to get the best deal for his club but his offer today was instantly rejected before he stormed out of the meeting room, breaking a tv screen and smashing a window along the way to his car.
Arsenal showed interest in the 27 year old striker at Villa, L_Martinez. Banks had listed the entire club for sale and at the time of the offer was inviting offers that would see the club earn money in a type of deal that would see them downgrade in quality in exchange for some extra funds but what Humphries proposed wasn’t this.
The East Londoner proposed sending 26 year old Italian striker F_Chiesa and a measly £8,000,000 to Villa Park in exchange for the World Cup winner.
This fee was later upped to £10,000,000 before Banks revealed that the club would only consider that type of deal if they were gaining significant funds in the deal from Arsenal.
It was at this point that Humphries was heard screaming and shouting that he didn’t even want Martinez as he was witnessed breaking Aston Villa property on his was out of the complex.
After the situation had calmed down, Banks had the following to add to the Arsenal managers exiting rants;
‘I’m not sure what’s got into Darren in recent weeks, it seems like every time I reject his poor offers he goes on the defensive and breaks things. He knows I know a fair deal when I see one and he just isn’t making those kind of offers. Perhaps in time he’ll stump up the right kind of offer. Who knows.’
As of writing, that is the final deal that Aston Villa have completed, however they’ve listed what else they’d like to do with the squad including moving on from S_Lobotka & A_Correa if the right deals should come along.
Here’s Banks with his plans for the rest of the transfer bonanza along with other, off the field news;
‘The job here will never be done so we’re always looking to keep on moving forwards. As stated before we could look at moving on a few players but the squad balance is right finally and that can’t change. We need the right deals to come along for us if we’re going to do more but we’re open to generating some money for us to use in the upcoming auction but not at the expense of the first team squad quality.
We’ve moved pretty fast after signing him last night to give the captain’s armband to G_Jesus. We feel like with him as captain he’ll move than fill the boots left behind by Luiz_Dias and lead the line for us alongside Martinez.
As we talk about funds, the fans will be pleased to know that some of the club’s funds have been spent on match day experiences as we plan to have 5,000 extra seats available for our first home game against Liverpool which will help to generate money for the club forever more.
In addition to this we’ve started to properly fund the youth academy with a player coming in from overseas either late this month or early next month and they’ll be developed in the youth set up so that one day they can pull on a first team Aston Villa shirt.
The club seems to be in safe hands and in a stable position under Keith, I’m here under his supervision to guide the players for a short period of time but make no mistake, Keith is still fully in charge.’
New Villa manager Keith Drummond has stepped aside from his role as Aston Villa manager for the next few weeks and with many decisions to be made in preparation for next season, the club needed a new leader if only for a matter of days.
Up stepped the Juventus manager and he quickly got to work. Plan to increase the stadium capacity by 5,000 seats were instantly approved costing the club just £10,000,000 with the return on investment expected to take just 3 seasons.
Banks then turned his attention to the Villa academy as he splashed the cash again, spending £12,000,000 on another addition to the youth squad preparing the Premier League team for the future.
The final thing that Banks did before taking a step back was to list the entire squad for sale with a list of requirements for the squad to move forwards. Key areas such as a defensive midfield role & attacking midfield role were key but Villa would have to sacrifice other players in order to improve the team as a whole with stars such as Eder_Militao & Luiz_Diaz expected to leave in order to bring in new faces.
After spending £22,000,000 on things away from the playing field, Banks went on a 3 mile walk to clear his head and wait for offers to come in and the news of Banks’ short term appointment must have been miscommunicated as the vultures began to circle as if one of Drummond’s back room staff had taken over.
First to take a pop were Manchester United and their manager Steven Outten.
Outten is widely known for being hard to negotiate with and over valuing his own players whilst simultaneously under valuing the players value who he’s bidding on and no finer example of this could be made than when Outten paid a visit to Banks’ office in Birmingham.
An insulting offer of 22 year old P_Hincapie in exchange for star defender Eder_Militao blew the socks off of caretaker manager Andy Banks as he was quoted as saying it’s one of the worst offers he’s ever received.
The offer was rejected and the clubs parted ways, Banks had the following to say on the offer;
‘It was insulting, Hincapie may be 5 years younger than Eder but the gulf, and I mean GULF, in class between the two is massive. I originally asked who else was accompanying Hincapie to Villa Park but I was told by Manchester United representatives that it was a 1 for 1 offer.
I was astounded, it’s the worst I’ve had in years, perhaps ever.
When I was told that Manchester United wanted to see me I expected much better but it seems like certain clubs think they can come in like vultures and pick the bones of this club, so there’s a lot of disappointment there on our side but we moved quickly past it.’
The next offer came from West Ham United. Their offer was a 2 for 2 which involved J_Todibo & J_Alvarez.
In return Aston Villa would receive 22 year old Scottish defender A_Hickey & 30 year old Austrian M_Sabitzer.
Negotiations were short in this one as Banks felt that Hickey would never be able to be good enough for the Villa first team which leads us onto the second reason why J_Alvarez didn’t go to West Ham United.
Banks had the following to say;
‘Hickey is a nice young player and Sabitzer is a very good player with a lot of experience but the deal just wasn’t right for the club and in the same time that we received the West Ham United bid, we received one from Everton which was much more appealing to us overall so we had to decline this offer.’
The next deal came in the form of an enquiry from caretaker manager Mike Bridge at Everton, the two managers Bridge & Banks have a deep respect for each other and have done business earlier this month with their main clubs Juventus & Stockport County and this deal was just as easy as the others in the past between the two with the deal being agreed and completed within minutes.
Aston Villa were looking to offload World Cup winner J_Alvarez in favour of an attacking midfielder and the 27 year old Argentine attracted former Arsenal & Chelsea player A_Correa who, considering he’s been at Arsenal for the last few seasons has now had more clubs this off season than trophies in his career.
The 30 year old was sent to Villa Park in exchange for Alvarez who has since been moved on again.
While Correa is 30 years old, he gives Villa a real attacking threat from midfield that Banks felt the squad was missing.
Here’s what the temporary gaffer had to say on the deal;
‘It’s a good deal for both parties, Mike is easy to deal with as he knows a fair deal when he sees one and doesn’t try to push for more like some others.
Correa isn’t the player we want long term due to his age and he comes to the club knowing we’d be looking to move him on but his skill set is what we want in a player eventually so it’s a very strong start.’
Late last night, Aston Villa did indeed complete their next transfer as they concluded lengthy talks with EFL 2 Champions Fiorentina which culminated in a whopping 4 for 4 transfer which saw Villa stars Eder_Militao & Luiz_Dias leave the club alongside 32 year old midfielder I_Gundogan & backup goalkeeper A_Bachmann while Fiorentina sent 24 year old defender J_Sulato, 28 year old star defensive midfielder S_Lobotka, 29 year old striker G_Jesus and backup goalkeeper J_Heekeren to England.
The Premier League team would also pay Fiorentina £40,000,000 potentially leaving the club cash strapped and without their star players moving forwards. This deal was seen by many as controversial but Banks remained confident that his decision was the right one for the club as a whole;
‘Dias & Militao were very good servants for the club and they’ll be missed, however Jesus & Lobotka was just as good if not better or more influential to the club and considering before my arrival the club couldn’t give Gundogan away and we now have a solid defender in Sulato, I’d say that the overall deal benefited Villa more than Fiorentina.
We may have had to pay through the nose in terms of the cash but that’s just what Neil Kirby is like, deep pockets and short arms when he’s buying but expects the world when he’s selling. Unfortunately the world of football is full of that.
We’re extremely happy to bring the new lads in, Jesus is likely to lead the team out in the first game against Barnsley at Oakwell, Sulato will help to plug the gap that Militao has left and we now finally have an elite defensive midfielder to add to W_Ndidi.
It was a lot of hard work but we got there in the end. I think Kirby saw us as an easy target considering his offers early on in negotiations but we soon sorted that out and showed that we meant business and we wanted to get the best deal for the Villa team.’
Moving onto today and early offers came in from the likes of Blackburn Rovers, Lazio and Arsenal.
The offers from Blackburn Rovers & Lazio were rejected for different reasons. Ranging from ages of the players to creating an imbalance in the team.
Banks had this to say;
‘We respect the offers from the two clubs in question but having made a few deals already we felt like the bid from Lazio wouldn’t be right for the club as we wished to keep J_Todibo in the squad and the offer from Blackburn would have undone the work we did yesterday to bring Lobotka to the club so for those reasons we had to politely decline despite some of the players being offered having a lot of quality.’
The final offer to date that Aston Villa received and rejected was an approach from Arsenal.
The Arsenal manager Darren Humphries is well known for pushing as far as he can to get the best deal for his club but his offer today was instantly rejected before he stormed out of the meeting room, breaking a tv screen and smashing a window along the way to his car.
Arsenal showed interest in the 27 year old striker at Villa, L_Martinez. Banks had listed the entire club for sale and at the time of the offer was inviting offers that would see the club earn money in a type of deal that would see them downgrade in quality in exchange for some extra funds but what Humphries proposed wasn’t this.
The East Londoner proposed sending 26 year old Italian striker F_Chiesa and a measly £8,000,000 to Villa Park in exchange for the World Cup winner.
This fee was later upped to £10,000,000 before Banks revealed that the club would only consider that type of deal if they were gaining significant funds in the deal from Arsenal.
It was at this point that Humphries was heard screaming and shouting that he didn’t even want Martinez as he was witnessed breaking Aston Villa property on his was out of the complex.
After the situation had calmed down, Banks had the following to add to the Arsenal managers exiting rants;
‘I’m not sure what’s got into Darren in recent weeks, it seems like every time I reject his poor offers he goes on the defensive and breaks things. He knows I know a fair deal when I see one and he just isn’t making those kind of offers. Perhaps in time he’ll stump up the right kind of offer. Who knows.’
As of writing, that is the final deal that Aston Villa have completed, however they’ve listed what else they’d like to do with the squad including moving on from S_Lobotka & A_Correa if the right deals should come along.
Here’s Banks with his plans for the rest of the transfer bonanza along with other, off the field news;
‘The job here will never be done so we’re always looking to keep on moving forwards. As stated before we could look at moving on a few players but the squad balance is right finally and that can’t change. We need the right deals to come along for us if we’re going to do more but we’re open to generating some money for us to use in the upcoming auction but not at the expense of the first team squad quality.
We’ve moved pretty fast after signing him last night to give the captain’s armband to G_Jesus. We feel like with him as captain he’ll move than fill the boots left behind by Luiz_Dias and lead the line for us alongside Martinez.
As we talk about funds, the fans will be pleased to know that some of the club’s funds have been spent on match day experiences as we plan to have 5,000 extra seats available for our first home game against Liverpool which will help to generate money for the club forever more.
In addition to this we’ve started to properly fund the youth academy with a player coming in from overseas either late this month or early next month and they’ll be developed in the youth set up so that one day they can pull on a first team Aston Villa shirt.
The club seems to be in safe hands and in a stable position under Keith, I’m here under his supervision to guide the players for a short period of time but make no mistake, Keith is still fully in charge.’