You'd hope that we'd be seen as a better bet for young ambitious players at this moment in time - but Everton could well be more appealing. What's clear is that he's definitely going to move in this window.

Villa clearly just horse traded this guy to balance the books if they sell after 6 months. Pretty horrendous really.
Only want him here if he is committed to us, even if for 5 months...

So any doubts about simply profiteering by AV clearly removed . Whatever ,can’t see MA and KM taking on board anyone of whom they’ve any doubt whatsoever .
Jiggery pokery seems mostly part and parcel of Football transfer business with far too many hands in the till at the same time !
COYB

Forgot this one already.

Hi All,
I think Phillogene and Town maybe knew that was what Villa intended and tbf why not, he is a product of their academy so to buy him at 30% less then sell him at his worth it's shrewd business by Villa.
I think if or when he arrives at Town there will be no more buy back clause and we have another player who is young and an asset.

I think Phillogene wanted to and will come to Town, he played with Delap and Greaves at Hull and with Omari for England u21's so he will feel c9mfortable immediately and knows how to link up with Delap, I think Town a much better prospect than Everton.
Such a shame we didn't hold on at weekend, we would be catching up mid table but I still think we will have a good 2nd half of season.
I feel Southampton, Leicester and Wolves or Everton or even West Ham now will be in battle and if Everton and Leicester do get points deducted it will improve our chances massively of survival.

If we survive we are obliged to keep Cajuste as part of deal and I wouldn't be shocked if Phillips came in on petmenant as successor to Morsy.

I think Kmk has found a good formation now, I'd like to see Ben Chillwell come in at left back and move Leif in front of him and switch but Phillogene is a left winger.

Walton
Godfrey
O'Shea
Greaves
Davis
Phillips/Morsy (prefer Phillips)
Cajuste
Hutchinson
Phillogene/J Clarke
Szodicks or Broadhead in 10
Delap/New Striker

That's a very strong town team in my opinion.

J Tayler
Burgess
Chaplin
Muric
Johnson
Tunazabe
Hirst
And 2 from above who don't start, great bench

To go - Hamadi (Loan), H Clarke, Woofeden (Sold) Ogbene off 25 squad and I know not popular but Burns or Chaplin sold (prefer Burns to go now unfortunately don't see him playing much now) Luongo (off 25 squad but added to coaching staff)

Just my opinions, seems everyone wants strikers that Jesus from Bogatano be amazing but can't see it, Taj Wright from Coventry, Latte from Boro (most likely with Hamadi as part of deal) or Almiron from Newcastle
If we are in for Matic that would really solid us up.

COYB

Undoubtedly a talented player, who would enhance our squad and provide KM with more options and strength in depth. But there’s something distinctly questionable about the manner in which both AV, and probably the lad’s agent, conduct their business. However, trust MA to act ethically in this club’s best interests. (Fully appreciate, btw, the realities of today’s football landscape)

Herfie, I agree with the comments about the agent and AV, i feel the lad has been messed around here and am really underwhelmed.
But I trust MA & KM so if they think it's the right thing to do....

My personal view I want players to be here only if they want to be and their attitude is right none of this they wait for what they wait for what they deem better.
Godfrey forget who he played for hate a choice of clubs but wants to be here at ipswich which is all I ask.

Leejames99 agree with pretty much all you say other than on Kalvin P.

He's struggling to get into the side and TBH, I've not seen him do much (albeit from the limited games I've seen on TV this season). I don't think his heart is in it anymore..

He has barely played for Villa this half season and what he has played unfortunately has been way below the required mark. He would need at least a month to be game ready as not been playing regularly.

Not sure this signing is worth it personally and we would be overloaded with wingers, when we really only need two in a starting 11 in what is proving to be an effective formation for us now.

Leejames99 marked down for the Chilwell comment.

His wages are horrendous - got to be a lot worse than Phillips I reckon and he is just as jury prone as Reece James. They have both barely played over the last few years, therefore not a good loan signing. You can’t take that sort of risk on a high profile loan signing with massive injury problems.

Got to wonder how he is being kept out by Cucurella, who let’s face it isn’t a great left back himself.

FabianMalyon when Morsy was suspended I thought him and Cajuste were pretty decent.

Phillips has had a couple of games out with injury also, so it’s hard to tell on him so far. Needs a regular run of games.

Cajuste has been one of our best signings with Delap. Just hope we stay up so the move becomes permanent. If we don’t, a top bottom half team will snap him up easily.

Is it just me...or all this talk about 20mill+ signings, competing with Everton, West Ham and Palace over signings still feel like dreamland?

Sure it wasnt that long ago we were signing a Norwegian PE teacher (Skard?).....ok it was 15 years ago...but it didn't get much better until a couple of years ago....

@gkroon fair play, I didn't realise Chilwell was injured alot, if he wants to play football he will have to reduce wage or disappear like Drinkwater, Linguard, Ali etc so many of them, if that's the case ignore that comment, I more mean I think a strong left back be good and play Davis as wing back as its so tough getting up and down ad Sunday showed, I actually don't know why Davis wasn't taken off for Townsend and just shut up shop once at 2 - 1 but we move on, work in progress but we looking good.
TBF Greaves plays left also and we do have Townsend, so maybe fine at back now.

Leejames99

I said in the chat on the match report and even during the game in the chat room that David should be replaced by Townsend if Traore comes on.

Think it was a little error replacing Szmodicw with Clarke (we know that defending is not Clark’s strength). Should have been Townsend for Davis and shut up shop.

Oh well, onwards and upwards.

Good to see you commenting. It’s unfortunate how some people turn to insults or are just downright unpleasant. It’s a discussion forum and we all have different views at the end of the day. There is no need for some people to be how they are on there.

Everton preparing for the Championship ! lol

best news to date

Could Man City potentially do this with Delap? Buy him back to sell him on at a profit?
Having said that, Delap has made it clear that he wants to play football so staying here would ensure he gets plenty of football.

@gkroon Absolutely, I enjoy reading comments, thoughts and suggestions and nobody will agree all the time.
Of course people have preferred systems, players and favourites but in the end we all just want to see our club thrive hopefully in the Prem which at this present time I'm confident we will.
What I don't like is players or people commentating getting abuse or just writing drivel.
Players and heroes will go and new ones will come in and new heroes made.
Sunday was bad luck again, I agree we should of shut shop but had J Clarke scored we would be hailing the substitution but I totally was perplexed at with minutes to go we put Hamadi on, unfortunately he just is not ready for the Premiership at this time but I think he would probably agree at the moment it's too big a step up.

I think Mckenna and Ashton know exactly what and who is needed and will get the balance right on and off the pitch and go for survival and keep growing but have a team brimming with talent to bounce back immediately if we did go down.

I really think their are established Prem teams in a weaker situation than Town right now.

COYB

Unless someone can explain to me the mechanics of a deal like this, I fail to see how AV make a quick buck on this one.

Had we bought him from Hull, AV would have got £5m (30% of the total) in sell on directly from us.

AV instead bought him for the fee we agreed minus the 30%, so £13m.

If AV sell him to us now, they would need to sell him for more than £18m to make more than they would have made had they just let us buy him originally.

And that's before taking into account agent's fees, wages for 6 months, signing on fees and other incentives, which are likely to be multiple millions.

Are we really likely to pay more than £20m now for a player who won't be match fit, hasn't proven himself in the prem and which was sold for £13m 6 months ago?

Hopefully Everton won't do the sums.

I think our signings will make us stronger long term and we had to go down the top championship player route to give us a chance if we do get relegated. The gulf in the team between League 1 to Premiership was just too bigger jump and we needed to bulk the team on talent that will stay should the worst happen.

Shrewd business all round - although not playing brilliantly so far Clarke would be a serious player in the Championship.

The only player I don’t understand - was Muric. I was sceptical from the start and sadly remain so currently. He’s one where I can’t work out why he was purchased for a reasonable sum. He can’t play the way McKenna wants him to - so why was he brought? Not his fault he can’t play that way, but I don’t think he improves on what we had.

I think Philliogene was sold for 6mill and bought back for 13million so 7 million difference but if they then sell him for £20 million they have the 6 mill from first sale back plus tge 7million extra they paid to get him back with so 13 million plus 7 million extra from town for his sale so even if it cost 2 million in wages etc still make 5 million extra profit, its good business from Villa, sold him for 6 his stock went up to 20 so they bought him back wait 6 months and sell him for 3 x what they originally did.

Bit rubbish for him but I would not be surprised if this was all done and dusted before hand, who knows.

Figures may be out by bit but that's there or there abouts. Hull make profit Villa make profit, Town get player young and a asset.

I think he is fit, just been benched but the sale could be why.

See what happens but if we get hin we have the England U21's front 3

Can't understand this Townsend for Davis rubbish he's obviously no where near good enough otherwise Keiran McKenna would include him unless you think our Manager doesn't know what he's doing i know it's all about opinions but some people have some vivid imagination's find it very embarrassing.

Linkboy13 aggressive much. Calm yourself down.

We were talking about substitutions during the game.

Leif is superb going forward, but his defending isn’t as good. This was shown with the unnecessary challenge to give away the penalty. This also wasn’t the first time as you couldn’t really argue if he had been sent off prior as was arguably 50/50 red or not. He also did that silly challenge on Savinho against Man City.

So sometimes it may not be a bad idea giving a more defensive minded defender the last 10/15 mins.

Hardly vivid imaginations.

Always seems like too much drama around Philogene. His agent is bad news and that reflects badly on him. I'd rather we found another target tbh.