Everton trying for Villa's Iroegbunam

Good business for Villa that...

Cue the derision from people who've never seen the lad play.

I don't mind stuff like this. Young players who are capped at youth international level. It makes sense for us. I'd hope the deal was heavily structured and not 10 million up front.

Mad that Villa are having to sell their good youth players because they get a better PSR return. They've just qualified for the champions league and are rewarded with having to sell for having the gaul to threaten the existing status quo. What a horribly flawed league we have.

Why do you say that, Ian? Is he not very good then? I

It's good cos it's pure profit for Villa, but If he was at the RS, Chelsea or City...I'd hazard a guess the fee would be double the £10m quoted here.

I don't know anything about the lad, but he's apparently highly rated but has little chance of breaking through at Villa cos they're overloaded with quality midfielders.

Seems a logical deal on paper if we also got someone like Kalvin Philips on loan to cover the sale of Onana. I just hope this kids better than Gareth Farrelly.

Dreadful decision. We shouldn't be signing any midfielder whose name doesnt end in nana !!
All in favour of young burgeoning talent rather than ageing has beens.

Well I was sceptical of Gana when we got him from Villa so I'll give this lad the benefit of the doubt.

At the end of the day who knows what these young players can do when they got their chance. If this is true clearly Thelwell sees something in him so I settle for that. allthough 10 million seems too much. Well see

I've only heard positive comments about him so far (apart from post 1, that is!).

This is exactly the kind of signing I want us v to make. There are lots of talented young English players coming through the system. I said years ago that we should be the team that offers them game time rather than them going to Germany or Portugal to get it like Sancho, Bynoe-Gittens and Marcus Edwards.

No idea if he's any good but I like the idea. It won't be £10m up front but a drip feed depending on how he does. It should suit us and Villa.

He's played for the England youth teams, over some good competition, and seems like an athletic DMC who can cover ground, get tackles in but is also decent enough on the ball.

Hopefully he's been well scouted.

Yes of course we need midfielders who can tackle, run and pass. If he can do all that then by all means get him in as we struggle in that department.

Sam

I was wondering if you or Robert Tressell had any insights. I've never heard of him but he played 30 plus games in the championship which compares favorably with our loanees Warrington et al. He's 6ft, good in the air apparently. Passing stats are good. Doesn't offer much creatively but with Onana seemingly on the way out and Gana now 34 we will need someone in that mold. Hopefully he is the man. I'm inclined to believe this rumor cause the unimaginative press always come up with much more ridiculous rumors than some obscure youngster. I'm half expecting some outrageous “Jordan Henderson set for Mersey return to win back his England place for the World Cup as new owner Friedken offers to double his Saudi money to seal the deal.” Rather like the old “Everton offer free helicopter to fly Jurgen Klinsmann to matches as he wants to live in London.” Or “Everton outbid Boro for Ravanelli” along with the bi-annual “Riquelme seen wearing Tony Hibbert shirt at the Titanic hotel.”

The obligatory bit of Youtube scouting seems to show the boy's got talent. Predominantly a ball-winner, but looks like he likes to beat a man and burst up the pitch too.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jL-aNNc-IFs

Could be a decent Onana replacement.

15 appearances for Villa last season in all competitions. Mostly off the bench, but he was given a start against Man City in the league, which Emery wouldn't do if he didn't rate him.

Thanks for posting that Jamie and yes, certainly a talented player. From those clips, it does seem like he may get caught in possession in the prem, trying to do too much coming out of defense. Not that clips like this are in any way reliable.

Kieran, I can't say he's been a player on my radar at all but a little look into his stats and record look encouraging.

Most of all he managed to get 28 starts for QPR in the championship at the age of 19 which is impressive and will serve him well. He was then kept at Villa last season but rarely got minutes.

At QPR he seemed a pretty all round player, getting in a good amount of tackles and blocks etc whilst also able to dribble the ball out (though Dyche doesn't want this). He can strike the ball and scored a great goal for Eng U20s earlier this year from 30 yards. Similar profile to Garner perhaps in that he seems to be able to do most things well but may not be outstanding at anything.

If he comes it will be interesting to see if he goes straight into first team or is like Chermitti and Beto, where we buy a more experienced central midfielder at the same time. Iroegbunam would probably benefit from another season getting 30 starts in the Championship and I'm sure he'd have offers after his good showing 2 years ago.

Imagining the fee might be £3/4m up front with the rest coming based on appearances etc it could be a sensible purchase, but it all comes down to good scouting. The basics look promising.

I know nothing about this lad but if Villa want Ross Barkley on a free then we must be paying 10M too much for somebody he might be replacing. I just hope it is not a case that payment on the never never is the major consideration.

I think Villa may be looking at PSR implications Alan.

Villa are doing what RS, Chelsea, City and others have been doing - selling home grown talent for big accounting win, in order to enable bigger spending on first teamers.

They let Archer and Ramsey go last season. Chukwuemeka the season before and now Iroegbonum.

Sadly these academy players are absolutely miles better than the players we've been bringing through.

Robert/Alan - that's my view.

A podcast between a qpr and Villa fan had him down as an 8. Good box to box, but struggled as a 6. Shone, but in a poor side that saw 3 or 4 managers in a year.

Slightly surprised he's being offered with Kamara out for 12 months, players leaving, and increasing game demand of an extended champions league. The new format sees champions league teams playing twice a week solid from pretty much September to February.

A sobering view is Callum Chambers has been introduced from the bench ahead of him. Emery ain't a fool, so it looks more like shedding academy player like Cameron Archer as pointed out.

£10m, but likely all to be on Klarna. It sounds good business for Villa to get £10m for a player way behind Ramsey, Mcginn, Tielemans, Luiz, Barkley, etc plus new players that they'll go on.

The disappointing thing for me was Wharton was available for £12-14m last summer, and Blackburn had a strong interest in Cannon. That wasn't a huge amount of money to find. Onana could have been sacraficed last summer if the funds were needed to balance the books.

I know Thewell has got his hands tied, but Beto, Maupay have been expensive duds. An opportunity to bring Wharton from the up the road was missed.

Hindsight? Not really, that's what the scouts/director of football are bloody paid for. Branthwaite, Stones, Lescott, Baines, Jagielka, Andy Robertson, Kante etc are all out there, just need to be found.

Ian # very frustrating about Wharton. Would have been excellent alongside Garner for next 5 to 10 years. We just didn't have the money. Sickening that we cannot currently compete with the likes of Palace, Bournemouth and Brentford for players.

No idea about the guy but if he's played for England at various youth levels and has a full Championship season under his belt I think it's a good buy, assuming the cash isn't crazy.

Will be 21 end of the month so you'd think he'd be in the first team squad, if not first team, straight away. We definitely need more midfielders.

Looks decent to me and similar to how Onana was described before he signed. We've not seen Onana bursting forward but this lad can. Whether he will who knows but this is the sort of business we should be doing- young players with ambition.

Fabrizio Romano reporting this as done for £9m. I'd be very surprised if that is an up front fee and probably includes some clauses on appearances and success.

Intriguing deal. Bit of a gamble (as it always is with young players) but exactly the sort of transfer that we might see the likes of Brighton etc make. Young talent who's not quite made his mark but has shown something and has time to improve.

Will be interesting to see if he's thrown straight into first team or given a loan to. he definitely needs games to develop and I'm not sure he'll be starting for us. He's not at Onana's level yet. More of an 8 than a 6 from what I've read but gets around the park well and can do a bit of everything.

Nice to see us moving quickly for once and getting the likes of Iroegbunam and Harrison a full pre-season under Dyche will really help. Evidence of better processes?

If this lad and Dobbin are going in opposite directions does money have to change hands for us to benefit from a PSR perspective?

Entertaining and informative review of his season at QPR on this fan forum:

https://www.fansnetwork.co.uk/football/queensparkrangers/news/60266/end-of-term-report-22-23-%E2%80%94-midfield

Andrew, yes. It's something of a PSR loophole. Much better for us to get a £10m deal for Dobbin which counts as all profit and pay the same in installments to Villa for Iroegbunam. It's why swap deals are less common now because they are not at all helpful for PSR

Just watching the Ukraine game now and their goal score Shaparenko reminds me of Lampard or even Cahill. Saw him live on Monday too and was definitively the best ukrainian out there. €9m b4 the euros bit that will hier up now after 2day.. goal and assist.

We have to see this for what it is.

An easy way around PSr for us and Villa. Based on normal values I would say neither player would command much more than 5m so I guess and am hoping that this avoids any more outgoings before the end of June.