JS96 said:

Aston Villa have agreed a loan deal for Chelsea winger Alejandro Garnacho until the end of the 2026-27 season, with an obligation to buy..

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I'm not sure what's going on at Aston Villa....

They've just sold two of their most influential players. This coming season should be ripe for a title push.

There's plenty of transition at the top end of the Premier League with Liverpool and Manchester City both bedding in new managers and Arsenal are perhaps likely to have a bit of a post World Cup hangover with injuries etc.

Villa finished strong last season with 4th and seemed pretty stable,
they have the manager, momentum from last year snd a reasonably wealthy ownership.

Now they're looking at a rebuilding period.....

I suppose the club has financial compliance issues but you rarely see their top 4/5 rivals selling their best players?

Robbos said:

Jeff Bezos possibility of investing in Liverpool, like life the richer clubs get richer, ummm, Liverpool fans complaining about Man City financial powers is like the 'pot calling the kettle black'.

Liverpool: The Jeff Bezos factor - unpicking puzzle of Liverpool's potential investors

Could Amazon founder and American billionaire Jeff Bezos really become one of Liverpool's new investors? BBC Sport takes a look.

www.bbc.com

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Back in early 2025, Elon Musk's father said Elon "would like" to buy Liverpool if the opportunity arose.....

Apparently his grandmother was from Liverpool and he often credits her for being a big influence on him as a kid.

When this link or rumour appeared the Liverpool fans weren't overly impressed!!

Football us life said:

I'm not sure what's going on at Aston Villa....

They've just sold two of their most influential players. This coming season should be ripe for a title push.

There's plenty of transition at the top end of the Premier League with Liverpool and Manchester City both bedding in new managers and Arsenal are perhaps likely to have a bit of a post World Cup hangover with injuries etc.

Villa finished strong last season with 4th and seemed pretty stable,
they have the manager, momentum from last year snd a reasonably wealthy ownership.

Now they're looking at a rebuilding period.....

I suppose the club has financial compliance issues but you rarely see their top 4/5 rivals selling their best players?

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Really they should be looking at strengthening their weaknesses but instead they're just selling everyone for a profit. The same thing happened with Spurs in the 2010s and early 2020s. The same thing happened with Newcastle last season. Years of building only to come so close yet so far. As soon as they won silverware or came close to doing so it all fell apart. This is why Spurs don't have Harry Kane, Newcastle don't have Alex Isak and Villa don't have Morgan Rogers.

HonestSpursFan said:

Really they should be looking at strengthening their weaknesses but instead they're just selling everyone for a profit. The same thing happened with Spurs in the 2010s and early 2020s. The same thing happened with Newcastle last season. Years of building only to come so close yet so far. As soon as they won silverware or came close to doing so it all fell apart. This is why Spurs don't have Harry Kane, Newcastle don't have Alex Isak and Villa don't have Morgan Rogers.

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Yep...It does feel like a cycle in modern football.....

Build a promising squad, achieve success or get close, then face financial compliance or structural pressures that lead to key departures. Your examples highlight it well.

At least one good thing comes out of the Morgan Rodgers sale....

Middlesbrough get a £20m sell on clause windfall!!

Nothing suss about Morgan Rogers going to Chels for 100mil+ and Garnacho going the other way for a heavily inflated price.

riquelmes_laces said:

Nothing suss about Morgan Rogers going to Chels for 100mil+ and Garnacho going the other way for a heavily inflated price.

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FMD....Never thought of it that way......

The optics here of trading massive fees back and forth certainly look like a bit of classic modern football financial engineering.

And it's hard not to be cynical when two Premier League clubs are conducting business that conveniently helps balance the books on both sides of the ledger!

"Suss" is putting it mildly!

Football us life said:

FMD....Never thought of it that way......

The optics here of trading massive fees back and forth certainly look like a bit of classic modern football financial engineering.

And it's hard not to be cynical when two Premier League clubs are conducting business that conveniently helps balance the books on both sides of the ledger!

"Suss" is putting it mildly!

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Two teams that struggle to create revenue in other meaningful ways. Villa already have minority stakes in a number of clubs across the globe, they should really plan to buy a larger stake into those clubs and use them as feeder teams into Villa.

Chelsea already do this with Strasbourg.

riquelmes_laces said:

Two teams that struggle to create revenue in other meaningful ways. Villa already have minority stakes in a number of clubs across the globe, they should really plan to buy a larger stake into those clubs and use them as feeder teams into Villa.

Chelsea already do this with Strasbourg.

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Yep...It's a really sharp point. And while there's been a slight up tick in their relative success, a lot of Strasbourg fans hate it .....

I wrote about it on my Le Foot blog.


I'm not a fan of this multi-club model myself. When your then manager can be poached mid-season and your captain pre-sold across the corporate ladder to the parent club like pieces of inventory moving between warehouses, it leaves a sour taste!

robbos baiting your lfc mates eh or throwing bait here
Everyone has carried on bout city from 10yrs back - hasn’t got anything to do of the countless court case’s they keep delaying over how many years now I suspect

Ah who knows where business leads us. Mad times.

HonestSpursFan said:

Really they should be looking at strengthening their weaknesses but instead they're just selling everyone for a profit. The same thing happened with Spurs in the 2010s and early 2020s. The same thing happened with Newcastle last season. Years of building only to come so close yet so far. As soon as they won silverware or came close to doing so it all fell apart. This is why Spurs don't have Harry Kane, Newcastle don't have Alex Isak and Villa don't have Morgan Rogers.

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TBH I haven't been impressed with the Toon business since the ME $.....
Howe is nothing much to get carried on about.
They haven't really come that close more so so far.
Kudos they got a long awaited Cup - thats an expensive Cup.
Their buying has been so so considering all the $'s but yes, cashed in on selling players.
Spurs is a none event for a decade table wise but that Levy kept the board/investors happy more than its fans.
Poch time was your highlight thats it League wise and CL finale - yes Ange finally hem-raging towards the Euro Cup.
Thats alot of years 2 highlights - spouse better than none.

LFC said:

TBH I haven't been impressed with the Toon business since the ME $.....
Howe is nothing much to get carried on about.
They haven't really come that close more so so far.
Kudos they got a long awaited Cup - thats an expensive Cup.
Their buying has been so so considering all the $'s but yes, cashed in on selling players.

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They simply got in too late. Chelsea and City got in before PSR was introduced. Newcastle didn't, which is why their oil money will probably never see them compete at the same level as Chelsea (2000s and 2010s), City or PSG. As for the League Cup, that's the thing. All this time and that's all they've won. They hadn't won anything for decades before that.

LFC said:

Spurs is a none event for a decade table wise but that Levy kept the board/investors happy more than its fans.
Poch time was your highlight thats it League wise and CL finale - yes Ange finally hem-raging towards the Euro Cup.
Thats alot of years 2 highlights - spouse better than none.

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Again, that's also the thing. The Europa League is all we've won in the past 18 years. Plus, we came so close in the Premier League and got to the Champions League final back in the 2010s, but yet we never actually went that one step further. Since then, we've only declined. There's such a clear gap between the Champions League final team of 2019 and the Europa League final team of 2025, even though one won a trophy and the other didn't.

HonestSpursFan said:

They simply got in too late. Chelsea and City got in before PSR was introduced. Newcastle didn't, which is why their oil money will probably never see them compete at the same level as Chelsea (2000s and 2010s), City or PSG. As for the League Cup, that's the thing. All this time and that's all they've won. They hadn't won anything for decades before that.

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yes it was too late for Toon and the English FA made sure it wasn't as easy entry it was for city - Chelsea goes pre city arab $'s Russian Abrom days not that he had easy but easier.

HonestSpursFan said:

Again, that's also the thing. The Europa League is all we've won in the past 18 years. Plus, we came so close in the Premier League and got to the Champions League final back in the 2010s, but yet we never actually went that one step further. Since then, we've only declined. There's such a clear gap between the Champions League final team of 2019 and the Europa League final team of 2025, even though one won a trophy and the other didn't.

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Yep long time between drinks, hence why Kane left, he deserved more good luck to him and that '19 CL loss to you know who that team was spades up on Ange's let alone your opponent.
United were flogs then whereas as we were a Champion team even though your loss was close.