Ollie Watkins | Arsenal bid c. £60m

Brightonian said:
Could be a genuine win-win swap deal on the table here.

Villa get Rashford, a player with less reliable form behind him but with a higher pedigree (and Emery clearly believes it, or why did he start him in the CL?) He’s 27, slap bang in his prime years.

We get Watkins, a reliable goalscoring PL CF who would surely like to end his career as first choice for one of the traditional big name clubs. But he won’t be an economical buy for Arsenal or Chelsea at his age. He’s paid 150k/wk at Villa, which we could comfortably bump to 200k and still be saving 125k on Rashford’s reported salary. Villa might want 60m for him but they’ll never get it at his age. They’re asking for that because it would cost them that to replace him. But in Rashford they have a younger ready-made replacement who Emery seems to believe in. So that relieves the financial pressure on the deal.

Both sides might have to qualify for the CL to make this happen. And even then the sticking point might be Rashford’s wages, although surely the feel good factor at Villa plus if they can get CL football next season is a powerful combination.

Obviously options like Gyokeres or Osimhen would be preferable. But I think if those two aren’t gettable, Watkins would then be a better deal, especially for value, than Delap, or some youngster without PL experience like Sesko or Ekitike. I think a straight swap would be fair value but given how obviously desperate we are maybe they’d get 20m out of us on top. That would still probably allow us to get a second cheapish CF like Delap and a cheap #10 option like Cherki. All three might cost 75m combined in this scenario.
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If Utd think the bolded is true then perhaps a 'swap' deal where we sell Rashford for £60m and buy Watkins for £60m, it might work in our favour for FFP and personnel.

It's probably better than 'simply' selling Rashford for £40m and having no one attainable with the right profile/age in the summer. Whereas, with the above scenario, we have an extra £20m and Watkins.

This is probably closer to football manager talk than reality and I'm sure my FFP math ain't mathing but yeah.
 
Bright_Eyes said:
So instead of buying players of the calibre of Casemiro and Varane who were around 30 and didn't make much sense in hindsight, we're now looking to buy a similarly aged Watkins? For stability we need a striker around 25, just about to enter the usual peak age, not one who has a much higher chance of starting to decline as soon as we sign him. Otherwise we're potentially stuck in this never ending loop of buying player who will be deadwood in a couple years.
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Moise Kean, 25 years old. 40M Euro release clause and scored 23 goals so far this season for Fiorentina and scored an excellent brace for Italy against Germany last month. Lot of people are down on him because he failed at Everton as a 19 year old but I don't see this as being any different to Isak who failed at Dortmund in his teens, just a big move that came too soon.
 
Gandalf said:
Moise Kean, 25 years old. 40M Euro release clause and scored 23 goals so far this season for Fiorentina and scored an excellent brace for Italy against Germany last month. Lot of people are down on him because he failed at Everton as a 19 year old but I don't see this as being any different to Isak who failed at Dortmund in his teens, just a big move that came too soon.
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Agree. Salah also failed as a young player before flourishing in Italy and coming back to the Premier League too.

I doubt many young strikers would have flourished at Everton over the years!
 
soapythecat said:
Why would Watkins leave Villa for United? We might be a big club revenue wise, but we aren’t anywhere close to acting like a big club on the pitch. He’s an Arsenal fan I believe so even less chance he comes to us.
Finishing above the relegation places is going to make it difficult to sign decent players this summer. We don’t have the pull we used too, especially under Amorim.
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You really think something like this is a factor in players decision making.
 
soapythecat said:
Absolutely, especially when United are doing so, so bad. What’s the appeal to him, beyond wages?
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Don't underestimate wages though. It's literally their profession. Also don't underestimate the pull of United, Villa for all their good period will win a total of zero trophy. We won two in the last two seasons and are three games from winning a European trophy. We're just bigger.
 
Gandalf said:
Moise Kean, 25 years old. 40M Euro release clause and scored 23 goals so far this season for Fiorentina and scored an excellent brace for Italy against Germany last month. Lot of people are down on him because he failed at Everton as a 19 year old but I don't see this as being any different to Isak who failed at Dortmund in his teens, just a big move that came too soon.
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Don't know much about him but ticks some boxes for me. The right age, right price, right kind of goalscoring stats that we should be looking at.
 
criticalanalysis said:
If Utd think the bolded is true then perhaps a 'swap' deal where we sell Rashford for £60m and buy Watkins for £60m, it might work in our favour for FFP and personnel.

It's probably better than 'simply' selling Rashford for £40m and having no one attainable with the right profile/age in the summer. Whereas, with the above scenario, we have an extra £20m and Watkins.

This is probably closer to football manager talk than reality and I'm sure my FFP math ain't mathing but yeah.
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This makes a lot of sense as Villa have history with these kinds of deals.
Watkins looked like a guy who’d had the rug pulled under him in his latest interview and i think he said ‘they’ll never take that away from me’ regarding a goalscoring record. So he looks like a guy who knows he’s leaving.
 
AkaAkuma said:
This makes a lot of sense as Villa have history with these kinds of deals.
Watkins looked like a guy who’d had the rug pulled under him in his latest interview and i think he said ‘they’ll never take that away from me’ regarding a goalscoring record. So he looks like a guy who knows he’s leaving.
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Arsenal would have been most likely destination, however they may have switched targets to Gyokeres
 
Definitely did not expect Marcus to start ahead of him in a must win (or at least must not lose) match tonight. Subbed on at 76 minutes. After going public with how pissed off he's been with not getting action. I confess, I don't watch them all the time, but is he not their best attacker?
 
Bastian said:
Definitely did not expect Marcus to start ahead of him in a must win (or at least must not lose) match tonight. Subbed on at 76 minutes. After going public with how pissed off he's been with not getting action. I confess, I don't watch them all the time, but is he not their best attacker?
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Wonder how he will feel if benched for FA Cup Semi Final on Saturday, surely that would make him consider whether he should leave in the summer
 
Bastian said:
Definitely did not expect Marcus to start ahead of him in a must win (or at least must not lose) match tonight. Subbed on at 76 minutes. After going public with how pissed off he's been with not getting action. I confess, I don't watch them all the time, but is he not their best attacker?
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Id say he is, but also struggling with being overplayed. Id love him at United personally if something with Rashford could be worked out.

Emery has managed minutes for almost every player bar Rogers, and favored Rashford in matches where speed in counter attacks are needed. Maybe he’s just in the better shape and wants it more at the moment.
 
Bastian said:
Definitely did not expect Marcus to start ahead of him in a must win (or at least must not lose) match tonight. Subbed on at 76 minutes. After going public with how pissed off he's been with not getting action. I confess, I don't watch them all the time, but is he not their best attacker?
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Played really well Vs Newcastle too just a game before.
 
ROFLUTION said:
Id say he is, but also struggling with being overplayed. Id love him at United personally if something with Rashford could be worked out.

Emery has managed minutes for almost every player bar Rogers, and favored Rashford in matches where speed in counter attacks are needed. Maybe he’s just in the better shape and wants it more at the moment.
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Yeah, it was risky to sell Duran in January without a replacement, but I suppose their FFP/PSR situation is a bit suspect. Stranger still though is having a star striker for whom they rejected a serious fee for in January and bench him for a player you've got on loan and very well might not fancy buying. Maybe you're right about the tactics, though I still think it's a bit strange given he's not really been playing that much.

croadyman said:
Wonder how he will feel if benched for FA Cup Semi Final on Saturday, surely that would make him consider whether he should leave in the summer
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Surely like he's been shafted.

RedStarUnited said:
Played really well Vs Newcastle too just a game before.
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I'd take him in a heartbeat.
 
Make him feel wanted Ruben after Rashford has pushed him out, we need a proven goalscorer and certain Gyokeres is Arsenal bound
 
Interesting comment from Carragher on Stick to Football saying he knows that Villa offered him to Arsenal in January.

Think it's almost certain he moves this summer, would love to see him here.
 
Would be a lot more interesting if he was three years younger. I'm not necessarily opposed to getting in mature players with a limited future to close a gap, but at least it should be reflected in the price.
 
Mike Smalling said:
Would be a lot more interesting if he was three years younger. I'm not necessarily opposed to getting in mature players with a limited future to close a gap, but at least it should be reflected in the price.
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Yeah pity he's not a similar age to Osimhen/Gyokeres, so what would you consider a fair price for him given his age then?
 
croadyman said:
Yeah pity he's not a similar age to Osimhen/Gyokeres, so what would you consider a fair price for him given his age then?
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Hard to say. I'd be a bit concerned if we spent £40m or more for him. The £60m quoted in the thread title would be a complete non-starter.
 
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