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Summer 2026 Transfer Thread

Villa signed Parma keeper Zion Suzuki for €30 million with another €5 million in potential bonuses. He started all 4 of Japan’s matches at the World Cup. Meanwhile Villa and Juventus are moving closer to a deal for Emi Martinez. Villa have valued him at €10 million. Juve have offered €7 million with another €3 million in add-ons based on team performance.
 
It makes sense, I still hate it. Martinez is on really high wages and has had back to back inconsistent seasons after deservingly being recognized as the worlds number one twice and isn't getting any younger. He's also the best keeper we've ever had obviously and a club legend. I prepared myself for him leaving last summer, since it was pretty clear by him crying in his last match before it that he thought he was going. It seemed like we weren't trying to force him out this summer, but I guess we decided the chance to add his long term replacement was too good to pass up and getting his wages off the books helps our flexibility. It still sucks.
 
Martinez came back from the Wold Cup indicating that he was settled, happy and ready to suit up for Villa this year. That lasted about three weeks and honestly, I’m happy to see him go at this point. He’s been great, no question, but this is the third year in a row he’s been unsettled and his disinterest last fall almost cost Villa a CL spot … because he sucked until about American Thanksgiving when he finally buckled down. It seems he was cool in Birmingham right up until Juve came calling and then bam … he immediately wanted out. Screw it. Go, but not on that freaking add-on deal. Make Juve pay the actual money up front so they can’t weasel out like they’ve done before.
 
And Juve have now apparently backed off the deal. The past few summers have been so unfair to Emi and this is just cruel. He's still a world class keeper and seems like a good teammate. It's so clear that it has been Villa trying to force a move the past few summers, but they've somehow managed to convince fans that Emi has been the one to push his way out.
 
StormChaserBH said:
Seems a rather low transfer fee for a high profile Prem player when I hear all the other crazy transfer numbers thrown around.. is it age, goalie position, what?
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Both, I think. Villa were actually OK with selling Martinez 2 years ago because he was just north of 30 and they could get full price on a sale. At 33 on on the downslope, it’s a much lower rate. Goalies over 30 just don’t command big transfer fees. Plus, he hasn’t been at his best the last two seasons. He’s played well, but his fastball is getting slower.
 
VinatieriDefinesClutch said:
And Juve have now apparently backed off the deal. The past few summers have been so unfair to Emi and this is just cruel. He's still a world class keeper and seems like a good teammate. It's so clear that it has been Villa trying to force a move the past few summers, but they've somehow managed to convince fans that Emi has been the one to push his way out.
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Either way you decide to cut it with regard to responsibility, I just want it done. After three years of this crap, my patience is gone. Just loan the guy somewhere and get it over with.
 
jeffbear said:
Either way you decide to cut it with regard to responsibility, I just want it done. After three years of this crap, my patience is gone. Just loan the guy somewhere and get it over with.
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Yeah, as a fan I look at a player who might not be at his best, but is still in the top echelon of keepers and would love him to finish his career here or at least play a few more years. At this point it's just too big of a distractions for everyone involved. You cannot unsettle a player that many times and not move him. It's one of the reasons that the Celts traded Jalen Brown away for a poop sandwich, because he had unsettled him with trades that didn't materialize too many times and it was the best offer they could get for him, because nobody thinks he's worth his contract (I'll stop ranting).

Suzuki is still apparently coming and going into the season with both of them just doesn't work. Villa need to go back to Juve and say that the 7 mil is fine and get over the possible three mil dif and just take it as tax for how much better we did in the Douglas Luiz deal.
 
Ed H in Pasadena said:
Some sites reporting this as a done deal but others reporting "in talks with". What's do the Villans here think?

sports.yahoo.com

Al-Hilal look to offload Karim Benzema, Aston Villa’s Ollie Watkins lined up as replacement

Al-Hilal want to offload Karim Benzema (38), as is Simone Inzaghi’s wish, whilst the former France international is also keen to leave the Saudi club, as per a report from Sacha Tavolieri. Aston V...
sports.yahoo.com sports.yahoo.com
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It seems to be a bit premature on the reporting. The original source isn't the most credible and all they said was that he had agreed to terms, but no bid had been made.

My ideal would be that we had never signed Tammy Abraham. I hated the move at the time, it made zero sense, and then Unai seemed to decide he didn't want him anyway (someone needs to sit him down and tell him that if he buys the expensive toys, he needs to play with them). Right now we have Ollie, Tammy and Madjo who even at 17 seems way too good not to get real minutes. I do think that one of Ollie or Tammy realistically need to move, and um, we were the only suckers willing to pay for Tammy. Actually, Mr Saudi Team Guy. Uh you don't want Ollie Watkins, he's so old and uh, he misses a sitter or two each year. Tammy Abraham is the guy you really want! Look how tall he is! He scored 25 goals in a seasons for us (don't bother looking into when he did that or what league) and also played for Roma and Chelsea! Those are huge clubs. Watkins played for Brentford. Come on now, no comparison!
 
VinatieriDefinesClutch said:
And Juve have now apparently backed off the deal. The past few summers have been so unfair to Emi and this is just cruel. He's still a world class keeper and seems like a good teammate. It's so clear that it has been Villa trying to force a move the past few summers, but they've somehow managed to convince fans that Emi has been the one to push his way out.
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Juve and Spurs have reportedly agreed a loan deal for keeper Gugliemo Vicario. The deal carries an option to buy. Vicario lost the Spurs starting job through injury last year but brought them to the 2025 Europa League championship the season before. Prior to joining Spurs in 2023, he had spent his entire career in Italy.
 
VinatieriDefinesClutch said:
Yeah, as a fan I look at a player who might not be at his best, but is still in the top echelon of keepers and would love him to finish his career here or at least play a few more years. At this point it's just too big of a distractions for everyone involved. You cannot unsettle a player that many times and not move him. It's one of the reasons that the Celts traded Jalen Brown away for a poop sandwich, because he had unsettled him with trades that didn't materialize too many times and it was the best offer they could get for him, because nobody thinks he's worth his contract (I'll stop ranting).

Suzuki is still apparently coming and going into the season with both of them just doesn't work. Villa need to go back to Juve and say that the 7 mil is fine and get over the possible three mil dif and just take it as tax for how much better we did in the Douglas Luiz deal.
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Villa just aren’t financially set up to entertain the idea that guys can finish their careers there. They can’t afford to think like that, since to keep generating enough spend-able cash, they have to sell guys at top value when they get the leverage. That’s why I have zero problems with Rogers moving this summer. He was at peak value and they generated cash to spend on other players. The last couple of years when nobody went out, virtually nobody came in either. And as hard as it is for fans, guys like Watkins where you bought low, REALLY need to be sold at close to their peak value. Which for him was probably two years ago.

If you do it right, eventually you get stable enough to get Champions League money every year and that’s what gets you over the hump to where you can spend money. Or, you wait out the current financial restrictions and hope the next set doesn’t also favor already rich clubs … although it almost certainly will

Maybe it helps with perspective that I’m also a Celtic fan. They HAVE to move guys at peak freshness or else there’s no money to spend on new guys. It’s cold hearted, but Celtic kind of let a 2-3 year window go by without selling some obvious candidates and now those guys are aging, no longer as productive and also not worth anything on the open market. On the flip side, they’ve been forced to sell very good young players late in the last three summer windows, because they simply have to do that to generate cash that they can actually spend.
 
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Jeff, I get that, I just hate it. Keepers a bit different financially as they don't really hold their value. If you spend a ton of money on a keeper it either doesn't work out and you take a huge loss (Kepa, Onana) or you just have them on your team basically forever (Alisson, Buffon, Courtois). I think Villa looked at their situation and decided that having their keeper as their highest wage was probably not the best allocation of wages. I'd be shocked if anyone truly thinks that Suzuki is a better keeper now or will be for the next couple seasons.

I do think that the biggest thing we need to work on to help our financial viability is our development and integration of younger players. The closest we've had would be Rogers, and he was 21 when he came here. Financially you can include Jhon Duran and I'm super happy how that all turned out financially, but he did not develop as a player at all while he was here. We got lucky and showcased him perfectly and sold high. Emery has seemed very reluctant to integrate younger players into the side and then they tend to be tossed off without any real plan. We saw it happen to Philogene twice (will I ever shut up about all that ridiculousness? No I will not), but also Iling Jr has twice had to be recalled from loan when the team he was loaned to just decided they didn't feel like playing him, and Nedeljkovic has had his age 18-20 seasons just wasted when he really needs minutes to develop. I could easily see him finally getting a chance with Celtic this season and looking good. Yasin Ozcan is another example of a young talented player that our scouts and recruitment team identified and brought in and then we shipped him off to Anderlecht where he never played and now off to Besiktas with an obligation to buy that I'm sure is less than we paid for him.

If we were buying young talented players before they were ready and then sending them on loans that would help their development, I'd be all for that. But it seems like we identify these young talented players and bring them in, Emery doesn't feel like working with an 18 year old, and then we don't really have a plan. I'm not saying these players are clear world class talents that we are screwing the pooch on, but we're just setting money on fire by continually doing this.
 
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