Dike's made 5 appearances to date and has had an immediate impact. This thread is about when we win promotion, so he's 15-18 more to come and up to 23 in total. If he scores 10 goals in around half a season to take us up, then his age could be seen as a plus - DD certainly doesn't look like a kid and maybe his papers are forged and he really is 29 years old When it comes to the valuation of players younger than Dike, you might find this quiz interesting: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/52023107
We should bring back Mcburnie too. He's doing nothing at Sheffield United so we would take great pleasure in making him look Premier League standard and laughing at their fans wondering why he couldn't do it for them.
I heard him on NTT20 podcast last week. He's effectively confirmed that he's leaving Villa, and would prefer to stop in the Premier League, but there was a location issue to address too. He confirmed that he was linked with Bournemouth in January and a few other clubs. I can honestly see him going somewhere like Forest, who'll pay good wages, generally favour experience over youth and aren't too far from where he's based now.
I find that genuinely sad, he's one of the best set piece takers I've seen, yet Villa preferred their big name players to take them instead, often to little effect. In my eyes, he's very much a premier league player and if he were a name, he'd be in the team every week. But I suspect you're right, a Championship club willing to match his wages will likely come along. What a shame.
At 1.5 it’s would have been worth a punt before the loan. Would guess those saying pointless was based on the £20 million rumour
Maybe a West Brom either. I got the feeling from him that he didn't want to uproot his family, and he's currently living in a hotel on his own whilst he's at Swansea. I think Villa have spent heavily on that central midfield position, and this season particularly others have been preferred to him. I certainly think he could do a job in the PL again, and honestly, I think that's the only way we're ever going to see him back in a reds shirt.
I would have thought that if we have a pre-agreed price it would be linked to performance. Being in the playoff, top half, bottom half or even prem may dictate the delta in price.
Didn’t Dane say the fee was similar to what we’ve done business before (i.e. the fees we paid for Thomas and Wilks so between 1 and 1.5 million)? I guess we’ll find out in a few months.