Aston Villa Deadline Day analysis with Matt Maher
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00:00What's the state of play at this moment in time?
00:16I think it's probably been the most dramatic transfer deadline at Villa, probably since
00:21they signed Borgia-Bastogne five years ago, who remembers him.
00:28The latest is that in the last 24 hours, they've signed Marcus Rashford on loan from Manchester
00:34United, which we spoke about on Saturday night.
00:38Marco Asensio, who's joined from Paris Saint-Germain, that deal was always going through, as in
00:44the last 48 hours ago, confirmed this evening.
00:50And then late on, Villa are going to get the defender that they have been looking for all
00:57month.
00:58It's been a position that they were left short on at the end of the summer window,
01:05and for much of today, it looked like they were going to end the January window even
01:09shorter in advance, because they allowed Diego Carlos to leave for Fenerbahce, but with three
01:18hours before the deadline, a deal for Axel Di Zazi, it looks like it has finally been
01:22agreed with Chelsea, and he's going to sign.
01:27This has been quite the saga over the last week or so, with Di Zazi having kind of agreed
01:33to move to Villa last week, but Chelsea, obviously seeing Villa as rivals in the race for a top
01:40four, top five finish, didn't want to let him leave.
01:45They were keen for him to go elsewhere, but he didn't want to go elsewhere, he didn't
01:49want to go to Tottenham, so it looks like he's going to end up at Villa.
01:52So it has been quite the window, really.
01:55Six players out, five players in.
02:00People say it's difficult to do business at this time of year, in January, well Villa
02:04have found a way.
02:07It's near, at least in their Premier League years, a near unprecedented window, really.
02:13It takes you back to the first windows of the Tony's Yard, Steve Bruce, Scott Hogan,
02:20Conor Houran, Henry Lonesbury, Bjorke Bjarnason days.
02:25So yeah, it's been a while.
02:27In terms of contracts, permanent and loan, what are the two deals, the Asensio and the
02:33Di Zazi deal?
02:34Well they're loans without options to buy.
02:36Without options, okay.
02:37Asensio wages, which are considerable in Asensio's part, obviously with Rashford it's not slightly
02:48different.
02:49They do have an option to buy of around 40 million, covering 75% of his wages, and potentially
02:55up to 90% depending on performance related bonuses, which makes him the highest earner
03:02in the dressing room, and Asensio the second highest earner.
03:06So I've written a piece today on Rashford's arrival, and you know Henry talks a lot about
03:14family at the villa, and parachuting two players in who are going to be earn more than everyone
03:20else in the dressing room.
03:21You're established stars.
03:22We'll test those bonds.
03:23Now that's not to sound negative or anything like that, but look, football changing rooms
03:29and training grounds are no different to any other workplace, really, so there is an element
03:35of risk in that respect, and there will be an expectation on these players, obviously
03:41clearly, to deliver.
03:43This is a window that screams out, we're not happy with just being top half, we got fourth
03:52last year, we want to repeat it, and we want to be serious contenders in the Champions
03:58League.
03:59They threw it the last 16.
04:00Rashford has got, obviously, bags of experience, Asensio has won it three times with Real Madrid,
04:07so there was a bit of a confliction earlier today because the word from Villa when the
04:14Di Zazie deal didn't look like it was going through was that they were happy to wait for
04:17the summer to get their defensive targets, but these loan deals for Rashford and Asensio
04:24are essentially deals for the here and now for the next four or five months.
04:29So there was this bit of contradiction that you're going to wait for the defender, but
04:34now they're getting Di Zazie in as well, with caveats that we might mention in a minute
04:38about whether they can all play in the same competitions.
04:44It's kind of completed the circle, and it's a serious statement of intent.
04:52There's no other way to go.
04:56A year ago in January, they saw Morgan Rodgers, and no one could really have foreseen what
05:01happened there.
05:02He was very much the headline, because of a pretty quiet window where it was all that
05:06focuses on the future.
05:07They're buying Young, but now it's like, no, no, we want to win.
05:13We want to win now.
05:14So yeah, it's not going to be dull, that's for sure.
05:19No, it's not going to be dull.
05:20Just a bit on the active players, available players as well, and squads, and how the numbers
05:26work out, especially for the Champions League, do you want to just run the numbers?
05:31So I caused a bit of confusion earlier on Twitter today for anybody, or X, for the people
05:36who are watching, in that if you look at the UEFA guidelines, they aren't all that clear
05:42when you actually read the Articles of Association, and I misread a section, and I thought that
05:47essentially, if Villa sold more than five players, they could add four to the Champions
05:53League squad.
05:54That's not actually the case.
05:56That's only for certain leagues that are beginning, you know, the Swedish league that starts in
06:00February and ends in November, the clubs that are effectively having their summer break
06:06now.
06:07So the rule is Villa, and pretty much everyone else can add only three new players to the
06:12Champions League squad, which means that one of Rashford, Asensio, Marlon, and Desarzee
06:19is going to have to be left out.
06:21I suspect, I suspect it may be Desarzee, but that would be a guess at this stage.
06:26They have to make a decision by Thursday night.
06:29In Desarzee's case as well, he's cut tied for the FA Cup, so he can't play against Tottenham
06:35on Sunday, and he can't play against Chelsea, because Villa post on the 22nd, I think, so
06:42he's effectively asking Stan, because the fixture list may change, depending on Liverpool's
06:46result in the Caraco Cup, on Thursday night.
06:50Effectively, he can't play in two of the first three games to join in Villa, but once he's
06:59passed the Chelsea game, he's available for league fixtures.
07:04So they've got some decisions to make.
07:07I don't think anyone really expected them to do this much business.
07:13It all depended on the offers they got in.
07:14Obviously, they got a really good offer for Jadon Filippino, and it just hadn't worked
07:19out.
07:20I think the Duran money, they couldn't really turn down.
07:31In terms of January as a whole, would you say it's a success?
07:36I think it's the latter, because we do this every year, we write these reviews of transfer
07:42windows, and you can't judge them until further down the line, because you just don't know
07:49how they're going to work out.
07:51I think what you can say, I think you'll be able to judge this Villa window come the end
07:55of May, or even before it, because these Asensio and Rashford deals, these are big deals that
08:04they've got to deliver, really.
08:07Big boys, big money, big names, big reputations.
08:10I think Rashford is the most high-profile signing since Coutinho.
08:14It's not very often you see an Aston Villa signing dominate the back pages of the national
08:20newspapers when you're in them.
08:21When you're in the supermarket or whatever today, it's all over the back pages, and admittedly
08:27that is because it's almost been written as a Manchester United departure as well.
08:33But a big deal, a lot of eyes on Rashford, and Asensio, again, these are not cheap loan
08:42deals with the money that they're paying.
08:45They have brought in huge amounts in transfer fees, and potentially Kostin Adelkovic, the
08:54right-back that barely kicked the ball during last summer, has gone to Leipzig today, and
09:01he could eventually go for £12 million, which is crazy.
09:05So they've done a lot of juggling, a lot of moving pieces, but it feels that they've kind
09:15of got to where they want it to be, at least where they want it to be, a week or so ago.
09:23We shall see.
09:24Matt Mayer, thank you for keeping us updated, and I'm sure there'll be plenty more analysis.
09:28And obviously, let's proof it in the pudding.
09:29We'll see how Villa do in the next few days.
09:32Thank you very much.