Lucas Digne

[Btay]

Hopefully we can re invest the money into another midfielder and get some more quality in the squad

[Bailey]

The hardest thing in football is scoring goals and he is very good at creating them. 

IMO anything below £30mil is cheap. I see no reason why he won't be playing at a high level when he is 32-33. 

[Hafnia]

21 minutes ago, Bailey said:

The hardest thing in football is scoring goals and he is very good at creating them. 

IMO anything below £30mil is cheap. I see no reason why he won't be playing at a high level when he is 32-33. 

He is unfortunately not very good at defending which is important for a defender.   Allows far too many crosses in. 

[Sibdane]

1 hour ago, Palfy said:

Get yourself a case of beer a pizza and chicken wings and a good porn film, and you will soon forget about your disappointment guaranteed

You know the solution to everything. 

[Romey 1878]

9 hours ago, Hafnia said:

He is unfortunately not very good at defending which is important for a defender.   Allows far too many crosses in. 

And yet we look like we've replaced him with a defender that isn't very good at defending based on reports of his attributes (I know nothing of him myself), which seems odd no?

[RuffRob]

9 hours ago, Bailey said:

The hardest thing in football is scoring goals and he is very good at creating them. 

IMO anything below £30mil is cheap. I see no reason why he won't be playing at a high level when he is 32-33. 

Never going to get that sort of money for him, you are looking for pre COVID fees, many clubs (even the giants) across euro are skint - so realistically you are looking at the domestic market. I would be snatching Villa's hand off.  I think up and down the pitch back play is best suited to younger energetic players. Our right back has needed replacing since he turned 30-31. based on the last 12 months. Not saying 30-31 are past it, but will be very much on the decline. 

Given how Digne performances and quality has dropped off over the past 12 months - I can't say I would now want the club to gamble £25M on him (plus his very high wages) for the next 4years. Hs fees will open up a lot of transfer opportunities. 

Digne has scored 1 goal since his 2018/19 debut season (this year against QPR in LC) and has had 2 assists in the whole of 2021 calendar year (almost 40games) is not a great deal of assists for a £25M LB, to me this is a massive indicator that he may already be on the decline. Just looking a simple aspect of his game this past 12 months -  his corners and any free kicks have been poor to average at best. 

He might have a burst of energy the second half of the season in a new team and with the WC around the corner, but I think for the rest of his multi million pound contract I think the villa fans might end up feeling a little let down overall.

£25M fee, maybe four years on +£120k - So around about a £50M package. If the boot was on the other foot, would anybody in their right mine think we should investing that sort of money in an out of form LB who is coming up to his 29 birthday? In 4 years time he will have no residual transfer fee.

We now have Mykolenko and Patterson over that four years at less than this £50M. In for years time they will be 26 and 24 respectively.

There are a lot of rose tinted glasses looking at Digne - 1, due to his past performances and 2. because him falling out with Benitez is very continent ammunition for those who don't like Benitez. 

Truth is he hasn't performed at his best level for a whole 12months, it is at the right age to sell and will bring in a good fee.

 

 

[Btay]

54 minutes ago, RuffRob said:

Never going to get that sort of money for him, you are looking for pre COVID fees, many clubs (even the giants) across euro are skint - so realistically you are looking at the domestic market. I would be snatching Villa's hand off.  I think up and down the pitch back play is best suited to younger energetic players. Our right back has needed replacing since he turned 30-31. based on the last 12 months. Not saying 30-31 are past it, but will be very much on the decline. 

Given how Digne performances and quality has dropped off over the past 12 months - I can't say I would now want the club to gamble £25M on him (plus his very high wages) for the next 4years. Hs fees will open up a lot of transfer opportunities. 

Digne has scored 1 goal since his 2018/19 debut season (this year against QPR in LC) and has had 2 assists in the whole of 2021 calendar year (almost 40games) is not a great deal of assists for a £25M LB, to me this is a massive indicator that he may already be on the decline. Just looking a simple aspect of his game this past 12 months -  his corners and any free kicks have been poor to average at best. 

He might have a burst of energy the second half of the season in a new team and with the WC around the corner, but I think for the rest of his multi million pound contract I think the villa fans might end up feeling a little let down overall.

£25M fee, maybe four years on +£120k - So around about a £50M package. If the boot was on the other foot, would anybody in their right mine think we should investing that sort of money in an out of form LB who is coming up to his 29 birthday? In 4 years time he will have no residual transfer fee.

We now have Mykolenko and Patterson over that four years at less than this £50M. In for years time they will be 26 and 24 respectively.

There are a lot of rose tinted glasses looking at Digne - 1, due to his past performances and 2. because him falling out with Benitez is very continent ammunition for those who don't like Benitez. 

Truth is he hasn't performed at his best level for a whole 12months, it is at the right age to sell and will bring in a good fee.

 

 

Great post

[Palfy]

59 minutes ago, RuffRob said:

Never going to get that sort of money for him, you are looking for pre COVID fees, many clubs (even the giants) across euro are skint - so realistically you are looking at the domestic market. I would be snatching Villa's hand off.  I think up and down the pitch back play is best suited to younger energetic players. Our right back has needed replacing since he turned 30-31. based on the last 12 months. Not saying 30-31 are past it, but will be very much on the decline. 

Given how Digne performances and quality has dropped off over the past 12 months - I can't say I would now want the club to gamble £25M on him (plus his very high wages) for the next 4years. Hs fees will open up a lot of transfer opportunities. 

Digne has scored 1 goal since his 2018/19 debut season (this year against QPR in LC) and has had 2 assists in the whole of 2021 calendar year (almost 40games) is not a great deal of assists for a £25M LB, to me this is a massive indicator that he may already be on the decline. Just looking a simple aspect of his game this past 12 months -  his corners and any free kicks have been poor to average at best. 

He might have a burst of energy the second half of the season in a new team and with the WC around the corner, but I think for the rest of his multi million pound contract I think the villa fans might end up feeling a little let down overall.

£25M fee, maybe four years on +£120k - So around about a £50M package. If the boot was on the other foot, would anybody in their right mine think we should investing that sort of money in an out of form LB who is coming up to his 29 birthday? In 4 years time he will have no residual transfer fee.

We now have Mykolenko and Patterson over that four years at less than this £50M. In for years time they will be 26 and 24 respectively.

There are a lot of rose tinted glasses looking at Digne - 1, due to his past performances and 2. because him falling out with Benitez is very continent ammunition for those who don't like Benitez. 

Truth is he hasn't performed at his best level for a whole 12months, it is at the right age to sell and will bring in a good fee.

 

 

Spot on Rob if Digne was a relative I couldn’t argue with that

[Bill]

He's agreed personal terms with Villa but Everton haven't agreed a fee.

[Bailey]

11 hours ago, Hafnia said:

He is unfortunately not very good at defending which is important for a defender.   Allows far too many crosses in. 

He is a good defender. 

Mykolenko didnt stop one cross yesterday and we paid the best part of the same fee!

Godfrey barely stops a cross when he plays there as well.

1 hour ago, RuffRob said:

Never going to get that sort of money for him, you are looking for pre COVID fees, many clubs (even the giants) across euro are skint - so realistically you are looking at the domestic market. I would be snatching Villa's hand off.  I think up and down the pitch back play is best suited to younger energetic players. Our right back has needed replacing since he turned 30-31. based on the last 12 months. Not saying 30-31 are past it, but will be very much on the decline. 

Given how Digne performances and quality has dropped off over the past 12 months - I can't say I would now want the club to gamble £25M on him (plus his very high wages) for the next 4years. Hs fees will open up a lot of transfer opportunities. 

Digne has scored 1 goal since his 2018/19 debut season (this year against QPR in LC) and has had 2 assists in the whole of 2021 calendar year (almost 40games) is not a great deal of assists for a £25M LB, to me this is a massive indicator that he may already be on the decline. Just looking a simple aspect of his game this past 12 months -  his corners and any free kicks have been poor to average at best. 

He might have a burst of energy the second half of the season in a new team and with the WC around the corner, but I think for the rest of his multi million pound contract I think the villa fans might end up feeling a little let down overall.

£25M fee, maybe four years on +£120k - So around about a £50M package. If the boot was on the other foot, would anybody in their right mine think we should investing that sort of money in an out of form LB who is coming up to his 29 birthday? In 4 years time he will have no residual transfer fee.

We now have Mykolenko and Patterson over that four years at less than this £50M. In for years time they will be 26 and 24 respectively.

There are a lot of rose tinted glasses looking at Digne - 1, due to his past performances and 2. because him falling out with Benitez is very continent ammunition for those who don't like Benitez. 

Truth is he hasn't performed at his best level for a whole 12months, it is at the right age to sell and will bring in a good fee.

 

 

My view is that his performance drop is down to mismanagment rather than decline. Put him in the right squad and he will quickly get back to his best and be one of the best left backs in the league (and therefore world).

Digne has never relied on pace like Seamus has and hasnt suffered a career changing injury. I think you are comparing apples to pears. I see Digne as more of an Azpilicueta or Alonso whereby they can still perform to an elite level into their early 30s. I certainly don't see any reason why he couldn't?

In terms of price you only have to look at the fees we paid for the two lads we have brought in. His replacement, with the understanding that it was his first game, didnt stop a single cross, played some really shoddy simple passes and was beaten on two or three occasions far too easily by a Championship winger when he had lots of support around him. It is clearly early days for him, but it serves as an immediate comparison.

Anything near £20mil is absolutely peanuts for a player of his ability and experience in the prime of his career.

[Shukes]

Best of luck Digne. One of my favourite players over the last few years. 
Sad to see you go, but if it’s not working then it’s not working. Time for both parties to move forward.

[RuffRob]

6 minutes ago, Bailey said:

He is a good defender. 

Mykolenko didnt stop one cross yesterday and we paid the best part of the same fee!

Godfrey barely stops a cross when he plays there as well.

My view is that his performance drop is down to mismanagment rather than decline. Put him in the right squad and he will quickly get back to his best and be one of the best left backs in the league (and therefore world).

Digne has never relied on pace like Seamus has and hasnt suffered a career changing injury. I think you are comparing apples to pears. I see Digne as more of an Azpilicueta or Alonso whereby they can still perform to an elite level into their early 30s. I certainly don't see any reason why he couldn't?

In terms of price you only have to look at the fees we paid for the two lads we have brought in. His replacement, with the understanding that it was his first game, didnt stop a single cross, played some really shoddy simple passes and was beaten on two or three occasions far too easily by a Championship winger when he had lots of support around him. It is clearly early days for him, but it serves as an immediate comparison.

Anything near £20mil is absolutely peanuts for a player of his ability and experience in the prime of his career.

Very disappointing to see you negatively over analysing a 22 year old Mykolenko on his debut. You have even caveated it yourself as it having little justification. 

At the moment the most buoyant market is for top young talent, as opposed to players going in to their last major contract. So a case of 'apples and pairs' with regard to where a player is in his career. You know potential costs a fair few quid these days. I would also say we maybe paid a couple of million to much for each signing, but for a club like us I am afraid that's what we have to do to get our foot in the door.

working up and down the line isn't just about pace its about being able to maintain good energy game after game. It not apples and pear- all players get older and have to be more efficient with their energy and how they use it in games. Digne is no more immune from ageing than Coleman. Ironically, Digne's form has been poor since his return from an ankle injury, although did not appear to be a massive injury it would appear its effected him (because something has). The performances of the last 12months have not been anywhere near his 'prime' .  Once past a certain age all players sell on values go down as they get older especially if they are on big wages. At 28 years old I don't believe Digne's value will ever get more that it is worth at the moment, and it will be what the highest bidder will part with.

mismanagement down to Ancelotti, Benitez or both? Ancelotti was getting a decent tune out of him before January last season, then his performance dropped after an injury and signing a lucrative contract. Mis management or injury or just complacency or staleness?

Since then he has been consistently average (compared to what we have seen from him) for half a season under Ancelotti and this very same form has continued in to half a season under Benitez. It this case its far too convenient to blame his 'form' on Benitez mis-management, as its the exact same form he had for the half season before Benitez arrived.

My single disappointment with Digne is that instead of knuckling down and 100% getting on board with a new manager (like many of the squad have done), he has chosen after only a dozen or so games to rock the boat at the time when the club really needed galvanising. It is immaterial if a player agrees or disagrees with a new managers tactics when he first comes in. Players MUST get behind a new regime.  

I am in no way saying Digne is a now all of a sudden a shit player or will never get back to the form his was in during his first two seasons, what I am saying there is a 'risk' that we may have actually seen the best of him and he may not recover that early form he showed us.

We should obviously be trying to squeeze every last penny out of any purchaser, I don't think our lot will get £30M out of anybody. Would love to be wrong. 

[Hafnia]

4 hours ago, Romey 1878 said:

And yet we look like we've replaced him with a defender that isn't very good at defending based on reports of his attributes (I know nothing of him myself), which seems odd no?

I’ll be honest - defensively we couldn’t do much worse than digne.  The amount of crosses he let in and number of times he got beaten for pace and strength was a joke.

this new lad looks a bit raw but has athleticism and attitude 

 

[Hafnia]

1 hour ago, Bailey said:

He is a good defender. 

Mykolenko didnt stop one cross yesterday and we paid the best part of the same fee!

Godfrey barely stops a cross when he plays there as well.

My view is that his performance drop is down to mismanagment rather than decline. Put him in the right squad and he will quickly get back to his best and be one of the best left backs in the league (and therefore world).

Digne has never relied on pace like Seamus has and hasnt suffered a career changing injury. I think you are comparing apples to pears. I see Digne as more of an Azpilicueta or Alonso whereby they can still perform to an elite level into their early 30s. I certainly don't see any reason why he couldn't?

In terms of price you only have to look at the fees we paid for the two lads we have brought in. His replacement, with the understanding that it was his first game, didnt stop a single cross, played some really shoddy simple passes and was beaten on two or three occasions far too easily by a Championship winger when he had lots of support around him. It is clearly early days for him, but it serves as an immediate comparison.

Anything near £20mil is absolutely peanuts for a player of his ability and experience in the prime of his career.

Digne has been defensively crap for a long while.

he is getting 160k a week over 4 years plus 25m fee………. Villa are overpaying imo

will reserve judgement on a lad who is new to team and country and not played in a month.  He’s 22 and looks a good solid prospect 

[Hafnia]

Just watching the toffeetv podcast. Digne book price means we are making a great sale …. It will massively help ffp

[RuffRob]

just as an aside - we are all massively disappointed in our current run of form.

However, since Digne has been missing from the team/squad it 5 played , 2 wins, 1 draw and 2 defeats.

 

[RuffRob]

1 hour ago, Hafnia said:

Digne has been defensively crap for a long while.

he is getting 160k a week over 4 years plus 25m fee………. Villa are overpaying imo

will reserve judgement on a lad who is new to team and country and not played in a month.  He’s 22 and looks a good solid prospect 

wow - £160k a week, so £33M over 4 years. Villa are three points ahead of us and we have a game in hand (and we have had a shocking season results wise), and some have said Digne will not be overly motivated buy money in his move. It's not the draw of CL football and winning stuff that will be taking him to the Midlands.

I wonder how Villa will be stacking up FFP wise in 18months time if they don't get European football, I am guessing there revenue will be similar to us. If the move happens, its a big call from them signing up Courtinho and Digne on big wages. 

 

 

 

[Wiggytop]

4 hours ago, Bailey said:

Mykolenko didnt stop one cross yesterday and we paid the best part of the same fee!

Digne took a while to settle in when he arrived, I think your being overly harsh on the new lad.

[Hafnia]

Anyone recall baines first games for us????  Was benched and lescott played left back. 

[Matt]

120k to 160k in less than a page. I do love TTs ability to pluck ever increasing sums from thin air to justify their stance on a player

[Shukes]

10 minutes ago, Hafnia said:

Anyone recall baines first games for us????  Was benched and lescott played left back. 

Took Baines months to settle. I remember there were reports of his frustration at not getting a good run.

Turned Into one of our best lefts backs ever.

[c1982]

He hasn’t been rubbish for 18months - let’s put that to bed. He does have poor moments; often against direct wingers - I remember Traore giving him a torrid time a Goodison but he’s still one of our best players…

…but the numbers in the deal make sense and we’re bringing the age of the squad down with the latest 2 signings. Let Villa go for quick fix with Digne, Coutinho and Ings signings - we’ve tried that and failed - best of luck to them but we need a new strategy with savvy purchases of young talent and development from within - much more sustainable long-term.

[Matt]

Just now, c1982 said:

He hasn’t been rubbish for 18months - let’s put that to bed. He does have poor moments; often against direct wingers - I remember Traore giving him a torrid time a Goodison but he’s still one of our best players…

…but the numbers in the deal make sense and we’re bringing the age of the squad down with the latest 2 signings. Let Villa go for quick fix with Digne, Coutinho and Ings signings - we’ve tried that and failed - best of luck to them but we need a new strategy with savvy purchases of young talent and development from within - much more sustainable long-term.

Yeah but he earns 190k a week and can't defend and attack at the same time...

[Palfy]

Fuck me hasn't he gone yet the quicker we can stick him in room 101 the better. 

[MikeO]

8 minutes ago, Palfy said:

Fuck me hasn't he gone yet the quicker we can stick him in room 101 the better. 

At the moment he's still just on the naughty step.

[patto]

Benitez has done a great job of turning the fans against Digne hook line and sinker. 

[RuffRob]

33 minutes ago, patto said:

Benitez has done a great job of turning the fans against Digne hook line and sinker. 

You just need to look back over the posting on here to see plenty of people where questioning Digne's form and defending ability plenty before the Benitez falling out. 

Dont think people are against Digne, people are just making observation on form and value of the timing and value of his sale. 

 

[Gwlad]

Would be interesting to have an analysis of Digne's MOM stats. I'd guess they diminished over time.

[dunlopp9987]

30 minutes ago, Gwlad all over said:

Would be interesting to have an analysis of Digne's MOM stats. I'd guess they diminished over time.

I was bored.

2018/19: 136 MOTM votes

2019/20: 67 MOTM votes

2020/21: 14 MOTM votes

2021/22: 0 MOTM votes

Even if you don't take this season into account, that's a pretty stark drop-off season by season.

[StevO]

13 minutes ago, dunlopp9987 said:

I was bored.

2018/19: 136 MOTM votes

2019/20: 67 MOTM votes

2020/21: 14 MOTM votes

2021/22: 0 MOTM votes

Even if you don't take this season into account, that's a pretty stark drop-off season by season.

If you’re still bored can you make them a percentage of the overall number of votes?