The Times also saying the bid was £40m.

Burnwinter I understand where you are coming from, I have also been very against signing players over 26 and we've built up a good age profile in the squad as a result. But the striker market is hard and like I said the club might think it is worth throwing a bit of money to try and solve our problem. I don't think he will be on the bench that often, he is a very versatile forward. Good link play, good at pressing and he sets up a lot of goals as well. We need two players to share the load of that position.

With Duran we are competing with Saudi wages which is a non starter if his head is turned.

daredevil Injuries have clearly forced our hand.

This is a failure of squad building.

Ange the inverse of Arteta they barely have any fit defenders but signing forwards for €60m

i wish i was a striker. people will pay whatever.

Bring Back Kerrea Gilbert who knows why. Maybe Bayern have already tapped him up. Wouldn't be the first time.

Tactics Seems to be a lot of media talk about him being an option for clubs but no real solid links to him going anywhere. He seems very settled to me. I also think he's not as good as people think and that league has a habit of making players look amazing when they are not. See Joao Felix and Darwin as a recent examples.

Panda yeah and their wingers have being doing alright. Tel needs to bench 2 of Kulu, Johnson and Son. Silly move. Probably not serious anyway and just a distraction from their on pitch mess.

@"JazzG"#

Having a hard time taking our £40m bid seriously, and I would imagine Villa felt the same.

MistaT it’s an anchoring tool. If you want to pay £60m, you don’t bid £60m. You put in a low number - first to lower expectations and also to establish if there is actually an intent to sell. You can always pay £60m eventually. What you don’t want is to be rejected at a first offer of £60m. That’s the worst possible situation.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 rumors are the leaks of the bid didn’t come from either club so it might be Watkins and his agent pushing the move.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 Think he is waiting for the best offer

Sicario2 - Tier 1 when was the bid made relative to the Duran situation?

Apparently, Villa are in for Felix and Asensio and have already signed Malen.

They will let Watkins go if we make the right offer, even with Duran having left.

daredevil Apparently, Villa are in for Felix and Asensio and have already signed Malen.

A real smorgasbord of mofos

Sicario2 - Tier 1 they are selling Duran because they are in PSR trouble. I don't think they are letting go of Watkins for £40m but apparently they've stuck an £80m price tag on him so its not an impossible purchase. All depends on whether a fee can be agreed.

Sicario2 - Tier 1 we probably wont get Watkins but John Cross knows about as much as us on here. A real hasbeen when it comes to football scoops.

Qwiss I’m all for Watkins joining but £80m for a 29 year old is crazy.

80m for Watkins, 50m+ for Tel...the market has gone crazy

Real could be open to a loan deal for Endrick as he's hardly getting any minutes for them. Bring him in so he'll tell Rodrygo in the summer how amazing we are