Life After Lerner: Aston Villa

Jean-Phillipe Valbuena looks to be spending the £40m promised to him by Dr Tony Xia well as he makes his fourth signing of the new season, with this one surpassing the last by around £5m.

Aston Villa today signed Liverpool ace Divock Origi for a fee believed to be around £10,000,000 after the player was transfer listed as manager Jurgen Klopp deemed the Belgian youngster surplus to requirements.

The forward, who has thirteen caps for Belgium will earn around £40,000 a week and is set to remain at Villa Park on a three-year-contract.

The marquee signing is something of a coup for Villa, who look set to lose Jordan Ayew - with a host of clubs looking for the players signature.


Divock Origi is set to join the rest of the squad in Holland shortly, and will travel to the training camp with other new signing Kourtney Hause.

Will turn into a quality new player for you! Nice graphics as well, very smart!

Thanks Tallery, means a lot coming from you!

Aston Villa continue to fill their ranks with young, Premier League quality talent since the reign of Jean-Phillipe Valbuena began. Their new signing is an England youth international and has impressed in appearances for his club.

Birmingham based club Aston Villa have continued their transformation with the signing of Chelsea youngster Ruben Loftus-Cheek on a permanent deal, worth £4,000,000.

Loftus-Cheek is a regular player for the England U-21 squad and will join his team-mates Jack Grealish, Kourtney Hause and Rushian Hepburn-Murphy as well as a few more as an English youth international.

The midfielder, who made three appearances for Chelsea last season is set to remain at Villa on a three year contract thought to be worth £15,500 a week.


Loftus-Cheek has unfortunately signed too late to join his team mates at the training camp in Holland and will train with the Aston Villa U-21 team until they return.

Very smart idea bringing in British youth players, also very Aston Villa-esque

Cheers mate!

Leandro Bacuna produced flickers of talent within the last season, but for the most part did not impress. Throughout the campaign he was used in an abundance of different positions and did not seem to fit into any of them successfully. Towards the end of the season he announced his ambitions to play Champions League football which angered fans and Valbuena decided it would be best for him to move on.

With this transfer, Bacuna does take a step up as Sassuolo qualified for the EUROPA League last season and this will allow the Dutch wing-back to showcase his talents on a larger scale.

Former club captain Gabriel Agbonlahor did not perform last season at all, and has been on a steady decline towards Championship football, regardless of whether Villa were relegated or not. Surprisingly, he managed to bag himself a contract in the Premier League with Crystal Palace.

Gabby was deemed surplus to requirements at the start of the new season and did not even travel to Holland with the rest of the squad. A poor role-model for younger players last season, Agbonlahor caused Aston Villa fans grief both on and off the pitch, as well as needing a fitness coach towards the end of the campaign.

Kieran Richardson reached the end of his contract with the club and was subsequently released. This frees up a large amount on the wage bill that can be put into the squad's regeneration. The 31-year-old has been linked with Brighton since his departure.

Aston Villa have announced that there are more exits on the way subject to contract deals with other clubs.

Keiran Richardson finally released! Never been a fan!

Aly Cissokho spent half of the last season on loan in Portugal, only returning to fill the boots of injured leftback Jordan Amavi. Aston Villa manged to recoup what they paid for him from Valencia by sending him off to Italy to join Villa team mate Leandro Bacuna.

Cissokho was not an awful player for Villa last season, but never seemed to make the cut in a squad that really needed him to perform. He will look to revive his career in Italy and also get European football playing for Sassuolo.

One of the better players of last season Jordan Ayew sensationally came to Jean-Phillipe Valbuena asking to leave as he could not follow his ambitions within the Championship. After a host of attempts to offload him to a Premier League Club, Championship outfit Wolverhampton Wanderers came in with a £7,000,000 bid which was accepted.

Sensationally, Ayew transferred to a Championship side that have, currently, less ambition as a side then his former club do.

Brad Guzan came to a mutual decision with the club to terminate his contract after a poor display in the last season. He was instantly picked up by Italian side Verona who were willing to take a chance on the American keeper.

Guzan had said that he wanted to return to the MLS but it seems that it'll be another few years for his dreams to come to reality.

Wage bandit Charles N'Zogbia has finally left the club after his contract has expired. The midfielder was earning £65,000 a week without playing. Premier League outfit Middlesborough were interested instantly and snapped him up.

N'Zogbia has taken a £30,000 a week pay cut to play in the Premier League but looks to be a starter for 'Boro, who have recently signed Ajax talent Viktor Fischer.

Aston Villa have announced a host of players are set to move out on loan in a few days.

Terminating Guzan's is bold but nice job getting rid of the deadwood, especially N'Zogbia. But why let someone as talented as Kieron Richardson leave

Kieran Richardson and talent in the same sentence? Well I never.

Janoi Donacien once again leaves the club on loan, moving to Scotland for the rest of the year to join Motherwell. At 22-years of age this could be his last chance to impress before Aston Villa decide to cut ties with the player.

Donacien has represented Villa in youth, reserves and NextGen Series competitions. He was a member of Villa's NextGen Series-winning team during the 2012–13 season. Donacien played his first games for the senior team ahead during the pre-season ahead for the 2013-14 Premier League season, making his non-competitive debut against Wycombe Wanderers on the 22nd of July 2013. Donacien was awarded a place in the first team squad and the squad number 32, he went on to be named on the first team's bench twice during the 2013–14 season, once in the Premier League against Sunderland and in the FA Cup against Sheffield United.

His last two seasons with Villa however, have resulted in loans.

Another youth prospect leaving to gain first team experience is Irish defender Kevin Toner who is leaving to join Macclesfield.

Toner joined Aston Villa academy in 2012 from Home Farm having earlier played for his home town side Ashbourne United.

On 18 September 2015, he was loaned to Kidderminster Harriers of the National League for one month. He made his senior debut the next day in a 0–2 loss to Lincoln City at Aggborough, and totalled six games (all starts) for the Worcestershire club. On 23 April 2016, he made his senior debut for already relegated Aston Villa, coming on as second-half substitute for Micah Richards in a Premier League match against Southampton (2–4 home loss). He made his first start for the Villans a week later in a 2–3 defeat at Watford.

Carles Gil, much like Jordan Ayew expressed his wish to not play in the Championship, but instead decided a year on loan would be better than leaving a club he has become very fond of. He will be joining Stade Rennais in France.

Born in Valencia,Gil was a product of Valencia CF's youth system, having joined the club at the age of five. Gil joined Premier League side Aston Villa on 13 January 2015 for a fee in the region of £3.2 million, signing a four-and-a-half year deal and receiving the number 25 jersey.

Joleon Lescott was another player that Jean-Phillipe Valbuena tried to get off the books as he had one year left on his contract. The player was not willing to talk to other clubs personally and no clubs seemed interested in purchasing him. The Aston Villa board would also not allow a termination of the players contract due to how much it would cost.

Instead, Lescott joins Celtic on a year long loan.

There has been shock today as Aston Villa defender and current captain Micah Richards is set to make an announcement on live local news broadcaster 'ITV Central' at around 6:30pm today. This will also be covered by Sky Sports News.

Bob Warman, ITV Central "And now we go live to Villa Park, where unprecedentedly the current club captain Micah Richards has called for a press conference, without the permission of manager Jean-Phillipe Valbuena. It is thought he has confided in some of the Villa Park backroom staff and come to a spectacular decision which he is due to announce."

Good start to the story man, just caught up. and the graphics are very eye catching

Divock Origi will prove to be a brilliant signings, I'm sure of that! Plenty of changes to the squad, hopefully the team chemistry will be better than it has been in real life!