Transfer Latest: Hourihane and Snodgrass.

Firstly I would like to say how excellent I think we played against Norwich on Saturday afternoon. Conor Hourihane probably stole the show with a hat-trick from midfield and reports are suggesting he is attracting interest from the Premier League.

The club that is supposedly interested in the Irishman is the newly promoted Brighton and Hove Albion. Brighton hasn’t had a good start to their debut Premier League season, losing their opening two games to Manchester City and Leicester City. Many people tipped Brighton to have a good season, with the likes of Anthony Knockaert and Glenn Murray,  but the seagulls are yet to gain a point in this season.

Some people tipped Brighton to have a good season, with the likes of Anthony Knockaert and Glenn Murray but the seagulls are yet to gain a point so far this season.

Hourihane only signed for Aston Villa in January for a fee of £3.15 million (according to Transfermarkt.co.uk) but has yet to settle in B6. However, following a very impressive performance over the weekend, making it 4 goals in 2 games I would find it hard to believe that he would even contemplate a move to Brighton – even if they are in the Premiership.

I think Hourihane would be more valued at a huge club like Villa pushing for promotion than a smaller club in Brighton fighting for survival – no disrespect. Hourihane has a chance to make himself a hero at Aston Villa and would be almost guaranteed a place in the starting line up now Leandro Bacuna has departed.

Villa chairman, Dr. Tony Xia did suggest it was just paper talk in a tweet last night by insinuating that it was a story just to fill the papers.

Press needs some stories to fill up space…

— Dr. Tony Xia (@Dr_TonyXia) August 20, 2017

Robert Snodgrass

Another player we have been strongly linked with is West Ham winger Robert Snodgrass. West Ham paid £10.8 million for the Scotland midfielder but it is understood they would sell for around £8 million.

The Birmingham Mail has reported that Steve Bruce is considering a loan deal for Snodgrass, rather than getting him on a permanent deal and Bruce was also quoted after the win over Norwich as saying: “We need to see if the finances work but yes I would like to work with Snoddy again. We might see something happen this week”.

I believe that he would be a good signing and would add depth to our squad but do we want someone who could stand in the way of Andre Green’s progress?

If we were to sign him on a permanent deal, £8 million is a lot of money to spend on someone who does have a history of injury problems and can we afford to do so with the FFP rules? So it would suggest that a loan deal would suit Villa but would West Ham be willing to loan out Snodgrass?