Chelsea and Aston Villa are finding themselves quite entangled this summer.
We sold them Ian Maatsen, they sold us Omari Kellyman. They then signed Ross Barkley, who we had loaned them a couple of years ago. We started the summer pushing hard for their striker Jhon Duran, although things have now gone quiet on that front.
In the last 12 hours alone there have been stories about two links between us and the Villains.
The first claims that they had an agreement in place with us for Romelu Lukaku, but that the Belgian striker decided he would rather stay patient and hope that a move to Napoli to play under his old boss Antonio Conte materialised.
That certainly seems like it’s on the cards, although there is without doubt a fear that that deal falls through and Lukaku is left on our books for yet another season.
The other story was that Chelsea had a very strong bid on the table for Conor Gallagher, but rejected it because they preferred to sell the midfielder outside the Premier League. He now seems to be closing in on a switch to Atletico Madrid.
Well run Villa show Chelsea how it’s done
We’re not sure what to make of these stories – it’s always worth questioning who would put them out, and who they make look good. But what is sure is how impressively Villa are operating.
They had effectively jumped our place in the queue to try and get into the Champions League, spending a fraction of the money in the process. They got a good chief executive, a good coach and a good sporting director, and they’ve all worked in harmony to transform that squad in a couple of years.
If they get Lukaku and Gallagher, they really would be marching ahead of us. As it stands, they’re running rings around us on the sporting side, and you’ve really got to applaud it.