International Villans A Glass Half Empty View
The last blog post was a little on the positive side. With this waste of time international break still underway I thought I would take a negative look at Aston Villa. At the moment everything is rosy at Villa park. We even have two full internationals in the England team and Jack put in a MOTM performance against Belgium. Life is great as a Villa fan, but we are relying on lots of things going the right way for us.
The nightmare summer transfer window
I am sure we are all looking forward to next summer’s transfer window as we look to build on a successful 20/21 season. We should be adding quality to help the push for Europe. But we may not have it all our own way. Jack is starting to get the recognition he deserves at both Premier League level and International level. I have read that City are interested in him. Probably just clickbait but if they come calling then I can see Jack joining Pep’s side. I wouldn’t blame the lad and we would no doubt pocket 80m+. While City have the cheque book out, they may very well exercise the Doug Luiz buy back clause and take him too. Another 25m in the AVFC bank account but another 1st team player exiting Villa Park.
Ollie & Ross
Ollie Watkins is looking a shrewd purchase and is looking like a proper number 9. If he continues his development as he is currently doing, he will be hot property. The self-confessed Arsenal fan would be an ideal replacement for the ineffective Lacazette at Arsenal and would surely welcome a switch back to London. Okay we would probably get about 60m+ to add to the 105m Pep gave us but again another 1st team player leaving Villa Park. After staring in the Euros for Southgate’s side Ross Barkley will be very much in Frank’s mind and a return to The Bridge would be inevitable. Again, another first team player gone but no money in for this one.
With our star players leaving some other player may get itchy feet. Surely Konsa would be an excellent buy for Liverpool or Man Utd. He would probably be available for about 40m but our best CB would be leaving the club.
Where does this leave Villa?
Out bank account would have an extra 200m+ in it, FFP would be something that we do not have to worry about but we would have lost 5 of our best players. It would be a position many other teams would envy. Afterall, we would be a Premier League team and have loads of money and no FFP worries. But that is not what we want. NSWE already have loads of money and we want success on the football pitch.
Do we trust Lange and Smith?
So, with 200m and whatever transfer budget would be allocated on top of that do we trust Lange and Smith to rebuild? The simple answer is yes as they have managed to get us to where we are now. But would this mean another ‘transition phase’? Would it add a risk to retaining our premier League status the following year? Or maybe this is exactly what Villa needs? Could replacing the 5 departing players with 5 new players that are in the 50m/60m per player bracket be better for us? Or maybe we decide to change manager? Do we get the likes of Pochettino in and give him a 250m transfer budget for his first window? This could potentially be the best long-term solution for Villa.
An important season
This season is very important for Villa. If we are going in the right direction it will give us much more negotiating power to hold on to our players. If we are in Europe, then players would not need to leave the club for European football. The players I mentioned above are all financially secure for life. They are on huge money and have long contracts. So, moving for more money will not be the single motivating factor. Although, I don’t think we could compete with City if they offer Jack 250k+ a week. Winning some silverware and competing in Europe is what players want and Aston Villa must show these players that they can win silverware at Villa Park.
UTV
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To add, Jack held on to the ball for way too long today. We really should have had Davis on the bench also, not sure what the thinking in naming Taylor is all about.
Desperately need some depth on the bench and a proper LB, Targett just hasn’t got it.
Smith’s doing okay, needs a bigger squad.
Thats bullshit !
Traore looks poor to me, great freekicks though
Great freekick that, deserve to be level. Now let’s win this
Get in yessssss
Terrible positioning from us for their goal, McGinn not the only one guilty
Phew, catch my breathe
What a game, can’t believe we haven’t scored. Some poor mistakes from us defensively and Targett getting taken to the cleaners but if we keep this up surely we can at least draw this one.
Not sure why all the corners are to near post?
Not sure he’s been that bad to sub him off, a few making some poor decisions.
Targett is definitely a weak link against Lamptey. Trez made a difference when he switched sides.
Hige mistake that goal 🙄
Lost 2 at home in a row, need to put that right today.
COYL !
2-0
My prediction 😎🤞
Yeah, bench not great. I think I’d prefer to have Davis as an option rather than El Ghastly with them 3 CB’s. 5 out of that 7 ripe for replacement. I also thought Heaton might be involved by now.
Hard watch this game, passing is so poor.
Never thought I’d say this but really looking forward to Coventry, blues later, I’ve really missed proper footie this int break.
Let’s hope it is somewhere near proper footie 😆😆😆
By the looks of the way Jack is linking up with Saka, maybe a cheeky bid in the summer 😉
Maybe he’ll fall out with Arteta 😎
On the racism issue, I find it a little ironic that the taking the knee stuff which continues on is not actually doing anything to fight the cause against racism. All the players will happily represent England in the world cup which is being held in a dictatorship with a very poor reputation for women’s rights, foreign nationals rights and generally poor treatment of migrant workers.
A much more serious stand could be taken by refusing to play in the WC in such a country with such a poor reputation for mistreating people of all races.
I doubt very much that will happen, but surely if the players are serious then that is a much stronger approach to combat racism & injustice than taking the knee at every opportunity and “pretending” it’s doing anything to change the status quo.
Role on Saturday and back to football !
Thanks for making the effort again Begley, appreciate it.
Reading through the less than positive post, two things come to my mind
1- Jack is worth more than the club if you take the price that NSWE paid for us including the inherited debt.(probably not so now after a year in the PL).
2- The idea of improving & selling on players at a profit is exactly the mandate we were sold at the start of the takeover, the sustainability angle.
Who knows whether these players will move on in the foreseeable, but I think the key is how we replace them. TBH players have always come and gone it’s whether we can sustain an exciting competitive squad in the long term that is the big question.
I think we are in the best hands to do that in years.
Looking forward to Brighton on Saturday and getting back to real football with real managers.
UTV !
WTF. That’s pretty depressing Begley.
It’s been such a very long time since we had anything to cheer about, and you are thinking along these lines ! 😂😂😂