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
New post
https://avfcvillablog.com/is-deano-holding-aston-villa-back/
The bottom 4 clubs are already becoming adrift from the rest and look like they have formed their own mini league where one of them will win 150m and the rest will suffer next season in the Championship.
It is hard to tell which team will survive. Personally I think Fulham have the best team and look like they could play their way out of trouble. History dictates it should be Burnley and they have the most experience in this position. It is hard to believe how far Sheffield have fallen but losing Henderson was a savage blow and they appear to have bought very badly. The Baggies are just the Baggies and the club is no doubt happy to be a yo-yo team albeit their fans don’t appear to be able to understand football and think they are actually a team that should be in the Premier League.
Agree , we do have the cushion of the bottom 4 being very poor sides. So no nail biting times for us near the end of the season. Still a lot of work left to be done before we can look at a top 8 or higher finish, but comforting to know there will be no last day relegation battle.
Hope and can’t see new owners prepared to put up with last 4 home displays ,Smith cannot react to problems on field ,he is like a Sunday league stick on my supposedly next best player and hope for best,a winger for barclay,
BB, I have send u a new leader post
After the last one lol
You may like this one 🤔
We have so far picked up more points against the better sides than we have against the lesser sides.
We will need to start picking up points against these sides as we are not going to keep on beating all the top sides.
Its a bit worrying that we have now lost 3 home games on the trot and every game we have fell behind we have ended up losing.
I think it was a mistake putting Traore on yesterday after 2 mins with him having a long trip playing for his country in midweek and also just returning from injury, resulting in being subbed himself.
Plenty to ponder over and we need to find a way to deal with these counter attacking sides, who are causing us all sorts of problems.
Mings needs to show more urgency at times instead of playing as though its a practice match.
We have very little depth in the squad but Mcginn need a rest, although that will be difficult now with the Barkley injury a big blow to us.
Watkins looks a frustrated figure at times, maybe it will help when Wes returns.
I certainly think we will need 2 or 3 new faces to freshen things up in the Jan transfer window as these ridiculous international breaks are doing teams like us no favours at all , having a first 11 and very little in the way of back up.
Thankfully we have had a good start, which we may be glad of in the coming months, as the 3 home defeats have shown us there is still a long way to go yet
Ming’s is getting a long of stick, unfairly for me,Luis was on his own in midfield again mcginn was awol yet who did Smith take off,how did wellbeck out pace us such a long distance for 1 st goal ,2 nd where was mcginn and cash but again it was a brilliant strike,trez should have scored 2 if not 3 and again why have we no strikers for the bench ,it’s as bad as last season relying on wes, brighton picked up lampay for peanuts who has Smith bought in same range jota hause drunkwater,for me it’s clear Smith has not got the abilities to take us further forward and I thank him from bottom of my heart but I think a change is needed
Lampty for 3m/4m looks an absolute bargain. Chelsea can’t be happy with that. I would love him in our team. Yes there are frailties starting to persist which I would have expected to be ironed out by now
Is it the time to thank Smith and part company and break the fcuken bank to get Pochetino in while he is still on the dole. Surely NSWE can sell the strategy and promise him the funds to deliver
That would be a major shock.
Agree fully,I mean an injury in 1 st min to a midfielder and you put on traore,
Smith mostly seems to put on his preferred subs rather than like for like.
Lampay was running target ragged ,which to be honest isn’t to hard,Smith took too long to switch trez over ,jack was still in international mode,mcginn is total off the boil mode for weeks,I don’t get why mcginn is so highly rated among our fans,Smith has been what I call a lucky manager who’s luck is running out not really a thinker or master tacticians
The ref on bt sport has said var should not got involved in decision because it wasn’t clear an obvious mistake,it was a clear penalty
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.
said it many times VAR is shit.
end of
For villa to go forward we need a manager ,wins over arsenal pool great but last 3 home matches really where shocking ,we shouldn’t have lost today but decisions made by Smith cost us
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.
Disagree about Smith,mcginn was horrific today yet played 90 mins again,Conor couldn’t get on for ireland during the week with 14 players out and he sends him on today
Frustrating end to the game
Lots of positives, we all know what they are
Lots of negatives too unfortunately
– Barkley was missed
– don’t have quality in depth
– poor defending
– poor McGinn
– positioning when Ollie is our wide
– surely that was a penalty
Poor manager mainly
Clear penalty, he barely touches the ball and follows through on Trezeguets shin, how you overturn your own decision based on seeing that from virtually any angle is beyond me.
Regardless the defending for both goals was really poor today.
I also think Traore is not going to work for us, looks impact sub at best, if he’s not match fit yet he never will be.
Disappointed in that game, no doubt entertaining for the neutral.
Have to laugh after decision was overturned commentators said clear free kick any where else on pitch
Lol
Yep, shaking my head also when they said Brighton deserved the win.
Thats bullshit !
Hard to believe
No penalty FFS. What a joke
You win some lose some,var
Come on Ollie
It’s laurel and hardy on our bench
Penalty vill
Trez misses another decent chance
Brighton sitting deep and we find it extremely hard to break down teams that do that against us.
Why have we no strikers on bench
jack looks a bit knackered now
Brighton have 4 big centre halves and what are we doing launching it high into box straight out of spuds tactics,Smith r u spud in disguise
Usually when I think about coming from behind it tends not to work out for me. I live in hope that at some stage in my life I will experience it
Mcginn left on ,Smith you numpty