The deadly summers of 2013 and 2014

[Ivo Stas]

I was wondering how we ended up with such a poor squad, so I've dug back into all the post-Martin-O'Neill signings and (in my opinion) the players bought this summer (2015) are not to blame. Instead, it was the two summers of 2013 and 2014 that have killed us. 2011 is also not blameless. In fact only in summer 2012 can it be said that we signed (fairly) well.

Here is my analysis. I've ignored players released or sold, I'm only interested in how we added to the squad. Bemoaning the release of Jordan Graham, etc can wait for another day.

Season 11/12
------------           
This was an expensive flops window. Given was given too long a contract for his age. N'Zogbia has been a financial disaster too. Hutton is the only one still playing and not very well.
   
Shay Given £3,500,000         
Charles N'Zogbia £9,500,000         
Alan Hutton £4,000,000         
Enda Stevens £250,000   


Season 12/13   
------------
This was the transfer window that bought us a couple more seasons (of struggle) in the Premier League. Benteke was the stand out success, Vlaar played his part too (when fit). Lowton, Westwood, Guzan and Sylla (who turned up in January) had okay seasons. There were no expensive flops.
               
Karim El Ahmadi £2,500,000         
Matthew Lowton £3,000,000     
Brad Guzan Unattached         
Ron Vlaar £3,200,000             
Joseph Bennett £2,500,000             
Jordan Bowery £500,000             
Ashley Westwood £2,000,000             
Christian Benteke £10,000,000
   
Brett Holman Free         
Yacouba Sylla £2,000,000     


Season 13/14 
-------------
This was the first of two transfer windows that destroyed our squad. All foreign signings (except Steer) which looked like an attempt to throw mud at a wall and see if some stuck. None turned out to be the next Benteke and, although all were fairly cheap, none have really justified their cost (or even recouped their fee). We'd have done better to pool the money onto one top defender or midfielder.

Antonio Luna Rodriguez £2,000,000         
Nicklas Helenius Jensen £2,000,000         
Aleksandar Tonev   £2,500,000
Leandro Bacuna £3,000,000         
Jores Okore  £4,000,000       
Libor Kozák £5,000,000       
Jed Steer Free   


Season 14/15
------------   
This transfer window drove the nails into our relegation coffin. If the previous year was about gambling on cheap foreign signings, this was the 'pick up knackered old pros that no-one else would touch for free' window. Actually Senderos looked good for about four games before succumbing to the injuries that his record suggested were on the cards. Best thing that can be said for Joe Cole is that he didn't actually hurt the team by playing in it, unlike Richardson. Cissokho and Sanchez are both unable to pass, so fitted in well to Lamberts new possession-based style (that's irony). Gil turned up in January just to remind us how little talent the rest had and then, in true Villa style, was banished to the reserves.
           
Philippe Senderos Free         
Joe Cole Free         
Tom Leggett Free     
Isaac Nehemie Free         
Kieran Richardson Free         
Aly Cissokho £2,000,000       
Carlos Sanchez £4,700,000
         
Carles Gil £3,200,000       
       

Season 15/16
------------       
This window, far too late, I think we signed finally signed some good players (albeit ones for the future we may not have). Richards is a good player (if not necessarily at centre back). I also like Amavi, Ayew and Adama as signings. Veretout also looks like he could be 'Villa standard'. Gestede and Gueye have been expensive flops, although Gueye may still adjust. Gestede belongs in a Sam Allardyce team.
   
Micah Richards Free         
Scott Sinclair £2,500,000         
Mark Bunn Unattached         
Idrissa Gueye £9,000,000         
Jordan Amavi £9,000,000         
Jordan Ayew £8,500,000         
José Ángel Crespo £500,000         
Rudy Gestede £7,000,000         
Jordan Veretout £7,000,000         
Adama Traoré £7,000,000         
Joleon Lescott £2,000,000 
Matija Sarkic Undisclosed   
 
               
So, in summary, I don't blame the new 'transfer committee of 2015' for our poor squad. I think most fans would agree that our current best players were all signed this season (Ayew and Amavi especially). The real damage was done in 2013 and 2014 with some earlier financial damage done in 2011.

Who wants to pick apart my theory..?

[rob_bridge]

For the complete picture you need to add in wages.

2011-12 was the beginning of the end. 3 expensive flops.
2012-13 was fine given the circumstances. Vlaar, Bennett, Benteke, Guzan and Westwood were improvements
2013-14 we needed all them to be hits. Most weren't.
2014-15 Utter fucking dire collection all told
2015-16 Early signs are very poor value for money.

[ktvillan]

I was thinking about this too and it's hard to disagree that the damage to our squad has been caused over 3-4 years, not by signing a few ligue 1 players this year as the ignorant media would have it.  Between them McLeish and Lambert largely signed a bunch of wasters, crocks, has-beens and never-will-bes.  Obvious exceptions were Benteke and Vlaar, plus Kozak and Okore who both looked the part at times but have both been unlucky with injury.  Add to this a whole heap of mediocrity being produced by our academy and lo you have a relegation squad.  Other teams have managed to pick up or develop very decent players for relative peanuts in that time.  Woeful mismanagement at every level and it's little surprise the big R is finally catching up with us.

[David_Nab]

It just sheer incompetence on an epic scale that teams recently promoted have a stronger team than us.The amount of money wasted, something like quater on a billion and literally fuck all to show for it over almost 10 years of Lerner.

[Risso]

Good post indeed, enjoying reading your contributions lately.

£17m on Given, Hutton and N'Zogbia.  Sweet Jesus and the orphans.

[Matt C]

And that just on the fees, probably the same again on their wages in the meantime.

[Lucky Eddie]

The real 'damage' was done in the late O'Neil summers. Over financial commitment on average players and the freezing out of the ridiculously salaried bomb squad ahead of MON's bitter pre planned abdication resulted in Learners 're-bound' appointments and about turn in commitment.

[Morleys left boot]

Yep I agree that some of MONs signings were pretty well over priced and the club lost a lot of money but these clowns never employed a football man in between him and the board they even got rid of  Steve Stride because they new it all and didn't want any interference the idiots who run our club deserve all the bloody stick there going to get  ! Twats

[tomd2103]

Agree with pretty much all of the above, but I don't think you can ignore outgoings either.  Over the period in question and perhaps further, we have lost pretty much all the quality players we had and failed to replace them with players anywhere near their standard. 

Goalkeeper - Friedel - no one near as good since

Full backs - Luke Young and Bouma - pretty much a disaster area since

Centre backs - Laursen and Mellberg - Dunne, Collins and Vlaar had moments but all patchy

Central Midfield - Milner, Barry, Petrov - only Delph comes anywhere near

Wide areas - Young and Downing - see Friedel comments (though Ayew is showing promise)

Strikers - Carew - Benteke and Bent for a season and a half aside, nothing much else

So there we have it, a continual exodus of quality players with a failure to replace them.  I think last summer is the one that finally did for us, with Benteke and Delph going and to a lesser extent Vlaar and Cleverley. 

[pauliewalnuts]

There isn't one single reason why we're crashing into the Championship this year, it has definitely been a four or five year descent, and I absolutely agree, the damage has been done over that time.

I've mentioned this before, but three years or so ago, when we were signing crud like Bennett, Westwood, Bacuna, Luna, all that shite, a journalist (Matt Law, who is a Villa fan) pointed out that the main cause of our sudden decline was that we went from signing 50k a week players to signing 10k a week ones without stopping off at 30k.

I always thought that was a very good point.

Not saying there's a guarantee that 50k a week gets you great players - look at N'Zogbia, for example - but 10k a week players, unless you unearth a diamond, are always going to struggle when dropped - in numbers - into the PL every week.

[Morleys left boot]

Totally  agree  but surely anybody at our club with any football brain would realise it was always going to end with us going down the plug hole keep signing  second rate players most of them have never looked like premiership players

[aj2k77]

Totally  agree  but surely anybody at our club with any football brain would realise it was always going to end with us going down the plug hole keep signing  second rate players most of them have never looked like premiership players

Anyone with half a brain realised we couldn't spend the way we were spending the last two seasons of MON's reign but people were told not to worry about the finances, they knew what they were doing. They didn't then and they don't now.

[pauliewalnuts]

Totally  agree  but surely anybody at our club with any football brain would realise it was always going to end with us going down the plug hole keep signing  second rate players most of them have never looked like premiership players

Therein lies the problem.

[saunders_heroes]

It was Lambert's first transfer window that did it for me. Benteke turned out to be decent, but I shuddered at the "young and hungry" lie, and when I clapped eyes on the likes of Bennett, Lowton, Westwood etc at Forest in a pre season friendly and watched them get the run around from a Championship team I knew we were in trouble.
That bunch of lower league rubbish should never have worn the claret and blue. Boy have we signed some absolute crap over the last 5 or so years. It's no surprise we are where we are now.

[conman]

The real 'damage' was done in the late O'Neil summers. Over financial commitment on average players and the freezing out of the ridiculously salaried bomb squad ahead of MON's bitter pre planned abdication resulted in Learners 're-bound' appointments and about turn in commitment.

the real damage was done before that ,  when we signed sasa curcic ,, balaban and hadji