Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Ads on July 30, 2020, 12:03:00 PM
-
New sporting director.
-
Is that good?
-
FC Copenhagen's transfer triumphs: Johan Lange explains their success https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11931483/fc-copenhagens-transfer-triumphs-johan-lange-explains-their-success
-
Sounds Scandi, be good to have some good players from that part of the world again
-
Welcome and good luck.
-
Its good that we've got somebody in quickly. Guess he's been on the cards prior to the sacking.
-
Welcome David Coulthard.
-
Interesting. Kept it very quiet, his name was nowhere in the press. Wonder if that's how our transfer business will be!
Bring us the right players please Johan.
-
Interesting, encouraging appointment. Seems to be well-regarded.
-
Track record of quality and flips players for 10 to 15 times their purchase prices.
-
Track record of quality and flips players for 10 to 15 times their purchase prices.
That's fine. Hopefully we can find and develop players, but then keep them.
-
My only slight concern, is that he sounds like a Sporting Director we should have had for the last 2 seasons, but not for the upcoming season.
-
Welcome Johan - don't sign any shit players! Lange worked as assistant to Stale Solbakken during his spell as Wolves manager - and he was shit!
-
FC Copenhagen's transfer triumphs: Johan Lange explains their success https://www.skysports.com/football/news/11095/11931483/fc-copenhagens-transfer-triumphs-johan-lange-explains-their-success
I like the sound of him. Whetther he can scale up this approach to find players PL ready wil be the key.
-
Good luck Johan.
-
I think it will be a Lange term appointment.
-
I guess its a good talent to have to be able to find good players in the first place!
-
My only slight concern, is that he sounds like a Sporting Director we should have had for the last 2 seasons, but not for the upcoming season.
Can see that, the model being buying and selling. He sounds like he can innovate.
He’s been consistently successful at least and I like
“We have a strong culture, a proactive strategy, stability among key personnel and a very clear style of play," Lange tells Sky Sports.
"Without those four things, I don't think we would have had any chance of punching above our weight in the European competitions for such a long period."
-
I guess its a good talent to have to be able to find good players in the first place!
Strong point, well made.
I guess it’s the sort of problem we want, if others want our players as they are so goood.
-
Welcome sir, glad we’ve got someone with a proven track record. Very impressive. I know you’re reporting direct to the board... that’s just for your immediate budget. Go speak to Deano he’ll tell you exactly what we need to improve . About £150m on about six players I think 👍🏻
Great statement of intent from the owners too who really do seem committed
-
Go and find us the next Anders Limpard, Freddie Llungberg, Martin Laursen and Zlatan Ibrahimovic please!
Sounds like a good, solid appointment, quickly undertaken so no time is lost for this transfer window. Looks promising.
-
Surely he can't do any worse than the last bloke.
-
I think this is great signing. If we have to spend 2-3 seasons bringing players in, getting them ready to play for a champions league club and then move them on I'm ok with that, if we can become a club that young players want to join then that can only be good for us.
-
I would hope he's the type who will come to the table having done his homework already, with a shortlist of players that he believes would improve us instantly - while also being willing to work with Dean on any targets he might have identified for specific roles.
If we can get the director/manager dynamic right this season, with the backing of the owners, we have an opportunity to kick on.
-
If he is reporting straight to the board is that bypassing Purslow?
-
Welcome and good luck. Now please go and find us a couple of good 'uns.
-
Interesting that the press release is from the owners rather than the CEO, and that they explicitly note the he'll report directly to them.
-
The speed of appointment suggests he was lined up - which (if true) means a considered plan being followed.
I don't know anything about him, but clearly wish him luck. A few other observations:
- If there was some truth in the 'issue' between Suso and Purslow and the former's relationship with the owners, then the owners have been clear - Lange reports to them
- If he can find gems that is what every club wants. If he does that at Copenhagen, then their business models is that the gems need to polished and sold for a big profit, though in other clubs (us, hopefully in the next few years) those same gems can be developed further to be even better
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud - typically very good technical ability, good athleticism, usually fluent English speakers from day 1.
It might be post PL survival positivity, but it feels like a very good move. UTV
-
"Under his watch, Copenhagen have enjoyed a period of domestic dominance while also earning a reputation for signing players on small fees before selling them for major profit."
And how many seasons does it take for these players to come good? What about buying good players who are say, good now?
-
If he is reporting straight to the board is that bypassing Purslow?
It does read that way.
If I had to guess, the owners have told Purslow his domain is strictly on the business and commercial side of things, under the board's auspices, while the footballing workstream is Board -> Sporting Director -> Manager and Staff.
-
So, old Lange signed?
-
Find us the next Dwight Yorke or Christian Benteke and you’ll be just grand.
-
Interesting that the press release is from the owners rather than the CEO, and that they explicitly note the he'll report directly to them.
Well to be precise it says that Lange will be reporting to the board. As a director, Purslow is obviously part of 'the board' as in "board of directors" but it is a strange way to word things. Purslow next one for the curly finger?
-
So, old Lange signed?
Bloody hell.
-
Interesting that the press release is from the owners rather than the CEO, and that they explicitly note the he'll report directly to them.
Is that this bit?
"This is a great opportunity to improve our football operations. We’re excited to work directly with Johan and the team to strengthen our analytics, sports science, talent recruitment and player development programmes."
Edit: Sorry, I missed the bit where it said he reports directly to the board.
-
i hope he has some instant targets in mind
-
"Improve our footballing operations." Oooof, poor Suso, talk about kicking a bloke while he's down.
-
So, old Lange signed?
Brilliant just brilliant
-
Before even reading his plan for Copenhagen you would know they are a big fish in a small pond and have to rely on finding players early and moving them on at a profit.
They have this opportunity because players can be placated by winning most of their domestic fixtures and picking up trophies and putting themselves in the shop window in the bigger European games.
His challenge with us will be quite different. Realistically we won't be winning the majority of our domestic fixtures in the short > medium term and won't have European competition as the bigger marketplace/ shop window.
We will need players who will need to come in and hit the ground running in what is one of the most demanding leagues in the world.
They won't have the luxury of trotting around in the Danish Superliga and racking up a few easy 3-0/4-0 wins if the higher standard of competition is too spicy for them.
The more data driven approach chimes with what Edens said earlier in the season so I can see the logic there. But I'll be honest and say I was hoping to land a sporting director who would put us in a better position to make acquisitions at the higher end of the market, be that Michael Emenalo, Frank Arnesen or similar.
Sort of like Suso - before he decided that the only leagues worth bothering with were in Belgium and Turkey.
-
Welcome to VP, KD.
-
So, old Lange signed?
KD will be happy we have Lange
-
Before even reading his plan for Copenhagen you would know they are a big fish in a small pond and have to rely on finding players early and moving them on at a profit.
They have this opportunity because players can be placated by winning most of their domestic fixtures and picking up trophies and putting themselves in the shop window in the bigger European games.
His challenge with us will be quite different. Realistically we won't be winning the majority of our domestic fixtures in the short > medium term and won't have European competition as the bigger marketplace/ shop window.
We will need players who will need to come in and hit the ground running in what is one of the most demanding leagues in the world.
They won't have the luxury of trotting around in the Danish Superliga and racking up a few easy 3-0/4-0 wins if the higher standard of competition is too spicy for them.
The more data driven approach chimes with what Edens said earlier in the season so I can see the logic there. But I'll be honest and say I was hoping to land a sporting director who would put us in a better position to make acquisitions at the higher end of the market, be that Michael Emenalo, Frank Arnesen or similar.
Sort of like Suso - before he decided that the only leagues worth bothering with were in Belgium and Turkey.
I can't see why you one precludes the other. The higher end of the market are there for all to see if you have the budget. I do not think it is the sporting director who makes the difference in those situations. For example if we want to sign a proven striker such as Callum Wilson I am sure Dean would be the main driver for making it happen.
-
So, old Lange signed?
Bravo
-
"Under his watch, Copenhagen have enjoyed a period of domestic dominance while also earning a reputation for signing players on small fees before selling them for major profit."
And how many seasons does it take for these players to come good? What about buying good players who are say, good now?
The one does not preclude the other. They are not mutually-exclusive.
-
i hope he has some instant targets in mind
You'd like to think he mentioned a few potentials at interview stage.
-
So who are his scouting successes ?
-
I like the idea of finding younger players with potential to play at the top level in Europe, but I do worry about the timescales behind 'developing' them. We've had players who developed after they left us, and I hope we can start developing and keeping them - I guess it comes down to how much leeway we're willing to give players AS they develop, rather than being brilliant on day one. We'd probably be a better side today with the likes of Traore and Vertout in our squad.
Chelsea did this a few years ago, signing loads of young players with huge potential, but then couldn't keep them all happy. Imagine their side now if they'd kept De Bruyne and Salah, who were both moved on for about £15m.
I'm optimistic about the appointment, but hope it's not an indication we're not also looking at the top end of the market.
-
Why can’t we do both? Just because his CV highlights what he did really well in his previous position doesn’t mean that’s all we will do. Now that we’ve stayed up we will likely look to recruit nearer the top of the food chain but also invest wisely in players that bring long term value. The latter is what Leicester do really well and something I hope we do a lot more of.
-
Let's not forget the role Lange has, it's the management of the scouting network. It's not entirely on him to go out and find players, hopefully he can put together a team across the world to find us the best potential targets.
-
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud -
Nicklas Helenius
Allback
Okore
-
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud -
Nicklas Helenius
Allback
Okore
Allback wasn't great but he saved us in 02-03 with that goal spree, similar to Trez in a way and he was just a low cost squad signing.
Okore played two games before doing his ACL and was highly rated when we got him.
Yeah Helenius didn't work out for a few reasons as was said after he left, now back playing in Denmark.
It's always a good market to look at as they can adapt to England no problem.[/list]
-
Interesting that the press release is from the owners rather than the CEO, and that they explicitly note the he'll report directly to them.
Well to be precise it says that Lange will be reporting to the board. As a director, Purslow is obviously part of 'the board' as in "board of directors" but it is a strange way to word things. Purslow next one for the curly finger?
I read this that the owners have analysed what they think went well and not so well this season and have restructured accordingly. I don’t think Purslow will go now, but his role has been narrowed. It’s something of a warning to him to focus on his area of expertise and not so much footballing matters particularly transfers.
-
Nyland won't be getting into too many All-Time Best XI Villa selections either.
-
It is very reassuring that they have replaced Suso so quickly, leaving us a whole transfer window for the new appointment to get his business done.
He has a good CV (but so did Suso), but we can only guess if he will be good for Villa.
Slight concern is that players that can find their feet in the Danish League becoming good enough for our League may flounder when put straight in at Premier League level. So will have to look for different kind of players here than he did at Copenhagen. Having said that he sounds driven and able to adapt. Lets hope he is a big success.
-
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud - typically very good technical ability, good athleticism, usually fluent English speakers from day 1.
Let me help you
Ball clanger Nyland!!! And pants down Helenius (thought tbf I think Helenius experienced off field issues and was seriously ill. )
But if he gets the new, Schmeichel Martin Laursen and Jon Carew we are laughing !
Schmeichel was awful for us too for that matter. Leonhardsen and Bakke weren't great either.[/list]
-
Sorrenson
He was far from the worst Keeper we have had, but yes our list of Scandinavian keepers makes scary reading. Sorensen, past best Schmeichel, Nyland and Enckleman!
-
Peter Enckelman won’t make our Hall of Fame but is revered by the knuckledraggers
-
Welcome, and please don't be shit.
-
Is Dennis Rommedahl still available?
-
Very unfair on Sorenson who was pretty good for us before O'Neill bombed him out, particularly in O'Dreary's first season when we finished 6th.
-
Finland is not part of Scandinavia.
Though surely this director isn't just heading round Norway's Eliteserien, Swedish Allsveska and Denmark's Superliga hope he casts his net far and wide.
Sounds like he'll bring home the bacon
Bring home the bacon you say.....
-
So, Brentford had a link into the Danish league, didn't they? Wonder whether Deano ha been the driver for this appointment.
-
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud -
Nicklas Helenius
Allback
Okore
Leonhardsen
Erik Bakke[/list]
Totally forgot Bakke played for us. I wouldn't count Sorensen as a dud. He did OK.
-
Welcome and let's sign some top players please.
-
Not having Sorensen as a dud or Allback. There has to be some middle ground between legend and dud!
Okore also not having that - if memory serves, he picked us over Chelsea and looked to be a great prospect but he got injured straight away and never properly recovered.
Hellenius and Bakke were poor - still not Steve Hodge-esque.
Still in the other column Carew, King Olaf, and Laursen. For one of them, how many duds would you put up with? 1 for 1 or a different ratio?
-
Okore was terrible, right up their with the very worst defenders we've had.
-
Okore was terrible, right up their with the very worst defenders we've had.
I'm sure it was Okore who received a straightforward pass from kick off in the cup final, and it ballooned off his foot, which absolutely set the tone for the horror show to come. I honestly believe he could trap a ball further than I can kick it.
-
I didn't think he was that terrible, it just didn't work out. He picked up a lot of injuries, one bad one if I remember rightly which didn't help him.
-
Very unfair on Sorenson who was pretty good for us before O'Neill bombed him out, particularly in O'Dreary's first season when we finished 6th.
I remember getting really fucked off with him at Villa Park for repeating the same shit he had numerous times before, to the point I got up and started to shout 'booo' but hadn't meant to/realised until I was halfway through. I sat down, a bit embarrassed with myself and sulked for the rest of the game.
-
Okore also scored that ridiculous own goal v Luton, which left Di Matteo smirking in the dugout.
-
So, Brentford had a link into the Danish league, didn't they? Wonder whether Deano ha been the driver for this appointment.
brentford's owner, matthew benham, also owns midtjylland in denmark.
he was/is a professional gambler who used data analysis and algorithms to play the betting markets, and has applied that model to football scouting.
-
I think it will be a Lange term appointment.
I think the Langer he stays the better for us?
-
I thought Okore was going to be a great player for us. I remember watching him for some Danish side V Chelsea in a European game. He played a blinder and was MOM easily in a game I think the Danish side won. For the first few games with us it was clear it was going to take time for him to settle in. This was incorrect. He was just an occasionally average player but more often he was rubbish.
-
I thought our new man would be Iberian given the talk of Sawiris investing in that Portugese club.
Lange sounds target-driven and a shrewd judge. Hopefully that will remain now that his parameters are higher/more difficult.
-
It is very reassuring that they have replaced Suso so quickly, leaving us a whole transfer window for the new appointment to get his business done.
He has a good CV (but so did Suso), but we can only guess if he will be good for Villa.
Slight concern is that players that can find their feet in the Danish League becoming good enough for our League may flounder when put straight in at Premier League level. So will have to look for different kind of players here than he did at Copenhagen. Having said that he sounds driven and able to adapt. Lets hope he is a big success.
I've more hope in him than I had in Suso personally, who from what I remember didn't come away from Valencia with the best of reputations, and seemed a bit abrasive at Atletico Madrid.
I think he's just going to be one rung up the food chain at Villa than he was at FC Copenhagen. There, they were buying players to develop them & flog them to teams like Villa, who play in a 'top 5 league'. Now he's going to be trying to spot players at those sort of clubs - promising players who are already successful, and have some experience (via the Champions League) of playing against Premier League quality opposition.
I'd guess his role at Villa will be, for the moment, to bring in players from those leagues who have the potential & aspiration to play for Manchester United/Manchester City/Liverpool/Spurs/Chelsea/Arsenal. Bring 'em in, develop 'em, flog 'em. That strategy can evolve as we become a more attractive proposition, maybe aiming to sell on to Barca rather than Arsenal ... then to be the one Barca sell on to.
-
Okore was really highly rated, that 14 months out seemed to do for him.
-
Apologies if already posted, but there's an interesting thread on him here: https://twitter.com/VillaAnalytics/status/1288832180647600129
-
So who are his scouting successes ?
'Activity Plus', 'Animal Carer', 'Collector's Badge', 'Fire Safety' and 'Home Help' ;)
-
So, old Lange signed?
I would like to apologise for my acquaintance poster here and hopefully this will be forgot and never brought to mind.
-
Welcome Johan. And well done to Villa management for acting swiftly in dismissal of old and appointment of new.
-
He was great in Tootsie.
-
I would like to think we will operate a two tier transfer system. Paying big money for some established proven top quality players but given that every signing can't be a ten million quid plus signing looking to find some promising value players whether they become first teamers with us or whether we move them on whilst still getting a decent price for them.
-
More importantly are we going to call him 'Mutt'?
-
Who knows, I guess, but it does sound like his CV suits our last phase in a more obvious way, assembing a team of £9m players as efficently as possible. I guess the skills are transferable. He certainly seems well regarded.
-
Okore was terrible, right up their with the very worst defenders we've had.
Didn’t he stand with the fans at a pre season friendly. Walsall?
-
At the very least you'd hope this will be the end of the baston / jota type signings. If we go down the route of lower-league signings, hopefully they'll be of a higher standard.
-
Signing the best players in the Championship was what started Spurs on their upward trajectory.
-
More importantly are we going to call him 'Mutt'?
That would lead to Hysteria.
-
More importantly are we going to call him 'Mutt'?
That would lead to Hysteria.
Animal
-
I think he started to look decent before his injury and like a completely different player afterwards. Sad really.
-
More importantly are we going to call him 'Mutt'?
Or Jessica (if his Postman only rings twice).
-
Am I right in thinking he’ll be working closely with Brian Little? I think they’d make a good pair.
Sorry.
-
I Hope Lange is successful.
-
"Lange has experience of English football having worked as assistant to Stale Solbakken during his spell as manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers during the 2012-13 season"
Bodes well... :D
-
I Hope Lange is successful.
One for the cognoscenti there.
-
Some genius on VT came up with....
"Old Lange Signed"
-
Some genius on VT came up with....
"Old Lange Signed"
2 hours after it was posted on here?
-
Of fairly recent times the Senegal midfielder Idris Gueye joined for about £8- £10million, a decent pick out and a considered succes ,but the relegation release clause was about £7mil - Everton snapped him up and he's at PSG these days.
Wonder if we had stopped up how much he would have eventually gone for as he always said Villa were a stepping stone.
Don't like hearing such remarks and hope that's not the system be implementing for future transfers.
Still want a mindset of a big club and coming to play for a big club rather than do well here son and your'll be at Juve, Man City or Bayern Munich in a few years.
Though actually those maybe be exceptions! Thinking about it .
Just don't want likes of Spurs , Everton, Arsenal being seen as any better a step up as over next few season can challenge these clubs
Up the villa !
Think we'll have to be realistic for a season or two - at the moment our selling point for young, up-and-coming players will be that they've the chance to develop under a top notch academy, and earn the right to play Premier League football. If they impress, Man City/Liverpool will definitely know about them.
Of course, our aspiration has to be that players come to Villa and stay here. But that's not where we are right now - we need to have at least a 5th place league finish to be able to start doing that, and realistically need to look like we're dead certs for the Champions League. Even Arsenal, when they were finishing 3rd/4th every year, were susceptible to having their best players poached.
-
You’d hope that he has good insight into the players he has sold in recent years for £4-£8m to Italy/Germany etc, as arguably they would be ripe for picking up by Villa for around £15m.
-
Just read a post from a Danish Villa fan on another site and he seems a bit underwhelmed by the appointment - let's hope he is wrong
-
For all the Okore mentions on here, he was 21, suffered a serious injury literally when he just got started and then was also in the centre of defence that contained one of Chocolate Ron,(Most experienced defender), Clark, Baker, Senderos, Lescott or Richards.
Anyway, the other thing of note was he signed for Copenhagen after he left us and played only 5 times before offloaded again. Was Lange in charge of signings then?
-
I couldn't name another sporting director in the entire football universe. As long as he gets some decent signings in, I don't care about previous reputation, number of twitter followers or anything else.
-
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud -
Nicklas Helenius
Allback
Okore
Leonhardsen
Erik Bakke[/list]
I think if you look back to that season Leonhardsen played in most games that we won, he was a decent player without standing out
-
he was turd - but popped up with the odd crucial goal - like Trezeguet
-
Like some have said already, Copenhagen are a big fish in a small pond and they have only finished outside the top 3 once in 20 years (2 seasons ago). So it's difficult to judge him on that basis and his recruitment will obviously need to have a broader spectrum at Villa.
I don't know if the CV is outstanding or not. Robin Olsen is an established international keeper and I know Skov played most of the games at Hoffenheim last season, but I had to Google some of the others.
Wishing him well, and hope he does a good job and importantly that he works more in tandem with the manager rather than apart.
-
The big news for me, is that the announcement shows that the owners are going to have a closer involvement in the running of the club. I would be a little uncomfortable if I was Purslow right now.
I would not be surprised if there is another major decision to come.
-
"Lange has experience of English football having worked as assistant to Stale Solbakken during his spell as manager of Wolverhampton Wanderers during the 2012-13 season"
Bodes well... :D
Hope he hasn't gone stale since then.
-
Okore was terrible, right up their with the very worst defenders we've had.
And done for drink driving when he played for us as well
-
Okore was terrible, right up their with the very worst defenders we've had.
And done for drink driving when he played for us as well
Was he?
-
Interesting that the press release is from the owners rather than the CEO, and that they explicitly note the he'll report directly to them.
Isn’t Purslow on the board as a minority shareholder? That’s how I read it.
-
Okore was terrible, right up their with the very worst defenders we've had.
And done for drink driving when he played for us as well
Everyone kept that quiet if he was.
-
I suspect Aldridge had inside info from other rozzers if true.
-
I thought our new man would be Iberian given the talk of Sawiris investing in that Portugese club.
Lange sounds target-driven and a shrewd judge. Hopefully that will remain now that his parameters are higher/more difficult.
Never mind the Balearics
-
Never mind the Balearics
Here's the Aston Villa
-
Great work indeed! I'm expecting good things from the PWS-Skillz strikeforce next season. You've gotta be more effective than Davis and Samatta at least.
-
Wasn't there talk of us investing in a Danish club at some point in the last few years or am I imagining that?
-
We had a tie-in with AB Copenhagen at some point. Nothing ever seems to have come of it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/1859742.stm
-
We had a tie-in with AB Copenhagen at some point. Nothing ever seems to have come of it.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/a/aston_villa/1859742.stm
Blimey - 2002? I thought it was 3 or 4 years ago!
Edit - Ah, I'm not imagining it... here it is - https://www.express.co.uk/sport/football/914845/Aston-Villa-invest-Danish-football-club-Lyngby-BK. Nothing seems to have come of this one either mind.
-
You're more up-to-date than me, no recollection of that at all!
-
The speed of appointment suggests he was lined up - which (if true) means a considered plan being followed.
I don't know anything about him, but clearly wish him luck. A few other observations:
- If there was some truth in the 'issue' between Suso and Purslow and the former's relationship with the owners, then the owners have been clear - Lange reports to them
- If he can find gems that is what every club wants. If he does that at Copenhagen, then their business models is that the gems need to polished and sold for a big profit, though in other clubs (us, hopefully in the next few years) those same gems can be developed further to be even better
- Off the top of my head I cannot think of a Scandinavian player at Villa that has been a dud - typically very good technical ability, good athleticism, usually fluent English speakers from day 1.
It might be post PL survival positivity, but it feels like a very good move. UTV
Okore, Helenius...
-
Where are people seeing this bit about him reporting directly to the owners?
-
This is from the OS.
Aston Villa is delighted to announce the appointment of Johan Lange as the Club’s new Sporting Director.
Lange joins from Danish club FC Copenhagen where he has served as Technical Director for the last six years.
In his role as Sporting Director, Lange will report directly to the Board.
Co-owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens said: “We’re pleased to welcome Johan to Aston Villa as we continue building a world-class organisation.
“This past season we were able to navigate a very difficult transition into the Premier League and are happy with the effort to stay up. But we will not be satisfied until we achieve our goal of bringing sustainable success to Aston Villa at the top tier of European football.
“We’ve made some significant strides in building an organisation and culture that will sustain success. We made significant investments into our academy programme by upgrading our facilities and bringing in a talented leadership team. We have also significantly invested in our women’s team who achieved promotion to the top tier of women’s football.
“This is a great opportunity to improve our football operations. We’re excited to work directly with Johan and the team to strengthen our analytics, sports science, talent recruitment and player development programmes.
“We are incredibly optimistic about the future of Aston Villa and remain committed to further invest in the Club’s success.”
Johan Lange said: “Aston Villa is one of the most famous clubs in European football with a rich history, but it is also a progressive club looking to the future. I am excited and honoured to be given this opportunity to contribute to the club’s ambitious strategy to become a force in Premier League football again.”
-
That statement gives me a warm feeling. Some might say talk is cheap but the owners seem serious about wanting Villa to compete at the the top level. We've already seen significant investment in the women's team. The men's side will take longer/be more expensive with no guarantee of success but they don't appear to be guys content with mid-table PL mediocrity year in, year out.
-
Hope he’s a good one
it’s not a statement of intent appointment a bloke that’s been rummaging around the Scandinavia leagues
but hey let’s hope he can take us to the next level although I’m not filled with confidence
-
Hope he’s a good one
it’s not a statement of intent appointment a bloke that’s been rummaging around the Scandinavia leagues
but hey let’s hope he can take us to the next level although I’m not filled with confidence
He's basically heading up the scouting/recruitment side. I'm not sure how useful it is to have someone who's able to tell you that Neymar and Messi are half decent footballers. You want them to be able to pick up good players for less than they're actually worth, simple as that. He seems to have a good track record of that, which personally I'd prefer over someone who's a big name but doesn't have the track record.
-
I don't know a thing about him apart from the article someone posted up so I'll reserve judgement and let him crack on with it. Hope it works out.
-
Hope he’s a good one
it’s not a statement of intent appointment a bloke that’s been rummaging around the Scandinavia leagues
but hey let’s hope he can take us to the next level although I’m not filled with confidence
He can't be any worse than Suso though John. I hope he's here to work WITH Smith, rather than imposing an array of mediocre plodders from Belgium on him as appeared to be the case with Pitarch.
-
Smith used to have good links to the Danish League as Benham owns Middtylands or whatever they are called. Maybe he knows him.
-
Hope he’s a good one
it’s not a statement of intent appointment a bloke that’s been rummaging around the Scandinavia leagues
but hey let’s hope he can take us to the next level although I’m not filled with confidence
He can't be any worse than Suso though John. I hope he's here to work WITH Smith, rather than imposing an array of mediocre plodders from Belgium on him as appeared to be the case with Pitarch.
is this the Smith who was sitting down with Drinkwater thinking he was one of the the answers to our season or the Smith that constantly played Taylor & Hause before Guilbert & Target
his judgment of a player is not all it should be either
-
Hope he’s a good one
it’s not a statement of intent appointment a bloke that’s been rummaging around the Scandinavia leagues
but hey let’s hope he can take us to the next level although I’m not filled with confidence
He can't be any worse than Suso though John. I hope he's here to work WITH Smith, rather than imposing an array of mediocre plodders from Belgium on him as appeared to be the case with Pitarch.
is this the Smith who was sitting down with Drinkwater thinking he was one of the the answers to our season or the Smith that constantly played Taylor & Hause before Guilbert & Target
his judgment of a player is not all it should be either
That's the one John
-
When Terry moves off to be Head Coach somewhere, how about Martin Laursen as Defensive Coach?
-
When Terry moves off to be Head Coach somewhere, how about Martin Laursen as Defensive Coach?
If nothing else, we'd score a few from corners
-
When Terry moves off to be Head Coach somewhere, how about Martin Laursen as Defensive Coach?
If nothing else, we'd score a few from corners
Mings,Engells and Konsa have all chipped in with the odd goal last term but I'd like to see more from them.
If we sort the attack out properly, we could become a force.
-
When Terry moves off to be Head Coach somewhere, how about Martin Laursen as Defensive Coach?
Slightly sentimental but - yes! - I'd love to see his unbridled enthusiasm on the bench.
However, what is he doing now? - is he involved anywhere since he resigned his manger role in 2012?
-
Matt Kendrick interviewed him on the Claret and Blue podcast a few months ago. I can’t remember much as it was quite boring compared to most of the other ones they’ve done.
It mostly involved him talking about his earlier years and that he was good mates with Mellberg and his wife and used to kip on their sofa a lot. I think he ended up marrying her sister. That was about as exciting as it got.
-
Big Sam on SSN saying the agents have the connections with the owners and sporting directors and that's where the deals are these days and not managers.
Managers are just head coaches.
Interesting because what has Lange brought us this summer window. I mean I like the signings but
What's he been working on ?
Ashley Young - "once I heard villa were interested" to quote Young indicates we moved in for him when he was open to moving back to Premier league . Burnley and Watford were after him
Buendia And Bailey are exciting and I think are 2 positives
Though hardly needed major scouting
Ings - this one I'm dubious that it was a long term plan to be signing . Seemed a move to quell the Grealish departure.
Tuanzebe - obviously have good relations to re sign him but again no scouting there
Where are these hidden gems? Scandinavian or otherwise.
Or is it a case we sign up these not ready for 1st team young and up and coming players , develop them and either play or sell them
Is that the strategy?
-
I have no idea how or why they are employed on a full time basis (well I presume they are). What does Lange do on a day to day basis? Is it a simple case of weekly reports from scouts, watching games and managing some kind of spreadsheet. Sounds like a kushdy job!
-
Finn Azaz
Tim Iroegbunam
Caleb Chukwuemeka
James Wright
Finlay Munroe
Jayden Barber
Josh Feeney
Kyrie Pierre
Ajani Burchall
and probably Finlay Thorndike
All signed and added to our U23 and U18 squads this summer.
That's a big part of what the scouting team does, alongside watching our own players out on loan and watching/valuing various other players that we haven't heard a peep about all window.
-
Finn Azaz
Tim Iroegbunam
Caleb Chukwuemeka
James Wright
Finlay Munroe
Jayden Barber
Josh Feeney
Kyrie Pierre
Ajani Burchall
and probably Finlay Thorndike
All signed and added to our U23 and U18 squads this summer.
That's a big part of what the scouting team does, alongside watching our own players out on loan and watching/valuing various other players that we haven't heard a peep about all window.
Are we going down the Chelsea route of taking talent and basically making sure other clubs can't buy them then we do as we please either promotion to first team or sold off
There's only so many talented highly rated players needed at the club.
Spend a lot of money in some ways on these young talents but what about today and the European ambitions.
Even if these players win the EFL trophy bs League one or two teams how many are gonna be Villa 1st teamers.
-
Well the u23 is becoming a huge success story, we have numerous players who look like they may not just make it but actually play at a very high standard. If that’s partly down to Lange then fair play.
-
Chelsea are selling their youngsters on for £10-15m. I think one of them joined a European club for £15m+ today so it’s a clearly a good business model and generates income that can contribute to buying players like Lukaku.
-
My fear with that is what we saw with Grealish we end up selling our best home grown talent
Just building up a savvy business model.
Sell on for big money
And our team is just an entertaining football outfit with one of own as manager and comfortable in the Prem from relegation bit not really threatening top 4 because ultimately they have better squads.
-
Chelsea are selling their youngsters on for £10-15m. I think one of them joined a European club for £15m+ today so it’s a clearly a good business model and generates income that can contribute to buying players like Lukaku.
And there has been plenty that have fallen by the wayside too. English and otherwise. Wasted stuck in Chelsea system.
-
Are we going down the Chelsea route of taking talent and basically making sure other clubs can't buy them then we do as we please either promotion to first team or sold off
I bloody hope so.
-
Well that’s better than the years of stinking out the league year like we have done.
-
Ridiculous seeing Saul loaned and going to Chelsea when they just plan out all these existing players.
I hope the home grown players as in local lads or who have affinity and affection for Villa hang around for a while.
Archer is someone who clearly Villa and guess the Ramsey are too. These are the players that should be rewarded.
The Agbonlahors , JWP and Mark Nobles are few and far between.
I'm sure Albrighton and Baker would have stayed Villa whole career.
-
Well that’s better than the years of stinking out the league year like we have done.
That's fair. Improving strategy I guess.
-
Chelsea are selling their youngsters on for £10-15m. I think one of them joined a European club for £15m+ today so it’s a clearly a good business model and generates income that can contribute to buying players like Lukaku.
Yeah I've said this the other day. When we still can't sell Hourihane despite him more than proving himself a capable top end championship player and Gulibert gets loaned out yet again it's clear we haven't got more sellable squad players.
Two years ago we signed Wesley, Nakamba and Gulibert for nearly 40m. Fair to say we wouldn't get even half of that for those three now.
We can't keep spending 100m + every summer and recoup very little as it's simply not a sustainable policy. Different circumstances but it panned out like that under Lerner.
Of course this summer was different but we also don't want to go down the route of having to sell a key player every summer given we're only mid table at this point.
So really the only strategy I can see is doing what we're doing with the young players, hopefully 2-3 will break into first team squad every season as happening now while other 2-3 will do well on loan and move on for 5-10m.
It might not to be to everyone's taste but ultimately no different to our previous crops and likes of Cahill, Davis, Bannan, Weimann etc moving on after a couple of seasons. Chelsea have got the formula done to a T and to a lesser extent Man. City do o.k with it aswell when you think they sold Jack Harrison to Leeds for around 12m despite him never playing a game for them.
I assume the Las Vegas Villians thing being proposed is part of the strategy given Man. City had the sister clubs in New York and elsewhere around the world.
-
I would like to think that’s one of the processes being put in place. Obviously we get solid contracts in place for the best of the crop and fast track them in to the first team where possible, but over the years we seem to either let them leave with our best wishes for free or nominal amounts…or simply terminate their contracts. As you say, both Chelsea and Citeh have successfully exploited this part of the club and created a revenue stream from it, however I would have to question whether or not part of the fees paid are inflated like designer clothing having been bought from a Scab6 club rather than merely based on talent.
-
I would like to think that’s one of the processes being put in place. Obviously we get solid contracts in place for the best of the crop and fast track them in to the first team where possible, but over the years we seem to either let them leave with our best wishes for free or nominal amounts…or simply terminate their contracts. As you say, both Chelsea and Citeh have successfully exploited this part of the club and created a revenue stream from it, however I would have to question whether or not part of the fees paid are inflated like designer clothing having been bought from a Scab6 club rather than merely based on talent.
That's the problem really. The view is the youth from the likes of Chelsea and City are the best of the best, and are being blocked from the 1st team by world class players. Youth players from clubs further down the food chain haven't got that reputation so have to play games to establish a reputation. And if they are good enough to get in the first team why would you sell them? There's not 2 world class players between any of our youth and the first team. Its a nice idea really but unless we're regularly in the top4 with 22 quality players blocking their path, we not gonna get clubs offering us 10-20m for youth players. 1-2m maybe.
-
Although im happy with the signings i was exepcting one or two gem unknown signings that may be around the first team.
Lange has a history in the Scandinavian league was hoping to see a gem being signed from over there as we seem to have a history of good players from there
-
My fear with that is what we saw with Grealish we end up selling our best home grown talent
Just building up a savvy business model.
Sell on for big money
And our team is just an entertaining football outfit with one of own as manager and comfortable in the Prem from relegation bit not really threatening top 4 because ultimately they have better squads.
Grealish gave us 19 years of his life! I think it's a bit hyper to be critical of the club in that instance (likewise when Gazza Bazza left, some criticism was way OTT).
I'm sure the strategy is 'both / and': we buy good players for now (this window saw c.£80m being spent to progress the first team) AND we build from within.
If, in 3-4 years' time, we have a team comprising 4 or 5 homegrown and 5 or 6 bought-in stars - competing for major honours - I think we'll all be absolutely delighted.
-
Daramy going to Ajax for €12m from Copenhagen. This was one I was adamant that we would of gone for as soon as we apppointed Lange.
-
It does seem strange that we've done so little in the weak European market, pretty much all the signngs have been known quantities and the youngsters presumably scouted by the Acadamy team.
-
It does seem strange that we've done so little in the weak European market, pretty much all the signngs have been known quantities and the youngsters presumably scouted by the Acadamy team.
Yep. I like the players we’ve bought, but it’s all quite obvious. Buying the player with the best stats from the Championship is what we did 4-5 years ago with Hourihane at the time, and Ings is this year’s Bent, although hopefully better.
-
I’ve a feeling Lange probably pushed for Bailey, which if true is a blinder.
-
At this moment I'm not such where Lange links lie other than opportunists moves.
-
Leeds, Wolves and Spurs sign Barcelona players
West Ham have links to Czech players
What exactly is Lange contact book and connections
I like our business but I don't think Lange has proved his worth in this window. Dean Smith and others must have quite a influence on who we are bringing in still for 1st team and don't see any identification of first team ready players by Lange
-
Leeds, Wolves and Spurs sign Barcelona players
West Ham have links to Czech players
What exactly is Lange contact book and connections
I like our business but I don't think Lange has proved his worth in this window. Dean Smith and others must have quite a influence on who we are bringing in still for 1st team and don't see any identification of first team ready players by Lange
Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. There are a number of players who have come in, and Lange will have dealt with the agents, players, families and clubs. We've got a good reputation with a number of clubs for the way we deal with transfers.
We've signed more than a dozen including the Academy recruits this summer and negotiated outgoings for some too. Lange will no doubt have been central to a lot of that, if not most/all.
We also don't know what other business we tried to get and failed, and what we're lining up for future windows.
-
It does seem strange that we've done so little in the weak European market, pretty much all the signngs have been known quantities and the youngsters presumably scouted by the Acadamy team.
Yep. I like the players we’ve bought, but it’s all quite obvious. Buying the player with the best stats from the Championship is what we did 4-5 years ago with Hourihane at the time, and Ings is this year’s Bent, although hopefully better.
I'll hold my hand up and say I'd never even heard of Leon Bailey, not that I really pay attention to German football, but that was a complete surprise to me, and didn't not feel like a normal 'villa' signing.
The same can be said of Sanson, though we've not really seen much of him yet. Those two definitely appear to have a 'Lange' fingerprints on them. Whether they'll be proof of how good Lange is, remains to be seen.
-
Leeds, Wolves and Spurs sign Barcelona players
West Ham have links to Czech players
What exactly is Lange contact book and connections
I like our business but I don't think Lange has proved his worth in this window. Dean Smith and others must have quite a influence on who we are bringing in still for 1st team and don't see any identification of first team ready players by Lange
Just because you don't see it doesn't mean it hasn't happened. There are a number of players who have come in, and Lange will have dealt with the agents, players, families and clubs. We've got a good reputation with a number of clubs for the way we deal with transfers.
We've signed more than a dozen including the Academy recruits this summer and negotiated outgoings for some too. Lange will no doubt have been central to a lot of that, if not most/all.
We also don't know what other business we tried to get and failed, and what we're lining up for future windows.
What I've found interesting over the last couple of years, is how the clubs in the Champions League places, the ones normally spending the big money, have all got examples of youth products going for big money, even without really playing for their first team. These deals are HUGELY valuable in FFP terms, as it's all profit, and they all do it - I'm sure it's for a reason.
I think it's a model it seems we're hoping to emulate, hoovering up highly-rated youth players, and use their increasing value to help give us the financial firepower to compete at the top, without having to rely on billionaire owners trying to bend FFP rules. Jack Harrison, Rhian Brewster, Tomori, all examples of players sold from these clubs for £10m+, plus countless others for a few million. Sometimes it backfires, Tariq Lamptey is worth £30m one season after Chelsea sold him for £3m, but that's the risk you take I guess.
It might be the 'bargains' Lange is helping recruit are for the youth system as well as for the first team (with the likes of Sanson and Bailey). If three or four youth product sales a year help us pay for a Leon Bailey, then it's a system I can definitely get behind!
-
Daramy going to Ajax for €12m from Copenhagen. This was one I was adamant that we would of gone for as soon as we apppointed Lange.
there is a clear gap in quality between the danish superliga and premier league. the dutch league is a natural stepping stone.
-
Daramy going to Ajax for €12m from Copenhagen. This was one I was adamant that we would of gone for as soon as we apppointed Lange.
there is a clear gap in quality between the danish superliga and premier league. the dutch league is a natural stepping stone.
Just for the record, I wasn't advocating that we should of signed him. I was just putting 2 and 2 together with Lange coming from Copenhagen and Daramy being the next so called Danish 'wonderkid', in reality I know very little else about him.
-
It does seem strange that we've done so little in the weak European market, pretty much all the signngs have been known quantities and the youngsters presumably scouted by the Acadamy team.
Yep. I like the players we’ve bought, but it’s all quite obvious. Buying the player with the best stats from the Championship is what we did 4-5 years ago with Hourihane at the time, and Ings is this year’s Bent, although hopefully better.
I'll hold my hand up and say I'd never even heard of Leon Bailey, not that I really pay attention to German football, but that was a complete surprise to me, and didn't not feel like a normal 'villa' signing.
The same can be said of Sanson, though we've not really seen much of him yet. Those two definitely appear to have a 'Lange' fingerprints on them. Whether they'll be proof of how good Lange is, remains to be seen.
Yeah, me too. Don't watch German/French football but genuinely hadn't heard of either until they were linked to us. We shop a bit higher up the food chain than Copenhagen, so it's not surprising that the "surprise" players are ones that people who pay attention to those leagues have heard of.
Also, I'd say we've got a different focus to Copenhagen at all. It sounds like player development will be a big part of our setup, so bringing in players that are in that 16-20 age bracket who we think will improve massively with the right coaching & loan moves makes perfect sense. I'd be surprised if any of the youth team players we've brought in have been specifically targeted by Smith, even if the first team ones might have been more influenced by him.
It's hard to say, of course, because it's all behind the scenes stuff but I think Lange's influence is something we'll see over 5-10 seasons. Think we'll also see more left field signings from abroad when the production line is properly rolling and you're seeing multiple academy players breaking through.
-
Who is 'Big Sam'? I know of a 'Fat Sam'. Are they related?
-
Who is 'Big Sam'? I know of a 'Fat Sam'. Are they related?
Well I’m the proprietor of a speak easy, I can’t speak for the other guy.
-
It does seem strange that we've done so little in the weak European market, pretty much all the signngs have been known quantities and the youngsters presumably scouted by the Acadamy team.
Yep. I like the players we’ve bought, but it’s all quite obvious. Buying the player with the best stats from the Championship is what we did 4-5 years ago with Hourihane at the time, and Ings is this year’s Bent, although hopefully better.
I'll hold my hand up and say I'd never even heard of Leon Bailey, not that I really pay attention to German football, but that was a complete surprise to me, and didn't not feel like a normal 'villa' signing.
The same can be said of Sanson, though we've not really seen much of him yet. Those two definitely appear to have a 'Lange' fingerprints on them. Whether they'll be proof of how good Lange is, remains to be seen.
Yeah, me too. Don't watch German/French football but genuinely hadn't heard of either until they were linked to us. We shop a bit higher up the food chain than Copenhagen, so it's not surprising that the "surprise" players are ones that people who pay attention to those leagues have heard of.
Also, I'd say we've got a different focus to Copenhagen at all. It sounds like player development will be a big part of our setup, so bringing in players that are in that 16-20 age bracket who we think will improve massively with the right coaching & loan moves makes perfect sense. I'd be surprised if any of the youth team players we've brought in have been specifically targeted by Smith, even if the first team ones might have been more influenced by him.
It's hard to say, of course, because it's all behind the scenes stuff but I think Lange's influence is something we'll see over 5-10 seasons. Think we'll also see more left field signings from abroad when the production line is properly rolling and you're seeing multiple academy players breaking through.
If you look at Chelsea, they spent £97m on Lukaku, which at first glance looks like them throwing money around like it's a billionaire's plaything. But then you look at Abraham, Tomori and Zouma who were sold for £80m combined, two of whom are youth products, the other signed from France at 19, and you realise this is one of the ways they avoid FFP issues.
Our annual Match-day revenue is about £25-30m a year I think, so you can see how making £20m a year from selling youth products is seen as an important part of our long-term health. And I don't mean that as in "we're now a business that is designed to sell footballers at a profit", I mean we can only play 14 on any given matchday, and if we have 6 promising youth players come through at once, it would be great to get £20m for the ones we can't fit into our squad, and then only keep the very very best of them.
I love nothing more than seeing homegrown players making it in the first team, but we have about 15 in every age group wanting to do that, that's 15 new players every year getting to an age where they want to play. If we can get one or two of those in and around the first team each year, and sell a couple of the others for a few million, we'll be doing absolutely brilliantly.
-
If you can get yourself into a position where you're feeding players through to the first team like Mason Mount, Reece James, Trevor Chalobah, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ethan Ampadu but also selling players like Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori and Tino Livramento for best part of £100m profit you can see what a good youth system can give you over several years.
-
I read somewhere today that it was Lange that convinced Smith to not buy a midfielder and instead put his faith in the ability of Sanson so i would assume pretty safe to bet that he was one that was chosen by Lange.
I really hope he comes off
-
If you can get yourself into a position where you're feeding players through to the first team like Mason Mount, Reece James, Trevor Chalobah, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ethan Ampadu but also selling players like Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori and Tino Livramento for best part of £100m profit you can see what a good youth system can give you over several years.
You can add Lamptey to that list.
-
I read somewhere today that it was Lange that convinced Smith to not buy a midfielder and instead put his faith in the ability of Sanson so i would assume pretty safe to bet that he was one that was chosen by Lange.
I really hope he comes off
The Athletic
-
If you can get yourself into a position where you're feeding players through to the first team like Mason Mount, Reece James, Trevor Chalobah, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ethan Ampadu but also selling players like Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori and Tino Livramento for best part of £100m profit you can see what a good youth system can give you over several years.
You can add Lamptey to that list.
I think Lamptey is a bit of an anomaly in Chelsea terms, in that he's worth god-knows-what now, probably £30m, but they sold him for just £3m a year ago. You've got to assume there is a big sell-on clause in there, otherwise he was clearly undervalued by Chelsea.
But even then, selling youth products without any real first-team experience for £3m is a great position to be in. It's not all that long ago we were letting players like Marc Albrighton leave for nothing and to go on be part of a league-winning side.
-
If you can get yourself into a position where you're feeding players through to the first team like Mason Mount, Reece James, Trevor Chalobah, Callum Hudson-Odoi, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Ethan Ampadu but also selling players like Tammy Abraham, Kurt Zouma, Fikayo Tomori and Tino Livramento for best part of £100m profit you can see what a good youth system can give you over several years.
You can add Lamptey to that list.
I limited it to just this summer.
Right back is an interesting one at Chelsea. They've now developed Reece James, Tariq Lamptey and Tino Livramento. They keep developing these right backs/wing-backs but there's no pathway to the first team other than for James who developed first.
-
I read somewhere today that it was Lange that convinced Smith to not buy a midfielder and instead put his faith in the ability of Sanson so i would assume pretty safe to bet that he was one that was chosen by Lange.
I really hope he comes off
The Athletic
https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2021/09/01/aston-villa-transfer-gossip-lange-sanson-smith-report/
-
So if that is true we don't have a DM due to budget constraints rather than Smith not wanting one.
-
And there I was thinking that Smith was responsible for the signings.
-
So if that is true we don't have a DM due to budget constraints rather than Smith not wanting one.
Whilst it's possible I don't think it realy suggests that. The Atletic Article it is based on just said the below. I think Evans' quote about our 'quest for top half' says everything about him as a Villa reporter.
The ongoing debate is that Villa need a player who can break down play like Nakamba and then pass it around like Luiz. Southampton’s James Ward-Prowse could have been that man but Villa found out very early on that securing a deal for him was going to be extremely difficult.
When that move fell through — Villa bid in the region of £25 million for Ward-Prowse but were swiftly knocked back — other options were still considered. However, there were whispers as early as the first week of the month that once Axel Tuanzebe had joined Leon Bailey, Danny Ings, Emiliano Buendia and Ashley Young in joining the club, Villa were done if Ward-Prowse could not be signed.
It’s understood that sporting director Johan Lange was very keen for Sanson, who made his first appearance in 149 days for the under-21s last night, to be given a chance to show what he is made of, too. It was Lange who pushed hard for that particular move, with CEO Christian Purslow agreeing that a £14 million deal last January represented good value for money.
If Villa weren’t so ambitious and aggressive in their pursuit of improving, they could have waited until this summer to sign him. As it happens, when the Frenchman finally gets back out there for the seniors, he will feel like a new arrival, having spent the last three months on the sidelines with a knee injury.
Then there was the debate over whether to block the pathway of a youngster like Ramsey or Chukwuemeka. By not signing another midfielder in this window — and let’s not forget, there are only 17 league games until it reopens in January — both players could flourish with more opportunities.
Whether a perceived fragility comes back to bite Villa in their quest for the top half remains to be seen. Can Luiz pull it all together to become the defensive midfielder Villa are missing? Will Nakamba find some consistency? Or does Sanson fill the gap? The weeks and months ahead should provide some answers.
-
And there I was thinking that Smith was responsible for the signings.
That's what I heard
-
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, we only have one defensive midfielder in the squad, Marvelous Nakamba. Any other option is players out of position.
We go again..
-
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, we only have one defensive midfielder in the squad, Marvelous Nakamba. Any other option is players out of position.
We go again..
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
-
Luiz has been excellent in that role at times, mainly after lockdown and at the start of last season before his form dipped (as most others' did).
-
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, we only have one defensive midfielder in the squad, Marvelous Nakamba. Any other option is players out of position.
We go again..
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
Yep. Smith sees it as DM Luiz, with Nakamba as back up. Then SJM, Sanson and the young ‘uns further forward. Fair enough - let’s hope it all comes together.
-
I really like Luiz, just feel his best position would be box to box and not pigeon holed as our out and out DM.
-
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, we only have one defensive midfielder in the squad, Marvelous Nakamba. Any other option is players out of position.
We go again..
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
For sure but it does beg the question why were we so interested in JWP? Two defensive midfielders? If so, once again, Dean and I don't agree.
-
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
Smith sees Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey Major and - presumably - Sanson as all-action MF who can pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score. I honestly think he believes that this approach obviates the need for a specialist DMF, except under specific circumstances, when he uses Nakamba. Even JWP would have fitted the above model (pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score).
At least, this is what I've come to believe in the absence of any evidence that a DMF was coming into the squad.
-
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
Smith sees Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey Major and - presumably - Sanson as all-action MF who can pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score. I honestly think he believes that this approach obviates the need for a specialist DMF, except under specific circumstances, when he uses Nakamba. Even JWP would have fitted the above model (pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score).
At least, this is what I've come to believe in the absence of any evidence that a DMF was coming into the squad.
If he does believe that, then he’s wrong, and I believe he’ll pay for it with his job, before this season is out.
-
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
Smith sees Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey Major and - presumably - Sanson as all-action MF who can pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score. I honestly think he believes that this approach obviates the need for a specialist DMF, except under specific circumstances, when he uses Nakamba.
He had McGinn playing there until it became at a bit embarrassing watching all the goals he was scoring for Scotland, so moved him further up the pitch.
-
Mister E makes some good points though for me
I don’t believe we have to rigidly have all the positions absolutely specialist in their own areas but nothing else
A bit of total football never did anyone any harm If you have the right players to play in it
Nakamba is our archetypal defensive midfielder but he’s not good enough to pass the ball therefore we’re not looking for just a defensive midfielder we are looking for a good footballer
It’s laughable that people think JWP is a defensive midfielder he’s a box to box midfielder that presses and is great at delivering The ball into dangerous areas and of course free kicks
I think it was Hooky that also made some good points on the transfer thread in which defensive mid would improve us and of course the ones we all know about would be hundred million quid and not gettable
And they are not just defensive mids they are all bloody good footballers as well
You need all round good footballers today to play in midfield and if you get enough of them and get the right ones it doesn’t matter what you call them they will do the job
-
All of Luiz's good form has come as a lone pivot. I'm not saying he's not had bad games there, but he struggles higher up or next to McGinn IMO.
-
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
Smith sees Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey Major and - presumably - Sanson as all-action MF who can pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score. I honestly think he believes that this approach obviates the need for a specialist DMF, except under specific circumstances, when he uses Nakamba. Even JWP would have fitted the above model (pass, tackle, intercept, cover and score).
At least, this is what I've come to believe in the absence of any evidence that a DMF was coming into the squad.
True but, unless he's playing with Nakamba, Luiz is almost inevitably the deepest of the 3. I suspect it's because Luiz is pretty good at winning the ball back (but not as good as we'd like) and then has the technical and passing ability to create space and shift the ball forward on the break. When we were all worried he was going to get called back to Man City it was because he was doing that regularly but around the time of the covid outbreak his form dropped off a cliff and we saw little more than flashes of it for the rest of the season.
-
All of Luiz's good form has come as a lone pivot. I'm not saying he's not had bad games there, but he struggles higher up or next to McGinn IMO.
In Brazil they call in the steering wheel I think.
On form, he's a very good defensive midfielder.
-
All of Luiz's good form has come as a lone pivot. I'm not saying he's not had bad games there, but he struggles higher up or next to McGinn IMO.
In Brazil they call in the steering wheel I think.
On form, he's a very good defensive midfielder.
He's a good midfielder but I don't think you could accurately describe him as a DM due to how weak his tackling is.
-
It does seem strange that we've done so little in the weak European market, pretty much all the signngs have been known quantities and the youngsters presumably scouted by the Acadamy team.
Yep. I like the players we’ve bought, but it’s all quite obvious. Buying the player with the best stats from the Championship is what we did 4-5 years ago with Hourihane at the time, and Ings is this year’s Bent, although hopefully better.
I'll hold my hand up and say I'd never even heard of Leon Bailey, not that I really pay attention to German football, but that was a complete surprise to me, and didn't not feel like a normal 'villa' signing.
The same can be said of Sanson, though we've not really seen much of him yet. Those two definitely appear to have a 'Lange' fingerprints on them. Whether they'll be proof of how good Lange is, remains to be seen.
Yeah, me too. Don't watch German/French football but genuinely hadn't heard of either until they were linked to us. We shop a bit higher up the food chain than Copenhagen, so it's not surprising that the "surprise" players are ones that people who pay attention to those leagues have heard of.
Also, I'd say we've got a different focus to Copenhagen at all. It sounds like player development will be a big part of our setup, so bringing in players that are in that 16-20 age bracket who we think will improve massively with the right coaching & loan moves makes perfect sense. I'd be surprised if any of the youth team players we've brought in have been specifically targeted by Smith, even if the first team ones might have been more influenced by him.
It's hard to say, of course, because it's all behind the scenes stuff but I think Lange's influence is something we'll see over 5-10 seasons. Think we'll also see more left field signings from abroad when the production line is properly rolling and you're seeing multiple academy players breaking through.
If you look at Chelsea, they spent £97m on Lukaku, which at first glance looks like them throwing money around like it's a billionaire's plaything. But then you look at Abraham, Tomori and Zouma who were sold for £80m combined, two of whom are youth products, the other signed from France at 19, and you realise this is one of the ways they avoid FFP issues.
Our annual Match-day revenue is about £25-30m a year I think, so you can see how making £20m a year from selling youth products is seen as an important part of our long-term health. And I don't mean that as in "we're now a business that is designed to sell footballers at a profit", I mean we can only play 14 on any given matchday, and if we have 6 promising youth players come through at once, it would be great to get £20m for the ones we can't fit into our squad, and then only keep the very very best of them.
I love nothing more than seeing homegrown players making it in the first team, but we have about 15 in every age group wanting to do that, that's 15 new players every year getting to an age where they want to play. If we can get one or two of those in and around the first team each year, and sell a couple of the others for a few million, we'll be doing absolutely brilliantly.
Think Chelsea sold Guehi to Palace for 20m aswell. 20 year old CB who did well at Swansea last season, has England under 21 caps so straight away he's in that 10m + bracket.
Our equivilant is Revan who's played one game and been loaned to Weymouth and Northampton so does limit what fee you can get if that's the standard of clubs we're letting him go out to.
Connor Gallagher is probably someone they'll get 20m + next summer way he's started at Palace. In last three seasons his loans have been Charlton-Swansea-West Brom-Palace so clear progression each time.
Again similar player here is Jacob Ramsey. Had a good loan at Doncaster and then we've given him a proper chance in first team squad for last 18 months. Problem is if he dosen't kick on as suddenly he's in his early 20s and a loan spell dosen't look that attractive so then we have to sell him for knockdown fee.
Just something we need to get better at really.
-
Having 3 in there is fine, if you are playing 3 up front, which we won’t. Or if we do we’ll have some unhappy bunnies either because they are on the bench or out of position.
-
Luiz has been excellent in that role at times, mainly after lockdown and at the start of last season before his form dipped (as most others' did).
Let’s not forget there was a spell where he was fcuking amazing in that position. He was like having two players.
If that guy doesn’t materialise then I think we need to put three in midfield and drop one of watkins/Ings/Buendia/Bailey (Traore/El Ghazi)
-
Guess Luiz-Sanson-McGinn may be the plan for tough home and away games v top 6. Wouldn't think it's wise at all just to play two in there. No good having four attackers on the pitch if you can't win the ball high enough and feed it through to them.
-
All of Luiz's good form has come as a lone pivot. I'm not saying he's not had bad games there, but he struggles higher up or next to McGinn IMO.
In Brazil they call in the steering wheel I think.
On form, he's a very good defensive midfielder.
He's a good midfielder but I don't think you could accurately describe him as a DM due to how weak his tackling is.
He gets caught out of position too much, having to track back; it's how he picks up most of his yellow cards. And, maybe that's the flaw in Smith's putative thinking that I speculated on above.
-
Guess Luiz-Sanson-McGinn may be the plan for tough home and away games v top 6. Wouldn't think it's wise at all just to play two in there. No good having four attackers on the pitch if you can't win the ball high enough and feed it through to them.
I agree that - when all are fit and available - we will probably play a 4-3-3 with the players you mention in the middle.
-
Which means one of Ings, Watkins, Bailey and Buendia dropping out.
-
Which means one of Ings, Watkins, Bailey and Buendia dropping out.
I don’t have a problem with that. They’d all be very involved, only missing out once every four games on a simple rotation basis.
Having El Ghazi/Trez and Traore looks a bit bloated though.
-
I'm more intrigued as to who drops out in that scenario.
-
I'm more intrigued as to who drops out in that scenario.
I’d rotate it so…
Watkins—Ings—Buendia
Bailey—Watkins—Buendia
Watkins—Ings—-Bailey
Bailey—Ings—Buendia
Fate will force our hand more often than not with injuries etc.
-
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, we only have one defensive midfielder in the squad, Marvelous Nakamba. Any other option is players out of position.
We go again..
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
I'm genuinely confused now (unless we're saying The Athletic is just plain wrong, of course). But it seems Smith *did* want another DM/holding midfielder but didn't get one because we were only willing to pay for a 'bargain'.
"Smith was determined to improve his holding midfield options, but the numbers ultimately did not stack up"
"Only if a real bargain became available would Aston Villa satisfy Smith"
"When that move fell through — Villa bid in the region of £25 million for Ward-Prowse but were swiftly knocked back — other options were still considered. However, there were whispers as early as the first week of the month that once Axel Tuanzebe had joined Leon Bailey, Danny Ings, Emiliano Buendia and Ashley Young in joining the club, Villa were done if Ward-Prowse could not be signed."
I'm only raising this because I believe it's important in how Smith may be judged. If he wasn't backed in the transfer market, we cannot blame him for the hole in midfield. So I'd have a lot more sympathy for him if, god forbid, the season develops poorly.
-
Trouble is that is from Greg Evans. Who has made a living from making utter bull shit about Villa up.
-
It doesn't matter how you dress it up, we only have one defensive midfielder in the squad, Marvelous Nakamba. Any other option is players out of position.
We go again..
Smith obviously doesn't agree with you and sees Luiz as the DM he wants to build around. He'll be judged on that this season I think.
I'm genuinely confused now (unless we're saying The Athletic is just plain wrong, of course). But it seems Smith *did* want another DM/holding midfielder but didn't get one because we were only willing to pay for a 'bargain'.
"Smith was determined to improve his holding midfield options, but the numbers ultimately did not stack up"
"Only if a real bargain became available would Aston Villa satisfy Smith"
"When that move fell through — Villa bid in the region of £25 million for Ward-Prowse but were swiftly knocked back — other options were still considered. However, there were whispers as early as the first week of the month that once Axel Tuanzebe had joined Leon Bailey, Danny Ings, Emiliano Buendia and Ashley Young in joining the club, Villa were done if Ward-Prowse could not be signed."
I'm only raising this because I believe it's important in how Smith may be judged. If he wasn't backed in the transfer market, we cannot blame him for the hole in midfield. So I'd have a lot more sympathy for him if, god forbid, the season develops poorly.
That's from a guy who doesn't know how to spell Greg, which is important context.
I suspect the real situation is that Smith had a couple of options he wanted that we didn't get through the door and between the group all the alternatives were either overpriced or Smith didn't want them so as a group they decided to wait until January/next summer instead of a panic buy.
-
From this I gather we don't hold Greg(g) in high regard.
If it's a group decision it makes it easier for me anyway as I don't like to play favorites. If we are not top 4 by Christmas I will demand everybody's resignation. The tea-lady's too.
-
From this I gather we don't hold Greg(g) in high regard.
If it's a group decision it makes it easier for me anyway as I don't like to play favorites. If we are not top 4 by Christmas I will demand everybody's resignation. The tea-lady's too.
He wasn't that "brilliant" writing for Birmingham Mail
-
Seen it reported somewhere that Smith wanted a DM but Lange strongly leaned towards him giving Sanson a chance this season.
If this is true then think we need to cut Dean a little more slack regards the disjointed squad. Interesting seeing bits and bats leak out though, it is almost as if the press are being briefed from multiple sources as to who is to blame if it doesn't go well.
Think we will be like a better Southampton this season. They play the kind of formation we seem to be aiming for, and seem to get dicked by 5+ goals a couple of times a season, whilst also handing out the odd thrashing. The tend to finish mid table. We have far better attacking options and defenders, but arguably a far worse set of central midfield options. Given we were strongly linked with both JWP and Romeu and both would have improved our options.
-
Which means one of Ings, Watkins, Bailey and Buendia dropping out.
Up to DS to prove he can cope with that o.k. That's the test of a top manager after all. Tuchel and Guardiola have about 8-9 players in final third to keep happy and they manage o.k.
-
Trouble is that is from Greg Evans. Who has made a living from making utter bull shit about Villa up.
Really? I'm not saying he's perfect or anything but this seems like a stretch.
-
Trouble is that is from Greg Evans. Who has made a living from making utter bull shit about Villa up.
that Albion gutter rat knows sod all. Makes it up as he goes along.
-
From this I gather we don't hold Greg(g) in high regard.
The Athletic does have some decent, insightful, tactically aware reporters with their finger on the pulse of the clubs they report on.
Unfortunately Gregg Evans isn't one of these. We've been saddled with the Robin Reliant of Athletic reporters. In fairness, he isn't helped by the fact that the club doesn't give anything away, but at least he is helped by being part of a network where some coleagues will get stuff from other clubs.
He's pretty decent at the puff pieces on former players, youth players etc. But I've never read or heard anything from him that made me sit up and think 'he knows what he's talking about'
-
If Evans reports something it does tend to be true. He just misses a lot of stuff too, probably because the club is so poker-faced.
The thing we really lack is any good tactical analysis of our performances. I'm so tired of reading the basic, plodding stuff we get about our matches - 'off the pace', 'improved after the break', 'looked dangerous on the left' - like, can't you tell us why these things happened? Can't anyone? It's annoying.
-
Maybe we should ask the Liverpool Echo to cover our games.
-
Seen it reported somewhere that Smith wanted a DM but Lange strongly leaned towards him giving Sanson a chance this season.
Sanson isn't a DM though so that doesn't really make any sense. Sanson's more like McGinn so it's like saying we can't have a DM because we want McGinn to play when really you would want a top quality DM alongside him to get the best out of him.
-
Norwich Sporting Director Stuart Webber: "It really grates at me, this obsession with money, money, money. Only one team can win the Premier League. So are the other 19 all failures? Bullshit. Then you hear you’ve got to “go for it”. Football is an infinite game, it’ll be played long after we’re all dead."
-
Norwich Sporting Director Stuart Webber: "It really grates at me, this obsession with money, money, money. Only one team can win the Premier League. So are the other 19 all failures? Bullshit. Then you hear you’ve got to “go for it”. Football is an infinite game, it’ll be played long after we’re all dead."
Admirable sentiments, but he's probably working in the wrong industry.
-
Norwich Sporting Director Stuart Webber: "It really grates at me, this obsession with money, money, money. Only one team can win the Premier League. So are the other 19 all failures? Bullshit. Then you hear you’ve got to “go for it”. Football is an infinite game, it’ll be played long after we’re all dead."
Struggling to see what this has to do with Lange?!
-
Norwich Sporting Director Stuart Webber: "It really grates at me, this obsession with money, money, money. Only one team can win the Premier League. So are the other 19 all failures? Bullshit. Then you hear you’ve got to “go for it”. Football is an infinite game, it’ll be played long after we’re all dead."
Struggling to see what this has to do with Lange?!
He will probably post it on another twenty threads!
-
Norwich Sporting Director Stuart Webber: "It really grates at me, this obsession with money, money, money. Only one team can win the Premier League. So are the other 19 all failures? Bullshit. Then you hear you’ve got to “go for it”. Football is an infinite game, it’ll be played long after we’re all dead."
Struggling to see what this has to do with Lange?!
Think it’s that he’s our sporting director and Webber is Norwich’
-
I thought with him being Dof ,a couple of Scandinavians would have emerged ,previous associations etc
-
If some want to have a go on Smith then this chap hasn't covered himself in glory.
Danny Ings although quality wasn't something much scouting would take
Seemed an opitunist move and then shoe horn him into the team
And how about Ashley Young as well?
What's this guy doing?
We cant put it all on Smith for the 6 defeats in 10
-
Yes we fucking well can. There's fuck all wrong with the recruitment. We have a better squad than half the league. This fucking shit show is on Smith.
-
I agree Ads.
I think Leon Bailey is best signing we've made in years, certainly with his general profile. By all accounts that was one Lange really pushed for.
Just don't think DS is up to making it work anymore so he'll have to be accountable for the current failures rather than it being Suso after 19/20.
-
Well if he gets credit when things go well he has to have some responsibility when they don't is all I saying.
But that's just how i see it.
-
The problem isn't the squad. The problem is the manager who doesn't have a fucking clue.
-
They made a mistake not getting a top midfield player in the summer. It's haunting them now. They also signed the wrong forward in Ings in my opinion but he's here now, we need a manager that can use him.
-
The difference that proper midfielders like Rice and Souček make to West Ham make is immense. We've got nobody remotely in their class. Certainly not John McGinn, who was dreadful again.
-
I disagree on Ings, I think he was a very good signing and will prove it over the next few years. We definitely needed to upgrade on Nakamba though, particularly given Smith doesn't seem all that interested in bringing Sanson through.
-
McGinn is either great or dog awful.
Rice and Soucek have quality and physical presence. Our midfield is too small, and not good enough on the ball apart from Luiz, but he needs runners and options.
-
McGinn is either great or dog awful.
Rice and Soucek have quality and physical presence. Our midfield is too small, and not good enough on the ball apart from Luiz, but he needs runners and options.
That’s the problem with Nakamba. He’s technically poor, so he needs to be much more physical and energetic - he just rarely gets near players.
-
So realistically we still need 2 quality midfield players and a left sided forward. Oh and a manager. Lange best get to work.
-
McGinn is either great or dog awful.
Rice and Soucek have quality and physical presence. Our midfield is too small, and not good enough on the ball apart from Luiz, but he needs runners and options.
Neither Rice and Soucek are comfortable getting on the half turn. Very kind of our midfield three to stand off them completely to not test them in this regard at all
-
This was a massive game for us and yet i saw no urgency from the players, no closing down. The only positive i saw was Watkins scored and could have had a second. Change needed.
-
Well if he gets credit when things go well he has to have some responsibility when they don't is all I saying.
But that's just how i see it.
It's a desperate view.
-
Should have taken Conor Gallagher or Billy Gilmour for the midfield and Tammy Abraham both from Chelsea
And signed Michael Olise from Reading and Shaqiri from Liverpool. With Xherdan Shaqiri who has the class and magic and can hold on to the ball
I imagine we don't signed year old Olise as it blocks our up and coming players same with Gallagher loan.
Abraham or even Eduoard would be more suited to compliment our attack
-
Some one mentioned to Ashley Preece that we signed 3 right sided attackers (Bailey, Buendia and Traore) and a striker we didn’t need (Ings) while neglecting the biggest weakness (midfield).
And suggested we wasted the Grealish money.
If that's the case this guy has to account for things.
-
Some one mentioned to Ashley Preece that we signed 3 right sided attackers (Bailey, Buendia and Traore) and a striker we didn’t need (Ings) while neglecting the biggest weakness (midfield).
And suggested we wasted the Grealish money.
If that's the case this guy has to account for things.
Well it's not the case is it.
Traore was signed 12months earlier and shouldn't be part of he discussion.
Bailey has played on the left as often as the right.
Buendia was signed, in my opinion, was a replacement for trez who will be moved on when he gets fit.
Ings was signed because the only backup forwards for Watkins were Wesley who is still to fully prove he's recovered from the assault by Ben Mee and Davis who hasn't managed to stay fit for more than a few months at a time since 2018, an option to play centre forward was needed.
Just because the season hasn't started as well as we hoped doesn't mean all the summer signings were a waste of money, Bailey has only played about 200 minutes of football so it's particularly harsh on him.
-
We all knew we needed a striker as everyone was saying Wes and Davis are shit so I'm not sure why Ings is being mentioned as a wrong signing. The problem was not getting a DCM as well as Ings. If Antonio gets crocked at West Ham then they have a problem whereas we wouldn't. Well that's assuming the likes of Watkins can get their form back but that would have been the idea. Just don't play the fuckers together.
-
We all knew we needed a striker as everyone was saying Wes and Davis are shit so I'm not sure why Ings is being mentioned as a wrong signing. The problem was not getting a DCM as well as Ings. If Antonio gets crocked at West Ham then they have a problem whereas we wouldn't. Well that's assuming the likes of Watkins can get their form back but that would have been the idea. Just don't play the fuckers together.
The bold bit is why Lange isn't getting grief but Smith is.
-
We all knew we needed a striker as everyone was saying Wes and Davis are shit so I'm not sure why Ings is being mentioned as a wrong signing. The problem was not getting a DCM as well as Ings. If Antonio gets crocked at West Ham then they have a problem whereas we wouldn't. Well that's assuming the likes of Watkins can get their form back but that would have been the idea. Just don't play the fuckers together.
100%
-
..
And how about Ashley Young as well?
What's this guy doing?
...
Footy: you have been a vocal advocate of Young when he came in, suggesting he should be first choice at LB.
-
..
And how about Ashley Young as well?
What's this guy doing?
...
Footy: you have been a vocal advocate of Young when he came in, suggesting he should be first choice at LB.
Yes, but that doesn't deflect the blame from Smith.
-
..
And how about Ashley Young as well?
What's this guy doing?
...
Footy: you have been a vocal advocate of Young when he came in, suggesting he should be first choice at LB.
Yes he should have been having seen Targett fail us
Young was hardly inspired scouting was he
I all for him and the experience I'm just wondering what Lange has brought to the table
-
..
And how about Ashley Young as well?
What's this guy doing?
...
Footy: you have been a vocal advocate of Young when he came in, suggesting he should be first choice at LB.
Yes he should have been having seen Targett fail us
Young was hardly inspired scouting was he
I all for him and the experience I'm just wondering what Lange has brought to the table
Other than the myriad of highly promising players we've been hoovering up in our youth teams?
-
Well granted for sake of all lange signs
Those youth players I hope won't be forgot
-
Are the youth players under the remit of Lange? Genuine question as I don't know.
-
Are the youth players under the remit of Lange? Genuine question as I don't know.
I doubt it, although he may have some involvement in the decision.
-
In regards to the 1st team I wouldn’t be surprised if Lange was keeping his head low.
Why Buendia when we already had Traore?
Why Bailey ( a player from Germany with no experience of the PL, who more than likely is going to take 6-12 months to settle) to replace an established full international occupying the left of the front 3?
Why Tuanzebe and Young?
Why not a dcm that everyone could see we needed?
If we had got a proper dcm this could have afforded Luiz the opportunity to play further forward.
Why Sanson when we already had McGinn?
Why did he not get a proper no.10 (and perhaps one with a profile to replace the one that left)?
Ings I can understand, as we were short of a quality proven striker to complement Watkins or act as back up to him. That said getting Ings in when he did felt like a softener to supporters on the day a supposed Villa fan jumped ship.
Whatever the issues regarding Smith, Lange certainly hasn’t done him any favours. He’s brought players in as though we are currently a championship side looking for promotion or a team newly promoted to the PL instead of a team already established there for the last 2 years.
For me whatever happens re Smith, Lange should be relieved of his duties.
-
In regards to the 1st team I wouldn’t be surprised if Lange was keeping his head low.
Why Buendia when we already had Traore?
Why Bailey ( a player from Germany with no experience of the PL, who more than likely is going to take 6-12 months to settle) to replace an established full international occupying the left of the front 3?
Why Tuanzebe and Young?
Why not a dcm that everyone could see we needed?
If we had got a proper dcm this could have afforded Luiz the opportunity to play further forward.
Why Sanson when we already had McGinn?
Why did he not get a proper no.10 (and perhaps one with a profile to replace the one that left)?
Ings I can understand, as we were short of a quality proven striker to complement Watkins or act as back up to him. That said getting Ings in when he did felt like a softener to supporters on the day a supposed Villa fan jumped ship.
Whatever the issues regarding Smith, Lange certainly hasn’t done him any favours. He’s brought players in as though we are currently a championship side looking for promotion or a team newly promoted to the PL instead of a team already established there for the last 2 years.
For me whatever happens re Smith, Lange should be relieved of his duties.
Yeah - it doesn't feel as well joined up as CP would have us believe. I think the 3 players we signed were needed and improve the squad, and I think there is a good chance all 3 will prove a success in time, but they don't really improve the first 11 just the squad.
To me it seems that they were confident of keeping Joe, and we're looking to add a bit more strength in depth. When it became clear he was set on leaving, they paniced and tried to do the best they could to replace him
lol - Maybe that's why the open training session seemed like such a shit show - no one had any idea what to do, as all the plans had gone out the window
-
Recruitment in the summer was good, that's why we have a very strong squad. It needs players here and there but also crucially a manager who can;
Have the players press, we're 19th in the league for this.
Have defenders remain calm and cut out errors leading to a chance at our goal, we're also 19th for this.
Set up a viable midfield structure that doesn't see players like McGinn lose it so frequently and have us carved open.
See us retain the ball, have a pattern of attacking beyond long balls from centre half and throw ins.
Etc etc. Problems are not with Lange, they're quite obviously with the manager.
-
Yep.
-
Watching the video of Buendia on his first day in the summer, I would be amazed if he and Tuanzebe were Not pushed for by Smith. Ings, Bailey not so sure.
-
If the new players had been doing well, Smith would be getting all the plaudits, so equally if they are not doing well, he has the responsibility for that.
The consensus in the media and on here was that we had made good signings in the summer. If that is true, then the manager is doing poorly.
However if the new players are not as good as we were led to believe or we led ourselves to believe, then the manager still has some culpability, not just Lange.
-
We all knew we needed a striker as everyone was saying Wes and Davis are shit so I'm not sure why Ings is being mentioned as a wrong signing. The problem was not getting a DCM as well as Ings. If Antonio gets crocked at West Ham then they have a problem whereas we wouldn't. Well that's assuming the likes of Watkins can get their form back but that would have been the idea. Just don't play the fuckers together.
The bold bit is why Lange isn't getting grief but Smith is.
Definitely Paul, it's difficult to defend those sort of decisions.
-
Has anyone ever seen Johan Lange smile?
Seriously.
He looks so miserable all the time.
-
Has anyone ever seen Johan Lange smile?
Seriously.
He looks so miserable all the time.
I've seen him smile
but I've never really heard him laugh
-
Has anyone ever seen Johan Lange smile?
Seriously.
He looks so miserable all the time.
I've seen him smile
but I've never really heard him laugh
Does anyone know whether Johan Lange has a brother?
-
Has anyone ever seen Johan Lange smile?
Seriously.
He looks so miserable all the time.
I've seen him smile
but I've never really heard him laugh
Does anyone know whether Johan Lange has a brother?
Ha!
-
Lange and Purslow, and who or whatever this transfer committee, must get their act together in the next few weeks.
I hoped Lange's contacts and networks would have seen some more incomings, but maybe they don't meet SG requirements or Lange doesn't have the same pull and networking ability as others.
When it comes to efficiency, Arsenal Edu and Spurs Paratici have done an excellent job.
With all due respect, Lange has been adequate, however, with all that was said about signings at the end of the season, I would have expected more.
-
Lange and Purslow, and who or whatever this transfer committee, must get their act together in the next few weeks.
I hoped Lange's contacts and networks would have seen some more incomings, but maybe they don't meet SG requirements or Lange doesn't have the same pull and networking ability as others.
When it comes to efficiency, Arsenal Edu and Spurs Paratici have done an excellent job.
With all due respect, Lange has been adequate, however, with all that was said about signings at the end of the season, I would have expected more.
With respect Footy, you've answered your own question there. Arsenal and Spurs have a much bigger pull then us and that should go without saying. Our signings have probably exceeded where we are as a club at this moment in time so I see no blame at Lange's door.
-
Really?
I think, from what we've seen of Lange, he's been pretty bloody good.
- All transfer dealings have been sorted out promptly, with at least a few reports (e.g. from Exeter) that we've been particularly good to deal with
- Since Lange arrived, I don't think we've particularly overpaid for any players. In some cases (Coutinho) you'd generally say we've done a good job of haggling down prices
- The youth recruitment has been excellent. Iroegbunam & Feeney, for example, are already been talked about in terms of what they might offer the first team. There's plenty more players - Chrisenne springs to mind - that we've bought in fairly cheaply and look like we'll at least turn in a tidy profit from them, but may well do better
- Along those lines too, our scouting of those types of 16-20 year old players seems to be good. Obvs we don't know what sort of quality they'll end up as, but we've started picking up a lot of promising young players, from relatively obscure footballing outposts, and for considerably less than Chelsea have paid for Barney, or indeed we paid for Tshibola. They won't all make it, but with the level of spread betting we're doing you'd expect we'll comfortably make our outlay back even if it's just through selling on players who aren't quite good enough.
- Speaking of which, we rinsed Chelsea for £20m in exchange for Barney. Now, however good he ends up being, £20m for a player who's got one year left on his contract, doesn't want to be here, and wasn't (yet) good enough to make regular subs appearances ... that's not too bad, is it?
-
The money tree has dried up.
-
Just contacts wise he's brought in back up goal keeper and back up left back. I want more sorcery with the likes of Mikkel Damsgaard and Christian Eriksen they would have been welcome editions.
Where's his networking and links to the Scandinavia market coming to fruition.
Is it too much to expect a norse god of magic?
-
Eriksen wouldn't come and is not required anyway. Damsgaard is not required and is a health-risk.
Johan has done a great job. Come on Footy, I thought you were a compassionate soul.
-
Where's his networking and links to the Scandinavia market coming to fruition.
Is it too much to expect a norse god of magic?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thor_Lange_(footballer)
-
Eriksen would have been a really terrible signing. We've got Coutinho and Buendia for that position, and most people think that Buendia isn't getting enough time as it is. If we need anybody else, it's central defence, a proper number 8 and a striker as priorities.
-
It is clear to me that youth recruitment is a long-term strategy to use as funds to buy established players in football. Its to balance the books and it's just a business model.
It's typical of Chelsea way to sign young players with little intention of keeping them and then sell them.
I'm all for bringing in young talent and we should also consider loaning more young English players abroad.
It's all league one and league two English football.
But do we expect to see Rory Wilson playing for us up front one day?
Anyway, in terms of Lange, my sole focus is on this window and recruiting first-team players and what more we have been hoping for.
I've heard some people say we need four or five more signings to get to where we want to go.
And if we don't make the top half or improve on 14th then some of that will base on what we didn't do this window.
-
Eriksen wouldn't come and is not required anyway. Damsgaard is not required and is a health-risk.
Johan has done a great job. Come on Footy, I thought you were a compassionate soul.
Well we see differently. Its a squad game.
And we have a major following in Scandinavia I believe more should be done in getting such top players of Scandia here and also give some of our players to these Nordic regions.
Alexander Isak of Sweden would be great striker for us.
Mohamed Daramy with Copenhagen connections why not bring him into fold. Being able to acquire those would suggest Lange is able to flex some influence outside of data profile players and established names he's done that woth two excellent acquisition of GK and Left back.
Anyway I hear no ill to Lange just would want a few more to help Gerrard squad to be competitive in the higher echelons.
-
Eriksen wouldn't come and is not required anyway. Damsgaard is not required and is a health-risk.
Johan has done a great job. Come on Footy, I thought you were a compassionate soul.
Well we see differently. Its a squad game.
And we have a major following in Scandinavia I believe more should be done in getting such top players of Scandia here and also give some of our players to these Nordic regions.
Alexander Isak of Sweden would be great striker for us.
Mohamed Daramy with Copenhagen connections why not bring him into fold. Being able to acquire those would suggest Lange is able to flex some influence outside of data profile players and established names he's done that woth two excellent acquisition of GK and Left back.
Anyway I hear no ill to Lange just would want a few more to help Gerrard squad to be competitive in the higher echelons.
Daramy only signed for Ajax last year, and is an Ajax player back on loan at Copenhagen for the season, so nothing doing there. Isak's record is a bit shit. I don't think we should be signing players based on their nationality to be honest.
-
Why is Lange making moves for a right winger in Sarr.
Or is this just a distraction as it's only a submitted bid with there no clear cut actual transfer.
It makes little sense unless they are seemingly saying it's an upgrade on Traoré who's being shipped out.
-
Gerrard might have recommended we go for him. Don't always rush to blame our Johan!
-
I don’t have a problem with Lange or Purslow. I think they’ve done their jobs well. Just need them to get the next manager appointment correct.
-
Anyone who critical of Gerrard has to also be critical of Lang and Purslow though.
Lange making moves now that are just any deal will do
If we sign Bednarek we're going the wrong way
-
Anyone who critical of Gerrard has to also be critical of Lang and Purslow though.
Lange making moves now that are just any deal will do
If we sign Bednarek we're going the wrong way
Totally agree 100% Purslow's reputation in the game is dependent on Gerrard performing which he is not. Why buy a winger when we don't play a wide game.
-
Eriksen wouldn't come and is not required anyway. Damsgaard is not required and is a health-risk.
Johan has done a great job. Come on Footy, I thought you were a compassionate soul.
Well we see differently. Its a squad game.
And we have a major following in Scandinavia I believe more should be done in getting such top players of Scandia here and also give some of our players to these Nordic regions.
Alexander Isak of Sweden would be great striker for us.
Mohamed Daramy with Copenhagen connections why not bring him into fold. Being able to acquire those would suggest Lange is able to flex some influence outside of data profile players and established names he's done that woth two excellent acquisition of GK and Left back.
Anyway I hear no ill to Lange just would want a few more to help Gerrard squad to be competitive in the higher echelons.
Daramy only signed for Ajax last year, and is an Ajax player back on loan at Copenhagen for the season, so nothing doing there. Isak's record is a bit shit. I don't think we should be signing players based on their nationality to be honest.
Isak is class player. Lange needs to be watching him tonight scored and has all attributes to be very good..
-
Anyone who critical of Gerrard has to also be critical of Lang and Purslow though.
Lange making moves now that are just any deal will do
If we sign Bednarek we're going the wrong way
No they don't.
You've no idea if that's true.
I agree, he's not good enough and we'd have been as well keeping Hause.
-
Do you seriously believe that the Sporting Director is going off on jollies of his own and trying to buy players above the managers head? And recommending we buy a £25m player without reference to anyone else?!
-
I don't think Lange should be beyond criticism.
With Grealish in the team, we were playing 4-2-3-1 or a variation of it. Once we sold Grealish, rather than keeping the shape the same and changing the personnel, we embarked on this scattergun approach to what the shape should be. Bringing Danny Ings in with no clear idea of how to get him and Olly Watkins into the same side. We tried several formations and the idea seemed to have been to change to a 3-5-2 (which inevitably becomes 5-3-2 when you're not a team packed with world class stars who are going to help you have the lion share of possession).
This change of shape was where all problems started.
We've then gone for a manager who believes the width should come from the full-backs, preferring 4-3-2-1 but changing to 4-3-1-2 to, again, try and accommodate both Ings and Watkins.
All this messing around with shape has led to the proliferation of players, bombing out of players and being stuck with unwanted players.
The owners have got a great philosophy of youth development but with said proliferation of players, it looks like we're blocking the pathways for the promising kids that we've got coming through.
In short, there seems to be a lack of joined up thinking between what's happening at senior level and with what's going on at the younger age levels of the club.
My point is this...as Sporting Director/Technical Director, why isn't there a drilled down blueprint that is there to be followed from the top down?
One where we know the shape we want to play (4-2-3-1 would be my preference) and we make appointments and signings accordingly.
No more making appointments because they make good presentations, have a detailed dossier of our players and generally interview well.
No more wholesale squad changes because we make an appointment who has beliefs about shape and tactics that go against said club philosophy.
No more players with potential having their pathways to the first team being closed off to them and generally few opportunities to impress (what was Gerrard expecting from Archer with 3 minutes on the clock yesterday?).
Gerrard is a symptom rather than the disease. The problem stems from higher up. While Purslow will cop his share of blame, he seems to be doing well elsewhere (the stadium expansion plans for instance). Purslow shouldn't have been involved in the Gerrard appointment and Lange is either greatly under-performing his role or the structure isn't right. Perhaps a bit of both.
The technical director/head coach model should mean that it's a lot easier to change the head coach when they underperform. There shouldn't be a tearing up of the plan and going back to the drawing board (and everything that entails) everytime a change is needed.
-
Good post OCD.
-
OCD makes some excellent points about the role of the sporting director.In defence of Lange we needed to buy another striker as we only had injury prone Davis as back up.
Smith was at fault trying to put Ings and Watkins into the same side,although he came close to solving it with 3 at the back v Wolves but Tuanzebe and late substitutions let us down.A different shape in his last match v Soton but opportunies for J.Ramsey and Archer as subs with Aaron Ramsey and Chuck on the bench,so clear pathways to the first team.
A set shape is an ideal but good coaches like Potter will change the shape during a game.
-
The shape and selection of the team down to the manager, nothing to do with the Sporting Director.
Maybe there is a blueprint and it is very possible that the manager is ignoring it.
-
Thanks Neil/robleflaneur.
While there has to be some flexibility to change shape according to the opponent and circumstances, how does it make sense to change from an approach that required wingers to one where they're redundant (selling your wingers). It doesn't look like it's going to work out with Gerrard, so what if the next manager goes back to using wingers?
There has to be some continuity planning.
And if there is a blueprint that's being ignored, then that's not good management from top down either.
-
Thanks Neil/robleflaneur.
While there has to be some flexibility to change shape according to the opponent and circumstances, how does it make sense to change from an approach that required wingers to one where they're redundant (selling your wingers). It doesn't look like it's going to work out with Gerrard, so what if the next manager goes back to using wingers?
There has to be some continuity planning.
And if there is a blueprint that's being ignored, then that's not good management from top down either.
I believe there was a plan under Smith.
But Purslow has allowed Gerrard to come in and change lots of things, it started with binning Delaney and there has been a power grab.
This is why I believe that Purslow may be vulnerable.
-
As I keep saying, and will keep saying. We had a plan. It worked. Then Purslow decided that his mate needed a job so everything that had worked was chucked out for the benefit of Purslow's mate. I don't blame Gerrard; he must have thought Christmas had come early to get the opportunity of managing an ambitious, underachieving Premier League club. We ripped it up, we started again, and there's every chance that before the clocks go back we'll be doing it again.
-
The change to the wingless approach will see the best part of £50m leaving or sitting on the bench. Add to that having a record signing as an understudy to the manager's underperforming mate then it doesn't look well planned at all. We might have rich owners, but to have £80m of players (two of which were signed just 12 months ago) not able to get into the starting lineup isn't good.
-
It's getting to the stage where Sir Graham came back to find something like five of the club's seven biggest wage earners sitting in the stand, effectively on strike.
-
Without turning this into another Gerrard thread - surely some of this would have been part of the selection process and remit or even the expectation where the new manager has to use the player we have identified and signed to fit in a certain system.
-
With all managers on their last legs they get more and more insular and stubborn. Gerrard won’t drop McGinn however poorly he plays. He has been very outspoken about choosing “his captain”. And he will look stupid after 4 games walking away from that by changing captain or better, benching his captain. And the more he is criticized the more he will back himself into a corner. Playing 2 up front, not playing Buendia and Bailey. Staying with wing backs. He is going to go down fighting for his way of playing. He strikes you as a stubborn bastard. He will be fired for that.
-
Gerrard was either told or asked when he was recruited to get the best out of the Bailey and Buendia signings in how we play and he’s just refusing to utilise them adequately.
Or the club were happy with him saying ‘i can’t guarantee that, i’m doing it my way.’
Either way, the root cause of the problem is Purslow because he’s either allowing Gerrard to continue to depreciate 2 expensive assets or he recruited him on the basis of no guarantee of implementing approx £70m worth of talent, which is a criminal waste.
-
Would good managers take the job if a system was dictated to them?
-
No, but it would be a fair question to ask how the interviewee would go about getting the best out of our two record signings and the +£70m they cost.
-
Gerrard was either told or asked when he was recruited to get the best out of the Bailey and Buendia signings in how we play and he’s just refusing to utilise them adequately.
Or the club were happy with him saying ‘i can’t guarantee that, i’m doing it my way.’
Either way, the root cause of the problem is Purslow because he’s either allowing Gerrard to continue to depreciate 2 expensive assets or he recruited him on the basis of no guarantee of implementing approx £70m worth of talent, which is a criminal waste.
Managers from the continent all ready work under / with a Technical Director.
-
You don't have to look far to see the model working well. Wolves had a system, recruited for it, had a manager that had done ok but was a bit defensive minded and they've switched to a manager who's tweaked the system a bit but not massively and made them a little more attacking and they've been pretty consistent and making gradual progress. It's not good still being behind them in terms of where we are at the moment. We've got ambitions of top 6 yet the teams in 6th to 10th position seem to be doing a better job of progressing.
-
You don't have to look far to see the model working well. Wolves had a system, recruited for it, had a manager that had done ok but was a bit defensive minded and they've switched to a manager who's tweaked the system a bit but not massively and made them a little more attacking and they've been pretty consistent and making gradual progress. It's not good still being behind them in terms of where we are at the moment. We've got ambitions of top 6 yet the teams in 6th to 10th position seem to be doing a better job of progressing.
Wolves are second from bottom...
-
There was all the talk about teams at level of the club playing the same system too... I wonder if that still happens?
-
You don't have to look far to see the model working well. Wolves had a system, recruited for it, had a manager that had done ok but was a bit defensive minded and they've switched to a manager who's tweaked the system a bit but not massively and made them a little more attacking and they've been pretty consistent and making gradual progress. It's not good still being behind them in terms of where we are at the moment. We've got ambitions of top 6 yet the teams in 6th to 10th position seem to be doing a better job of progressing.
Wolves are second from bottom...
They made a similar start last season too and did alright.
-
You don't have to look far to see the model working well. Wolves had a system, recruited for it, had a manager that had done ok but was a bit defensive minded and they've switched to a manager who's tweaked the system a bit but not massively and made them a little more attacking and they've been pretty consistent and making gradual progress. It's not good still being behind them in terms of where we are at the moment. We've got ambitions of top 6 yet the teams in 6th to 10th position seem to be doing a better job of progressing.
Wolves are second from bottom...
They made a similar start last season too and did alright.
They got a surprise comeback win out of nowhere that really seemed to ignite their season. We could do with playing the team they played to do the same to ours.
-
We always seem to be the team you want to play if things aren't going well. West Ham bottom of the table, not won a game, not scored a goal...most of us could probably see what was going to happen.
-
Well Lange, Purslow, Gerrard, Uncle Tom Cobberly and all better get their collective fucking fingers out and get some players in before tomorrow.
If a bit part Southampton CF is the answer the the next question should be how do we replace all of the above (Maybe keep Tom Cobberly)
-
Bednarek and Dendoncker. Something tells me that this bloke is small time. If we want continued progression then this clown has reached his ceiling.
-
The super deluxe Scandi version of Paul Faulkner? Nah, that's way too harsh.
-
I know we can all be fickle at times but only recently some on here was claiming he was a genius and how we conducted business under the noses of the shite media was very impressive. Now because it suits he is useless ::)
-
We are all clamouring for the manager to be given the boot (me included) and some of us are still expecting we spend multiple millions on top players that a new manager may not want?
From what's happened since the early transfers, where Gerrard had full backing and we got some gems - to now being a bit of a damp squib, I believe a new manager cannot be far off.
They are not going to spunk the transfer budget until the next guy has the chance to make his assessment.
If Gerrard is still here come January, then I'm completely wrong and you can vilify me accordingly.
-
Bednarek and Dendoncker. Something tells me that this bloke is small time. If we want continued progression then this clown has reached his ceiling.
I think the latter is a very astute signing, the former is kind of steady. But parking that, were Kamara and Diego Carlos small time?
-
I know we can all be fickle at times but only recently some on here was claiming he was a genius and how we conducted business under the noses of the shite media was very impressive. Now because it suits he is useless ::)
The success of his job like in the hands of someone else really. He can fill the squad with promising talent, but if the manager doesn't know his arse from his elbow he could ruin every one of them and make them look shite.
-
Well, whatever happens...he'll always have good teeth (unless he breaks them).
-
We are all clamouring for the manager to be given the boot (me included) and some of us are still expecting we spend multiple millions on top players that a new manager may not want?
From what's happened since the early transfers, where Gerrard had full backing and we got some gems - to now being a bit of a damp squib, I believe a new manager cannot be far off.
They are not going to spunk the transfer budget until the next guy has the chance to make his assessment.
If Gerrard is still here come January, then I'm completely wrong and you can vilify me accordingly.
If Gerrard is still here in January it's because he's somehow turned things around and got us looking like he might be able to achieve something. If that's the case he'll have earned some money to spend in the window, and we'll be in a much better place to attract players to the club with it.
I think that's unlikely but If it does happen it'd be great.
-
We are all clamouring for the manager to be given the boot (me included) and some of us are still expecting we spend multiple millions on top players that a new manager may not want?
From what's happened since the early transfers, where Gerrard had full backing and we got some gems - to now being a bit of a damp squib, I believe a new manager cannot be far off.
They are not going to spunk the transfer budget until the next guy has the chance to make his assessment.
If Gerrard is still here come January, then I'm completely wrong and you can vilify me accordingly.
If Gerrard is still here in January it's because he's somehow turned things around and got us looking like he might be able to achieve something. If that's the case he'll have earned some money to spend in the window, and we'll be in a much better place to attract players to the club with it.
I think that's unlikely but If it does happen it'd be great.
exactly
-
Percy did an article and quite telling.
"Luiz is a player admired by sporting director Johan Lange, which perhaps helps to explain the new contract he signed shortly being sent-off against Fulham, and there have been question marks over whether or not Gerrard saw eye to eye with the Dane.
Lange had signed Bertrand Traore when Dean Smith was still in charge, but the winger was quickly bombed out by Gerrard and joined Turkish club Istanbul Basaksehir on loan in the summer. A move to sign another forward Ismaila Sarr was blocked by Gerrard after Villa had agreed a fee with Watford.
Sources close to Gerarrd believe he was left isolated by Lange when the going got tough and point to the fact that the 42-year-old did not put his name to any of the statements confirming the dismissals of Gerrard or his staff"
-
So we agreed a fee with Watford and Gerrard knew absolutely nothing about it until he was told?
Surely he would’ve gone to Gerrard and said he could get this player and then would’ve got some sort of reaction before bidding.
-
And I certainly feel Sarr would have been very useful in matches. Offers much needed option in our attack.
-
Sarr may well have saved Gerrard his job.
-
Lange still has some credit in the bank for me because he did seem to conduct some good business over the last year. Purslow I would prefer to see hit the road.
-
I'd bin him ASAP personally. Think he's found zero bargains, zero young players ready to challenge the squad etc. Utter uselessness.
-
Is it another one where his previous level has been so far below what he's being asked to do that giving him the options of £30m+ players are so far out of his comfort zone and expertise that he doesn't know what he's looking for?
I just get the feeling that appointing so many people with experience so far below where we operate is never going to end well. Coaches from Cowdenbeath, Sporting Directors from Copenhagen, Managers from Scotland and yet we are looking to finish top 10? Doesn't add up to me.
-
Fair point.
-
I'd bin him ASAP personally. Think he's found zero bargains, zero young players ready to challenge the squad etc. Utter uselessness.
so a brilliant French international on a free isn't all of those things? Emi Martinez, Diego Carlos and Digne in today's market under 30m is very decent. Cash for 16m, Chambers free, Coutinho on loan then under 20m.
-
Digne and Carlos are pushing 30, and we paid a lot, good players, but not bargains. Digne was almost exclusively Gerrard. Chambers was a decent pick up. Emi we had tracked for a while and was a good signing. Coutinho was zero to do with Lange and i would imagine he'll happily tell you that. Kamara has promise, so I'll give you that one. 18 months ago I reckon we'd have sold a lot of our players at profit, now, not a chance.
-
Digne and Carlos are pushing 30, and we paid a lot, good players, but not bargains. Digne was almost exclusively Gerrard. Chambers was a decent pick up. Emi we had tracked for a while and was a good signing. Coutinho was zero to do with Lange and i would imagine he'll happily tell you that. Kamara has promise, so I'll give you that one. 18 months ago I reckon we'd have sold a lot of our players at profit, now, not a chance.
Was it not Gerrard who wanted Kamara and he personally went to his home to get the deal over the line?
-
Digne and Carlos are pushing 30, and we paid a lot, good players, but not bargains. Digne was almost exclusively Gerrard. Chambers was a decent pick up. Emi we had tracked for a while and was a good signing. Coutinho was zero to do with Lange and i would imagine he'll happily tell you that. Kamara has promise, so I'll give you that one. 18 months ago I reckon we'd have sold a lot of our players at profit, now, not a chance.
Was it not Gerrard who wanted Kamara and he personally went to his home to get the deal over the line?
Gerrard certainly went to his home as Kamara himself has said that is what made him chose Villa.
-
Not sure I'd put an awful lot of weight on it as a source, but Football Insider reckons Lange is "fighting for his job", and that NSWE haven't been that impressed.
Not going to link to the article because, if truth be told, if you were to print it out, it wouldn't be worth the paper it's printed on - and it's worth even less in electronic form.
-
Well quite.
I think Lange has done ok for us if truth be told.
-
Let's not forget that he has a hand in contract negations as well as transfers. To get Luiz and Martinez signed up long term was good but to also get Grealish to sign a contract that earned us £100m is also pretty amazing.
Although we don't know how much of this Lange has a direct involvement with.
-
I don't know how Lange is pronounced but I like to think it is /ˈlæŋəɹ/, which is a homophone of "langer", which, I believe, is slang for 'cock' in Ireland.
-
Yes, it's 'cock' in Cork, and to get "langered" is to get sloshed.
-
I don't know how Lange is pronounced but I like to think it is /ˈlæŋəɹ/, which is a homophone of "langer", which, I believe, is slang for 'cock' in Ireland.
The g is hard and the e is a bit of a glötal stop so Lang-e.
-
Absolutely amazed this bloke isn't coming under more scrutiny tbh.
We've spent a fortune since he's been here and, apart from Kamara which was all Gerrard, he's unearthed fuck all that I couldn't. Olsen, Augustinsson, Traore, Sanson, Dendonker, Chambers, Digne, Bednerek, Ings, Bailey must mostly all be his recommendations. Replacing the aggregate has become more like wasting the Grealish money.
-
Yes it is a full team of shit.
-
Every single team that winds up firing a manager has wasted money on players. This isn’t an Aston Villa thing. We have our fair share of players that we spent good money that we will sell for less than we paid. But every club has players that haven’t worked out. Lange didn’t buy players on his own. Dean Smith and Gerrard would have had a say. That said there is no doubt he will be judged on who he brings in for Emery. He will need to play his role in getting that right.
-
Maybe but you'd expect a better success rate surely with the turnover and amount spent. I don't think he's been a disaster but the Grealish money really was spent unwisely.
Pitarch got absolutely slated yet many of his signings have been our main stays for a a few years now.
-
8 of the starting 11 were signed in the last 2 years.
-
Absolutely amazed this bloke isn't coming under more scrutiny tbh.
We've spent a fortune since he's been here and, apart from Kamara which was all Gerrard, he's unearthed fuck all that I couldn't. Olsen, Augustinsson, Traore, Sanson, Dendonker, Chambers, Digne, Bednerek, Ings, Bailey must mostly all be his recommendations. Replacing the aggregate has become more like wasting the Grealish money.
I'd say Digne was a Gerrard vanity signing.
-
For the money we've spent we've punched massively below our weight. Brentford, Brighton, Palace and Fulham have all finished either above or are above us. It's very poor value for money and very few of our signings seem to work out it's more a case of constantly throwing mud against the wall and waiting for some to stick. Lange has done a poor job. In the same way you can see the big difference between a competent coach like Emery and an idiot like Gerrard, I'd expect you'd see the difference between an experienced, quality head scout and someone with a track record like Lange.
TLDR: He's been poor and doesn't get value for money. Sack him.
-
Absolutely amazed this bloke isn't coming under more scrutiny tbh.
We've spent a fortune since he's been here and, apart from Kamara which was all Gerrard, he's unearthed fuck all that I couldn't. Olsen, Augustinsson, Traore, Sanson, Dendonker, Chambers, Digne, Bednerek, Ings, Bailey must mostly all be his recommendations. Replacing the aggregate has become more like wasting the Grealish money.
Don't get me wrong I think we've signed some absolute turkeys, but I don't see how the most sucessful signing was 'all' the manager and all the others down to Lange. It's like with some managers when we lose it's their fault and when we win it's down to anyone else but them.
-
chrisw1, we are the villa, we must always have a scapegoat
-
He deserves critisism as I think our recruitment has been mostly pretty poor, but it just amuses me when people can't give any credit on the occaison it goes right. Kamara was a superb signing, but I suspect more down to the salary package and signing on fee than anything Gerrard or Lange said to persuade him.
-
Who is responsible for overall strategy and continuity? Lange? Purslow? Under Dean Smith we were committed to 4231 with a number 8 and wingers, the squad was built around that. When Grealish left we signed three players to replace him seemingly with no plan as to how to fit them into the team. The start of the season was a total mess as a result.
We then bring in Gerrard, who wanted to play without wingers, causing upheaval in the squad and a need to 'bomb out' El Ghazi and Traore and somehow fit Bailey into a narrow system. Now we've brought in Emery (which is obviously an excellent appointment) and guess what he has identified as our major squad gap, a winger.
In terms of youth development, which was supposedly a pillar of our club strategy, we allowed Barkley then Coutinho to block the pathway of Chukwuemeka. You could argue we've now done the same signing Dendoncker who for me does not look like an upgrade on Iroegbunam. Did we really need Augustinsson when we could have had more faith in Kaine Hayden as 4th choice full back? Why didn't we loan out Archer in August if we weren't going to give him any chances at all?
I also thought we'd said our days of signing players on big wages who were already peaked or past their peak had gone? Digne - not much of an upgrade on Targett, £30m and big wages at 28. Coutinho, Ings, Dendoncker, Diego Carlos, Olsen all similar stories. You can guarantee we will make a loss on all of those players.
Really it's no wonder our second string is so poor, it's like an Expendables XI, a vision of at least half of the next bomb squad.
-
He deserves critisism as I think our recruitment has been mostly pretty poor, but it just amuses me when people can't give any credit on the occaison it goes right. Kamara was a superb signing, but I suspect more down to the salary package and signing on fee than anything Gerrard or Lange said to persuade him.
Presumably he wouldn't have been short of offers from other clubs offering similar wages though.
-
He deserves critisism as I think our recruitment has been mostly pretty poor, but it just amuses me when people can't give any credit on the occaison it goes right. Kamara was a superb signing, but I suspect more down to the salary package and signing on fee than anything Gerrard or Lange said to persuade him.
Presumably he wouldn't have been short of offers from other clubs offering similar wages though.
He's on record saying he joined us for the money Risso.
-
He deserves critisism as I think our recruitment has been mostly pretty poor, but it just amuses me when people can't give any credit on the occaison it goes right. Kamara was a superb signing, but I suspect more down to the salary package and signing on fee than anything Gerrard or Lange said to persuade him.
Presumably he wouldn't have been short of offers from other clubs offering similar wages though.
He's on record saying he joined us for the money Risso.
That is depressing
-
He deserves critisism as I think our recruitment has been mostly pretty poor, but it just amuses me when people can't give any credit on the occaison it goes right. Kamara was a superb signing, but I suspect more down to the salary package and signing on fee than anything Gerrard or Lange said to persuade him.
Presumably he wouldn't have been short of offers from other clubs offering similar wages though.
He's on record saying he joined us for the money Risso.
That is depressing
It's just honesty and probably a bit of naievity for letting it slip.
-
He deserves critisism as I think our recruitment has been mostly pretty poor, but it just amuses me when people can't give any credit on the occaison it goes right. Kamara was a superb signing, but I suspect more down to the salary package and signing on fee than anything Gerrard or Lange said to persuade him.
Presumably he wouldn't have been short of offers from other clubs offering similar wages though.
He's on record saying he joined us for the money Risso.
Where did he say that? He said this about one of the reasons for joining:
“It’s my choice. I had this feeling with Aston Villa, and I was very happy.
“When the coach comes to see you at home, when he makes the trip, when he explains the project, his ambition for me in the years to come, I take this into account.
“Especially when it comes from Steven Gerrard, one of the best midfielders in the world in his position. It leaned in my decision. I can’t wait to join him to work.”
-
You've cut out the key line there Risso. He was quoted as saying Villa was 'the best economic offer' It's been discussed in the Kamara thread before. The rest is all fluff and window dressing, saying what people want to hear.
-
You've cut out the key line there Risso. He was quoted as saying Villa was 'the best economic offer' It's been discussed in the Kamara thread before. The rest is all fluff and window dressing, saying what people want to hear.
I haven't cut anything out, it was direct cut and paste from here, where he doesn't mention wages.
https://www.football365.com/news/new-aston-villa-midfielder-reveals-what-gerrard-did-to-convince-him-to-move-to-villa-park
-
You've cut out the key line there Risso. He was quoted as saying Villa was 'the best economic offer' It's been discussed in the Kamara thread before. The rest is all fluff and window dressing, saying what people want to hear.
Can you link to where he said it then please, as I can't see it anywhere.
-
I'm sure I saw it in a few places at the time and it's been discussed before. This is the best I can find right now.
https://twitter.com/AVFCTheReligion/status/1532782919248334848?s=20
https://twitter.com/Total_Villa/status/1530484532608126981?s=20
https://as.com/futbol/2022/05/27/primera/1653643954_212985.html
-
Hmmm, so he didn't actually say it himself then. Pretty much what I thought.
-
There have been some attempts to bring in a Spanish-speaking football director, but I'm not sure if that means to work alongside or replace Lange.
With a busy summer ahead, it's important to figure out who will be assisting and advising on recruitment.
-
what's with this Spanish speaking nonsense you are going on about? If the best bloke happens to be German or French and available do you think that they might not speak Spanish will matter?
-
There have been some attempts to bring in a Spanish-speaking football director, but I'm not sure if that means to work alongside or replace Lange.
With a busy summer ahead, it's important to figure out who will be assisting and advising on recruitment.
Just change his name to Juan Lange. Job done and we save some $$$.
-
what's with this Spanish speaking nonsense you are going on about? If the best bloke happens to be German or French and available do you think that they might not speak Spanish will matter?
I'm just saying based on reports.
Mateu Alemany Barca director of football was approached but is staying with Barca.
Antonio Cordon at Real Betis is their sporting director and is leaving in the summer so perhaps it will be him coming in
-
what's with this Spanish speaking nonsense you are going on about? If the best bloke happens to be German or French and available do you think that they might not speak Spanish will matter?
Team Footy has been coming out with the following, almost non-stop:
Watkins is going to get a 'brace'.
Who the ref is in our next match and them giving us or not giving us penalties in the past is a sure sign they will award one next game.
Signing Spanish-speaking players/director of football.
Enjuague y repita
-
Footy est loco en el coco.
-
Reports in Spain are saying we're expected to name Antonio Cordón Ruiz as Sporting Director.
-
Reports in Spain are saying we're expected to name Antonio Cordón Ruiz as Sporting Director.
I wonder if Lange will stay as well. I don't think he's done a bad job to be fair. Though like Neil Cutler, if he's deemed surplus to requirements I guess he has to go.
-
Oh dear, Footy is going to be unbearable when he sees this, and it'll be the justification for pages and pages more speculative nonsense seeing as he got this one right!
Anyway, the guy has a good reputation by the looks of it. I'm not entirely sure what the role involves but i'm thinking transfers is part of it? In which case was Lange responsible for Olsen?
-
Footy is missed, we need him for the run-in.
-
Footy is missed, we need him for the run-in.
I hope somebody's bought him a ticket for this weekend.
-
Footy is missed, we need him for the run-in.
He's character. I hope he's OK.
-
Footy is missed, we need him for the run-in.
He's character. I hope he's OK.
Last I heard he was running with his Chelsea insider friend and the Headhunters.
-
He said he'll be back in May. No idea what he's up to.
-
He said he'll be back in May. No idea what he's up to.
He got nicked at the Chelsea Fulham game. Two months in Brixton.
-
He said he'll be back in May. No idea what he's up to.
Lobbying Fifa about obscene gestures?
-
Reports in Spain are saying we're expected to name Antonio Cordón Ruiz as Sporting Director.
Bit of an odd career history though (going by transfermarkt), 17 years at villareal, followed by short spells at Monaco, Ecuador and 2 and a half years at Betis. Any ideas on why he left previous roles? Also, if we were looking at spanish Directors of Football, would Monchi from Sevilla not be the one to go for? Hugely respected and worked with Emery in his time there but i guess he might be settled there.
-
Stupid question, but if Ruiz is appointed, I presume this means that Lange leaves the club?
-
Stupid question, but if Ruiz is appointed, I presume this means that Lange leaves the club?
Talk earlier in the season about the role being split.
-
Reports in Spain are saying we're expected to name Antonio Cordón Ruiz as Sporting Director.
According to both Gregg Evans and Matt Maher, Villa insists Cordón is not joining. Alberto Benito will join as scout though.
https://twitter.com/mjmarr_star/status/1649476948832165895
-
Monchi is Sevilla. Doubt he'd leave for a different Villa.
-
Stupid question, but if Ruiz is appointed, I presume this means that Lange leaves the club?
Talk earlier in the season about the role being split.
Thanks Mark.
-
Mateu Alemany is leaving his job as Director of Football at Barcelona in the summer and all their Twitter stuff seems to say that it's because we're throwing crazy money at him.
Probably seems like a better fit than Lange.
-
Mateu Alemany is leaving his job as Director of Football at Barcelona in the summer and all their Twitter stuff seems to say that it's because we're throwing crazy money at him.
Probably seems like a better fit than Lange.
I posted the same thing in the Unai thread. Sorry to cross post, but this would be a HUGE statement of intent from the club.
-
Certainly something of a coup, given Barcelona's brand and big name. Can't do us any harm. Hopefully brings Kessle with him.
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati, but he's apparently committed to stay there this evening, after a lot of noise about him leaving for a few weeks.
-
Mateu Alemany is leaving his job as Director of Football at Barcelona in the summer and all their Twitter stuff seems to say that it's because we're throwing crazy money at him.
Probably seems like a better fit than Lange.
We've got no chance, now that Leeds are in for him. :(
https://motleedsnews.com/news/leeds-united-want-to-hire-barcelona-chief-mateu-alemany-to-replace-victor-orta-aston-villa-offer-tabled/
-
Leeds have included a man bun stylist in their offer
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati,
I don't want Lampard anywhere near our Academy.
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati, but he's apparently committed to stay there this evening, after a lot of noise about him leaving for a few weeks.
No worries, we'll take Pedri instead
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati, but he's apparently committed to stay there this evening, after a lot of noise about him leaving for a few weeks.
No worries, we'll take Pedri instead
Weirdly, despite being an incredible player, he'd be 3rd choice for me, I'd have Gavi next. Not that any of them are likely just yet.
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati, but he's apparently committed to stay there this evening, after a lot of noise about him leaving for a few weeks.
No worries, we'll take Pedri instead
Pedalo surely.
-
I would take Madri.
-
Not mad on Madri. Their aggressive marketing campaign doesn't make it taste better and I'm not sure how how much it has to do with Madridz.
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati, but he's apparently committed to stay there this evening, after a lot of noise about him leaving for a few weeks.
No worries, we'll take Pedri instead
Pedalo surely.
No, needs somebody to do all his legwork
-
If that correct I suspect the academy will be playing a big part in the decision, there aren't many clubs who do that better.
If he's bringing someone along then I'd want Fati, but he's apparently committed to stay there this evening, after a lot of noise about him leaving for a few weeks.
No worries, we'll take Pedri instead
Pedalo surely.
No, needs somebody to do all his legwork
Regularly drifts all over the place, too.
-
Not mad on Madri. Their aggressive marketing campaign doesn't make it taste better and I'm not sure how how much it has to do with Madridz.
A triumph of marketing over substance. Brewed in Burton, rumour has it that it's just Coors Light with extra hops.
-
Not mad on Madri. Their aggressive marketing campaign doesn't make it taste better and I'm not sure how how much it has to do with Madridz.
A triumph of marketing over substance. Brewed in Burton, rumour has it that it's just Coors Light with extra hops.
It's better than anything else on offer down the cricket club so it will have to do
-
Surely as we're bringing in Barcelona's top man the beer of choice will be Estrella
-
Surely as we're bringing in Barcelona's top man the beer of choice will be Estrella
Damm! that's good.
-
Surely as we're bringing in Barcelona's top man the beer of choice will be Estrella
He might be more of a wine man, but I have no doubt we'll be signing a few estrellas in the summer.
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
-
Not mad on Madri. Their aggressive marketing campaign doesn't make it taste better and I'm not sure how how much it has to do with Madridz.
A triumph of marketing over substance. Brewed in Burton, rumour has it that it's just Coors Light with extra hops.
It's unbelievable marketing. Apparently, they wanted to come up with a beer to challenge San Miguel and just made it up. They bought a small Spanish brewery (not in Madrid) to try to give it some authenticity. It's basically an English beer, conceived, designed and brewed in England. And the masses have fallen for it hook, line and sinker.
-
Surely as we're bringing in Barcelona's top man the beer of choice will be Estrella
Damm! that's good.
There'll be great expectations.
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
-
He's also been a manager and club President. He sounds well-rounded.
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
I'll give you that one
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
I'll give you that one
Management.
Forensic.
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
I'll give you that one
Management.
Forensic.
Creative?
-
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
I'll give you that one
Management.
Forensic.
Cost.
Fund.
Not Taste though.
-
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
I'll give you that one
Management.
Forensic.
Cost.
Fund.
Not Taste though.
They're all still about finance
-
Financial accounting is about looking back, Management accounting is about having information to help make decisions on what's going on in the present.
-
If it's true that Lange and Alemany are going to split the job between them, it will be interesting to see how that's going to look. Will one head up the senior recruitment and the other head up the youth side of things?
Until today I knew nothing about him, but one article said he is a lawyer by trade so I’d be surprised if the split is based on a senior v junior division. Maybe footballing knowledge (scouting etc) v admin (structuring deals, schmoozing etc).
As well as a legal background, he's also got a Masters in Financial Accounting which obviously helps in the charisma stakes for schmoozing.
That sounds made up, what other kind of accounting is there?
Turf?
I'll give you that one
Management.
Forensic.
Creative?
Mob.
-
Adam Duritz a Counting Crow
-
Accounting that isn't about finance is called stock taking. I know this as I have a PhD in it.
-
Accounting that isn't about finance is called stock taking. I know this as I have a PhD in it.
Theft?
-
Accounting that isn't about finance is called stock taking. I know this as I have a PhD in it.
Theft?
No, that would be taking stock, something Lee's not known for. ;)
-
Accounting that isn't about finance is called stock taking. I know this as I have a PhD in it.
Theft?
No, that would be taking stock, something Lee's not known for. ;)
Ah, not stock-taking then.... :-)
-
What about accounting for your sins? Which is unlikely to be about Finance.
-
Has Lange left to be replaced by Alemany?
-
West Ham are looking to appoint a new director of football and Johan Lange is under consideration.
-
I can’t see that being tempting for him unless his nose has been put out by the Alemany thing.
-
Unai Emery seems to be given the authority to have a big say and seems to want to bring in a sporting director who would improve recruitment rather than this Lange. I think Emery has his clear ideas and plans and I think Lange isn't going to fit for the transfer strategy that Emery has.
-
Interviewing with Tottingham for the DOF role..
-
Tara!
-
Interviewing with Tottingham for the DOF role..
Poor bloke.
-
Interviewing with Tottingham for the DOF role..
Poor bloke.
Ange is the manager so it might involve lots of Asia travel.
-
Had his nose pushed out by Monchi and the Spanish team and wants a DOF role at a club regarded as one of the Big6.
like it or not that is how he will see Spurs and so do the rest of football bar us Villans.
He is trying to further his career
Have to agree with the above comments on another Villa website
-
DOF at Spurs would be hell on earth.
Imagine working with Daniel Levy everyday?
No thanks
-
DOF at Spurs would be hell on earth.
Imagine working with Daniel Levy everyday?
No thanks
"I've found the next Haaland, boss. They want £30m"
"Offer them £2m and Eric Dier."
-
DOF at Spurs would be hell on earth.
Imagine working with Daniel Levy everyday?
No thanks
"I've found the next Haaland, boss. They want £30m"
"Offer them £2m and Eric Dier."
Nailed it.
-
Still, a nice payrise and a move to North London, I'm sure he'll manage.
-
Had his nose pushed out by Monchi and the Spanish team and wants a DOF role at a club regarded as one of the Big6.
like it or not that is how he will see Spurs and so do the rest of football bar us Villans.
He is trying to further his career
Have to agree with the above comments on another Villa website
If he is trying to further his career, it's as likely to be because his move when Monchi came in looked very much like "keep him at the club in some random new role we'll invent at group level" whilst Monchi got all the power at club level.
-
Comes as no surprise at all, was pretty clear his days were numbered once Monchi came in.
-
And gone!
https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2023/october/09/youth-development-and-international-academies-update/
-
And gone!
https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2023/october/09/youth-development-and-international-academies-update/
Just a few lines at the bottom of a press release about restructuring shows how far he’s dropped down the order. No massive surprise really though.
-
Good luck to him. We made some decent signings while he was with us and a few that didn’t work out. It’s where we are that he’s gone to Spurs and we have one of the most highly thought of football club management teams in Europe with Emery and Monchi.
-
Good luck to him. We made some decent signings while he was with us and a few that didn’t work out. It’s where we are that he’s gone to Spurs and we have one of the most highly thought of football club management teams in Europe with Emery and Monchi.
I would be really interested to know about the dynamics during the chaos that seemed to happen when Grealish left. It felt to me that he was getting what he was to get.
-
He did a solid 7/10 job for us , but we have outgrown him . So bye .
-
There is an interesting bit in Ben Foster's latest podcast about Johan. Foster is interviewing Henri Lansbury, and he's talking about being dropped from the 25-man squad when he was here, and being told to play with the U23s after no loan materialised. He basically said it was Johan who told him he he couldn't train with the first team any more (as Dean Smith said it was "from the top"). He went to see Johan, who tried to get him to sign an agreement to let him leave become a free agency, paying up 25% of his final year on his contract. I mean, would have been a great deal for us, but what player in their right mind with his injury record would sign that?!
Sounds like he was a bit more influential behind the scenes than perhaps we thought.
-
Always very hard to judge these types of roles, but in the round (and I accept it’s definitely not all down to him) we’ve moved forward in his time at the club. Thanks Johan and if you could bring Spurs down that’d be great.
-
Lansbury did end up leaving on a mutual in Jan.
-
Interesting development.
-
Anyone seen this arrogant, deluded bollocks?
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/transfer-news/tottenham-johan-lange-aston-villa-27875342
Apparently Douglas Luiz would be a 'divisive' signing for a team who regularly play Oliver Skipp in midfield.
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
-
Anyone seen this arrogant, deluded bollocks?
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/transfer-news/tottenham-johan-lange-aston-villa-27875342
Apparently Douglas Luiz would be a 'divisive' signing for a team who regularly play Oliver Skipp in midfield.
So they're going to sign Watkins, Luiz and Diaby, all of whom have signed 5 year contracts for Villa in the last 12 months?
I honestly wonder at the age and IQ of the idiots who write this stuff.
-
Anyone seen this arrogant, deluded bollocks?
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/transfer-news/tottenham-johan-lange-aston-villa-27875342
Apparently Douglas Luiz would be a 'divisive' signing for a team who regularly play Oliver Skipp in midfield.
Nothing like deluded London media...
There are a multitude of reasons why none of those three are being sold to Spurs, of all clubs, but even if they were for sale, which they aren't, Daniel Levy couldn't & wouldn't afford any of them...
😂🤣
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
This whole -ball thing is really annoying. Even Emery-ball.
-
Anyone seen this arrogant, deluded bollocks?
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/transfer-news/tottenham-johan-lange-aston-villa-27875342
Apparently Douglas Luiz would be a 'divisive' signing for a team who regularly play Oliver Skipp in midfield.
Nothing like deluded London media...
There are a multitude of reasons why none of those three are being sold to Spurs, of all clubs, but even if they were for sale, which they aren't, Daniel Levy couldn't & wouldn't afford any of them...
😂🤣
Douglas Luis to move to Sperms as understudy to Bassouma - I cannot wait for Crocodile Dundee to start losing.
Only thing worse than a mouthy cockney, is a deluded one - and there are seemingly a lot of them about
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
This whole -ball thing is really annoying. Even Emery-ball.
Yeah, foot-ball is crap. We should watch soccer instead. ;)
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
This whole -ball thing is really annoying. Even Emery-ball.
Agreed.
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
This whole -ball thing is really annoying. Even Emery-ball.
Yeah, foot-ball is crap. We should watch soccer instead. ;)
Not a problem, that's what we call it in Ireland. :)
-
Anyone seen this arrogant, deluded bollocks?
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/transfer-news/tottenham-johan-lange-aston-villa-27875342
Apparently Douglas Luiz would be a 'divisive' signing for a team who regularly play Oliver Skipp in midfield.
Nothing like deluded London media...
There are a multitude of reasons why none of those three are being sold to Spurs, of all clubs, but even if they were for sale, which they aren't, Daniel Levy couldn't & wouldn't afford any of them...
😂🤣
Douglas Luis to move to Sperms as understudy to Bassouma - I cannot wait for Crocodile Dundee to start losing.
Only thing worse than a mouthy cockney, is a deluded one - and there are seemingly a lot of them about
Crocodile Dundee very good
-
Anyone seen this arrogant, deluded bollocks?
https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/transfer-news/tottenham-johan-lange-aston-villa-27875342
Apparently Douglas Luiz would be a 'divisive' signing for a team who regularly play Oliver Skipp in midfield.
Nothing like deluded London media...
There are a multitude of reasons why none of those three are being sold to Spurs, of all clubs, but even if they were for sale, which they aren't, Daniel Levy couldn't & wouldn't afford any of them...
😂🤣
Douglas Luis to move to Sperms as understudy to Bassouma - I cannot wait for Crocodile Dundee to start losing.
Only thing worse than a mouthy cockney, is a deluded one - and there are seemingly a lot of them about
The problem now is, the lazy media is going to attempt to throw so much shit at the wall in the hope that some of it will stick, in the form of Villa players to be of interest to Spurs due to Lange.
Just like they tried to do with Villa & Rangers players when that fraud Gerrard was stinking out our club...
It is going to become tedious & tiresome...
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
This whole -ball thing is really annoying. Even Emery-ball.
Imagine if Alan was still around and managing
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
This whole -ball thing is really annoying. Even Emery-ball.
Imagine if Alan was still around and managing
Every time I see Alan Ball mentioned, I vaguely remember a story in WSC about his Mrs turning up to training sessions and being a pain in the arse.
-
Imagine if Alan was still around and managing
Every time I see Alan Ball mentioned, I vaguely remember a story in WSC about his Mrs turning up to training sessions and being a pain in the arse.
Sounds like they were well-suited as a couple.
-
Good luck to him. We made some decent signings while he was with us and a few that didn’t work out. It’s where we are that he’s gone to Spurs and we have one of the most highly thought of football club management teams in Europe with Emery and Monchi.
I would be really interested to know about the dynamics during the chaos that seemed to happen when Grealish left. It felt to me that he was getting what he was to get.
Sanson likely was one of Lange's signings. Smith never seemed keen. Ings on the other hand I highly doubt was the signing of a sporting director. Maybe that's the way it goes at most clubs.
-
Isn't that article just looking at some of the signings Lange made and speculating as to the type of players that they might look to bring in?
-
That site also looks like the London equivalent of the Meaning Evil.
Disregard as bollocks.
-
Great, now we'll now have to listen to the media jizzing themselves silly about Ange-ball and Lange-ball.
Hopefully when they start playing like a bunch of twats it'll be changed to Flange-Ball.
-
Mangers are not judged when it is going well, they are judged on their ability to turn things around when its not.
They will hit a sticky patch pretty soon
-
Just clicked the link for the journalist on that site. The last para is priceless! 🤣
Tom Coley
Based inLondonTopic ExpertiseChelsea FC, Eden Hazard, Conor Gallagher, Premier League and USMNT playersLanguages SpokenEnglish and a bit of French
Tom is a US audience writer at football.london and maybe Conor Gallagher's biggest fan. He previously spent eight months as a trends writer having also covered Bristol City for BristolLive as well as writing about Chelsea for his blog. Tom joined after graduating from University of Gloucestershire with a sports journalism degree in 2022 and has also produced work for SussexLive, HampshireLive and WiltshireLive. The teams he covers rarely do well.