We're a selling club

[PaulTheVillan]

Who isn't a selling club?

[Lee]

Who isn't a selling club?

Real Ale Madrid

[hilts_coolerking]

Who isn't a selling club?

The distinction is between clubs who sell players, as all clubs do, and clubs who routinely and consistently sell their very best players, as we do.

[Rip Van We Go Again]

Who isn't a selling club?

The distinction is between clubs who sell players, as all clubs do, and clubs who routinely and consistently sell their very best players, as we do.

I tell you something, i'm sick of comparisons to clubs like Manure selling their best players.
Manure can sell Ronaldo and it doesn't affect them one iota, they still have masses of quality in their squad.

The only real quality in ours was Bent, Ashley and Weasel.

Two of them have now gone.

Our defence is suspect in the extreme and our midfield is so-so, with only possible potential in Makoun and Delph.

Scratch the surface of our squad and it doesn't look good.

[Villa'Zawg]

The club genuinely tried to crack the top 4 and we came close, but following the failed attempt it’s been belt tightening ever since. I think we have to accept these austerity measures and realise that we gave it a go, but that MON spunked the chance away getting in shitty players on ridiculous wages.
Until every one of the garbage that MON bought is moved on, then we cannot move forward and we’ll have to accept our place nestled between Everton, Blackburn Fulham et al....... Not exactly a recipe for flogging season tickets though is it?

Our team of

Friedel
Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, L Young
Downing, Milner, Petrov, A Young
Agbonlahor Carew

was a good team team (6th, 2*Wembley) that could have been very good with the addition of a full-back a central midfielder and another striker.

Instead, we have recouped approx. 75% of the money O'Neill spent on transfer fees with the sales of Milner, Young and Downing.

From a position where we were beginning to look like challenging Liverpool and Arsenal, we now have a squad that's equivalent to Fulham and Blackburn and some way short of Everton, Sunderland and perhaps Newcastle.

[Concrete John]

I tell you something, i'm sick of comparisons to clubs like Manure selling their best players.
Manure can sell Ronaldo and it doesn't affect them one iota, they still have masses of quality in their squad.

It's all comparative though.  Man Utd have better player than us, but then Ronaldo was head and shoulders above anything else they had.  So is he any greater a miss for them than Ash will be for us? 

The difference is that they managed to kick on after he left.  We did after Barry, but not after Milner.  What happens post Ash and Downing remains to be seen. 

[Rigadon]

The club genuinely tried to crack the top 4 and we came close, but following the failed attempt it’s been belt tightening ever since. I think we have to accept these austerity measures and realise that we gave it a go, but that MON spunked the chance away getting in shitty players on ridiculous wages.
Until every one of the garbage that MON bought is moved on, then we cannot move forward and we’ll have to accept our place nestled between Everton, Blackburn Fulham et al....... Not exactly a recipe for flogging season tickets though is it?

Our team of

Friedel
Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, L Young
Downing, Milner, Petrov, A Young
Agbonlahor Carew

was a good team team (6th, 2*Wembley) that could have been very good with the addition of a full-back a central midfielder and another striker.

Instead, we have recouped approx. 75% of the money O'Neill spent on transfer fees with the sales of Milner, Young and Downing.

From a position where we were beginning to look like challenging Liverpool and Arsenal, we now have a squad that's equivalent to Fulham and Blackburn and some way short of Everton, Sunderland and perhaps Newcastle.

At the moment.  Until we see who the replacements are we really can't judge the direction of the club can we?

As an aside, why do you think we've slid so much?  Is it purely down to Martin leaving in your opinion?

[ASHTONVILLA]

Randy was quoted last August that we are a sell to buy club so that is how it is!

Sell to buy is fine, I could live with that tbh. But what we appear to be at the moment is a 'sell not to buy club'. Much of the incoming money from transfers it seems is not available to the manager.

[NeilH]

I think our slide is down to the crap MON bought and not his departure. Its crippled us and because we can't sell on the likes of Heskey, Beye, Dunne and Warnock we are forced instead to sell the better players to balance the books and so consistently weaken our position.

[hilts_coolerking]

It's all comparative though.  Man Utd have better player than us, but then Ronaldo was head and shoulders above anything else they had.  So is he any greater a miss for them than Ash will be for us? 

The difference is that they managed to kick on after he left.  We did after Barry, but not after Milner.  What happens post Ash and Downing remains to be seen.

The difference John is that they sold Ronaldo whereas we have sold Barry, Milner, Young and now Downing.  The claim that they are a selling club in the same way that we are is totally bogus.

[Stu]

Who isn't a selling club?

The distinction is between clubs who sell players, as all clubs do, and clubs who routinely and consistently sell their very best players, as we do.

Also, when people say that every club sells it's players, there's a difference between selling your best player to say, Real Madrid, Man U or Liverpool. I think that's why many people wish AY well, they know he's going to a much bigger club. Liverpool on the other hand, whilst certainly a big club, are someone we should be competing with - looking at where they're at these days. Downing has looked at his options and decided he'd be better off there. Fair enough, it just shows where our ambitions lie at the moment.

[Villa'Zawg]

The club genuinely tried to crack the top 4 and we came close, but following the failed attempt it’s been belt tightening ever since. I think we have to accept these austerity measures and realise that we gave it a go, but that MON spunked the chance away getting in shitty players on ridiculous wages.
Until every one of the garbage that MON bought is moved on, then we cannot move forward and we’ll have to accept our place nestled between Everton, Blackburn Fulham et al....... Not exactly a recipe for flogging season tickets though is it?

Our team of

Friedel
Cuellar, Collins, Dunne, L Young
Downing, Milner, Petrov, A Young
Agbonlahor Carew

was a good team team (6th, 2*Wembley) that could have been very good with the addition of a full-back a central midfielder and another striker.

Instead, we have recouped approx. 75% of the money O'Neill spent on transfer fees with the sales of Milner, Young and Downing.

From a position where we were beginning to look like challenging Liverpool and Arsenal, we now have a squad that's equivalent to Fulham and Blackburn and some way short of Everton, Sunderland and perhaps Newcastle.

At the moment.  Until we see who the replacements are we really can't judge the direction of the club can we?

As an aside, why do you think we've slid so much?  Is it purely down to Martin leaving in your opinion?

It is what happens when you decide to make cutbacks in the PL. O'Neill leaving was a symptom of the problem not the cause.

[pauliewalnuts]

Over on the General's thread on VT, someone has posted something referrign to this:

I think you will be hearing quite a bit from the Club in the next couple of weeks...from the Manager and from the Board. More importantly, you will see "action" which is the way Randy has always operated...words mean very little but actions speak loudly.

which the General posted on June 19th.

Now, I don't want to be pointing the finger at the General on this, he's doing his job and trying to do it the best he can in circumstances which are constantly changing, but I do wonder why we have a PR policy that seems to allow for vague, bland, cheerleading statements like this, because, well intentioned though they are, they just backfire on too regular a basis.

Something like "words mean little ... actions speak very loudly" in a post referring to "hearing quite a bit "in the period which ended ten days ago are surely just asking to be thrown back in their faces?

I feel sorry for the General getting sent around to firefight with statements like this, as he's really being sent out as a sacrificial lamb.

I don't really see much point in clamouring that he come back on here or on VT and answer questions, to be honest. They don't need to "tell" us anything (see statement on the OS last night, for that matter), they just need to *do* it and do it fast.

A few weeks ago, we were worried that we needed to do something to lift the mood of the place as things appeared to be on the slide. Fast forward to now, and not only have we done anything to that end, we've sold another of our best players.

[Concrete John]

It's all comparative though.  Man Utd have better player than us, but then Ronaldo was head and shoulders above anything else they had.  So is he any greater a miss for them than Ash will be for us? 

The difference is that they managed to kick on after he left.  We did after Barry, but not after Milner.  What happens post Ash and Downing remains to be seen.

The difference John is that they sold Ronaldo whereas we have sold Barry, Milner, Young and now Downing.  The claim that they are a selling club in the same way that we are is totally bogus.

And it's also a claim I never personally made.

My point is that, in a similar position to Spurs, the selling of the players does not define you - it's what you do post selling them that does.  We got it right after Barry, but struggled after Milner.

[Legion]

I think I'm right in saying that each of our Players Of The Season for the last 3 years have promptly buggered off within weeks (Barry, Milner and Downing). Crewe and Wigan might feel comfortable being a feeder club but this is Aston Villa and it makes me boke having us used as a stepping stone to bigger things. We're a selling club and no mistake, unless the season's going pear shaped and we splash out zillions for someone to rescue it (Bent), we don't seem interested in persuading proper talent to come to the club yet happily wave ta ta to our best ones. All we need to do now is flog Bent off, then we'll have an entire squad of B listers, C listers, fruitcakes, fatties and froth.

Disgusted of Aldridge.

I don't know what boke means, but the rest is pretty much spot on for me.

Bemused of Bloxwich.