The summer signings

[martin o`who??]

Fully prepared to give everone a chance, but not a lot too get excited about, i`m afraid were gonna be also rans for some time if the current vibes are maintained, not encouraging at all.

[JJ-AV]

El Ahmadi is his best signing, I reckon. Think he'll be a fine player.

Do like Vlaar but he has obvious limitations. The rest can be as good as they want to be. Just hope they've got the desire.

[ASHTONVILLA]

Hard to tell.

I hope they all come off, but suspect only half of them will, which will leave us pretty short of quality. It's a lot or players for the money (and we needed numbers) but not convinced there is anywhere near enough quality to see us stay clear of the wrong end of the table.

[Ron Manager]

Just read on Sky that young Westwood likens himself to Michael Carrick. That is a worry.

[The Situation]

I think the truth is none of us know how they're all going to turn out.  But if you're trying to be objective, or were looking at us from the outside, there is cause for concern:

1. We've had an awful start.
2. Our existing squad wasn't that great to start with.
3. None of our new signings have much experience in the Premier League or a league of similar quality;
4. Of those experienced pros that we do have - most seem uncommitted (Warnock, Dunne), are on the slide (Given), shit (Hutton), or unreliable (Ireland, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor).  Excluding Petrov for obvious reasons, it leaves Darren Bent as the only proven and reliable Premier League player we have.
5.  At least 3 of the new signings seem to be Lambert's second choices - it looks like he wanted Dempsey, Cresswell and Stephens - he got Benteke, Bennett and Westwood.
6.  Even if 2 or 3 of the new/recent signings turn out to be stars or even just solid, mid-table players, it's going to take awhile for them to knit together into an effective squad.

So we're effectively trusting that Paul Lambert has got it right and/or there are three other teams who are worse than us. 

I don't think it will come down to this, but Reading, Southampton, and Norwich are all worse than us in my opinion.

Haven't Southampton spent like £30 million this summer?? (heard it from somewhere so not totally sure).

[Pete3206]

Just read on Sky that young Westwood likens himself to Michael Carrick. That is a worry.

Why?

[Chipsticks]

I think the truth is none of us know how they're all going to turn out.  But if you're trying to be objective, or were looking at us from the outside, there is cause for concern:

1. We've had an awful start.
2. Our existing squad wasn't that great to start with.
3. None of our new signings have much experience in the Premier League or a league of similar quality;
4. Of those experienced pros that we do have - most seem uncommitted (Warnock, Dunne), are on the slide (Given), shit (Hutton), or unreliable (Ireland, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor).  Excluding Petrov for obvious reasons, it leaves Darren Bent as the only proven and reliable Premier League player we have.
5.  At least 3 of the new signings seem to be Lambert's second choices - it looks like he wanted Dempsey, Cresswell and Stephens - he got Benteke, Bennett and Westwood.
6.  Even if 2 or 3 of the new/recent signings turn out to be stars or even just solid, mid-table players, it's going to take awhile for them to knit together into an effective squad.

So we're effectively trusting that Paul Lambert has got it right and/or there are three other teams who are worse than us. 

I don't think it will come down to this, but Reading, Southampton, and Norwich are all worse than us in my opinion.

Haven't Southampton spent like £30 million this summer?? (heard it from somewhere so not totally sure).

They've spent a fair bit, but only on 1 or 2 players. That Jay Rodriguez is a decent player, but I really don't think their side comes anywhere near ours.

[pr_N'villa]

I think the truth is none of us know how they're all going to turn out.  But if you're trying to be objective, or were looking at us from the outside, there is cause for concern:

1. We've had an awful start.
2. Our existing squad wasn't that great to start with.
3. None of our new signings have much experience in the Premier League or a league of similar quality;
4. Of those experienced pros that we do have - most seem uncommitted (Warnock, Dunne), are on the slide (Given), shit (Hutton), or unreliable (Ireland, N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor).  Excluding Petrov for obvious reasons, it leaves Darren Bent as the only proven and reliable Premier League player we have.
5.  At least 3 of the new signings seem to be Lambert's second choices - it looks like he wanted Dempsey, Cresswell and Stephens - he got Benteke, Bennett and Westwood.
6.  Even if 2 or 3 of the new/recent signings turn out to be stars or even just solid, mid-table players, it's going to take awhile for them to knit together into an effective squad.

So we're effectively trusting that Paul Lambert has got it right and/or there are three other teams who are worse than us.

I think benteke was always our first choice and not dempsey, it was just a stunt to force genks hand and it worked

[midnite]

Just read on Sky that young Westwood likens himself to Michael Carrick. That is a worry.

Don't understand the Carrick bashing on here. Great player. Could have done with him in the England set up at the euros. Manchester united starter. Would love a player of his calibre at Villa Park

[Jimbo]

A couple of posters have picked up on something I was thinking and hoping - that the sheer volume of new faces can change the culture at the club. An acquaintance of mine spoke to TSM recently, who told him how GMac had warned him that ours was the worst dressing room he'd ever known. TSM thought he could turn that round but couldn't. More excuses maybe, but unlike his others it has a ring of truth about it.

You somehow do get the feeling that has a more than a ring of truth. A legacy of the MON years, perhaps due to the type of players he used to buy and the way he used to control them, and the club. GH probably recognised this also, hence the alienation of a number of the players, and why he almost ended up in an early grave. And TSM was probably just too nice to deal with it.

Perhaps Lamberts plan is first to dilute he poison.

Some key points here. The culture, and fundamentally the ethos, of a club are things that determine its long-term success.

We have been a total mess following the O'Neill walkout. We were left with comfortable, overpaid seniors with an inflated sense of self-importance and a poisonous influence; and a crop of put-upon youngsters, some of whom were being asked to shoulder too much responsibility too soon, and others thinking they'd made it because they were being picked week-in week-out due to a lack of senior personnel.

Cleaning this mess up is vital if we're to change the culture. To change the ethos, we're looking at a long term change in the culture. But we need to get to a point where we're striving for excellence again - where our ethos becomes success through sustainable growth - because mediocrity breeds complacency and apathy, and that's what's hung around the club like the stench of death for the last two seasons.

[johnny from donny]

i think the Carrick remark was more about not seeking the limelight and keeping the ball. Certainly nothing negative in those sentiments

[brian green]

Brilliant assessment Jimbo.   Exact and true.   By the end of last season we were a club that was sick at heart.   We must shake off that sickness and reinvent Aston Villa the way we want it to be.

[Steve kirk]

Im not sure how to sum up how I feel, its a mix of emotions at times I am excited by us going for fresh young unproven talent but not long after riddled with doubt, another experienced midfielder would have been good but lets hope Westwood is the real deal, it just feels that the clubs we need to finish above to have a comfortable season on paper seem much stronger than us, I think we will all calm down a bit when that first win comes along, I am hanging my hat on the fact that Lambert took an unfashionable club from league 1 to the Premier league and kept them there with a squad of relative unknowns. UTV       

[brian green]

I feel more optimistic about the club than I have for a number of years, including the last year of O'Neill.

[Eigentor]

7/10 - Agree with those who say that this is what we've been waiting for: the dismantling of the dressing room MON left behind. The lack of PL experience will mean that we'll struggle at the start of the season, but it's not a major concern.

What has happened is that we have brought in a very competent manager, who has been backed in the transfer market and who has started to sideline the main culprits for our recent demise. I can't see why we shouldn't be happy with that.

I'd argue that Lambert has identified the same problems at our club as Houllier did. The difference is that the former has the skills and the energy to do something about them.