Clubs that have been relegated

[eastie]

Barry , milner, downing , young all wanted to leave and we got good money for them- who have we sold for the sake of it that was worth keeping bar them?

[Clampy]

It's very depressing that our club is now being run like a high profile car boot sale. There's a distinct sense we're just selling for the sake of it with no actual sensible plan on how to grow and improve.

What makes you think that? The last high profile player to go was Downing and we got more than we should have for him. Weimann has'nt gone anywhere yet.

[Pete3206]

Of all the relegated sides mentioned, only Newcastle are comparible in size to Aston Villa. Although our spending power will be greatly reduced, we'll still be able to bring in players capable of getting the club promoted.

[PaulWinch again]

I do think that other than QPR we are the most poorly run club in the league. Given the size of Aston Villa compared to most of the teams around us and above us, it's unbelievable how we're in this utter mess. We've been cutting costs for over 2 years and there doesn't appear to be an end in sight. We don't have many high earners left and should easily have a sustainable wage bill. Our ownership truly is utterly inept, and I don't see any hope. 

[Ads]

To be honest, other than ourselves, QPR, the Albion and possibly Man United, I have no idea what sort of shape other clubs finances are in.

[pauliewalnuts]

Selling players is one thing - how, for example, were we ever going to hold on to Milner when Man City (big money and ambitious) came in for him?

How were we going to hold on to Young when Man United came in for him? Or Barry when he went to Man City as the first in the list of big money players?

Selling players you want to keep is horrible, but sometimes - not all the times - you don't have much of a choice. I wouldn't want us to go out of our way to pimp our players to cash in, as once you start doing that, you're sending out a worrying signal about your ambition, but the flip side of that is that selling players when you have to, while they still have high value, can be a good thing if you then reinvest wisely.

Look at Spurs. They sell their best players pretty regularly too, the likes of Modric and Bebatov, and no doubt it will be Bale this summer.

The difference is that they look at their squad over a much longer term than we do, in that they have someone in their club who is charged with the general maintenance of the squad, ensuring contracts are renewed at the cleverest time (how often do Spurs get into the mess Arsenal do with players with just a year left on their contract, for example?).

They also invest the money they make in sales pretty wisely, there is basically a certain continuity in their squad,  and the value of it is managed very cleverly.

We, on the other hand, have about as much continuity as the manager in place at any one time. As I mentioned elsewhere the other day, look at the number of players we've seen walk away for nothing, having piled money in to buy them in the first place, and then to keep them.

The money that Lerner has invested has been managed abysmally. Sometimes it has been the fault of the manager employed at any one time, but at others, it was clearly the lack of football nous beyond the manager that has led to such short termism, and a horrific spunking away of money.

Maybe the focus on youth we now have is part of a strategy Lerner has put in place to learn from his mistakes. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but above all, I just hope we've learned something from the frittering away of tens of millions of pounds in recent years.

[not3bad]

Barry , milner, downing , young all wanted to leave and we got good money for them- who have we sold for the sake of it that was worth keeping bar them?

Gary Cahill, and in hindsight James Collins. 

[eastie]

Barry , milner, downing , young all wanted to leave and we got good money for them- who have we sold for the sake of it that was worth keeping bar them?

Gary Cahill, and in hindsight James Collins. 

Cahill wanted to go as sadly mon didnt rate him enough, and collins is not good enough.the players we would like to sell are probably the ones nobody wants to buy.

[PaulWinch again]

It's very depressing that our club is now being run like a high profile car boot sale. There's a distinct sense we're just selling for the sake of it with no actual sensible plan on how to grow and improve.

What makes you think that? The last high profile player to go was Downing and we got more than we should have for him. Weimann has'nt gone anywhere yet.

It's more that when we've sold we haven't really replaced with anywhere near the required quality. The quality of our squad has taken a massively alarming slump on the whole in the last couple of years.

[Concrete John]

Selling players is one thing - how, for example, were we ever going to hold on to Milner when Man City (big money and ambitious) came in for him?

How were we going to hold on to Young when Man United came in for him? Or Barry when he went to Man City as the first in the list of big money players?

Selling players you want to keep is horrible, but sometimes - not all the times - you don't have much of a choice. I wouldn't want us to go out of our way to pimp our players to cash in, as once you start doing that, you're sending out a worrying signal about your ambition, but the flip side of that is that selling players when you have to, while they still have high value, can be a good thing if you then reinvest wisely.

Look at Spurs. They sell their best players pretty regularly too, the likes of Modric and Bebatov, and no doubt it will be Bale this summer.

The difference is that they look at their squad over a much longer term than we do, in that they have someone in their club who is charged with the general maintenance of the squad, ensuring contracts are renewed at the cleverest time (how often do Spurs get into the mess Arsenal do with players with just a year left on their contract, for example?).

They also invest the money they make in sales pretty wisely, there is basically a certain continuity in their squad,  and the value of it is managed very cleverly.

We, on the other hand, have about as much continuity as the manager in place at any one time. As I mentioned elsewhere the other day, look at the number of players we've seen walk away for nothing, having piled money in to buy them in the first place, and then to keep them.

The money that Lerner has invested has been managed abysmally. Sometimes it has been the fault of the manager employed at any one time, but at others, it was clearly the lack of football nous beyond the manager that has led to such short termism, and a horrific spunking away of money.

Maybe the focus on youth we now have is part of a strategy Lerner has put in place to learn from his mistakes. Maybe it'll work, maybe it won't, but above all, I just hope we've learned something from the frittering away of tens of millions of pounds in recent years.

Excellent post.

The problem with players like Harewood and Heskey was not transfer value, but wages.  So what was probably viewed as a short term signings became a longterm financial burden as other sides would not pay them what we were, so they stayed.  Fee wise during the MON boom years we only spent big on younger players, which we then made money on, with the exceptions being Delph and Davies.  What then happened is the way we re-invested that money wasn't good enough, mainly down to the managerial upheaval we've had since.

In truth, we've probably gone to the other extreme now with Lambert.  What is probably needed is a middle point where we use scouting to get young talent from the lower leagues and abroad fit them around a base of carefully selected experienced PL players.

[not3bad]

Barry , milner, downing , young all wanted to leave and we got good money for them- who have we sold for the sake of it that was worth keeping bar them?

Gary Cahill, and in hindsight James Collins. 

Cahill wanted to go as sadly mon didnt rate him enough, and collins is not good enough.

The defense this season would have been better with Collins in it, and we would not have conceded as many late goals.

[Clampy]

Nobody had too many complaints about Collins leaving but maybe in hindsight it might have been worth keeping him or Cuellar for another season to help Vlaar settle in and take the the pressure off Clark and Baker but then again i suppose that's what Dunne was meant to do.

Oh and a very good post Paulie.

[eastie]

There have been too many high earning under performing players at villa over the years and the managers have not been able to get them to perform how they did at previous clubs.

[eastie]

Barry , milner, downing , young all wanted to leave and we got good money for them- who have we sold for the sake of it that was worth keeping bar them?

Gary Cahill, and in hindsight James Collins. 

Cahill wanted to go as sadly mon didnt rate him enough, and collins is not good enough.

The defense this season would have been better with Collins in it, and we would not have conceded as many late goals.

 I refer you to the answer by my esteemed colleague clampy- dunnes injury has limited the options , but that should have been addressed in january without doubt.

[Risso]

To be honest, other than ourselves, QPR, the Albion and possibly Man United, I have no idea what sort of shape other clubs finances are in.

Here's a clue for you then.  Anybody in the Premier League next season is going to have an awful lot more money than those teams that aren't.