Quote from: Toronto Villa on May 01, 2015, 12:32:12 PMI really don't think the gap between us and say finishing 8th is that wide. If we played all season like we have recently then mid table security would be easily achieved. Selling Benteke this summer for £35m for example if invested well would allow us to close that gap. Let's face it, without spending a penny Sherwood has improved our overall play considerably and that is with players who none cost more than £7m. There is so much value in the £5-10m range but you have to be astute to find it and we've not done badly in recent years. The market just gets a little crazy beyond say £15m mark because while you should get better players it simply doesn't always work out that way. See Liverpool and Spurs for massively overinflated spending with a less than spectacular return.Pedant Alert. N'Zogbia?
I really don't think the gap between us and say finishing 8th is that wide. If we played all season like we have recently then mid table security would be easily achieved. Selling Benteke this summer for £35m for example if invested well would allow us to close that gap. Let's face it, without spending a penny Sherwood has improved our overall play considerably and that is with players who none cost more than £7m. There is so much value in the £5-10m range but you have to be astute to find it and we've not done badly in recent years. The market just gets a little crazy beyond say £15m mark because while you should get better players it simply doesn't always work out that way. See Liverpool and Spurs for massively overinflated spending with a less than spectacular return.
Seems to be the same conversation on 2 threads so i'll stick this here as well. If he said we intend to be title challengers within 5 five years he'd still get ripped. And what he says is also true whether we like it or not. We've finished top six 16 times since the end of WW2, less than a quarter of the time. Higher than 6th just the 6 times.
Mid table next season is a good target, playing attractive football, strengthening the squad on the way, then press on from there.
Quote from: PeterWithesShin on May 01, 2015, 12:39:02 PMSeems to be the same conversation on 2 threads so i'll stick this here as well. If he said we intend to be title challengers within 5 five years he'd still get ripped. And what he says is also true whether we like it or not. We've finished top six 16 times since the end of WW2, less than a quarter of the time. Higher than 6th just the 6 times.If he said we intend to be title challengers within five years it would fire the whole club up, surely? What's wrong with a bit of ambition and thinking outside the box to get there. Who knows, a bit of belief and focus could fire us up to do a Dortmund or Atletico. The problem with making statements that suggest we are settling for average is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: we will attract sponsorship deals on a par with the Southamptons of this world when really we should be getting similar deals (at least) to the likes of Spurs. Like I say, I appreciate we don't have a divine right to success, but neither has any other club. Why, by settling for second best, are we making it easier for other clubs to win things? If this is a short term vision count me in, if it's a long term strategy it makes me ask the question, "What's the point?" Those stats about top six finishes are interesting in that I am sure they stand up well against most clubs. My maths might be wrong here but I think we have had nine top six finishes in the Premier League era compared to Spurs' seven - and that is including the write-offs of the past four seasons. If we are not competing with the likes of Spurs - at the very least - I really do think we are being sold short.
Quote from: Billy Walker on May 01, 2015, 02:50:04 PMQuote from: PeterWithesShin on May 01, 2015, 12:39:02 PMSeems to be the same conversation on 2 threads so i'll stick this here as well. If he said we intend to be title challengers within 5 five years he'd still get ripped. And what he says is also true whether we like it or not. We've finished top six 16 times since the end of WW2, less than a quarter of the time. Higher than 6th just the 6 times.If he said we intend to be title challengers within five years it would fire the whole club up, surely? What's wrong with a bit of ambition and thinking outside the box to get there. Who knows, a bit of belief and focus could fire us up to do a Dortmund or Atletico. The problem with making statements that suggest we are settling for average is that it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy: we will attract sponsorship deals on a par with the Southamptons of this world when really we should be getting similar deals (at least) to the likes of Spurs. Like I say, I appreciate we don't have a divine right to success, but neither has any other club. Why, by settling for second best, are we making it easier for other clubs to win things? If this is a short term vision count me in, if it's a long term strategy it makes me ask the question, "What's the point?" Those stats about top six finishes are interesting in that I am sure they stand up well against most clubs. My maths might be wrong here but I think we have had nine top six finishes in the Premier League era compared to Spurs' seven - and that is including the write-offs of the past four seasons. If we are not competing with the likes of Spurs - at the very least - I really do think we are being sold short. Who knows what they are saying in private, they may well be aiming higher for all we know. The point is if he said we aim to be CL/title challengers in x years he'd be ripped just as much as he is for what he did say. I hope we are aiming higher but the reality is we average 8th or 9th in the league since the PL started, our ground is the 7th biggest (9th when Spurs and West Ham move) and we are normally around the 8th or 9th best supported (currently 11th). I don't see how what he has said is selling us short when everything points to that being our place in the game, whether we like it or not. It also doesn't mean we have to settle for it long term, but we've got to get to 7th or 9th before we can look at pushing on from there.
Impressed he was able to trot out the stat on viewing figures in such a way it compered us to Barca and Real and bigger than all the German clubs. Very clever.Why? Because he is clearly using this sort of data to position Aston Villa as a global player that attracts massive audiences. It's what you need to do if want to bring in the bigger sponsorship/kit deals and play by the rules to get around the FFP limitations. You never know, it may even mean cheaper tickets rather than richer player agents.
Quote from: Cleybrooke on May 02, 2015, 10:59:55 AMImpressed he was able to trot out the stat on viewing figures in such a way it compered us to Barca and Real and bigger than all the German clubs. Very clever.Why? Because he is clearly using this sort of data to position Aston Villa as a global player that attracts massive audiences. It's what you need to do if want to bring in the bigger sponsorship/kit deals and play by the rules to get around the FFP limitations. You never know, it may even mean cheaper tickets rather than richer player agents.I missed this. Can somebody link to the story or relevant page on here? Ta.
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Topic: Fantastic Mr Fox (Read 13385 times)
