Fantastic Mr Fox

[Toronto Villa]

For me the proof will be in the actions rather than dissecting statements though undoubtedly in that position he needs manage what he says because of the very public reaction it can have. That said, weeks after essentially backing Lambert he fired him, I wouldn't put too much stock into things like 7-9th. I'm sure if we were exceeding those initial goals nobody is going to complain and they will just set new goals based on where the club is. Also I don't think Fabian Delph was signing for a few more years, or even Ron Vlaar now thinking of staying with the lofty prospect of mid table in their minds. I think he's being very guarded overall because things are happening behind the scenes that could change just about everything.

[silhillvilla]

Re Benteke , you just need him in a long term contract with sensible release clauses and appropriate wages / bonuses in place.
Win win, he keeps delivering he will get his move and we will get his true market value.

[amfy]

Although if we could hang on to him for long enough to get to 7-9th, then we will have a much better chance of replacing him with someone who is worth the money we'd have to spend, which in turn could help us to edge further up the table.

What we don't want is to lose him while we are still perennial relegation strugglers, because that will leave us with a sum of money that isn't worth as much as it should be in the transfer market.

[Toronto Villa]

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.

[silhillvilla]

Has sherwood signed anyone yet as a manager, can't recall if he had a window at Spurs ?

[Billy Walker]

I have to admit I have been impressed with Fox thus far, but this idea that we are a club that should aim for 7th, 8th, 9th place year in year out is very disappointing indeed and sells the club short.  If Randy's idea is to stick around whilst lowering the club's ambitions to the level of a Swansea or Southampton then that simply is not good enough.  No club has a divine right to success - I get that - but, likewise, no club in a competitive sport should aim to just tick along making up the numbers.  The aim of the game for Aston Villa should be winning titles and cups not wanting to be the "best of the rest".  If this is a short-term one/two year aim, fair enough.  If this is the grand plan for Villa I wish them luck filling the ground, creating new generations of Villa supporters and so on.

[PeterWithesShin]

Has sherwood signed anyone yet as a manager, can't recall if he had a window at Spurs ?

I bet he a window in his office at Villa Park AND at Bodymoor Heath. Have that Spurs you wankers!

[PeterWithesShin]

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.

[paul_e]

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.

The Liverpool and Tottenham thing is important.  Southampton had a similar windfall summer with £90m-ish coming in but instead of throwing money at the likes of Balotelli and Lamela they stuck to their recruitment strategy, just buying a few more than they would've to fill out the squad and they've moved forward rather than falling back like the others.  Importantly they didn't feel the need to spend all of the money that came in to show that they were being ambitious.

[Villa in Denmark]

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.

Pedant Alert.  N'Zogbia?

[Villa in Denmark]

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.

I was just about to say that if you took the average of our finishing positions in the PL era, either as the mean or mode I'd guess that you'd probably end up with an answer that was around 7th to 9th.

[Duncan Shaw]

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.

Pedant Alert.  N'Zogbia?

Eek, Jeez, you're right.

[PeterWithesShin]

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.

I was just about to say that if you took the average of our finishing positions in the PL era, either as the mean or mode I'd guess that you'd probably end up with an answer that was around 7th to 9th.

I'm sad enough to work it out, so, even without the previous 3 seasons our average in the PL era is 8.42. Add those and it's 9.36.

[OCD]

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.

Well, they talked about a 5-year plan to get into the Champions League under O'Neill and look how that went. It's sensible to set realistic and achievable targets and adjust them once we're there. It's not difficult to become a top 10 side and then not too difficult to get onto the fringes of top 5 or 6. The glass ceiling is trying to go from 5th to 4th - as Spurs found a couple of years ago and how we found under O'Neill.

[silhillvilla]

Mid table next season is a good target, playing attractive football, strengthening the squad on the way, then press on from there.