Summer 2015 - Transfer Rumours, Speculation & Suggestions

[Tuscans]

precisely so buying two of the most promising/highly rated players in the French league is panic? And none of us know what is going on behind the scenes ; of course the club knew two were definitely going and will have  had contingency plans. as to Ron, thank fuck he didn't re-sign, given that the man of glass is now smashed. In the insatiable desire for news by the minute people are getting needlessly doomish.

^ this ^

[ADVILLAFAN]

The main areas I'm worried about are up front, where we will surely buy at least one player (preferably two) and goalie. If Guzan goes through a bad patch or is injured we've got no real backup.

[dave.woodhall]

The general thrust of the article is spot on.  I went to Swindon the other night and our squad looks worryingly short of both quality and quantity.  I know there was no Grealish, Gueye, Okore or Sanchez, and there's the genesis of a potentially half decent defence taking shape, with Amavi, Clark and Richards likely starters at Bournemouth, but a midfield of Westwood, Gardener and Bacuna is championship standard.  And although there was some nice touches from Sinclair and Gil, Gabby showed familiar shortcomings.  A new striker and at least two new bodies in midfield are essential if we are to avoid yet another struggle.

I would even bet my own money that Westwood, Gardener and Bacuna will never start a league game as a midfield trio.

[cdbearsfan]

Bloody Hell, bed-wetters. It's July. Enjoy the Summer, watch some cricket. Worry about Villa in August, by which time we'll definitely have new players in.

[Dave]

Agree with Matt. Despite improvement under Sherwood we came 17th. From that side we've lost the 2 best players and 2 other first team regulars. We've bought 2 promising young players. Cold hard reality of that is it makes us relegation material.

That would be true had Sherwood been in charge from the start. From when Sherwood came in, I think someone showed that when extrapolated across a season, it would have been a mid-table finish. People seem to making player judgments based on how Lambert had them playing.

13th - but it's not as straightforward as just saying that we were shit under Lambert and great under Sherwood.

It might be that the new season is a joyous romp akin to Everton, Liverpool and West Brom but it could just as easily be a horrible slog like Southampton, Burnley and Arsenal.

Given that the squad is currently weaker rather than stronger than it was for those dreadful last three matches, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to be a bit concerned at this stage.

[Diablo]

http://www.football365.com/f365-says/9921036/F365-Says

This is all rather hard to argue with....

Can't really argue with any of that.  Just over 2 weeks before the season starts and we are totally unprepared. 

How are we totally unprepared? What a load a nonsense. Have we not started training? Have we not played any friendlies? Do we not have our coaches in place? Does Villa Park not have any grass? We lost two key players and sold some that nobody cares about. We will sell a few and still have to buy some like just about every other club out there. What is so unprepared about that?

You're right. We've started training and our pre-season friendlies are underway. We're in fact well prepared if we don't get replacements for Delph and Benteke.

[OCD]

Agree with Matt. Despite improvement under Sherwood we came 17th. From that side we've lost the 2 best players and 2 other first team regulars. We've bought 2 promising young players. Cold hard reality of that is it makes us relegation material.

That would be true had Sherwood been in charge from the start. From when Sherwood came in, I think someone showed that when extrapolated across a season, it would have been a mid-table finish. People seem to making player judgments based on how Lambert had them playing.

13th - but it's not as straightforward as just saying that we were shit under Lambert and great under Sherwood.

It might be that the new season is a joyous romp akin to Everton, Liverpool and West Brom but it could just as easily be a horrible slog like Southampton, Burnley and Arsenal.

Given that the squad is currently weaker rather than stronger than it was for those dreadful last three matches, I don't think it's unreasonable for people to be a bit concerned at this stage.

There's concerned and there's bed wetting as cdbullyweefan says. You would think the window slams shut tonight at 12 going by some of the comments.

[Chris Smith]

The season starting so early understandably means people are going to get a little anxious but it is a little premature. There are still over 6 weeks of the transfer window so trying to make any sense of it now is  probably futile.

Given that from the end of last season although we have lost a couple of key players we have also signed three, reintegrated Gil and have Kozac back in contention then it is not all bad news. On top of that we should have some serious money to spend before Sky Sports News declares that it is all over.

[pauliewalnuts]

There's time to go till the window shuts, but not that long till the season starts.

We could do with being much stronger than last season but we're not, we're actually weaker. Hopefully we'll get some players in the next few weeks, because otherwise, we're going to be risking "chucking" the August fixtures by dint of not being prepared.

Gueye and Amavi, I think, will be good signings. Maybe Richards, too. The problem isn't the three we've made, it is that we haven't yet made enough of them. We need another four or five signings like those.

EDIT and one thing we've seen hinted at already in the friendlies thus far, although early, is that we're not exactly blessed with players able to score on a regular basis.

[AVFC13]

The main areas I'm worried about are up front, where we will surely buy at least one player (preferably two) and goalie. If Guzan goes through a bad patch or is injured we've got no real backup.

Like he did last night in the USA v Jamaica game? Guzan was terrible. Two mistakes led to two goals and they lost 2-1.
I'm a Guzan fan, but he's prone to mistakes and needs to have his head in the game for all 90+ minutes.

[usav]

The general thrust of the article is spot on.  I went to Swindon the other night and our squad looks worryingly short of both quality and quantity.  I know there was no Grealish, Gueye, Okore or Sanchez, and there's the genesis of a potentially half decent defence taking shape, with Amavi, Clark and Richards likely starters at Bournemouth, but a midfield of Westwood, Gardener and Bacuna is championship standard.  And although there was some nice touches from Sinclair and Gil, Gabby showed familiar shortcomings.  A new striker and at least two new bodies in midfield are essential if we are to avoid yet another struggle.

I would even bet my own money that Westwood, Gardener and Bacuna will never start a league game as a midfield trio.

I bet neither of those things will happen.

[SirSteveUK]

Guzan stepped out of the area to throw long - that was his error. Free kick from which they scored. He wasn't responsible for the other one

[passitsideways]

Guzan stepped out of the area to throw long - that was his error. Free kick from which they scored. He wasn't responsible for the other one

I think he might've done better for the first one, but it could go either way. The second one was stupid, but honestly, keepers do it often these days and I can't remember anyone being pinged for it.

[mr underhill]

The Bordeaux president has categorically denied any offer from us for Diego Rolan. Nailed on to be announced next week then?

[tomd2103]

Bloody Hell, bed-wetters. It's July. Enjoy the Summer, watch some cricket. Worry about Villa in August, by which time we'll definitely have new players in.

That's even more depressing at the moment!!