Tom Cleverley - Now signed for Everton

[pauliewalnuts]

There's no point whining about Everton being a better choice or whatever.

If that is the reason he went there (rather than not having to move house, for example), then we have to face facts, Everton have spent the last few seasons not too far from the top six.

We have spent the last few seasons narrowly avoiding getting relegated, and are currently in cold storage until our can't-be-arsed chairman manages to sell us to someone who gives a toss.

I don't blame anyone for thinking they are a better bet - they are.

This is going to last until we get some form of permanence in the ownership and direction of the club, unfortunately. It needs to come very soon, too.

I am not bothered Cleverley has gone per se, more in the sense that it's another hole we need to fill this window. If we were to lose Vlaar (again, it's not so much losing him as having another position to fill) and Benteke (which I think is pretty inevitable), then that gives us a huge amount of work to do just to stand still and reach the "strength" we had last season.

I don't trust Lerner to identify the right thing to do, let alone actually do it, so I suspect we'll see another paltry outlay and another failure to do anything more than the absolute bare minimum to not get relegated (despite chancing it as much as it is possible to do this season).

Currently, we are perennial strugglers, a bit of a mess, led by someone who has admitted he's lost interest, and sees that as an excuse to spend as little money as possible.

Why is anyone surprised that players don't want to hitch their career to that?

[saunders_heroes]

It's frustrating because it's another player who needs replacing.

Exactly. I know people are trying to put a brave face on, but Cleverley is a decent player who now needs replacing. Do you trust Lerner to release the funds to get in a player of his quality, because I don't.
Let's hope the shyster sells up this summer. I shudder to think of going into next season with another pitiful £9m or so net spend.

Well apparently we made two attempts to persuade him to sign with us so I imagine we put up a similar financial package to Everton. He made a personal choice in the end but it does suggest the finances are there for Sherwood's targets.

Well time will tell but I've heard it all before over the last 5 years, and it doesn't bode well that one of our better players of last season didn't see a future with us.

[pauliewalnuts]

It's frustrating because it's another player who needs replacing.

Exactly. I know people are trying to put a brave face on, but Cleverley is a decent player who now needs replacing. Do you trust Lerner to release the funds to get in a player of his quality, because I don't.
Let's hope the shyster sells up this summer. I shudder to think of going into next season with another pitiful £9m or so net spend.

Well apparently we made two attempts to persuade him to sign with us so I imagine we put up a similar financial package to Everton. He made a personal choice in the end but it does suggest the finances are there for Sherwood's targets.

Genuinely interested to hear how you arrive at that conclusion.

The fact we made two attempts to sign him (whenever they were) but failed, the personal choice you're assuming he made, the financial package you're assuming was similar - how on earth do they suggest anything about the finances being there for Sherwood's targets?

[saunders_heroes]

There's no point whining about Everton being a better choice or whatever.

If that is the reason he went there (rather than not having to move house, for example), then we have to face facts, Everton have spent the last few seasons not too far from the top six.

We have spent the last few seasons narrowly avoiding getting relegated, and are currently in cold storage until our can't-be-arsed chairman manages to sell us to someone who gives a toss.

I don't blame anyone for thinking they are a better bet - they are.

This is going to last until we get some form of permanence in the ownership and direction of the club, unfortunately. It needs to come very soon, too.

I am not bothered Cleverley has gone per se, more in the sense that it's another hole we need to fill this window. If we were to lose Vlaar (again, it's not so much losing him as having another position to fill) and Benteke (which I think is pretty inevitable), then that gives us a huge amount of work to do just to stand still and reach the "strength" we had last season.

I don't trust Lerner to identify the right thing to do, let alone actually do it, so I suspect we'll see another paltry outlay and another failure to do anything more than the absolute bare minimum to not get relegated (despite chancing it as much as it is possible to do this season).

Currently, we are perennial strugglers, a bit of a mess, led by someone who has admitted he's lost interest, and sees that as an excuse to spend as little money as possible.

Why is anyone surprised that players don't want to hitch their career to that?

Well yeah we know all that, but what we want to see is the club looking a bit more ambitious. Losing Cleverley isn't a good start and it looks like the same old Lerner's Villa to me. Hope I'm wrong.

[pauliewalnuts]

There's no point whining about Everton being a better choice or whatever.

If that is the reason he went there (rather than not having to move house, for example), then we have to face facts, Everton have spent the last few seasons not too far from the top six.

We have spent the last few seasons narrowly avoiding getting relegated, and are currently in cold storage until our can't-be-arsed chairman manages to sell us to someone who gives a toss.

I don't blame anyone for thinking they are a better bet - they are.

This is going to last until we get some form of permanence in the ownership and direction of the club, unfortunately. It needs to come very soon, too.

I am not bothered Cleverley has gone per se, more in the sense that it's another hole we need to fill this window. If we were to lose Vlaar (again, it's not so much losing him as having another position to fill) and Benteke (which I think is pretty inevitable), then that gives us a huge amount of work to do just to stand still and reach the "strength" we had last season.

I don't trust Lerner to identify the right thing to do, let alone actually do it, so I suspect we'll see another paltry outlay and another failure to do anything more than the absolute bare minimum to not get relegated (despite chancing it as much as it is possible to do this season).

Currently, we are perennial strugglers, a bit of a mess, led by someone who has admitted he's lost interest, and sees that as an excuse to spend as little money as possible.

Why is anyone surprised that players don't want to hitch their career to that?

Well yeah we know all that, but what we want to see is the club looking a bit more ambitious. Losing Cleverley isn't a good start and it looks like the same old Lerner's Villa to me. Hope I'm wrong.

Don't hold your breath.

Not until Lerner sells.

His sole display of interest in the club this year has been managing to come over for the cup final (as he got to sit next to a Prince, no doubt), and the odd day over here now and again during the season.

He's totally lost interest and admitted as much. He's going to do the absolute bare minimum he has to do until he sells up. Until then, we're in cold storage and going nowhere.

[PeterWithesShin]

I'm pretty sure that for a lot less than 50K a week for 5 years we can get someone in who can score 3 times a season and can manage  6-8 good games out of nearly 40.

[saunders_heroes]

I'm pretty sure that for a lot less than 50K a week for 5 years we can get someone in who can score 3 times a season and can manage  6-8 good games out of nearly 40.

How many of our players achieved those stats last season though?

Cleverley is a good player wether we admit it or not.

[PeterWithesShin]

It doesn't change that he played well about 20% of the time and scored 3 goals. It's hardly a high standard to replace. It's just a sign of how shit we were a lot of the season that those numbers make us think we're going to struggle to replace him.

[saunders_heroes]

well I hope you're right but I for one don't trust Lerner to release the funds to sign many decent players this summer. In my opinion it's a shame Cleverley didn't think Villa were an option after playing his bit to keep us up. It doesn't bode well.

[myf]

Meh. Looked good-very good in a few games, looked shit in most. If he doesn't want to stay, fuck him.

this

[OCD]

I'm not going to start banging my head against a wall with the season barely having finished. There's a lot to do, everyone knows that. I'm just going to keep myself busy and not magnify every minor detail of speculation. I'm just going to hope for the best.

[Toronto Villa]

I'm not going to start banging my head against a wall with the season barely having finished. There's a lot to do, everyone knows that. I'm just going to keep myself busy and not magnify every minor detail of speculation. I'm just going to hope for the best.

That's the best approach. If you let every rumour get to you you'll end up locked away. And just because we don't buy someone today or tomorrow doesn't mean the sky is falling in. It just means at the start of June when the market isn't even officially open yet we haven't done anything of significance yet. The manager has said he has a long list of targets and we'll see how many of those come off. I don't imagine he made that list without some assurances that he could actually buy a few of them. So I agree. Breathe and let things pan out.

[PeterWithe]

If he read this Id like to thank him for the goals that helped keep us up, other than that I hope he gets excruciating piles for the next few seasons, useless little gobshite.

We ain't that attractive a proposition anymore, are we?

[PeterWithe]

And, I wished Sherwood would have dropped him for the final as well.

[kippaxvilla2]

It doesn't change that he played well about 20% of the time and scored 3 goals. It's hardly a high standard to replace. It's just a sign of how shit we were a lot of the season that those numbers make us think we're going to struggle to replace him.

But was one of our better players when a decent motivator and someone who knew where to play him came in.  In any event, if he isn't a high standard to replace, why did we bring him in in the first place, if someone much better and at our budget was available?  Not saying you are wrong by the way, just I think when we know we have to improve the squad as it is, it is a headache we could have really done without.