Who should we have brought in?

[Tom_Mc9?]

I hope that this is premature, but we are woefully short up front. My friend who supports Blackburn says he can't see Gestede being anything more than an effective sub after 70 minutes or so; we need Ayew to improve; Kozak doesn't seem to be ready or wanted (take your pick) and Gabby is a  spent force.

I can understand why we didn't go for Adebayor. Bad attitude shown throughout his career and not turning up to medicals at Villa doesn't a good sign of things to come make. Charlie Austin would appear to be the obvious choice, but there must be a reason why no Premier League club felt that his £15m price tag was worth paying.

Are there any players with exciting foreign names I've never heard of that would improve us? Should we have gone for Ings and tried to sell him first team football? Any suggestions?

[mattjpa]

I remember reading a similar view about Benteke from fans of his former club - Blew hot and cold, was lazy and not interested, poor touch etc. He turned out to be (in my opinion) the best attacking player ive ever seen at Villa Park. Gestede and Ayew both look off the pace at the moment but lets give them a chance. We also need to develop play to work to their strengths.

Benteke now looks rubbish at Liverpool every time I see him play and id imagine there are probably similar threads on their forums (overhead worldie aside!)

[Tom_Mc9?]

I agree give them a chance, but I think we need another striker on top of the two new players - I think Sherwood thought so too as he was trying to bring in the likes of Gayle and Adebayor. I haven't written off Gestede or Ayew yet (despite how it looks in the original post!)

[brian green]

With the new, long overdue pragmatism at VP over player values you can be sure both Ayew and Gestede will be given time to at least preserve as much of their cost to us as possible. I don't think Adebayor or Berbatov were or are the answer. With hindsight I would have bundled up the Ayew and Gestede money, added Clark to the bundle and prised Berahino loose. He clearly hates the bitters as much as we do and may well given them the finger of departure.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I mentioned elsewhere but Rondon looked value for money at £12m. Big, strong and powerful striker who looks like he knows what he's doing. He may soon be wondering what the hell he was doing signing for the Bitters though.

[silhillvilla]

Payet
Austin
The other Ayew

[LukeJames]

Payet
Austin
The other Ayew

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

[OCD]

I don't regret not signing Austin. His attitude is all wrong, there's a reason why he's still at QPR.

[brian green]

Too many clubs have swerved Austin to sign him with any degree of confidence. I think we have done the right thing to pass on him.

[Ron Manager]

Diego Costa!!!!

[themossman]

Too early to judge, on two counts. 1. TS rightly or wrongly emphasised central midfield in his allocation of funds, so we need to see to what extent a strong MF including Gana/Toure/Veterout does to offset weaknesses in other areas. 2. far too early for all this 'we got the wrong Ayew' rubbish. We haven't see enough to judge any of the new signings properly.

[VicMackey]

I think West Ham have recruited well (surprisingly).  I can't say I've seen much of him but Bakary Sakho going to Palace on a free may have been worth a shout (although his wage demands were probably daft).  We seem to have bought players that 'might' be great rather than being the finished article now.  Perhaps in the long-term that will pay off but for now we are struggling and if things don't change soon we'll end up adrift at the bottom with Sunderland.  We're second favourites for relegation at the bookies - they're not often wrong...

[aj2k77]

I think West Ham have recruited well (surprisingly).  I can't say I've seen much of him but Bakary Sakho going to Palace on a free may have been worth a shout (although his wage demands were probably daft).  We seem to have bought players that 'might' be great rather than being the finished article now.  Perhaps in the long-term that will pay off but for now we are struggling and if things don't change soon we'll end up adrift at the bottom with Sunderland.  We're second favourites for relegation at the bookies - they're not often wrong...

It's been years since we've bought any ''finished articles''.

Player and manager wise we buy in to gambles or development projects wholesale, which are pretty much flip of the coin deals.

[Ron Manager]

Collymore was probably the last 'finished' article we bought. A complete waste of money in hindsight.

[Villafirst]

Jordan Rhodes instead of Gestede?