NSWE Investment

[eamonn]

Yeah, we just spent it on two players who blow hot and cold and one who we've re-sold at a loss (but still seen as a good price due to zimmer-frame being required by same). No more £13m Dendonckers or Morenos in the summer. Three £50m+ valued better than wot we have first-teamers please.

[algy]

The other thing to consider, Baldy, is that Sawiris and Edens operate and move in the world of "oil money'.  For example, Fertiglobe is owned jointly by OCI (headed by Sawiris) and ADNOC (the Adu Dhabi National Oil Company).  Our owners are part of that world and will have significant business links with such people.  I'm confident we have people at the top who have their eyes and ears open, fully aware of the funding requirements and strategies required to make Villa grow into a successful club again.

There's precious little sign of it though. Our net spend is never going to be enough to challenge the top half consistently, and the only tangible fruit from the youth academy has been the £20m fee for Chukwuemeka. They could have shown us their intentions this January, but didn't.

For the youth academy, it’s still early days - we’re signing players around the 16-18 mark so you’d not necessarily see much of a financial reward straight away - but I’d keep in mind Tim Iroegbunam, Jacob Ramsey, Aaron Ramsey, Cam Archer - you’d expect to be comfortably getting £50m for those even if we sold them relatively cheaply. It wouldn’t be unthinkable for it to be closer to £100m.

Spending-wise, they backed Gerrard in the winter window quite significantly. The results post spending spree weren’t great, so it’s quite reasonable I think to hold off giving him huge wedges of cash in the summer. Who knows, maybe NSWE felt Gerrard was an interim appointment to begin with - they were still thinking about how to proceed after the Smith-Grealish era and Gerrard was a manager who they could afford to hire and fire, with the bonus that if things did go well we’d keep him.

I think we’ll know more with the first 2 windows of the Emery era. We didn’t spend much in January, which very much puts the emphasis summer. Spend big then and it looks very much like the above is right - they didn’t want to back Gerrard & Emery isn’t willing to accept 3rd or 4th choice targets.

Don’t spend big and it looks more like what you’re saying - that whatever their model is doesn’t involve them shelling out big sums of money from their own pockets.

[Drummond]

Grealish was here well before NSWE.

Wasn't chucky too?

[Drummond]

Grealish was here well before NSWE.

The other point then, would be that the youth set up can't really have had time to reap the rewards given they haven't been around that long.

[Clampy]

Yeah, we just spent it on two players who blow hot and cold and one who we've re-sold at a loss (but still seen as a good price due to zimmer-frame being required by same). No more £13m Dendonckers or Morenos in the summer. Three £50m+ valued better than wot we have first-teamers please.

It doesn't really matter how much they cost though as long as they are better than what we have.

[eamonn]

Agreed but we're more than likely going to have to spend big for that to be case.

[Clampy]

Agreed but we're more than likely going to have to spend big for that to be case.

Maybe. I'm not sure why you mentioned Moreno in your original post though. He's only been here five minutes.

[Risso]

Grealish was here well before NSWE.

The other point then, would be that the youth set up can't really have had time to reap the rewards given they haven't been around that long.

Five years should be long enough to start to see something. The overall point thgough is that there's very little in the way of evidence of them having the ambition to get us top 6. It's looking increasingly likely that even top half is asking too much.

[Billy Walker]

The other thing to consider, Baldy, is that Sawiris and Edens operate and move in the world of "oil money'.  For example, Fertiglobe is owned jointly by OCI (headed by Sawiris) and ADNOC (the Adu Dhabi National Oil Company).  Our owners are part of that world and will have significant business links with such people.  I'm confident we have people at the top who have their eyes and ears open, fully aware of the funding requirements and strategies required to make Villa grow into a successful club again.

There's precious little sign of it though. Our net spend is never going to be enough to challenge the top half consistently, and the only tangible fruit from the youth academy has been the £20m fee for Chukwuemeka. They could have shown us their intentions this January, but didn't.

Fair points but I reckon appointing a manager like Unai Emery is definitely a sign of the stated ambition.  The lack of January transfer activity can be seen in all sorts of ways - I suppose those with a glass half full would view it as a sign of the owners not being panicked and having a firm strategy, whilst others might view it as the club gambling or showing a lack of ambition.  I guess we'll have a better overall understanding of the (lack of) January activity come season's end.   

[Risso]

We're already seeing it though. A month ago Unai was saying "I'm so, so happy with the squad" and three drubbings later it's "they're not playing how I tell them." Most of them probably never will, because they can't.

[Bully2345]

We're already seeing it though. A month ago Unai was saying "I'm so, so happy with the squad" and three drubbings later it's "they're not playing how I tell them." Most of them probably never will, because they can't.

That's called management. Sometimes you build them up. Sometimes you give them home truths. They possibly walked into the changing room like me thinking "we did alright there" and he's letting them know expectations have to be higher. He's watching for reactions and who gives the right one.

[pauliewalnuts]

We're already seeing it though. A month ago Unai was saying "I'm so, so happy with the squad" and three drubbings later it's "they're not playing how I tell them." Most of them probably never will, because they can't.

That's called management. Sometimes you build them up. Sometimes you give them home truths. They possibly walked into the changing room like me thinking "we did alright there" and he's letting them know expectations have to be higher. He's watching for reactions and who gives the right one.

Yeah I do think a lot of this comes down to him knowing what he should and should not say - he can't really come out and say he's not happy with the squad as he has to get a tune out of them at least till the end of the season.

I suspect he also knows it is going to require a total overhaul this summer, too, as - as Risso said - a lot of these players are never going to be good enough to play the way he wants to.

[Billy Walker]

Grealish was here well before NSWE.

The other point then, would be that the youth set up can't really have had time to reap the rewards given they haven't been around that long.

Five years should be long enough to start to see something. The overall point thgough is that there's very little in the way of evidence of them having the ambition to get us top 6. It's looking increasingly likely that even top half is asking too much.

If we look at it holistically, I think they've achieved a fair bit.  They took over a club on the verge of insolvency and in the space of five years have got us back up into the top flight, a major final, redeveloped the training ground, developed a new inner-city academy and we're on the verge of redeveloping Villa Park - if someone had told me five years ago that all this was in the pipeline I would have been beyond delighted, given the situation we were in.

I get your frustration, though, when we see Newcastle, Fulham, Brentford and Brighton all fly up the league ahead of us and I have no answers as to why it's taking us that little bit longer to get there.  We've made some duff calls (Gerrard) along the way, and that hasn't helped.  The on-pitch stuff is the most crucial part of the plan and I just hope we get it right.

[eamonn]

Agreed but we're more than likely going to have to spend big for that to be case.

Maybe. I'm not sure why you mentioned Moreno in your original post though. He's only been here five minutes.

Yes but he'll be 30 by the start of next season and it seems at this stage of his career that his profile is clear - decent with the ball and going forward but iffy defensively and likely to come off worse in physical 50/50s. Small upgrade on Digne at best.

I'd rather we had utilised the £40m approx spent on both of them and just got one more-rounded full-back who can do both the defensive and offensive stuff.

[Smithy]

Agreed but we're more than likely going to have to spend big for that to be case.

Maybe. I'm not sure why you mentioned Moreno in your original post though. He's only been here five minutes.

Yes but he'll be 30 by the start of next season and it seems at this stage of his career that his profile is clear - decent with the ball and going forward but iffy defensively and likely to come off worse in physical 50/50s. Small upgrade on Digne at best.

I'd rather we had utilised the £40m approx spent on both of them and just got one more-rounded full-back who can do both the defensive and offensive stuff.

As would I. But what if they weren't available, or didn't want to come, do we just live with Matt Targett until one becomes available and wants to join us? Or do we use that time to buy incrementally better players for each position without the "big leap" in quality we all want?