Summer transfer, gossip, speculation and the usual butter ollocks thread

[hilts_coolerking]

However much we get, if we keep the same recruitment staff and manager it will get wasted.

Yep, as underwhelming as many of them are, I'd rather keep the squad and ditch the manager.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

We need to follow wolves example and recruit players too good for the championship, yes they have the links with Mendes but they still went to a 2nd tier team. We need to sell the vision of the club and offer big promotion bonuses.

[aj2k77]

It's all immaterial if the scouting isn't sorted out. Wesley was crap for £25m, everyone can agree on that. We are in dire need of a forward in January, what do we do? Buy the player that we deemed not as good as Wesley the previous transfer window.

Too much money spent on players who did Ok at mid table or struggling clubs in poor leagues.

[Des Little]

However much we get, if we keep the same recruitment staff and manager it will get wasted.

Nail on head. Getting shot of Suso has to be a priority.

[PaulWinch again]

I reckon Wesley might flourish in the Championship.

But most importantly we need pace throughout the team.

[Steve67]

I reckon Wesley might flourish in the Championship.

But most importantly we need pace throughout the team.

And physicality.  We are piss weak in the challenge.  A commanding centre back wouldn't go amiss either.
Of course, before any of this can happen, we have to get rid of the stench of defeat.

[Luke8]

It's all immaterial if the scouting isn't sorted out. Wesley was crap for £25m, everyone can agree on that. We are in dire need of a forward in January, what do we do? Buy the player that we deemed not as good as Wesley the previous transfer window.

Too much money spent on players who did Ok at mid table or struggling clubs in poor leagues.

Obviously it’s easy to say with hindsight it could have been better, and the people involved are not blameless, but the issue with the recruitment was that we needed so much, so quickly without that much money to do it really. 

That’s probably about par for a player of Wesleys age and ability. Scoring record doesn’t compare that badly to other similar players signed last summer. And I think we have missed him.

January wasn’t good. But we were forced to change plans pretty late on due to three long terms injuries. And again, money was clearly an issue.

I’m not saying the recruitment was great - it clearly wasn’t - but we were in a terrible position in that we needed 10-12 players. We couldn’t go 5/6 higher quality players as we wouldn’t have had a squad.

[themossman]

The one positive out of this pathetic excuse for a season is that we get another chance to ignore FFP, sell the family silver and buy our way back into the PL.

The downside is it feels just as likely we’ll fuck it all up and be stranded in the lower leagues forever.

[SoccerHQ]

McGinn might be the one to stick around. The meatball is perhaps the least likely to rock anyboats, his international career isn't dependent on Premier League football and if nobody is willing to pay £30m plus- do we need to sell when Jack et al are bringing in £100m?

I think we'll keep likes of Heaton and McGinn up to January, possibly Mings aswell although euros being delayed to next summer probably won't help there. Despite what people think of him now he's still a regular in England squad and given his late entry into senior football you can understand him not wanting to give up that chance.

When Stoke went down people thought likes of Butland and Joe Allen would be straight out. Two years on they're both still there although hasnot done Stoke much good.

Fulham also kept Mitrovic which was big surprise to me. West Brom kept a decent core of Rodriguez, Dawson etc and then sold them when they lost out to us

Don't see a fire sale at all. Solving the Grealish void will be tough though considering the rare bits of quality play we have always goes through him and it was the same in the championship. Not sure this manager will have the answer for that personally.

[SoccerHQ]

I look skyward, I see no vultures...
Re the £100m funding, I'm not so sure. On what they've produced in this division, I don't envisage many suitors for either Mings or McGinn. The latter's made as much impression as Brett Holman, ie quite good up until December. Bruce might take him off our hands for what we paid. And I'd be surprised if any teams above Brighton currently think Mings is an answer to their problems.

McGinn leaving for <£3m?! Wow.

I don't think he's leaving. But trying to look at it impartially, what sort of signing would he be for someone else? "Yeah, he looked good in the Championship the season before last, but didn't particularly stand out in the PL, ran out of steam before Christmas, and then was out for months with an injury". It'd be the sort of signing which if we made it from a relegated side, I bet most of us on here would consider it uninspiring at best.

His worth to Aston Villa is far greater than what the market will determine, in my opinion. He's not done enough yet.

Rodgers would probably take him at Leicester given he was desperate to sign him for Celtic and Leicester will need more depth for europe. They might offer someone like Demiray Gray in the deal although he hasn't really kicked on in his career.

Can see Mings being a target for them or West Ham or Everton.

Suppose one thing we don't know is who signed last summer who has a release clause in their deal if relegation occurs. Given the squad will have to take pay cuts you'd assume some of them will have it just like Gana did last time.

[Lastfootstamper]

There's worlds of difference between signing for Celtic and signing for Leicester these days.

[robbo1874]

I’m torn on this. I think the main issue is what happens with Smith. Firstly I think he has what 3 years left on his contract? I really don’t want to go through the whole changing the manager business again. We’d be paying him out, plus paying (probably) compo for a new man.

Secondly, whilst it’s pretty clear the current managerial setup is not  good enough for the premiership, he’s somewhat proven in the championship.

Thirdly, what we lacked when were down last time was any kind of continuity, which cost us I think.

I’d be tempted to stick with DS for these reasons on the management side. Maybe shake up the coaching staff a bit, as I think that is a big part of what’s not right at the moment. I don’t think DS will be sacked if we go down. I’d be tempted to shift Terry out. I don’t think DS really wanted him and I don’t think they get on that well. The fallings out are not necessarily a bad thing if it leads to improvement, but it doesn’t seem to have.

On the playing side, I really don’t know. We’ve tried so many different approaches the last few years, I think with probably the exception of using homegrown academy / U23 players. I do think we probably will need to have a bit of a cull. Let’s say minimum Grealish goes and likely McGinn, with maybe Mings and Luis. The rest of them are probably championship quality if we’re honest, so should be good enough to get us challenging.

I’d be looking to bring through the youth / u23 players and try to build something. Trying to buy success just hasn’t worked the last few years. We need a different approach.

[cdbearsfan]

You can't relegate us and keep your job. We are Aston Villa, ffs.

Maybe if our supporters didn't act so small time we wouldn't play like it so often.

You'd think we were Barnsley, Swindon, West Brom or some other nonsense club enjoying a day out in the top flight rather than a club that should be competing to win it.

The idea of someone relegating a club of our stature and keeping his job is as laughable as it is nauseating.

[robbo1874]

You can laugh and feel sick if you feel that way. I just think it will be costly to get rid of and replace him and I think he’s a pretty good manager at championship level and I think replacing him would be a bigger gamble than keeping him.

 The time for him to be sacked was around Christmas time and that came and went. I really would keep him and then if we did go straight back up, give him til November at least the following season. He will have learnt from this season, I think.

For me it’s better the devil you know, if we do go down. I’ve said, he’s probably not premier league quality, but he’s good enough to get back there and have a second crack at it. We can change other things without necessarily changing the manager for it to work. Who would you have instead of DS?

[OzVilla]

I’m sure he’s a lovely man but Smith has done a terrible job this season, from recruiting (which he would have had a hand in) to team selection, formation, game management (can’t recall a manager costing us as many points from winning situations due to their decisions), tactical naivety, inability to be flexible in game the list goes on and on and on. Easily our worst performer and theres been plenty to choose from.

If we go down, the lion’s share of the blame is his. If we kept him on what does that say about us?