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

[eamonn]

I think its the wages of established players late 20s to 30s, especially if they've been raking-in Premier League coin for the best part of a decade, that is making us wary of those signings.

[SoccerHQ]

I think its the wages of established players late 20s to 30s, especially if they've been raking-in Premier League coin for the best part of a decade, that is making us wary of those signings.

Just get them on loan and get the parent club to pay 90% or something (Levy special) just to get them in the shop window.

Of course we got Jenas in when he was 28 years old and somehow had to pay his full wages for the season even after he got injured and we sent him back in December! Proper amateur hour under Lerner, hopefully we weren't paying too much percentage of Drinkwater's salary as he would be on a bomb at Chelsea.

[Londonvilla]

Brescia, made for Joronen: there is the signature

https://gianlucadimarzio.com/it/brescia-fatta-per-joronen-ce-la-firma

refused the English proposals of Aston Villa.

It looks like he has turned us down..................

[Big Ming]

Comforting that both Matty Cash and Ollie Watkins are both described by former clubs as having a top class attitude to every aspect of being a professional.

Dean Smith once said that attitude was as important as any other aspect when assessing a potential transfer.

Unlikely to see any jammed gates.

[ChicagoLion]

Good post Soccer HQ regarding experience, we were crying out for some sensible heads last season.

[mr underhill]

I think most, if not all, our signings in this window will already be playing here.

[exiled on the wirral!]

Good post Soccer HQ regarding experience, we were crying out for some sensible heads last season.

Most of our team have at least 1 years worth of Premiership experience now, not sure its an issue to be honest.

[ozzjim]

Good post Soccer HQ regarding experience, we were crying out for some sensible heads last season.

Most of our team have at least 1 years worth of Premiership experience now, not sure its an issue to be honest.

I think we could do with a couple of premiership experienced heads in key positions, but like Eamonn says, the wages are going to be a big issue. Ideally in the centre of midfield would be one. I would happily take Danny Rose at left back as competition for Targett too, but don't think we will afford him.

[mcgrath_85]

End of the day you have to back the manager or sack him imo. I'm not a fan of choosing players by committee - manager wants A, gets C etc. Yeah C may be on paper be as good or better than the manager's choice, but you can't fake a manager who really wants a player to join or the ability of a player to run through walls for a manager who believes in him. So i hope Watkins is a success just to wind up the likes of twitter and the Meaning  Evil currently taking the piss.

On a more general point,  our signings so far seem to have fallen into the obsession with value, that Lerner lately suffered from after MON left. Actually the complete misunderstanding of what "value" means.  Yes of course this club needs to buy young players with potential like McGinn and watkins or cash, with resale value, but you still need to buy the older players at 29/30/31 with no-resale value who will provide experience when we're struggling, ESPECIALLY where we are now, because blooding a championship player or foreign lower league at 23 or 24 may insure you get someone you can sell at 28 for 30m, but it won't make up for the 100m cost of relegation while they find their feet or not.. That's not a go at Watkins, that's just a view of the players we bought after coming up, and the way it seems to be  going this summer.

at

Watford had squad full of proven premier league players that had finished mid table and got to the cup final, and yet they went down and we didn't.

Experience is valuable, but it needs to be good and provide value. Lescott and Richards were experienced, and were an absolute skid mark on the clubs history. Kortney Hause has proven better value than both put together and he's only a back up.

Think back to our real good teams in living memory and they all had fantastic experience right through.

92/93- God, Stan Staunton, Richardson, Houghton, Garry Parker, Saunders.

Then Brian Little came in and realised some of those were past their best but still got in someone like Townsend who was 30 when we signed him from Chelsea and he provided superb leadership for two years.

Then the 2000 cup final team had James-Southgate-Ugo-Taylor-Merson-Dublin.

And MON had Friedel-Mellberg-Laursen-Petrov-Barry-Carew.

People like  me and a few others who want experience aren't asking for us to sign half a team of 35 year olds but any succesful Villa team has always had a good core of been there, done it players in key positions so just seems odd we're wildly swinging away from that policy now.

Even looking at the teams who win trophies and finish in CL you had Arsenal signing 32 year old David Luiz last summer (o.k maybe not the best example!) and added Willian this summer who's the same age. Chelsea just signed a 35 year old CB to try to improve their defence. Liverpool signed James Milner when he was 29 and got five fantastic years out of him.

I think it's an error from us just because likes of Drinkwater and Lescott have been terrible. We've signed plenty of terrible players aged under 25 in last decade aswell and haven't made too much money back on them either.

Really good post. I couldn’t agree more.

[fbriai]

Point of Order: Big Ron signed Townsend, not Sir Brian. He was sent off in the first-half of the 4-3 defeat at Wimbledon, in which we were also 1-3 up at one point, which ended up being Atkinson's last game in charge.

[Malandro]

Good post Soccer HQ regarding experience, we were crying out for some sensible heads last season.

I'd love a player like Houghton/Townsend but where are they?

I can't think of any that are available or that are worthwhile.

[LeeB]

End of the day you have to back the manager or sack him imo. I'm not a fan of choosing players by committee - manager wants A, gets C etc. Yeah C may be on paper be as good or better than the manager's choice, but you can't fake a manager who really wants a player to join or the ability of a player to run through walls for a manager who believes in him. So i hope Watkins is a success just to wind up the likes of twitter and the Meaning  Evil currently taking the piss.

On a more general point,  our signings so far seem to have fallen into the obsession with value, that Lerner lately suffered from after MON left. Actually the complete misunderstanding of what "value" means.  Yes of course this club needs to buy young players with potential like McGinn and watkins or cash, with resale value, but you still need to buy the older players at 29/30/31 with no-resale value who will provide experience when we're struggling, ESPECIALLY where we are now, because blooding a championship player or foreign lower league at 23 or 24 may insure you get someone you can sell at 28 for 30m, but it won't make up for the 100m cost of relegation while they find their feet or not.. That's not a go at Watkins, that's just a view of the players we bought after coming up, and the way it seems to be  going this summer.

at

Watford had squad full of proven premier league players that had finished mid table and got to the cup final, and yet they went down and we didn't.

Experience is valuable, but it needs to be good and provide value. Lescott and Richards were experienced, and were an absolute skid mark on the clubs history. Kortney Hause has proven better value than both put together and he's only a back up.

Think back to our real good teams in living memory and they all had fantastic experience right through.

92/93- God, Stan Staunton, Richardson, Houghton, Garry Parker, Saunders.

Then Brian Little came in and realised some of those were past their best but still got in someone like Townsend who was 30 when we signed him from Chelsea and he provided superb leadership for two years.

Then the 2000 cup final team had James-Southgate-Ugo-Taylor-Merson-Dublin.

And MON had Friedel-Mellberg-Laursen-Petrov-Barry-Carew.

People like  me and a few others who want experience aren't asking for us to sign half a team of 35 year olds but any succesful Villa team has always had a good core of been there, done it players in key positions so just seems odd we're wildly swinging away from that policy now.

Even looking at the teams who win trophies and finish in CL you had Arsenal signing 32 year old David Luiz last summer (o.k maybe not the best example!) and added Willian this summer who's the same age. Chelsea just signed a 35 year old CB to try to improve their defence. Liverpool signed James Milner when he was 29 and got five fantastic years out of him.

I think it's an error from us just because likes of Drinkwater and Lescott have been terrible. We've signed plenty of terrible players aged under 25 in last decade aswell and haven't made too much money back on them either.

this with bells on. Far better than i could have put it.

You've picked three quality players there, all of whom would be the highest paid players in our squad by miles and would never join us in our position in a million years.

[ADVILLAFAN]

I did wonder if we could get Milner. It's not as if he plays a lot for Liverpool.

Probably be too much money in transfers and wages.

Knocking on a bit, but apparently still the fittest player in their squad.

[LeeB]

Point of Order: Big Ron signed Townsend, not Sir Brian. He was sent off in the first-half of the 4-3 defeat at Wimbledon, in which we were also 1-3 up at one point, which ended up being Atkinson's last game in charge.

And it was Brian that came in and straight away decided many of our squad were way too old, had bad habits and lacked motivation (he detailed is thinking extensively in his 'Return of the Little Villain' book), so went out and signed young players from a mixture of the lower division (Charles and Johnson), relegated sides (Draper and Southgate) and a big unknown in Savo, for a side that had narrowly avoided relegation.

The 'experienced top flight players' he signed for big money, Curcic and Collymore, pretty much finished him off.

[brian green]

Fair play, Sasa Curcic went on to have a stellar career as a magician in Las Vegas.   Sir Brian never got any of the credit for that.