Ollie Watkins

[Drummond]

Well done Ollie on becoming our record pl goalscorer at VP.
Been here since 2020 and all he's got from the fans is a pathetic du du chant. Rashford has only been at VP for literally minutes and already has a song with actual words!

Watkins on fire, your defence is terrified....

That was definitely sung with gusto at Palace last May!

Yep, and I very much enjoyed it. After full time, just as Palace we're trying to warm up the crowd for their lap of appreciation thing, they okay that song and off we go.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

Well done Ollie on becoming our record pl goalscorer at VP.
Been here since 2020 and all he's got from the fans is a pathetic du du chant. Rashford has only been at VP for literally minutes and already has a song with actual words!

Watkins on fire, your defence is terrified....

That was definitely sung with gusto at Palace last May!

Yep, and I very much enjoyed it. After full time, just as Palace we're trying to warm up the crowd for their lap of appreciation thing, they okay that song and off we go.

It's the obvious one to sing in the absence of anything new or creative. At least it has words and to compensate for the lack of du dus it has na nas

[tony scott]

People seem to remember his misses as much as his goals. I think because he has a lot of single goal hauls I’ve stopped expecting him to score after he’s got one.  I love the work he does leading the line, I can’t remember another Villa striker who’s worked that hard off the ball. I go back to Derek Dougan times. I haven’t mentioned his assists, overall I don’t think we could do a lot better.

[PeterWithe]

I suppose we can't know for sure either way, but I doubt Arsenal would've gone public with interest in Watkins unless they'd sounded him / his agent out first.

Perhaps, but also possible is that with the amount of high pitched whinging from Arsenal fans about not having a recognised striker, the leaked story was just an attempt to placate them with 'look we are trying to do something' even if the chances of it coming off were remote.

[Rigadon]

Aye, maybe.  The fact is, if Ollie Watkins was more clinical he probably wouldn't be at Villa. At every other aspect of centre forward play (aside from shooting!) he is world class.  Last season was probably his peak in terms of goals scored.

[Drummond]

Keep.

[PeterWithe]

I suppose the thing is, players who are noticably better than him now are going to cost huge sums and probably have their eyes on clubs who are CL regulars, so we are hoping to attract players who can grow into his role, and we had one, but he was nuts, so we had to sell him.

[LeeB]

Aye, maybe.  The fact is, if Ollie Watkins was more clinical he probably wouldn't be at Villa. At every other aspect of centre forward play (aside from shooting!) he is world class.  Last season was probably his peak in terms of goals scored.

I would usually say the same but I've not been particularly impressed with his hold up play this season, too often the ball bounces off him and comes back at us. I thought this was an area Duran had improved on massively and was kind of showing Ollie up with alongside the goals.

He's a good player and has been a great signing, but I think I'm just bored of seeing the same kind of chances given up now that the teams we're in competition with seem to put away.

[Somniloquism]

I'm not against selling Watkins, but when he does go he will be another player off the local association list for European squads so he will probably need replacing with another "local". (Or we need to get one elsewhere in the squad).

[wince]

We should keep Watkins and sort the defence. He gets pelters on here despite being one of our best strikers. I think he will go but he will be missed

[Dave]

I'm not against selling Watkins, but when he does go he will be another player off the local association list for European squads so he will probably need replacing with another "local". (Or we need to get one elsewhere in the squad).

Unless the rules change or something strange happens in the squad / transfers, I expect that next season (assuming we have to worry about submitted a squad for UEFA competition) we'll have Martinez, Rogers, Konsa and at least one of Mings, Cash, Barkley. Plus maybe Rashford / other non-striker signings that could come in.

We need four association trained players (with the other four needing to be club-trained), so it's probably not something to worry about just yet.

[Abbeyfealeavfc]

70 pl goals and 31 pl assists in 171 pl appearances. There's nothing boring about those stats!
Sure at some stage Ollie will drop out of the starting 11 or be moved on, but the striker that replaces him will have to equal or better those stats or be classed as a failure.
Good luck finding that striker, for a price we're willing to pay!
For the avoidance of doubt, duran was never going to be that striker. He had no affiliation to the club, team or fans and was always intent on leaving VP.

[brontebilly]

Aye, maybe.  The fact is, if Ollie Watkins was more clinical he probably wouldn't be at Villa. At every other aspect of centre forward play (aside from shooting!) he is world class.  Last season was probably his peak in terms of goals scored.

It's not just goals scored, on the bare stats last season Watkins got 32 G/A in 37 games, from memory without taking a penalty. That's remarkable really. Goes onto the Euros and left kicking his heels watching Kane stink it out until he gets a truly outstanding goal to put England in the final. Kane is undeniably a better forward than Watkins in terms of touch, ball striking, probably every stat. But Watkins makes England a better team. His movement, strength, resilience, unselfishness - he must be a nightmare to play against.

He was very slow to get going this season. Sulked when Duran was going well let's be honest. But he's seen him off now and watch him flourish. 16 G/A in 25 PL games isn't bad and with the amount of chances we create he will score plenty more until the seasons end. Yes, his effort in first half was brutal but he laid one on a plate for Rogers just after and he's sharper than anybody else for the rebound. That's Ollie - don't expect the golden first touch and sure strike of a ball.

You don't know what you have got until it's gone - see Luiz for example, also the older guard of Ollie, McGinn and even poor old Matty Cash are really underrated on here..

[OCD]

I wouldn't sell him this summer. I'd look to bring an understudy in who can become first choice, someone like Delap.

People point out that Ollie's 29 and peak value but he's a fit lad and plays most matches. He's going to be around for a good while yet. His transfer fee will either be fully amortised this summer or next and any fee we get becomes pure profit.

[Sexual Ealing]

I wouldn't sell him this summer. I'd look to bring an understudy in who can become first choice, someone like Delap.

People point out that Ollie's 29 and peak value but he's a fit lad and plays most matches. He's going to be around for a good while yet. His transfer fee will either be fully amortised this summer or next and any fee we get becomes pure profit.

He'll love that.