2023 Summer transfer window - hopes, needs, expectations and rumours.

[Sexual Ealing]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

It was the market that delivered him the wage we're paying him.

[Clark W Griswold]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

Bit worried about our recruitment this summer generally, we are injuries to Cash, Martinez and Watkins away from chaos.

On the one hand, the 3 players we've signed are very impressive and are players that should keep the momentum going, possibly even push us further. On the other hand there are still gaping holes as you point out. Got nothing against Olsen personally but i think he's the worst keeper i've seen at the Villa in 35 years. Yes, we have the best one i've seen in that time also but if he gets injured we're fucked. No natural right back other than Cash, and we let Young go. And yes, after watching pre-season i'd agree that if Watkins is out we've got a massive hole there too. So a real mixed bag so far, although there is still time of course.

[olaftab]

I think Digne gets a bad rap personally. I think he’s a good player.

I'm with you here. Maybe not worthy of being our highest paid player, nor as good as Moreno but I am comfortable with him being a valuable player in our squad.

Same here. The other advantage is that with Mings out, Digne is at least experienced with the rest of the defence and the Premier League in general. Not sure what the point of swapping a 30 year old back up for a 31 year old is, Acuna didn't look like much of an upgrade based on last night anyway.

Except that defence he played in restricted mancity to 1 goal and almost won the cup for his team.

[coreyfeldman]

And he's won a shit load in his career, including the wc and was considered the best left back in the league last season?

Have a word with yourself

[Risso]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

Bit worried about our recruitment this summer generally, we are injuries to Cash, Martinez and Watkins away from chaos.

On the one hand, the 3 players we've signed are very impressive and are players that should keep the momentum going, possibly even push us further. On the other hand there are still gaping holes as you point out. Got nothing against Olsen personally but i think he's the worst keeper i've seen at the Villa in 35 years. Yes, we have the best one i've seen in that time also but if he gets injured we're fucked. No natural right back other than Cash, and we let Young go. And yes, after watching pre-season i'd agree that if Watkins is out we've got a massive hole there too. So a real mixed bag so far, although there is still time of course.

If we hadn't had the injuries to Buendia and Mings, we'd be another forward and possible a right back option away from a very good window. But injured they are, and it's happened early enough in August so the club to need to get on with it.

Zaniolo worries me, he looks like a permanent injury waiting to happen, and has a few "issues" to say the least.

[Pat Mustard]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

Bit worried about our recruitment this summer generally, we are injuries to Cash, Martinez and Watkins away from chaos.

On the one hand, the 3 players we've signed are very impressive and are players that should keep the momentum going, possibly even push us further. On the other hand there are still gaping holes as you point out. Got nothing against Olsen personally but i think he's the worst keeper i've seen at the Villa in 35 years. Yes, we have the best one i've seen in that time also but if he gets injured we're fucked. No natural right back other than Cash, and we let Young go. And yes, after watching pre-season i'd agree that if Watkins is out we've got a massive hole there too. So a real mixed bag so far, although there is still time of course.

Did you not see Kalinic a few years back?  He made Robin Olsen look like Lev Yashin.  Not to mention Mark Bunn, Orjan Nyland, late-era Brad Guzan and that Spanish guy who played one game - Olsen might not be great, but he's not even in the bottom 3 keepers we've had in the last 10 years

[john e]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

Bit worried about our recruitment this summer generally, we are injuries to Cash, Martinez and Watkins away from chaos.

On the one hand, the 3 players we've signed are very impressive and are players that should keep the momentum going, possibly even push us further. On the other hand there are still gaping holes as you point out. Got nothing against Olsen personally but i think he's the worst keeper i've seen at the Villa in 35 years. Yes, we have the best one i've seen in that time also but if he gets injured we're fucked. No natural right back other than Cash, and we let Young go. And yes, after watching pre-season i'd agree that if Watkins is out we've got a massive hole there too. So a real mixed bag so far, although there is still time of course.

Did you not see Kalinic a few years back?  He made Robin Olsen look like Lev Yashin.  Not to mention Mark Bunn, Orjan Nyland, late-era Brad Guzan and that Spanish guy who played one game - Olsen might not be great, but he's not even in the bottom 3 keepers we've had in the last 10 years

I’m with the Griswold

[johnc]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

Bit worried about our recruitment this summer generally, we are injuries to Cash, Martinez and Watkins away from chaos.

On the one hand, the 3 players we've signed are very impressive and are players that should keep the momentum going, possibly even push us further. On the other hand there are still gaping holes as you point out. Got nothing against Olsen personally but i think he's the worst keeper i've seen at the Villa in 35 years. Yes, we have the best one i've seen in that time also but if he gets injured we're fucked. No natural right back other than Cash, and we let Young go. And yes, after watching pre-season i'd agree that if Watkins is out we've got a massive hole there too. So a real mixed bag so far, although there is still time of course.

Did you not see Kalinic a few years back?  He made Robin Olsen look like Lev Yashin.  Not to mention Mark Bunn, Orjan Nyland, late-era Brad Guzan and that Spanish guy who played one game - Olsen might not be great, but he's not even in the bottom 3 keepers we've had in the last 10 years

I think we can file this under "damning with faint praise" 
The goalie I least enjoyed watching was Mervyn Day. His nerves were shot after 4 years behind the Orient defence

[ozzjim]

Me too. Olsen is terrible. Watkins, Cash or Emi M get any sort of long term injury, we're up the creek.

[Clark W Griswold]

Its all about opinions. From what people said on here Kalinic was extremely shit but i don't think i ever saw him play. As for Guzan, twat that he was, he was very good early days standing in for Freidel (and is the kind of level we could do with now as back up), although he was awful in the relegation season. Nyland and Bunn certainly not as bad for me, Nyland did actually have some decent games for us. Enkelmann was a bad one, always put the shits up me even before the Blues debacle.

But anyway, aside from the possibility of Kalinic, he's the worst as far as i'm concerned.

[steamer]

Who was the guy that had a "pain" in his arse ?

[Gareth]

I think comparing crap keepers isnt necessarily comparing apples with apples….Olsen feels worse because of difference in ability and influence if Martinez is out….with the likes of Nyland and Kalinic you were generally replacing average with average.

[Clark W Griswold]

Maybe but Olsen is ultimately crap because he keeps giving the ball back to the opposition, and he's like a statue not coming off his line at times and just standing watching the ball flying past him into the net with pretty much no resistance.

[Gareth]

Absolutely his kicking is beyond dire - he’s a decent shot stopper but nowhere near Martinez standard who is exceptional.

My absolute scary scenario is we don’t replace Olsen or back up Ollie and come the Liverpool game we have a day like the Heaton / Wesley at Burnley. 

[chrisw1]

Digne was an upgrade on Targett, no question, however not the vast improvement that you see compared to Moreno.  Yet for the money paid and wages spent it should be the other way round.  He's guilty of no more than Gerrard overspending on him and accepting a wage way above what his talent would have got in the market.
If we can move him off the wage bill and come in with a similar fee that we paid then it makes sense, especially to replace with a big character, a fighter and a winner, because we have never had enough of those.  We've always been a bit nice!

Bit worried about our recruitment this summer generally, we are injuries to Cash, Martinez and Watkins away from chaos.

On the one hand, the 3 players we've signed are very impressive and are players that should keep the momentum going, possibly even push us further. On the other hand there are still gaping holes as you point out. Got nothing against Olsen personally but i think he's the worst keeper i've seen at the Villa in 35 years. Yes, we have the best one i've seen in that time also but if he gets injured we're fucked. No natural right back other than Cash, and we let Young go. And yes, after watching pre-season i'd agree that if Watkins is out we've got a massive hole there too. So a real mixed bag so far, although there is still time of course.

If we hadn't had the injuries to Buendia and Mings, we'd be another forward and possible a right back option away from a very good window. But injured they are, and it's happened early enough in August so the club to need to get on with it.

Zaniolo worries me, he looks like a permanent injury waiting to happen, and has a few "issues" to say the least.

To be honest I'm also worried about Carlos and Torres.  I've seen nothing from Carlos to suggest he will get back to being a top centre back and he's theoretically been fit for about 4 months now.  And whilst Torres undoubtedly has superb ability on the ball he is lightweight with very poor defensive and aerial stats.  Whether he can adapt to the PL remains to be seen, but if he can you would have thought it would be ideally next to a Mings style brick-shithouse and I don't think Konsa or Carlos are that man.  Unless Carlos becomes very good very quickly, I think we're going to be conceding a lot of goals from set pieces.