Not disputing those purchases, but manager or not when have Villa ever bought a player of those levels. I mean yes Ancelotti had the foresight to buy them, but it's not always down to the manager. Let's say we get Ancelotti and he goes to Lerner "Give me £40-£50 million, I want to buy Lionel Messi".. Lerner might say yes as Messi is the greatest player in the world and arguably the greatest player of all time, but not even Ancelotti is going to make Villa Park an attractive prospect to Messi.. So yes Ancelotti buys great players but it also helps that he was at AC Milan at the time.