AndyGray1985

I saw that later - just remembered a warning It's been close to a year since I made that post.

Thanks for the heads up

Round was brought in when Irvine left to become a manager and never convinced. Irvine did a much better job. My opinions on Wyness have already landed me a warning on here.

Being an Everton supporter with a lot of time for Villa I've read this latest discussion with great interest. My view is that both clubs have a "bandwith" - Villas currently being from mid-table Championship at worst to top 7 in the PL at best within 24 months. Quite a huge spread of 20+ league placings, but given luck, finances and players gelling to a team not out of the question - and vice versa. Evertons range is narrower - probably 14th-3rd - and, as each place upwards becomes progressively harder, more likely 9th-5th. So Villa can get on par with Everton within a couple of season, but it will not be very likely to happen. The continuous flow of income will be so different that FFP-rules will prevent Villa from closing the gap on transfers and salaries within the 24 months - making the on-field results less likely to happen. A lot of the discussion seem to confuse possible and likely - I'm not sure whether there's any real disagreement here.

In the PL - haven't seen anything on the Championship.

Not a strong correlation - but a strong one with wages

Round, Wyness and Samuelson. An unholy trinity of self interest.

New scout for Scandinavia starting soon. A familiar name

I'm starting to believe you might be right.

I agree to some extent - but the best experiences were still with the pretty ones.

Cech was another, Diarra and Drogba, to name some off my memory. If you have the cash it might be a great fit

He's adored as a coach and former player at EFC - some called for him as a manager after his 1 game as caretaker :-D

He found Essien and more than a handful of players who turned out great years before they were household names. But it's history :-)

I believe I've given my view on this a bit earlier in this thread

14 out of 16 scouts were sacked when Koeman came in, so wouldn't put too much into it. Atkins is most famous for the players he found, but EFC couldn't afford... Not a bad scout, but scouting realistic targets should be a parameter. But EFC were even more in the s*it at the time, financially. Could have had a great team with the players we didn't sign ;-)