StanBalaban

Off the top of my head, Man City are the only team that really has a full, first-team squad. By that I mean that there are multiple permutations of a starting XI without any noticeable drop off in quality. Us Villa fans are barely used to the idea of having 2 good players in one position (see LB for example). Fans would want to sell one and bring in 'cover'. That doesn't build a squad, that builds an XI with contingencies. Get it right and there should be plenty of games for people to stake a claim to start. We need to be able to tailor the team to beat the opposition in front of us. If we know what the team will be, the opposing coaches certainly will. Tyrone has welcomed the idea of competition for places. It's how we'll keep improving.

You'd have Diaby, Bailey, Philogene and Doku as your wide options. Lots of games to rotate for injuries, form, suspensions, fatigue, etc.

Not exactly relating to the Villa kit of this year, but these arrived yesterday...

I really hope he's not going to be a sitting duck running a wet setup should it be a dry race. The McLaren is quick through the corners but that rear wing kills their top speed. Hopefully he can hold onto Max early on, and have the RBR tow him away from the chasing pack.

I think it's a decent effort. With this and some of the training gear, I'll be buying up some shiz!

Having seen a footballer's contract I can tell you that they are full of tiny details, all outlining what the consequence of breaching would be. Normally they pertain to commercial arrangements, personal endorsements, brand association, permitted extra-curricular activity (e.g. dangerous sports, etc), political activity, charity work, and so on. And this is a two-way street where red lines are drawn by both sides. This is why many "done deals" can take an age to become official. It will be clearly outlined what subject matter Jordan Henderson can and cannot discuss in the public realm before he breaches his contract - which could come with huge financial penalties in addition to forgoing future income.

Humidity was 98%. I think they were actually soaking wet.

I don't know if it's a uniquely Villa thing, but we're a oddly conditioned bunch. We're a big team and want to win things, but we get fixated on having a first XI, or get nervous when paying bigger wages. I mentioned it before but Digne's (and Coutinho's) wages wouldn't put them in the top 10 at Liverpool, Man Ure or Chelsea. I can imagine similar at Arsenal, Man City too. That's practically a whole team at each club that would earn more than him. If we're going to play in the big boys pool as a big club, it is unfortunately part of the game now. Digne will be a very important part of the squad this season, especially with Moreno injured. To add: he also seems a decent character, and took on the challenge of Unai bringing his own man in to the extent that the left-backs were sharing game time successfully.

Let's not forget that the January window comes around pretty quickly. Will be interested to see who takes their chance and who gets shuffled in the new year.

I work with high net worth individuals primarily based in the Middle East. Whilst I don't directly deal with many footballers, I do get to see how some of them have managed their wealth. It boggles the mind how they can burn through extreme amounts of cash without even realising. Most footballers don't come from money, nor are many of them financially savvy. When they start earning millions it may not surprise you that they can burn through it pretty quickly. Houses, flash cars, expensive items, holidays, are just the tip of the iceberg. You've got family pressure - not just buying a nice house for the parents, but suddenly 'uncle Jack' wants to buy that bar he's always wanted in Sunderland and pisses away a million quid. Everyone in the family that has a loan or mortgage expects it to be paid off and cousin Billy has some gambling debts and their gonna bust his knees. Then comes the bad investment advice, the desire to buy a tiger for the entourage and don't forget the HMRC. Hardly a sob story, but does add a little context. I have no idea if Jordan Henderson has managed his money well, but I do know that earning 75 million over a career doesn't mean he has 75 million in the bank. As @OutByEaster? said, his legs have gone so this is very much a last payday, but one that keeps him and his family in the lifestyle that they've grown accustomed to for decades of retirement and beyond. This is not a comment on the ethics of being paid by the KSA government, - that's a separate point to the one I'm trying to add context to. But rather than being able to buy a yacht or jet, it's just some of the financial factors that he would have weighed up in his mind when having such a vast amount of tax free money on the table. Is he a massive hypocrite for taking money from KSA? Of course, but they've obviously discovered what his price is.

I would think he'd take the Traore role in the pecking order more than Bailey. I can see Bailey having his part to play in this campaign, and hopefully he can successfully link up with Diaby like he did in Germany.

Comfortably our best outfield player right now.

Not saying you're wrong, but at his age Harry Kane was playing for Norwich and Jack Grealish at Notts County.

I'm sorry but I cannot idly stand by whilst Unai is on page 3 of VT. In all sincerity, this man is one of the best things to happen to our club, and seems a thoroughly committed, driven, elite individual determined to bring us the good times again. It's been said before that the last fella carried a stench around with him thinking we should be grateful for him being at the Villa. Don Unai is the exact opposite, and a properly classy gentleman too. He's just great and I really hope we get to lift some silverware with him!

I don't see anything on his Twitter feed about Bamford but, oddly enough, his last Tweet about us was on the 13th July. Doesn't seem to be very active on Villa stuff.

I think there's often been a lack of cohesion with some of the signings. Good player, shit team. Shit player, ok team. Right player, wrong manager(s), etc. The key thing is we have now is a truly elite management structure that understands exactly what they want in their team. This should mitigate some of the risk of new signings ending up in the Turkey / perennial loan bin. People wonder how Man City get so much money for some of their fringe players. The knock-on effect of a player in the squad of a Guardiola team outweighs the currency of having played regularly for a Dean Smith team for example. Hopefully we start to see some good fees for players that play a role for Don Unai, but may not have a longer term future as we become more successful.

Not saying there's any truth to this rumour, but we have to get used to the idea of building a multi-dimensional squad where there are numerous options available to Unai. As Villa fans, we're so conditioned to having a predictable starting XI, with the rest of the squad available to cover injuries and suspensions.

Fulham looking sharp against Brentford early on and have scored a lovely goal.

Yeah I think on the surface the numbers in the ASM transfer seem absolutely fine. The major concern will be if they are able to offload deadwood at will. It's not so much about getting over inflated fees, it's more if they are able to clear unwanted wages off their books on demand.

If we trust Unai and Monchi to sell the project to players like Diaby, then surely they can be even more effective with the players we want to keep. I would be surprised if Luiz isn't massively excited for the start of the season as a key part of our PL and European campaign.

Difference is that ManUre, Liverpool, Arsenal wouldn't have been fussed about Watford. Now that it threatens millions of potential revenue for the big clubs, they'll be very vocal. Whether this has any effect immediately remains to be seen, but you can bet they'll be watching Newcastle's activities like a hawk. It'll be like Christian Horner and his radio messages to the stewards. Hopefully the likes of us, Spuds, Brighton and Brentford are also weighing in.

I said this a few weeks back in the Martinez thread, but the biggest threat we face is the wages that these clubs pay. The Digne thread sees us talk about his massive income, but last season both Chelsea and Liverpool had an entire team of players each on more than him. For Liverpool, practically half of their 25 man squad earned more than our highest earner. Add to that the additional exposure lands personal endorsements around the world plus automatic call ups to national teams. Chelsea have 40 million people following their Instagram compared to our 3 million. This is not a slight on Villa, but there are plenty of non-footballing reasons why an agent and player would be tempted. Thankfully, we are a very exciting project with a truly wonderful manager and set of owners. If we can have another successful season, these rumours will become fewer and far between.

Both Klopp and Pep effectively saying they are expecting a lot of things to happen this window, which is slightly ominous. Let's hope they stay away from any of our players, whilst ending up with a load of super expensive duds.

One of the guys in my team is from Zimbabwe. He says that Marvelous pumps a huge amount of money into education and infrastructure projects back home. Top man and hope he does well at Luton.