skarroki

This is how I read your post.

Whenever I think of failed medicals I think of Fekir. Has had an amazing career from a stats perspective and looked the real deal but whenever he gets close to his one big move there's a very public failure of the medical. Always wondered what they're uncovering after checking his pulse that wasn't known from watching him play most matches for his club over 10 years.

The premier league Italian curse was broken as soon as tonali skydived into our box to score the opener on Saturday. Zaniolo will win player of the season for us. Definitely the signing that excites me the most this window. Maybe our best window since the Young / Carew January window? Probably should wait till it closes to give that kind of endorsement....

Not sure if you're serious?

Sorry yeah that's what I was getting at but couldn't bring myself to say it haha. I think we had a very very poor season of scouting, I don't think Buendia, Ings or Bailey suited Smith's style of play, I'd say Watkins was still ahead of Ings and we had 2 RW insfead of one, so we were going into the season with a chasm on the LW and too many options in the other positions. Since then two permanent managers who play in a way none of those 3 suit. I would imagine we had bigger aspirations for a LW signing which didn't work out, potentially Smith Rowe, and so we went for backup options. But yeah, in hindsight this was poor recruitment in terms of building a coherent squad. However, I don't think any team has ever successfully replaced an irreplaceable player with a group of new players. I find Brighton's current approach of replacing Caicedo and Mac Allister with two free agents fascinating, as if they're aware of the unquantifiable curse that clubs face and so are holding onto the profits instead of taking risks with them.

I think Bailey has suffered from coming into a team and immediately getting injured, and subsequently having to try and recover from injury and get back up to speed with a league he's never played in, in positions and formations and tactics he's never played in before. It feels like an awful lot is expected of him in terms of changes to his game and a lot of understanding. Add to that his birthday he seemed to only celebrate with Traore and Konsa in our squad after over 2 years in the country, seems as though he's not got close to anyone in the squad which might mean he's never felt settled or "home" It's an odd one as he looked a quality player in Germany. I wish we could see the best of him but similar to Sancho, if you take these bundesliga wingers out of their team and tactic that makes them flourish, then stick them in a similar position on the grass but with everything else around them different, you're relying on luck more than anything to get a good outcome. The Bailey, Buendia, Ings transfer was clearly a mistake. Since day 1 there's been people saying where does Ings fit, Buendia and Bailey play in the same position, what tactic do we play with these players, can they make the step up etc. I think the most realistically positive outcome is that Bailey has a good season with us as a bit-part player and we sell him on without too much of a loss at the end of the season. I definitely think we should give him another season though.

In all honesty all I know of this guy is from ultimate team. He's always highly rated 80+ and always gets an out of position card, Sevilla fans seemed to joke that he doesn't have a position similar to Kostic, he just plays "left" and if you need a CM, CB, LW, LB LM etc then he can fill in there. I'd say he's a good replacement for Young in terms of fitting in anywhere on the pitch but I don't know if he's got close to the same of pitch qualities that Young had. I'll be happy with the signing for sure. Be sad to see Digne go, he was one of my favourite left backs in the league when he was at Everton and I was sure he would be a huge success here.

Okay got that, so I'm just trying to understand how that links to our transfer policy shifting? I would say we're not taking risks on young talent because there's no need to any more. We can afford not to and we're in a position in the league to attract ready-made. I would also say Brighton have signed a lot of players this season that are ready-made too and have missed out on people that were fairly sure-fire like Colwill. Pedro record signing, they know what you're getting with Milner and Dahoud and £17mil for a GK in Verbruggen is a big outlay. Not a lot of loans now, transfer strategy definitely evolving.

91.4% pass accuracy for a young keeper in league one is quite something! Two good sides they've played too.

What was the point you were trying to make?

Don't think our transfer policy is based on and dictated by the impatience of a section of our fanbase on social media.

To be fair I'd say at the time I didn't think that about any of them. Bailey looked a quality player and if he didn't have a foot like mjolnir for that goal on his debut injuring himself, he could have really kicked on. He never quite seemed fit under Dean Smith and then the two subsequent managers don't play formations that suit his strengths. Traore was a good signing for where we were I think. He still looks a good player to me. Scored goals to get us into Europe after he was thrown out of training months before and shipped off to Turkey. Can't question his professionalism and what he's contributed. Coutinho in hindsight fully agree but at the time I thought he'd done enough in the 4/5 months we had him to get a permanent deal done, and then we got him at cut price with massively reduced wages from his Barca days so it all looked like great business.

We did our own survey on this site didn't we? I think before the Torres and Diaby signings I suggested another top 10 finish and a good run in the cup, hopefully a final, would be progress. Top 10 for two years running after not being top 10 for a decade I think is progress. Obviously though it hurts watching a game like that whether expectations are high or not. Some of the players looked like they'd already played a match that day in 40° heat they were so lethargic. Newcastle are known to be outrageously fit and strong. Complete mismatch in the end and our record at St James speaks for itself. Only won in 2005 thanks to 2 penalties and Newcastle playing with 8 men

Looked like he was ready to tear bricks out the wall once we conceded our 4th. Wouldn't want to be in that dressing room with him now.

Bore off

Could be 7 or 8 and our best player should have been sent off. Shambles

I just think it's easy to say they're bad because there's no proof yet that they're good. I don't think they'll be pulling up trees anytime soon but there's no way they'll be below top 10 with some of the dross this season. Brentford have lost there two best players, so have Brighton, who else finished above them, Palace? Now without Zaha and with the 92 year old Hodgson back for more. Most teams bottom half have regressed, I've got back from Burnley vs Man City tonight and just watched the most championship standard team I've seen in the Prem for a while, just without any height, physicality or ability on set peices. Sheffield United are actively trying to get relegated by flogging their only good players and Luton are shopping in league 1 and lower championship. Chelsea have potential world stars in their team, you can only say that about 3 or 4 sides in the league.

I think this is massively discrediting Chelsea and their players, scouting, manager and coaching staff due to an absolute write off of a season last time out. Half that team, the coaches and manager knew they weren't going to be there in a few months. Lampard has been open about finding it impossible to motivate the players. It was a similar rerun of Rangnick the season before. When the people in charge and the people on the pitch have no skin in the game and don't have to face the consequences of how the season pans out, you're going to lose a lot at an elite level. The difference between us and them is that a lot of their squad are unknown quantities still now. On their day though, some of those players could be absolute stars and so it's how quickly Poch can get them ticking over, if they're spluttering for too long at the start of the season confidence could drain and that young squad could find it difficult to keep a clear frame of mind. I'd say to answer this I have no idea who could get in our team because I don't know any of their qualities enough. Nice boring response. I could definitely make a long list of players they have that I'd like / have liked us to sign though, given the opportunity and budget.

Don't know if it's been discussed before but feel like if Brighton can get Kudus but can't agree personal terms, we should be all over a hijack of that move. Weakens them and gives us a great player without having to negotiate with the club, just offer what Brighton offered.

Unless his groin strain is actually a "groin strain"...

Since 2018 he's only worn 17 and 22 and both are free so that promising if he's picky about squad numbers. Unless there's a genuine reason Duran wants 24 I felt like that was a clear indication of him signing this morning. Once the manager name checks a player in a conference you have to feel they're sure it'll be going ahead

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2023/august/11/aston-villa-squad-numbers-for-2022-23/ Number 39 is free and he might be listed as that in the squad list section, I'm not sure. But in the official announcement, he's left out. Edit: I know the link says 2022/23 but that's the official sites mistake, not mine. The link takes you to the new squad numbers announced today

Iroegbunam and Archer given their squad numbers, so for now look to be in the plans of the manager. Philogene-Bidace has his double-barreled surname on the official squad list again. Can't see anyone else obvious excluded unless they're such a forgotten player for Villa I didn't even know they were still here.

Davis not given squad number, we freezing him out or is an announcement of a move away imminent

This probably goes without saying so sorry for stating the obvious, but all the Wolves fans I know say that none of their side would get in our strongest XI now and they'd even say Dendonker would walk back into the team if he was still there and he's way down our pecking order. Even Tim on The Athletic says he's very worried about Wolves and that's shared by the guys I know. HITC Sevens did a video on them a few days ago and there's very little arrogance in the comments from their fans. The thing is there's always a glimmer of eternal hope in football and their starting XI is better than at least 3 other teams, O'Neil has just kept up a worse side in the league and their form in pre-season was good. But I think the optimism only goes as far as "we might not finish below 17th" in my experience. Just playing devil's advocate really because I've been seeing a lot of hate for Wolves fans and their arrogance recently, not from you personally or saying that what you're saying is wrong, just that every club has their idiots who have blind optimism and hate on others for no reason. Maybe it's due to where you live because I'm in Leeds and find them insufferable and their irrational hatred of us