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This. Ultimately he has made it clear he wants competition for all positions. Jed has just signed a new contract, but he would have done so knowing that either Kalinic was his competition or a new player. No player has a guaranteed starting place and that should be how it is.

Updated Squad List since Luiz, Heaton and Nakamba: - Heaton/Steer/Kalinic/Nyland Guilbert/Elmohamady/Bree - Engels/Konsa/Chester - Mings/Hause - Targett/Taylor Luiz/Nakamba/Bjarnason/Tshibola Grealish/Hourihane/O'Hare - McGinn/Lansbury/Doyle-Hayes Trezeguet/Jota El Ghazi/Green Wesley/Kodjia/Davis/Hogan/Hepburn-Murphy Think we are nearly there. Only player possibly in would be another ST IMO. Sell: 1 Goalkeeper (Nyland or Kalinic, with Kalinic most likely) Bree Tshibola Bjarnason Hogan Loan out: Bree (if not sold) Tshibola (if not sold) O'Hare (possibly, though could be good for him to be in 1st team squad) Doyle-Hayes Hepburn-Murphy Davis (if we get another ST) Can't believe its 1st August and we have pretty much done incoming transfer dealings. 12 players in, all look like a big step up for us. Love it.

At £8million pleased with this. Even if we only get 2/3 years out him he will set us up nicely in a key position. It is always good to see other teams fans being gutted at losing a player to us Will probably mean one of Kalinic/Nyland out of the door, main suspect being Kalinic.

Just seen this Birmingham City: Midfielders Agustin Medina and Ivan Guzman sign So they have bought a 28 year old from the 3rd tier of Spanish football, and then immediately loan him out to another 3rd tier Spanish team. The only reason seems to be so they could buy the 1st player. Its the only logical reasoning. With reference of "sister club" this deal stinks even by SHA's standards. Still 3rd tier Spanish League is what equivalent to League 1/2 here? Glad to see they are preparing for the future

Actually John is running with his 3rd leg, you’ve just not noticed. He used it to score the 2nd goal on Saturday. #superjohnmcginnfacts

Dear Villa Please announce another player so we can stop talking about a spurious link for SJM to Manure written by one of the worst journalists in one of the worst papers. Thanks Every Villa Fan

They could be, but I wouldn’t be surprised if that may be seen as a step down in a year or so... probably not but if we build a sense of going places, players won’t want to leave.

Mings Targett Engels Trezeguet Luiz El Ghazi Jota Hause Wesley Central midfielder Back up Defensive midfielder Was looking through the old pages and I think @OutByEaster? was pretty spot on with this! You’ve missed out Konsa and got an extra CM as I think you were, like all of us, expecting for us to be in Championship still, Elphick to remain and for Grealish to be gone. The amount we have moved on in such a short space of time is incredible! It’s also nice to see that the management/owners see the same problems and have got on with it.

Bizarrely none. It has been very quiet on players leaving, with a rumour of one of the youngsters going out on loan (RHM IIRC) but that’s it. I’m excluding the SJM rubbish from the sun as you requested solid links…

Don’t worry, at least Jack Woodward was it and rubbed it all in our wounds with saying how good it was along with all the chances we missed as the only method to watch the game. Representative for Wellingborough.

Just gone on sale to STers. Can see that Holte End and North Stand completely sold up. Lower and middle tier Trinity along with lower Doug sold out. I know its the first game but I think tickets are going to be difficult this season...

It is, but it is far, far worse for the UK than it is for the EU. Only their trade deals with 1 country will be affected whilst for us 27+ any other country we haven't resolved a deal with yet (last I recall back from March it was very few that had done a deal). That is why all this "bravado" Boris/Farage etc. are spouting is in vein as what they are threatening is worse for us than it is for them, it is quite possibly the worse tactic they could employ with either it ending up with us backing down or us shooting ourselves in the foot. Why threaten something that will clearly not be in our interests? It is diabolically stupid and an argument that the EU sees right through, hence their stance. The EU doesn't need to compromise, don't forget that the WA and the backstop is our idea, not theirs. We have presented as a deal we can get through parliament, which we can't. If we went back to the EU with a "softer" deal, they probably would go for it, its just that is not what the Tories are offering nor will they ever do so. They are so worried about the drivel that Farage spouts, and they have been for over 20 years that they will try and appease them for everything to keep their votes and to stay in power, for the good of the party "good of the country". Self serving egotistic morons. And don't even get me started on the whole possible US trade deal. Just watch the @Xann video above to show how terrible that would be for the NHS. The fact that is even in people's thinking is damn right dangerous.

I am not sure I get "lack of premier league" experience issue. We are still playing football right? Ultimately the game isn't actually that different. I can accept style may be different, i.e. we won't have teams sitting back and lumping to the striker (with the exception of Newcastle) and are more keen to you know, pass the ball and play football. It is far more tactical based. What we saw last year was we actually played football and we did well with it. There was a clear plan to play attacking football and tactics to that effect. This was with players that were clearly not in the Smith model and yet we did it. What we have seen so far is that being continued, and the players being bought are clearly with that in mind with a view to grow. There is also already an exceptional team spirit, both from the players last year and the new ones. They seemed to have all fitted in nicely with the ethos. When people say we are "doing a Fulham", it just shows their assumptions based on the actions of 1 team rather than looking at the holistics of it all. People like Allardyce are simply showing how ignorant they can be. And you know what, let them, I really don't care. It just means that they will underestimate us, and I quite like that.

It is, but it is also buying the right players. All of these fit a particular model. With the oldest is Jota at 28 years old, it is clear the policy we are going for and trying to produce. This is the long game. The reason I put the figures in and the comparison was to show how much we have moved on in just 3 years, where we have spent twice as much as what the club was worth.

Spent so far this summer: Jota Undisclosed (£2,000,000) Anwar El Ghazi Undisclosed (£5,000,000) Wesley £22,000,000 Kortney Hause £3,000,000 Matt Targett £11,500,000 Tyrone Mings £20,000,000 Ezri Konsa Undisclosed (12,000,000) Björn Engels Undisclosed (£9,000,000) Trézéguet £8,750,000 Total: £93,250,000 so far (approximately obviously) Plus Marvelous (£11,500,000) and Luiz (£15,000,000) likely, that's £119,750,000. And we are probably not done yet. £120million spent this summer. £120million. That is around twice than the club was worth when Xia bought in 2016, just 3 years ago. Let that sink in for a moment.

The journalist he has linked (@niels_27) broke the Wesley story on 13 June 2019 (and I think he may have been the original one too...). Also follows Club Brugge so probably has a good knowledge too. Think this one is a goer

I wasn't expecting 2 DM signings, but why not both? We all know Hourihane can play the DM role, but he is better higher up the pitch. Have Nakamba/Luiz battling for the DM position, allowing Grealish/McGinn/Hourihane/Lansbury/O'Hare/Bjarnason to challenge the 2 CM spots. That would be very healthy competition.

No we didn't. From the fountain of knowledge that is Wikipedia... : 11 July 2015 Training match Fulham 3–1 Aston Villa Albufeira, Portugal 17 July 2015 Training match Braga 0–0 Aston Villa Albufeira, Portugal 21 July 2015 Friendly Swindon Town 0–2 Aston Villa Swindon 22 July 2015 Friendly Forest Green Rovers 0–3 Aston Villa XI Nailsworth 25 July 2015 Friendly Walsall 1–1 Aston Villa Walsall 28 July 2015 Friendly Wolverhampton Wanderers 2–2 Aston Villa Wolverhampton 29 July 2015 Friendly Tamworth 3–0 Aston Villa XI Tamworth 1 August 2015 Friendly Nottingham Forest 3–3 Aston Villa Nottingham That includes reserves as well. We beat Swindon Town and Forest Green Rovers, that's it. Yes it was only Walsall, but it was still nice to see. Leipzig will be the main test pre-season.

Swings and roundabouts though. Gardner and De Laet were out on loan for the whole season. Elphick and McCormack were out for parts of the season as well.

I don't. Yes, there is a lot of unproven players in there, but they have all clearly bought with purpose and intent and with specific way to play. As @Demitri_C's post shows, the players that we have brought in are far superior to what we have let go. There is also natural competition which means if 1 player doesn't perform, then there is someone already there to replace. There is also a clear team mentality, which we have lacked for a very, very long time. This is a team that is going to go out and try and win every game, and you know what, I think they can*. *they won't, obviously, but the fact that they will try is refreshing.

So does squad look like this now: Steer/Kalinic/Nyland Guilbert/Elmohamady/Bree - Engels/Konsa/Chester - Mings/Hause - Targett/Taylor Hourihane/Bjarnason/Tshibola Grealish/O'Hare - McGinn/Lansbury/Doyle-Hayes Trezeguet/Jota El Ghazi/Green Wesley/Kodjia/Davis/Hogan/Hepburn-Murphy If/when Douglas signs that will look much better. Clearly the weakest position, but other than competition for GK, DM and ST, I think that is looking pretty good now just need to start clearing a few of those at the bottom of the lists...

Again, I agree, but I suspect that Smith thinks that one of either Wesley/Kodjia/Davis/RHM or Steer/Kalinic/Nyland will be good enough for next season. It could be that Purslow was toying with people and we are actually in for both - but that is something that is rather good about us at the moment; we are simply just getting business done. Absolutely love it.

Personally think he would be OK for next season, not great though and definitely somewhere we can improve on. Given it is such a key position, I would prefer it being sorted now rather than running a risk with it.

With Purslow saying 2/3 more Trezeguet now confirmed as 1, Douglas likely as the 2nd and then possibly one more, though that doesn't seem urgent. I suspect it will be GK or ST but we won't be held to ransom over them.

Well done! You are now halfway to be being as right as broken clock