Cizzler

7 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

Looking on Transfermarkt, he isn’t even the 25th most expensive ever:

 

1	Benjamin Mendy Left-Back	27			3	£67.05m
2	Abdou Diallo Left-Back	25			3	£58.50m
3	Lucas Digne Left-Back	28			4	£48.78m
4	Ferland Mendy Left-Back	26			2	£47.70m
5	Filipe Luís Left-Back	36			4	£45.18m
6	Ben Chilwell Left-Back	25			1	£45.18m
7	Yuri Zhirkov Left-Back	38			5	£43.15m
8	Theo Hernández Left-Back	24			2	£40.95m
9	Yuri Berchiche Left-Back	31			2	£36.00m
10	Alex Sandro Left-Back	30			3	£35.82m
11	Luke Shaw Left-Back	26			1	£33.75m
12	Marc Cucurella Left-Back	23			4	£32.22m
13	Junior Firpo Left-Back	25			2	£31.50m
14	Daley Blind Left-Back	31			3	£30.60m
15	Leonardo Spinazzola Left-Back	28			3	£30.06m
16	Ashley Young Left-Back	36			3	£29.61m
17	Nico Schulz Left-Back	28			3	£29.25m
18	Cristian Ansaldi Left-Back	35			8	£29.03m
19	Fábio Coentrão Left-Back	33			3	£28.71m
20	Aleksandar Kolarov Left-Back	36			5	£28.51m
21	Diego Laxalt Left-Back	28			6	£28.44m
22	Alex Telles Left-Back	29			5	£27.16m
23	Sergio Reguilón Left-Back	25			1	£27.00m
24	Abdul-Rahman Baba Left-Back	27			3	£26.10m
25	Jonny Otto Left-Back	27			2	£25.20m

 

Yes, he is, - that's him there in third .

Unrelated - but little peculiar that 3 of the top 4 most expensive left backs are Senegalese/part-Senegalese.  

12 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Doesn't even start for Mali today in the opening game 

Bet the 2 players ahead of him cost about 20 million less

All of Mali's best players are centre mids tbf.

Samassekou, Haidara and Mohamed Camara have all gone via the Red Bull route to European football.  

Had a trial with us at 15, so looks like he's been on our radar for a while.

https://www.thecourier.co.uk/fp/sport/football/dundee-united/1616119/exclusive-highly-rated-young-dundee-united-defender-kerr-smith-to-join-aston-villa/

Chukwuemeka? Sanson?

The players look knackered?

3 minutes ago, obanken said:

Two goalkeepers as subs, and no Trez. That dive didn’t go down well with Gerrard?

At AFCON

11 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

I can see it ending up like James.

He'll play alright for 5-6 months then a big club will pick him up.

He is most likely looking at us as a stop gap and that's ok.

Ah yes, James picked up by that massive Qatari club Al-Rayyan. Clearly his performances for Everton put him in their window.

If Coutinho is motivated, he’ll be an unbelievable signing. He’ll be the most talented player in the squad by a country mile. 

21 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

Polish TV showed an interview where Cash speaks with a Polish team chef and he said he eats literally anything.

So maybe Villa wasn't that strict on diet before Gerrard. 

From The Athletic article on Cash and Poland:

Food was initially a concern. Cash has a personal chef in England and sticks to a carefully structured diet, but there was no need for any special requests. If anything, he liked what was on offer — often a wide selection of cold meats, lentils, other sources of protein and fresh fruit  — even more.

Whether it was the nutritional boost or just a general enthusiasm that helped him impress during the week is open to discussion. What does not need to be debated was the quality he showed in training, especially his first session, that Sousa described as “really fantastic”.

Gerrard’s Rangers have been the SPL’s biggest spenders every year he’s been the there.

I’m sorry but beating a depleted Celtic team who’ve lost Tierney, Edouard, Ajer., Frimpong, etc. over the years whilst considerably outspending the rest of the league just isn’t impressive.

Anyone here honestly think Smith couldn’t win the SPL on the biggest budget? 

I was calling for Smith’s exit in the emotions after the Southampton game - but if it’s to bring Gerrard in, then that’s thoroughly underwhelming. Would’ve kept Dean 100 times out of 100.

The sickening Liverpool love-in. The short-term aspect of the appointment (he’s either shit or good and goes to Liverpool). He’s completely unproven as a manager.

This move would underline the board’s complete lack of direction/idea (which accompanies their activity in this summer’s transfer window tbh).

Aren’t we supposed to want to be challenging for Europe? Spurs are in the ECL and bring in Conte, we’re looking at Stevie G. Depressing.

16 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

The point was people weren’t bothered about a lack of achievements by Smith but are seemingly about Gerrrard. It isn’t about the clubs they are at or where we are, it appears that it is more about if people like the manager.

People’s expectations for our new manager now are a lot higher than they were when we were recruiting from 17th in the Championship.

I personally don’t care whether the manager has won a tinpot league in Europe. PL experience matters, which is why I’d prefer Hasenhuttl, Potter or AVB.

2 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Post i quoted you said player for player

Haha it didn’t, but not sure it really matters anyway.

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

Brighton centre midfield at the weekend cost 29 million, ours 10 million 

I said first XI in my original post.

55 minutes ago, lexicon said:

They had years in the league before us and were already established. It's facile to compare net spends because a large chunk of what we spent was on rebuilding the squad from almost nothing. 

In any case, they still haven't proved themselves. 

Every single player in our first XI is more expensive than their counterpart in the Brighton or Southampton team.

It’s “facile” just to look at their win rate like you did and ignore the constraints within the clubs they’re operating.

I’m not sure we even massively disagree. I’m not enamoured with any of the options. Obviously I’d prefer Simeone or Ten Haag, it’s just cuckoo land. I think these two are the best of the ‘realistic target’ bunch.

4 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Excluding last transfer window (difficult to judge with 100 million of signings not available with injuries etc) we've spent 23 million more than Brighton since 17/18. They've actually spunked a lot of money

So excluding the last transfer window (where we spent £100m) we’ve still outspent Brighton?

How is that a counter point, this forum man.

11 hours ago, MotoMkali said:

Yep the player who has spent the last 30 games being a top 5 rb in Europe and outperforming Anchraf Hakimi who cost 60 million is definitely not good enough to be used as a regular backup. 

Er, what.

Is this by some whoscored.com metric or something. He isn’t in the top 100 right backs in Europe. He’s dreadful.

8 minutes ago, lexicon said:

 

RH - 36.22% win rate and has lost 2 games 9-0. I don't see why we'd want to pay compensation for him.
Potter - 28.3% win rate at Brighton. Sure, Brighton aren't a great team, but that's still very low. 

I wouldn't say either have proven themselves at this level, certainly no more than Smith. 

The biggest signing Southampton have made in the last 3 seasons is Danny Ings (£20m) and they lost him this summer anyway. Dean Smith has £200m of talent + Jack Grealish.

Sure, Southampton had bad runs in that time - but RH clearly turned it around.

Again, we’ve massively outspent Brighton.  It’s not apples to apples. They both set-up their teams to play attractive but competitive football.

I don’t think either manager will be the second coming - but either would be a smart appointment. Rather that than take a risk on an unknown like Terry/ Gerrard and get relegated. 

If Gerrard does well, he will be off to Liverpool in two years. I don’t see the point.

Surely the owners want someone who can buy into the project at least mid-term.

I don’t want Gerrard anyway, I really don’t see how he’s any better than Smith.

Hasenhutl or Potter.

These two are both proven at PL level and set-up to play nice football.

Please says he’s **** off too. Have nightmares he’ll be in charge for Brighton.

Just now, MWARLEY2 said:

When you've been bombed out 2 seasons in a row i kind of understand that . 

It’s just immature/ classless. Behaving like a teenager posting sarcy emojis on Twitter. If he was actually half decent he wouldn’t have been bombed out. He’s living in the clouds if he thinks he’s a PL player, he’s atrocious. 

Yeah strange post. Nowhere near PL quality, nothing to do with Smith. Moron.

40 minutes ago, hippo said:

Personally I think we would have got wind of it by now if a change was imminent.

So I think he's in charge for Brighton.

Watching Brighton yesterday I honestly think that's a winnable game.

Why would we have heard? Norwich had lined up to sack Farke before the Brentford game (regardless of the result, obviously) - it wasn’t reported anywhere.

17 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Brighton have spent a lot of money - I wish this narrative wasn’t so easily pushed. 

I’m not pushing a lazy narrative. Read my post properly before suggesting that. I said Potter gets more from less resources. 
 

Compared first XI’s this weekend below. 

TLDR; Our team cost £100m more this weekend. That’s without Ings/Traore, Sanson and Konsa who would increase the total value and average if they’d have started.

Martinez (£16m) 
Cash (£14m) 
Mings (£20m) 
Tuanzebe (£5m loan fee) 
Targett (£14m) 
McGinn (£3m) 
Nakamba (£11m) 
Buendia (£35m) 
El Ghazi (£8m) 
Watkins (£31m) 
Bailey (£29m)

Total: £186m / average player £17m

Sanchez (academy) 
Lamptey (£3m) 
Veltman (£900k) 
Duffy (£5m) 
Dunk(academy) 
Cucurella (£16m) 
Bissouma (£15m) 
Mwepu (£20m) 
March (academy) 
Lallana (free) 
Maupay (£20m)

Total: £80m / average player £7M

I’m sure you could use the net income from Grealish to portray we’ve invested less overall, or whatever. My point is I think Potter gets more out of cheaper players. 

Although I’m sure a lot of managers would get more than Smith has these last 5 games tbf.