Villa Stu

39 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

I'll put it like this. I prefer a lot of our players that got 3rd in form table since Emery joined than some bullshit fantasy 11 of players we haven't even signed posted on here that excludes near half the current team

I understand what you are saying but we also need a squad that is capable of performing to a high level all season, with hopefully good runs in all cup competitions too. We don’t want an injury or burnout to ruin the season

8 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fair point. Zaha got priced out of a big move. Not sure if the same happened to MS.

Zaha moved to united and then went back to palace. He had his big move, it didn’t work out

8 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

 

22 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Bissouma’s a prick. Glad it didn’t happen. 
 

Agree we need more power in the middle though. 

We should have gone for Anguissa last year

2 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Could do a lot worse than signing Alex Scott and loaning him back to City for a year. 

I though she was a commentator on fifa now

5 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Sounds like stating the obvious.

Blowing 25m+ on a backup left back isn't sensible. Whoever we get for that role will be cheaper, or cover more than just left back positions, and possibly both.

The money we have to spend needs to go on a number 8.

Isn’t he a CB?

2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Two speeding offences and the sexual assault allegations. Maybe a good player but seems a bit of a prick.

Of course he is, who would chose to join spurs over Villa

8 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

To be fair, we were only 6 points off a top 10 finish, in a season where we had multiple destabilising factors before and during the season.

A few games which should have been draws/wins instead of losses and draws etc 

Which we really messed up by fine margins.... The couple of signings we have made actually go a long way in bridging those margins IMO.

 

Agreed, the signings we have made will make us harder to beat and have added more physicality. 

8 minutes ago, sne said:

It's simply because Bayern are so far ahead that it's impossible to compete. They way Bayern are owned and run makes it impossible.

And fwiw I think the Bundesliga is great to watch. Far from boring imo. Yeah Bayern will win, but City should win the PL unless they have a off year. 

Plus the way Bayern do business is that they look to strengthen themselves and also weaken a rival by signing their best player(s), which they have done multiple times to Dortmund over the last few years

22 minutes ago, RicRic said:

I mean by all means ings can stay but a new striker MUST come in so that limits his game time… cant start the season banking on watkins and ings to lead the line

Who would you suggest? I’m struggling to think of many strikers that are an improvement and realistic

41 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Yeah its almost written that hes departing for new pastures… i want mcginn and mings to be players that come off the bench and not in the starting lineup, may sound harsh to some but i want us to propel to new heights now and this is how we reach that level 

Whilst I agree we need to get to the point that we don’t have a guaranteed starting 11but instead a squad that is challenging each other for starting places, I can’t help but think that a number of fans under rate some of our key players and overlook that they are being over worked and overused

Mings does most of our defending and is the one that puts his body on the line time and time again for us and now hopefully in Carlos he has a solid partner that will take some of the responsibility and it will help Mings step up another level.

Mcginn has been inconsistent, as has all of our midfield for the last 3 seasons in the PL. The key here for me is having players that are capable to rotate and not burn out (as what happened to Ramsey at a point last season), we can then freshen things up in the middle from game to game (and bring players on with 20-30 mins to go without a drop in quality) and get more out of players. We absolutely need another cm to compete with Mcginn and Ramsey.

57 minutes ago, useless said:

Deleted to stop from getting quoted.

2 hours ago, OLDVILLAIN said:

I wonder with some people saying "Ings and Watkins will be much better next season" what are you basing that assumption on?

Last summer people were saying that watkins would score 20+ the season gone and that ings would not be far behind that number.

The Analytical side of my brain is saying we cannot take a chance on "they should be better" as its just too much of a gamble if both of them do not perform next season and if it comes to pass it means gerrard's tenure will be over by xmas imho.

I would say it’s down to both of them scoring the same number of goals as their expected goals. We need to create more chances for our forwards. I know it’s easy to remember a big miss in a game from one of the forwards but they have shown that both of them perform consistently to the standard that is expected statistically, hopefully with a better defensive base our creative players will create more for our forwards. 

We also need be harder to score against, hopefully that will be the case with the additions of Carlos and Kamara.

It may also give our English players more determination that they have missed out on this squad for the nations league, they will all need to up their performance if they are to make it in the World Cup squad

1 hour ago, Mazrim said:

We spurned so many chances it is definitely on Gerrard's to do list to improve our finishing and ruthlessness. It cost us possible 10 - 15 points at least and several positions. It makes a big difference.
Now, Watkins and Ings are very decent players. Maybe we expect them to be better next season and stick with what we've got, but somehow I doubt it.

So, with Kamara - a very accurate passing defensive mid - coming in, hopefully a new number 8 to partner Ramsey and play behind Coutinho and Buendia, who play killer through balls, we need to get the forward position spot on. When we had chances last season I was hopeful but not massively confident we would put chances away. We need to have that confidence in somebody again.

We need a killer up front to take advantage of the higher possession and chance creation we will most certainly have next season. Ings and Watkins are fine to challenge that player for a support role. Sometimes we will play one striker, sometimes two. New guy, Watkins and Ings and one of the kids (Archer , Barry) as the 4th choice is what we need.

We need Watkins to improve his decision making also. There were a few times last season he could have squared the ball for a tap in and instead he smashes it straight at a defender that stood in front of him. If he adds assists to his game, he and Ings could be a deadly partnership 

10 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

I agree but the problem is if we let Archer go on loan and either Ollie or Danny get injured we are very very light up front for a push for Europe

I think SG will want to have a look at Archer and give him a run in preseason before deciding whether to keep him around or send him out on loan. This will delay a forward coming in until late in the window unless there is an opportunity too good for us to miss out on

21 minutes ago, KMitch said:

He's in the 7th percentile for progressive passes...  It means he's passing backward or sideways.  Not what we need.

Could that be down to how Brighton play though? They tend to be happy to keep the ball and pass sideways all game, with a manager with a more attack minded approach he may look to progress the ball more to the creative players further up the pitch. Either way, he improves our midfield 

1 hour ago, parisvilla said:

So the following information is through an industry colleague who was with Gerrard within the past week and comes direct from him!........

+ We still want an '8'. There's a deal in place for Yves Bissouma – both clubs happy to do pull the trigger for 30m. BUT the player has stopped communicating with either side so there may be new interest from other clubs he is working through with agents.

+ If we were to sign Bissouma, Douglas Luiz would be sold. Gerrard thinks he slows us down too much.

+ One of the reasons Diego Carlos was prioritised is his abilty to play on either side of the centre back partnership. Therefore pressure on both Mings and Konsa simultaneously. Both know the shirt is theirs if their form is better than the other.

+ Luis Suarez's knee is in bad way - very unlikely we persue that.

+ Wants to give Bailey year 2. Doesn’t fancy Traore – says he’s amazing in training then cocks everything up when he gets on the pitch.

+ Keinan Davis will be sold as long as Forest don't play silly buggers regarding the fee. Cameron Archer and Tim Ireogbunam will get loans to Championship clubs.

I’m loving that we are signing players that will make us harder to beat. If we get Bissouma our midfield options will be phenomenal and along with Kamara and Carlos, it really should help us to hold on to games

8 hours ago, MNVillan said:

El Ghazi having a higher goal contribution rate than Philippe Coutinho. Un*******believable

El Ghazi had a few penalties as well to be fair though

2 minutes ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

Januzaj is leaving on a free. I'd say we could sign him but I don't think we can sign 2 free agents from abroad in the same window.

The only reason we can’t sign him is because it won’t be on loan

23 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

I hate these but I'm bored at work.

Out:

Guilbert £2m

Hause £7m,

Targett £15m

Luiz £25m,

AEG/Trez £7m combined

Traore £12m ()

Ings £20m

Chuk or Sanson £10-15m? ()

Total: £103m

In:

Olsen (Perm, Free)

Hickey £15m

Ndicka £23m

Gomez £20m

Kamara Free (hefty signing bonus)

Bissouma £35m

Coutinho £33m

A Striker £40m (I have no ideas)

Total: £166m

Net £63m outlay

Maybe an argument for only one CB and utilising Chambers there as backup to Konsa. But I think we actually lose Konsa or Mings and the above is maybe too optimistic. NDicka may already not come to challenge for a start and want it guaranteed

Maybe it needs another winger. Ideally you'd keep Traore but I don't think we will. Either make room for Bidace (too soon probably) or sell Nakamba to part-fund a move for Madueke.

Leaving my Pretend-Post-Summer Squad as:

That is some team there. Strengthened the spine massively and added a lot of steel but also improving ball retention capabilities

3 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Yea, pretty serious. I think Watkins can go out wide when needed, and he has a tendency to do that anyway. He needs to make some changes to his game though. Firminho is brilliant. I think we keep hold of Ings as well if we can. 

Re the DM - one word - Iroegbunam. 

Do you think that would make us better? Watkins isn’t the best out wide and if he was to he tends to be put on the left so where would that leave coutinho? If it was 18 months ago firminho I agree would be an upgrade but now I’m not so sure.

We need to not overhype Iroegbunam too much. He looks a fantastic prospect and should be in and around the first team but as with any youth player there are no guarantees so if we are to sell one of Nakamba or luiz I would want a replacement to come in.

For me I would be happy with Ginter, one or two from Kamara, bissouma, Grillistch or kondogbia and for upfront I would try and go all out for Nunez as unrealistic as that is he is the type of quality that we need to be looking at

40 minutes ago, Tayls said:

In: 

Firminho

Edmund Tapsoba

Coutinho (make perm) 

Olsen (make perm)

Expensive, I Know! 

Out: 

Luiz or Nakamba

Davis

Targett

Steer

Thats all I can think of at the moment. I think if Atleti offered an extremely favourable amount for Cash, then it would surely have to be considered. I think Guilbert should be looked at again. I like Cash though, so wouldn’t be against him staying. 

Is this serious? Genuine question as if we had someone like Firminho we would need goal scoring wide forwards which we currently don’t have. Is he also much of an upgrade to what we have now?

We have an issue at DM and you want to sell one of ours and not replace?

Tapsoba isn’t a bad shout for CB but we would need more than 2 signing plus making the other 2 permanent to really kick on. Midfield is crying out for upgrades

24 minutes ago, Mister_a said:

Do you also send your kids to the chippy to get fish and chips for everyone, and give them 50p?

6 foot tall DM with intelligence. 20m - where the hell are we going to find a smart DM that has the correct physicality that isn't already on the books of some other big club?, those attributes won't cost anything less than 50m.

I read it as the £20m will be basing it on his Kondogbia valuation or even less if it’s Kamara on a free with a big sign on bonus

4 minutes ago, Zatman said:

We have zero chance of signing Nunez. Benfica will demand big money like they did with Joao Felix. 

Plus he will have zero interest to come here 

You’re right, there’s very little chance we would get him, but we need to be going for players of that quality. Keep spunking big money on players because they have had one or two decent season in the championship and we won’t improve enough, I’m not saying they are bad players but we need to aim higher now

Make coutinho and Olsen permanent. I would love it if we could get Nunez. We would have to go big but if we are clever with the other incomings and manage to get a few out it would be worth it. There’s quite a few very good players with contracts expiring. Hopefully we can take advantage and bring a couple in. Ginter, Tarkowski or Saiss for cb, Kamara or Grillitsch - we could do with both

Finally and most importantly we could get Januzaj