VillaFaninLondon

Absolute farce that this sh*t is even on the agenda, given the players we have, but we are definitely a relegation candidate at the moment. 3 points from 4 games and we haven't even played a top 6 side yet, Bournemouth, Wolves, Everton and Leicester have all had harder fixtures than us. The club needs to act NOW, if they don't fans need to protest loudly at every game, this is a complete mess. We cannot go down given the investment in players and wages which should see us in the top half at a minimum not where we are now. The owners risk undoing all the good they have done here by continuing with this nonsense.

Booooooo.

Get this fraud out before he takes us down. Pathetic manager.

They're not going to come out and say that are they but I'm reading between the lines.

We've barely made any signings mate. We've literally added 2 first team players to a team that finished 14th and one of them is out for the season. Ergo, we are one player stronger than we were last season. Wolves had added three first team players to a team that finished 10th, West Ham have similarly added 3 first team players to a team that finished 7th. Newcastle have only added 2 like us but at least one of theirs hasn't got injured and there are many signs they are actively still looking to strengthen unlike us. They again also finished higher than us last season. The only sides to have had poorer windows than us that finished above us last season are Leicester and Brighton. I'm surprised at the level of positivity in this thread in all honesty, if we had had such a strong window and were so much better than last season then why are so many posters predicting we'll lose on Saturday to an average Crystal Palace team?

My preference is to sign the players we need to take us forward, I couldn't give a t*ss when they are made. Earlier is better but I doubt Wolves or West Ham are complaining. We've needed a CM all summer and we still don't have one. Luiz's contract is still up in the air. Our CB signing in the summer is out for the season and no one knows what is happening with his replacement or whether we'll even sign a replacement. After all the spiel everyone was giving it that we would make more quality signings 2 months ago, well they've turned out to be right so far haven't they? But no doubt they'll say the club tried but just couldn't get the players, when there's absolutely no evidence that that has happened.

Tick tock, the clock is ticking. Only been 3 months since we made a major signing but carry on believing if it brings you comfort.

Caleta Car or Denayer or no one. Clearly we have no money so it won't be an expensive signing, and that also means we won't be signing an upgrade in CM either. There's absolutely no point bringing in Rob Holding who isn't even better than Chambers or Konsa. God, what a poor window this has been.

With a top manager we could probably achieve that or close to it but even then I'm sure a new manager would want some further investment in certain areas (like CM, CB and ST). Plus the only proven top manager on the market is Pochettino and they haven't appointed anyone of that calibre since buying us so unlikely they would be able to do so now when we aren't spending very much. Let's hope they don't waste time waiting for Gerrard to come good then given he's had nearly a year now, surely they should know if he's any good by now seeing as most of us can.

Of the 50m spent, half was on Carlos who is now out for the season. Doesn't seem to be a contingency plan either. We'll see where we end up this season. I sincerely hope I'm wrong and we finish 7th-10th, but sadly I think we won't be much or if any better than last season and then there will be a lot of questions that need answering from the club.

I don't rate Gerrard but he hasn't actually been backed this summer in fairness. We were led to believe in April/May when Gerrard said the fans will be excited by the summer targets but it's been far from an exciting window. The investment in the stadium etc is all well and good if the first team is performing, but we haven't even finished in the top half for 11 years now. Three seasons back in the top flight and our highest finish is 11th. You can't imagine a 50,000+ stadium will sell out if we are languishing in the bottom half every season, although to be fair to the fans they have showed incredible backing even last season when the stadium was selling out every other week. Every else is pretty much immaterial aside from investment in the first team, that is what will bring success on the pitch. Academy investment is great but takes time and it seems we always sell our best Academy players anyway (Grealish, Carney).

I don't think that's the point he's making. Everton have spent money badly, as have we. We haven't got full value out of players like Bailey, Ings, even Coutinho for his wages is underperforming and not done much of note since March, Buendia is on the bench most of the time so we aren't getting full value out of him, Carlos now injured so that's another 26m potentially down the drain. But we also have a stupidly imbalanced team, the bulk of the money we have spent is on the attacking side of the team and that's the reason we aren't getting the best out of those players. We haven't invested enough in CM for instance and we think Ramsey and McGinn are the answer. We haven't spent big on a CM for God knows how long, the last time we spent anything on CM was Sanson in January 2021 and before that it was summer 2019 on Luiz. Neither of those players are even getting in the team now. Other teams have invested loads in this part of their team like Newcastle and Leicester and Wolves and yet we keep spending absolutely nothing on it and accepting what we have. Everton's owners are now not spending. Our owners are not not spending either. Net spend has been zero the last 2 summers. No tangible links to anyone suggests they either don't care about strengthening the squad further or they can't because of FFP or maybe a bit of both. Our aim is supposedly to push for Europe this season, finishing between 7th and 10th. How on Earth do they expect to achieve that without any further investment? The best we can hope for is to be around where we were last season which is atrocious. The reason for this is the league is insanely good now (just look at who Wolves are signing and they finished 10th last season). There are also teams like Brighton and Leicester not spending but they both finished a fair few places above us last season and are managed and coached far better than we are. We're a real mess, we really are. But keep pretending we're not if it makes you feel better.

Fair enough. Well we all know who the club are and who they are run and owned by. Businessmen essentially run football clubs and ours is no different. Ours have more wealth than the majority of the league as many of here like to go on about. And if we are not improving the team enough to fight for positions they claim we want to get to, thereby raising the hopes of the fanbase but failing to achieve them, then it will be the fans that suffer.

I hope you're right mate, I really do. Trouble is many have been saying this since June and it hasn't happened (other than a backup LB on loan).

Well you could quite clearly ask the same questions to Wolves fans or Leicester fans who are complaining about their ownership despite far more success than we have had in the last 5 years. On your second question what are you on about? I’ve not spoken about owners’ motivation, of course there is no motivation to screw us over (intentionally) but I’m sure Lerner didn’t intend to screw us over when he lost loads of money during the 2007-09 recession and then decided to run the club on a shoestring leading to us being an embarrassment on the pitch. I’ve really liked what these owners have done so far but I also really quite liked Lerner up from 2006 to 2011. Owners unfortunately have to continually invest, especially when they say they have ambitious plans and when they are presiding over a team that finished in a very lowly position of 14th last season which no one was happy about (slightly different when compared to, for example, Liverpool having a quieter window after finishing 2nd last season or even Leicester who finished 8th). Anyway, make of my comments what you will. I’m sure you’ll find a way to spin them any way you like.