VillaFaninLondon

Making James look a world beater. Only Villa's defence can do that.

Absolute shit so far. Thanks Villa.

And again.

Mings again messing up.

Mings mistake yet again. So avoidable but he does it time and again. Really not the start we wanted. We're gonna have to score at least 2 as we really should be winning this game.

Definitely need to start well for this one - no lazy start like the Manure game. Ollie needs to be on it tonight and look sharp, it's been a while since he has.

Pretty sure that will be the team too and makes sense - that is our best team currently. As much as it's nice seeing youngsters in the squad, it will be great to have Bailey and Traore back to give us more depth and genuine options up top.

I don't care about them either but it's patently clear they are another team to contend with in future and if they were to get relegated at least it delays their rise by at least another year. Targett may not be in our plans but he's still miles better than any of their LBs and therefore we've inadvertently helped them stay up if it happens (still hoping it won't but looking more and more likely it will given their recent results).

We spent 11.5m + 2.5m in add ons on Targett based on half a good season in the Champ with Fulham as he never played at Southampton and was always behind Bertrand. Even if he didn't play in the 2nd half of season for us, we'd get at least what we paid back for him for sure because he's a much more proven PL player now than he was when we bought him and in fact I'd expect 15m+ even if he didn't play again this season. If he does well for Newcastle we might get marginally more money but it's not enough of a reason to send him to a team with their wealth and threat to us.

If you read it I did say that in the second line of that paragraph. But surely you must agree that sending him to Newcastle over another team in the bottom half is a bit silly if it keeps them up. The owners and Gerrard have been great so far though so got to trust their judgement I guess.

Surprised a few have put a draw. Leeds are always a tough team to play against, but we are much stronger than earlier on in the season and given their injuries (no Bamford, no Phillips, no Firpo) nothing other than a win is acceptable. Particularly if we have designs on pushing ourselves up the table above teams like Leicester, Brighton and potentially Wolves.

Same team as Everton I would imagine: Martinez Cash Konsa Mings Digne McGinn Luiz Ramsey Buendia Coutinho Watkins Doubtful Chambers starts for me. Don't particularly like seeing Luiz as a holding mid as for me he is better box to box, but he's done ok there and his passing is much better than Chambers. If Konsa isn't 100% fit which is rumoured, then Chambers could come in for him, otherwise I think it's unchanged.

I said from the start this was an odd move sending him there. He's not a world beater (and in fact he has put in some poor performances for us this season), but when things are going well for him he's a very dependable, solid FB. This is particularly the case when he someone very good playing in front of him like ASM (or Grealish for us). We have potentially sent him somewhere that, if he helps keeps them up, will be looking to overtake us in the league from as early as even next season and from an investment POV it's a bit strange because the owners have invested money in top players to presumably take us up the league - helping out a competitor in that regard is a bit like shooting yourself in the foot. Maybe it is my negative Villa thinking hat on from when I still have nightmares of selling our best players to City like Barry and Milner which helped them overtake us. It's not quite the same as Targett is a backup and not anywhere like a key player for us like those players were, but at least in those situations we got money for those players whereas with Targett we've probably only got a small loan fee. Would rather have sent him to a Brentford or a Crystal Palace or even a Leeds in all honesty, or told him that he needs to fight for his place, Or if we were going to let Newcastle have him, at least get around 20m for him which is at least a profit on the player we signed from Southampton and would be a fair deal for all parties.

I suspect if we buy Hickey we will loan him back to Bologna for 1-2 seasons, a bit like Spurs have done with Sarr. By the time he comes back Digne will be getting on a bit and Hickey would get plenty of game time, particularly if we're in Europe by that point. If Targett gets sold which is likely we will definitely need to buy a young up-and-coming LB and he seems the most likely given our interest previously.

I think the summer window will depend on our budget, I'm hoping Gerrard has a bit to spend (e.g. 80m + any extra through sales) to really put his stamp on the team. I don't know if these prices are realistic as a lot of these players only have one year remaining on their contracts, but these are my outs: OUT El Ghazi - 7m Trezeguet - 5m Guilbert - 5m Davis - 3m Kalinic - 3m Hourihane - free (out of contract) Targett - 15m Sanson - 10m Ings - 17m Hause - 8m TOTAL = 73m These are my ins, I think we need to be looking for potential first team players at CB, CDM and ST (I was unsure about this before but Ollie and Ings have been dreadful in front of goal this season and a striker that is lethal in front of goal could really improve us): INS Lisandro Martinez or Sven Botman (both left footed) - 30m Bissouma - 30m Hickey - 10m Olsen (make loan signing permanent) - 3.5m Coutinho (make loan signing permanent) - 33m Schick - 40-50m TOTAL = approx 150m NET SPEND = approx 80m Schick might be out of our reach as he has scored 18 goals in 17 games in the Bundesliga this season, but would be worth making our record signing if we can sign him as he looks an extremely reliable striker who can also hold the ball up really well. He's also deceptively quick. I'd still keep Watkins for at least another season but there's a good chance he'll be demoted to super sub and leave the following summer. If we signed Botman or Martinez and sold Hause it would also mean that Mings might be demoted to the bench, but if we want to improve that's what we need to do. I think those type of signings will really push us on for a top 6 challenge next season but of course they won't be easy signings to make.

I think I'd pick Raphinha on the right wing over Buendia right now, the guy is killing it and I see Leeds in a real struggle to hang on to him this summer. You're right though, Buendia is a class act and from a creative perspective he beats Raphinha. Depends what system you play and if you play inside or wide forwards. In our 4-3-2-1 Buendia would work better. Phillips though is a certainty and would massively improve what is a weak area for Villa as his defensive work in front of the defence is outstanding. I'd absolutely love it if we signed him.

Literally only Raphinha and Phillips get in a combined Villa-Leeds 11 and both are far better than the rest of their team and could well be gone in the summer (plus Phillips has missed much of this season with an injury and doubtful will play against us). All of their other players are average at best and yes I include Bumford in that. Probably one of the most delusional posts I've ever seen, Martinez is one the best GKs in the world and miles better than Meslier, Cash miles better than Ayling, both of our CBs walk into their team (Koch is never fit, why on Earth they have selected him I don't know), I'd even pick Bailey and maybe even Traore over Harrison (decent stats in goals/assists but a very ordinary footballer who just runs around a lot). Bumford is another very ordinary footballer, would pick Watkins and Ings over him. Every person is slightly biased towards their team but that goes beyond being biased. I really hope Villa turn up and give Leeds a good hiding on Wednesday.

Gerrard's staying put.

Congrats to him and well deserved. The only thing that really irks me is how Lo Celso gets picked over him despite barely playing in 18 months (even if has done well for the national team). Be nice to see what Buendia can do in an Argentina shirt for the whole match rather than just 10 mins at the end of the game.

Very true. Squad is decent enough to go on a good run now and I reckon we'll finish around 9th. And it's probably true that even had we signed someone like Bissouma, we're not gonna catchup enough to get into the top 6/7 this season. Feel we'll have a positive summer window given Purslow's comments a few weeks ago.

I think the summer window has to be going all out for 2 starters to try to push us into the top 6 next season: CDM CB (to properly compete for a starting spot with Mings and Konsa) And then make a decision on Coutinho - either buy him for 30m mindful that he is 30 in June, or look for a similar creative player that is younger but maybe available at a good price (someone like Aouar). Hickey should also be on our radar (or another LB) and maybe a RB to compete with Cash (unless Gerrard thinks KKH is ready). We need to sell some players like Hause, Trez, AEG, maybe Ings, maybe Sanson, Targett, Davis. Should get minimum 60m for all of them if there are buyers. Then decisions need to be made on Archer and JPB (and maybe even Aaron Ramsey) - if their loans go well are they ready to come into the squad and play minutes in the first team. Feel it's a big summer ahead.

So now the window is closed I make this our strongest 11 and bench when everyone is fit: Martinez Cash Konsa Mings Digne McGinn Nakamba Ramsey Buendia Coutinho Watkins Subs: Olsen, Chambers, Young, Luiz, Sanson, Chukwuemeka, Traore, Bailey, Ings So all in all, a good window, probably give it 7.5/10. Positives were signing Coutinho, Digne, some decent loans for the youngsters, and a long term contract for Martinez. Negatives were not signing a top quality DM and loaning Targett to Newcastle (should have loaned to someone like Brentford instead of Newcastle or milked Newcastle for at least 20m on a perm deal). We have a decent squad and pretty sure we'll finish in the top 10, then hopefully sign 2-3 top quality players in summer including a DM.

Yeah I doubt it's anywhere near that, though any deal for Alli currently does smack of some desperation particularly with his stupidly high wages. But could say the same about us with Coutinho to be fair. We'll see who ends up being the more successful deal.

35-40m on Dele Alli, they've been conned.

Yeah, I think if it doesn't happen today we won't get him in summer with other teams sniffing because he'll be cheaper by then. So we either go in with a big, big offer today and pull off a remarkable deadline day signing, or we move on to another target in the summer. Seko Fofana basically does a very similar thing to Bissouma and would jump at a chance to come here from Lens so maybe we'll go for him or someone else similar.