VillaFaninLondon

I suppose I'm just not afraid to speak my mind and I'm sorry if it came across as brusque or harsh but it's what I feel. I'm not tired of the club, just the constant relegation battles and inability to move forward despite the fact that we have the potential to be a very good club imo. Last summer we made a hash of our activity by bringing in every Tom, Dick and Harry without doing enough due diligence (though, ultimately, we were in a very difficult situation of having to buy pretty much a whole new team and I understand that, though I also condemn those who made mistakes). Now we're doing the opposite, trying to bring in better targets but either trying to haggle for the best price to a ridiculous extent or not convincing these bigger name players of our project. And of course no one has yet arrived. I'm afraid we will have to put our hands in our pockets a bit if we want to bring in higher profile players who can take the club forward. It's what City did when they were initially bought (of course, the money they had blew other teams out of the water, but we are not broke ourselves). Or if we want to use another example of an ambitious club newly promoted look at someone like Southampton who were buying the likes of Lovren, Wanyama and Tadic not long after getting promoted because they didn't want to just fight relegation every season. It's been over a month since the season ended and out of all the clubs in the Prem I think we were most in need of some top signings. Of course they could still happen and we could end up with a Tammy and a Sarr and a Rashica, but I'm very sceptical that will happen, we won't end up with the quality we need, and next season will be deja vu again like the last few years of supporting this club. It's a negative viewpoint but needs to be said.

I think the pandemic is being used more as an excuse. Other sides are making signings to be fair, or are close to signing players. We don't look close to signing anyone and the bookies odds of us being near favourites to go down reflect that. Looking at it now it looks like it's going to be another rough season which is starting to bore me with this club tbh. We can't even tie up a deal for Watkins FFS, a Championship player, though that may be a good thing as it's pretty clear we need better to be midtable next season. We've changed the backroom staff around, good, we've brought in some young academy talent, good. But this won't polish some of the turds we have on the pitch in our first team. We needed to entice players like McKennie and Rashica to us by offering them a decent pay packet and proving we have ambitions to be a European chasing side, they clearly didn't buy into it. It's not like we're looking to sign superstars here either, they're decent players who play in the Bundesliga who will make us better, nothing more nothing less. Our wages are one of the lowest in the Prem but to become more competitive we have to start paying the wages that midtable clubs do to attract better players, it's as simple as that. Ultimately I'm bored of the transfer merry go round, nothing seems to be happening and I think I'm just going to ignore the constant bile that's spewed by the press while we continue to not sign anyone.

I get what you say but I don't think that was Barry's style. He led more quietly and by example. Gerrard also grew up as a Pool fan so had more affection there and was generally a more dynamic player. We haven't had a great deal of quality players over the years sadly and consequently Barry is probably getting more respect and recognition than he would ordinarily, particularly as he left us for a team whose primary aim was to buy their way to the top at our and other football clubs expense. Even so, I think his importance to us during the decade he was with us shouldn't be underestimated.

When Barry left that was the start of our decline. He may not have been the quickest or most flamboyant of players but what a professional he was and so, so consistent. Was also a really good leader and captain, led by example on and off the field. He turned into a more defensive player when he left but with us he got quite a few goals and assists each season, certainly between 2006 and 2009. Was the sort of signing City needed to make to really push near the top, obviously he didn't have the goals of Aguero or the skills of Silva but he was the sort of level-headed character City needed in their team and a player with so much PL experience who was almost always fit on a Saturday and never injured. I wish he'd gone to a more historically bigger club than City, a team who didn't just have money to buy their success, but no one can argue he didn't make the right choice given what he won. It was a shame some of the Villa fans turned on him when he came back to VP, he left under a cloud because everyone knew we were going rubbish (myself included) but I thought Barry was decent when he left and wrote a letter thanking the fans for their support over the years. It was the board the fans should have turned on, not Barry. Either way, I'm glad he has a place in the Villa history books and I wish him well in his retirement. Just a shame we couldn't win anything while he was with us.

He'd be the better of the two and reckon he'd be more likely to make the step up, but still a bit of a risk for what Brentford want. Think Sarr or Deulofeu (or both) would be better for us.

Agreed. We have to start paying bigger wages if we're going to attract serious quality.

But if he does well there and keeps them up and allows them to invest further it will be a good signing for 2-3 years. Obviously no one knows how anyone will do in this league but he looks like he has the quality to me and is a higher profile signing than we've managed since we were promoted. Maybe his stats last season weren't brilliant (he did get 7 assists though), but over the last five years he's averaging 1 in 3 in one of Europe's top leagues, not the Belgian league where we shopped around.

We're on the same wavelength there. I really like both of them too. I'm just concerned this is dragging on longer than I can stomach and I'll be so disappointed if we end up with neither.

Lt's hope we sign Rashica and McKennie then

And it's easy to score for Spain and against CL teams? OK.

I'm not sure what you're getting at. We survived by the skin of our teeth last season and were desperately in need of quality reinforcements to not be in the same position next season, yet we're pretty much a month down the line without any added quality apart from some Academy players. Look, I'm happy to wait a little bit to get better quality but time is ticking away. It seems like our scouting dept or DS can't attract the quality additions to the club and it's very, very concerning. I hope I'm proven wrong over the coming weeks.

How is it awful? 8 goals in 22 games for Spain, 59 goals in 220 games for Valencia. Scored goals in La Liga, Europe and internationally. 29 is hardly old, he's got a few years left in him and he's featured regularly for Valencia over the last three seasons so not sure how you work out he's injury prone. If we were signing him I'm sure you'd be making out it's a great signing.

Even Leeds are signing better players than us now. Agreed a deal for established Spain winger for approx £30mil: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/53914263 And we can't get deals over the line for McKennie, Rashica and Edouard. So depressing.

I believe (if I'm not mistaken) once you've changed once you can't change again. I'm not certain though. Ireland would absolutely build the team around him, but the issue is he'd be playing alongside players even worse than those at Villa! I know he really wants to play alongside the likes of Sancho, Sterling and Kane and it would be fascinating to see him link up with them. Unfortunately until England changes its manager (which will hopefully be sooner rather than later) he's unlikely to get a look in.

He should be in there over many of them - e.g. Mount, Ward Prowse, one of Winks/Rice/Phillips (we don't need 3 DMs for two games against fairly mediocre opponents). I wanted to see Foden and Grealish in the same squad. The forwards is probably fair enough but for me there's too many of them. We've got seven forwards and only six midfielders. I think probably Tammy was a bit lucky to get in seeing as he got dropped from Chelsea's first team for Giroud. And of course no natural left backs - I imagine Mings will actually play there which will be odd. The only way Jack might get in is if someone pulls out but even then I don't trust Southgate to do the right thing. He definitely doesn't need to leave Villa to get in, it's obvious it's a personal thing against him or Southgate just doesn't have a clue how to use him because he's tactically inept.

Well he did include Foden - but then he's the poster boy for Man City so that's different according to him. Jack will be 25 soon and still without not only an England cap but an England call up. It's scary the incompetence of the decision really.

It's obviously not good as Villa fans that he didn't get in but let's be honest it's not as good as football fans either. I know a lot of non-Villa fans who would love to see Grealish playing for England and I think it would be fascinating to see him play for them. He would make England more entertaining to watch too. Such an effing shame we have a turnip for a manager.

Don't think I'll bother watching England any more out of spite as long as that odious little man Southgate is in charge.

Just baffling. So you don't include one of the best and most creative players in the PL last season but include: Phillips - Championship player, never played in the Prem Winks - bang average, does nothing Dier - terrible footballer Maguire - just spent the last week getting hammered and spending a night in a prison cell I honestly think Southgate needs to be questioned relentlessly about this. There's absolutely no reasoning behind leaving out a player of Jack's quality. This is just effing ridiculous now.

What an absolute bell.end Southgate is. Really can just f*** right off the pr***.

Foden is a fantastic talent and deserves a call up, but so does Jack obviously. Don't see why both can't be in. I'd build the England team around both Foden and Jack to be honest.

The only reason he wouldn't get picked is his off field behaviour but that incident during lockdown was nearly 6 months ago now. Plus Maguire, Walker and a few others in the England squad have since arguably behaved worse. If we're picking on talent and form he gets in 100% and should even be starting. Contributed 14 goals last season and can dribble and create like no other player in the squad imo. And to show lack of bias from a non-Villa perspective, Ings, Foden, Greenwood and Ward Prowse should be in. Especially Ings whose form was absolutely outstanding last season. I'm also a big fan of Foden. Mings I'm not too sure about but he can play out from the back unlike some of the Sheff U and Burnley defenders, plus he's left footed. Grealish has to be in though and I'm pretty sure he will be or it will be scandalous. Some saying it's hard for him because he plays on the left wing for us, but he's actually really good in the 8 position and that's where he should start for England (or number 10 if Southgate plays a suitable formation). He doesn't get as many assists or goals there but he can dictate the game in that position and will see plenty of the ball which will suit him.

I think if we're going for one it would be more sensible to pay a bit more and get Eduoard over Watkins myself. Both risks in that they're playing in a lower standard of league but Edouard has delivered in Europe and the French youth teams and I have a hunch he'd make the step up. No doubt both would be considered risks though. There's also the likes of Wilson, King, Batshuayi who you think would be on our radar too, but none of them coming off the back of a good season. Whichever striker we get we must add quality around them because they'll need service whoever they are.

I agree with this but I also feel we do need to start bringing in players soon because the new season starts in 4 weeks and ideally we'd have at least 2 new first teamers in by then. But you're right, we can't bring in players for the sake of it, if they're not of the right quality there is simply no point. I feel we need to pull off a couple of big signings - if we were to get both McKennie and Rashica, for instance, it would give a huge lift to the whole team ahead of the season that we're bringing in players that can elevate us to that next level. We need first team players, in fact we need players that have the ability to come in and be key players for us. I recall City in the summer of 2008 before they were bought by the UAE. They signed Kompany and Zabaleta for relative peanuts in those days, despite the fact that better teams than City were looking at them. They also signed Elano the summer previous, from Shakhtar who were in the Champions League (City had just narrowly avoided relegation by finishing 14th). I think this proves that it is possible to attract the attention of the bigger names we're looking at now, we just need to convince them it's the right move and this is a club on an upward trajectory. But as you've also mentioned previously, we need to be prepared to pay higher wages because a lot of where the player will end up comes down to wages.

The Leeds hyperbole is very confusing. Having better title odds with some betting companies than much better teams than them like Wolves and Leicester is plain lunacy (though, we all know Leeds fans have placed stupid bets on themselves). They are deservedly considered a big club given their great support and fantastic team that dominated in the 70s, but so are we and as we found out being a traditional big club isn’t enough to do well in this league. And with crowds still barred Leeds won’t get that extra lift from their passionate supporters. The Premier League is better for having teams like Leeds in it but unless they make some major signings they’ll almost certainly struggle for me. And I don’t think they’ve got the financial power to do that.