VillaFaninLondon

1 minute ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Nope--YOU worry.

Yes I do because our current squad will be lucky to finish top 10 and will be nowhere near challenging for Europe.

God help us if Digne gets injured for any significant amount of time. Meanwhile Hickey who in 3-4 years could take over from Digne is off to Brentford.

With preseason just around the corner you do worry if we aren't going to make any more significant signings. Very surprised given what Gerrard said about an exciting summer ahead and also you'd think he'd be more heavily backed given it's his first summer window.

12 hours ago, nick76 said:

I agree mostly with your points but I think your tiers 3 and 4 are just too close to separate. I think the current difference between us and West Ham is just as big as the difference between Brighton and us.  Palace have a young team that will have a year’s extra experience, interesting to see how they do without Gallagher if he doesn’t go back.  

We have been poor for 18 months now and while we have better players neither Smith or Gerrard really found consistent cohesion for the team over the 18 months and really no sign of one.  We hope that changes next season with Gerrard getting more time but there is no guarantee.  Many teams in the past have a bunch of great players that don’t ever seem to work, hope we won’t be one of them.  It’s why some days I see us potentially challenging for 7th spot next season and then other days 12th spot.

My main reason for Spurs being in Tier 2 is less about the likes of Chelsea but more that Man City and Liverpool are playing at a different level.  They will both get over 90 points again next season and Spurs won’t even come close to that even with a Conte exceptional season.  I think at best Spurs will get 80 points and that’s everything going right for them, so they would just be best of Tier 2. I still think that maybe a struggle to get close as that as Spurs have a history of underachieving just when they look like they may do something, so expect Conte to walk out at some point in the season

Totally see where you're coming from and you are definitely looking at it from a 'realist' perspective - of course we may underachieve once again but with today's announcement to increase Villa Park to a 60,000 capacity stadium with world class facilities we have to see some progression on the pitch. Getting back to being the best in the Midlands will be a good start, Wolves have finished in the top 10 three out of four times since promotion, Leicester haven't finished outside the top half for 5 years now, whereas despite lots of investment we still haven't finished in the top half since 2011. It really isn't good enough for a club of our size and despite reservations about the manager I think the absolute minimum next season will be a top half finish and at least to be within a few points of the likes of West Ham if we cannot finish above them.

8 hours ago, tomav84 said:

in your opinion. i think he's one of the best CB's in the league as evidenced by his 17 england caps

Carlton Palmer played 18 times for England, Heskey played 62 games, doesn't really mean that much. CB is also a weak area for England seeing as players like Guehi and Coady are regulars in the squad and Ben Godfrey got a couple of games. I actually think Mings is better than those players and was unfairly dropped from the recent squad, but I don't agree he's one of the best CBs in the league and is probably upgradeable with some clever scouting. He'll always divide opinion for sure. 

9 hours ago, nick76 said:

Spurs arent Tier 1, they are in Tier 2 of that list.  Chelsea faded in the second half of the season and still finished above Spurs by 3 points.  Arsenal were favourities for 4th place until they lost it and then Spurs took over.  Just no way Spurs can be considered Tier 1 over the others.

Tier 3 & 4 Im not sure how you determine that...ambition, owners, league placing, recent history.  For example Brighton finished 6 points and 5 places above us and arguably with a decent striker could've done even better.  West Ham are miles above us on 11 points and last season had European football, I bet they dont consider us in the same catergory.

I think you combine Tier 3 & 4 and it depends on a particular season how each do, sometimes a team does well, sometimes they do poorly.  The difference is that we have more money, but some of the others have consistency finishing higher than us regularly.

We massively underperformed last season if you hadn't noticed, Brighton overperformed, and they have now lost Bissouma and soon to be Cucurella so that's their 2 best players gone. I'm basing this mainly on the strength of our squad compared to the others, we should have finished above Brighton, Palace, Brentford and Newcastle last season, the fact we didn't is completely on us, and I did say that I felt we were towards the lower end of tier 3 and West Ham would be near the upper end of it. But of course other things like ambition/owners come into it, I think as things stand we still have a better team/squad than Newcastle, but they are the richest team in the world so it's quite likely they will add more quality in addition to Botman and Pope. With us I'm not so sure we will unless we sell some players. I do see what you are saying about combining tiers 3 and 4 because the PL is very competitive, but essentially I think we have every reason to expect to finish above those teams in tier 4 looking at our team now and the amount of quality we have in most positions. 

As for Spurs, you could argue they belong in tier 2 but I think they could do really well next season with Conte, I don't know for sure because they still have some weak players in their first 11 but that front 3 and CM is very, very good and Conte knows how to win. I think they'll be a few points off City and Liverpool but will stay up there for much of the season. Chelsea don't look to me like a team that will challenge for the league next season, their form towards the end of last season was really poor, they no longer have Abramovich, and players like Rudiger and Christensen have left. They still have a gaping hole up front as well seeing as Lukaku flopped.

1 hour ago, macandally said:

I would argue the problem we have had is our decent players have to play virtually every game and that impacts on performance levels.

The speed and demands of the game have changed, the top 6 can rotate players without significant drop in quality or performances, plus it gives others better recovery which enables them to deliver higher levels of performance when they are bought back into the team.

If we improve the squad AND Gerrard is confident to use it I would suggest our consistency levels would likely improve across the team, but we are not there yet.

Agree with that although I think the way we improve the squad is always to target upgrades to the first 11. If we start bringing on the likes of McGinn and Watkins after 60 mins rather than starting them every week, we'll know we've got a strong squad to compete with the top 7.

3 hours ago, Mazrim said:

Right. How do you rate Brazil's and France's squads?

Look, I'm not saying we don't have good players, but we also have several players in our starting 11 that fall short of the consistent quality we need to move rapidly up the table (Watkins and McGinn being two that spring to mind instantly, as well as Mings who makes too many mistakes). 

As it stands, we will probably improve a bit on last season (not too hard given how much we flopped), maybe by 3 or 4 places higher, but I don't think we'll be close to the top 7 and probably be at least 10 points behind the top 6. Football is a strange game though, West Ham went from finishing 16th to finishing 6th, Villa may surprise me and do really well with Bailey scoring 10+, Watkins and Ings getting 30 goals between them, Buendia and Coutinho getting 10+ assists each, and our new signings Kamara and Carlos being the signings of the season, but the stars would really have to align for all that to happen.

The hope is that management realise where our weaknesses are and go and address them before our first game of the season - my concern is there are absolutely no links to any quality players from any decent sources which suggests we are trying to move players our the door before we commit to buying any more players.

Just now, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Painful. Really painful.

Go on....

1 minute ago, Galway Lion said:

Are you for real? They’re selling two best players and replacing them with players who have no Premier League experience.We all know how that ends up don’t we?

Quoting myself again for you in case you missed it (which I assume you did).

1 minute ago, Galway Lion said:

Are you for real? They’re selling two best players and replacing them with players who have no Premier League experience.We all know how that ends up don’t we?

Fair point. Losing Phillips and then Raphinha likely to follow will be a big blow, although I think their manager can attract good players for them and they'll be better than last season. Depends on how quickly their new signings settle. 

6 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

Leeds just lost their best and talismanic player. They also have have Ted Lasso in charge. Plus our transfers in have been significantly better than theirs. 

Fair point. Losing Phillips and then Raphinha likely to follow will be a big blow, although I think their manager can attract good players for them and they'll be better than last season. Depends on how quickly their new signings settle. 

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I think this is pretty much spot on.  Not a massive different between tiers 4 and 5 though as we saw last season with Leeds and Everton nearly relegated. 

Agreed. I'm sure someone in that tier 5 will be the surprise team next season too, maybe Forest, and finish closer to the middle of the table. 

Maybe I've been harsh on Brighton who would probably feel they belong in tier 3, but I think Bissouma will be a big loss initially for them and think they'll slip 3-4 places. Palace may also feel they belong in tier 3 but not for me, Gallagher has now gone back to Chelsea and despite everyone saying they had a great season they still only finished three points above us and our season was a disaster from start to finish. 

13 hours ago, VillaAlex said:

Majority of their signings have come from various smaller leagues across Europe apart from Roca.

All of which are completely different level to the Premier League, some are leagues we've signed players from who have really struggled despite doing well at their previous clubs.

Have you honestly seen all of these players play to judge? I've only seen Aaronson play and although talented he's extremely young and lightweight and wouldn't get close to our starting eleven. JJ is miles better than him. 

On the other hand we've signed a centre back who has been a fixture at a top 3/4 la Liga side, the only league in my opinion you could argue is better overall than the Premier League at the moment, he also has played various games at Champions League level and played in European finals.

We've also signed one of the best midfielders in Ligue 1 who is now being selected by the best national team in Europe maybe the world.

Our transfer business is levels apart.

De Ketelaere is in Belgium's squad and they're pretty bloody good if you hadn't noticed. He's an exceptional talent and if Leeds get him then they're another team having a better window than us.

Leeds' transfer business has actually impressed me, don't think they'll be anywhere near the relegation zone next season if they get these players in. If we continue to be complacent this window then I'd be quite worried they could finish above us. 

I reckon if we added these players at their peak to the existing squad we'd be top 6 challengers:

Yorke

Barry

Laursen 

9 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Our squad is currently at 30+ players when loanees return. We cannot keep adding, the deadwood must go, if that means holding off on signings until they’re gone, then so be it. Doesn’t mean we are done.

Probably does seeing as we're terrible at shifting deadwood and take forever to get them out the door. I mean, Trez still hasn't gone and it's been about a month negotiating. 

11 minutes ago, Xela said:

Pure speculation. 

Not doing enough? A lot of teams haven't even started yet and we've made 4 signings, including upgrades in 2 key positions. We also apparently held talks with Bissouma, so we are looking at others. 

 

 

You keep saying we've made four signings, we haven't, two of them were loans made permanent, we have only added two new players to the team/squad from the end of last season. Yes getting Coutinho was a bit of a coup but he was already here since January. 

We all know it was a very disappointing season last season and we made a fast start to the window, signing two players within a week of the season ending (which I was pleasantly surprised by), but in recent weeks there is absolutely nothing coming out about incomings and only that we must move fringe players on. Just some ominous signs for me, and we all know what happened last summer when we desperately needed a new CM and didn't sign one. I still think we need a starting CM and ST at the minimum, McGinn shouldn't be starting every week, Watkins and Ings are not reliable enough, but I'm pretty sure that we won't have resolved this by the time August 6th comes around. 

If we are done, which is possibly quite likely with the exception of maybe a backup left back, then all we can realistically expect next season is top 10. We can probably overtake the likes of Brighton, Palace, Brentford, but I think Newcastle are now bringing in players that are a vast improvement on what they have and if they do add players like Paqueta to Pope and Botman then they will have a better team than us. Arsenal and Spurs finished well ahead of us last season and are showing the sort of ambition that we should be to improve further . Man U are having a nightmare but will most likely get de Jong over the line and one or two others. We might be on a par with Leicester and West Ham next season and be around 9th or 10th but that's the best we can hope for unless things change on the transfer front in the next few weeks.

For a side that finished 14th but says it wants to be competing with the top 6/7, we aren't doing anywhere near enough. We need at least another 2 more players for the starting 11 because if we don't then there will be more disappointment again next season I'm sure. 

Beautiful footwork to set up the 2nd goal. He is a genuine talent and it will be a huge shame if he moves on which is looking likely with this contract situation. Good strike from Devine too who is only 17 (youngest player in the U19s squad) and plays for Spurs.

Tim has had a very good game at holding midfield, he's even been compared to Franck Kessie!

7 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Doubting Ox because of his injury record is one thing, doubting him because of his ability is ludicrous. He’d be the perfect foil, cover and potential mentor for Ramsey. He would arguably immediately be our 2nd best midfielder.

He's got some ability (as has any player that plays for Liverpool) but not enough to significantly improve us and move us from midtable wannabes to top 6/7 challengers. His numbers are pretty weak for a supposedly more attack-minded midfielder. And that's without mentioning his injury record or age.

He's certainly one of Liverpool's poorer signings of the last few years and for the money spent on him Arsenal mugged off Liverpool big time. Definite Barkley vibes about that one and hope it isn't true.

2 minutes ago, duke313 said:

I don’t think we need a CB, unless it’s someone like Bassey who can play LB or CB. Four CBs should be enough. Mings, Carlos, Konsa, Chambers. Presumably Hause will leave.

If Bassey was available for 10-15m then yes, but Rangers are living in cloud cuckoo land and want 25m+ which is ridiculous for a player who's had one good season and not played outside Scotland.

For me, I think we're at a stage where we could potentially upgrade Mings given what is currently available on the market and think we should pounce despite what Mings has done for us. Mings' contract is also up in 2024 so we could potentially get some decent dough for him if we cash in now. Just my opinion.

So quiet at the moment, no wonder people are restless because we still need 2 maybe 3 first team players and there are no links except to Bale which I am expecting and hoping to be complete bull. I see Manure fans planned to stage a protest at the CEO's house yesterday due to lack of transfer activity, they're similar to Everton fans.

I think we still need four new signings, with 2 or 3 to go into the first team:

CB (sell Hause and maybe even Mings although I know many won't like that)

LB

CM

FW

My picks would be any of the following:

CB (left footed) - Ake, Botman, Lisandro Martinez (the last 2 linked heavily with Newcastle and Arsenal)

LB - Merlin, Gomez or Hickey

CM - Gallagher, Auoar, Koopmeiners, Sangare, Majer 

ST - David, Guedes

If the club think we can go into next season with what we currently have, we'll do well to finish top 10 IMO. Those are the type of signings that can push us on to top 7 which is where we need to be next season. 

38 minutes ago, beachboys1 said:

greeg evans says we are in advabced talks to sign ben mee

I don't believe that for a second, would be an awful signing and would be 4th choice CB at best.

1 minute ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

Which is probably why we’ve been mostly utilising two number 9’s since February. 

Many successful teams don’t. Many formations are available. Why the obsession with *this* one? 

I think you can mix up a possession game with a counter attacking game with that formation, plus get players like Bailey into the team who we invested a lot of money in and we don't want to see it go to waste. In a narrower formation we can't do that.

It doesn't matter anyhow as Gerrard seems dead set on the formation he used up in Scotland.