Teale's 'tache

I'm stressed about how stressed I'm going to be later, it's so stressful being this stressed.

This weekend is lasting forever!

I just hope we keep our heads, don't panic if we go behind, and play the way we know we can. I trust the staff to get the preparations right, the players will need to turn up, handle the pressure and execute the game plan.

It's won't be easy, Derby are in good form and have their tails up after the Leeds result, they will enjoy being the underdogs and being written off, it's easy motivation for them. 

I believe we are good enough and brave enough. We can do this!

6 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

You are a great designer mate... but those wasp uniforms are bloody horrible!

The first shirt reminds me of this one..

 

The second shirt, at a quick first glance, could be mistaken for a Leeds shirt!

 

The yellow designs have had a very mixed reaction, and I thought the black/green would be the most divisive!

Just goes to show how important market research can be, and how good a job they did with the strip this season

13 minutes ago, sne said:

Looks too much like AIK in Sweden, will have to cheer for our opponents if we play in that.

It's interesting to hear all the feedback on these, should send this thread off to Kappa for free market research!

I expected mixed reviews to the green and black but I've been surprised how many don't like a yellow kit.

16 hours ago, Demitri_C said:

@Teale's 'tache you reckon you can do the yellow and black one in reverse colours? Have the body black and sleeves gold see how that would look? 

Here you go, with a couple more variations...

13 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

@Teale's 'tache you reckon you can do the yellow and black one in reverse colours? Have the body black and sleeves gold see how that would look? 

Yeah that shouldn't be a problem, I'll put a design together next time I'm at my computer

3 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

Wolves had a coherent strategy, Fulham didn't.

Clubs who have immediate success with European transfers often get several players in from the same country. Arsenal and Newcastle had a lot of joy taking players from France. Wolves with a Portuguese manager, couple of established Portuguese players from their promotion season, were well placed to welcome some new Portuguese players or players who had played in Portugal.

At the other extreme, you have clubs like Burnley who sign virtually all of their players from English lower leagues, and have good success with that.

So it's more about consistency than anything I think. If you just randomly throw money at a load of highly rated players from wherever, it usually ends in tears.

Given the makeup of our current dressing room, I'd look at English lower leagues, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Scandinavia for good value players who can fit in quickly.

I agree that having a good strategy is important, but it also depends on how far along in that strategy you are, Wolves only signed 5 or 6 new(meaning not on loan the previous season) when they came up, some of them were loans and not all of them went straight in to the first team. They could get away with this because they had a solid base and managed to get the players they'd loaned the previous season on permanent deals, so they kept continuity and added in positions they needed the most.

If you look at Liverpool they can afford to not really play some of their signings for several months while they get used to the system/culture because they have such a solid base.

If we go up and don't get the loan players on permanent deals then we'll need to replace them, and then improve the others areas, which would mean trying to integrate too many new players in to the first team.

I don't think European players has to be specifically the direction we go in, I think a mix of both European and British is better, but we need to ensure new players will fit the system and the group they are going to be working in and not just signing somebody because they are a 'big name' or play for a 'big club'.

4 minutes ago, avfcwills10 said:

I think the main reason that I would like to go up is because I'm desperate to see how ambitious our owners are. 

For example will we be looking to go all out for young European talents like Joao Felix?? Teams like Wolves and West Ham have shown that it's possible to sign top players from foreign leagues. I think because of the money now, the days of only the top 4/5 singing top players are gone.

What are peoples expectations of what the summer could hold if we are success full on Monday?

I think although the temptation to splash the cash would be there, what we will need should we go up is some continuity. Dean Smith has done an outstanding job getting the way he want's to play across to the players in the middle of a season, but that kind of thing isn't going to fly in the Premiership, we'd need to be at it from the start. We can't afford a quite few months while half a team gets used to the system.

Many people on this thread have pointed out that the first thing we need to do is lock down the loan signings that have done so well for us, I agree completely, I don't even mind paying a little over the odds to get them so we can keep the core group, and then we'd need to strengthen in a few areas with new players (i.e left back and right wing).

We'd need to be wary of doing a Fulham, signing top players from Europe is not as easy as the likes of Wolves make it look...

2 hours ago, wilko154 said:

Hypothetically... would you take Benteke at a cut price £8 million this Summer if we are promoted on Monday (Sorry when we are promoted Monday)

Would it be worth the risk of trying to play him back into his old Villa form as a reserve striker initially?

I don't think he fits the way we play anymore, he's out of form and injuries have not been kind either. His wages would be too much just to take a punt. A no from me.

2 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

And Bennett was a championship player at the time so paying almost double for a league one player. 7.5m is a lot of money for someone at that level. 

Certainly is, it's a risk no doubt, they must have seen something they like!

At the moment it's just a rumour though, that fee could be including all kinds of add-ons and clauses.

2 minutes ago, Junxs said:

Yeah I already edited my post, wish there was an option to delete 

No worries 

5 minutes ago, Junxs said:

Wasn't Bennett like 7-10m? I always thought it a relatively expensive signing for an unknown

Wikipedia states "Bennett completed a transfer to Premier League club Aston Villa for a fee of £3 million, with potential add-ons rising to £4.25 million."

Transfermarkt.co.uk says it was £2.84m.

I'm trying to find a better source, but I've always though it was around the 3m mark.

11 minutes ago, lexicon said:

That's not really a fair comparison at all - Bennett and Bowery were not standout players or stars in the teams they played for and IIRC the fans of those teams were surprised we went for them. 

 

Also they were fairly cheap, Bennett was around 3m I think, and Bowery was about 500k. Delph and Alli were both over 5m.

3 minutes ago, hippo said:

so why not keep luke on the current design team ? 

Who knows?! Most likely Kappa have paid us more to be a part of it and so want their own guys involved, which is fair enough as their name will be associated with it, or it could be Luke doesn't want to work on a design for the benefit of another company, that wouldn't be pushing his brand any.

The point I'm trying to make is that this guy is a good designer, no doubt, but he's not the only one out there, and we don't even know how much say he had in the final designs. The people who are/have been working on whatever the new designs are deserve a chance, let's see what they come up with.

47 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I used to love AC Milan, so it's sad that I couldn't tell you who any of those players are.

Tiemoue Bakayoko, Lucas Paqueta, Alessio Romagnoli, Krzysztof Piatek and Suso. I still love AC Milan, even though they have been bobbins for a good while! 

I'll be making no judgement until I see a kit.

Yes, Luke has been involved in designing a good kit, but as a designer myself I know the process will have involved many people, there are a lot of great designers out there let's give them a chance before we write them off! 

13 hours ago, The Moustache of Teale said:

Let’s hope that come Monday evening we’ll all be raising a glass to Jack...

*checks username*... I thought I was the only one! 

16 minutes ago, Junxs said:

Might be on my own here, but think Delle Alli is the most overrated player around.

I watched a fair bit of spurs last few years as Sky / BT love to show them.. I just don't see what he does that's so special. He doesn't take people on, he doesn't score long range, doesn't take control of games, doesn't seem to do any of the stuff players that get talked about do. Christian Eriksen and Son are the standouts for Spurs but never get hyped like Alli does.

Genuinely think Grealish would be better in the England team ahead of him, Delph too.

I think Alli was good when he broke through but he's been struggling with injuries and form for a while now, I also think he tends to play out of his favoured position especially for England which doesn't do him any favours, he does have great movement and drags players around which isn't always obvious, and he's a tidy finisher.

However, I agree, Jack certainly has more of a clear effect on a game and would cause opposition coaches more headaches.

I'm all for going after young, hungry players but it's the quality that really matters, and you have to pay good money for that as others will always be interested. It's a risky policy but it can work. 

I'd take El Ghazi for 5m, he's worth at least that now and still has potential to improve even more. Obvious other benefit is that he knows the group and system already.

20 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

I really like the third kit, but then, this is currently my favourite Villa shirt 

Not for me Clive...

1 hour ago, Jareth said:

 

Seems a bit steep, if that's after add-ons etc. it may not be so bad. Fits the young hungry profile I think we should be looking for, not seen much of him myself to know if he has the required quality though.

5 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Rumours Boro want him as their new manager

He's not the favourite so I don't think it's all that likely, I can think of better places to be starting a managerial career as well, however we will have to get used to this kind of thing, he'll be linked with every job going in championship.

13 hours ago, Davkaus said:

I like it, and surely there's only so much traditionalists can insist on. If your shirt not only has to be red and black stripes, but fans start getting the sodding tape measure out every season, what else can the kit designers do?

I think the problem with thin stripes in this case is that at a distance you won't make out the stripes, they'll just kind of merge into a dirty red.

I like it personally, but I can see why some may be opposed to it.  

They've had thin stripes plenty of times before mind...