david-avfc

Hause £15m! We’ll get £2-3m for him, he’s never been first choice so why would a promoted team pay £15m for someone proven to be not good enough to get regular game time for a mid table side

We have to work out a way to get Buendia and Coutinho on the same wavelength and playing in the same team together. Both are too good for a side like ours to be regularly missing out. Buendia lacks the pure technical ability of Coutinho and is more prone to sloppy moments, but he works 10x harder and that offers creativity in different ways, as well as providing the extra support to rest of the team helping out defensively which is always underrated

Maybe one of those players who just played better with no fans in the ground. Before lockdown we were a calamity at the back and Konsa was part of that, and he only properly nailed down a guaranteed starting 11 place during project restart as before that he was competing with Engels. The disappointing thing is that since he joined us he’d been consistently improving, until recently and now he’s looking like he’s rapidly regressing. He’s still young for a centre back, just 24, so hopefully enough time to get back on the right track. But I’m not sure Gerrard will show him the same love that Smith gave him, and we saw how quickly Gerrard discarded Targett who looks like a very similar case. I think selling him would be a mistake but then if he’s going to be a liability then we need to bring someone new in.

Last time I looked at an U23 game we had a bunch of 16 year olds in the side. All our best young players have been loaned out, so can’t expect too much results wise from the U23s. Maybe Delaney is seen as decent but not exceptional, and we want to push higher. It’s hard to judge from the outside. If we bring in an ex-Gerrard or Purslow connection I’ll be sceptical though

Wycombe bullied MK from the parts I saw, they were far more physical whereas MK were trying to be more technical, but at that level of the game the passing ability left much to be desired to say the least. As for Kesler, he wasn’t able to get on the ball much as the team were mostly dominated by the opposition, he was guilty of some wayward passes as well as a few other players as they struggled with the pressure of the tough Wycombe side. He did come alive early in the second half, winning a few free kicks, although I gave up shortly after as the game descended into too much fouling on both sides. In defence he struggled to make a difference with the long ball approach from Wycombe which mostly came towards the centre backs anyway. Not sure if it was tactical or individual but I couldn’t work out his positioning, he was neither covering the defensive areas nor pushing up high enough to contribute an attacking threat. Based on this game and another one I saw, maybe another loan spell in a more technically competent side preferably in the championship might be best. Hopefully Gerrard takes a proper look at him in preseason though. Of course it’s all about experience at the moment, his first year of senior football, and winning young player of the season at Swindon despite leaving in Jan, and then play offs at MK is a great start

Yeah completely agree, if Gerrard knows individual players in the French / German etc leagues then he probably isn’t spending enough time concentrating on his current players. This is why we employ scouts, head of recruitment, football directors etc, the days of the manager managing the whole business are long gone and attempting to return to that would be a monumental step backwards. I’m sure he is in constant dialogue with the other guys to discuss his requirements and any players which have been identified or have suddenly become available

Didn’t Dybala pull out of a move to Spurs once because he had crazy wage demands… £300k+ a week level of crazy Can’t see it happening at all

Yeah I agree I think Chambers is a very decent squad player and is more than capable of doing a solid job in most games for us but can’t see him being a first choice solution in the long term. When he’s been first choice before it’s been at Middlesbrough and Fulham - relegated both times, not that it’s his fault but I don’t think he has that extra bit of quality that’s going to push us up closer to the European places. As for Konsa, he’s got to up his game. He is still young so has a lot more to come. I’d like us to sign a new top class centre half and then Mings, Konsa and Chambers fighting it out for the second centre back spot.

I always thought he was one of the worst regular-starting centre forwards in the league until he had a couple of seasons when he was on fire and looked a completely different player. Before that he worked hard but never showed any real quality. Jury is out which one is the “real” DCL.

Sorry not to pick on your comment specifically but this saying about no style which gets bandied around by fans of all clubs after a few poor performances is one of the blandest criticisms in football. Of course we have a style of play, every team does unless your absolutely clueless and bottom of the league. We attack through the middle, try to pass through the midfield and push the fullbacks high for width whilst the front 3 play narrow. Whether you think that approach is good or bad is up to your opinion, personally I think Gerrards approach isn’t helping us. If anything the style he’s trying to implement is the problem, rather than not having a style at all. A bit of a rant, nothing personal, but I just find it a frustrating criticism.

Your forgetting one thing - FFP. If a club sells a player for a loss it’s one big hit to the accounts, if we keep them or loan them out it will be a loss as per the annual amortisation cost but it will be far less as it’s spread out evenly over the duration of the contract. In a normal business you’d be right on sunk costs, but there’s a difference with football clubs. Your example of Wesley proves the point, he is actually still a villa player because from an accounting perspective it’s better to run his contract down than to sell him early (even better if you can offload his wages via a loan) - we won’t get a fee for him in any scenario but it’s about mucking around with the accounting technicalities. As for selling Buendia, after one season? Statistically one of our most creative players… would be madness.

Considering the outlay we made for Buendia, £38m, we have to try to get him in the team with Coutinho. We can’t buy players for close to £40m and then bin them arbitrarily because the gaffer wants to sign his mate, as class as his mate is it’s not really a professional or sustainable way to do things. I think Buendia is good enough to adapt although I admit there probably is work to do but we at least need to try it. We have Ings + Watkins enough second chances to see if it would work.

Pretty sure football insider’s approach to transfer rumours is a broken clock is correct twice a day

Veretout is 18 months older than Sanson, and we had him what 7 years ago? Completely different phases in their careers when they signed for us and when they leave/left us

To be fair the one game he started recently vs Wolves was the absolute worst we’ve played recently and in particular the midfield was awful offering no defensive protection and created nothing going forwards. We only regained our shape once Luiz came on and Sanson came off. McGinn gets a lot of stick but honestly since he signed for us has never let us down even if he is going through a slightly weaker spell (which is at least partially due to the tactics as well) so I can’t see him getting dropped, nor do I want him to. Ramsey is obviously highly thought of by Gerrard and I agree with some fans that he should be rested from time to time, but in the long term it’s Ramsey who has the potential to help turn us into a top half team, not Sanson, so he’s got to be playing most weeks. So where does that leave Sanson? On the bench. I’d like to see him given more chances but I don’t think there’s anything too controversial about his place in the squad, based on the other options.

At 36/37 it’s probably difficult for him to step in once every couple of months and immediately have the required level of match sharpness. With a run of games, he might be more solid.

Targett, Watkins, Buendia were all injured for 1-2 months in preseason in addition to the injuries Traore and Bailey, and Trezeguet (whether or not he counts or not is debate-able) plus Luiz, Martinez, Mings coming back late from international duty in the summer. Fundamentally as a squad we just did not look fully fit during the opening weeks of the season. The 5 losses in a row was poor management, not fitness, but the lousy start in August before the first international break was definitely fitness related

Not worried about relegation, there are other teams between us and 18th and there’s a 8 point gap with just 6 & 7 games to go. Someone might go on a winning streak but not 2 or 3 teams all at once- they’re at the bottom for a reason. And we’re bound to pick up points at some point. The realistic worry is finishing 15th or 16th and struggling to attract targets to help us push on in the summer, or existing players like Martinez wanting to find the exit door

Yeah I’d like to see him at some point, even if it’s just off the bench, but there’s a fine line between throwing him into the deep end and risking a disaster and giving him a sensible taste of top flight football

Davis is an enigma, a lot of his attributes mark him out as a top player, but never really seemed to click with him for us. All players need games to develop, Davis has been unlucky with injuries and at times being considered too good to be sold/loaned but not good enough to start games. In most games for us when given reasonable minutes he’s been powerful but rusty in front of goal, if he’d played 100 games in his career by now maybe he’s be a completely different player. He’ll never be a 20 goal a season striker but if he can be a 10+ goal striker with everything else he adds he’d be a very useful player. If we do sell him it might be the best for all parties, I can’t see him pushing for regular starts in the PL for us, equally I hope there’s a reasonable fee as I can see him getting back into the PL one day

To be fair vs Watford he’d been out injured all preseason and was rushed back for the first game of the season with no preparation. It was a poor tactical decision rather than the player’s fault. Our whole preseason was shambolic to be fair for many reasons; injuries, late-returners, a bad transfer window, friendlies cancelled, senior coaches leaving. I know it’s a stretch to say it’s still costing us now, but it certainly set up what has followed

We will never progress trying to wheel and deal the squad like a pack of Pokémon cards We need to build a team and gradually bring in better players to improve it - sell this guy and buy that guy, then sell him and buy those two instead… great strategy on football manager, relegation strategy in real life

If we lose to next week to Leicester and then slip up vs Norwich then it could turn sour as the fan base is somewhat divided already. I think we will win at least 1 game and even just that will keep Gerrards place safe until the Autumn. I think even it does go down the pan Purslow will be reluctant to pull the trigger as Gerrard was obviously his man and we allegedly paid a lot of money to get him and his coaches down from Rangers

But who knows if Gerrard would have got more points out of the opening games of the season than under Smith? We were in complete disarray at the start of the season following the chaotic summer, and as the last 4 results have shown we are no less prone to losing streaks under Gerrard than we were under Smith.

That’s obviously in our benefit but I doubt Liverpool would agree on any significant portion of the fee being contingent on that amount of games. I’m not so concerned about his outright availability for matches, but more so on his actual quality as a player after such injuries and the long term damage they may have done. A fully fit Gomez is possibly better than Mings and Konsa but I’m not sure by a significant enough margin to fundamentally change the dynamics of our team. But if he has permanently lost peak fitness/ability then he might realistically be significantly worse than Mings / Konsa - and then on top of that there’s the risk he could get injured again and miss a season. It seems to me that the potential upside gain is quite limited but the downside risks are significant which is why I’d avoid, regardless of fee or payment structure. We already have a young-ish English centre back and although he’s been out of form recently, the fact Konsa has started 60 PL games in the last two seasons vs Gomez’s 8 would put our lad ahead in my opinion. Gomez has also never started more than 22 league games a season, Konsa has done more than that every season with us and at Brentford and Charlton - they are both the same age and one hasn’t shown signs of severe injury problems