villanwesty88

Top half finish

Win a cup

Tie our best players to new contracts and signal our intent to break into the top 6/7 in 2014/15

Would like to see Gary Gardner go and get a month or two under his belt somewhere. He's behind Westwood, Delph, Sylla, Bacuna & KEA for central midfield so he's unlikely to get game time. He needs to play after being out for so long. 

The Mail reckon Barry is available to leave city. Can't see him getting much game time next season there. Wages would be an issue for anyone interested, similar to us getting rid of Given. Would be great to have that experience in the squad but we are not short of CMs at the moment.

Haven't heard much on the standing/seating debate for a while. Would love to see some safe standing areas at Villa Park! Anyone know where the debate is at? Seems like it will still be a couple years away at least.

So Hull City signed McGregor from Besiktas (old Rangers keeper)...Proving to be hard work offloading Given and Ireland!

I think he could go to someone like Wigan where he'll play every week and they'll want to be in the PL again. If it's a Premier League side then agree with the above. Someone like Swansea/Cardiff/Palace

Our central three (Westwood, Delph and Sylla) were excellent near the end of the season. I'd expect at least two of them to start next season depending on future transfers.

I agree, I just worry is one of them is out and also think we're too reliant on playing 3 in the middle. Whilst I like playing 3 in the middle it would be nice to have the option of a 4-4-2 occasionally.

It seems like we're really building a squad now and strengthening a lot of areas. The defence is looking a lot stronger on paper with the addition of Okore and hopefully Luna will do well too.

However the central midfield is still the area that needs attention. We have quite a few players that have played there and I still don't know what our best central midfield partnership is.

I was impressed with Sylla, Westwood and Delph towards the end of the season. Having said that I don't feel we have the quality to play a 2 man central midfield which at times is an option we need. 

Players that have featured in CM for us:

Sylla, Westwood, Delph, Bannan, Ireland, KEA, Herd, Gardner, Carruthers. We now have Bacuna who I think can play CM but is perhaps a more wide midfielder. 

I'd only keep those in bold out of that list and I'd loan out Carruthers and Gardner due to a lack of first team games and have Herd competing for RB. 

Looking at that list it lacks strength and quality which I felt put a lot of pressure on the defence. Whilst the defence was bad last season, the midfield left them exposed at times. 

We need a big strong presence in the midfield who is better than what we already have. Improving the first XI is the key for me. Would like a player in the mould of Okore/Benteke but who holds the midfield together.

Still a long way to go in the transfer window and I think we're playing our cards right. I'm sure PL is looking the the central midfield. I think we should shift a few before we sign anymore. 

Who would you get in CM? Do you think it needs improving?

How many more signings do you think we'll make? I think a RB, CM/AM would conclude the transfers. 

Then we need to see the back of about 5 players, IMO. 

sorry but what means citeh?

It means Manchester City...the accent that people from Manchester have means they pronounce "City" as "Citeh" (it would sound like "Sit-a")

I reckon 8th is achievable. 8th-12th

Is Jores pronounced "Jaws"? 

http://i1350.photobucket.com/albums/p775/mw883/joresjaws_zps25a54d14.jpg

Jores is pronounced Jaws! Right?

<a href="http://s1350.photobucket.com/user/mw883/media/joresjaws_zps25a54d14.jpg.html" target="_blank"><img src="http://i1350.photobucket.com/albums/p775/mw883/joresjaws_zps25a54d14.jpg" border="0" alt=" photo joresjaws_zps25a54d14.jpg"/></a>

 

I think Lambert has shown he can pick them from the lower leagues. If he wants him here, I want him here.

Surely instead of always buying lower league players all the time we need to be looking at our u19s

 

These players from the lower leagues are arriving with a good amount of game time for their age. Our younger players should get out on loan in the lower leagues

For me, signing young players that we haven't heard of is something positive. What's the point trying to sign proven players? It costs far too much to be competitive in the Premier League following that model. Bringing in the unknowns is low-risk in terms of costs in the PL and gives us a chance to sign players who could become great.

We'd never have been able to sign Benteke this summer if he was playing for someone else in the PL last season. So I'm all for it, keep unearthing the unknown gems Lambert! 

Why are we scouting shit from League 2 when we could get Robert Huth or Wayne Bridge?

Unbelievable.

You're kidding, right?

Luke Wilkinson linked with us and Norwich...

Sky Sports understands a number of Premier League clubs are tracking highly-rated Dagenham & Redbridge defender Luke Wilkinson.

Wilkinson was one of Dagenham's shining lights last season and was instrumental in helping the club secure their League Two status.

The 21-year-old made 46 appearances in all competitions last term and was named the club's player of the season after establishing himself in the first team.

Wilkinson's performances have not gone unnoticed further up the football pyramid with a host of sides keeping tabs on his progress.

Norwich and Aston Villa are both thought to be admirers of the former Portsmouth man and are continuing to monitor his situation at Dagenham.

Never heard of him but I'd never heard of Lowton, Westwood, Bowery, Benteke and Sylla. Not sure how strong this link is really, not seen it anywhere else.

Bent fee is debatable - RVP went for 25m at he's 29. Anyway that's by the by. What I'm trying to get across is we could have somewhere between £60-80m this summer so if we spent just 1/3 of that and trimmed the wage bill things would be looking extremely healthy. 

Vermaelan is far better than Vlaar. We wouldn't like his wage bill, he wouldn't come here. End. 

 

"£30m would get 4 players of Benteke's quality (based on he cost £7m last summer) that just haven't been discovered or played at the highest level."

 

I suppose that's some consolation.

 

£30m and Benteke's wages are more likely to get us two £7m players with a little change when you figure in their wages, maybe two and a half.

 

Fair point. Add in the fact we'll have an allocated budget for the summer spend and we're offloading a few we could be far better off by September.

£20m budget for the summer, £30m for Benteke, £10m for Bent, then probably another £10m in further sales of bit part players. Very rough estimates of course. That could be £70m right there and we'd obviously spend no where near that. I predict our wage bill will be lower next season and the squad will be better. Win win.

Nacer Chadli and Jelle Vossen. 

I personally think Monaco might come in with a ridiculous offer. They are up to Ligue 1 and just spent £60m on Rodrigeuz and Moutinho from Porto. 

Every player has his price, so if he goes it would be a shame but as much as we're a stepping stone for him he could be a stepping stone for us - with £30m extra to play with if Lambert keeps the same philosophy of signing good young players it can only bode well. We're doing what Spurs did a few years back which is fine with me.

£30m would get 4 players of Benteke's quality (based on he cost £7m last summer) that just haven't been discovered or played at the highest level.

There are some things that are worth more than money. The respect Villa gained by having Acorns is evident - doesn't this then make Villa a more attract proposition for other companies and therefore attract more money anyway? They'll all want a slice of the good PR and to be associated with the good things Villa do with Acorns. Personally I would bring Acorns back on the away strip, sell the home sponsorship and look to emulate Man Utd by getting sponsors for the training kit, social media etc etc.

I think an organisation that fits in with the family values that Villa has would be best for the sponsorship. Genting isn't a good fit with our ethos - I thought we got with of 32 Red because it was Gambling. So won't be sorry to part company with them.

Acorns was the best one we've had and we should bring it back. If we have to have a commercial sponsor then I like the idea of Cadbury's, Cross Country Trains, Jaguar Landrover, Tata Steel, Seat - it's very difficult to find an organisation that fits the values of Villa though. 

"You never win anything with kids". Wembley next season and top 10.