Gary Thomas Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Wheres the big money signing to perk us all up??? Sherwood out. We're still waiting TimTom....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PieFacE Posted July 23, 2015 VT Supporter Share Posted July 23, 2015 I just want us to sign players and we need to do it fast. I know there's still 6 weeks of the window or whatever but we need to get players integrated in the squad as fast as possible, otherwise we're going to have a poor start to the season and it could all be down hill from there. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeyAnty Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa Aston Villa finished 17th last season, and have promptly lost the spine of their team. With the season 16 days away, they are vastly ill-prepared with a rookie manager... There is no magic formula for improving upon consecutive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th, but it would be a committed optimist who viewed Aston Villa's current condition as anything but grim. "There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do," said Tim Sherwood after the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal. Not sure this is quite what he had in mind. Since the end of last season, Aston Villa have lost their captain (Fabian Delph), their top league goalscorer (Christian Benteke) and two of their next three top league goalscorers (Tom Cleverley, Andreas Weimann). Those four also constitute four of their top eight appearance makers from last season. Central defender Ron Vlaar was poor for large swathes of last season, but he was also their most experienced defender. He too has opted for pastures new. The headline statistic is this: Aston Villa's current squad scored a total of 12 Premier League goals last season. Gabby Agbonlahor accounts for half of those. The Premier League reconvenes in 16 days - Villa are emphatically ill-prepared. Furthermore, Sherwood will know only too well the importance of starting the season quickly. In their first six league matches his side face one promoted team (Bournemouth) and four more (Crystal Palace, West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester) who finished in the seven places directly above Villa last season. With six consecutive games against teams in last season's top nine following thereafter, collecting victories in August becomes of paramount importance. The obvious retort is that there are still close to six weeks of the transfer window remaining, but Villa are in the unenviable position of having conspicuously full pockets with time running out. The basic economic principles of supply and demand dictate that clubs will soon put up their prices when officials dressed in claret and blue ride into town. Another concern for fans is their club's recent record in recruiting from abroad - it's nothing short of abhorrent. A list of the last nine players brought to England by Villa is almost a complete who's not: Libor Kozak, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez, Aly Cissokho. All since the beginning of 2013/14, and only Okore counts as a success. Sherwood must hope, therefore, that his two signings thus far can buck the trend. Jordan Amavi had a wonderful season with OGC Nice in Ligue Un, but must deal with the pressure of being the club's most expensive player in four-and-a-half years. Amavi is joined by Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, who is intended to be a replacement for the departing Delph (at a similar price and age but without the Premier League experience). Gueye ingratiated himself to Villa supporters with some choice words upon completing his move: "I wanted a change of scenery. The most important thing was to come to England to improve and aim for a big club later." Nothing like making a good impression, and that's nothing like... Replacing Benteke's goals will be the club's toughest task, with fans presumably less than impressed by repeated links to Emmanuel Adebayor. Given that the striker is on a £100,000-a-week contract at Tottenham and Daniel Levy wants a £5m transfer fee, we can't shout 'Walk away, do not touch' loudly enough. The final concerns surround Sherwood himself who is walking into untrodden ground, preparing for a new season for the first time as a manager. He was rightly credited with his short-term impact at Villa Park and for reigniting the form of Christian Benteke, but it's worth remembering that Sherwood took just 16 points from 13 league games in charge. Sherwood recently admitted his exasperation at his inability to shift the deadwood from his squad. "I think we still need to get rid of five, six, or seven maybe," he said last week. "When you have players at the club who are on big money and enjoying the environment they are in, it's hard. I'm not blaming the players - the club gave them the contracts, it's not their fault - you just have to hope they have the opportunity to move elsewhere." It's an intriguing motivational tactic, and an awful lot of business to do in under six weeks. The start of the season already feels like a missed deadline. The manager's only other public missive was to laud the decision of Delph to stay at the club. "I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now," Sherwood said. At the time that was intended as a boast of Villa's promising future; it now hangs in the air like the smell of decay. That's close to an inadvertent admission of another relegation battle to come. Tim Sherwood discussed performing "major surgery" on his squad in May, but supporters must put faith in a rookie manager and wantaway owner to fix the obvious wounds before time runs out. In the battle to avoid a fifth consecutive winter of Villa Park discontent, crossed fingers are the only protection against the cold. Edited July 23, 2015 by HeyAnty 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dante_Lockhart Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I think Sanchez/Westwood will be on the sheet in one of the CM positions. Gueye replacing Delph as the B2B midfielder, S/W as the holding player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villan81 Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) 10:02am and no striker signed from Tekkers Money Almstadt out [emoji6] Edited July 23, 2015 by Villan81 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa we're all doomed.... where's that from? thing is we are potentially in our best position off the field since MON threw his toys out of the pram and walked out the door we were going nowhere and doing nothing with those players, now at the very least it feels like we might make some progression, and it'll be some proper long term progression rather than the false dawns that badly run clubs buying good players brings bringing weimann in to any argument about who we've sold is a moot point for me anyway, might as well claim that we're going down because of given leaving... that article (assuming its an article rather than your opinion due to the way its written) seems to be by someone who hardly watched us, knows very little about us and is now happily jumping on the bandwagon writing us off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa Aston Villa finished 17th last season, and have promptly lost the spine of their team. With the season 16 days away, they are vastly ill-prepared with a rookie manager... There is no magic formula for improving upon consecutive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th, but it would be a committed optimist who viewed Aston Villa's current condition as anything but grim. "There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do," said Tim Sherwood after the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal. Not sure this is quite what he had in mind. Since the end of last season, Aston Villa have lost their captain (Fabian Delph), their top league goalscorer (Christian Benteke) and two of their next three top league goalscorers (Tom Cleverley, Andreas Weimann). Those four also constitute four of their top eight appearance makers from last season. Central defender Ron Vlaar was poor for large swathes of last season, but he was also their most experienced defender. He too has opted for pastures new. The headline statistic is this: Aston Villa's current squad scored a total of 12 Premier League goals last season. Gabby Agbonlahor accounts for half of those. The Premier League reconvenes in 16 days - Villa are emphatically ill-prepared. Furthermore, Sherwood will know only too well the importance of starting the season quickly. In their first six league matches his side face one promoted team (Bournemouth) and four more (Crystal Palace, West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester) who finished in the seven places directly above Villa last season. With six consecutive games against teams in last season's top nine following thereafter, collecting victories in August becomes of paramount importance. The obvious retort is that there are still close to six weeks of the transfer window remaining, but Villa are in the unenviable position of having conspicuously full pockets with time running out. The basic economic principles of supply and demand dictate that clubs will soon put up their prices when officials dressed in claret and blue ride into town. Another concern for fans is their club's recent record in recruiting from abroad - it's nothing short of abhorrent. A list of the last nine players brought to England by Villa is almost a complete who's not: Libor Kozak, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez, Aly Cissokho. All since the beginning of 2013/14, and only Okore counts as a success. Sherwood must hope, therefore, that his two signings thus far can buck the trend. Jordan Amavi had a wonderful season with OGC Nice in Ligue Un, but must deal with the pressure of being the club's most expensive player in four-and-a-half years. Amavi is joined by Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, who is intended to be a replacement for the departing Delph (at a similar price and age but without the Premier League experience). Gueye ingratiated himself to Villa supporters with some choice words upon completing his move: "I wanted a change of scenery. The most important thing was to come to England to improve and aim for a big club later." Nothing like making a good impression, and that's nothing like... Replacing Benteke's goals will be the club's toughest task, with fans presumably less than impressed by repeated links to Emmanuel Adebayor. Given that the striker is on a £100,000-a-week contract at Tottenham and Daniel Levy wants a £5m transfer fee, we can't shout 'Walk away, do not touch' loudly enough. The final concerns surround Sherwood himself who is walking into untrodden ground, preparing for a new season for the first time as a manager. He was rightly credited with his short-term impact at Villa Park and for reigniting the form of Christian Benteke, but it's worth remembering that Sherwood took just 16 points from 13 league games in charge. Sherwood recently admitted his exasperation at his inability to shift the deadwood from his squad. "I think we still need to get rid of five, six, or seven maybe," he said last week. "When you have players at the club who are on big money and enjoying the environment they are in, it's hard. I'm not blaming the players - the club gave them the contracts, it's not their fault - you just have to hope they have the opportunity to move elsewhere." It's an intriguing motivational tactic, and an awful lot of business to do in under six weeks. The start of the season already feels like a missed deadline. The manager's only other public missive was to laud the decision of Delph to stay at the club. "I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now," Sherwood said. At the time that was intended as a boast of Villa's promising future; it now hangs in the air like the smell of decay. That's close to an inadvertent admission of another relegation battle to come. Tim Sherwood discussed performing "major surgery" on his squad in May, but supporters must put faith in a rookie manager and wantaway owner to fix the obvious wounds before time runs out. In the battle to avoid a fifth consecutive winter of Villa Park discontent, crossed fingers are the only protection against the cold. That's why its a huge week for us 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post dAVe80 Posted July 23, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted July 23, 2015 A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa Aston Villa finished 17th last season, and have promptly lost the spine of their team. With the season 16 days away, they are vastly ill-prepared with a rookie manager... There is no magic formula for improving upon consecutive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th, but it would be a committed optimist who viewed Aston Villa's current condition as anything but grim. "There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do," said Tim Sherwood after the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal. Not sure this is quite what he had in mind. Since the end of last season, Aston Villa have lost their captain (Fabian Delph), their top league goalscorer (Christian Benteke) and two of their next three top league goalscorers (Tom Cleverley, Andreas Weimann). Those four also constitute four of their top eight appearance makers from last season. Central defender Ron Vlaar was poor for large swathes of last season, but he was also their most experienced defender. He too has opted for pastures new. The headline statistic is this: Aston Villa's current squad scored a total of 12 Premier League goals last season. Gabby Agbonlahor accounts for half of those. The Premier League reconvenes in 16 days - Villa are emphatically ill-prepared. Furthermore, Sherwood will know only too well the importance of starting the season quickly. In their first six league matches his side face one promoted team (Bournemouth) and four more (Crystal Palace, West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester) who finished in the seven places directly above Villa last season. With six consecutive games against teams in last season's top nine following thereafter, collecting victories in August becomes of paramount importance. The obvious retort is that there are still close to six weeks of the transfer window remaining, but Villa are in the unenviable position of having conspicuously full pockets with time running out. The basic economic principles of supply and demand dictate that clubs will soon put up their prices when officials dressed in claret and blue ride into town. Another concern for fans is their club's recent record in recruiting from abroad - it's nothing short of abhorrent. A list of the last nine players brought to England by Villa is almost a complete who's not: Libor Kozak, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez, Aly Cissokho. All since the beginning of 2013/14, and only Okore counts as a success. Sherwood must hope, therefore, that his two signings thus far can buck the trend. Jordan Amavi had a wonderful season with OGC Nice in Ligue Un, but must deal with the pressure of being the club's most expensive player in four-and-a-half years. Amavi is joined by Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, who is intended to be a replacement for the departing Delph (at a similar price and age but without the Premier League experience). Gueye ingratiated himself to Villa supporters with some choice words upon completing his move: "I wanted a change of scenery. The most important thing was to come to England to improve and aim for a big club later." Nothing like making a good impression, and that's nothing like... Replacing Benteke's goals will be the club's toughest task, with fans presumably less than impressed by repeated links to Emmanuel Adebayor. Given that the striker is on a £100,000-a-week contract at Tottenham and Daniel Levy wants a £5m transfer fee, we can't shout 'Walk away, do not touch' loudly enough. The final concerns surround Sherwood himself who is walking into untrodden ground, preparing for a new season for the first time as a manager. He was rightly credited with his short-term impact at Villa Park and for reigniting the form of Christian Benteke, but it's worth remembering that Sherwood took just 16 points from 13 league games in charge. Sherwood recently admitted his exasperation at his inability to shift the deadwood from his squad. "I think we still need to get rid of five, six, or seven maybe," he said last week. "When you have players at the club who are on big money and enjoying the environment they are in, it's hard. I'm not blaming the players - the club gave them the contracts, it's not their fault - you just have to hope they have the opportunity to move elsewhere." It's an intriguing motivational tactic, and an awful lot of business to do in under six weeks. The start of the season already feels like a missed deadline. The manager's only other public missive was to laud the decision of Delph to stay at the club. "I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now," Sherwood said. At the time that was intended as a boast of Villa's promising future; it now hangs in the air like the smell of decay. That's close to an inadvertent admission of another relegation battle to come. Tim Sherwood discussed performing "major surgery" on his squad in May, but supporters must put faith in a rookie manager and wantaway owner to fix the obvious wounds before time runs out. In the battle to avoid a fifth consecutive winter of Villa Park discontent, crossed fingers are the only protection against the cold. Time to break out an old favourite.... 9 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 People not reading that, or just saying "we are all doomed" as a way of trying to rubbish it I'm afraid are burying their heads in the sand or worst putting their hands over their ears and singing "lalalalallalalalalala". We need serious strengthening, and we need it soon so as to stop the malaise spreading amongst what squad we have left (including the new ones) so that Sherwood has an even bigger task to try and motivate people. Thats why this is a huge week for us. As it stands another long hard relegation battle is ahead. If we make two or three decent signings then the battle may not be as hard, but we will still have a battle next season. Grim thy have a name and it is Aston Villa Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillanousOne Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa we're all doomed.... where's that from? thing is we are potentially in our best position off the field since MON threw his toys out of the pram and walked out the door we were going nowhere and doing nothing with those players, now at the very least it feels like we might make some progression, and it'll be some proper long term progression rather than the false dawns that badly run clubs buying good players brings bringing weimann in to any argument about who we've sold is a moot point for me anyway, might as well claim that we're going down because of given leaving... that article (assuming its an article rather than your opinion due to the way its written) seems to be by someone who hardly watched us, knows very little about us and is now happily jumping on the bandwagon writing us off we were on the cusp of relegation every season with Delph, Vlaar and Benteke - the backbone of the team. I don't think we can replace Benteke but if we can buy quality in departments we have been unable to strengthen in - then we might go from relegation certainties to something a bit more optimistic, not sure what yet. I'd rather have a team of average to reasonable players playing in an exciting way (aka under Sherwood if he uses this summer to improve the overall quality of the team), than a team of terrible players with a few very good players, all playing negatively (aka under Lambert). And while Benteke is world class, Delph, Cleverly, Vlaar and others we have lost are far from it. Plus we have cleared the decks of so much dead wood there is genuinely as many have said the biggest opportunity to do things differently since MON spent all our money on not very lucky charms. Edited July 23, 2015 by VillanousOne 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mightysasquatch Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa Aston Villa finished 17th last season, and have promptly lost the spine of their team. With the season 16 days away, they are vastly ill-prepared with a rookie manager... There is no magic formula for improving upon consecutive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th, but it would be a committed optimist who viewed Aston Villa's current condition as anything but grim. "There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do," said Tim Sherwood after the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal. Not sure this is quite what he had in mind. Since the end of last season, Aston Villa have lost their captain (Fabian Delph), their top league goalscorer (Christian Benteke) and two of their next three top league goalscorers (Tom Cleverley, Andreas Weimann). Those four also constitute four of their top eight appearance makers from last season. Central defender Ron Vlaar was poor for large swathes of last season, but he was also their most experienced defender. He too has opted for pastures new. The headline statistic is this: Aston Villa's current squad scored a total of 12 Premier League goals last season. Gabby Agbonlahor accounts for half of those. The Premier League reconvenes in 16 days - Villa are emphatically ill-prepared. Furthermore, Sherwood will know only too well the importance of starting the season quickly. In their first six league matches his side face one promoted team (Bournemouth) and four more (Crystal Palace, West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester) who finished in the seven places directly above Villa last season. With six consecutive games against teams in last season's top nine following thereafter, collecting victories in August becomes of paramount importance. The obvious retort is that there are still close to six weeks of the transfer window remaining, but Villa are in the unenviable position of having conspicuously full pockets with time running out. The basic economic principles of supply and demand dictate that clubs will soon put up their prices when officials dressed in claret and blue ride into town. Another concern for fans is their club's recent record in recruiting from abroad - it's nothing short of abhorrent. A list of the last nine players brought to England by Villa is almost a complete who's not: Libor Kozak, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez, Aly Cissokho. All since the beginning of 2013/14, and only Okore counts as a success. Sherwood must hope, therefore, that his two signings thus far can buck the trend. Jordan Amavi had a wonderful season with OGC Nice in Ligue Un, but must deal with the pressure of being the club's most expensive player in four-and-a-half years. Amavi is joined by Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, who is intended to be a replacement for the departing Delph (at a similar price and age but without the Premier League experience). Gueye ingratiated himself to Villa supporters with some choice words upon completing his move: "I wanted a change of scenery. The most important thing was to come to England to improve and aim for a big club later." Nothing like making a good impression, and that's nothing like... Replacing Benteke's goals will be the club's toughest task, with fans presumably less than impressed by repeated links to Emmanuel Adebayor. Given that the striker is on a £100,000-a-week contract at Tottenham and Daniel Levy wants a £5m transfer fee, we can't shout 'Walk away, do not touch' loudly enough. The final concerns surround Sherwood himself who is walking into untrodden ground, preparing for a new season for the first time as a manager. He was rightly credited with his short-term impact at Villa Park and for reigniting the form of Christian Benteke, but it's worth remembering that Sherwood took just 16 points from 13 league games in charge. Sherwood recently admitted his exasperation at his inability to shift the deadwood from his squad. "I think we still need to get rid of five, six, or seven maybe," he said last week. "When you have players at the club who are on big money and enjoying the environment they are in, it's hard. I'm not blaming the players - the club gave them the contracts, it's not their fault - you just have to hope they have the opportunity to move elsewhere." It's an intriguing motivational tactic, and an awful lot of business to do in under six weeks. The start of the season already feels like a missed deadline. The manager's only other public missive was to laud the decision of Delph to stay at the club. "I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now," Sherwood said. At the time that was intended as a boast of Villa's promising future; it now hangs in the air like the smell of decay. That's close to an inadvertent admission of another relegation battle to come. Tim Sherwood discussed performing "major surgery" on his squad in May, but supporters must put faith in a rookie manager and wantaway owner to fix the obvious wounds before time runs out. In the battle to avoid a fifth consecutive winter of Villa Park discontent, crossed fingers are the only protection against the cold. That's why its a huge week for us Don't think there's anything to disagree with there, maybe besides the Adebayor comment. Kind of Want him to join, just not for 5m & 100k a week. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
limvillian Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 People not reading that, or just saying "we are all doomed" as a way of trying to rubbish it I'm afraid are burying their heads in the sand or worst putting their hands over their ears and singing "lalalalallalalalalala". We need serious strengthening, and we need it soon so as to stop the malaise spreading amongst what squad we have left (including the new ones) so that Sherwood has an even bigger task to try and motivate people. Thats why this is a huge week for us. As it stands another long hard relegation battle is ahead. If we make two or three decent signings then the battle may not be as hard, but we will still have a battle next season. Grim thy have a name and it is Aston Villa Only 3 days left in this week so the club better get the finger out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Richard I know you enjoy being cryptic but it seems you are contradicting yourself a bit here. Today you are saying it is a huge week because there is a big rebuild to do whereas earlier in the week you said. I think it's a huge week. I think we'll make a signing and I think we'll have some surprising news that none of us have speculated on. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Gary Thomas Posted July 23, 2015 Popular Post Share Posted July 23, 2015 (edited) The signings will soon come and I have a sneaky feeling we will have the best season we have had in years, playing much better football to boot. We have dismantled a crap team and are starting afresh so lets see where the chips fall. We all know Tim likes a cheeky gamble and backs himself - I wouldn't bet against him doing much better than many of the doom and gloom merchants on here expect. Go on Timmy boy, make it happen!! singing "lalalalallalalalalala". Edited July 23, 2015 by Gary Thomas 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pilchard Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa Aston Villa finished 17th last season, and have promptly lost the spine of their team. With the season 16 days away, they are vastly ill-prepared with a rookie manager... There is no magic formula for improving upon consecutive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th, but it would be a committed optimist who viewed Aston Villa's current condition as anything but grim. "There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do," said Tim Sherwood after the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal. Not sure this is quite what he had in mind. Since the end of last season, Aston Villa have lost their captain (Fabian Delph), their top league goalscorer (Christian Benteke) and two of their next three top league goalscorers (Tom Cleverley, Andreas Weimann). Those four also constitute four of their top eight appearance makers from last season. Central defender Ron Vlaar was poor for large swathes of last season, but he was also their most experienced defender. He too has opted for pastures new. The headline statistic is this: Aston Villa's current squad scored a total of 12 Premier League goals last season. Gabby Agbonlahor accounts for half of those. The Premier League reconvenes in 16 days - Villa are emphatically ill-prepared. Furthermore, Sherwood will know only too well the importance of starting the season quickly. In their first six league matches his side face one promoted team (Bournemouth) and four more (Crystal Palace, West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester) who finished in the seven places directly above Villa last season. With six consecutive games against teams in last season's top nine following thereafter, collecting victories in August becomes of paramount importance. The obvious retort is that there are still close to six weeks of the transfer window remaining, but Villa are in the unenviable position of having conspicuously full pockets with time running out. The basic economic principles of supply and demand dictate that clubs will soon put up their prices when officials dressed in claret and blue ride into town. Another concern for fans is their club's recent record in recruiting from abroad - it's nothing short of abhorrent. A list of the last nine players brought to England by Villa is almost a complete who's not: Libor Kozak, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez, Aly Cissokho. All since the beginning of 2013/14, and only Okore counts as a success. Sherwood must hope, therefore, that his two signings thus far can buck the trend. Jordan Amavi had a wonderful season with OGC Nice in Ligue Un, but must deal with the pressure of being the club's most expensive player in four-and-a-half years. Amavi is joined by Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, who is intended to be a replacement for the departing Delph (at a similar price and age but without the Premier League experience). Gueye ingratiated himself to Villa supporters with some choice words upon completing his move: "I wanted a change of scenery. The most important thing was to come to England to improve and aim for a big club later." Nothing like making a good impression, and that's nothing like... Replacing Benteke's goals will be the club's toughest task, with fans presumably less than impressed by repeated links to Emmanuel Adebayor. Given that the striker is on a £100,000-a-week contract at Tottenham and Daniel Levy wants a £5m transfer fee, we can't shout 'Walk away, do not touch' loudly enough. The final concerns surround Sherwood himself who is walking into untrodden ground, preparing for a new season for the first time as a manager. He was rightly credited with his short-term impact at Villa Park and for reigniting the form of Christian Benteke, but it's worth remembering that Sherwood took just 16 points from 13 league games in charge. Sherwood recently admitted his exasperation at his inability to shift the deadwood from his squad. "I think we still need to get rid of five, six, or seven maybe," he said last week. "When you have players at the club who are on big money and enjoying the environment they are in, it's hard. I'm not blaming the players - the club gave them the contracts, it's not their fault - you just have to hope they have the opportunity to move elsewhere." It's an intriguing motivational tactic, and an awful lot of business to do in under six weeks. The start of the season already feels like a missed deadline. The manager's only other public missive was to laud the decision of Delph to stay at the club. "I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now," Sherwood said. At the time that was intended as a boast of Villa's promising future; it now hangs in the air like the smell of decay. That's close to an inadvertent admission of another relegation battle to come. Tim Sherwood discussed performing "major surgery" on his squad in May, but supporters must put faith in a rookie manager and wantaway owner to fix the obvious wounds before time runs out. In the battle to avoid a fifth consecutive winter of Villa Park discontent, crossed fingers are the only protection against the cold. That's why its a huge week for us Well two days now really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Richard I know you enjoy being cryptic but it seems you are contradicting yourself a bit here. Today you are saying it is a huge week because there is a big rebuild to do whereas earlier in the week you said. I think it's a huge week. I think we'll make a signing and I think we'll have some surprising news that none of us have speculated on. No contradiction there. 1. Is it a huge week ? yes big rebuilding job to be done especially over replacing our best players. Still the case 2. I think we'll make a signing. I still think we will 3. Some surprising news not speculated on. I still think we'll hear some of that too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villastine Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 People not reading that, or just saying "we are all doomed" as a way of trying to rubbish it I'm afraid are burying their heads in the sand or worst putting their hands over their ears and singing "lalalalallalalalalala". We need serious strengthening, and we need it soon so as to stop the malaise spreading amongst what squad we have left (including the new ones) so that Sherwood has an even bigger task to try and motivate people. Thats why this is a huge week for us. As it stands another long hard relegation battle is ahead. If we make two or three decent signings then the battle may not be as hard, but we will still have a battle next season. Grim thy have a name and it is Aston Villa I don’t think any of our fans are under any illusions as to where the club is at right now. We are all very much aware that we’ve lost two of our best players and two players that would make our starting 11. We expect players of a similar calibre to come in. And have no choice but to watch this space for now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Richard Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 A Summer Of Backward Steps At Aston Villa Aston Villa finished 17th last season, and have promptly lost the spine of their team. With the season 16 days away, they are vastly ill-prepared with a rookie manager... There is no magic formula for improving upon consecutive Premier League finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th, but it would be a committed optimist who viewed Aston Villa's current condition as anything but grim. "There will be a few changes, as many as we can possibly do," said Tim Sherwood after the 4-0 FA Cup final defeat to Arsenal. Not sure this is quite what he had in mind. Since the end of last season, Aston Villa have lost their captain (Fabian Delph), their top league goalscorer (Christian Benteke) and two of their next three top league goalscorers (Tom Cleverley, Andreas Weimann). Those four also constitute four of their top eight appearance makers from last season. Central defender Ron Vlaar was poor for large swathes of last season, but he was also their most experienced defender. He too has opted for pastures new. The headline statistic is this: Aston Villa's current squad scored a total of 12 Premier League goals last season. Gabby Agbonlahor accounts for half of those. The Premier League reconvenes in 16 days - Villa are emphatically ill-prepared. Furthermore, Sherwood will know only too well the importance of starting the season quickly. In their first six league matches his side face one promoted team (Bournemouth) and four more (Crystal Palace, West Brom, Sunderland and Leicester) who finished in the seven places directly above Villa last season. With six consecutive games against teams in last season's top nine following thereafter, collecting victories in August becomes of paramount importance. The obvious retort is that there are still close to six weeks of the transfer window remaining, but Villa are in the unenviable position of having conspicuously full pockets with time running out. The basic economic principles of supply and demand dictate that clubs will soon put up their prices when officials dressed in claret and blue ride into town. Another concern for fans is their club's recent record in recruiting from abroad - it's nothing short of abhorrent. A list of the last nine players brought to England by Villa is almost a complete who's not: Libor Kozak, Aleksandar Tonev, Jores Okore, Antonio Luna, Carles Gil, Carlos Sanchez, Aly Cissokho. All since the beginning of 2013/14, and only Okore counts as a success. Sherwood must hope, therefore, that his two signings thus far can buck the trend. Jordan Amavi had a wonderful season with OGC Nice in Ligue Un, but must deal with the pressure of being the club's most expensive player in four-and-a-half years. Amavi is joined by Senegal international Idrissa Gueye, who is intended to be a replacement for the departing Delph (at a similar price and age but without the Premier League experience). Gueye ingratiated himself to Villa supporters with some choice words upon completing his move: "I wanted a change of scenery. The most important thing was to come to England to improve and aim for a big club later." Nothing like making a good impression, and that's nothing like... Replacing Benteke's goals will be the club's toughest task, with fans presumably less than impressed by repeated links to Emmanuel Adebayor. Given that the striker is on a £100,000-a-week contract at Tottenham and Daniel Levy wants a £5m transfer fee, we can't shout 'Walk away, do not touch' loudly enough. The final concerns surround Sherwood himself who is walking into untrodden ground, preparing for a new season for the first time as a manager. He was rightly credited with his short-term impact at Villa Park and for reigniting the form of Christian Benteke, but it's worth remembering that Sherwood took just 16 points from 13 league games in charge. Sherwood recently admitted his exasperation at his inability to shift the deadwood from his squad. "I think we still need to get rid of five, six, or seven maybe," he said last week. "When you have players at the club who are on big money and enjoying the environment they are in, it's hard. I'm not blaming the players - the club gave them the contracts, it's not their fault - you just have to hope they have the opportunity to move elsewhere." It's an intriguing motivational tactic, and an awful lot of business to do in under six weeks. The start of the season already feels like a missed deadline. The manager's only other public missive was to laud the decision of Delph to stay at the club. "I could go as much as to say that if Fabian wasn't with us last season we wouldn't be in the Premier League now," Sherwood said. At the time that was intended as a boast of Villa's promising future; it now hangs in the air like the smell of decay. That's close to an inadvertent admission of another relegation battle to come. Tim Sherwood discussed performing "major surgery" on his squad in May, but supporters must put faith in a rookie manager and wantaway owner to fix the obvious wounds before time runs out. In the battle to avoid a fifth consecutive winter of Villa Park discontent, crossed fingers are the only protection against the cold. That's why its a huge week for us Well two days now really Well technically 7 days from when I said "huge week for us" Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Folski Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 People not reading that, or just saying "we are all doomed" as a way of trying to rubbish it I'm afraid are burying their heads in the sand or worst putting their hands over their ears and singing "lalalalallalalalalala". We need serious strengthening, and we need it soon so as to stop the malaise spreading amongst what squad we have left (including the new ones) so that Sherwood has an even bigger task to try and motivate people. Thats why this is a huge week for us. As it stands another long hard relegation battle is ahead. If we make two or three decent signings then the battle may not be as hard, but we will still have a battle next season. Grim thy have a name and it is Aston Villa Only 3 days left in this week so the club better get the finger out. 1.5 days for me when's the last time we did anything on a Saturday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Duck Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Where the hell is this article from? I mean there's being realistic and negative and then there's this. Yes we're completely rebuilding and need to re strengthen, yes we have a big season ahead and need to turn up from the off. But we've basically been slated in that article, we have a shit manager, shit players, sold our best players and can't score goals. Aside from the facts, yes we struggled to score under PL, yes we had two players leave for bigger clubs, yes our manager is inexperienced, but ffs it's still preseason. Have a bit of optimism lads, yes it looks bleak and if we start the season with this squad I think we'll all be sweating a bit. But over the next 38 games anything can happen. This is the one point in the season where we CAN and SHOULD be at least attempting to be optimistic 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts