Dean Smith

[Keyblade]

1 minute ago, Mantis said:

The worst summer window we've had since coming back up was probably 2021 in Smith's final months but even that wasn't *that* bad. Buendia was a great signing and all in all Bailey has been solid if inconsistent.

It seemed worse because they were supposed to have replaced Grealish. Young on a free ended up being a good signing. Tim Iroegbunam was also signed that summer.

[Mark Albrighton]

I think it was alright. I look at Man Utd’s dealings - £80m+ on Antony and the issues with him or Wolves, £40m+ on Cunha and I think Buendia or Bailey are easily better value buys. 

I do think we could have spent it better, people can list me whatever Brighton transfer they want, fair enough. But all three (Ings too) contributed to returning us to Europe and Bailey is contributing this season, hopefully Buendia will too.

All part of progressing, with bits of overlap when possible. Adomah and Green to Trezeguet and El Ghazi to Buendia and Bailey to Diaby (ok, not exactly the same position, but you get the idea). 

Generally we’ve only moved forward and I don’t think that would be the case if our transfer policy was particularly substandard, no matter how good Emery is. 

[rodders0223]

They look good buys because Emery has came in and made them good buys. Bailey was really really poor for 2 seasons. Buendia showed flashes aswell but contributed little.

[Keyblade]

28 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

They look good buys because Emery has came in and made them good buys. Bailey was really really poor for 2 seasons. Buendia showed flashes aswell but contributed little.

That wouldn't be possible unless they were good would it?

Also, he couldn't do that for Coutinho, Chambers, Olsen etc. 

[VillaChris]

3 hours ago, Zatman said:

In hindsight it was actually a good window. We signed 12 players that summer and Luiz, Konsa, Mings, Anwar, Targett{player of the season} and Trezeguet{them goals kept us up} were successes. Nakamba and Hause were solid squad players and I think injuries left a long term question mark about Heaton, Wesley{no need to go around in circles on this as we will never know what might have happened} and maybe even Engels.

Jota was the only flop and all we paid for him was getting rid of Gary Gardner

It will always divide opinion. Personally think if we stayed down then Gulibert and Engels( I presume we'd have still signed him as no way could we have afford Mings in the championship) would've been good players but DS didn't really trust either much in the prem once they made a mistake or two.

My main feeling that summer is we signed one CB too many and not enough in final third given we staked everything pretty much on Wesley who also still divides opinion to this day.

What really kicked us on though was summer 2020. That was a brilliant window with Martinez, Cash and Watkins all remaining integral to this day. Shame Barkley didn't come off as he looked good in his first 5-6 games before declining.

[PaulC]

7 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

It will always divide opinion. Personally think if we stayed down then Gulibert and Engels( I presume we'd have still signed him as no way could we have afford Mings in the championship) would've been good players but DS didn't really trust either much in the prem once they made a mistake or two.

My main feeling that summer is we signed one CB too many and not enough in final third given we staked everything pretty much on Wesley who also still divides opinion to this day.

What really kicked us on though was summer 2020. That was a brilliant window with Martinez, Cash and Watkins all remaining integral to this day. Shame Barkley didn't come off as he looked good in his first 5-6 games before declining.

Yes two unbelievable signings in Martinez and Watkins and one very good one in Cash.

[Mark Albrighton]

4 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

My main feeling that summer is we signed one CB too many and not enough in final third given we staked everything pretty much on Wesley who also still divides opinion to this day.

I think we probably did need a third CB, Mings, Konsa + one other, I don’t know if we could have cobbled a makeshift cover between Elphick and Chester. Would have been a risk.

Wesley though, yeah crazy decision to go all in on one player with limited experience and a patchy record at a relatively high price. I appreciate that I have the safety of hindsight here, but I look at Wesley and Samatta for a combined £30m and I wonder could (should) we have just gambled with Kodjia for all the impact the other two had. I accept that would not have gone down well at the time, he hadn’t had a stellar season previously.

But I think he could have replicated their combined output and we’d have saved a few quid.

[Villatillidie95]

3 hours ago, Zatman said:

In hindsight it was actually a good window. We signed 12 players that summer and Luiz, Konsa, Mings, Anwar, Targett{player of the season} and Trezeguet{them goals kept us up} were successes. Nakamba and Hause were solid squad players and I think injuries left a long term question mark about Heaton, Wesley{no need to go around in circles on this as we will never know what might have happened} and maybe even Engels.

Jota was the only flop and all we paid for him was getting rid of Gary Gardner

Even Jota got an important assist in the home win v Everton which helped keep us up

[VillaChris]

15 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I think we probably did need a third CB, Mings, Konsa + one other, I don’t know if we could have cobbled a makeshift cover between Elphick and Chester. Would have been a risk.

Wesley though, yeah crazy decision to go all in on one player with limited experience and a patchy record at a relatively high price. I appreciate that I have the safety of hindsight here, but I look at Wesley and Samatta for a combined £30m and I wonder could (should) we have just gambled with Kodjia for all the impact the other two had. I accept that would not have gone down well at the time, he hadn’t had a stellar season previously.

But I think he could have replicated their combined output and we’d have saved a few quid.

Kodj was past it, injured and not rated by DS. I'm sure the plan was similar to Mings, just sign Tammy full time for a big fee but Chelsea's transfer ban scuppered all that. Then in January we sort of asked for Giroud but understandably he wasn't too keen to join a relegation battle.

Ings actually would've been ideal for us in summer 2019 as he could still run in those times.

[Mark Albrighton]

4 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

Kodj was past it, injured and not rated by DS. I'm sure the plan was similar to Mings, just sign Tammy full time for a big fee but Chelsea's transfer ban scuppered all that. Then in January we sort of asked for Giroud but understandably he wasn't too keen to join a relegation battle.

Ings actually would've been ideal for us in summer 2019 as he could still run in those times.

Maybe (probably). But I just look at Samatta’s run leading the line and I find myself thinking Kodjia probably wouldn’t have done any worse.

I don’t think we were ever going to buy Tammy. We might have been keen, I don’t think he was. I think he always wanted to play for Chelsea (I’ve always felt that was a big factor in him hilariously turning down Wolves that time. A permanent move to another club scuppers that chance).

[Mantis]

1 hour ago, rodders0223 said:

They look good buys because Emery has came in and made them good buys. Bailey was really really poor for 2 seasons. Buendia showed flashes aswell but contributed little.

Buendia always looked quality. Don't forget he only actually had a few games under Smith after signing and then spent almost a year under the fraud Slippy G.

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, Mark Albrighton said:

Maybe (probably). But I just look at Samatta’s run leading the line and I find myself thinking Kodjia probably wouldn’t have done any worse.

I agree, but sometimes a manager goes off a player and isn't going to pick him no matter what and Smith had reached that point with Kodjia. 

We should have looked at trying to get an older forward with some PL experience on loan if such a person was available, can't immediately think who but probably someone matching that description out there. 

[Zatman]

32 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I agree, but sometimes a manager goes off a player and isn't going to pick him no matter what and Smith had reached that point with Kodjia. 

We should have looked at trying to get an older forward with some PL experience on loan if such a person was available, can't immediately think who but probably someone matching that description out there. 

Think we were linked to Giroud in the January.  At the time I think I was saying we should go for Llorente as he had just left Spurs

[HanoiVillan]

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

Think we were linked to Giroud in the January.  At the time I think I was saying we should go for Llorente as he had just left Spurs

Yes I remember those rumours too, but I'm talking more about the summer window. 

[Keyblade]

To be fair, I think Wesley would have done better than Kodjia. He already had 5 league goals when he got injured. Kodjia managed just 9 the whole season prior, in the division below. He was finished unfortunately. As infuriatingly inconsistent as he was, Wesley could at least lead the line and occupy PL defences. Kodjia would have been marked out of every game, and his bag of tricks didn't work at this level.

[villa4europe]

11 hours ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I think we probably did need a third CB, Mings, Konsa + one other, I don’t know if we could have cobbled a makeshift cover between Elphick and Chester. Would have been a risk.

Wesley though, yeah crazy decision to go all in on one player with limited experience and a patchy record at a relatively high price. I appreciate that I have the safety of hindsight here, but I look at Wesley and Samatta for a combined £30m and I wonder could (should) we have just gambled with Kodjia for all the impact the other two had. I accept that would not have gone down well at the time, he hadn’t had a stellar season previously.

But I think he could have replicated their combined output and we’d have saved a few quid.

I thought we needed an experienced CM, someone who could read the game and see that when grealish was double or triple marked it obviously left a tonne of space

Unfortunately we tried drinkwater and then Barkley so got it badly wrong but that's the type of player we needed, our midfield was too young and unfortunately Hourihane didn't have the legs

That said he wasn't "experienced" but if we'd have bought Buendia instead of loaning Barkley I think we'd have been much better, Buendia in and around Jack (kw) would have worked a treat

[VillaChris]

 

7 hours ago, Keyblade said:

To be fair, I think Wesley would have done better than Kodjia. He already had 5 league goals when he got injured. Kodjia managed just 9 the whole season prior, in the division below. He was finished unfortunately. As infuriatingly inconsistent as he was, Wesley could at least lead the line and occupy PL defences. Kodjia would have been marked out of every game, and his bag of tricks didn't work at this level.

I'd have had no problem signing Wes if we'd had him as backup for first season. Getting an Ings type experienced player to lead the line with Wesley on the bench would've been fine for our first season but guess we couldn't attract anyone substantial as newly promoted team.

5 goals was o.k but then again Kozak got about 4-5 in 12 games (mainly in sub cameos) and nobody much rated him on here. Gestede scored some lovely headers early on in premier league but again near impossible task to fill the Benteke void.

I think people have got a bit misty eyed about Wesley given the terrible injury he suffered. He looked o.k at times, poor in other games just like those two I mentioned above (although Gestede was nowhere near technically good enough for premier league).

Also had Grealish and McGinn who started our first season back well in the midfield so more creative Villa midfields than in the years before.

[VillaChris]

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

I thought we needed an experienced CM, someone who could read the game and see that when grealish was double or triple marked it obviously left a tonne of space

Unfortunately we tried drinkwater and then Barkley so got it badly wrong but that's the type of player we needed, our midfield was too young and unfortunately Hourihane didn't have the legs

That said he wasn't "experienced" but if we'd have bought Buendia instead of loaning Barkley I think we'd have been much better, Buendia in and around Jack (kw) would have worked a treat

Suso really pushed for N'zonzi in the January window. Think he was still getting called up by France and it was all but done but DS randomly wanted Drinkwater after meeting him despite him not playing for two seasons and boy did it show playing for us.

[a-k]

Apparently he is still our manager

[Captain_Townsend]

Just a reminder we also brought in Traore in summer 2020 and he did great for us in season 2020-21 before Gerrard came in the next season and sort of didn't fancy him.