CosmicVillan Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 3 hours ago, Zhan_Zhuang said: Incidentally when did Villa ever make a 'statement signing'? Dean Saunders. I remember Big Ron coming on the pitch to tell the fans over the P.A. he was coming Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
romavillan Posted August 25, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted August 25, 2020 Just now, CosmicVillan said: Dean Saunders. I remember Big Ron coming on the pitch to tell the fans over the P.A. he was coming They gave it a go with Milan Baros too. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Darren Bent? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CosmicVillan Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 1 hour ago, rayk said: DS has had that holiday now, come back and yet no real movement, Try prunes Dean 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChinlessWonder Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Latest gem of a headline from the Birmingham Fail, 'Watkins hold up'. No shit. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 3 minutes ago, Wainy316 said: Darren Bent? Yeah Bent was the last one although we signed him 18 months too late. Before that John Carew. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wainy316 Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 We'd have got 4th if we'd had Bent in 09/10. The amount of draws at home where we just couldn't find a winner despite dominating was exasperating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Zhan_Zhuang Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Yeah Bent is a good shout, Carew too certainly had the reputation. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChinlessWonder Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 We've made some exciting one over the past 30 years but most of them slightly tainted in some way. I think Bent was probably the biggest as he was still in his peak, he was in the England squad and he's been doing very well for the team we bought him off. He also had no baggage. I guess Cascarino was a good one as well, similar reasons although a good Ireland team rather than England. We all know how that one went. Saunders was a great one but he was on the way down really after he'd kind of failed at Liverpool and the fee was less than they'd paid. Merson was a good one but he'd had off field problems and he was 30 or 31. Collymore was a good one but he had all the baggage and had failed slightly at Liverpool. Dublin was no spring chicken. Juninho was the one that got away, sadly. Baros and Carew i wouldn't put in the same category as those, but i am of course purely talking in terms of the player we thought we were getting rather than the one we actually got. Carew was a fabulous signing, but he was much more of an unknown quantity beforehand. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
El-Reacho Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 11 minutes ago, Wainy316 said: We'd have got 4th if we'd had Bent in 09/10. The amount of draws at home where we just couldn't find a winner despite dominating was exasperating. I reckon we needed something more than just a top class finisher. As good as Young/Milner/Downing were the tactics were still quite rudimentry and that made us quite easy to defend against by playing really deep. When the opposition stopped Young and Downing crossing it we were pretty toothless. We needed a player who could pass it through deep defences and we needed to press high up the pitch which we didn't do. I reckon Grealish probably would've had more of an impact than Bent in that side IMHO. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadyexists Posted August 25, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted August 25, 2020 25 minutes ago, Wainy316 said: We'd have got 4th if we'd had Bent in 09/10. The amount of draws at home where we just couldn't find a winner despite dominating was exasperating. I’ve said this for years. We were one quality striker away from top four imo. Carew and Bent would’ve been a hell of a strike partnership. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ChinlessWonder Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 I know Grealish is good but i'm not sure a 14/15 year old would have had that much impact at the time to be honest :-) 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LondonLax Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 1 minute ago, alreadyexists said: I’ve said this for years. We were one quality striker away from top four imo. Carew and Bent would’ve been a hell of a strike partnership. Ah I remember ‘strike partnerships’, those were the days... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alreadyexists Posted August 25, 2020 VT Supporter Share Posted August 25, 2020 Just now, LondonLax said: Ah I remember ‘strike partnerships’, those were the days... Ha ha Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
YLN Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 4 minutes ago, El-Reacho said: I reckon we needed something more than just a top class finisher. As good as Young/Milner/Downing were the tactics were still quite rudimentry and that made us quite easy to defend against by playing really deep. When the opposition stopped Young and Downing crossing it we were pretty toothless. We needed a player who could pass it through deep defences and we needed to press high up the pitch which we didn't do. I reckon Grealish probably would've had more of an impact than Bent in that side IMHO. Bent was a good finisher but was shite at everything else and a total passenger. Not suitable for a team challenging for Top 4. Did he ever finish higher than 8th? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 10 minutes ago, ChinlessWonder said: We've made some exciting one over the past 30 years but most of them slightly tainted in some way. I think Bent was probably the biggest as he was still in his peak, he was in the England squad and he's been doing very well for the team we bought him off. He also had no baggage. I guess Cascarino was a good one as well, similar reasons although a good Ireland team rather than England. We all know how that one went. Saunders was a great one but he was on the way down really after he'd kind of failed at Liverpool and the fee was less than they'd paid. Merson was a good one but he'd had off field problems and he was 30 or 31. Collymore was a good one but he had all the baggage and had failed slightly at Liverpool. Dublin was no spring chicken. Juninho was the one that got away, sadly. Baros and Carew i wouldn't put in the same category as those, but i am of course purely talking in terms of the player we thought we were getting rather than the one we actually got. Carew was a fabulous signing, but he was much more of an unknown quantity beforehand. Agree with pretty much all of that but Carew was known throughout europe for what he'd done at Valencia and had played in many euro countries. Was out of favour for some reason at Lyon but he was still only about 27 when we got him. In terms of worldwide reputation he was more known than likes of Bent and Milner. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KenjiOgiwara Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 The one signing that sticks out to me was Collymore. Remember coming home to the parents watching news on the telly and 'Collymore to Villa' flashing on the screen. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MarkLillis Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Pretty sure we buying the top level of players available to us after we sold Dwight Yorke back in the late nineties. The likes of Merson and Dublin came in and you could maybe say they were the best we could have got. Also when Big Ron rebuilt his side after David Platt left a lot of players we brought in were well know established players Staunton, Richardson etc. None of them were top level players though and none of them were statements because of course the statement we made was "we are a selling club" because our best players had just left. It would be a massive statement if we could go to any Prem club and take their top player! That would be a statement to make I think! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mat Kendrick's Dentist Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Marc Roca available for £13.5m if we want a midfielder...... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danceoftheshamen Posted August 25, 2020 Share Posted August 25, 2020 Maybe we are struggling to get players in as we are fishing in a better pond but are kind of a little inexperienced regards how to bait our lines properly? Then of course those bigger fish are also wary due to the fact that we barely survived last season, they see us as unknown risky waters. I agree totally with the Nixon comment earlier that we badly need that first big name to sign, only thing is we will likely have to pay way over the odds to persuade that one to sign and then you have the issue of them all wanting parity with the first one etc etc. It's a conundrum our new guys need to solve & fast if we are to be taken seriously. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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