Summer transfer window 2021

[Okonokos]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

Great, he’s not a striker though. We are competing with the elite in football to try and get a top 8 position next season and if our only striker that we are confident gets injured, out of form or something else isn’t there you are banking on a right winger because he’s had a bit of success in a less quality league.  To be competing at that level we need to have quality alternatives in terms of injuries, formations, styles or anything. Relying on Traoré as a back up is poor squad management.

Exactly. Traore has only ever played as a striker in the Eredivisie and Ligue 1. He shouldn't even be a consideration to play up front for us.

[CVByrne]

I feel we need two forward signings as Jack will play more at 10 next season. Trezeguet out for essentially the whole season too.

So Buendia, Rashica would fit the bill in the forwards space. Players who can play more than one position.

[Jas10]

It’s already been covered but considering Deano didn’t try him even once in that position this season effectively rules him out of playing there unless in the case of a disaster and the squad is ravaged by injury.

We are going to strengthen, no need for plans D, E, F etc.

[Jas10]

5 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

I personally think he's better as a striker than out wide.

Do you still want him or rather we moved on to other (better?) targets?

[ender4]

Dean Smith With Clear Focus On Aston Villa's Transfer Business (insidefutbol.com)

Quote

“I don’t think it’s going to be a massive summer for us”, Smith said in a press conference.

“I feel that we’ve got a good group of players here and we just need a few additions to keep growing and to keep progressing.

“As I’ve said, defensively we’ve been excellent this season.

“We fell away a bit when our most-creative player was out.

“It’s adding to that to make sure that doesn’t happen again.”

 

[Villaphil]

                     Watkins

Zaha            Grealish          Bale

 

[MotoMkali]

17 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Great, he’s not a striker though. We are competing with the elite in football to try and get a top 8 position next season and if our only striker that we are confident gets injured, out of form or something else isn’t there you are banking on a right winger because he’s had a bit of success in a less quality league.  To be competing at that level we need to have quality alternatives in terms of injuries, formations, styles or anything. Relying on Traoré as a back up is poor squad management.

Relying on no one as a backup to traore is poor management. And relying on no one to backup el ghazi is poor management. And relying on no one to back up targett is poor management. Relying on one of Mings and Hause to be fit with konsa despite both of them being being historically injury prone is poor management. Relying on Elmo to be Cash's rb was poor management and it cost us points.

So no I don't think the position we have 2 backups and a player who scores a goal every other game as a striker is really an issue. 

[sheepyvillian]

On 04/02/2021 at 15:13, zab6359 said:

Replace Taylor, Targett has had a good season but next season will show whether he is the real deal or not.

I've heard of second season, syndrome but not third.

[sheepyvillian]

Personally, I wouldn't bother with Rashica. Let's put some faith in one of these kids, ideally, young Carney. I think he could become a first team regular next season. 

[Okonokos]

1 minute ago, sheepyvillian said:

Personally, I wouldn't bother with Rashica. Let's put some faith in one of these kids, ideally, young Carney. I think he could become a first team regular next season. 

Don't know much about Carney yet. Is he a central midfielder or does he play more out wide?

[Okonokos]

22 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

Do you still want him or rather we moved on to other (better?) targets?

I'd be happy if we signed him, definitely. He'd cover two positions and would add pace and creativity. One question mark would be how have the injuries over the past season affected him.

Whoever we do sign, I trust our recruitment team.

[nick76]

4 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Relying on no one as a backup to traore is poor management. And relying on no one to backup el ghazi is poor management. And relying on no one to back up targett is poor management. Relying on one of Mings and Hause to be fit with konsa despite both of them being being historically injury prone is poor management. Relying on Elmo to be Cash's rb was poor management and it cost us points.

So no I don't think the position we have 2 backups and a player who scores a goal every other game as a striker is really an issue. 

Completely missed my point in the first paragraph so I’ll ignore.  
 

Second paragraph, we don’t know if Wes is going to be able to play at this level fully again and their were questions marks from some on here whether he was right anyway.  Davis is so far out of favour it’s scary.  Traoré is not a striker however you are trying.

If we are trying to compete for 8th then we need options/alternatives as many have said.  Try something different at least.  Just having Ollie means opposition know what we are doing every time, not ideal. We can’t be predictable all the time if we want to progress, we need more flexibility.

Weve already talked about injuries and form but you don’t seem to take that as a justification 

[MotoMkali]

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Completely missed my point in the first paragraph so I’ll ignore.  
 

Second paragraph, we don’t know if Wes is going to be able to play at this level fully again and their were questions marks from some on here whether he was right anyway.  Davis is so far out of favour it’s scary.  Traoré is not a striker however you are trying.

If we are trying to compete for 8th then we need options/alternatives as many have said.  Try something different at least.  Just having Ollie means opposition know what we are doing every time, not ideal. We can’t be predictable all the time if we want to progress, we need more flexibility.

Weve already talked about injuries and form but you don’t seem to take that as a justification 

Ollie will play regardless of form. As his defensive work justifies it. And he is the least likely player to get injured in the team. So I'd rather invest in backups for other areas of the team and strengthen the first 11.

A striker is not a priority, if there is a good one available for a robbery then we will do it but most likely we will just sign another winger who can play upfront if needed.

It is ridiculous to say that we should be investing much if any money into a backup striker when we have players who can play there. But have no one who can cover in other key areas of the pitch. 

[pete101]

2 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Ollie will play regardless of form. As his defensive work justifies it. And he is the least likely player to get injured in the team. So I'd rather invest in backups for other areas of the team and strengthen the first 11.

A striker is not a priority, if there is a good one available for a robbery then we will do it but most likely we will just sign another winger who can play upfront if needed.

It is ridiculous to say that we should be investing much if any money into a backup striker when we have players who can play there. But have no one who can cover in other key areas of the pitch. 

Benteke fits for me , free and gives our younger lads a chance to develop push into the squad in 2 years or so when he is that bit older

[Herman22]

5 minutes ago, pete101 said:

Benteke fits for me , free and gives our younger lads a chance to develop push into the squad in 2 years or so when he is that bit older

I think he could add something but there are a few issues. 1, his wages will be big and probably too big for a back up player. 2, will he want to come and play second fiddle to Watkins? 3, is he really an upgrade on Wesley? For me I don't think he is. 

[villalad21]

Carney and Jaden wil be like 2 new signings anyway.

Doubt we'll see more than 1-2 signings this summer

[paul514]

2 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

Ollie gets a long term injury early in the season. You think Wesley and/or Davis will allow us to play the same way that we do with Ollie? 
 

If we lost Ollie, ideally we can find a striker that can press like he does, that may be difficult. However we at least need a striker that consistently scores goals. Davis definitely doesn’t do that. Wesley the jury is out on his goal scoring but I can’t see a high energy striker there I’m afraid. 
 

Perhaps Carney can fill in but that’s asking a lot from a young kid, regardless of how highly rated he is. Perhaps an experienced striker on a short deal would be useful. Giroud comes to mind but he’s off to Italy. 
 

Strikers are expensive and there’s a reason for that. Without a very good one and at least better than adequate back up a team can soon be in trouble. I don’t disagree that other positions need addressing too, but we can’t go into next season with our fingers crossed that Ollie can play 40+ games with no injuries or drop in form. 

If he gets an injury early in the season which he has zero history of then we go to the existing back ups and if they aren’t satisfactory we go to market in January.

The argument you just used could be used for ANY key player, Jack or Mings for example.

[ender4]

Just now, paul514 said:

If he gets an injury early in the season which he has zero history of then we go to the existing back ups and if they aren’t satisfactory we go to market in January.

The argument you just used could be used for ANY key player, Jack or Mings for example.

Isn't that one of the reasons why we are being linked to wingers, so we will have adequate back-up for Grealish. 

 Plus the debate whether we need another LB or CB so we have good cover for Cash & Mings.

[paul514]

1 hour ago, Okonokos said:

At the moment our options up front are;

• Watkins
• Wesley
• Davis
• Barry

Barry is 18 next month. This is far too young to consider him a true option.

Davis has already requested a move to get first team football, which was denied in January. I fully expect him to request a move this summer again. He's already 23 years old and at that age he needs to be playing week in week out. He's got a lot of good assets as a striker but there's not a chance of him displacing Watkins. He's not going to want to play 10 minute cameos every other week and why should the club deny him the opportunity to play? I can see him requesting a move and it being granted this summer.

And that leaves Wesley, who has played about 20 minutes in 18 months. There are quotes out there that his ACL injury was one of the worst some people had ever seen and I know that not only was his career nearly ended but he was very lucky to not have much more serious concerns. The realist in me has accepted he is unlikely to ever play top level football again. It's going to be so hard for him.

That pretty much leaves us with Watkins. What if he gets injured? What if he goes off the boil next season for a few games? What would our plan B be?

We don't have to buy a £40m striker to compete with him but we absolutely do need another option. I think it would be reckless not to.

Why do some fans expect us to go with Plan A and just stick with it? What if some games this season Smith has wanted to play 2 central strikers and not had the option? Leicester have changed their system to bring in an in form striker so why don't we give ourselves the option too? If we don't it will be one up front as our only option all season.

I definitely wouldn't spend a large chunk of the budget on a striker but I'd be amazed if they haven't got one lined up.

For me, we need;

1 x backup/young left back

1 x DCM

2 x wide players

1 x striker

We'll have more than enough budget to cover that. This is how you build a football club; by having 2 quality options for every position.

So in other words you don’t disagree and you want option 3B from the post you replied to

[Okonokos]

17 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Ollie will play regardless of form. As his defensive work justifies it. And he is the least likely player to get injured in the team. So I'd rather invest in backups for other areas of the team and strengthen the first 11.

A striker is not a priority, if there is a good one available for a robbery then we will do it but most likely we will just sign another winger who can play upfront if needed.

It is ridiculous to say that we should be investing much if any money into a backup striker when we have players who can play there. But have no one who can cover in other key areas of the pitch. 

Nobody is saying we should buy a striker and only a striker. Obviously we need other areas addressing (see my post on a previous page).

We can't become predictable. If we only have Watkins as an out and out striker, teams will know what they're coming up against when they play us. We need another option to provide a plan B. Why not play 2 up front one game?