Summer transfer window 2021

[BleedClaretAndBlue]

[Steero113]

3 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Sarr liking Villa content 

 

 

COMMENCE THE THREAD

[AntrimBlack]

33 minutes ago, allani said:

I know that you will be knocked for this.  But I agree with you.  A back up striker who is happy to sit on the bench and get 15 minutes at the death is not what we need.  Watkins is our best striker at the moment but I think he finished as the 8th top goal-scorer?  If we are aiming to challenge the top 6 then he needs to be the 4th or 5th top goalscorer.  I think he will score more goals this season (assuming he stays injury free) because Buendia is a (hopefully!) such a great signing and will create extra chances for him.  So I am not sure we need to sign someone better than Watkins (as I think Watkins next season will be better than Watkins this season) but we do need someone who can play alongside him (if we are behind and are trying to put real pressure on the opposition penalty area), who will keep him on his toes and who can either come on as a sub and / or start a few matches when we have a number of fixtures within a short period of time so that Watkins keeps fit and sharp.  His energy and running are immense but there were definitely a few matches last season when he looked a bit "leggy" (and justifiably so!).  So the new striker would have a big role to play throughout the season not just a back-up role.  Even more so if Watkins did get injured - and just look at how many times he got kicked last season (especially to the back of his calf) when he was holding the ball up - it is very likely that at some point one of those will put him out for a few weeks regardless of how fit he is.  Yes it will give Smith some more headaches over selection but that is a GOOD thing.  I know people are worried about the cost of a player of similar status / potential to Ollie.  However, there really is little point upgrading our midfield as well as we seem to be - if Ollie then gets injured.  There is no-one else at the club who would realistically get 15 plus goals up front next season.  Wesley's fitness is suspect, KD is playing in the wrong division, Bertie is our magic enigma cutting in from wide and not a striker who can stand up to mauling he'd get from centre backs, AEG is decent at arriving late and finding space in the box rather than leading a line.  Barrie looks like a great finisher but he's still pretty small physically and would have lumps kicked out of him by most centre backs - he looks more suited to coming on down the left and letting Jack drift inside.  I've momentarily forgotten the name of the guy who led the line in the FA Youth Cup.  He looked very good.  But I think he needs a year of "big boy" football in the lower leagues to suss out what role he can play here.

All of which means that you are right - he shouldn't be looking for a back-up.  We should be looking for someone who will challenge Ollie and is capable of replacing him without massively detracting from the quality of our attack.  It will cost money and maybe ideally we'd be better to strengthen other areas this summer and wait until another year when we can "afford" to devote more of the transfer kitty to a striker.  I'd definitely rather we bought a midfielder first and then a striker.  But if our options next season are Ollie, Wes and KD then we are taking a hell of a risk.  Of course is Wes has fully recovered from his injury, is unlikely to suffer a repeat, maybe he is the answer.  But I'm far from convinced and would far rather we gave him a chance to go out on loan, play more often and hopefully get some goals before coming back (possibly in Jan) to stake his claim here - or if it doesn't work out so well, at least try and earn a decent move next summer.  Also I genuinely think that the Board and the Owners know that this summer is a massive opportunity.  Some of the so-called big teams are struggling financially, have lost a load of respect over the super league (I suspect fan protests to continue at some of the clubs next season) and have huge holes in their budget for next season because they are not in the Champions League, or Europe.  This gives us a much better chance of snapping up players that might not be "expected" to sign for us.  Would Buendia have held out for Arsenal if they were playing Champions League football next season?  Whilst Smith and Purslow have talked about a quieter transfer window - I still think that if someone's name cropped up who they thought was out of our league but fitted our recruitment model then they would find a way of at least talking to the owners about it.  And I am convinced that our Christian has a couple of FFP "loop-holes" that he has spotted and is just waiting to take advantage of should it be necessary!

Young. He was very impressive. He could be a dark horse, who might actually make it.

[bose]

22 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

 

 

 

OMG that's actually Dean Smith's twitter account!

It's done

[allani]

2 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Young. He was very impressive. He could be a dark horse, who might actually make it.

Thanks!  I think he needs a season in a lower league but for me he kind of came out of nowhere last season.  Hadn't really heard anything about him until probably the quarter finals.  But he looked like he might be someone who could get better and better.  Whether he's Premier League quality I don't know but I can see a scenario where he has a couple of really good seasons in the lower divisions and kind of does a Vardy (but at a much earlier age!). 

[pas5898]

13 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

I agree with most of the post but I don't think this is necessarily true. The work Watkins does without the ball is worth so much to us and besides that, only 2 of the top 4 had a player outscore Watkins and one of them was only because of penalties. Chelsea's top scorer only got 7!

5/7 players ahead of Watkins in the goal scoring charts take penalties.

Add to that the 2 absolutely ridiculous goals taken away from him. 

[est1874]

23 minutes ago, allani said:

I don't know the stats on this so I am more than prepared to be corrected.  But surely he would be expected to play fewer minutes at Villa than he did at Burnley?  Whilst I could see the potential of Watkins moving into more of a 10 role if we signed Tammy for example (and I don't want to get involved in that "debate" again!), I am not sure that I see us playing Jack, Buendia, Ollie and Wood at the same time.  I got fed up with the "he's not going to sign so forget it you are insane" responses to suggestions that I have made in the past.  So I am genuinely trying to engage in discussion here - both in terms of how you think he might fit into the team and why you think he would score goals here.  I've probably not watched enough of Burnley to have a proper view but he strikes me as more of a target man (like a KD but who can actually score)?  Happy to discuss offline if you would prefer to answer without having to justify to the wider VT audience as well.

Happy to answer that as I've touched upon it before in posts above this one.

He actually only played every game for Burnley in one of those seasons, and in another he scored 10 goals in 24 games. I'm not expecting him to play a majority of games but I don't think it's a stretch to hope that we will eventually bring in a striker who can feature (whether as sub or starter) in around half the games, not including the cups. 

Regardless it doesn't matter what his goals to minutes ratio is -- because as I already pointed out, his goals per chances conversion rate is actually considerably better than Ollie's. Which is simply to point out his ability and talent, not to criticise Watkins in any way. This is a better indicator of how many goals he could conceivably score for Villa.

He's not a target man as I pointed out before - just read back a few posts, I don't want to spam the thread with extensive quotes from a deconstruction by The Athletic all over again. 

As I've said, we need to develop more than one way of playing as a team. We saw this too many times last season. Our style can be highly effective against good teams, but sometimes only at the start of games until the oppo manager tweaks his shape or tactics, and then we're found out and we become leaky.

Anyone looking down their nose at Wood because he plays for Burnley should consider how well they countered our tactics and stole 4 points off us last season. It wasn't a fluke - it was down to a smart defensive setup and a shape that we found very hard to break down.

I'd be more than happy to welcome that resilience into our game as a Plan B option against the big teams for next season. Not sure about anyone else but I'm sick of handing the Manchester teams 12 points every year. If signing a player like Wood allowed us to develop an effective tactic against teams that we know are too good for us, then why the hell not.

[allani]

Just now, pas5898 said:

5/7 players ahead of Watkins in the goal scoring charts take penalties.

Add to that the 2 absolutely ridiculous goals taken away from him. 

There's a reason Ollie doesn't take penalties!  But yes if you give him the goals he scored that should have been allowed it would have been a different story.  Definitely 2, maybe 3, and I am sure that had they stood he would have scored others too - because he had a run of games without scoring which seemed to play on his mind a little.  At least one of those disallowed goals was in that run (in my head there were two - plus a couple where he hit the bar / post having beaten the keeper) and so he'd not have had that confidence drop.  Like I say I fully expect him to score more this season. 

[sne]

Watkins was 1 for 2 at penalties for us in the league this season.

[MentalM]

5 minutes ago, est1874 said:

He's not a target man as I pointed out before

I agree with many of your points, and I also believe Wood is alot more than many people believe he is. However I would categorize him as a target man.

[Tomaszk]

I think next season's taker if El Ghazi isn't playing will be Watkins or Grealish.

[allani]

3 minutes ago, est1874 said:

Happy to answer that as I've touched upon it before in posts above this one.

He actually only played every game for Burnley in one of those seasons, and in another he scored 10 goals in 24 games. I'm not expecting him to play a majority of games but I don't think it's a stretch to hope that we will eventually bring in a striker who can feature (whether as sub or starter) in around half the games, not including the cups. 

Regardless it doesn't matter what his goals to minutes ratio is -- because as I already pointed out, his goals per chances conversion rate is actually considerably better than Ollie's. Which is simply to point out his ability and talent, not to criticise Watkins in any way. This is a better indicator of how many goals he could conceivably score for Villa.

He's not a target man as I pointed out before - just read back a few posts, I don't want to spam the thread with extensive quotes from a deconstruction by The Athletic all over again. 

As I've said, we need to develop more than one way of playing as a team. We saw this too many times last season. Our style can be highly effective against good teams, but sometimes only at the start of games until the oppo manager tweaks his shape or tactics, and then we're found out and we become leaky.

Anyone looking down their nose at Wood because he plays for Burnley should consider how well they countered our tactics and stole 4 points off us last season. It wasn't a fluke - it was down to a smart defensive setup and a shape that we found very hard to break down.

I'd be more than happy to welcome that resilience into our game as a Plan B option against the big teams for next season. Not sure about anyone else but I'm sick of handing the Manchester teams 12 points every year. If signing a player like Wood allowed us to develop an effective tactic against teams that we know are too good for us, then why the hell not.

Cheers.  Much appreciated.  Almost everyone on this forum agreed that last year we only had a Plan A - which, when it worked well, was great but when it didn't we seemed to have no Plan B.  Unfortunately if you try and propose a potential Plan B then you get a whole load of replies saying "Smith doesn't play that formation", "he doesn't fit our system", etc.  As you say, having a viable alternative is what can make the difference between finishing 6th and finishing 13th.

[allani]

6 minutes ago, sne said:

Watkins was 1 for 2 at penalties for us in the league this season.

Didn't he have a dreadful conversion rate for Brentford?  I thought he'd only scored 2 in 7 or something like that (but could well be wrong - my memory isn't what it used to be!)?

[sne]

1 minute ago, allani said:

Didn't he have a dreadful conversion rate for Brentford?  I thought he'd only scored 2 in 7 or something like that (but could well be wrong - my memory isn't what it used to be!)?

1 out of 4 according to transfermarkt

[MotoMkali]

12 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

I think next season's taker if El Ghazi isn't playing will be Watkins or Grealish.

Buendia can take pens. And Jack might want to take them to help boost his stats like Fernandes does. 

[allani]

1 minute ago, sne said:

1 out of 4 according to transfermarkt

OK so 2 out of 6 for us and Brentford.  I hope he's doing some practice with Emi over the summer!   Whilst AEG has some faults - I genuinely can't remember the last time I felt so confident about a Villa player taking a penalty.  I just expect him to score and trot back to the half-way line looking like he's done nothing in particular!

[YouUnastanFren]

2 minutes ago, MotoMkali said:

Buendia can take pens. And Jack might want to take them to help boost his stats like Fernandes does. 

Buendia has only taken one in his career according to transfermarkt. I'm sure he'd be good at them though

[Philosopher]

59 minutes ago, Villa Stu said:

I think he looks like a modern day wide forward mate, not a winger. Yes long term he will be a st but I think he will breakthrough as a wide forward and get most of his first team game time there until he bulks up

Problem with that is we don't play with wide strikers. If you play a target man or false nine then wide strikers are perfect.

[TRO]

24 minutes ago, allani said:

Didn't he have a dreadful conversion rate for Brentford?  I thought he'd only scored 2 in 7 or something like that (but could well be wrong - my memory isn't what it used to be!)?

what did you say?

[MotoMkali]

20 minutes ago, YouUnastanFren said:

Buendia has only taken one in his career according to transfermarkt. I'm sure he'd be good at them though

Huh I guess all the highlights are blurring together and I've seen that one pen so many times