Summer Transfer Window 2022

[TheMelvillan]

I'd rather see buendia get 20+ starts for us next season than  neymar.

 

Though the neymar one is probably more likely 

[nepal_villan]

1 hour ago, messi11 said:

I think we only gonna sign players now that improve the starting 11! and thats the way it should always be from now on

So no back-up LB?  

[useless]

I thought we would have bought at least one club via V SPORT INVESTMENTS LIMITED by now.

[Adam2003]

5 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

So no back-up LB?  

I think Young’s extension is designed as a safety blanket with Chrisene taking on that role through the season.

[nepal_villan]

1 hour ago, allani said:

We also had a couple of spells of properly dreadful relegation form during that season.  Many of the team we had 2 seasons ago were bought with the purpose of staying in the PL.  The players we are now buying / trying to buy are to try and achieve a completely different target. This is one of the impacts of FFP (and some p1ss poor management by previous regimes) we couldn't buy the team we wanted straight away because the rules prohibited it.  Instead we (and Newcastle will be in the same boat) had to buy 2 or 3 squads in quick succession order to try and catch up.

Quite simply many of the players that we had 2 seasons were not good enough to sustain a position that we now aspire too.  As demonstrated by the fact that for 1/3 of that season they were (mainly) great and for 2/3 of the season they were (mainly) awful.  When they were awful we didn't have enough strength in depth to drop players in bad form or to try something a bit different.  Last season was pretty similar - although our good spell was shorter.

Even now how many of our team would actually be picked as a starter for any of the Sly 6 teams?  The answer is probably none.  We can't expect any manager to perform miracles and get a team of average talent to compete and beat teams who have better quality players in place.  Just compare the value of the subs that Man City brought on in the last game of the season to the value of the subs that we brought on.  Of course Man City and Liverpool are on a different level.  But Chelsea, Arsenal, Man Utd and Spurs all have much better squads than us.  Thanks to FFP we are not allowed to try and compete with them by buying players with the same value.  We have to be smart and buy the right players and hope that the talented prospects coming through the academy develop into the right players for the first team in 2, 3, 4 or 5 years time.

I think the Board are doing the right thing.  Short term we have to buy.  Longer term they are hoping that by investing and developing top youth talent - some of those youngsters develop into players who can play in the first XI and make us competitive.  I think we are attracting some awesome talent into the academy but it will take time for those players to (hopefully) develop into quality PL / international players.  We may luck out on a couple getting there early - but it is a "long game" strategy.

Somewhere along the line we will have to punch above our weight. A good start would be playing to our potential, as certainly on paper we are better than 14th!

[useless]

Romano following in my footsteps and saying we're still want a left-back and that we might hear more about it soon, he's just not allowed to say a name yet. I don't think Young has been kept on to be back-up to a particular position as such, he's more there for his experience and the example he can set because of his professionalism, in terms of his on the filed role I think he will be seen as more like the squad's utility player rather than specifically 'back-up left-back'.

Edited July 7, 2022 by useless

[Delphinho123]

2 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

Somewhere along the line we will have to punch above our weight. A good start would be playing to our potential, as certainly on paper we are better than 14th!

I don’t think we’re that good on paper tbh. If we were so good, we wouldn’t have finished 14th this season and 11th last season with Grealish in the side. Theres a reason we lost twice to Watford last year and failed against some pretty dour teams. 

We have some good players. A couple of very good players but other than that, we’re average. 

At the very least, we needed a centre half and two midfielders this window to become a top 10 team. I think we’ll probably go on to do that and we’ll be a better team for it. To go higher in the league, we’d probably need another centre half, striker and attacking midfielder. Pretty sure that doesn’t happen this window. 

[Sam-AVFC]

42 minutes ago, AVTuco said:

I think we need to demand more from the club.

It's not good enough to bring in good players that make us instantly stronger.

These acquisitions must be made steadily through the window ao that fans have something to cheer for, say weekly.

I've posted about this before. I wish it didn't, but how efficient we are in the market definitely makes me more impatient.

[DaveAV1]

38 minutes ago, useless said:

Romano following in my footsteps and saying we're still want a left-back and that we might hear more about it soon, he's just not allowed to say a name yet. I don't think Young has been kept on to be back-up to a particular position as such, he's more there for his experience and the example he can set because of his professionalism, in terms of his on the filed role I think he will be seen as more like the squad's utility player rather than specifically 'back-up left-back'.

He’s our version of James Milner. 

[allani]

26 minutes ago, nepal_villan said:

Somewhere along the line we will have to punch above our weight. A good start would be playing to our potential, as certainly on paper we are better than 14th!

The problem for a long time has been the fact that we are massively unbalanced.  We've had decent players but those players don't complement each other very well.  Midfield is a classic case - we have decent players there but no balance between them.  When they are on form they can be great but they can all just as quickly turn into pub players.  Our "key" players are good players but our spine has been weak and in order to realise our potential we needed / need to address that.  I think Mings will be better this season Carlos will be the senior defender bossing Mings around (even if Tyrone remains captain).  But Mings needs to be the "junior" partner at the back.  McGinn is simply not good enough to be the "main man" for a team with aspirations of a top half finish.  He'll be better with Kamara and hopefully A.N. Other taking up more of the defensive strain.   So immediately the "potential" of 50% of last season's "spine" will be improved by acquiring new players.  No amount of training / coaching, no new system will transform McGinn and Luiz into a Kamara (if he is as good as we all hope he will be).

If you just keep on trying to "fix" what is already there then you'll just waste days, weeks, months, years trying to polish something that will never sparkle.  We've already spent 2 or 3 seasons trying to find a way for Luiz and McGinn to control the midfield.  As good as they may (or may not) seem on paper - they just haven't cut it on the pitch.

I would liken it to Boris's cabinet - you can't train Liz Truss into being a decent Foreign Secretary (although some basic geography lessons wouldn't hurt).  You can't train Nadine Dorries into becoming someone with 3/4 of a brain cell which she engages before opening her mouth or be someone with even a modicum of knowledge about anything she's supposed to be in charge of.  You can't train an ounce of compassion and basic human understanding into Priti Patel.  You can't put JRM into a new position and expect him not to still be a complete idiot who thinks that the only way forward is to return to 1876.  You can't train Boris into telling the truth every now and again.  At some point you need to clear out the dross, hire some decent people and hope that those decent new signings inspire some of those others with a bit of potential to actually raise their game (although I'm not sure there is much of that in the current Cabinet). 

[DaveAV1]

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

The word I used and then said was the American spelling was "Plzzzzzzz".

Do you get the joke, or do you need me to add another half dozen z's?

 

 

Oh I got the joke, but I sometimes like to spout off. If you’ll indulge me my spouting off, I’ll indulge you as many zeeeees as you like, to reinforce the joke. 

[allani]

51 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

I don’t think we’re that good on paper tbh. If we were so good, we wouldn’t have finished 14th this season and 11th last season with Grealish in the side. Theres a reason we lost twice to Watford last year and failed against some pretty dour teams. 

We have some good players. A couple of very good players but other than that, we’re average. 

At the very least, we needed a centre half and two midfielders this window to become a top 10 team. I think we’ll probably go on to do that and we’ll be a better team for it. To go higher in the league, we’d probably need another centre half, striker and attacking midfielder. Pretty sure that doesn’t happen this window. 

I am hopeful that Mings as a "junior" partner will be like a new centre half.  I think Carlos will lead the back-line and we will see fewer mistakes from Mings as a result.  I agree that we need another CM.  But I think that JJ (as an attacking CM) and the Couts/Emi2 AM partnership will be much improved with a solid base behind them and fewer balls pumped aimlessly in their direction.  I also have big doubts about Ollie's ability to thrive in the type of system that I think we are aiming for - he'll do well enough to get us around mid-table but if we genuinely want to challenge Europe and the Sly 6 we will need a new striker.  So I think top half is possible with 1 more midfield signing.  I do think we can challenge higher with a different type of striker up top - rather than needing the 2 extra players (CB and AM) you mention.

[WallisFrizz]

For the love of god something happen.

[VillaHatesMe]

2 hours ago, Xela said:

I hope they are 'zeds' and not 'zees'

Actually, in American it's just pronounced zzzzzzzzzzzz

[paul514]

3 hours ago, DaveAV1 said:

That’s good to hear. You could be referring to a Brazilian bloke who lives in France and plays football? I like a bit of Phoenix Nights though. 

Yea I hear he has a little sister he is fond of

[paul514]

35 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

For the love of god something happen.

I stuck my hopes on the Leipzig midfielder yesterday for about half an hour. It was a good half hour.

[MWARLEY2]

Hardly any interest in our players still. Do we over rate them as fans, and does our board over rate them in terms of transfer fees maybe. ? 

I am amazed that no one has come in for Guilbert Sanson and Traore yet. Not worldbeaters but still good players.

[A'Villan]

7 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

Hardly any interest in our players still. Do we over rate them as fans, and does our board over rate them in terms of transfer fees maybe. ? 

I am amazed that no one has come in for Guilbert Sanson and Traore yet. Not worldbeaters but still good players.

All more valuable to us as squad players than handing them over to competition and rivals for a fee that might give us some funds but is outweighed by the value added in playing personnel to those rivals, and taken away from our squad depth.

You play how you practice and training players are equally as important as starters. I would know, first two seasons of my semi pro career I was a training player. You're only as good as the weakest link.

[messi11]

2 hours ago, nepal_villan said:

So no back-up LB?  

Would be a waste of money?

[nepal_villan]

2 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

I don’t think we’re that good on paper tbh. If we were so good, we wouldn’t have finished 14th this season and 11th last season with Grealish in the side. Theres a reason we lost twice to Watford last year and failed against some pretty dour teams. 

We have some good players. A couple of very good players but other than that, we’re average. 

At the very least, we needed a centre half and two midfielders this window to become a top 10 team. I think we’ll probably go on to do that and we’ll be a better team for it. To go higher in the league, we’d probably need another centre half, striker and attacking midfielder. Pretty sure that doesn’t happen this window. 

You're looking at this in isolation.  Our squad is better than many that finished ahead of us.  Sure you can always say the table does not lie....but would you trade our squad last year for Brentford,  Crystal Palace, Newcastle, and Brighton?  I wouldn't!