Summer Transfer Window 2022

[Vive_La_Villa]

The window should never slam shut. It should always be gently closed. 

[CarryOnVilla]

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

The window should never slam shut. It should always be gently closed. 

 

don’t be daft 

[allani]

1 hour ago, Zhan_Zhuang said:

I'm sort of thinking along these lines too, some great players coming through and Sanson deserves his chance.

The thing is we signed Sanson to get us into mid-table.  I don't know why we now think that he is good enough to get us into the European fight.  He hardly set the world alight when he did play.  His best performance was probably against Man Utd and he undid most of his good work in that match by gifting them a goal with a ridiculous pass.  Even if he had got the pass right - he'd still have been putting our defence under unnecessary pressure when there were better options available.  I think he is just too similar to our other midfield options and doesn't give us the balance or the control that we need.  A

[PaulMcGrath_5]

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

The window should never slam shut. It should always be gently closed. 

Wouldn't mind slamming your window shut. 

[CVByrne]

15 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Depends what your aim is for the season. If your aim is challenging for 10th place then sure but much higher in the league I don’t think we are, we are short for something like 7th place.

We have the squad to challenge the top 8 and it'll be a poor season if we are not in amongst it and only a few points off at worst come end of season. 

There is no CF who can come in now that is at the level Ings was when we signed him last summer. He'd got a goal every 2 games for Southampton over his 3 years.Top proven PL forward.

When it comes to a midfielder. Do I see a new signing being a significant jump up on Luis / JJ / McGinn. Not really, 6 was our problem position in midfield not 8. So the jump from the players we used in 6 last season to Kamara is big but jump for 8 will be small at best next season. 

We have the squad. It's about getting them playing and with Kamara and Carlos we've solved our glaring issues. 

[StanBalaban]

Not sure where all the negativity in here has come from?

We have a managerial team that came into Deano's team which was failing, and got a points average that would have seen us finish 9th over a whole season. Since then:

• We've had a very encouraging pre-season, with plenty of rotation and squad options, no injuries, and plenty of opportunity to develop match fitness for everyone
• Digne, Chambers and Coutinho have also had a full preseason with us (it can be argued that no one had much of a preseason last time around)
• Improved our defence with the addition of Carlos, and backup with Ludwig 
• Got one of the most promising CM's in Kamara on a free
• Hopefully have a fit and firing Leon Bailey for the season
• Beale has left and, on paper, we look like we've upgraded him in Critchley 
• We've brought money in from player sales, and still have weeks to go before finalising more ins and outs
• Archer, KKH and Big Tim are one more season wiser and will be pushing for game time

Obviously it's not perfect, but things rarely are. The strikers haven't shown much in preseason, but they now have Cameron Archer breathing down their necks. I'd like more cohesion to our play too, but things don't just freeze come the start of the season, and hopefully in Gerrard, Critchley, Gary Mac and co. there's enough footballing nous in there to evolve and improve the style of play. Our preseason has shown that, whilst maybe not yet exciting, we are at least effective, going unbeaten in all of our matches.

There's plenty to look forward to - at least until the matchday thread fires-up in anger.

[CVByrne]

4 minutes ago, allani said:

The thing is we signed Sanson to get us into mid-table.  I don't know why we now think that he is good enough to get us into the European fight.  He hardly set the world alight when he did play.  His best performance was probably against Man Utd and he undid most of his good work in that match by gifting them a goal with a ridiculous pass.  Even if he had got the pass right - he'd still have been putting our defence under unnecessary pressure when there were better options available.  I think he is just too similar to our other midfield options and doesn't give us the balance or the control that we need.  A

So if Sanson was signed to get mid table, so were Cash, Martinez & Watkins who signed before Sanson. Then McGinn was signed to get us promoted. 

[Vive_La_Villa]

6 minutes ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Wouldn't mind slamming your window shut. 

I don’t know what that means so I’ll just post this: 

[allani]

2 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

We have the squad to challenge the top 8 and it'll be a poor season if we are not in amongst it and only a few points off at worst come end of season. 

There is no CF who can come in now that is at the level Ings was when we signed him last summer. He'd got a goal every 2 games for Southampton over his 3 years.Top proven PL forward.

When it comes to a midfielder. Do I see a new signing being a significant jump up on Luis / JJ / McGinn. Not really, 6 was our problem position in midfield not 8. So the jump from the players we used in 6 last season to Kamara is big but jump for 8 will be small at best next season. 

We have the squad. It's about getting them playing and with Kamara and Carlos we've solved our glaring issues. 

But seriously none of my friends who support other PL clubs think we have a prayer of challenging for a place in the top 8.  They all think the Sly 6, West Ham, Newcastle and Leicester are ahead of us.  These are people who have followed football like me for over 40 years.  They think we are a bang average mid-table side.  My West Ham mates say that they wouldn't be interested in any of our players apart from Emi.  My Newcastle mates think that they have recruited much better than us.  My Sly 6 mates see West Ham and Newcastle as the main threats and laughed when I asked whether they thought we could challenge for Europe.  There seems to be a massive disconnect here.

[Nigel]

3 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

So if Sanson was signed to get mid table, so were Cash, Martinez & Watkins who signed before Sanson. Then McGinn was signed to get us promoted. 

Ohhhh i know this one.....that would be correct

[CVByrne]

Digne, Coutinho, Chambers, Olsen, Kamara, Carlos, Augustinsson - all the signings have CL experience and have international caps

 

[Rolta]

15 minutes ago, allani said:

The thing is we signed Sanson to get us into mid-table.  I don't know why we now think that he is good enough to get us into the European fight.  He hardly set the world alight when he did play.  His best performance was probably against Man Utd and he undid most of his good work in that match by gifting them a goal with a ridiculous pass.  Even if he had got the pass right - he'd still have been putting our defence under unnecessary pressure when there were better options available.  I think he is just too similar to our other midfield options and doesn't give us the balance or the control that we need.  A

So one mistake and that's it. Wow. 

[Pez1974]

31 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Can it be possible to shut a window for incomings and outgoings, can’t see why not!

This would hammer the Turkish league, who always seem to pick up some dross by being the last to shut. 

[MarkLillis]

9 minutes ago, allani said:

But seriously none of my friends who support other PL clubs think we have a prayer of challenging for a place in the top 8.  They all think the Sly 6, West Ham, Newcastle and Leicester are ahead of us.  These are people who have followed football like me for over 40 years.  They think we are a bang average mid-table side.  My West Ham mates say that they wouldn't be interested in any of our players apart from Emi.  My Newcastle mates think that they have recruited much better than us.  My Sly 6 mates see West Ham and Newcastle as the main threats and laughed when I asked whether they thought we could challenge for Europe.  There seems to be a massive disconnect here.

This is the after effects of our horrendous decline in the past decade.

Nobody relates Aston Villa with having a good team anymore.

We are not considered capable  of getting it right by the majority of (dare I say it….) knowledgeable football fans.

In fact I find it hard to convince myself we can!

Edited August 3, 2022 by MarkLillis

[allani]

4 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

So if Sanson was signed to get mid table, so were Cash, Martinez & Watkins who signed before Sanson. Then McGinn was signed to get us promoted. 

Exactly.  We signed a team to get us promoted / staying in the league, then we started trying to sign players to get us to mid-table and now we're starting to look at the top half / challenging Europe.  Expecting those level of players to get us into Europe is very optimistic.  My West Ham supporting mates (as the team to displace to qualify for Europe) would only take Emi from our team and put them into their starting XI.  Digne is the second player they talk about.  Cash, McGinn and JJ as subs.  That's it.

[allani]

4 minutes ago, Rolta said:

So one mistake and that's it. Wow. 

Not at all.  Man Utd was probably his best performance.  But he ended it with no goals, no assists for us and an assist for them.  If that is his best performance then I struggle to see why people seem convinced that he is the answer to the problem.  He might be.  He might come good, very good.  But from all his performances so far that is a pretty huge jump.  It can happen - JJ proved that last year.

[CVByrne]

5 minutes ago, allani said:

But seriously none of my friends who support other PL clubs think we have a prayer of challenging for a place in the top 8.  They all think the Sly 6, West Ham, Newcastle and Leicester are ahead of us.  These are people who have followed football like me for over 40 years.  They think we are a bang average mid-table side.  My West Ham mates say that they wouldn't be interested in any of our players apart from Emi.  My Newcastle mates think that they have recruited much better than us.  My Sly 6 mates see West Ham and Newcastle as the main threats and laughed when I asked whether they thought we could challenge for Europe.  There seems to be a massive disconnect here.

Why should they have much of a clue about how we will perform. We know a million times more than they do about Villa. They are just taking last years PL table and saying well Villa came 14th. Nobody looks into the fact we only lost 1 game under Gerrard by more than one goal and we were outstanding in the first half of that Spurs game. We know we've had so many individual errors costing us goals given away so cheaply. If we simply cut out those errors we would have ended higher straight off the bat.

Next, Ings, Bailey and Martinez had poor seasons despite being very talented players. If they improve their performances to the levels they were at the season before last we're in for a performance boost from existing players. 

We tried to play a style of football playing out from the back but we lacked the players in CB and CDM to do it. We just signed two players specifically to solve the no1 issue we had. We've now had a great pre season, no defeats and we've squad depth and touch wood no injuries to any of the first team squad. 

Everything so far is looking good for us. We've every reason to be optimistic about the season and we all know last season was a mess. It's behind us now and we are all looking forward. Signing a new shiny no8 and selling Luiz isn't the silver bullet that gets us to 7th or 8th. 

[CVByrne]

5 minutes ago, allani said:

Exactly.  We signed a team to get us promoted / staying in the league, then we started trying to sign players to get us to mid-table and now we're starting to look at the top half / challenging Europe.  Expecting those level of players to get us into Europe is very optimistic.  My West Ham supporting mates (as the team to displace to qualify for Europe) would only take Emi from our team and put them into their starting XI.  Digne is the second player they talk about.  Cash, McGinn and JJ as subs.  That's it.

The point is Cash, Martinez, Watkins and McGinn are European standard players despite being bought for "mid table or lower". We buy players we think will be good players the standard they reach can vary but just because a player was signed at a specific point doesn't mean they are incapable of being any better than our aspirations for that time

[nick76]

13 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

We have the squad to challenge the top 8 and it'll be a poor season if we are not in amongst it and only a few points off at worst come end of season. 

There is no CF who can come in now that is at the level Ings was when we signed him last summer. He'd got a goal every 2 games for Southampton over his 3 years.Top proven PL forward.

When it comes to a midfielder. Do I see a new signing being a significant jump up on Luis / JJ / McGinn. Not really, 6 was our problem position in midfield not 8. So the jump from the players we used in 6 last season to Kamara is big but jump for 8 will be small at best next season. 

We have the squad. It's about getting them playing and with Kamara and Carlos we've solved our glaring issues. 

I think challenging for 8th can be viewed in many ways, if the view that you always mathematically have a chance of getting 8th until the last half a dozen games of the season but you’re never really going to get 8th and 10th/11th was your level most of the season then I agree.

As for Ings, I don’t wholly disagree, but I’m not sure Ings or Watkins works in Gerrard’s system.  I’m definitely not convinced Watkins works in Gerrard’s system and has been struggling for 12 months.

Midfield is where I totally disagree, I think we need that difference maker and I think there are options out there who would be a big upgrade on our midfield.

I think the squad is short of quality in the first XI to get higher than 10th.

[allani]

12 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Digne, Coutinho, Chambers, Olsen, Kamara, Carlos, Augustinsson - all the signings have CL experience and have international caps

 

I'm not saying that they are right by the way.  I think Digne is the best LB outside the Sly 6.  Couts could be amazing but hasn't really proved it either way for us yet.  Personally I think with the right service he will be brilliant.  Chambers, Olsen and Augustinson are (mainly) squad players and all of the top 8 or 9 have similar depth on their bench.  Kamara is an unknown (and we aren't the only team who have signed promising young players from France this summer.  I think he will be an excellent player for us but he'd not start ahead of Rice for West Ham this season as an example.  To be honest most of my mates missed us signing Carlos and don't view it as the coup that we do.  Most other fans just don't see us as being a team to watch.  Hopefully, we will prove them wrong and catch a few people by surprise.