Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Just now, Vive_La_Villa said: Nobody has said the objective is to finish 7th. Gerrard said the minimum expected was top half. Maybe mixing it up with Ten Hag 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MWARLEY2 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 11 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said: Purslow said in Australia it was the objective to finish 7th this season. Dean Smith used to say his objective was to finish first. Its a big ask but also a reasonable one. You should always have big ambition. They want to finish ahead of West Ham , Newcastle Brighton Palace and the rest. Not unreasonable with the quality players in the squad. If Gerrard can get them to gel. The reality is that they all seem to have an effective way of playing and can get their team to show decent consistency. We have not as yet. Thats why we have bought players like Carlos and Kamara. They are used to operating at the high end of the table . They by definition are consistent players. And they should on paper give us that consistency. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adman Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 We are hiring winners on and off the field to accept top half as the objective? Seems weird. We will want to be mixing it in the top 3rd of this league and I believe we are getting closer to that objective. But then after 3 games in, I will concede that we are a million miles away again 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 To clarify. The only mention of 7th (that I’ve heard anyway) was in an interview with Digne. He said the aim was top 7. But I think we’d all just be happy to start establishing ourselves as a regular top half side. We need to splash out or have an incredible season (players playing at peak form) if we’re even contemplating Europe… Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jas10 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 I’m hoping for the best and trying to be positive, taking a “clean slate” approach. But, to be honest, I have more doubts (that are hopefully proven wrong) over the manager than the players. We need to get the best out of this squad and haven’t even come close yet. I want to see an exciting and entertaining team out there… AND FFS PLAY BUENDIA! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 3 minutes ago, Adman said: We are hiring winners on and off the field to accept top half as the objective? Seems weird. We will want to be mixing it in the top 3rd of this league and I believe we are getting closer to that objective. But then after 3 games in, I will concede that we are a million miles away again How is it weird? Do u get the concept of building a team and working your way up to competing for Europe, it is not possible to do that in a few transfer windows. Were were a Championship club 4 seasons ago and now we consider ourselves as a safe PL: club and competing for top half. Bear in mind top hald means in the top 10 teams and 6 of those places are already accounted for. So we are fighting for 1 of 4 places. I assume that is just an anti Gerrard comment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 7 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said: Are u sure, do u have a link? At the dinner in Australian Purslow is quoted as saying the following. That doesn't sound like the objective is to finish 7th this season https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-man-utd-purslow-24558331 Well that link does actually confirm it: Purslow outlined how he hopes Aston Villa will make a statement next season and push for European qualification; The head coach wants Villa to really upset the top six, push for a European place and to improve the club’s home form. That to me says they want to push West Ham all the way to get 7th. Now, as I said in my previous post, West Ham already finished 11 points ahead of us and have had a better summer window. So not sure how they expect to achieve their objectives as outlined above. I cannot get Purslow's exact quotes as the dinner was not recorded, but from what I understand he bluntly outlined that 7th is the objective this season. Gerrard was then asked about that a couple of days later and dampened down a bit by saying top half has to be the minimum. I think top half is achievable, but top 7 no way at all currently. So I just wish they would stop coming out with these statements unless they are prepared to fund a top 7 challenge, because if we don't improve our first 11 further top 7 simply ain't happening. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwi1890 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 9 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said: Dean Smith used to say his objective was to finish first. Its a big ask but also a reasonable one. You should always have big ambition. They want to finish ahead of West Ham , Newcastle Brighton Palace and the rest. Not unreasonable with the quality players in the squad. If Gerrard can get them to gel. The reality is that they all seem to have an effective way of playing and can get their team to show decent consistency. We have not as yet. Thats why we have bought players like Carlos and Kamara. They are used to operating at the high end of the table . They by definition are consistent players. And they should on paper give us that consistency. He said that in his first premier league season yes and then admitted to be naive the following season, his brand of football became less naive also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Just now, Jas10 said: But, to be honest, I have more doubts (that are hopefully proven wrong) over the manager than the players Me too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 1 minute ago, VillaFaninLondon said: Well that link does actually confirm it: Purslow outlined how he hopes Aston Villa will make a statement next season and push for European qualification; The head coach wants Villa to really upset the top six, push for a European place and to improve the club’s home form. That to me says they want to push West Ham all the way to get 7th. Now, as I said in my previous post, West Ham already finished 11 points ahead of us and have had a better summer window. So not sure how they expect to achieve their objectives as outlined above. I cannot get Purslow's exact quotes as the dinner was not recorded, but from what I understand he bluntly outlined that 7th is the objective this season. Gerrard was then asked about that a couple of days later and dampened down a bit by saying top half has to be the minimum. I think top half is achievable, but top 7 no way at all currently. So I just wish they would stop coming out with these statements unless they are prepared to fund a top 7 challenge, because if we don't improve our first 11 further top 7 simply ain't happening. I posted Purslow's exact quote, its fairly clear what his objective and expectations are 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 10 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said: There are a few reason we can do it now imo. Firstly, FFP is definitely something Villa has to be carful of. We have spent a fortune since we came up and have huge annual amortisation costs to pay. We are still paying about 5m a year in amortisation each year for Wesley. Secondly, we are massively. increasing our wage bill. When we came up I think our highest earner was on 40k/50k and then we put Jack onto about 75k. Now we have multiple players on 120k+ a week. All of these costs have to be accounted for in every financial year and not just the year we sign the player. Thirdly, we need to grow the attraction of Villa for the better players to join us. Gerrard has really helped with this and we are now signing players that a lot of us did not think possible to sign. To move further up the food chain we need to build a team that is attractive to players to join. The big thing we are missing now is a top half finish in the PL. When we get that we will make ourselves more attractive and closer to the 40m/50m bracket. What teams are getting further away from us, yes the top 6, but we simply can't compete with them yet, we need to climb a few more rungs up the ladder before we can. I don't see any team outside the top 6 that has pulled away from us. The only candidate is West Ham and I still don't think they have pulled away, we have at least maintained our gap in quality to them. Yes Purslow was disappointed with not finishing in Europe, that doesn't mean it was an objective and it would have been really dumb if it was an objective. We are in the mix for clubs fighting for a European spot and if we don't make it it will be disappointing. I agree that money doesn't necessarily mean a better quality player and there are loads of example of where it hasn't, however, there is no denying the correlation between higher transfer fee and a better quality player. From the FFP experts on here, they tell us we have a lot of room at the moment. I appreciate the rise in wages but the main way to increase revenue will be Europe and the revenue and commercial revenue that comes from it. Sticking around 10th just means our wage bill gets bigger but our revenue doesn’t. We have to either push for Europe or not, it seems we are just dipping our feet in the water and hoping for the best. As for teams getting away from us given the limited European places. Top six speak for themselves. West Ham, already above us and have got stronger with their recent signings. Newcastle will just get stronger over the coming transfer windows and are probably on par with us at the moment. So that’s eight teams, then we are in the mix with a few others who we should be stronger than in theory but they have experience in higher positions and who knows with them. I certainly don’t think we are best of the rest as some do, we are kind of just in the mix. Didnt Purslow say in Australia about 7th or is that now just a myth? Sounds like several sources have said it. I don’t think we are in the mix for an European spot, I don’t think that’s where we are at. I feel like we are in the final of a 100m race after the qualifiers but there are serious contenders for the medals (european places) but we are in the race just making the numbers up. I feel we are close and a bit more quality could make the difference of a couple of places in the league. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 2 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said: I posted Purslow's exact quote, its fairly clear what his objective and expectations are I think it was Gerrards quotes you posted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 11 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said: Dean Smith used to say his objective was to finish first. Its a big ask but also a reasonable one. You should always have big ambition. They want to finish ahead of West Ham , Newcastle Brighton Palace and the rest. Not unreasonable with the quality players in the squad. If Gerrard can get them to gel. The reality is that they all seem to have an effective way of playing and can get their team to show decent consistency. We have not as yet. Thats why we have bought players like Carlos and Kamara. They are used to operating at the high end of the table . They by definition are consistent players. And they should on paper give us that consistency. I think even if we performed to absolute optimum level (which is rarely the case with Villa anyhow, we usually underperform), then 8th is the maximum we can achieve. I note Phil McNulty at the BBC has us finishing 8th which is very generous of him, but that's the absolute maximum IMO this squad of players can achieve and eI think even 8th is a tad optimistic. Top 10 is certainly possible and certainly anything less than that would be a bad season. But I just think 8th-10th is the best we are going to get this season unless they get the cheque book out for another signing. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 1 minute ago, VillaFaninLondon said: I think even if we performed to absolute optimum level (which is rarely the case with Villa anyhow, we usually underperform), then 8th is the maximum we can achieve. I note Phil McNulty at the BBC has us finishing 8th which is very generous of him, but that's the absolute maximum IMO this squad of players can achieve and eI think even 8th is a tad optimistic. Top 10 is certainly possible and certainly anything less than that would be a bad season. But I just think 8th-10th is the best we are going to get this season unless they get the cheque book out for another signing. And that would be progress. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 2 minutes ago, nick76 said: From the FFP experts on here, they tell us we have a lot of room at the moment. I appreciate the rise in wages but the main way to increase revenue will be Europe and the revenue and commercial revenue that comes from it. Sticking around 10th just means our wage bill gets bigger but our revenue doesn’t. We have to either push for Europe or not, it seems we are just dipping our feet in the water and hoping for the best. As for teams getting away from us given the limited European places. Top six speak for themselves. West Ham, already above us and have got stronger with their recent signings. Newcastle will just get stronger over the coming transfer windows and are probably on par with us at the moment. So that’s eight teams, then we are in the mix with a few others who we should be stronger than in theory but they have experience in higher positions and who knows with them. I certainly don’t think we are best of the rest as some do, we are kind of just in the mix. Didnt Purslow say in Australia about 7th or is that now just a myth? Sounds like several sources have said it. I don’t think we are in the mix for an European spot, I don’t think that’s where we are at. I feel like we are in the final of a 100m race after the qualifiers but there are serious contenders for the medals (european places) but we are in the race just making the numbers up. I feel we are close and a bit more quality could make the difference of a couple of places in the league. I agree, we are close and need more quality, I am happy to see that come in increments over a number of windows. Last Jan was a stunning window, hopefully another one like that in 6 months. And yes, Purslow saying the objective was 7th is a myth. Look at my post a bit higher up, it has the exact quote. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 20 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Nobody has said the objective is to finish 7th. Gerrard said the minimum expected was top half. Clearly you haven't read between the lines 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thunderball Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 I thought this was the Transfer thread, started to get excited I had missed something! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 6 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: I think it was Gerrards quotes you posted. Well spotted and thank you for highlighting. But SG does say this is what Purslow's objective is so it ain't a bad reference 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaFaninLondon Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 2 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: And that would be progress. It would but you can see why people are feeling a bit underwhelmed about the season. Big plans, big ambitions apparently, but not enough progress this season to get close to 7th realistically and with Newcastle's wealth will there be another opportunity to break the top 7. Who knows. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Peter Griffin Posted August 3, 2022 Share Posted August 3, 2022 Just now, VillaFaninLondon said: It would but you can see why people are feeling a bit underwhelmed about the season. Big plans, big ambitions apparently, but not enough progress this season to get close to 7th realistically and with Newcastle's wealth will there be another opportunity to break the top 7. Who knows. I think the underwhelmed feeling is down to timing. If we signed Coutinho, Carlos, Kamara, Augustinssson and Olsen in the last 3 weeks this place would be buzzing. But of course, there would be people moaning that we left it too late to do our business and now the players have missed the all important pre season Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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