Summer Transfer Window 2022

[Vive_La_Villa]

2 minutes ago, 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.

Fans can feel how they want.  Anyone feeling underwhelmed is acting abit entitled imo.

I’d be very happy with top 10. For me that’s ambitious enough considering it’s something we haven’t managed in over 10 years !

I also don’t give a shit about Newcastle either. 

[VillaChris]

Need another midfielder to finish 7th.

Let's be honest one injury to Kamara and we're back to the central trio of last 3 seasons. All of Nakamba-Luiz-McGinn good on their day but they just don't have enough about them collectively to win us enough games if Kamara follows all our recent signings and is out for a month or two at some point.

Certainly got enough in final third to challenge for 7th....but I'm just not convinced Gerrard will put the right combination out on regular basis. Feels like the first two months will be a continuation of shoehorning Ings + Watkins upfront again and trying to fit other attackers around them with mixed results.

Pretty happy with defence now. Who knows who'll be partnering Diego on Saturday but we really shouldn't be struggling defensively this season given we have good backup aswell in case of injuries.

[WHY]

Villa fans “we have some great young players and they need game time. 
Same Villa fans “we need more new signings.

Let’s go with what we have and see what some of the youngsters are made of. Pointless having an academy if we are going to keep making signings who block their route to the first team. 

 

 

[Steero113]

Why are people convinced West Ham have had a better window than us?

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

13 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Fans can feel how they want.  Anyone feeling underwhelmed is acting abit entitled imo.

I’d be very happy with top 10. For me that’s ambitious enough considering it’s something we haven’t managed in over 10 years !

I also don’t give a shit about Newcastle either. 

What's strange is that every " prediction " article as well as neutral podcasters/YouTubers have us between 9th - 12th.

They recognise that we now have a " good " squad, but they also recognise that other teams do too, and they are also strengthening ( I.E we are improved but other teams are still ahead)

One in particular also mentioned the sheer size of th West Ham players, saying that they almost had an advantage based purely on that.

Meanwhile on here, some fans seem to think anything under 6th / 7th is failure.

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Adman]

30 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

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

Maybe you've missunderstood my intentions of the post. Gerrard is a born winner, it's weird to me that everyone behind the scenes before a ball is kicked is aiming for 10th.  I can see nothing (except the football) looking like we are not wanting to mix it at the top end of the league.

[nick76]

11 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

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.

That was SG’s quote.  

I don’t understand, the ‘increment’ thing at all, we aren’t asking for 10 new players or 5 new players, it’s just 1 or maybe 2.  One could make a big difference and two could be huge but I think we need at least one.  So if it’s just 1 why wait until Jan or next summer, just feels like wasting time for no reason.  

I think the club will acquire another quality player at least.  To be honest I keep changing my mind on whether they will buy another but I think they are missing an opportunity if they don’t and I don’t believe the owners, the CEO and Gerrard want just a top ten position this season, they want more and expect more from themselves.

[nick76]

Just now, Adman said:

Maybe you've missunderstood my intentions of the post. Gerrard is a born winner, it's weird to me that everyone behind the scenes before a ball is kicked is aiming for 10th.  I can see nothing (except the football) looking like we are not wanting to mix it at the top end of the league.

Exactly!  

Can’t imagine the likes of Kamara coming here either on the promise of just 10th position either.

Edited August 3, 2022 by nick76

[Vive_La_Villa]

1 minute ago, nick76 said:

That was SG’s quote.  

I don’t understand, the ‘increment’ thing at all, we aren’t asking for 10 new players or 5 new players, it’s just 1 or maybe 2.  One could make a big difference and two could be huge but I think we need at least one.  So if it’s just 1 why wait until Jan or next summer, just feels like wasting time for no reason.  

I think the club will acquire another quality player at least.  To be honest I keep changing my mind on whether they will buy another but I think they are missing an opportunity if they don’t and I don’t believe the owners, the CEO and Gerrard want just a top ten position this season, they want more and expect more from themselves.

I think they want at least one more player. Gerrard said it himself. I just don’t think they’ll sign a player for the sake of it. If they can’t land their targets it won’t happen this window. 

No last minute loans for Danny Drinkwater type players.

[VillaFaninLondon]

2 minutes ago, Peter Griffin said:

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 

Probably right to an extent. But I can't stress this enough, Coutinho and Olsen were loans made permanent. They are signings but technically they don't improve us as they were here last season. People don't seem to get that. We have made three signings, two of which will go into our first 11 and one will be backup to Digne. It's not enough for a team that drastically let us down last season, we arguably needed 3 or even 4 new starting 11 players. 

 

There were so many discussions last season about how McGinn and Watkins were not consistent or good enough if we wanted to move forward and challenge the top 6/7 teams and guess what? they'll still be starting every game next season for us. That's why it feels a bit disappointing, I don't think it's entitled to feel that. 

 

I understand that owners might want to look for evolution rather than revolution but this insistence of signing a couple of marquee players then ignoring other gaps in the squad is totally frustrating and seems to be a recurring theme with us every summer. But it's ok because 'incremental' progress is better than no progress (despite the fact that most teams in the league are improving at the very least marginally each season).

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

8 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Why are people convinced West Ham have had a better window than us?

Don't think they needed to have a " better window " than us though, as they were already better than us. Lol

[Peter Griffin]

5 minutes ago, Adman said:

Maybe you've missunderstood my intentions of the post. Gerrard is a born winner, it's weird to me that everyone behind the scenes before a ball is kicked is aiming for 10th.  I can see nothing (except the football) looking like we are not wanting to mix it at the top end of the league.

Sorry about that 

[Vive_La_Villa]

Bloody hell lads nobody has said the objective or aim is to finish 10th! Obviously we want to finish higher. What fans are trying to say is if we finish top 10 it’s still a good season.  It’s the very minimum we want but it would be acceptable for most.  
 

Now as for more signings. Nobody knows if the club are actively trying to sign anybody else or not. 

[Peter Griffin]

6 minutes ago, nick76 said:

That was SG’s quote.  

I don’t understand, the ‘increment’ thing at all, we aren’t asking for 10 new players or 5 new players, it’s just 1 or maybe 2.  One could make a big difference and two could be huge but I think we need at least one.  So if it’s just 1 why wait until Jan or next summer, just feels like wasting time for no reason.  

I think the club will acquire another quality player at least.  To be honest I keep changing my mind on whether they will buy another but I think they are missing an opportunity if they don’t and I don’t believe the owners, the CEO and Gerrard want just a top ten position this season, they want more and expect more from themselves.

I want another player, I would be happy to see 2 or 3 new quality signings. But that is the football fan in me. I am trying to be realistic with what makes sense for the club 

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

9 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Exactly!  

Can’t imagine the likes of Kamara coming here either on the promise of just 10th position either.

Players might buy into a medium - longer term project.

Doesn't necessarily expect us to be Champions League the following season, unless they are a bit dense.

Any smart player would look at the squad, see what we are building and where we are aiming to be, but know it's a marathon not a sprint.

Or in our case, a power walk... with our ambitious owners lol.

I highly doubt Guimares , Trippier and Botman joined Newcastle thinking they would win the League this season, for example.

Some players, just like Managers can be sold the chance to be the nucleus of an exciting " project ". Especially for nice wads of cash.

 

Edited August 3, 2022 by JAMAICAN-VILLAN

[Adman]

Just now, Peter Griffin said:

Sorry about that 

No worries, I think everyone at the club is desperate for  success, and the ones that aren't showing it are being moved out of the club.  This added pressure has ruffled a few players and many of our failures that I've seen is that we look like we're trying too hard.  By getting players in with more experience of playing at a higher level, we are improving our mentality IMO. I can genuinely see this squad finishing anywhere between 5th and 17th

[nick76]

1 minute ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Bloody hell lads nobody has said the objective or aim is to finish 10th! Obviously we want to finish higher. What fans are trying to say is if we finish top 10 it’s still a good season.  It’s the very minimum we want but it would be acceptable for most.  

By the same means we are saying we are most likely to finish 10th and not higher.  I suppose putting it another way it’s the difference between challenging hard for 7th and ending up 10th is acceptable compared to just floating around 10th all season, which while acceptable just isn’t what anybody at the club is looking for.

[Peter Griffin]

4 minutes ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Probably right to an extent. But I can't stress this enough, Coutinho and Olsen were loans made permanent. They are signings but technically they don't improve us as they were here last season. People don't seem to get that. We have made three signings, two of which will go into our first 11 and one will be backup to Digne. It's not enough for a team that drastically let us down last season, we arguably needed 3 or even 4 new starting 11 players. 

 

There were so many discussions last season about how McGinn and Watkins were not consistent or good enough if we wanted to move forward and challenge the top 6/7 teams and guess what? they'll still be starting every game next season for us. That's why it feels a bit disappointing, I don't think it's entitled to feel that. 

 

I understand that owners might want to look for evolution rather than revolution but this insistence of signing a couple of marquee players then ignoring other gaps in the squad is totally frustrating and seems to be a recurring theme with us every summer. But it's ok because 'incremental' progress is better than no progress (despite the fact that most teams in the league are improving at the very least marginally each season).

I agree with the point on loans becoming permanent.

I suspect like most fans I would like to see more quality signings. But every year it is the same, we just need one or two more to make the next step up. The fan in me wants to see us sign Sangare and a striker and another attacking midfield. However, I try to keep my self in the real world and take each window as a gradual improvement. When I look back year on year since NSWE bought us I am very very happy with what is happen to our squad 

[Peter Griffin]

1 minute ago, Adman said:

No worries, I think everyone at the club is desperate for  success, and the ones that aren't showing it are being moved out of the club.  This added pressure has ruffled a few players and many of our failures that I've seen is that we look like we're trying too hard.  By getting players in with more experience of playing at a higher level, we are improving our mentality IMO. I can genuinely see this squad finishing anywhere between 5th and 17th

I can see us finishing between 7th and 14th but I expect 8th or 9th 

[VillaFaninLondon]

13 minutes ago, Steero113 said:

Why are people convinced West Ham have had a better window than us?

New starting striker, new starting CB, new CM who will definitely play quite a few games and offer stiff competition. All signings at a good age too and not yet hit their peak. 

 

Definitely done better than us I feel and were already ahead of us given they've finished several places ahead of us the last 2 seasons. Funny why a lot of their fans were slagging off the owners as they seem to be investing a fair bit of money down there season after season.