Wolves

[meregreen]

Mind the gap Dog Heads

[The_Steve]

Funny how that mysterious second bid for Alex Scott never materialised 10 days ago either 

[Jonesy7211]

Whilst I'm not a fan of them, I think what they have is still better than 6-7 other teams (on paper). Sa is a very decent keeper, and they have Dawson and Kilman as CB's. Add in quality of Hwang, Gomes, Sarabia, Nunes, Neto, and Cunha, that's a good spine. They have a decent manager at the moment too. If Lopetegui goes then I think they'd be in trouble, as they'll never get a replacement of his level.

[HanoiVillan]

23 minutes ago, Jonesy7211 said:

Whilst I'm not a fan of them, I think what they have is still better than 6-7 other teams (on paper). Sa is a very decent keeper, and they have Dawson and Kilman as CB's. Add in quality of Hwang, Gomes, Sarabia, Nunes, Neto, and Cunha, that's a good spine. They have a decent manager at the moment too. If Lopetegui goes then I think they'd be in trouble, as they'll never get a replacement of his level.

Not necessarily disagreeing with the main points here, but Sa is for sale (Forest are interested) and Bentley finished the season as their number 1. 

[Baldricks Cunning Plan]

Sa is the Number 1, Bentley was just given a couple of games at the end of season with Sa playing the final game. In an almost first XI last night Sa played the full game as we beat Porto 1-0.

As for the rest of the current situation, its quite alarming really. The manager shouldn't be airing his grievances in public to his mate Balague and something seems to be wrong that we can sell £100m worth of players and not seem to have the funds available for some relatively minor purchases. I can only hope that there are some signings that will be made before the season starts as it makes no real sense to let go of 2 forwards (Costa and Jimenez), 3 wide players (Traore, Podence(?) and Chiquino - Loan), and 2 out of our 4 senior centre halves (Coady and Collins) without any replacements whatsoever. Re-signing Doherty, who as a full back couldn't get into our side in League One let alone the Premier League, and possibly replacing Giles with an over the hill Creswell makes no sense either. If cashflow was so tight though you would have to question turning down a £30m offer for Max Kilman.

All that being said, with the exception of Neves, the rest of the sales all seem to be on the fringes of the team/squad rather than the first XI and the squad was bloated by 6 signings in January. If the manager does stay we should have enough to be clear of relegation danger but it would only take one or two injuries to make me genuinely concerned. From the list below we do need to add another centre half, wide forward and centre forward.

Keepers- Sa/Bentley

RB - Semedo/Doherty/Jonny

LB - Bueno/Ait Nouri

CB - Dawson/Kilman/T Gomes

CM - Nunes/Hodge/Lemina/J Gomes/B Traore

WF - Sarabia/Neto

F - Sasa/Silva/Cunha

Unfortunately we've gone from having a good squad and being able to compete in the top half of the division to being in the Palace type of club who seem to be in the league just to survive. 

Edited July 26, 2023 by Baldricks Cunning Plan

[Jonesy7211]

57 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Not necessarily disagreeing with the main points here, but Sa is for sale (Forest are interested) and Bentley finished the season as their number 1. 

There's definitely a fluid situation ongoing, they seem to have made most players available. We know what that was like when Lerner turned the taps off. Eventually the lack of quality in the replacements will show. I just don't think they've hit rock bottom yet in terms of squad quality, but that can/will quickly change if they carry on as they are.

[villan95]

19 minutes ago, Baldricks Cunning Plan said:

Sa is the Number 1, Bentley was just given a couple of games at the end of season with Sa playing the final game. In an almost first XI last night Sa played the full game as we beat Porto 1-0.

As for the rest of the current situation, its quite alarming really. The manager shouldn't be airing his grievances in public to his mate Balague and something seems to be wrong that we can sell £100m worth of players and not seem to have the funds available for some relatively minor purchases. I can only hope that there are some signings that will be made before the season starts as it makes no real sense to let go of 2 forwards (Costa and Jimenez), 3 wide players (Traore, Podence(?) and Chiquino - Loan), and 2 out of our 4 senior centre halves (Coady and Collins) without any replacements whatsoever. Re-signing Doherty, who as a full back couldn't get into our side in League One let alone the Premier League, and possibly replacing Giles with an over the hill Creswell makes no sense either. If cashflow was so tight though you would have to question turning down a £30m offer for Max Kilman.

All that being said, with the exception of Neves, the rest of the sales all seem to be on the fringes of the team/squad rather than the first XI and the squad was bloated by 6 signings in January. If the manager does stay we should have enough to be clear of relegation danger but it would only take one or two injuries to make me genuinely concerned. From the list below we do need to add another centre half, wide forward and centre forward.

Keepers- Sa/Bentley

RB - Semedo/Doherty/Jonny

LB - Bueno/Ait Nouri

CB - Dawson/Kilman/T Gomes

CM - Nunes/Hodge/Lemina/J Gomes/B Traore

WF - Sarabia/Neto

F - Sasa/Silva/Cunha

Unfortunately we've gone from having a good squad and being able to compete in the top half of the division to being in the Palace type of club who seem to be in the league just to survive. 

Squad is looking very light there Completely forgot you had Sasa Kalajdzic. Be interesting to see how he does after the injury.

[HanoiVillan]

9 minutes ago, Jonesy7211 said:

There's definitely a fluid situation ongoing, they seem to have made most players available. We know what that was like when Lerner turned the taps off. Eventually the lack of quality in the replacements will show. I just don't think they've hit rock bottom yet in terms of squad quality, but that can/will quickly change if they carry on as they are.

Yeah, I tend to think they'll just about be okay, given that the bottom half of the league looks very weak to me this season. A lot does depend on the manager staying though. 

[villan95]

26 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Yeah, I tend to think they'll just about be okay, given that the bottom half of the league looks very weak to me this season. A lot does depend on the manager staying though. 

I think Lopetegui is their most important asset at the moment. Did a really good job getting them safe last season because it looked a right mess before the world cup.

[StewieGriffin]

15 hours ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Yeah he's getting fired before season starts 

No way they'll fire him - they'll have to pay him and his staff off.

They'll probably back him into a corner so he feels he has ro resign

[Adman]

Going down

[villa89]

Might not be a bad bet to finish last. The whole club smells of doom. 

[duke313]

53 minutes ago, villa89 said:

Might not be a bad bet to finish last. The whole club smells of doom. 

Seems like a lot of teams below us are regressing. Fulham, Wolves, Palace. Could have a fairly sizeable gap between us and them this season.

[Keyblade]

Another in a long list of fans who got way too giddy with their trophy of "temporarily above the Villa". 

[Xela]

20 hours ago, Zatman said:

Probably regret not cashing in on Traore when his value was high a few seasons back

I see he has been released

Didn't they want about £60m a few years back?! 

[Zatman]

1 minute ago, Keyblade said:

Another in a long list of fans who got way too giddy with their trophy of "temporarily above the Villa". 

Its actually turning into a curse 

[Xela]

While i'm not full of sympathy, it just goes to show how disastrous the Chinese foray into West Mids football was. All 4 teams suffered to some degree.

[rjw63]

34 minutes ago, Xela said:

While i'm not full of sympathy, it just goes to show how disastrous the Chinese foray into West Mids football was. All 4 teams suffered to some degree.

Yes but only one was on the verge of going bust.

I remember how the other three laughed.

Hopefully our turn to laugh soon.

[VillaJ100]

No way are they going down if nothing else cos Luton and Sheffield will be taking up the bottom spots. So one to play for and about 6 that could fill it

[Kingman]

**** em