Well, that transfer thread did me a big favour. Work has been hectic for months and it enabled me to just leave the site ticking over with one less thing to concern myself with.
So now we have a new season to contemplate and overall, I’m quite happy with our signings.
I like the look of Onana. His stats are very decent, even though Everton’s way of playing, in bypassing the midfield didn’t really suit his style. I feel Emery will improve him and he’ll prefer the way we play. Happy players are better players, I think. That said, I think Emery is moving away from the “gung ho” style that we had in the early days of his tenure and Onana has experience of a steadier style, so it’s all good.
I’ve read tonight that Onana wants Emery to coach him in the Spanish language, which he wants to learn/improve, such is his mastery of lots of other languages. He’s obviously quite intelligent and that bodes well.
Maatson is a player who looks to be a good signing too. I’ve watched him in games and he seems to get involved a lot. I’d have gone for a right back before LB, but Digne and Moreno are getting on and Maatson is obviously the next generation.
Talking of which, Transfermarkt shows that we’ve reduced the age of the squad considerably from 25 to 23.7. I suspect this has been a major driver of our philosophy in this window and it’s no bad thing.
We’ve recalled players for squad depth and I’d guess they’ve been made big promises as to how much playing time they’ll get this season, purely because we’ll be fighting on so many squad-sapping fronts.
We all saw how our lower level European escapades drained us last season, after all.
About the only signing I’m not keen on is Ross Barkley. I wasn’t keen on him last time we had him, but I think I have to cede to many other Villa fans I’ve spoken to who think he’s a great signing after playing really well at Luton last season. I don’t know what it is, I just have a bad feeling that he just won’t work out for us. I can only hope I’m wrong.
And then, expectations.
I wasn’t even thinking of navigating this yet, but the days are going in a flash at the moment, so I probably should.
I’ve had many footy supporters up here in Liverpool tell me what a great season we had and most are genuinely glad, because they see us as a “proper” club. And then the conversation invariably turns to “how do you think you’ll do?” And I’m genuinely clueless.
I always answer in the same mode. I honestly only want one thing. European consolidation. I couldn’t care less about the cups, as much as they’ve always been a big priority for me.
I almost couldn’t care less about our league position, which is silly because it’s requisite to us getting CL qualification again.
So it’s fourth or above, so we can go again in the Champion’s league. Consistent qualifying for Big Ears is what makes you a contender: a genuinely big club.
And it’s where the money is, which leads to that ever-increasing revenue, which allows you to play the big boys game.
Newcastle couldn’t do it. Do I think we can?
Tune in this time, next week.
Or more realistically, look in the replies.
Ow, is that what they call “clickbait”? 🙂
Archer on his way to Saints for 15 million. That’s a bargain and I’m not happy at all with that. What does the guy have to do to be given a chance. And how the f*** is Duran worth 40 and Archer only 15??? Absolute nonsense. Not happy. This kid is a proper striker and needs a run in a decent team and some trust from the manager. He deserves it; Duran doesn’t. P***** off with that.
Was Solanke better than Archer at the same age? Went to a smaller club and flourished. And now look. Utter bollocks. Absolute horses***. Not happy at all.
Gotta agree with you there BFR. I like Archer’s application. What is it that Emery doesn’t like about him? The only reason I can see is that Emery wants someone at a higher level. Will be interesting to see how Solanke gets on at Spuds too.
I wish Archer all the very best!
You wanna know what I think? Duran should have been gone by now, in which case Archer would have stayed. But because Mr Stroppy Bigbollox couldn’t be offloaded, probably due to his stinking attitude, we’ve had to sell one of our own, a talent, and a ‘good egg’ in comparison. Anyone agree with that theory?
Who’s this Kane Taylor kid? Apparently, he was with Villa’s academy before going to City, and now on the way back. If he’s another Dougie or Chesty, will be a good deal (if it goes through)…
Look at this:
https://x.com/Ekremkonur/status/1824335052982956257/photo/1
Where are we extremely light? Desperately light, in fact…
Although Ned Kelly and Bogarde aren’t on there.
Archer officially gone. Permanently. Disappointed with the club on this one. Very disappointed.
Good luck, lad. Go and smash double figures this season, then kick-on and get into the England set-up; more than capable, in my opinion. Prove them wrong!
Sorry to disagree BFR but I don’t think he’s good enough for us at the moment. He may become a good striker, he may not and overall we got around £20m for taking into account the ‘loan fee’ element of the deal with Sheff U last season.
His goal conversion from XG was poor at United last season, putting away less chances that his XG rating compared to Ollie and Duran who scored more than their respective XG’s. Add to that, Emery gave him every chance pre-season to prove himself which overall he didn’t.
If Emery wants a proven back up striker now then one has to go – the club has said one out, one in to comply with the EUFA squad cost ratio. I hear what you say about Duran and I have to agree that his behaviour has been that of a spoiled child. This is symptomatic of when he’s away from VP and being influenced by others with $ signs in their eyes. £40m was completely unrealistic which I think says Villa don’t want to sell him.
I agree BFR, we sell a promising product of our academy and get stuck with an egotistical numpty. We should banish him to train on his own but now we have no backup for Watkins, so we have created a problem that should never have happened. Poor planning by the powers that be.
Looks like I’m in a minority of one then.
I’ll get my coat 🙂
I get PSR but I am scratching my head a little with Archer. I actually think that for the direction Villa are heading or at least want to head in, Archer isn’t quite there, almost painfully close. So I do wonder if some time under Emery would have been worth while. What really gets me is the fact he featured so heavily in pre season. This lad has just toured around America with us. Maybe that was enough for Emery to see that it’s not going to work and I trust him to make that call. We do have to see an Attacking Mid / Striker of some sort come in without fail this window and a right back. If we can do that, I will feel so much more confident. The squad as it stands in my opinion is weaker than last, we have added a 3Rd left back, the two we had being perfectly fine. Right back should have been priority there. We have likely pissed of Diego who was so useful when needed last season, particularly against city!! Zaniolo was a total handful from the bench and whilst it didn’t work out, he played a good roll! Then there is Luis. Luis was a set piece specialist and perfect for our style of play. OK, Onana could prove to be better and has every chance under Emery in our squad. Ideally would have loved to have seen onana next to Luiz in our team. Diaby didn’t set the world alight however cetraniy made his contribution in goals and I think we have somewhat rolled the dice here with Jaden coming back. So I guess we have to see what happens there. Then there is the Duran saga, it would be a very long way back now for him I should imagine mostly with the fans, but the lad played his part too coming of the bench and without him, we may not have champions league football.
I guess my heart just wants to see players come in and fill in our gaps but my head says, maybe see how we look in our first couple games and we may have a better idea. Like pep said today, it is a really really long season. I think it’s going to be a slow start for us this year and I’ve now accepted today that as long as we just keep the European football going then 7th and above is good. We just have to enjoy it for what it is this year.
On another note, I was chatting with my lad with sky sports news on and asked him how on earth man united can continue to buy players without selling anybody accept Wan Bisaka for 15mill. How do they comply with FFP? He said that apparently United have been granted expectational acceptations. In other words, they don’t expect Villa or Newcastle to finish above them and for that, they get to spend more.
Honestly it’s like asking 9 out of 10 100 metre sprinters to wear a ball and chain for the race but Usian bolt doesn’t need to because we expect him to win!!
Tom, I suspect many fans think ‘favours’ are handed out to certain clubs even if we can’t prove it.
They, whoever they are, don’t want to upset the status quo whether it’s Villa, Newcastle or any other clubs with ambition ‘beyond their status’.
Just on Archer, from what I understand, there are concerns around his hold up play and his ability to deal with big powerful defenders – both attributes will be needed in the coming season – particularly in Europe.
Disagree on Archer, Hitch. On all counts. On his age, how old was Ian Wright when he came from nowhere? Yet Archer has performed and scored for the under 21s consistently. As for lightweight, he was like bulldozer for his last goal for Villa in preseason. Pushed and pulled yet didn’t go down when the majority of strikers would have gone over or dived. Finally, not all strikers are made to hold the ball up. Some are good at it, while some prefer the ball in behind or through the defence. Nothing wrong with that. Anyway, time will tell. I hope he proves the doubters wrong. Personally, I’ve seen enough to believe he’s a natural striker and instinctive finisher.
And as for XGs, if they were around in the 90s, Andy Cole would have had about 6 per game and 100 per season. Yet he still bagged 30+ and was up there year after year. But people only saw how many he missed. If he scored all his chances, he’d be the greatest striker in the history of the world.
One of the great things about football is the friendly debate between fans. We’re never going to agree on everything.
I note that Emery has said that the reasoning behind allowing Archer to leave is that he needs playing time to develop and Emery didn’t feel he’d get that with Villa this season.
I wonder whether the deal with Southampton includes a buy back clause – Emery hinted it might.
Emery, in his press conference, has said that we are ‘behind’ seven other teams in the EPL in terms of capacity. So he’s downplaying expectation but it doesn’t mean that he won’t be fiercely competitive and expect the same of the squad.
He named the seven teams as Man C and Utd., Arsenal, Liverpool, Chelsea and Newcastle. Other than Chelsea, it’s hard to disagree with him. If Chelsea had kept Potch I’d have agreed but they’ve decide to start over again with a new squad and manager.
It’s also pretty clear from, what he said, that he’s going all out in the Champions League.
Emery certainly has the experience and ability but has he got the squad to keep us ahead of the curve or will this season be more about building a new base from which to go forward?
Archer is a bit lightweight compared to Ollie and Duran and I think the reason that Emery gave him so much playing time was to see if he could become that second striker. Obviously he thought he wasn’t up to it and we have to accept that.
We do need at least two players in and I feel that, as Archer was allowed to go, this is probably going to happen sooner than later.
In the meantime, even without any further incoming players, I think our squad is much stronger and deeper than last season. However, add a Geertruida and say a Baena, and we would be good to go.
In the meantime then our four home grown players would be JJ, Bogarde, Philogene and perhaps Swinkels or Young?
As I’m feeling grumpy, is it just me, or is Sharon Osborne not exactly who we were expecting as the ‘special guest’ to open the new Villa store?
An injury to Torres, Watkins, Cash or perish the thought, Martinez leaves us playing players out of position or players not good enough. We need another CB/RCB and a striker to back up Watkins /replace Archer as a minimum. We still have Duran, Dendoncker, Carlos and one too many LB’s who are looking less likely to depart as the transfer window looms ever closer.
As it stands, I don’t think our starting XI is as good as the one that started last season. We might be growing the squad but it lacks Champions League quality players. I would have hoped qualifying this season would have tempted some big names but PSR / FFP has prevented us improving in the way our owners would have liked.
FFFP!!
Yep it’s trying to satisfy PSR of the EPL and the squad cost ratio to revenue EUFA rules – it’s a nightmare.
Unless we sell it’s clear we can’t buy so we may well be stuck with the squad we have unless we can unload other players like Dendoncker and / or one of Moreno or Digne. Carlos is also an option and it seems he’s open to a move if we can find a buyer at the right price.
Unlike other windows, I suspect we might be looking for deals right up to the ‘eleventh hour’.
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2024/08/16/aston-villa-transfers-monchi-emery-building-squad-obsession/
Great interview with Monchi. Behind a paywall but he says JJ is going nowhere. Unai really wants to keep him. He also says we needed more physical players and younger players but also maturity, hence Ross.