With me being in the early stages of a serious amount of work in my proper job, I’ve had very little time to look at what’s been going on with regards to the club.
But what little I have seen has been mostly the usual tripe that the club’s PR department pump out.
And I really can’t be doing with that.
So I’ve had a quick glance at the news available today and it seems we might be looking to sign a few, with us being linked to no less than four players.
First off is Marouane Chamakh from Palace.
Really? A 30 year old?
Even if you accept that Lambert might be moving away from cheap youth, I don’t see this as the sort of player he’d be looking at. A yawn factor of 9.5 for me, if, (as quite a few of us seem to think) we’re going to be spending serious money in the summer.
Then there’s a “teenage sensation” from the Ryman league in Johan Ter Horst, who plays for Folkestone Invicta.
No disrespect, but I asked “who?” too.
And that was just the club.
That said, all players have to start somewhere and no doubt the thinking would be that he’d go in the academy, not the first team. Mind you, Lambert tried it with Bowery and it really wouldn’t surprise me if Lambert tries similar again.
I could, of course, ask if the player is really better than what we have at the academy, but that’s another debate.
Then there’s a midfielder from FC Brugge, Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe.
A bit more likely, I suppose and is nearer the sort Lambert would look at.
Finally, we’re supposed to be tracking a kid from Ajax, namely Davy Klaassen.
So, we’re linked to four players, all in one day. Can’t be bad can it?
So why do my eyes gloss over when I read these stories?
A couple of reasons, I guess.
First off, I very much doubt there’s any truth in any of them.
Us Villa fans don’t have a clue what sort of players Lambert will sign, let alone any third parties, given that we’ve all expected him to go for players in the positions we’ve constantly complained about.
And then, if the rumoured decent summer spending money proves real, are these the sort of players we’re going to be looking at?
If so, it might not just be a bumper crop of signings; it might be a whole new squad!
I’m really not sure if I want to see Lambert spend, say £40 million in the summer.
That said, if we do spend some decent money, I fully expect a step up in quality, with something like four players out, four similar players in to replace them and say three more in the £7-10 mill class coming in (I think our squad size could cope with that?).
We can all wish can’t we?
And after all, there’s no excuses this time.
Don’t forget the EXTRA £30 mill a season we’ll get.
But you can see the sort of players the media seem to think we’ll be looking at, can’t you?
And I’ll bet they’re closer to the mark than what I expect.
I reckon it’s important to fine-tune the academy too, not just buy in players for the first team. We should be looking at strengthening, the only issue being under-18s, who might not be from Villa’s catchment area in terms of schooling. Having said that Birmingham is huge. I don’t actually know how the process works in terms of scouting local schools and clubs and bringing the best players into the academy. There should definitely be players brought in at 18 and 19 and put into the academy.
The above mentioned players, other than Chamakh, I’ve never heard of and am sick to death of Villa being linked and buying these unknown players.
IMO our first port of call should be to nail down Bertrand permanently. He has been out to 6 different clubs while at Chelsea so I think it could happen, Valued at around £5m, so may be up to £8m max.
Then a seriously decent AM (£10-£15m) Player like Holtby.
Next I’d sure up at DM (£10m) Somebody to replace Westwood – While he can pass side to side he offers little else from a defensive perspective, in fact he’s terrible. Somebody with similar attributes of your Noble’s, Parkers, Flamini’s and Barry’s of this world.
Our forward options are good as long as we can keep Benteke, as are our wings and CB’s (once Okore is back)
I’d part company with a few of the toot too.
U keep forgetting the squad is more than good enough to stay up except a few tweaks in summer. Maybe Bertrand is possible but ur having a laugh if u think lambert will have 15m to spend on one player it won’t happen trust me.
Nope, nor should he. I’m up and down with it too, don’t wanna see Lambert wasting 15m on a player, but then since he’s not leaving, almost wanna see him given that kind of money.
No mate, not forgetting, always knew…… And If I get my wish, Yes, I’ll be laughing….Right in your face
Optimistic
Keep Benteke and buy a decent AM around £10m – £15m with a solid DM who can tackle well and gel the team, again around £10m-£15m get Bertrand on a perm and push for a top 6 place, that will make me very happy…..
Realistic
Be linked to anyone who has done well in the World Cup only to be disappointed and get two new strikers, a new keeper and a couple of midfielders and the total spend £3m, lose Benteke and put up with the normal woeful hoofing game, Lamberts drivelley excuses and go in the loan market next January as we are nowhere near good enough to be promoted back to the premiership.. !
If Lambert is given 40 mil this summer I’ll be shocked more realistic is 30 mill, not that lerner shouldn’t realise 40mill but i just don’t think he will, but lets say 30mill then we better sign an AM worth 10, a DM worth 10, sign bertrand if he keeps form up or an equivalent LB and RB with the 10 mill left, not 8 players for 30 mill! But do i trust Lambert to do this and sign quality players? Not at the moment!
Kerry lamberk will get 10-15m tops mate. That’s all he needs to keep us up which is the club objective. Why give him 30-40m when there is no need to. Yes we will be linked with Belhanda type players again but it won’t happen it’s just to sell season tickets
I agree Oohah, all this dream of spending money come start of the new season absolutely crap, Lerner not after glory like us fans he will just earn what money he gets from sales and split that to Lambert, we can go a whistle for glory, not going to happen.
spot on bill. its all crap as they will be announcing sts next month so want to soften the blow. anyone that renews next year without seeing what the squad is like early aug needs their head examaning imo. they rip us of every year with this bullshit
Lambert’s spent 20m net spend in each of the last 2 summers. At least you can claim he’ll get what he actually really has gotten. 😉
Just read a story on Sports Direct News (dont know how reliable they are)! Anyway, they claim that Benteke was about to undertake a medical at Spurs last summer. They ‘claim’ that Spurs only pulled out because AVB did not want him as he preferred Soldaldo……anyone believe any of this is true? Very interesting if it was. It means (if true) then a fee must have been agreed and that we were clearly ready to sell. Was Randy ready to give the green light to this move, if so, for how much? And was Kozak earmarked as his replacement as some people have suggested. I dont think that I would be too surprised if this story is true!
Nope, don’t believe anything Sports Direct News claim.
And no, I don’t think Kozak was earmarked as his replacement, but unlike our other managers, Lambert did one thing correct and got some depth up front, or he wouldn’t have gone for Holt since Kozak got injured.
with the media feeding frenzy that was occurring at this time over benteke moving to every team in the premiership don’t you think at least one journo would have spotted benteke in England never mind tottenams training ground/
Where the hell are these figures of 30-40mil coming from?avfc’s pr machine?fucking wishful thinking more like.at the most 15mil for say 3-4 players now that’s more realistic.
complete bullshit trust me even if we sell benteke the budget will still be 15-20m
Fully agree mate,lerner’s tightening the purse strings not fucking loosening them.
We will deffo sign 6-7 players lets just hope they are better quality than what we have right now.UTV
Lets get past the unthinkable first before we all start getting ahead of ourselves spending on new aquisitions.we’re not out the woods yet.
I am with Saddened on this. The Elephant in the room is the World Cup. A few hitherto near unknowns will shine for second rank countries and the greedy pigs in the Champions League will be pushing silly money out to bag them. That will start the whole knock-on effect with some big stars suddenly not first-choice, and deciding to hand in a transfer request. So there may be some bargains available, but only if we are still in the Premiership.
yep, survival is 1st and foremost as we are still denfinitely right in it at the moment.
I too am jaded and cynical when I hear of our links and rumours re spending just because we have all seen and heard it all before too many times.
I predict we will have some money to spend and one or two decent signings coming in if only to sell seasons tickets and generate interest for the new season. if we finish the season playing much as we have so far season tickets will be very slow and projections will be rightly very low, id imagine catastrophic by our usual standards so the powers that be will need to spend and insist on a little something to get the punters in.
or alternatively lambert may be sacrificed as a new manager will generate sales too.
or benteke is sold and we’re bunged a bit of that money like scraps being thrown for the dog and sign someone like kenwyn fecking jones!
Giddy, quite a few have mentioned £40 mill on here and other sites.
It seems a bit pie in the sky at first glance, but should be somewhat realistic, if you consider that we’ve previously laid out £20 mill (ish) a season, while still cutting costs.
Add in the EXTRA £30 mill a season that the club will get from the new telly deal and it’s not hard to see.
And that’s with Lerner sticking £10 mill in his arse pocket!
I tried to be positive, in suggesting that we might get some decent players in.
But with big transfer fees, come high wages.
And I don’t see that happening, as the policy seems to be that you only get decent dough if you produce. I’ll bet Lerner is kicking himself for giving Benteke a decent rise (the short sighted so and so).
It’ll be interesting how the club play things this season, as I agree with most of the points already mentioned.
The club is the ultimate definition of average or downright boring and needs a boost, whether it be decent signings or a change of manager.
The latter isn’t going to happen.
Soz mate still can’t see it happening,lerner is slowly but surely tightening the purse strings.as ooha commented on an earlier post even if we sold benteke we would still only get a small fraction of that.so i’ll have to be proved wrong.
But why would Lerner spend £40m when he can keep us up on £10-15m. £40m might take us just into tge top ten at best so what’s the point. Lerner just wants survival so he dosnt need to spend big
It’s too bad we didn’t go for Schmidt, what a manager…
Anyways, these players make a bit of sense though. Chamakh’s one of those poor strikers that are decent in the air and that’s about it. Kind of like Holt and one Lambert would like. But with Kozak coming back by next season and if Benteke leaves, I do think Lambert would look to spend for a credible striker that could cost a bit of money.
Johan Ter Horst makes sense as well. A lot of people question us signing kids from lower leagues and even non-leagues because they might not be better than what we have in the academy, but with Villa loaning a lot of the better youth out, it means Villa have more room now for players like him. He wouldn’t even come close to a single percent of what Villa spend this coming summer. 50k, maybe 100k at most and if reports are he’s been scouted and has done really well, then good for him and could be good for us.
Klassen also makes sense as a link. Incredible midfield talent, young, Dutch league. Bigger clubs want him and Ajax obviously wanna keep him so I wouldn’t expect him, but another link and player that would make sense.
And finally Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe also makes sense. Read an article with us being linked to him, and Lambert’s trying to make good contacts with Belgian clubs and I hope he does as it could get Villa some great talent. Seems a very good player though and is perfect for Lambert. He tries to use every midfielder as the complete center midfielder. Sylla a DM, turned CM, Ahmadi a creative mid, turned CM. Vadis Odjidja-Ofoe is a CM and can play as a DM but tends to be your all around CM and would be a great signing.
Also linked to a young Plymouth Left Back and I believe I read trialing a talented 15 year old RB who can play up front (but couldn’t all kids at that age?)
i think surviving this season must be top priority, then adding and tweaking ere and there is a must. if the 40 mill is correct i feel this would make us more competitive, like foxy said about the youth set up is also a must, we av some decent youth players, some of these need 2 be given a chance 2 sink or swim
finally the benteke rumours i totally believe he was spurs bound and kojak was his replacement the alarming dip in his fair from last to this is evidence