As per usual of late, I’m struggling to keep up with our signings.
It’s all come thick and fast and it’ll probably take me weeks, if not months to get my head around what will probably be the first eleven, let alone the whole squad.
Never mind, at least it’s way better than us not signing anyone.
I still have concerns that possibly more than a few of our signings, while good on paper, are going to struggle at Prem level, not because they’re not good enough, but it just takes some adapting too. The likes of Vertout back up my point.
But hey, it’s a time for optimism and even cautious me is doing his best to suppress any such doubts.
I’m drooling at the thought of 30,000 season tickets meaning near sell-out crowds with the entertaining, attacking footy that Dean Smith has promised us and demonstrated previously.
It’s going to be entertaining, just like it was in the seventies and eighties, whatever happens and that’s a good thing.
Anyway, the reason for the post is that I’ve seen an article that suggests Kalvin Phillips has been offered a package from Villa that will increase his wages from his current £10,000 a week to £60,000 a week over five years.
Now obviously that’s a big jump, but let’s really put that into perspective.
The difference is £2.5 million, as opposed to £15 million over that five years.
Of course, Leeds are doing their best to hold on to him, but the same article suggests they can’t match the £40,000 a week that they pay their highest paid players.
So if we guess they’re offering him £30,000 a week, he’ll still seemingly double his wages if he comes to us.
In fairness, it seems Phillips really wants to stay at his club and that’s admirable.
But hands up, who could resist doubling their wages in what might prove to be a short term career?
Of course, most of us would be happy with the £10k a week, which would set us up for life, in the first place.
But money is a strange thing.
I remember my first payrise that took me from £24 a week to £29 a week and thought it was a massive boost.
Then realised that the £29 rising to £37 seemed not so good a jump. Then the £37 rising to £49 seeming even smaller.
And…. well, you get the idea.
When you’re already earning decent money, it takes a bigger rise to impress you, I’ve found.
Hence while £40,000 a week and feeling the love at Leeds would probably satisfy Phillips, that £60,000 is going to prove pretty irresistable.
At least Phillips is continuing to do his job and train as he’s contracted/paid too.
As opposed to Marvelous Nakamba, who’s supposedly gone AWOL at FC Brugge and refuses to train, which is absolutely disgraceful in my opinion.
Ok, register your disdain at a club that is seemingly holding you back from probably a similar increase in wages, but you should at least turn up to do the work that you’re being paid for.
Don’t get me wrong, his actions will result in us getting the player at a cheaper price than Brugge want and that’s good for us.
But I do feel some sympathy for the Belgian club and Nakamba really ought to be playing the game that the club want him too, in hiding his feelings, to maximise Brugge’s leverage.
He signed a contract, after all.
But I guess that’s how the Premier league gulf can affect people.
It’s not the first time this sort of thing has happened, but I still don’t like it.
Dean Smith or at least someone at the club must really rate Nakamba, because signing him seems to go against all that Smith has told us about the type of player he wants.
He’ll certainly have to prove himself as a really good player before I’ll be referring to him as “Marvelous”.
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130 responses to “The Premier league gulf”
BREAKING NEWS
Aston Villa have announced that John McGinn has signed a new five-year contract with the club.
Villa CEO Christian Purslow said: “We are delighted to secure John’s services for the long term at Aston Villa.
“He is the type of player Dean Smith and our ownership group want to build our Club around: young, determined, athletic, technically-gifted and passionate about winning.”
McGinn added: “I have loved every minute of my time at Aston Villa and I am delighted to commit myself to the Club for the long term.”
I think thats one of the best signings this summer yet!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Well the idea that our club is going places has just been given the stamp of approval by Super John himself!
Great, great news.
Been sitting with Villa fans on ship and boy are they excited in getting home Saturday to see the game. I lay a bet we will be the first off Saturday. Been proudly wearing the new shirt, at £80 getting my money worth. Been able to keep up with the news as sky in sports bar and cabin. At sea for two days home soon and back on forum after the game.
Badger. In moderation. Bill.
Hi Bill – hope you had a good cruise mate – welcome home. I would love to watch Saturday’s game but will be travelling back from London (might be able to join in a few beers with Villa fans before the game). Will try and get the match on SkyGo on the train but not confident.
I really don’t understand Spurs. They might be losing Erikson and they’re going for three players – Sessegnon, Dybala and Lo Celso.
Both Sessegnon and Dybala have not played regularly for their teams. I watched Fulham play quite a few games last season and Sessegnon always seemed to be coming on in the 70th minute when the team was already behind. If he’s that good why didn’t he play the whole game? The same can be said of Dybala another super-sub who’s being ditched by Juve because he’s been poor. Lo Celso is a decent player but he’s not worth £55 million.
Anyway the good news for Villa is it’s unlikely that any of these will play Saturday because, as usual, Spurs are leaving it to the very last minute. Hopefully Erikson will either be wearing the white of Real Madrid or he’ll be totally pissed at not getting the move he’s been after for quite some time.
Fancy us even more on Saturday now.
According to the Guardian the deal with Dybala is off.
Is Erikson going to be pissed or what?
Dean Smith has just said that the transfer window is closed for Villa, no more incomings for us then. No doubt it’s been a great window but I would’ve liked to have seen another striker, especially Maupay, can’t believe that we let Brighton beat us to him, that’s if we were ever in for him in the first place.
according to the BBC – “Aston Villa and Birkir Bjarnason have mutually agreed to the termination of his contract.
The Icelandic international made 54 appearances and scored six goals after joining from FC Basel in January 2017”
Thanks Thor
.
OK, the dust has settled and we’re in the calm before the storm.
Dean Smith has stated he’s happy with his squad and, it would be parsimonious to criticise our activity in the transfer window BUT …….
Statistics – love them or loathe them we’ve inherited the American fascination with them – and the one that concerns me is that we’ve lost 44% of our goal scorers from last season – which is one of the highest in the Prem (Newcastle at 62% tops the lot).
Wesley is not a prolific goal scorer but has good stats on hold up play and setting up other players.
Hogan has gone so our back up at CF is Kodjia and Davis.
I hope I’m wrong but this may be our Achilles heel requiring further substantial investment in January which is always expensive and risky.
Thoughts?
Thoughts?
I’m seriously concerned.
I’ll expand tomorrow, with a transfer sum up and preview.
Also concerned – concerned that we let Green go without a replacement even though he wasn’t setting the world alight, I thought he’d get some game time and be a good sub.
I was also concerned we didn’t bring in a replacement for Hogan, or rather an improvement on him. At this point, I kinda feel like we might see Sturridge on a short-term contract. I’m not 100% against it but I think all the other investment could be undone in the absence of a really solid strike force (which I think we’ve taken the biggest risks over). Quite why we spent money on 5 centre backs and didn’t reserve money for another even cheaper young prospect like the Leipzig French guy, I don’t know.
I think before we get critical let’s see exactly what team Dean puts out and how they play. Just had a quick look at the Wolves top scorers last season and, although Jimenez at CF was their top scorer, big contributions were made by a winger, a full back and two mid-fielders.
I see the same hopefully happening with the Villa. Before we cry doom and gloom let’s see how Dean sets the team up and where the goals come from.
I’ve got a feeling that we might all be pleasantly surprised.
Not in doom and gloom mode Pat and I accept that we have goal scorers all around the pitch. If we create good chances then Kodjia playing a traditional cf role may well be able to knock in 15 goals or so. I guess that’s Smith’s thinking.
Yes Pat we could be surprised. Thought I read when Dean took over that he liked to spread things all around the team…lets hope all the team manage to score a few each….especially the defenders at free kicks and corners.
I think it’s interesting to compare the signings of the three promoted clubs. They are –
VILLA (13 players) – Tyrone Mings Bournemouth, £26.5m; Wesley Moraes Club Brugge, £22m; Douglas Luiz Manchester City, £15m; Matt Targett Southampton, £14m; Ezri Konsa Brentford, £12m; Marvelous Nakamba Club Brugge, £11m; Björn Engels Reims, £9m; Trezeguet Kasimpasa, £8.8m; Tom Heaton Burnley, £8m; Anwar El Ghazi Lille, £8m; Frédéric Guilbert Caen, £5m; Jota Birmingham, £4m; Kortney Hause Wolves, £3m.
NORWICH (11 players) – Sam Byram West Ham, £750k; Aidan Fitzpatrick Patrick Thistle, £350k; Patrick Roberts Manchester City, loan; Daniel Adshead Rochdale, undiscl;Josip Drmic Borussia Mönchengladbach, free; Archie Mair Abderden, undiscl; Rob Nizet Anderlecht, undiscl; Rocky Bushiri Oostende, undiscl; Ralf Fährmann Schalke, loan; Charlie Gilmour Arsenal, free; Ibrahim Amadou Sevilla, loan.
SHEFFIELD UTD (10 players) – Oli McBurnie Swansea, £18m; Lys Mousset Bournemouth, £10m; Callum Robinson Preston, £8m; Luke Freeman QPR, 5m; Ben Osborn Nottm Forest £3.5m; Phil Jagielka Everton, free; Ravel Morrison free; Michael Verrips Mechelen, free; Dean Henderson Manchester United, loan; Mo Besic Everton, loan.
So they’ve all got ten or more new players in but the striking difference is that Villa have no loanees or frees and, being honest, I wouldn’t swap one of ours for any of theirs.
It’s interesting how the media have focused on Villa making 12 signings suggesting we’re doing a Fulham whilst completely overlooking the number of signings made by Norwich / Sheffield – going further to suggest they have retained the core of the promoted teams whilst we have not.
In reality the media have simply jumped on the amount we’ve spent and spun a story around it!
So what’s new?
Happy Saturday.
Villa are a top club from a big city and have history. Sheffield make knives for people in Norwich to cook with
After having time to reflect on a manic transfer window, I am delighted with the signings we have made. Yes ideally I would have been happier with another striker but Davis and Kodja could come good when called upon. I actually think the premier league might suit Kodja more than the championship. Wesley hasn’t proven prolific in terms of goalscoring but he has attributes that will benefit El Ghazi, Trezeguet and Jota especially. Most of the successful teams don’t rely mainly on a number 9 these days. Goals need to be spread amongst the team and we have shown in pre season that this looks like the way we have set up.
On to tomorrow and I will be delighted with a draw because we are playing one of the best teams in the premier league on their own patch. I will keep things in perspective and assume we are in for a tough season, battling to survive and anything else will be a bonus.
No disrespect intended but I hope we haven’t spent £150m to finish 17th otherwise we might as well have stayed in the Championship and spent the money on reduced admissions.
Whether it needs a few games to make the side gel remains to be seen but I am expecting a top-half finish from this squad.
For all their potential Spurs can be quite fallible at home as we saw a few times last season so whilst I’m not banking on a win for us I certainly don’t rule it out.
Here’s to a happy Saturday evening.
I kind of agree but, if I’m being honest, if you offered me 17th right now I’d bite your hand off.
I think we’re going to be okay too but there’s a big space between ‘thinking’ and ‘knowing’. I’d guess that ten to twelve games in we should have a better idea.
It’s been a tremendous window. The board have demonstrated throughout that they won’t be held to ransom and leave it when the price isn’t right. Mings was the exception for sentimental reasons. Clearly, this was the case with Benrahma. To be honest, when Trezeguet came in, I assumed that deal was dead; I expect he’ll be a Villa player by next summer.
As for the striker, yes, it would’ve been the cherry on the icing on the cake. But it wasn’t to be this summer. We must remember that ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day.’ The squad is almost complete for the next 3-5 years. If we can add a striker next summer, then it’s pretty much done.
I expect Green will be recalled in January. We can manage without until then and the game time will benefit him and us more than a few cameos from the bench. We are capable of top 10. I’d take a draw tomorrow with the intent to win. Good times ahead!
UTV!
P.s.thanks to the board and DS for the hard work over the summer. We averaged a signing a week. That’s good going!
Norwich being punished at Anfield although they are playing well going forward. Defensively they are poor though.
Worth noting that they have stuck with their Championship side. They could let in three and score four in the Championship but you won’t get away with that in the Prem.
Pat, this is the concern I have about tomorrow. There is a huge gulf between top six and rest of premier league. Fact is we will have to be defensively perfect and hope we can create a few chances to get a result against Spurs. Only Heaton has proved his worth in the top flight. As for the rest I hope they knit together quickly and step up.
We are not Norwich. They don’t know whether to stick or twist, defend or attack and they’ve ended up doing neither. Naive is not the word. I’m certain that Dean’s game plan will be clear to everyone.
I’m not saying that we’ll win but that gulf is not that big for a team that does it the right way, just ask Wolves.
Wolves were exceptional last season but were still 9 points behind one of the poorest Man Ure teams since the premier league began. Maybe we can replicate Wolves in terms of league finish but I doubt it if I’m honest with myself. I hope Villa fans continue to back Dean Smith even if we don’t start the season like we hope.
I sincerely hope that the team aren’t as flaky as some of their fans have obviously become. We are Villa and we will show our worth this season.
Norwich are poor and, apart from Pukki, they don’t have a single player that could be called a Prem player.
Have faith, we have the players, we have the manager, we have the owners – we will succeed.
Well not much evidence of ‘the gulf’ in the second half. Norwich were the better team.
Giving an own goal away early on was Norwich’s death sentence and i don’t think that the team was clear whether they were all out attack or something else. Their defence was appalling first half.
I’m not saying that we’ll do any better at Anfield but I honestly think that, on tonight’s showing, Liverpool are vulnerable.
We’ll see what happens tomorrow but I’m convinced that we’ll put a better performance in than Norwich did tonight.
Dr Xia is no more – well no more part of AVFC that is.
Under the deal with Lerner, Villa gaining promotion within three years of the sale triggered an additional £30m payment which Xia couldn’t honour so the debt fell on the Club. Our owners have settled the debt in return for which Xia has relinquished his remaining shares.
According to the BBC Sawiris / Edens have invested £200m to stabilise the Villa, avoiding administration and FFP in the process.
We owe them a massive debt of gratitude which I am sure the fans will start to repay by getting 100% behind the team and the Club over the coming season.
30,000 season tickets is not a bad start.
UTV