Hitchens60 has offered the following thoughts about incomings and outgoings at the club.
Cheers, Hitch.
Now that we’ve secured our immediate premiership future, thoughts turn to next season and the need to strengthen the squad; to bring in that bit of quality that we all recognise is missing.
Before looking at our playing squad, it’s also relevant to consider the management issues, particularly around our transfer strategy last summer – I’ll ignore the January dealings as it’s almost impossible to improve a squad at a sensible price during that window. We tried and, frankly, other than Reina we failed. Suso has gone and I reckon there will be few, if any, Villa supporters shedding tears; rather it’s good to see Purslow and the Villa owners recognising that he really didn’t contribute anything that couldn’t have been achieved by Smith.
Continuity has to be the new mantra at VP, so major changes should, if possible be avoided. Smith should stay and he’s earned that. Whether JT stays I suspect may be down to two factors – does Smith trust him or does he want to move on to management – time will answer those questions. I’ve no doubt we’ll appoint a new DoF but Smith should be directly involved in the choice and his (DoF’s) role needs to be clearly defined. Smith must have the major say in transfers.
Turning to the squad the challenge will be improving it without major surgery – so again continuity is the key. The squad is relatively small which should help in that regard. But, before thinking who should go it’s important that we keep our better players albeit large fees may be tempting for the owners. As I see it, we do need to keep Mings, Grealish, McGinn, Luiz and Konsa in particular.
Who should go – well Drinkwater and Reina are on loan and should return to their clubs (Baston has already departed). However, it would be interesting to get views on Reina returning next season as GK cover assuming we could get him on another loan.
From the current squad – who should go?
Goalkeepers – Nyland and Kalinic but that then leaves us with only two senior GK’s (Heaton and Steer) with uncertainty over the fitness of both – hence my question above regarding Reina or do we splash out on a new keeper – such as Ben Foster from Watford?
Defenders – recognising that we need squad players I am only advocating Engels as a definite. But what about Elmo, Hause, Targett and Taylor? Given that we don’t want to make wholesale changes will age become a deciding factor or should EPL experience be the driver? And what about the forgotten right back James Bree? Chester it seems has been released.
Midfielders – Jota and Lansbury are definite for me. Nakamba I think will be retained as a squad player. Then there’s El Ghazi and Trezeguet – both of whom seem to blow hot and cold. Trezeguet has 7 goals (as does Hourihane) and El Ghazi has 7 assists each of which is second only to Grealish (10 goals and 8 assists) in stats – I can see one of the two moving on particularly given Andre Green to come back from loan. Hourihane is the marmite midfielder but with 7 goals and 7 assists would you keep him?
Forwards seem a little more straightforward – Hogan and Samatta should move on although I could see the latter staying – even though he doesn’t look Premier quality – as I suspect he’s not on a big wage. I see Davis having real potential and would retain him – there was a significant improvement when he replaced Samatta on Sunday.
I started by saying continuity should be the way forward but how do we improve the squad and avoid major surgery? However one looks at it, we are going to need at least five or six new players – let’s hope the owners have deep pockets and we don’t have to fund transfers by selling any of our better players.
I’ll leave it to others with more knowledge than me, to suggest who our targets should be.
Howe leaves Bournemouth, it was expected.
What do people think of origi from Liverpool?I personally would rather Abraham maybe both would be nice 😂
And get the Brentford winger too with a solid midfielder I think we should be a mid table team next season.
Let’s build on this team with quality now.utv
Abraham and Benrahma for me – now that would be a statement of intent and would fit with Villa’s buying younger players – but, boy, they would cost a few Bob even if they were available.
A double swoop for Watkins and Benrahma especially if Brentford don’t get promoted would be great. They already have an understanding. I’m not convinced that Origi is much of an improvement on what we have already. There isn’t too long before new season starts so hopefully deals will be done quickly. Possibly there will be outgoings first such as Lansbury and Hogan.
Errm, Ex-Villa ace bags seven-goal haul
Rushian Hepburn-Murphy raised eyebrows earlier in July following the expiration of his Aston Villa contract – by completing a move to Cypriot league side Pafos FC.
Now, he’s raising eyebrows for a different reason after scoring SEVEN goals in a 9-0 victory
Bill, we make these comparisons but are they relevant?
I hadn’t realised we’d allowed his contract to expire – must assume that Smith saw no future for him as it seems Davis, Vassilev and now Barry are ahead of him.
Personally, never been convinced and spent most of his time injured – having said that, unless Davis gains confidence in front of goal, I can’t see him staying albeit I think he has talent.
Hitch. We never seen his talent but we read about it, I don’t believe he wasn’t good enough I think we have thrown away another decent player again. I’ve read in the paper’s about him and like Grealish, Murphy was in the cup winning side of young hopefuls, we only have one from that academy brought through and bought crap from abroad and has been players. Hitch i only hope Smith knows what hes doing, remember he dose’nt see he only gets told.
So decent he’s ended up in the Cypriot league, Bill?
I’d guess that’s about league 1 level at best.
It’s just another case of the Villa massively over-hyping our kids imo.
My point exactly Badger
Whilst a number of our former academy players have done OK in Championship and below, which young player apart from Cahill that we have released / undersold, should we, in hindsight, have retained?
Albrighton springs to mind.
But, yes, point definitely taken.
Spot on – forgot Albrighton.
Bill – you’re point on developing young talent is reflected in this article from Brum Mail. At least we seem to be moving in the right direction – finally
https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-carney-chukwuemeka-liverpool-18671981
Pressure of success and in our current state, premier league survival is the main reason why the vast majority of young players don’t get given opportunities or most importantly, time to become first team players. Davis has had game time and shows potential but he hasn’t had 8-10 consecutive games to really make a difference. I don’t expect Vassilev or Barry to be given an opportunity to become first team regulars. New players will be signed and they will be pushed further down the pecking order. It’s just the way it is unfortunately. Grealish is one of the very few who has been successful since the dawn of the premier league. Whether the likes of O’Hare and Hepburn Murphy come back to haunt us, we’ll just have to wait and see.
According to the Brum Mail – Smith has £100m to spend plus anything accrued from sales and is targeting 4 players – top of the list is Benrahma.
Even if Brentford are promoted can they resist the lure of the mighty Villa 🙂
Only time will tell.
On a slightly different note, I see Eddie Howe is going to take a bit of time off before getting back in the saddle.
He should be well rested and ready when mid season sacking time comes round.
Food for thought, perhaps?
Full of confidence then Badger 🙂 🙂
🙂
I’m just like a little cub scout and thinking about it like the club ought to be.
It’s also our motto;
Prepared.
I’m just thinking that if things don’t go well, it could be good timing, given that I think if things are not looking reasonable come late Oct/Nov Smith will be gone.
As for confidence, what’s that then? 🙂
No idea mate – but they’re always quoting it (or lack of it) as being a prime factor in the movement of investments! Been trying to find out what it is for years! 🙂
I may be alone in thinking this, but i think if we were to get around 70 – 80 million for Grealish then it would be a deal that would suit both parties.
I think for Grealish or Villa to flourish he needs better players around him, as it stands, he slows the play down way too much, and that is because all of the play goes through him, i can’t help but feel this gives the opposing defence way too much time to compose themselves, which leaves a lone striker marked out of the game way too easily.
McGinn and Mings are going nowhere, simply because i can’t see any bigger club than us wanting them. I like McGinn, i really do, but i can’t see him walking into the first team of the top 8, the only clubs i could see going in for him would be the likes of Newcastle who i doubt he would leave us for.
Mings makes far too many mistakes, he would need a solid season minus the constant errors before i would take any transfer talk seriously.
To be honest i can see none of them leaving this summer, but if any were to go it would be Grealish. If we were able to re-invest those funds and get Behnrama/Sarr and Wilson or another decent striker, i’d be happy with that.
We should be in for Fraser on a free too, absolute no brainer.
I personally would love to see Godfrey and Buendia from Norwich too.
As for Howe, i think this will be another case of missing the decent manager boat, I think Smith deserves the chance to continue as manager for now as the turnaround towards the end of the season shows promise, however, i feel he will be sacked by xmas by which time i think Howe will be in another job.
One thing is for sure, we have to be smart in this window, we cannot afford another season like this year.
I know what you mean about Grealish.
Him slowing things down only became apparent to me recently and I think it has more to do with the way we play and we’re just basically too slow at getting forward because we’re often way too deep.
Hence Grealish can’t instinctively know where the players are to pass to because, well, they’re not there!
He struck me as much more ambitious in his play earlier in the season and I think it’s why he’s shown more hesitancy in shooting of late, too.
The odds of anyone being there for a rebound/fumble or whatever are tiny.
So yes, he needs better players around him, who won’t be under the cosh so much and will get forward quicker.
Which is where Lange and Smith come in.
Of course, you then have to mix in how Jack feels about it all.
I personally don’t think one or two decent players will be enough for him to be confident.
I agree about McGinn, his injury has set him back big time and taken everyone’s eye off him. I suspect that’s a good thing for us.
Totally agree about Mings too. I just find it impossible to regard a central defender highly when he makes as many mistakes as Mings does.
I do get it with him. Good shouter, breeds confidence, great shot stopper and body on the line and all that.
But his errors are laughable.
When he gets that out of his game, he’ll be proper quality.
The Howe thing was a bit tongue in cheek, tbh.
But again, a lot depends what happens in the new season.
If I’m thinking about Howe as a possible replacement, the club certainly ought to be too. Or if not him, they should be open to the possibility that things might not go too well.
There would be nothing to stop the club sounding Howe out, just to see if he’d be open to the possibility of coming to us, even if he might have to wait a while.
He’s a decent young English manager though, so I’m sure he’d be in demand.
And I think Villa would be a very good fit for him.
Of course, I’d much rather we saw Smith doing really well, so we wouldn’t even have to think about it!
I must disagree with everyone wanting Howe as manager remember he’s just been relegated with Bournemouth. Over the 5years in the premier League they conceded over 55goals per season.
So what makes him better than Smith who at least tighten up defence by the end.
And I think he has learnt something about himself and his team now.
Give him a few years in charge,look at Sheffield United and definitely Burnley by sticking with the manager.
If Man utd had panicked all those years ago then Ferguson would not have made history.
Villa stuck with Saunders look what happened and if he’d stayed we may have become like Man utd or Liverpool at the time.
Let’s see some stability and stop looking for new management.
Get behind the club stop moaning we don’t want to go back to the 60s and div 3 with money trouble.
Although I did ok with the£10 I spent back then helping the club 😂
Roy, he’s kept a club with some of the smallest resources ever to enter the Prem in there for 5 years.
That’s exactly why he’s so highly rated and tbf, it makes him a lot more qualified than Dean Smith.
I’d be interested to see how much Howe has spent in his time at Bourenmouth, but I’d bet it’s not far in front of what we’ve spent in the last two seasons.
As for Dyche at Burnley, there’s been plenty of talk about his position lately.
Don’t get me wrong. I don’t want us to keep changing managers and am all in favour of continuity.
But I just think if we did have to sack Smith, Howe would definitely be near the top of many a Villa fan’s list.
Actually Roy, I was genuinely interested and here’s what I found;
http://www.transferleague.co.uk/bournemouth/english-football-teams/bournemouth-transfers
Bournemouth actually net spent £133 million in the last five seasons.
That’s less than we spent last season.
That’s why he’s so highly rated.
Any owners would be drooling over that sort of performance.
Imagine how much money they would have had coming in from Sky etc in that time.
He’s made some excellent signings that Bournemouth will profit from but his last two high value transfers – Solanke and Ibe – £34m from Liverpool have delivered precisely nothing between them – so can he do it at a ‘big’ club with high value players?
That’s not to take away getting Bournemouth into the Prem and keeping them there for 5 seasons – very much a Wilder type story bringing them through the leagues and managing on a shoe string. Sheff Untd. of course have much larger resources.
Notwithstanding, I’m sure he’ll get offers, but I wouldn’t be surprised to see him drop down to the Championship.
And on that note beware the Origi story – Liverpool rarely, if ever, sell their good players to EPL rivals. Yet another Belgian striker – no thank you.
I’d steer clear of Origi too, you are right, why would Liverpool sell anybody worth keeping?
And i think we’d pay way more than Liverpool did for him which would mean a nice profit for them and i can’t see him doing as well for us, it has Baros and Collymore written all over it.
Also, with the service their strikers get it’s no wonder he scores goals for them when he does play, how will he feel about having to do more hold up play than he would at Anfield?
Essentially, no thanks.
Being said 8 million bid for Joe Lolley, bet that didn’t go down well . … they want more I bet.
In addition to Grealish – or to replace him?
Be a great addition to the squad and would £10m be too much? Now that Forest have missed out on promotion you’d think he’d be angling for a move.
He’s also a Villa supporter Hitch, yes would be nice that,
The more time I’ve had to consider Origi the more I don’t like it.
Professional or not, you have to wonder where his head would be at if he left a title winning team to join relegation battlers.
I also then wondered how many goals Davies would make if he was playing in a team with Mane, Salah and Firmino, Arnold And Robertson to name a few of the top of my head.
I think we are now on the right road but for a long ride now. 2/3 quality signing and nothing more.
I would feel comfortable with selling jack for good money and holding on to McGinn And Luis. Funny things happen to other players when the poster boy leaves. Suddenly a freedom can shine through for others to get some limelight. Out of the 4 last games if I had to pick our hottest player,Douglas wins hands down for me.
That said if Grealish does stay then it certainly comes with its merits.
So with that in mind 3 quality signings for me would be a goal keeper, a Right back or left back (depending on who is available) and of course a striker.
Yes it doesn’t solve all our problems but we are all sick of overhauls and I Know we want some proven quality at top level.
Players like Wesley, Engels and even younger players will still get an opportunity if we keep it simple and keep it quality. A season in the bag for our boys will also add some quality over all I hope.
It’s fascinating how everyone says we need a goalie, yet we’ve signed them for fun over the last few years and they’ve pretty much all been disastrous.
I agree, we need one. What I’m saying is, I hope we get it right for once.
It’s interesting that you’ve omitted a midfielder too.
I personally think we need two if you’re including a winger and three if Grealish goes.
It seems some forget how often Smith had absolutely no choice in who he picked in the middle and for a team to be comfortable, that is nowhere near good enough, imo.
A team that has no choice but to pick the likes of Hourihane, Taylor and El Ghazi etc will struggle.
I think while we don’t need to break the bank, we need improvements in most areas.
It wouldn’t be an overhaul as such. Only two or three would be swapped out from the starting eleven.
But we need serious competition all over the place and I don’t mean foreign unknowns such as we’ve already tried.
I don’t want much, do I? 🙂
Isn’t there a sort of consensus developing – assuming Grealish, McGinn, Luiz and Mings stay?
Midfield / wing improvements – Benrahma / Lolley – El Ghazi to depart. Green to return from loan. Do we need another DM?
Striker – priority – Abraham or Callum Wilson plus one? Hogan to go
GK – priority – Nyland, Kalinic to go – Reina on one year contract plus one? Heaton / Steer to stay.
Defence – less clear but for me we need another CH plus a RB. Bree and Elmo to go although I’m torn on the Elmo / Taylor debate. I would also let Engels go as I don’t think he’s up to EPL standards,
Our best U23’s to be pushed up into the first team squad and our brightest 16-18 year olds into the U23’s. Maybe even see players like Barry / Bridge on the bench for EPL games.
I understand the midfield/winger situation.
But that’s why I say a quality Right Back, who can provide some service for strikers from time to time and a new striker would surely allow Grealish and Trez to spend a little more time out wide and offer some creativity alongside chipping in with a few goals.
I’m not saying new midfielders wouldn’t be nice but if I had to spend 100 million, I would make them quality and when you consider a striker is on your list and a quality keeper at today’s prices, it doesn’t leave much change for a quality midfielder.
In theory Grealish, McGinn and Luis should make a pretty tidy midfield!
“In theory Grealish, McGinn and Luis should make a pretty tidy midfield!”
Agreed.
But it’s what’s behind that, that’s the problem.
If you look at our general consensus best eleven, it’s not far off, imo.
Not great, but better than 17th in the league.
But an injury or suspension or whatever and we struggle, as was proven for a lot of the season.
That’s where we need serious improvements, I’d say.
Taylor is not adequate backup for Targett (some might say even Targett isn’t good enough), El Ghazi and Trez should not be first choices ever, Nyland is rubbish and none of our strikers would be anything more than backup to a decent one as it stands.
That’s not to say that some of these players won’t improve, but we can’t rely on that and we need decent players from the off.
The more I think about it, the more I think just two or three players added will prove inadequate.
We need improvements all over.
Just my opinion 🙂
I think Guilbert has been great in a few games this season and don’t think a RB is a priority at all, if anything Targett has been more disappointing however i’d like to see some continuity in defence and persevere with them, I can’t see how constantly changing it is going to do us any favours.
I’d also take a look at Edouard who plays for Celtic as a serious option up front, and before anybody starts moaning about the Scottish League, Larsson and Dembele both went on to better things.
We need to focus on quality rather than quantity in the forward and wide areas. I’d rather spend big in those positions (i.e 30m-40m plus each on a forward and a winger) rather than bringing in two £15-20m strikers).
Edouard is a good shout, obviously if Abraham if he was gettable or Andrea Belotti with whom we’ve been linked with before.
i’d be looking at fullbacks as well. Particularly left back – Targett has been a very poor signing and defensively weak and slow. We need to be more ruthless as a club