Aston Villa 2015-16

Much change, much unknown.

In
Scott Sinclair, £2.5m
Micah Richards, free
Mark Bunn, free
Idrissa Gueye, £9m
Jordan Amavi, £10m
Jordan Ayew, £9m
Jose Angel Crespo, £500k
Jordan Veretout, £8m
Rudy Gestede, £6m
Joleon Lescott, £2m
Tiago Ilori, loan

Out
Christian Benteke, Liverpool, £32.5m
Fabian Delph, Man City, £8m
Andreas Weimann, Derby, £2.5m
Matthew Lowton, Burnley, £1m
Darren Bent, Derby, free
Shay Given, Stoke, free
Ron Vlaar, released
Aly Cissokho, Porto, loan
Callum Richardson, Bristol City, loan
Nathan Baker, Bristol City, loan
Joe Bennett, Bournemouth, loan
also released/terminated: Sylla, Luna, Helenius, Stevens, Burke, Tonev


Looks like we will very soon be adding Adebayor to the ins and possibly Jordan Veretout - goalscorers and centre mid are definitely the two areas in greatest need of improvement as squad stands. Don't know much of Gueye, Amavi, Ayew or Veretout - seem to be modelling on the approach of Newcastle in buying up players who've performed well in Ligue 1 and mostly early 20s - most likely acting as stepping stone club. Might be the best approach we have available, though it's definitely a step into the unknown with an inexperienced manager.

Goals are the main worry and I can see the sense in bringing in a proven player like Adebayor so there's not too much pressure on Ayew and other newbies who may take time to adapt.

I am surprised by Weimann leaving, looks like he should be a great transfer for Derby County and him alongside Bent will be a serious strikeforce in Championship.

I've checked and he had one year on his contract left, but this one still surprised me.

I also didn't see information about Vlaar being released, only about his newest injury.

Those first 3 on the outs list are massive losses really. Adebayor is a good signing if it comes off - he can lead the line, score goals and create space for Agbonlahor.

Going to be a difficult season for Villa after the honeymoon period of Sherwood.

I wonder if there will be a sustained media campaign against Villa for signing ligue 1 players. Why are you turning your back on English talent!?

stinger wrote:I am surprised by Weimann leaving, looks like he should be a great transfer for Derby County and him alongside Bent will be a serious strikeforce in Championship.

I've checked and he had one year on his contract left, but this one still surprised me.

I also didn't see information about Vlaar being released, only about his newest injury.

Weimann is kinda useful but also kinda not quite good enough to be starting in Premier League - goal tallies the last 3 seasons went 7...5...3 - needs to play regularly and become at least semi-consistent goalscorer if he's to make it in top flight as a Jonathan Walters type.

It was clear Sherwood didn't particularly rate him as he played very little in closing stages of season. needs a fresh start - should do well in Championship.

Vlaar is out of contract as of 1 July - think he turned down whatever offer we made, with a view to choosing somewhere else after surgery but then his surgery was much worse than expected and he's out for several months. I do wonder if we'll maybe do a 1 year pay-as-play kind of thing to allow him to recover from injury but either way he's likely not going to be playing for anyone till after Christmas

Kimbo wrote:I wonder if there will be a sustained media campaign against Villa for signing ligue 1 players. Why are you turning your back on English talent!?

if they do we can probably point to Young, Milner, Downing, Barry, Delph as to what happens when we have English talent..

Looks like you're getting Gestede - think he can be a good buy. Probably he doesn't have too much goals in his locker for Premier League, but should be a good foil for Agbonlahor. Price doesn't seem to be too bad either (6m pounds).

Veretout and Gestede both confirmed now

Sherwood is spreading risk when it comes to replacing Benteke's goals - Adebayor, Gestede, Ayew. Hopefully one of them will take on the job of putting ball in net!

Definitely gonna be a very new-look team. Already lost 5 players who started FA Cup final, and I imagine N'Zogbia will be the 6th as he's not been involved much pre-season.

Seems we're now signing some kid from Barcelona. Who do we think we are - Stoke?

2 defenders in and 2 defenders out on deadline day. Most were hoping for a striker but seems not. Squad ends up looking like this:

GK: Guzan, Bunn, Steer
RB: Hutton, Bacuna, Crespo
LB: Amavi, Richardson
CB: Richards, Clark, Lescott, Okore, Ilori, Senderos
CM: Gana, Westwood, Sanchez, Veretout, Gardner
AM/Wing: Grealish, Gil, Cole, Traore, Sinclair, N'Zogbia
FW: Ayew, Agbonlahor, Gestede, Kozak

I think Senderos will be shipped out/paid off, as we've got too many for 25 man squad.

Overall we've added creativity, pace & potential, but there's still a big question about who will score the goals. Sinclair has suddenly started scoring but we'll need others to chip in consistently - the centre forward spot is up for grabs for whoever can.

Of the new signings, Amavi and Gana both look real quality and Richards has slotted in well (hopefully Lescott can do likewise). Traore looks like he'll be a hell of an impact sub - pure pace & power - but maybe too much of a luxury to start. Veretout, Ayew and Gestede all look like they'll take a while to get up to speed.

Got various options we could try with formation/personnel and have yet to be able to play much of Gil/Grealish/Traore due to injuries, so it may be a matter of waiting till the right combo is found.

Told you Sherwood was utter dog turd Debbie.

Had to go really, looked a dead man walking on sidelines the last few matches and not winning since opening day is dreadful even by our standards of recent years.

Hard to see us surviving from this position but I guess it's early enough in season that we could turn it round as there are teams like Bournemouth and Norwich who look like they will stay in the mix for relegation & might be possible to pick off.

Not sure many of the players have belief in their ability to win matches though - so many occasions the last few years where we've thrown away points in the closing stages of matches.

Aston Villa, what a strange club. They are from a big city, big support, some history (European champs)...

Aston Villa should be like a Valencia / Atlético de Madrid / Sevilla / Dortmund / Schalke / Leverkusen / Roma / Fiorentina / Napoli...you get the idea. They should be very close to the powerful of the EPL.

Manchester City
Arsenal
Chelsea
Liverpool
club of the devil
Aston Villa

That's where Aston Villa should be, challenging the big dogs of the EPL with the occasional CL appearance.

Simply haven't put in the money to compete higher up the table with the way Premier League is these days. When the owner was investing heavily under O'Neill, Villa were challenging in that sort of position. But he's not a bottomless pit owner like Abramovich & he's basically stopped putting money in since MON quit - just seems to have a strategy of putting in just about enough to stand still but not enough to move forward.

Who is a bigger club.....Villa or Spurs?

Kloppo Koppo wrote:Who is a bigger club.....Villa or Spurs?

I'll ask you - who do you think is bigger?

Villa.

Kloppo Koppo wrote:Who is a bigger club.....Villa or Spurs?

Historically...Aston Villa, no doubt about it: European champions, more trophies won overall, big dog in their own big city.

Tottenham aren't even the big dog in their own block, Arsenal are.

Having said that, Spurs are the better team the last ten years only finishing below Villa in '07-'08 and '08-'09. TFS!

I have a soft spot for Villa because they remind me of my Perú. The difference is that Perú has shown signs of waking up and the future looks very bright, but when will Aston Villa wake up?

Tottenham are like Ecuador, done well recently, but won nothing never the less.

Both Perú and Aston Villa (IF well run) have the resources to cause some damage and their potential is great. On the other hand, Tottenham's ceiling is low. TFS!

Isco Benny wrote:

Kloppo Koppo wrote:Who is a bigger club.....Villa or Spurs?

I'll ask you - who do you think is bigger?

Well I would class Spurs as the bigger club now.

Interesting hot takes.

Villa do have historical pedigree for sure. If based solely on trophies won, they win:



That said, 8 of their titles came during the Victorian era (pre 1900), so not sure how many of their fans today still remember those glory days, given they'd be, um, all dead. Whereas Spurs' trophy haul came mostly after 1960.



If on average league position since what you'd class as somewhat the 'modern' era (ie when people today would still be alive), also presents a different perspective.



Eitherway, it's all pretty subjective. We haven't won much in the last 10 years (1 trophy), neither have they (none). The money in the game has made it much more difficult then ever to break the hierarchy (the year we finally finished 4th for the first time after numerous 5th finishes and pipping Man City on the final day was followed by the summer they went out and spent 200 million, including Aguero). That said, unquestionable really who is in the better shape right now to make some sort of impact. I like Villa, they are a historic club, alongside Newcastle for example both should be up there in the mix in the '2nd tier' with Spurs, but through gross mismanagement are more likely to get relegated. Shame, exposes how badly they've been run. With a structure like Southampton's for example, those 2 clubs would be well positioned to at least give the 'big boys' a fright given their support and prestige.

Like Puro said, Villa is a big club in their own big city, but then again, Spurs are a London team, so they have more future. Leeds-Newcastle-Spurs-Villa are all a bit the same though.

What about Everton?

And on Leeds....it's amazing that they haven't been in the DPL for what? Like 10 years now? When they went down I thought give it a few years at most and they will be a big DPL team again. But they have totally disappeared. They had a very strong team in the early noughties, of the top of my head Alan Smith, Bowyer, Ian Haart and a prime Viduka amongst others.

Even though Everton is more succesful then all the other pretenders, I always thought they were a tier below, I dunno why. More midtable then subtop. And hell I think before their take over City and Cheslea were lower then the likes of Spurs etc.

Anything pre-90s may aswell not count, football has changed irrevocably, what's the point in being called a big club when you have no chance of ever having success? I said it in the CL thread, there is an elite group of clubs that have become global brands through being successful at the right time, and the rest are just extras in their embarrassing little sitcom. We're there to be used as cannon fodder to hype up the brand clubs, or to be sold as an underdog story if we get something against them. It's not a situation I ever see changing. Aston Villa could be a well run club for the next 10 years and they would reach a ceiling of the Europa league. In my book there are 3 and a half big clubs in England, 3 that can win the biggest trophies out there and are actively trying to do that, and Arsenal who could win the biggest trophies but seem quite accepting of being an also ran, weirdest club in the league IMO.

Fey wrote:Like Puro said, Villa is a big club in their own big city, but then again, Spurs are a London team, so they have more future. Leeds-Newcastle-Spurs-Villa are all a bit the same though.

Birmingham City fans might not agree Villa are in their own big city.....

I'd agree historically they're all similar.

Right now though, I mean right now in 2015, they're pretty fucking different.

Whilst it's not exactly been a bed of roses and in no way would I be stupid enough to claim supporting Spurs has been a smooth ride to consistent success, relatively speaking we're bloody well off in comparison - we've averaged out a 5th place finish pretty much consistently for the past 10 years, been in 3 cup finals (winning 1), built arguably the best training facility in the country (England team train there now regularly before games at Wembley), an academy that is now fairly successful in PL terms, and will be playing in a new 61,000 seater stadium very soon.

Leeds in that time have been a championship club, lurching from one management mess to another. Haven't won a trophy since 91.

Newcastle have remained Mike Ashley'ed in mid-table or relegation threatened (including one relegation), bombing in the cups consistently. Haven't won a trophy since the 60's.

Villa had one decent season finishing 5th, otherwise disappointingly mid-table with a tight fisted American owner trying to desperately sell the club whilst battling relegation in the last 3 seasons consecutively. Haven't won a trophy since 95.

Scratch the surface beyond casual observation and the clubs really don't have much in common these days. We used to have an awesome Spurs V Newcastle rivalry on here and now it's pretty much non existent. There is a reason Arsenal have grown to pay us more attention in the past decade and why their players sing songs about us on Victory parades - because we finally started to become a relevant 'threat', albeit also deluded into a belief we were going to break through that CL glass ceiling. But that's only because we've got into that position regularly (as opposed to occasionally, as has been the case with the likes of Everton, Southampton, even Liverpool in recent years).

How are Liverpool not a big club? With our wealth we are possibly only 3 - 4 years away from being an established CL team challenging for the DPL title, and I am sure our history played a vital role in us being able to lure one of the best coaches in the world to manage us.

And if it weren't for our success in the 70's and 80's we wouldn't have the massive financial income we have today.

I put Spurs, Newcastle, Everton, Villa in roughly the same size/history bracket. Currently Spurs and Everton are much the better run and more consistent in the league, but ultimately they are all winning the same amount of trophies: 0. Hell, Villa came closer to winning FA Cup last year than Spurs have managed in 20+ years.

The trophies are split between Man Utd, Arsenal, Abramovich and Abu Dhabi. Spurs have 1 league cup to show for the past 15 years. Liverpool, unless they win something this year, have 1 league cup to show for the past 10 years. Sure, I'd rather be finishing 5th-7th each year than 15th-17th but those are operating in the same league while the top 4 are operating in a different one.

They are all around the same size, for me Leeds and Newcastle will always be bigger then Villa and Spurs, but that depends on the timeframe you get introduced I guess.

Its more interesting to see who has more of a future. Spurs has a big advantage compared to the other teams that come from rather declining cities. Perhaps Southampton can join this group as well in the near future.

Being a "big club" is fucking worthless and all talk of size and history is worthless.

Cheers

debaser wrote:I put Spurs, Newcastle, Everton, Villa in roughly the same size/history bracket. Currently Spurs and Everton are much the better run and more consistent in the league, but ultimately they are all winning the same amount of trophies: 0. Hell, Villa came closer to winning FA Cup last year than Spurs have managed in 20+ years.

The trophies are split between Man Utd, Arsenal, Abramovich and Abu Dhabi. Spurs have 1 league cup to show for the past 15 years. Liverpool, unless they win something this year, have 1 league cup to show for the past 10 years. Sure, I'd rather be finishing 5th-7th each year than 15th-17th but those are operating in the same league while the top 4 are operating in a different one.

Yeah I'd agree with that. As much as the CL run in 2010 was enjoyable, from a supporter perspective it really is about winning trophies, those are the best days and what it's all about when it comes to prestige. We've historically been a Cup side so it's ironic that even when we were absolute shite through most of the 90's for example we still won 2 Cups in 8 years (FA Cup in 91 and League Cup in 99). Compare that to 2005-2015 when we've probably had consistently the best Spurs side since the glory days of the 60s, but because of the power that the CL elite have nowadays we're on one of the driest trophy runs in our recent history.