February arrives at last, and Martin O’Neill has Fabio Capello to thank for deflecting attention away from our lack of transfer activity, towards a remarkable number of Villa players in the England squad, writes Villa blogger Gregg Williams.
To be honest I thought our English lads let themselves down a bit when Mr Capello visited Villa Park for two matches this month, but obviously he has watched a number of other games on TV and saw what we Villa fans have seen for a while, some seriously good English players at our club.
Congratulations to the lads selected.
I expect there will be some disappointment with our lack of additions to the squad.
Wayne Routledge is a no risk signing who will add balance to the squad.
Hopefully he will be inspired by the other lads who have made the step up from promising youngster to established Premier League player, and will get his career back on track.
Sure I wanted a right back and a striker as well, but there’s no sense in wasting money.
Of our direct competitors for Europe, I don’t think hat Liverpool, Everton, West Ham or Blackburn had added anything meaningful to their squads.
Man City and Portsmouth have signed strikers who may or may not have given us something, its impossible to say.
I still think we’ll make Europe, then we’ll be in a position of strength in the summer, able to bring in a higher class of player with many more options available to us.
Until then, we’ll just have to get back to the real business at hand, which is winning football matches.
As Olof Mellberg described it this week, we have 14 cup finals between now and the end of the season, and with a bit of luck we can definitely make the top six which would be a massive step in the right direction.
Villa fans what do you think? Have your say below
9 Comments
Have i missed something, did we sign a right back, our achillies heal, in the tranfer window that knowone knows about.
i think MON is a very clever manager, but it confounds me why we did not,from the beginning of the transfer window look with greater effort to get one.
we now have( even with the smallest squad )a balanced team other than the right back area.
Mellberg is with us until the end of the season, and no one will want to depart on a high more than him. Are there really that many right backs available at the moment who would have performed better than he has for us this season, even if he IS being played out of position?
The signing of Wayne Routledge is an inspired piece of business (especially when you take note of how much Sunderland paid for pie boy Andy Reid), and he will give us much needed balance to the team and a tricky, pacy outlet on the right wing. This should in turn help take a LOT of pressure off Ashley Young, as opposing teams will find it more difficult to concentrate on him as they have done in recent weeks.
14 games left, it’s down to the players we have to get us through those games and continue the good work they’ve done so far.
Do you not count Portsmouth as rivals for a European place??? I would certainly have liked Defoe and Diarra wouldn’t you???
If we get injuries which to this point we have avoided we will not qualify for Europe. Then where will be the masterplan to attract better players??? A V Poor performance. No wander the CEO walked.
Defoe is crap, really what has he done if he cant get a game for Spurs how is he going to go for us. We can get a much better striker at the end of the season for that price. Diarra wouldnt have been bad though we cant win them all . Hold tight lets see what happens , it will be interesting to see how soon Routledge gets a game one thing about it is he another young footballer. Builiding for the future is MON
Howard, i am with you on this one. WHY DID THE CEO Walk?? The master plan will fall flat on its face if we get even two injuries to our starting eleven in my opinion. Just imagine a midfield without Young or Barry, or our defence without Mellberg or Bouma?
As for your comments Dicko, if we can get a much better striker than defoe, then why didn’t we? We need someone who will score 15-20 goals a season, plain and simple! As well as the usual ramblings of a right back, As has already been said, we have Olaf doing a fantastic job in that position, until the end of the season, and he would love to leave on a high, that is never in doubt.
As for winning them all, it would be nice to be winning some of the transfers, not just one! Especially with more leaving the club after MON said he didn’t want to let anyone go from already small squad!
Fitzgerald (Former CEO) promised fans world class players. It seems clear to me that when it became apparent we were not able to deliver on such promises he decided to walk. Whether that is down to O Neill’s reluctance to spend money or the fact Lerner is not making the sort of money available we all thought he would I really don’t know but either way its a poor state of affairs and a real wasted opportunity to push on. I personally think Defoe was excatly the sort of player MON wanted, young, English and a goalscorer. Whenever he has been given a chance he has scored goals. He scored home and away against us didn’t he!
Howard, I did mention Portsmouth. Diarra wanted obscene money and said at his first press conference that he viewed Pompey as a stepping stone to a bigger club. Not what I want to see from a Villa player. As for Defoe, as I say, only time will tell if he’ll prove to be a success. If Portsmouth beat us to Europe with Defoe bagging a goal a game then I guess it will be viewed that Martin made a mistake.
We don’t know what’s happening behind the scenes at the club, but one look at the league table suggests we’re doing ok where it matters, on the pitch.
Gregg,
Firstly I think MON till now has done a fab job… The dross he inherited from DOL is still fresh in the mind. However he has acknowledged the squad is too small and that we have been very lucky to date with injuries therefore more of an effort should have been made to sort out that issue both last summer and in this window.
I don’t like the fact we are out bid by the likes of Portsmouth for players we clearly wanted and who would have improved the squad. Aston Villa is a far superior football club to Portsmouth in every sense from fan base to heritage to stadium. I do not believe Diarra would have made those comments about Villa when he saw the superb facilities. When you get to Fratton Park you think you are in the dark ages so I can sort of understand the guys comment! Quite a shock compared to the palatial Emirates!
Bottom line… They were two players who would have been excellent additions and we failed to land them. That is poor in my opinion.
Gregg, the thing with doing well on the pitch, it only lasts so long, injuries and suspensions will come and go, and probably when we least expect them, let alone want them, we need to build a squad capable of coping with that, then we can look at europe, in my opinion, we don’t have that, so of we don’t qualify for europe, that will be why, in my opinion, a little negative? yes, but thats how our transfer window dealings have been, negative, more out than in!