Following on from a dismal few weeks for the club, the debate over the summer transfer window is already under way, writes Villa blogger Gregg Williams.
Many believe that if we don’t spend substantial amounts on improving the squad, we will lose ground on those teams above us and lose any advantage gained on clubs following just behind us in the league.
General Krulak has been quoted as saying again that Randy will back the manager in the summer, but I feel that has always been the case.
Hopefully now that we have had a season averaging over 40,000 for home attendances there will be a feeling at the club that we can afford to gamble a little bit more knowing that the club is in an already strong position.
It will fall on Martin O’Neill’s shoulders to decide what needs to be done.
He has probably learnt more about his squad in the last month than the previous six, as he will have seen who stands up under pressure and who fails to perform.
It’s a given that we will sign a keeper, probably not Scott Carson.
I’m sure we will also sign a right back, or two, but the defence will also need strengthening further with the departure of Cahill and Mellberg.
We could also do with cover at left back, a creative midfielder, a right winger and a goal scoring striker.
That is eight players, some of which will have to be in the £5 million+ bracket to be of the required standard.
It remains to be seen whether or not we are capable as a club of bringing in that number of players in one summer, but by my reckoning we will have to do so if we are to perform better in the league and cup competitions next year.
On Saturday we face Bolton, and some familiar faces.
I expect Gary Cahill will get a good reception from Villa fans, and my prediction is that he will have a good game, perhaps even accompanied by some ironic cheers of ’sign him up’ from the Holte Enders who feel he should never have been sold.
It would be typical if he scored as well. I’m going to sound like a broken record if I say this is a must win game, and to be honest that would be stating the obvious, so instead I will just say I really hope that we’ve reached the end of our dismal run and can begin our turnaround in style this weekend.
The excuse of a small squad has become boring now and quite frankly the players available are more than capable now of beating the likes of Bolton, if they perform to their best ability.
I guess that’s what we’ll be looking for at Villa Park on Saturday.
Villa fans have your say below
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4 Comments
The problem now for Villa is that they don’t simply need eight players; they need eight QUALITY players, players capable of walking straight into the first team and strenthening it.
The club has enough “squaddies” of the Knight/Routledge variety, and enough “ones for the future”. Whether Martin O’Neill can attract the right players, taking into account factors such as Birmingham location and the club’s wage structure, remains to be seen. Given his transfer record so far, which in my opinion is utterly indifferent,I have my doubts. Could be another frustrating window ahead, and another mid-table season to follow. Hope I’m wrong!!
Considering the fact that Martin for whatever reason, loves his squads to be mostly British.
We are going to need………….. get ready for this……………….£60m……….. to take the next stage in Villa’s evolution.
Lose 4 foreigner players and they are
Mellberg (done his time)
Berger (past it)
Petrov (not good enough)
Salifou (invisible)
And replace them with 4 Portugese players, players who can work together and adapt (you know how hard it is for players to settle in other countries)
Felipe Joao Moutinho (right side)
Miguel Luis Pinto Veloso (anchor man)
Vitorino Antunes (left back)
Marcos Augusto Tomar Nelson (right back)
That is 4 foreigners out and 4 foreigners in.
That lot will cost around £33m. You have to invest to save, simple economics
As Martin likes his English players I would buy
Ben Foster - Better than Carson
Dean Ashton - Better than Harewood or Carew
Nedhum Onuoha - Better than Knight. Come to think of it, who isn’t?
The British Boys would cost around £16m
That leaves £11m and whatever we get from the sales of the ‘not good enough members of the squad’ to buy someone like James Milner or maybe another centre half. And with the small change we can buy the Scannell, Moses, Vokes, Ledley, Mattock etc from the lower leagues and loan them out to get experience but not to be first team players in a team seeking to make top 6.
As a slight amendment to the above, I may lose Moutinho and Milner and buy the following
The Argentinan pair of Gonzalo Higuain and Fernando Gago from Real Madrid for a combined £18m.
Either way, anything less than £50m and we are talking MEDIOCRE yet again
Wow John, well done son, you’ve done your homework.
Great blog.
Are you sue your names not Juan Millerez or something? Just jokes. Seriously though, i agree 100% 50mil will keep us where we are and it will be up to the players and how they come together that takes us to the top 6 or 4. Unfortunately it will be more likely that we go for the less exciting and cheaper english option if any