04 Aug 2011 16:28:12
The Derby result shows how poor squad depth is right now...i believe this is a reason why mcleish has now said that he wants to strengthen the following ways in these areas:
Goalkeeper: No change.
Defence: A rb and a cb are important to get, personally i think that hutton and upson will be signed. We won't splash out on an expensive cb, although bassong could be a good option for us. Combined 8 million bid for Hutton and Bassong could be given to spurs.
Midfield: This is the most concerning area, bannan and albrighton do have great potential, but they're not starters just yet. Depending on the formation we will play plans could change. Regardless of the formation though we need a new winger and a central midfielder, one at least. On the wings i reckon it will be bentley or wright phillips, they can be got at quite cheaply. Bentley would be my choice, excellent crosses for bent to latch onto. In the center of midfield i would like to go for barton...but i think arsenal or someone like that is more likely for him. So Hleb on loan or Milner on loan would be good. Hleb especially as he can link the play, collect it from the defense and play it forward.
Strikers: Heskey, Delfounesou, Weiman and Agbonlahor will not get 20 goals between them this season. Heskey and Agbonlahor need to be used more carefully, either to hold up play, or play in behing teams in agbonlahors case. A striker does seem a priority in my opinion. Ideally Rodallega would be the man, but Wigan won't let him leave so soon after N'Zogbia. So another Spurs player, Robbie Keane for about £3,000,000 will be brought in by McLeish, his finishing is top class - he's a player that could get us 15 a season, put that with bent and we've got potential.
Starting Line Up:
Given, Hutton, Collins, Dunne, Warnock, Bentley, Makoun, Hleb, N'Zogbia, Bent, Keane...or without keane stick petrov/delph into central midfield for a 4-5-1 / 4-3-3
Total spending including N'Zogba and Given: 25,000,000
Total Income received: 36,000,000...if a profit of 9 million can't balance the books then nothing can.
What do you guys think?
EJ
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All the above players have one quality, they are consistent in the Premier League, consistently rubbish, that is why they are available.
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Run of the mill players that have run out of the mill and into mid level transfer fodder.
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Thats all we can manage at the moment, they're better than the rabble that w have right now
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Agree with the guy above id rather have defoe up front than the two donkeys we have in delfouneso and heskey. Also swp would be a great replacement for downing cos although albrighton is a good player he aint fully there yet in my opinion
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SWP going to Sunderland. Way too many rumours for it to be made up
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04 Aug 2011 14:31:53
we can now expect new faces at villa before the end of the transfer widow as it seems that McLeish has now had chnce to assess the squod and realizes we need more strengh in attack and defence.
When Eck said we needed to strengthen he meant put more senior players in the starting line up for the start of the derby match. Been taken out of context, it's unlikely we will do anymore business. Not impossible just unlikely.
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He said we need and will bring new signings in....or am i hearing things
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04 Aug 2011 10:46:53
Derby result last night just proves that our lack of quality in depth and the need to strengthen the squad. The youngsters need more time to mature and the likes of Beye, Guzan and Ireland don't appear to be delivering the goods. Come on AM let's see some more signings to ensure we aren't left wanting in case of injuries etc
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Completely agree with you mate. Terribly poor against derby. I dread to think if the likes of collins, bent, nzogbia get injured. I mean Bannan and albrighton show promise don't get me wrong but the rest of our bench is crap tbh i mean delfouneso , do me a favor, i watched him squander 3 chances at walsall one of which being an open goal. Heskey - well the less said about him the better. Then we got ireland makoun clark herd beye - and the less said about them the better
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Habib beye he's really sh*t, 40 grand a week, he's lovin it
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04 Aug 2011 10:03:16
How is it possible to lose to derby. I mean come on its pathetic. Yes but we play our reserves i hear you cry. Load of crap tbf. We played bent ireland makoun albrighton also and these are players who are bound to start premier league games. Yes it cant be put on the shoulders of 4 players to get a result but in all fairness we just don't cut it anymore. Bent is a good player but performs indiferently each game. Albrighton shows promise but wont ever replace young and downing. Makoun was useless when we sign him and he still is and ireland just don't look interested. I spy bad times ahead to be honest with you. I mean who will he be able to sign if we are losing our pre season games. We have not got the ability to attract decent players anymore. All this talk about milner on loan, itll never happen. City are in the champions league and for all he may not start in the league he moved to city because of trophies and he will play a bit part in the champions league. Also the other rumours wont happen either for instance samba is wanted by spurs, defoe wouldnt come and we wont pay the fee for him, wright phillips wont happen as he has been promising in pre season, sturridge on loan wont cos he want to fight for his place. All the players we are linked with i could give you a reason why it will never happen and also the main reason is that Mcleish will be getting no money of lerner. How many times has it been said that this is the case so if i was you id get ready for another crap season where we fail to impress or maybe even another relegation fight. By the way im not blaming this on the manager. I mean i was at odds when mcleish was first taken on but like many fans ive learned to live with the fact that our manager aint so great.
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Wow what an essay lol. I agree with many of your points fella i really do but to be honest you are being a bit defeatist. I don't reckon we will be fighting off relegation (unless top players get injured then i dread to think whatll happen). I completely agree that no sigings will be made tho as mcleish has always said that there is no money.
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Mate shut up. Your just a negative fool. Yeah so what no more signings. Its ONE pre season game lost (well two if you count chelsea) and your acting like we are already down. Bore off
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Are all you idiots deaf? do you watch Sky sports? AM said signings are needed and there is always money. Why are you all so pesimistic about the coming season...IT WAS A FRIENDLY. We beat walsall this season and the two previous pre seasons games against them we lost....it means nothing. If you get this easily disapointed just don't bother...Ive been going to Villa Park since 1976 and have witnessed highs and lows...more lows recently but I will never moan and I will always be optimistic that this is our year. VTID
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Theres optimistic and then there is being naive. To be honest with you sky sports is one big lie factory that drums up stories and only when a transfer is a dead cert to happen it puts it on the breaking news strap. Also i think mcleishs words were taken out of context because he was simply reffering to bringing more experienced players into the line up for the braga game and not signing more players. Also yes it was a friendly but a friendly match is still a match that our bench players (bar darren bent) should have won. Beating walsall means nothing i (by the way we have beat them two years running now), because we put out the team we would to face man united against a lowly league 1 standard side (no disrespect). Also our defence conceded in that game and you only have to look what happened against chelsea to see the problems that we have. Yes by all means my friend be optimistic i admire you for thinking positively, BUT im talking plain fact and if this pre season is anything to go by all im saying is that we will struggle big time next season.
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