Villa 'doing a Fulham' or not?

[southwest6]

 Seems to be doing the rounds these days. What do you chaps reckon?
Jota £2m
El Ghazi £8m
Wesley £22m
Hause  £3m
Targett £14m
Mings £20m
Konsa £12m
Engels £7m
Trezeguet  £9m

I personally think the only good signings they have made are Targett and Konsa. 20m for Mings is an absolute shocker too... Jota at 2 mil seems fair although he's not the same player he was at Brentford.

I'm unfamiliar with Engels, Trezeguet and Wesley. On paper they may be good players, although we know best as to how that one might turn out.

Will their season resemble ours or will the clubs early business be a saving grace?

[Andy S]

It could well do. In the prem you need to hit the ground running. I don't see any sign of that from those players listed and they have almost done a hundred mil.

[The Rational Fan]

Seems to be doing the rounds these days. What do you chaps reckon?
Jota £2m
El Ghazi £8m
Wesley £22m
Hause  £3m
Targett £14m
Mings £20m
Konsa £12m
Engels £7m
Trezeguet  £9m

I personally think the only good signings they have made are Targett and Konsa. 20m for Mings is an absolute shocker too... Jota at 2 mil seems fair although he's not the same player he was at Brentford.

I'm unfamiliar with Engels, Trezeguet and Wesley. On paper they may be good players, although we know best as to how that one might turn out.

Will their season resemble ours or will the clubs early business be a saving grace?

Doing business early would have gained us a few points, but let's not forget we got 11 points in the first half of the season and 15 points in the second half of the season. Aston Villa only got their players around 6 weeks earlier that surely not a enormous advantage although every point counts. If you think Targett will keep a team up remember he struggles to make another relegation battler.

[Riversider]

As I've said before on here on a previous thread, I like the business that Villa have done and think they have got every chance of staying up, all they need is one more point that either Burnley or Brighton get, Norwich and Sheffield United have already gone so just one place remains,
And FWIW I actually think that Tyrone Mings is a very good player, my concern for Villa is the loss of Abraham and Tuanzebe,  two good players that they will sorely miss,
If they sign Jack Butland and keep Mings fit then they stay up.

[Statto]

They're doing everything right that we did wrong:

Doing their business early

Making most of their loan players permanent

Most of their signings have experience of the English league.

They've even succeeded where we failed in signing Matt Targett FFS, as if just to show us how simple this transfers lark should be when you've got £100m to spend.

[FFC1987]

Think they'll struggle to be honest. None of those signings have blown me away or think they are better than anyone else really but good luck to them.

[toshes mate]

I seem to remember there were a lot of smiling faces among our supporters last summer and quite a few who dismissed my frowns and slowly shaking head.  Villa still have a season to play out their optimistic strategy for success in accordance with whatever plan they have.  I personally rue the day we didn't sign Targett, didn't have a suitable replacement for Fredericks at RB, and yet we had splashed money out as if the PL was a game of fantasy football and not real life.  It took Villa quite a while to apparently change tack and deliver what their supporters wanted and we shall see whether or not it works for them in due course.  There will be mistakes as there always are, but time will tell how terribly debilitating truly bad errors are.  If they have avoided what we did last summer then they'll at least have a chance of being safe by May next year.

I hope 'doing a Fulham' has a totally different meaning in the future.   

[Nero]

Think they'll struggle to be honest. None of those signings have blown me away or think they are better than anyone else really but good luck to them.

Yep they are buying championship quality players and at hefty prices, they might finish 5th from bottom, with Sheff Utd Norwich and Brighton and one other below them

[Tabby]

I don't think Targett would have saved us, and they lost their talisman striker and replaced him with a fairly unproven brazilian who hasn't been very impressive in Belgium as opposed to us.

But they've signed a lot more players. If we didn't sign Anguissa for silly money I don't think our transfer record looks that bad.

[southwest6]

They're doing everything right that we did wrong:

Doing their business early

Making most of their loan players permanent

Most of their signings have experience of the English league.

They've even succeeded where we failed in signing Matt Targett FFS, as if just to show us how simple this transfers lark should be when you've got £100m to spend.

Yes granted, however would you say their signings have been good value for money? I suppose you could say it's early days and for all I know they could all have a fantastic season - however on first inspection the signings appear a bit vanilla. Expensive vanilla as well.

[DevonFFC]

As much as I wish they will replicate our season I think they will be alright

[Statto]

They're doing everything right that we did wrong:

Doing their business early

Making most of their loan players permanent

Most of their signings have experience of the English league.

They've even succeeded where we failed in signing Matt Targett FFS, as if just to show us how simple this transfers lark should be when you've got £100m to spend.

Yes granted, however would you say their signings have been good value for money? I suppose you could say it's early days and for all I know they could all have a fantastic season - however on first inspection the signings appear a bit vanilla. Expensive vanilla as well.

Well I don't think their signings are better quality than ours. Nor do I think they'll do exceptionally well. But I reckon they'll stay up, perhaps finishing 5th bottom, which is the best a newly-promoted club can reasonably except. IMO we'd have done that too, if we'd taken the same approach, ie signed most of our players a month earlier, made a couple more of the loanees permanent, signed a slightly lower proportion of players from foreign leagues, etc

[Andy S]

Is this the first season where there is Christmas break? Anything that disrupts their stride can be dangerous. Even international breaks and whether you have three or four difficult games on the trot. There are so many reasons why teams get relegated

[Nero]

Theyve signed 4 centre backs they seem as hung up on them as we do wingers

[Bassey the warrior]

Certainly overpaid on several players but it may be worth it to allow the team more time to settle. Ultimately it will come down to whether they can score enough goals.

[Dr Quinzel]

They've done their business much earlier, so have given themselves a better chance.

[filham]

Wish we had signed Targett for £14m .

I suspect they are not being ripped off to the extent we were.

[The Rock]

Wish we had signed Targett for £14m .

I suspect they are not being ripped off to the extent we were.

I remember it was reported they wanted £20m and we were only willing to pay £15m. Makes sense they would offer him to another club for cheaper as we are pushovers.

[Woolly Mammoth]

Villa have organised and prepared them selves far quicker than we did. Plus they have brought in better characters who will play within the framework of the team. They have made wiser signings earlier who should settle far more rapidly. So I think they will do better than we did, and they should stay up.

[FFC1987]

Villa have organised and prepared them selves far quicker than we did. Plus they have brought in better characters who will play within the framework of the team. They have made wiser signings earlier who should settle far more rapidly. So I think they will do better than we did, and they should stay up.

I mean, they'll do better than we did but that's not hard.....I think they could potentially stay up but will stick my neck out and say they'll stay down.