Popular Post Villarocker Posted July 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted July 26, 2019 (edited) 35 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said: Honestly some of the teams in the PL are junk. Newcastle has Bruce. Wolves have Europe. Everton look to have lost Gueye and probably Zouma. Palace will suck if they lose Zaha. I think some teams will regress. I'm really supremely confident with a couple more additions if we got say Butland and another quality striker I hear what you're saying about the quality outside of the top 6 in the Premier League but we don't really know how much quality our new signings possess. Mings obviously looks like he can cut it in the top flight but I never considered that Jota or Hause could be Premier League quality. El Ghazi is untried but is promising. I had seen Targett play once or twice but wasn't wowed by him. The rest, I can honestly say I'd never heard of them prior to us being linked with them. I am more than happy with the way we've gone about our business and looking forward to seeing how the team performs in the Premier League. I'm hopeful of a good campaign and optimistic about us staying up. That'll do me and anything above 17th is a bonus for me. Edited July 26, 2019 by Villarocker 4 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 7 hours ago, Kiwivillan said: We will finish above Bournemouth Everton Watford Southampton Brighton Palace Wham Norwich Sheffield Newcastle Burnley. That's already 9th I'm confident that we will finish above at least three of them and that's our target until we reach 40 points. Actually, I think that we could finish above eight of them, but let's not set our sights too high just yet. It's better to be pleasantly surprised than disappointed because we have set too high a target for our first season back. Survival is our primary objective until it's mathematically certain, we can start looking further up the table once that has been achieved. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tommo_b Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 If we finish 17th I obviously would be happy to survive but I think the owners and Purslow would be dismayed at that! Would they sack Dean Smith if we are sat bottom of table come Christmas, course they would. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Monsieur Hazdazler Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 13 minutes ago, Villarocker said: I hear what you're saying about the quality outside of the top 6 in the Premier League but we don't really know how much quality our new signings possess. Mings obviously looks like he can cut it in the top flight but I never considered that Jota or Hause could be Premier League quality. El Ghazi is untried but is promising. I had seen Targett play once or twice but wasn't wowed by him. The rest, I can honestly say I'd never heard of them prior to us being linked with them. I am more than happy with the way we've gone about our business and looking forward to seeing how the team performs in the Premier League. I'm hopeful of a good campaign and optimistic about us staying up. That'll do me and anything above 17th is a bonus for me. I feel very similar. We can stick the rose tinted glasses on of course but a bit of realism is healthy. Staying up in this league with so many news signings will be difficult. Hopefully they work out, but there’s a lot of risk. I have faith in Deano and Jesus Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villaglint Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 I'd agree that staying up is priority 1 and will be a big challenge. That said we've no excuses now, the backing we've received from the owners has been phenomenal so it's up to the coaches to do their job and the players to give it everything. I'd be happy with 1 place above relegation but my feeling is it'll be quite a bit more comfortable than that. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tomav84 Posted July 26, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 26, 2019 14 minutes ago, Tommo_b said: If we finish 17th I obviously would be happy to survive but I think the owners and Purslow would be dismayed at that! Would they sack Dean Smith if we are sat bottom of table come Christmas, course they would. i think it would be bottom of the table and an absolutely shambolic start for them to sack him. despite the money spent, avoiding relegation i would expect, and hope, to be smith's sole target for the season. unrealistic to expect anything more and purslow has been in the game long enough to know that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thabucks Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 (edited) I still reckon we will break our transfer record again this summer. We’ve spent in the region of £120million so far without sales with a striker GK to go ... Leao won’t happen in my opinion so it will more than likely be Maupay and I think Butland will also join late in the transfer window . Bring on Spuds ! Edited July 26, 2019 by thabucks 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herman22 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 17 hours ago, villalad21 said: Goodbye Hourihane then I think Luis and Marvelous coming in will be good news for Hourihane. He isn't physical enough to play the DM role in this league so he will be pushing McGinn for a starting spot in the more advance role that suits his skills more. Any he will fill in when McGinn gets inevitably suspended. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AvfcRigo82 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 13 hours ago, pete101 said: Apologies , I thought for a while you were some crazy person obsessed with Leao , even to the point that I was going to reach out to him and warn him , only just realised that this is a nervous tick , apologies again Apology accepted. I hope you get that 'tic' sorted. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Herman22 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 29 minutes ago, Tommo_b said: If we finish 17th I obviously would be happy to survive but I think the owners and Purslow would be dismayed at that! Would they sack Dean Smith if we are sat bottom of table come Christmas, course they would. I don't think they would. I think DS is a long term plan. We as fans have to remember that DS hasn't managed at this level before so he will make mistakes. Same goes for a lot of our players. The first 2-3 months might not be fantastic but we need to stick together. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 29 minutes ago, Tommo_b said: If we finish 17th I obviously would be happy to survive but I think the owners and Purslow would be dismayed at that! Would they sack Dean Smith if we are sat bottom of table come Christmas, course they would. If the owners are dismayed at a 17th place finish then i'd worry we've got the wrong guys in charge. Luckily, I think the whole club are clued up and know staying up this year would be an amazing achievement which we can build on 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mazrim Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 It seems the steady on now realistic brigade have the morning shift. Cheers guys. 40 points should definitely. Be the target. By Christmas... It's Friday, its summer. We're putting an awesome squad together thats going to attack, attack, attack and surprise more than a few teams this season. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cyrusr Posted July 26, 2019 VT Supporter Share Posted July 26, 2019 I am not sure I get "lack of premier league" experience issue. We are still playing football right? Ultimately the game isn't actually that different. I can accept style may be different, i.e. we won't have teams sitting back and lumping to the striker (with the exception of Newcastle) and are more keen to you know, pass the ball and play football. It is far more tactical based. What we saw last year was we actually played football and we did well with it. There was a clear plan to play attacking football and tactics to that effect. This was with players that were clearly not in the Smith model and yet we did it. What we have seen so far is that being continued, and the players being bought are clearly with that in mind with a view to grow. There is also already an exceptional team spirit, both from the players last year and the new ones. They seemed to have all fitted in nicely with the ethos. When people say we are "doing a Fulham", it just shows their assumptions based on the actions of 1 team rather than looking at the holistics of it all. People like Allardyce are simply showing how ignorant they can be. And you know what, let them, I really don't care. It just means that they will underestimate us, and I quite like that. 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DCJonah Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 4 minutes ago, Mazrim said: It seems the steady on now realistic brigade have the morning shift. Cheers guys. 40 points should definitely. Be the target. By Christmas... It's Friday, its summer. We're putting an awesome squad together thats going to attack, attack, attack and surprise more than a few teams this season. I'm excited and I think we will surprise a lot of people this year. But if we don't, I don't want the negativity streaming back because the club aren't meeting some people's expectations. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Demitri_C Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 1 hour ago, KenjiOgiwara said: You see, I don't think so. Spending money on players does not equate to getting a good football team. I am hopeful Smith gets it right, but at the moment I am certain we are miles behind them. They were the better teams in the championship, they by large could keep their core of players and relations intact and have some what added to that core with quality. At the moment I'd say the realistic person will have them in a better position than us. But that's an interesting point actually, what does the betting companies say about this? What's the respective odds for survival for the respective teams mentioned here? Yeah you are right about spending money does not make a good footballing team. However if you have a talented coaching team in which I believe we do, he knows how to implement these players in. I think on paper we have more squad depth, real quality and options that can change games. Norwich and Sheffield United shaveargely trusted the team that got them up. It could work but that tactic is very dangerous as the leap from championship to premier league is massive as Cardiff showed. I think that Cardiff side was better than both Norwich and Sheffield United yet they failed in the premier league. I think when I looked at the odds we were fancied more than the other two to stay up - which doesn't mean anything really Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichiBoi11 Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 To be honest I think the squad we are assembling will be expected by the board to do more than just narrowly avoid relegation. There's a lot of variables regarding injuries, form, how the team gels etc. However, whilst I would be happy with 17th or better I actually think we could surprise a few people this season. Let's be optimistic for a change, I know that can be tough for Villa fans, but times are changing... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1Elliot Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 12 hours ago, Dave_jW said: I'm a newbie as well, mate. Exciting times innit? That it is. Another South West Villain too !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobzy Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 50 minutes ago, Tommo_b said: If we finish 17th I obviously would be happy to survive but I think the owners and Purslow would be dismayed at that! Would they sack Dean Smith if we are sat bottom of table come Christmas, course they would. Delighted that we're "one year ahead of schedule" but then dismayed to survive in our first season back in the top flight? Behave. It's fine to be optimistic, but I think we need to have a pinch of realism added here. We know sod all about most of our signings (outside of Football Manager) and don't know how they will perform. They basically need to hit the ground running too as, after Spurs, we have a relatively kind start to the season. If we're sitting 20th after that, I really hope fans don't start to turn. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post Rodders Posted July 26, 2019 Popular Post Share Posted July 26, 2019 I'd take 17th, but when you look at the sides in the league, you have the top 6 which is impenetrable, then another 2-3 clubs who it would be very unlikely to place higher than, but then after that, you have mid table sides who yes have established themselves with some proven players, so don't have the unknown quantity about them, but equally don't inspire fear. 9th/10th as an upper target isn't crazy by any means, IF our players gel. This is the problem with summer, everyone's team becomes invincible by virtue of not playing any competitive matches. I am quietly optimistic we won't be in a relegation battle and may find ourselves up competing for a top half spot, but the points difference between 9th and 15th/ 16th is likely to be pretty minimal so that can come down to luck, taking chances and how well we settle in. It's going to be fun. All I can say for definite is that there's no way we finish below a Steve Bruce side, and there's no reason to particularly fear burnley, bournemouth, palace, leicester, norwich, sheff united, southampton, watford or west ham either. That's not to say we're a given to finish above them all, far from it, but we can go in pretty confident we have a squad well equipped to take them on. 5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ponky Posted July 26, 2019 Share Posted July 26, 2019 Well, whether we surprise everyone or fail dismally, I suspect that this time next year all the pundits will be talking about newly promoted teams "doing a Villa". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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