Summer Transfer Window (2024/25)

[Tayls]

39 minutes ago, Lord Willard said:

Do we have a stronger squad but weaker starting 11? 
 

I think we’re really going to miss Dougie dictating play. Seem to lack a bit of creativity that he had too. 

Yea. Pretty sure we have messed up a bit to be honest. The planning seems way off at the minute. No good adding players for the fun of it just so we can turn a profit on them. 

[sharkyvilla]

Our first XI is still very strong, plus now we have loads of depth and potential in reserve.  We just need a centre back and a Felix or Jack calibre player to replace Diaby.

[villa4europe]

1 minute ago, Tayls said:

Yea. Pretty sure we have messed up a bit to be honest. The planning seems way off at the minute. No good adding players for the fun of it just so we can turn a profit on them. 

The planning was around PSR though 

Onana feels like the only player we would have signed if we had zero restrictions, maybe maatsen for the future and maybe Barkley purely for depth 

But it still feels to me like we've done what we've done to tick boxes rather than because we really wanted to do it, even the sales of luiz and diaby are the same 

At the same time we will get at least one more signing that we actually want before we're done 

[Dale]

We've done a better job of outgoings than in previous years. But I'd imagine the following are available but difficult to shift:

Olsen, Cash, Digne or Moreno (perhaps both), Carlos, Hause, Dendoncker, (at least one other in Midfield/AM not sure who), Archer, Duran. 

I don't feel we'd have brought in Illing if we'd known Jaden was coming back at the time

[nick76]

45 minutes ago, maqroll said:

I don't put much credence in preseason results and performances, but last night seemed like the vibes were bad, and that's an intangible thing that can be concerning. Hopefully we can get Duran out of the club, and hopefully Carlos as well, and replace them both with better and smarter players.

Yeah I never take preseason that seriously but I was a little concerned last night and that feeling still remains today.  It’s not about results at all and it takes time every preseason to get in sync and cohesiveness ready for season. Even with Martinez, Konsa and Watkins to come back it still feels a bit off.  Anyway just hope that starts to click.

I feel we are desperate for a RCB and and a forward.  I’m still concerned with the loss of Luiz.  I have total trust in Emery so I’m sure it’ll be ok.

Edited August 1 by nick76

[Supervillan78]

We’ve signed a lot of young players, no surprise there have been a couple of disjointed performances.

Fully expect to see a couple of high quality established players come in. 

[sharkyvilla]

Don't forget Unai has just signed up for a 5 year contract.  Usually that means nothing in football and managers are still always looking over their shoulder knowing that they could get the sack in 5 games' time let alone 5 years but for Unai he has the ability to build something properly over time, whereas other managers would take a safety-first approach and go for experience or 'winners' as our previous manager would have said.  We may end up taking a slight backward step next season considering how we will have to battle on the PL and CL fronts but I think the club, Unai and Monchi will have taken that into consideration and feel within 2 or 3 years we will be up there challenging by following this path. 

As it is I think the squad is in a very good place already, although the Kamara and Doug partnership was top 2 or 3 in the country and the most difficult thing to replace.

[GingerCollins29]

First impressions (reactionary) :

Archer (Decent when he gets his chance on goal, anonymous mostly) 

Jaden (talent) 

Enzo (talent, one for the future) 

Iling (mostly dreadful) 

Onana (tank, needs the emery touch to adapt) 

Barkley (mostly dreadful) 

Maatsen (talent) 

Ned (talent, needs time to adapt) 

 

[Bazmonkey]

1 hour ago, Lord Willard said:

Do we have a stronger squad but weaker starting 11? 
 

I think we’re really going to miss Dougie dictating play. Seem to lack a bit of creativity that he had too. 

I'd definitely say the squad is stronger.

And I think the starting 11 is a bit too...onana for luiz makes us better defensively....more bite in the middle 

As much as luiz was a good player....did well over the years.....he was far from dictating the play if anything...his.performances last season particularly since Feb highlighted he needed better players round him to make him look good.

 

[CarryOnVilla]

Our squad is loads stronger. Our starting 11 isn’t all together yet. Things are getting worked out, it’s what preseason is for. No real drama. 

[Tayls]

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

The planning was around PSR though 

Onana feels like the only player we would have signed if we had zero restrictions, maybe maatsen for the future and maybe Barkley purely for depth 

But it still feels to me like we've done what we've done to tick boxes rather than because we really wanted to do it, even the sales of luiz and diaby are the same 

At the same time we will get at least one more signing that we actually want before we're done 

Getting round the PSR problem was crucial to avoid points deductions. Fine. But if we were selling Diaby, then we probably didn’t need to sell Luiz and replace him with iling-junior who is going to struggle to get in the team, and Barrenechea, who isn’t a starter yet.

I think it has been a very messy window, and it’s not ideal in a champions league season. We can’t afford to be in a transition period. 

The two bad performances recently are an extension of the last 6 months of the season IMO, where I thought we looked largely disappointing. 

Edited August 1 by Tayls

[JAMAICAN-VILLAN]

1 hour ago, maqroll said:

I don't put much credence in preseason results and performances, but last night seemed like the vibes were bad, and that's an intangible thing that can be concerning. Hopefully we can get Duran out of the club, and hopefully Carlos as well, and replace them both with better and smarter players.

In fairness you have to wonder if they are even enjoying the tour, bare in mind the long flights, new players, key parts of squad missing etc.

Ppl need to remember the state Unai received us in and what he turned us into.

I say that to say, I doubt Unai is worried yet, and even if he was it will be addressed sharpish.

Again, the fact that our 3 and fourth choice keepers, youth players and players are in random positions should show he is taking things as nothing more than run outs and experimentation thus far.

[Nigel]

2 hours ago, Lord Willard said:

Do we have a stronger squad but weaker starting 11? 
 

I think we’re really going to miss Dougie dictating play. Seem to lack a bit of creativity that he had too. 

I cant help but remember back to some of the early cup games we rested Dougie, we were toothless, a lot like these pre season games.

I hope we have become less reliant on him now!

[Villastine]

£33million for Gallagher looks a snip to me. He was outstanding for Chelsea last season. 

Suits the premier league to a T.

 

[david-avfc]

1 hour ago, Bazmonkey said:

I'd definitely say the squad is stronger.

And I think the starting 11 is a bit too...onana for luiz makes us better defensively....more bite in the middle 

As much as luiz was a good player....did well over the years.....he was far from dictating the play if anything...his.performances last season particularly since Feb highlighted he needed better players round him to make him look good.

 

Luiz absolutely dictated the play for us, he was one of our most important players in the build up phase and also contributed to loads of assists and goals. Being moved out of his best position was a key reason why our form dropped.

Luiz is a huge loss to our team, there is no doubt about it. Onana is a good signing but not a progressive player, not yet at least, and that’s something we will definitely miss - I guess we have Tielemans but he was always behind Luiz in the pecking order so evidently not an improvement albeit he can be an excellent player.

I think our squad should be stronger if we finish our summer business properly, at the moment our squad is unbalanced but I like that we’ve strengthened the squad depth we just need to trim the excess players and bring a couple more in (defender + creative forward)

[nick76]

10 minutes ago, Villastine said:

£33million for Gallagher looks a snip to me. He was outstanding for Chelsea last season. 

Suits the premier league to a T.

 

Yeah but I don’t think they would’ve sold to another PL team for £33m.

[abdulaziz1]

1 hour ago, Tayls said:

Getting round the PSR problem was crucial to avoid points deductions. Fine. But if we were selling Diaby, then we probably didn’t need to sell Luiz and replace him with iling-junior who is going to struggle to get in the team, and Barrenechea, who isn’t a starter yet.

I think it has been a very messy window, and it’s not ideal in a champions league season. We can’t afford to be in a transition period. 

The two bad performances recently are an extension of the last 6 months of the season IMO, where I thought we looked largely disappointing. 

We wouldn’t need to do that if we still had Kamara, while selling Diaby earlier. But we were going for a bad season if we thought our first eleven (without Kamara) would’ve replicate what they’ve done. We’re not a one man team, but losing any of: Martinez, Torres, Kamara, Watkins mess the whole performance. So losing Kamara already means losing Luiz best performances, we needed to sell, we can’t do with any the former 4 so had to be Luiz. We were going to a midfield overhaul anyway (not our choice, but it is what it is. Right now, I’d say our first eleven are better than how we ended the season. Once we get Kamara we should possibly get to how we were beginning of last season. Especially if we added Felix and a squad defender. 
 

There is another question, are we going to have a first eleven next season? For me I’m not sure, I’d be very careful while choosing players in the PL fantasy from Villa (I have an issue which is needing getting 3 Villa players each season). 

[Herman22]

I think those who are saying we have a weaker starting 11 are somewhat right. I think we are a little weaker until Bouba comes back. 

But for me, we have a significantly stronger squad and that will matter this season. It should mean we can deal with injuries better and also we should be able to deal with domestic cups a little better too. 

Anyway back to the point of this thread I think we will get at least another attacker (Duran/ Diaby replacement) and a right sided defender. Either a centre back or a right back that allows us move Konsa back to the centre. 

[sheepyvillian]

Reports linking us with Lukaku. I hope it's Bollocks! Because, in the words of the immortal Cloughie, "He couldn't trap a bag of cement "!!

[villan95]

1 minute ago, sheepyvillian said:

Reports linking us with Lukaku. I hope it's Bollocks! Because, in the words of the immortal Cloughie, "He couldn't trap a bag of cement "!!

99% sure that it's bollocks. We aren't playing 2 number 9s