The College Dropout

Tbf Villa spent Isak money on Diaby. He doesn’t look a massive talent from the little I’ve seen. He’s lost his place to Bailey (who himself has taken a few years to get up to speed - I always rated him though).

That 30-45m bracket is so key. It’s difficult because you can get big failures and successes. We’ve gone a bit more ‘safe’. We’ve spent more on Tonali and Isak to try and guarantee quality. And signed Barnes for what is already likely to be his peak value. And often when we’ve paid in that region it’s been a premium for young English talent. As much as I like Botman. There’s a bit of a ceiling in potential value for a Slow CB. All clubs can point to other clubs doing smart business. But you do look at Paqueta, Kudus, Palmer - and wonder what did the recruitment team say about them? Highly regarded well known players. I’m certain they were all thoroughly scouted. What did they say about them? I thought Paqueta looked slow and slight. But like Bruno - he’s got that dog in him. He’s a competitor. Didn’t see much of Palmer but I always thought Kudus was a talent and positinally flexible. I wonder what the club ruled. This isn’t hindsight regarding the summer. All the transfers felt like a bit of a premium. Not the type where we could double our money in a couple years.

I always refer to that Eales interview. He identified qualifying for European competition for a reason. We need the revenue. Without it - I think we sell a crown jewel - Bruno or Isak. Or at least it has a bit impact on our future plans.

The fall guy is already on the way out.

Agreed but both players have come in as backups to the backups. They’ve not replaced them in the starting lineup. Kamaras out. Ramsey has missed lots of the season. Carlos and Pau have missed chunks of the season. I think Arsenal are among the best at controlling a game in and out of possession. And so far they’ve had fairly minimal injuries. Arteta isn’t a massive rotator either. I think that control element has helped them keep players fit. I do think Arteta will eventually need to start rotating more. The likes of Saka and Rice seem to be bullet proof. I think Rice missed something like 9 league games in his last 4 seasons at West Ham. Thats crazy. That’s an attritional style of play too.

I do fundamentally agree that we are overly reliant on the press. Last season we could defend even if the press didn’t work.

Injuries have have been pamming Villa too. 3 ACL injuries this season. Captain. DM. and AM.

Agreed. But we aren’t going to catchup to the top 6 sustainably by out footballing them technically. Actually that might not be true. But we will need to out coach them and be smarter in the transfer market. I don’t think we’ve done either over the last 6-7 months. Especially the transfer market. We’ve spent £150m and not a single one of those players features regularly in the starting XI.

Agree on that too.

Fair enough. We'll still need to outspend 3/4 of the league and be close enough to the others to challenge. I fundamentally think if ownrs can prove they can pay for it - any cap in spend should be in line with the highest spending team in a league or competition,.

This is a nonsense view imo. Solanke would cost £50m+. You want to be able to splash cash without being accused of buying the league. But unfortunately, you still end up buying success.

He's not a scout but his role is influential in who comes in and out of the club - the fees paid and negotiated etc. I expect he and Nickson would have even more influence over development squad signings.

We’ve lost confidence and dare I say motivation ? A lack of confidence and motivation makes you that bit slower and weaker. Touch worse etc. Howe is partly responsible for that.

Well aye had Poch come in and performed that moves us down a place. I wouldn’t have any arguments. But they’re 11th. There isn’t a club in Europe using resources so poorly. I didn’t think we would finish Lower than 8th at worst. I thought we did things too well, the manager was too good.

7th/8th is par if all things are equal except money. we are much better run than Chelsea - who are still shambolic. So 7th is minimum. Since the takeover the leadership has been excellent, we’ve been great in tranafwr market and Howe looked one of the best managers in the league. I thought As we had done last season we could punch above our weight but not so high maybe finish 5/6. At the same time - the squad was thin and lacking quality and depth in some key positions. Injuries, loss of confidence etc. we could finish at the bottom of that group… but still part of that group. I also think the club modelled a ‘bad’ season as like Conference League place finish. In defence of the season we’ve had more bad luck than I modelled in the ‘bad luck’ scenario. Again - I think some of that bad luck is self inflicted.

It’s a different club.

With some bad luck I thought we could finish 8th. Behind the top 6 and Villa.

‘You wouldn’t have been happy with 10th?’ Is the best hot take on here in years. Man is defending it to the ends.

Yes beating Luton and drawing Forest would change the complexion of the season a bit.

Actually glad he tried some new things in the game.

They definitely don’t think we should be 10th. today is whatever. Relieved we didn’t get thumped 3+. Massive 10 games ahead.

A lot of bad performances in recent weeks.

Again we finished 10th to qualify for the Fairs Cup. So that doesn’t count either

I don't think that would be the case. If we qualify for Europe I expect we could buy at least 1 player without selling. Selling Miggy or Wilson is almost pure FFP profiot

I'd be happy with 2 or 3 quality additions