Summer Transfer Window
Aston Villa have had squad overhauls in transfer windows before and they’re not always guaranteed to move the club in the right direction. Take last year, for example, talk about a false dawn. But of course, this summer’s overhaul will hopefully address the mistakes of that one and set Villa back on course to a return to the top table.
In an attempt to revive what had become a rotten and disillusioned squad, leadership was sought, as was legitimate previous success at Championship level. In terms of the moral of the squad, the outs were as important as the in’s.
In short, when you see the below lists of transfer activity, Robert Di Matteo, CEO Keith Wyness and owner Tony Xia certainly tackled the task head-on with a mass overhaul.
So lets take a look at five reasons to be cheerful as Villa fans after the summer transfer window…
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4. Forward Options
A reason we fell from grace last season was we never really replaced Christian Benteke. Villa attempted to take on the Premier League with Gestede, Ayew, Sinclair, Kozak and…Gabby, as forwards. At the start of the Championship campaign with Ross McCormack and Jonathan Kodjia added to Gestede and Ayew, Villa arguably boast the best forward options in the division and certainly better than they had last season.
Yes, it cost a fair whack – £23m with a few more potential millions of add-ons – but this is what Villa should have spent on the strike force last season.
You can’t help but think that Villa’s increased striking options will also bring Jack Grealish into games more and also increase his goal threat, as we’ve already seen with his brace of goals already this season.
sadly, we had no leadership, which stems from the chairman downwards, for the last 4 years. Lerner lost interest and gave the club no direction handing the reigns over to Lambert who had too much on his plate avoiding the drop. Sherwood was a breath of fresh air for a time but then he got no backing in the transfer market and his recruitment, even though he can’t take all the blame was awful. Newcastle went down the same path a season before with Pardew and recruited many players from the French league, who couldn’t adapt to PL pace. One or two – yes not half a dozen!
We must applaud Xia and his team for turning the club around as I could only see us going in one direction like the famous Yorkshire trio of clubs.
It may take another season , it all depends how well the players gel and how they are missed going to the African nations.