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…
Heads up: 10th Anniversary 20% OFF offer on Classic Football Shirts. Use code CFS10YEARS. Offer ends 11pm 5th September, so move quick! – CHECK IT OUT HERE
2. Tools for the Job
Compare this transfer window to the last January and it’s night and day, in terms of a Villa manager getting what he wants. At one end of the spectrum is Remi Garde, who actually got nothing in the transfer window. He was unlucky, as the former Villa board considered Premier League survival a lost cause, despite it only being January. Di Matteo in comparison, as Xia has declared, got his initial list of requests and some.
There’s now very much a notion of ‘now over to you, Di Matteo’.
The Villa boss’s two-year contract tells you that the Italian manager is on a short-term trial and must produce the result of getting Villa promoted. He has the backroom staff, a new Technical director in Steve Round and now the players. So it’s all in place for him.
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.