I had a couple of emails after my last post and I tried to reply to some comments. The short of the long is that I convinced the people I wanted to convince.
It’s not that I wouldn’t sit down with you all to try and convince you why I think the team is ready, it’s that with some, not all, there is too much importance on players and number of new players and not enough put on the manager.
There was someone on Twitter that actually said they wanted five more players, on top of the three new ones we have. How many times do we have to bring in a brand new team each summer, for it to not work, for us to realise it’s madness?
The most important person in the team is the manager and new players will for the most part be better in their second season, especially those from overseas. When we all agree that a player needs time to settle, I really do hope everyone accepts that it’s more than two or three games they need.
Aston Villa can win the Championship, but they won’t if they make too many changes.
And that is why I believe the manager is the most important person; he needs to get the best out of a settled squad of players and be allowed to add what is needed, not make wholesale changes.
Some news
Guzan has gone, it’s official and it’s best for him, for a lot of reasons. I hope he does well and I thank him for his work. That’s it and I move on.
Gabby still hasn’t gone and neither has Richards although by all accounts Aston Villa are trying to offload Richards and he is desperate to go. And if not so subtle changes to your social media profile are anything to go by, then Scott Sinclair also wants out but I was under the impression that was well known.
It appears also that Gueye is off and while none of this has been confirmed, it’s because he had a release clause of £7mn. and also because he wants to play in the Premier League. For me, him going isn’t actually that bad even though I think he will go on to be a great player.
You see, if he doesn’t want to fight for the team he has to be allowed to go, but it does mean what I said in my previous post, about going out to get a special midfielder, is now something the club should do and we have to keep everyone else (for continuity reasons and we also have to hope that there are no more release clauses and that players want to play for Aston Villa).
The owner on Twitter
It’s not long now. I’ve had a question from a national paper about our owner on Twitter. I did my best to answer in the absolute positive but I also didn’t lie and when I was asked what I thought, I replied that I thought it a little embarrassing, even though the intentions were good. I suspect there will be a comment somewhere about it quite soon.
Sheffield Wednesday sold out and pricing for away fans
We’ve sold out the entire 4,544 away tickets for Sheffield Wednesday and I suspect we will sell out and ask for more with most away games this season. It isn’t going to help those that want cheaper tickets for away fans and nor should it.
But I’ve written about this before. Today however, I’ve had a new idea on the back of prices; someone from Aston Villa should engage with every other Championship club on Monday morning to determine what Aston Villa supporters will be charged this season and then inform them that that is what their supporters will be charged when visiting Villa Park.
Or we wait for someone to make a rule that away supporters are charged a fixed price (which I think is wrong albeit nice) or we allow opposition clubs to charge what they want but make Villa Park the most expensive this season for away support and leave it at that.
Think about it for a bit and remember that a. we’re no longer in the Premier League and b. clubs are allowed and should always be allowed, to charge what they want because when there are 4,000 plus Aston Villa fans coming it’s quite literally a much needed pay day for some of these clubs.
Before I go
I think I saw something this morning about Carles Gil scoring a couple last night. Not sure how true it is, but did we sell him or loan him? I hope it was a loan because I’d like to see him get another chance with us, if he wants it.
And there is also talk that the Watford keeper Costel Pantillimon is also about to join us for £2mn. For me, this is quite interesting because it suggests that Gollini was never signed to be a number one or it turns out he's not ready and we've wasted money (because it's not about building this season, it's about getting promoted). But on that, I have to leave. It’s that time of the day.