Martin O'Neill, My Father

Seems the consensus Saurat, better squad depth, hurrah, but poorer quality squad. A consolidation window perhaps, one where its hard to see how the deals will push us on.

We up 4 players on last season plus the introduction of Albrighton, Clark and Lowry. The size of the squad is finally up to scratch in my view, but the quality is not that of a top6 side. I can only hope the 4-5-1 continues to be a success and that Agbonlahor doesn't get over-used as was the case last season, the decision not to go in for Bent still baffles me

Not sure I agree...Dunne is a 4 time player of the year at Man City...and Warnock, Downing, Beye and Delph were all held in very high regard by the suporters of their resective clubs... These might not be the global superstar players we all wanted to see...but they are all players of very high quality... I think we should allow time to tell if MON got it right... but I'm actually pleased with how this window has finished

A fair and reasonable assessment of our position. I fear, Saurat, that you may be right. That being said, I hope you are wrong and that the newcomers quickly meld into the team and we go forward to achieve better results than last year. We really have no excuse for failure except a tardiness in the transfer market that has already been dicussed ad nauseam.

Anyone of them must be better than Davies , I would even play Heskey at C/Back than Davies sell him xmas if we could get good pirce for him , say 2m.

i think MON has done some good buisiness for our club this window and believe all the buys made will make the team stronger or give cover...the stumbling block was a superstar player but unfortunaltly villa are not yet able to attract these players ..so its a case of getting on with it and i have a good feeking about our prospects this season bring on the blues

A poor analogy when you consider that a TV has no say in whether you buy it or not. Vermaelen was quoted as saying he was aware of the Villa interest but he was only interested in Arsenal. With him out of the picture, and having sold the often absent-minded Zat Knight we needed two centre backs. We bought Collins, an improvement on Zat and by all accounts to some disappointment to the West Ham fans. We also look to be completing the Dunne transfer, a man who for most fans has an impossible job - replacing Laursen. He won't be as good, because he can't possibly be. Laursen was Champions League quality and one of the greatest in the league, and when I look at the options available to us I seriously doubt we could have done much better than Dunne. Captain of his old club, many years of experience in the PL and their fans player of the year a number of years running. My only disappointment is that these two signings weren't in place for the beginning of the season.

i agree with keith. Again, this article expresses more knee jerk comments without much thought behind them. How can you say we should have got Vermaelen early instead of dallying? I suspect Wenger had his eagle eye on him for a while as did O'Neill, but given the choice, the player chose Arsenal. Please give the manager and the team a break and get behind the team to instill confidence in them because the window has not been that bad and confidence breeds success after all!

Like for like replacements for Laursen and Barry were never going to happen, Vermaelen may have been that replacement but he wanted CL with Arsenal. The lack of CL footy clearly affected the type of player we could go for. That's the main problem. SO probably a window of consolidation in terms of quality and improvement in terms of depth of squad. So overall not too bad. Assuming we beat Blue Filth and Pompie in the next two games and we've got a great start to the season, in my book. I'll be happy with 4 pts from those two games too.

And yet our less impressive squad goes to liverpool and wins 3-1, instead of walking away losing 5-0 like last season. give them a chance, we have won the last 3 games and scored 7 goals. If we are in a relagation battle then i would be complaining too, but come on lets start believing for a change. Come on you Villa boys!!!!!!!!!!!

And yet our less impressive squad goes to liverpool and wins 3-1, instead of walking away losing 5-0 like last season. give them a chance, we have won the last 3 games and scored 7 goals. If we are in a relagation battle then i would be complaining too, but come on lets start believing for a change. Come on you Villa boys!!!!!!!!!!!

Thing is, the transfer window is closed now, it is what it is, so the fans will get behind the team and focus on the football again... until January!

I think you need to stop slashing your wrists and start supporting the club. We now have a squad in place for the season. We either support it . . . . . . . . or treat it with apathy. If we support it, the chances are that it will surprise some people, because I genuinely belive that we will have a right good crack at the top 3 (never mind top 4) this season. We have 2 players (and good kids to back that up) for every position. However the moaning, whinging and general doom and gloom that is in evidence at nearly every home game has the potential to wreck one of a footballs teams greatest weapons . . . . . . . . confidence. So you are either for the Villa, or against it. Any negativity now can only undermine the players. So show your colours. Are you going to villa Park to roar us on or are the doom mongers going to continue with their child like petulance in the hope of achieving what exactly . . . . . . ????? I have a feeling similar to the one at the start of the 80 81 season when we had a team, not a group of individuals. And the team is actually built on strength and having people who can do their job. Ken McNaught was vilified by some so called fans. Des Bremner could run all day but couldn't hit a barn door at 10 paces. Alan Evans Was a converted centre forward and Kenny Swain a converted right winger. Peter Withe was a journey man centre forward and Jimmy Rimmer couldn't come for crosses. Des Mortimer was a great captain but couldn't get in the England squad. But together they were a team. And they took on England, then Europe and conquered all. That is the feeling I have about this Villa squad. 5 minutes from the end of our 3rd victory in 6 days on Sunday, the ground had about just 20,000 fans left in it. 10,000 were empty seats all game, the other 12,000 disgracefully turned the backs on the players who had just delivered another victory to follow up the wonderful triumph at Anfield. It is this that will undermine the Villa, not the strong and potentially brilliant squad that we have. Wreck the confidence and you wreck the club for the thousands of us who actually support the club positively. When the positive fans have had enough of you negative moaners then they will stay away and the club will implode and then you will have something to moan about. So nail your colours to the mast. Are you going to support or moan. The squad and the manager is not changing. So the moaning can only have one objective and that is to undermine the club. I know which mast my colours are nailed to. Do you??

personally I would have liked to see cover for Gabby brought in and the treatment of Shorey bemuses me. Otherwise I think we have cover/options across the field. I'd rather have two good centre halves than one great one. Already tried putting all our eggs in one basket with the great dane and look what happened as soon as he got injured.

I purchased a really expensive TV and broke it 2 months later when one of my Wii remotes flew into the screen. With the insurance money I have replaced it with a supposedly lesser model and put another one in the bedroom. Much better value and absolutely no noticeable difference in quality. Result!! So using your anology buying the expensive one didn't actually do a better job and it didn't last longer. Putting your anology to football terms means I would never have got to see my favorite ever player, Paul McGrath.

more depressing waffle, MON never said (and never will) say how much he has to spend, he also knows how many players he needs to bring in and those 2 factors dictate how much he can spend on each player. That and panasonic do a TV called Viera, you missed a great pun there!

Well said Voiceoftheholte...... Window is close so no more talk of could of/should of and lets have a great season. UTV

Two points that everyone needs to remember: 1) Yes, Laursen was CL quality, and he proved that when he was fit. Would he have come to Villa except for the fact there was a question mark over his fitness? I doubt it. We took a huge gamble on keeping him fit and got lucky for a couple of seasons. 2) Yes, Barry is top-notch now, but he was just a young lad with potential who developed over the years, just as we hope some of our current youngsters do. (Don't forget Barry was on the point of leaving when O'Neill persuaded him to stay, and his England career was stagnant until O'Neill changed his game/role.) My point is this, it isn't like we used to buy world-beaters and now we don't anymore. We have added real quality this window. Whether it will gel or not, NOBODY can tell yet, but we have only played a couple of games so far. How about we ALL get behind ALL of OUR players and support OUR team?

Well said Voiceoftheholte...... Window is close so no more talk of could of/should of and lets have a great season. UTV

oops, didn't think it went.

I think we now have a very good squad, however if we are to become a top 4 team we need 2 more players, 2 world class players such as Gerrad, Torres, Lampard Drogba etc.

great article, you speak alot of sense

So voiceoftheholte. u have lost your two best players and like the article sums it up u have bought inferior ones. U finished 6th and 10 points behind arseanal and 20 behind chelscum...3rd.... hmmm send me some of that stuff u smoking mate.

VOICEOFTHEHOLTEEND AND BOBBYFETT nice to see some sensible balanced views on here ..there are too many people on here that sound like they should support citeh or chelski Villa are a different animal to the approach of those types of clubs get used to it or ship out

Seems like some of you didn't read the article properly, or twisted it to suit your own argument. I didn't say the squad is weaker, quite the opposite, I said it is stronger. Neither do I criticise the players bought in, they're fine. A Daewoo is fine. Does the job. But sometimes buying cheaper products can be a false economy.

Ok Saurat - Who would you have bought that would have actually come to us? And Vermaelen doesn't count - as has already been pointed out here he was only interested in CL Arsenal. Some of the people that post on this site seem to have absolutley no understanding of player power and their choice in it. AstonSteve - Drogba? Lampard? Gerard? Even if we wanted to pay their wages, transfer fees, they wouldn't come to us. This isn't fantasy football. Bent is the only player this season that we should have gone in for, and that is only my personal opinion - maybe Michael Turner as well.

villa is a big club, when u say people wont come here its rubbish( in this climate you are right, no european footbal) if last year we had won the european cup we would be attracting alot of players, also if we stayed in europe this year would have been a different transfer. the writer to this article sums up martin oneil perfectly in this article ...... look martin oneil is a great manager, but in this world people look at negativities and sadly martin oneil is very stingy, or thinks he can get bargains(which lets be honest has only been young and milner) we live in an economy which is very hard to find bargains as everything usually has a fair market price attached to it. turner/upson/haangland/bent/anelka(looks like he will leave chelsea, i think we shoudl go for him in january)joe cole/ but i do think delph will be a great signing... and remeber villa is not a small club its a european cup winner

I never said we were a small club Snackiest, re-read my post. I said the transfer market is not fantasy football, and the best players go to CL teams for top wages. We had European football but no-one really cares about UEFA/Europa League. TV's can't pick which homes they go to, players can. How old are you Snackiest?

I can't believe your "if we won the European Cup last year" argument. Honestly - what does that have to do with reality?

mix26. You have no idea do you. It is not having the best individuals that wins a team game. It is having the best TEAM. Laursen was great defender. We took a chance on him from Milan reserves and he was wonderful for the season and half he gave us of the four he was here. Barry is a great player who will do well at Man City. But he played every minute of every one of the last 17 games in which we won twice. He played in the 5 - 0 stuffing at Anfield in towards the end of the season. We have won more this season with out him because whilst the individuals may not be as strong, the balance may well be better. Do you think Manure would win the league with 11 Ronaldos???? Of course not. It is about the team, not the individuals. And as for Torres his strike rate as I indicated yesterday is only slightly better than Carews. The world would have you believe that Torres scores 30 league goals a season. Last season it was 3 more than Carew despite playing 5 more games. We have wonderful players at the club, we just don't gob off all the time. Spuds for example win 4 games and all of a sudden the press would have you believe that they are challenging for the title. They may do. If Villa won the first 4 games the press would concentrate on how Redscouse and Manure are doing. Strange considering that Villa in terms of overall history and even just during the time of the Premier League are more successful than Spuds.

u l keep talking that players want to go th cl teams, well winning europe last year could have been a start, how old are you. martin oneil has started someting good at villa, but the cream is missing. and his prudence is a point of contention. if early in the summer he had spent 40 million on 3 players max we would be better off.

last year we faded after the european match not because of tiredness, but because he took the dream out the team, it was like some freakey karma lol

We just about had the legs to get 2 extra points last season compared to the previous season. Do you honestly think we could have played an additional 9 UEFA games and won the competition as well??? In fact who did win the UEFA Cup last year and have all the big names gone there this summer? I haven't checked but I am fairly confident that last seasons UEFA Cup Winners aren't currently the home of some of footballs greatest names.

I would have been impressed if we won the European Cup last year, especially since it hasn't been around for over 20 years. Which £40m would you have spent on which 3 players that actually would have come to us? You are showing your ignorance for all to see Snackiest. I'm betting 15 or 16.

I think a lot of people assume things on here "The manager shouldn't worry about getting 'a good deal', that's for Randy, the finance department - and history - to decide. " Who told you it wasn't Randy, the finance department or anybody else that decided this??

when u say europa cup is nothing, ur a fooll how old are you 77 mr usual suspect(great film).......... the winner played barceona on friday, its ingrediants like that, that make you worldwide, th knock on effects are huge you cant just jump into champions league, you have to first prove yourself in the europa league

Snackiest you are just making this up as you go along. The UEFA cup is an ok competition, but no=one cares and no-one jumps to go to the club that wins it - you are just dreaming. Besides, we didn't win the competition - so what relevance is this conversation? Which players would you have bought for £40m then?

I am fairly sure this is what happened with Bosingwa, we would pay the 5.5M they wanted but not when it went up to 6.5M but then a year later he went for 12M, so we should have paid it, obviously I could be wrong just IMO but I have a feeling it happened with Hangelaand too, this is not totally bad it means we are good at identifying good players, but we then don't bite the bullet and pay what might seem a lot now, but will actually be a bargain in the future, we did with Young and it paid off, it won't always pay off I know, It may or may not pay off with Delph (i think it will). The point I'm trying to make is MON seems to have a good eye, but does not always back himself, I think he should as the safe alternatives he goes for instead are the ones he seems to quickly loose faith in, not play and then re-sell

Do you have sources on Bosingwa and Hangelaand Ant, or is this just a gut thing?

This TV analogy made me chuchle but I disagree. Ash is a star Milner is a star, JC is a star Petrov is seriously getting there, all of these players MoN bought in and at very reasonable price! Delph has bags of potential, Dunne is hugely under rated, brad friedle has been immense between he sticks, beye has looks like a sensible buy, I'm really warming to carlos and curtis. Apologies for going against the grain but I dont think we can tar MoN with that brush. He is frustraiting at times but he isnt in the business of huge money buys he buys sensible and is always looking for the next "Ashley Young" players that take a club forward as they develop.

i would have bought you for starters to serve the pop corn in the holte end......... 40 million lol... which would have left me with 39,9999,999.99 change.... with that i would have bought tevez/johnson/vandervaart.... this would have been based on us still being in europe...ok that comes to 50 million

Seriously that's your answer? I rest my case.

Saurat; that is one of the saddest articles I've ever read. Football is just a game that pales into insignificance next to the childhood memories of one's father. There is nothing else I can say.

The Usual Suspect, no just on opinion, I have no idea really just observations, but the whole not having a right back for a year must have a reason, we did not buy L Young when available and then we did a year later, Bosingwa seems a logical choice, but if not I suspect a similar thing happened with a unknown target, I might be wrong, probably

What a load of drivel - "the manager shouldn't worry about getting a good deal"????? Ridiculous! Of course he should. Like it or not football is a business as well as a sport. Not many businesses survive with a manager who doesn't care about getting a good deal. You think "buy high, sell low" is the way a successful business works? Uttery ridiculous. I think your Dad was a wise man. He lived within his means and didn't blow all his cash in one go. Ok his TV wasn't the best, but it did the job perfectly well and left him with money in his pocket. He was probably safe in the knowledge that if his radio broke, he would be able to afford to replace it having not blown all his cash on an unnecessarily fancy TV....