Match Day Thread Toon General Matchday Thread

  • Please bear with us on the new site integration and fixing any known bugs over the coming days. If you can not log in please try resetting your password and check your spam box. If you have tried these steps and are still struggling email [email protected] with your username/registered email address
  • Log in now to remove adverts - no adverts at all to registered members!
Well put, I'd add Harrison Ashby and Lewis Hall into the second category as well!

Why? Hall certainly won't be cheap if we do buy him.

Those 2 have been failures that we meant for the first team, firstly Ashby got immediately usurped by Livramento, then Hall never gets played cos we don't want to trigger his buying clause.
 
'Cheap' and 'Talent' very rarely go together though. Like Fadge said, a high quality, global scouting system will take time to build. So gems like the ones Brighton have found won't come quickly.

In the meatime, we have introduced established 'talent' - just not all on the cheap, including:

Tripps
Botman
Bruno
Isak
Gordon
Barnes
Tonali
Livramento

But a lot of them are young enough to have quite a few years at the top.

And we have brought through young talent such as Miley & Anderson

Plud we have invested in cheaper (but younger, less proven) talent for the future, including:
Garang Kuol
Yankuba Minteh
Travis Hernes
Cathal Heffernan
Alex Murphy
Alfie Harrison
Charlie Wiggett
Amadou Diallo
Charlie McArthur

Plus various others.

We've also had a lot of youngsters out on loan to gain experience. Some of those listed above, plus the likes of:
Jay Turner-Cook
Joe White
Lucas De Bolle
Kell Watts
Matty Bondswell

Obviously not all of these lads will 'make it' at the top. But the club is clearly investing in the future, rather than just spunking millions on over rated has-beens looking for their last big payday. Many clubs have fallen foul of that short-sighted approach in the past.

I think the club's future will be very bright, even if there has been a bit of a wobble this season. I still see it as a long term plan. Any short term success is just a bonus.
Excellent post mate.

All true.

Minteh looks a prospect.

This new lad from Man City is very highly rated also.
 
Why? Hall certainly won't be cheap if we do buy him.

Those 2 have been failures that we meant for the first team, firstly Ashby got immediately usurped by Livramento, then Hall never gets played cos we don't want to trigger his buying clause.

If it that were that easy, everyone would just buy 16 youth players and never sign any ready made players.

Hall isn't a failure yet. Said in another post there could be numerous reasons he's not playing, including deferring payments to a later date due to FFP or something as ridiculous like if he plays 15 times and we don't get relegated its another £5m to Chelsea. No one knows what's going on there - I was questioning why Bruno wasn't chucked in the deep end when he turned up, why Gordon didn't play for 6 months despite having spent more on both those player, so what do any of us know?

Ashby looked good preseason and yeah agree he's been displaced by Tino - hence we've sent him out on loan this season - but once Trippier goes, Livarmento is 1st choice and Ashby will be fighting him for the position - so it shows some forethought by the people making the decisions.
 
It's a shame that after such a great home record, Villa are now getting regularly smashed there.
Their fans (the few that stayed there til the end) must be so upset ...