Aston Villa’s navigation of turbulent summer window

National World - LocalTV

A look ahead for the Villains after having to navigate a tough summer window

Transcript

00:00Charlie looking at Aston Villa obviously an incredibly quiet summer you know this is a

00:07and also a club that will rewind to January and we were sort of thinking what's who's next to

00:13come in the door it was an incredible window at the time and you could see the ambition behind

00:17those signings to maybe go and push on in the Champions League which they all obviously fell

00:21short in that incredible sort of tie against PSG I mean in terms of Villa the fans must be feeling

00:29a little bit uncertain but they have you know dealt well with with a bit of turbulence in windows

00:35before they've managed to deal with it they've obviously PSR has been overhanging them and I'm

00:39sure you've written about it numerous times this summer I mean Villa fans are probably a bit sick

00:45of hearing about it but it is you know obviously with the rules and it can be tough to comply with

00:49at times so where are Aston Villa at the moment in terms of their sort of belief going into this

00:55season and their preparations because obviously it's been a bit of a tougher summer.

01:00It's been incredibly tough and you're right the fans are absolutely sick of PSR I'm sick of PSR as a

01:06journalist the amount of times I've written it is ridiculous and not just PSR but SCR as well the

01:11squad cost rules that UEFA are forcing teams to follow and Villa have already had some hefty fines

01:16they don't want more they don't want worse which could potentially be an expulsion from European

01:21competitions they've got to bring their wage bill down and that has really restricted their transfer

01:25business not only have they had to restrict the transfer fees spent because of PSR but they've

01:30also had to think about can they get rid of some high earning players to make room for some new

01:35players to come in it's a lot easier said than done we expected the likes of Emiliano Martinez and

01:41Leon Bailey to get out the door pretty quickly at the start of the summer but that's not happened

01:45the likes of Jacob Ramsey potentially could be on the way out but he's not a highest earner one of the

01:50highest earners at the club it's more bookable profit because he's an academy product could

01:55potentially go to West Ham or Nottingham Forest been a lot of talk there but as I say they need

01:59to get rid of players before they can really think about bringing any in and that has really restricted

02:04them they have brought in a backup goalkeeper to replace Robin Olsen Marco Bizzo from the French

02:10division he was pretty high up among save percentages and clean sheets last season which is decent and he's got

02:16a fair amount of experience over there so I think that makes sense as a backup addition but if

02:21Martinez is going to go they're going to have to sign a new goalkeeper to replace him I don't think

02:25Bizzo is going to be capable of being the number one just yet but there is a positive amongst all of

02:30this and that is that Evan Gesson who's a versatile attacker from France playing for Nice is joining the

02:37club finally out of nowhere this one seems to have come out about 30 million pounds after add-ons

02:43can play as a striker there's a right winger a left winger not really a traditional centre forward

02:48he's not like an Ollie Watkins that gets in behind necessarily he's more of a maybe a Morgan Rogers

02:52type that dribbles at defenders he's quite powerful you can get in behind that way so that's an exciting

02:58signing at least but I think Vin a little lot more if they're going to compete in the Premier League

03:03and the Europa League as we saw last season their squad was laid pretty bare when their injuries at the

03:09start of the year you know I am really hoping they can get a few more names over the line before the end of

03:13transfer window or they won't be in trouble but they might struggle a little bit

03:17Yeah I mean barring any injuries though you do have to look at Villa's squad and think there are still

03:23some incredibly sought-after talents in there obviously Martin as the goalkeeper as you say

03:28he's won that that award to sort of say he's the best goalkeeper in the world for the last couple of

03:33years you know you've got the likes of Uri Tielemans, Amadou Anana and Ollie Watkins obviously a lot of

03:40interest from him as well proven Premier League players exciting players as well like Morgan Rogers

03:46and and Jacob Ramsey obviously that duo that have had a lot of interest that surrounding them last

03:51season incredible numbers I mean at the back of the mind Villa fans have maybe got to look at that and

03:56think you know Emre is a bit of a genius at getting the best out of some of these players and

04:00you know hopefully he can repeat that act. Yeah you're right I mean it feels like on the surface

04:07when so many teams are signing these big money strikers and reinforcing in so many areas getting

04:12stronger Man United Tottenham expected to be back in the mix when Villa aren't doing anything it feels

04:17a bit negative but then you take a step back you realize that Guber Karl Kamara has signed a new

04:21contract Luca Dean as well two very important players Watkins is staying Morgan Rogers they weren't

04:27entertaining the offers for him Martinez looks like he's staying as well which is a big shock considering

04:32what we had at the start of the summer they have got an amazing core to that team Telemans as well

04:36but it's all about keeping them fit throughout a season it's going to be so congested and not

04:42having those defensive reinforcements that Emre really wanted. De Zassi is obviously not going to

04:47be there anymore he was there on loan he had Asensio and Rashford in attack two incredible players to

04:52start or bring off the bench they've not got back anymore. Someone like Doniel Marlon maybe it's time

04:57for him to step up he didn't play too many minutes last season but it is going to be tricky

05:01from a depth perspective but in terms of the the natural core to the team and the first choice 11

05:05fantastic and they can compete the very best it's just can they do it throughout a whole season to

05:10be consistent enough I'm not so sure. And where do you see sort of Unai Emre's goals going into this

05:18season obviously into that in Europe still they are going to be competing again with European Knights

05:24at Villa Park it's we mentioned before that they want a trophy to cap this off they maybe want to go

05:31far further in the FA Cup or or League Cup as well so it's it's a bit of a difficult one for Emre

05:37to navigate because then on the other side of that you do need squad depth to compete so

05:41where do you think you know Emre is in terms of this season how he's feeling because and you know

05:47see a lot of managers get a bit upset and struggle to come to terms with the fact that they might not

05:51have some things to spend in summer windows. I think it's difficult because obviously Villa fans

05:58really want a trophy Emre really wants a trophy the squad really want a trophy as well but the

06:03priority is going to be the Premier League once again and that's not going to be a trophy unless

06:08they perform an absolute miracle. I think top four or probably top five with the UEFA

06:12co-efficiency and again will be enough for Champions League it could be incredibly difficult to do that

06:17but just to get Europe once again I think will be the target. Financially that's really important

06:21and from a sporting perspective as well and to keep hold of these big players you've got to do that.

06:26FA Cup last season they got to the semi-final and they got knocked out by Palace who in the end won

06:31the competition so that that's not too upsetting hopefully this year they can go and

06:35have gone a long run again. Caaba Cup was quite disappointing maybe they can try and go a bit further

06:40in that and then the Europa League is a lot easier than the Champions League. I know it's still a very

06:46difficult competition but Tottenham and Man United who were awful last season managed to get to the

06:51final. Tottenham ending their trophy drought by winning it. Unai Emery has won the competition

06:56four times in the past. Surely they're going to go far in that so that's a good opportunity at least

07:02for a trophy but as I mentioned fixture congestion could be a real problem. It's going to be incredibly

07:07difficult to balance so many competitions.

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