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Are Villa doing a Fulham?


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I haven't seen anyone say this. I'm no expert but from what I've seen Villa seem to be making shrewd additions. Perhaps I'd have said the same about Fulham last summer, players like Schurrle and Seri should have been real coups.

I think Villas signings have been more well thought through though.

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This answer is a complete and utter cop out... but here it goes: MAYBE.

I think there's a big risk in making so many changes to the squad all at once. Especially after promotion, I think @Harvsky said it somewhere else on here - the difference between survival in the bottom half and relegation is team cohesiveness. This many new faces in the squad can damage the cohesion from last season, as you've got all of these new (presumably first team) players coming into the side that need to learn a new system, maybe a new language, and gel with their new teammates. Meanwhile, I think the old faces may see all of these new players immediately brought in for big money and think "does the manager actually think any of us that won promotion are good enough?" - probably not all of them, but some players are confidence players and need to feel their manager believes in them for them to play their best.

On the other hand, I have no idea how much research Villa put into their scouting. Maybe they signed players that aren't going to take much time, if any, to fit in with the system. Maybe they'll fit in personality wise in the dressing room just fine. Maybe the level of play these players will bring to Villa will actually improve those remaining squad members from last season, as they're that quality and can raise their new teammates up to a whole new level.

It's really impossible to say. It can go like the big spending did with Fulham and be a disgraceful disappointment. It can go like it did with Wolves and be an astounding success (although it'll probably be a lot less dodgy than the Wolves deal with Mendes). Or it can go somewhere in between.

I think it's pretty lazy to see a promoted side spending a lot and just think "well what if they end up like Fulham?!" because last season we had 2 big spending promoted teams and one did pretty fucking well for itself. Why is nobody asking "Are Villa doing a Wolves?" And I am aware that somewhere else on this forum I posted "I hope Villa don't do a Fulham" (or something along those lines) - but I never claimed I wasn't lazy xD

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6 minutes ago, Dr. Gonzo said:

This fucked with my eyes, I confused the placement of each word xD

I had to double take to check I hadn't used a word twice but am pretty pleased with the end result there.

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18 minutes ago, RandoEFC said:

I had to double take to check I hadn't used a word twice but am pretty pleased with the end result there.

Definitely took you half an hour to check :ph34r:

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1 hour ago, RandoEFC said:

I haven't seen anyone say this. I'm no expert but from what I've seen Villa seem to be making shrewd additions. Perhaps I'd have said the same about Fulham last summer, players like Schurrle and Seri should have been real coups.

I think Villas signings have been more well thought through though.

Social media algorithms in effect, my feeds on various platforms are understandably Villa centric and it’s been something I’ve seen multiple times. You get a lot of football blogs and opposition fans saying it. Seems it’s not a mainstream school of thought then

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I don't think we are, if you look at the signings we've made 3 of them played for Villa last season and some of the others are straight replacements i.e. Wesley has come in to replace Tammy and Guilbert has come in to fill the void left by Hutton. The deals have also been completed pretty early meaning all the players have been able to have a full pre-season with the club. 

Fulham left some of their signings very late, choosing to sign 'marquee' players like Seri and Schurlle - both relatively big names for Fulham and both failed to have a real impact. You also need to consider how the team was set up to play, particularly during Jokanovic's tenure!

Time will tell of course, but I do think our signings are strategic rather than reactive. For the first time in a few years I'm very excited about the signings we've made, fingers crossed most of them work out!  

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35 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Social media algorithms in effect, my feeds on various platforms are understandably Villa centric and it’s been something I’ve seen multiple times. You get a lot of football blogs and opposition fans saying it. Seems it’s not a mainstream school of thought then

I mean just because it’s not a commonly held view on here, doesn’t mean the Twitter twats don’t disagree with us. And there’s more of them than there are of us.

I’ve seen it said a few places online, so I’m not surprised you’ve seen more of it, given you’re a Villa fan.

But like I said, it’s pretty lazy thinking when we had two big spending promotes sides last season. It could go either way, or somewhere in between

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44 minutes ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Social media algorithms in effect, my feeds on various platforms are understandably Villa centric and it’s been something I’ve seen multiple times. You get a lot of football blogs and opposition fans saying it. Seems it’s not a mainstream school of thought then

Not necessarily the case. I've not seen much about Villa at all to be honest, so I don't know what the prevailing or mainstream opinions are.

My own uninformed opinion is that you're probably not doing a Fulham.

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I think possibly, but you've got to be extraordinarily bad to go full Fulham. I think the key difference with you is that you're securing a lot of the players you already had while Fulham tried to totally revamp their whole side.

I do think you could drop though. I have this sneaky feeling it could all unravel and you end up in trouble. Do think while there's some interesting buys, there's a lot of overpaying for mediocrity in there.

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4 hours ago, Dan said:

I think possibly, but you've got to be extraordinarily bad to go full Fulham. I think the key difference with you is that you're securing a lot of the players you already had while Fulham tried to totally revamp their whole side.

I do think you could drop though. I have this sneaky feeling it could all unravel and you end up in trouble. Do think while there's some interesting buys, there's a lot of overpaying for mediocrity in there.

You mean Mings and Targett I think that’s the going rate really for an England U21 left back and you’ve seen the price of English centre backs this year yourself. 

 

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I don't think so.

Fulham's best signing was Seri, from Nice, last summer but it appears all the other guff they signed couldn't get going.

Villa's best strength they have is that they haven't been out of the Premier League that long. Yes it was longer than they'd have wanted but it's only been 3 years? The infrastructure and status is there anyway which can go some way to helping you stay up. Not to mention you've got a very good midfielder in the squad anyway (Grealish) that probably could do enough along with a few others to stay in. 

McGinn will be decent in this league and if you sign Douglas Luiz that's good business too. 

I'm not sure what this Wesley guy is like that you signed last month but maybe a more experienced striker is required to get you safe first then start to consolidate/improve next season. A signing in the Glenn Murray mould would be perfect. Age not on their side but the so-called 'know-how' in this division goes a long way. 

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It depends on the Villa owner and board if Villa are hovering around the relegation zone with a few games to go just keep your fingers crossed that the normal won't happen, they sack the guy that got them up from the Championship.

I hope they do well and it's nice to see them back, after all, they did win the European Cup in 1981/2 and the European Super Cup 1982 and they should have never gone down the pan over the years as they did, avoid relegation this year and settle in and give the manager Dean Smith a chance to get them up there with the big boys again in winning trophies. 

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Easy to make that assumption because they are spending big and bringing in players left, right and centre but it's a very lazy comparison IMO.

Villa do not play anything like Fulham, they won't leave themselves so open to attack IMO. Fulham played exactly how they did in the Championship and were exposed by the step up in quality after promotion. They couldn't adapt.

Villa do not play as good football as Fulham did going forward in the Championship, but they are more rigid. The players know their roles and stick to them.

I also think Villa have more chemistry between their players than Fulham. Whilst talented, I never felt Fulham were a 'team', more individuals brought together in the hope they would gel. With Villa, they want to fight for one another from what I saw under Dean Smith.

My only question is I think Villa's quality is questionable. Some unknown quantities together with players who are back ups for average PL sides.

But maybe this will bring the hest out of them now being first choice somewhere else.

I think they'll be ok personally. People will talk about Grealish but McGinn is the main man for me. He will be a big hit in the PL i think.

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It’s likely Villa will go on a losing streak, Dean Smith is a man of losing streaks and winning streaks in the same season. Whether Villa’s board will put up with that is a different question.

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