Well, this has been a 10-day period of transfer action ... and some action at that. There must be some doubt as to whether Steve Bruce reads Aston Villa Life to determine what we thought/think of the squad's weaknesses, but the signings seem to me to indicate that he's on a similar wavelength to a lot of us. And I've just had a marvellous insight into why that might be ... it must be the fact he's English without pretence to being influenced by foreign thinking. He's of the old school, and I for one am hugely relieved by that even if I shared doubt with some on the suitability of his appointment.
Anyhow, he's clearly worked out where in the team the weaknesses lie, and in the kind of signings he's made he's clearly been unhappy with dealing with players who are not committed or skilled enough to fully contribute to the cause, or players that sometimes think that just to get on the pitch and do a shimmy or two qualifies them for hero status. And talking of which I've been bringing to mind how until about 20 years ago, to be locally-born and to play for Villa was a big thing and such players are found in Villa's history to be the bedrock of Villa's old successes. Locally-born great captains like Devey, Spencer, Bache, Moss and Walker come to mind, but since Walker's retirement in 1933, there have been precious few who have been anywhere near the quality of that group. Thankfully, however, Harry Potts, Frank Moss jnr., Harry Parkes, Peter Aldis, Alan Deakin, John Deehan, Garry Shaw and Ian Taylor have flown the local flag with distinction in the last few decades, while the reason why highly-hyped players like Collymore and Grealish have not met that level of commitment intrigues me. And with Gabby and Vassell we have suffered two other local disappointments, it has to be said.
The call I have read to "develop a significant core of our current squad and academy players" resonates with me, also, but it would appear that at present we have virtually no-one from that group who will much help the Doctor's target of promotion this season. If that is his target then bringing in comparatively untried players would almost certainly cause delay. But it does not mean to say that academy players should not be given their chance to shine as substitutes at the right moments in a match ... or towards the end of the season should the target be missed.
Anyhow, all those who have voiced their doubts about the suitability of Hutton, Westwood and Bacuna must now be cheered by the kind of recruits that have just been signed, players that appear to be experienced professionals, ambitious and also seem to be multi-skilled, hopefully adding weighty support to the scoring instincts of Mr. Kodjia.
But wait! We also read that Steve Bruce likes two strikers up front, and it appears that he doesn't mean that Gabby is the second of those two. He appears to be earnestly looking for another bright spark to assist Jonathan, and there are 3 days left in this window for that to happen.
Now all these lovely signings are still fine on paper ... but we have to see how they work out in practise. And with Villa on the tele on Tuesday at Brentford we should be able to detect how good they might be. If they prove to be what we needed let us hope there is enough time for their impact to be felt and that we start zooming up the table. In fact, new signing Hourihane told the club's website: “For Villa, I hope we go on a run now and get into the play-offs. That’s what we will be fighting for every single day in training. ..."
It appears there's still hope!
Anyhow, he's clearly worked out where in the team the weaknesses lie, and in the kind of signings he's made he's clearly been unhappy with dealing with players who are not committed or skilled enough to fully contribute to the cause, or players that sometimes think that just to get on the pitch and do a shimmy or two qualifies them for hero status. And talking of which I've been bringing to mind how until about 20 years ago, to be locally-born and to play for Villa was a big thing and such players are found in Villa's history to be the bedrock of Villa's old successes. Locally-born great captains like Devey, Spencer, Bache, Moss and Walker come to mind, but since Walker's retirement in 1933, there have been precious few who have been anywhere near the quality of that group. Thankfully, however, Harry Potts, Frank Moss jnr., Harry Parkes, Peter Aldis, Alan Deakin, John Deehan, Garry Shaw and Ian Taylor have flown the local flag with distinction in the last few decades, while the reason why highly-hyped players like Collymore and Grealish have not met that level of commitment intrigues me. And with Gabby and Vassell we have suffered two other local disappointments, it has to be said.
The call I have read to "develop a significant core of our current squad and academy players" resonates with me, also, but it would appear that at present we have virtually no-one from that group who will much help the Doctor's target of promotion this season. If that is his target then bringing in comparatively untried players would almost certainly cause delay. But it does not mean to say that academy players should not be given their chance to shine as substitutes at the right moments in a match ... or towards the end of the season should the target be missed.
Anyhow, all those who have voiced their doubts about the suitability of Hutton, Westwood and Bacuna must now be cheered by the kind of recruits that have just been signed, players that appear to be experienced professionals, ambitious and also seem to be multi-skilled, hopefully adding weighty support to the scoring instincts of Mr. Kodjia.
But wait! We also read that Steve Bruce likes two strikers up front, and it appears that he doesn't mean that Gabby is the second of those two. He appears to be earnestly looking for another bright spark to assist Jonathan, and there are 3 days left in this window for that to happen.
Now all these lovely signings are still fine on paper ... but we have to see how they work out in practise. And with Villa on the tele on Tuesday at Brentford we should be able to detect how good they might be. If they prove to be what we needed let us hope there is enough time for their impact to be felt and that we start zooming up the table. In fact, new signing Hourihane told the club's website: “For Villa, I hope we go on a run now and get into the play-offs. That’s what we will be fighting for every single day in training. ..."
It appears there's still hope!
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