Start of the season

I understand the desire to have players in this week but it's unlikely anyone coming in now will go straight into the team anyway, so what is the rush? Why not get the right player (price included within definition of right) during the window and settle for that? I wish the window shut earlier too by the way, but it doesn't, so they are always going to hold out for the best price they can get in the timeframe, especially if others are seemingly interested. If the window had shut this week, we maybe would have got £14-5m for Brady but we might get closer to £18m if we hold out now that others are showing their hand. (Still hope he stays)

As the Villa chairman mentioned in one of his tweets, when dealing with top flight teams on transfers, we are further down the chain of transfers so they need to secure theirs first before letting players go, and on down the chain it goes. By the way, I recognise Fulham and us do not fall into this hierarchy so am not directly comparing the two scenarios.

I was never really convinced by the McC transfer myself. I understand people saying just pay the extra million but what if we then get gazumped again - do we just pay another million, and another? For a team that has never paid more than £8.5m, to say £11m and £12m are more or less the same is a bit of a stretch. That said, I could have understood them stretching from £9m to £10m for Afobe last year and we are suffering a lot from 'I told you so' now, having not spent the money, but it seems, regardless of the change in prices this summer, to smash our transfer record by many millions while in the Championship seems to be somewhat closing the stable door once the horse has bolted....

P Davitt was going on about some player, that I didn't know, that was his tip for a great buy in the champs. I'll try to find it - he mentioned him on the podcast recently.

I feel we are light up top too. We do need to do something. I'm not convinced that Ross = Premier League but I don't have the answer either. I like Laff but he hasn't convinced me in pre-season. I won't read too much into that, as it is pre-season, but it would be quite surprising to see him here in September.

Posted By: Jester, Aug 2, 14:56:47