On Monday night, many of us were glued to TV sets, hoping for incoming transfers at Villa Park. As it turned out, just one man turned up – Tom Cleverley – and only after a to-and-fro, it meant the deal was agreed as a loan rather than anything bigger.

On social media, there was much debate about Aston Villa’s activity – or rather a lack thereof – surrounding deadline day. Given Villa’s lack of activity, many fans were judging the club as having missed out, of being lax, or any other combination of statements implying that deadline day purchases were a necessity.

Is that really logical though? Deadline day purchases are normally the hallmark of either a) a group of people who couldn’t get their deals done until late or b) the footballing equivalent of shopping for Christmas presents at 10pm on Christmas Eve.

In an ideal world, the whole transfer window concept would be thrown into the abyss and forgotten about, replaced with free movement at all times. In fact, the only real reason this hasn’t already been done is because limiting movement drives prices up as when supply is limited, price goes up – simple economics – and too many people make too much money from the system.

With Villa only getting Cleverley on loan, one could argue that the club have done the right thing – getting people in early. Sure, Villa haven’t spent a massive fortune on players – and fans will lament that comparatively low spend – but spending it earlier makes sense as it implied forethought and intelligent use of funds, as well as not being at the mercy of panicked spending.

Looking at Villa’s team, there’s a strong argument to say that the team is stronger now than it was last season. Whilst some will say it isn’t the case, consider the following:

Is Aly Cissokho better than Antonio Luna?
Is Carlos Sanchez better than Yacouba Sylla?
Is Philippe Senderos better than Nathan Baker or Ciaran Clark?
Is Kieran Richardson better than Marc Albrighton?
Is Joe Cole better than Aleksandr Tonev?

I’d argue every one of those new recruits are better players than those they replaced. Others may disagree or say that the new recruits are still not good enough but, for the most part, many will agree things are going in the right direction.

Sure, things could be going quicker but, as has been the case for a long while, there are fundamental limitations the club have suffered on, and continue to be impacted by. Despite the return of the Bomb Squad, there are still financial implications to paying those players wages.

If there’s one other thing that causes issues financially, it’s the reality that Villa are competing on a wholly different playing field to the top teams. Manchester United have, if you believe reports, looked at shelling at £350k a week for Radamel Falcao – a wage that makes Villa’s wages look a mere shadow of that.

Even if the average was 10% of Falcao’s wage – and the reality is it is less, albeit marginally – there’s a shocking reality that illustrates how even mid-table is a world away from the biggest spenders, and how Villa’s progress could take decades to even get to any kind of comparable level.

Such a statement is probably not what fans want to hear, but Villa are priced out of any quick progress. In addition, even if the club had £350k to offer a single individual, do you really think they would pick Villa ahead of what would be a massive queue of alternative suitors? No? Me either.

So, as we look back at a transfer window where little happened late on, the question has to be whether getting rid of deadline day would help everyone out – Villa included – or if the twice yearly event of the window shutting is something we’ll have to put up with for the foreseeable future.

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Matt Turvey
Matt is the owner of, and chief writer for, Aston Villa Life. He is also a columnist for the Wolverhampton Express & Star, appearing in the Kick Off pullout on Saturdays and the Final Whistle pullout the Monday after Aston Villa play, as well as every Thursday as a blogger on their website. He has previously been featured as a writer on Football365 and Life's A Pitch, and was a regular pundit for Sports Tonight TV on Sky.

Comments 63

  1. Tony H

    There’s an awful lot wrong with the game but transfer deadline day captures most of it.

    I’d love to see transfer deadline day being the same day as the charity shield.

    Even then – I’d put a price limit on the deals done that day (£10m). A higher limit on the day before (£15m) all the way back to a week before the deadline. Before that – they can pay what they want and agents, clubs and players would have little time to mess about with brinksmanship etc.

    The January window should be only two weeks.

    When scouts and teams should be looking at players day in and day out, all year round – they shouldn’t have this luxury of wasted time to mess fans about.

    And we are MUGS by the way. MUGS – the majority of football fans know nothing about football and it is for this ignorant majority all football reporting goes down to transfers, spending money and personalities (what player backs another player, what managers said that can be hammed up etc etc). Rarely about proper football, tactics, player’s strengths, defence – anything that matters.

    It’s why the media treat us like mugs by printing every piece of hearsay and transfer non-news (either based on complete fiction or some agent drumming up interest in a player) in order for us to link to their webpages. And we (some of us) do this in full knowledge that the story is guff.

    I’m beginning to hate the increasing cost in terms of time and attention of following football and this f*cking circus is one of the strongest arguments that the game is destroying itself.

  2. proxopera

    Good article matt , I kinda like DLD, its a fascinating display of panic , greed , paranoia, status anxiety , and often sheer stupidity. Theres always one club whose all fur coat but no knickers , it used to be Blackburn , then Newcastle, then Middlesbrough, Portsmouth, and now its qpr. It takes more than gambling the rent money to be a top club. Villa seem to have learnt their lesson and the I’d consider the not-so-cleverly deal a win for villa in terms of conducting business.

  3. Clive Evans

    Another thought provoking piece as usual Matt.
    My views on the intake compared with the ‘incumbents’ – I have to agree that they add to the squad, mainly because they bring top-flight experience that some of our younger players have not gained yet; look at the improvement in central defence already topped up with the recall of Hutton.
    Cissokho has strengthened the left back position as well.
    Sanchez, Richardson and Cole – the jury is still out so time will tell.

    As far as the transfer window is concerned, you are right it is all about money sugared with the excuse that it allows clubs to play settled squads between windows. Good managers can achieve that without interference from Governing bodies and they should be allowed to.

    The main winners here are the agents who seek every chance to hike up the value of their players in a slowly vanishing window. Of course we also saw the player trying to do the same but a bit too Cleverley!

    I’ll be interested to see what others think.

  4. southwestvillan

    Matt,

    I think you are right about most of the players brought in although to be fair they did not have much in the way of comparison as most of those former players were terrible at best.

    The window is a sham but the media love it, reporters at every stadium and training ground waiting for the blacked limousines to turn up, what an absolute farce, a countdown like new years eve to 11.00 waiting for the window to slam shut only to hear some clubs have applied for an extension, pathetic does not cover it.

    We had all the tools in place when MON took us to three consecutive sixth place finishes, a 42,000 stadium with one of the best set of fans any club could wish for, if the club had been managed properly we could have kicked on at a sensible pace instead of pulling up the drawbridge.

    But as you quite rightly say the football landscape has changed and we have fallen further behind and it will take massive investment to get us anywhere near the top six, we may never see it happen because anyone looking to put money into a football club are most likely never going to see a return, so we may be stuck in our current position for years to come or until the bubble bursts with SKY and BT and the Sheiks,Russians etc get bored and do a bunk and the like of Cite£ and Chelski go to the wall.

    UTV

  5. SuperBox

    Deadline day is a cynical attempt to engineer excitement into something which doesn’t intrinsically have much excitement value to it.

    the clubs go along wioth this chargde as they have no choice, they are all out to get the best deal they can. and won’t let palyers move until they have replacements.

    Deals done early aren’t a sign of good planing or good admin on a clubs part, it’s a sign of good luck the player you want doesn’t have any hold ups joining you.

    Whatever the DLD merits, the window should shut before the season starts – I can’t see why it closes 3 games in.

  6. Mark King

    hi matt

    I think the players that have come in are an improvement
    for one main reason. forget ability on the ball etc, these players know where to stand on a football pitch. this helps in every aspect of our team play.
    In stark contrast Delph for England did ok, apart from one stray pass he did what you would expect from an international, but his positional sense and movement made him look like a lost sheep at times. it was painful.
    while not overly impressed buy the players coming in at first they have proved their worth so far and along with the bomb squad should provide a solid base. especially if the new more measured style of play brings the best out of our miss-firing forwards ( can’t wait for benteke to be fit). now this may prove otherwise against the top teams as in the last to seasons we have done well or got the rub of the green. I think it will provide a truer barometer of where we are.

    the spending has been ridiculous and manure adding £350k to rooneys £300k is a joke god knows what the rest are on. it smacks of desperation and could land them in the shit if they don’t make chumps league.

    Transfer deadline day adds some excitement and with managers accessing their squads over the first 3 games means you can pick up a late bargain or two as teams try to shed players/wages when they realise there in for a hard season and panic buy.

    as you say we are not in the same financial league as some and we are in transition anyhow. Lerner realised this and put things in motion to reduce and go again then when the stick became to much jibbed out I believe. fair enough who needs the hassle? we will just have to see what the future brings.

  7. Roderick Seel (Sam)

    I am ok with deadline day perse, but i do object to sky turning it into something akin to Americas Draft Day. People camped out at every ground having alsorts of god knows what shoved in their ears. It is tuned into a circus and we are partly to blame. We hang on their every word having debates whether a player is or isn’t good enough even though it’s only gossip! I wonder if the film crews will be at the homes of the players families next year getting their reaction to possible moves…the mind boggles.

    As to the players we have landed, well that remains to be seen, the next 2 months are the yard stick to which the will be measured. The manager has been found wanting i wonder how his new charges will acquit themselves. As usual we are fighting for the scraps, oh for the heady days of having a drawbridge to raise, these days its more a public footpath!

    great piece as usual Matt.

    UTV

  12. Haggis

    Great Article Warwick and my sentiments exactly.

    We could of easily followed Leeds and Portsmouth after MON era of silly contracts and wages. Still puzzles me why Man U pay £350K a week for a Striker when they have an abundance of World class strikers.

    Mark Thanks for the Links and education. We can stick to the rules with a 25 man squad but could also have another 30+ under 21’s to use if needed.

    Come September 28Th I can guarantee that Villa park will not only be a fortress but will win every single game by at least 4-0 and Come January will see the likes of Messi sign for us. Ok it will be on Fifa 15 but its a start.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YaAEvBtGCEo

  13. B62 Villa

    Matt
    I think all right minded fans are of the same mind , football is morally bankrupt. The figures floating around are obscene in the premier league as they are for a lot of the top teams around Europe. The champions league has created monsters, that are out of control, FFP doesn’t affect this is just puts a glass ceiling for others trying to better themselves, FFP won’t last long term , it can’t as it will be challenged at some point and it’s very foundations are built on sand.
    We cannot compete with the likes of Manure and City, Chelsea etc, but we should be able to compete with the like of Everton , Newcastle etc etc.
    SWV is right, if the club had been run properly we could have built sensibly on the MON era, we prob wouldn’t be in the top 4 but would be competing for 5/6/7 and Europe, now we are lucky to stay up.
    This could have been avoided with proper planning and football people at the club, we seem to go round in circles on this very debate.
    A line needs to be drawn when the new owner takes over( whenever that may be), I think we will stay up, and look more solid, we still lack creativity and won’t win too many games, but Im hoping we keep the opposition out aswell especially at home.
    Is this good enough, absutely not, but until these scumbags leave our beloved club we have no choice , hopefully the bastards will be gone sooner rather than later.

  14. Mark King

    b62
    I don’t know what’s worse knowing in the right hands we could be at least top 6 regulars or seeing the complete naivety and ineptitude of the lerner era. I don’t think there has been any ulterior motive just plain old buying a complicated toy and not reading the instructions, lerner got mugged

  15. Heroes-and-Villans

    After/ going through turmoil….are/will Lambert and Learner learn from there mistakes and are we going on the right path now, finally?

    New ceo, realising we need experience, trying to keep the ball more etc. If we do get new owners will the turmoil all start again?

    Just a thought

  16. Lionheart

    There is an awful lot wrong with football full stop.

    The Elite Mafia are dominating it.. and give it a couple more years will be doing 50M player 12 month ‘loan’ signings to get around FFP..

    When a club like Man U in ONE loan signing can gazump half Prem the leagues entire budget then we know just how ‘fair’ FPP really is..!!

    As for deadline day.. yes it is wrong.. with money being spunked around senselessly.. but to be honest i LOVE it.. the fact the Prem is flush with cash right now.. so we might as well see some entertainment while it lasts..

    While we are on a similair topic.. for years i wanted VIlla to compete the ‘right’ way.. But seeing how only mega bucks talk.. how Saints have been raided like it is a business in Administration and everything is up for sale.. i am now very happy indeed for a mega mega rich owner to buy us and we have our own Adebayor out on loan to another club while we pay 50% of his 120K wages..

    If you can’t beat them.. better to join them 🙂

  17. Graham O'Gara

    Excellent post.

    I do feel the squad took a step in the right direction through the summer, to me Cleverly on loan is a very decent deal, the fee is already agreed I believe so if he comes good Brilliant, if not he can toddle of back to Manchester. Its a deal that just for a change favours Villa… not the other way round.

    Transfer Deadlines are the opposite end of the scale to the old days when the big clubs could wander in at any time of the season and turn a players head… often when a small team was doing well… often with the affect of weakening the team or destabilizing it… so it is a protection of means for smaller teams, but it also plays in to the hand of greedy agents and players… its a tough question to give to get a proper answer to in protecting clubs and players throughout the season and also not battering clubs with fee’s and wages….

    As for TDD is lost its charm, I can’t be bothered to sit and listen to SSN anymore witting on about whats if’s and maybe’s 99% of the time… although the dildo incident was a nice surprise in the 15 minutes i did see just to catch up with what was going on.

  18. runtings

    Excellent Matt

    i also believe we have a better team now than at any other moment of PL being in charge

    clearly lambert has not got the skills to build a young side with a so called limited budget which is still way more than most other prem lge teams

    I think the base we have now could have been aquired in his first season which would have put is further up the lge and made us more attractive over the course of time were we could now be going for a better standard of player with needed many bodies

    the team is noe balanced in a way the the young players can also get games and develop without been thrown out to the lions every week to sink or swim , rather they can build there confidence and experience at a more natural rate

    On a positive note i have been able to watch the team play this season without cringing every 2 mins so something better is happening at the minute

  20. Mark King

    interesting that Southampton pulled in £105 mil spent 64 mil (on what?) and koeman couldn’t spend the rest no matter how he tried. just goes to show that having money
    doesn’t mean the players will come, we have moved on to having mega money instead. its ridiculous wages and prestige our heroes want.

    on the Jan transfer window scrap being able to buy players, then its loans only, and that’s if you have over a certain number of long term injuries. as GOG said an open transfer market enables big teams to manipulate the league and the Jan window does just that. Imagine we lose Vlaar,delph,gabby,benteke in jan wouldn’t look good would it? oh ok gabby can go 😉

  21. steamer

    Okore, Tetchi Jores Charlemagne U

    Bet he’d have loved to have met Ivanhoe.

    Does this 25 man palava mean Grealish can’t play in the first team ? they’ve changed so many regulations in recent years, we’ll be having more than one sub next.

    I wouldn’t have a transfer window at all, clubs like Untied and Pool can then sign everybody and disappear in a sea of debt and we’ll win the league with our mediocrities…. as long as Lamberts not boss.

  23. Mark King

    runtingz

    “clearly lambert has not got the skills to build a young side with a so called limited budget which is still way more than most other prem lge teams”

    “I think the base we have now could have been aquired in his first season which would have put is further up the lge and made us more attractive over the course of time were we could now be going for a better standard of player with needed many bodies”

    does anyone know if any team in prem history has successfully, in two seasons, constructed a side with so little experience and so many youngsters? and survived? I can’t think of any. so rather than Lambert being unable to do this, has or is there anyone who’s been able to in such a tough league?

    I think that such was the constraints on the wage bill that I don’t think we could of gone that route in the first season and maybe not even the second because of wage constraints and the suicidal attempt at recreating Busby’s babes. are we not only just now in a decent position wages wise?

  27. steamer

    Mark,
    Man Untied.
    Didn’t the wage bill increase last year ? and with all these cre….. sorry new players, it can only be worse for the new owner.

  30. runtings

    Mark – interesting that the wages has dropped by 10k per week but the team itself has nose dived in the proccess and with the lack of quailty prehaps keeping some of the high earners who also a generally better footballers we would have finished much higher up the table poss better cup runs equals more prize money to balance out the wages

    The wages needed to be cut fair enough but buying 10 to 16 avarage to poor players was never the anwser imo

    get a good first 11 to 13 players and fill the gaps with our acadamy hopefulls which is what we are now doing would have both been more benifical and progressive for the club — again imo but hey what do i know 🙂

  31. Mark King

    steamer
    they might be but why put them up.
    its been roughly the same between 70-74mil the last three years but that includes all the players we couldn’t get rid of! so operating two squads on massively different wages almost. so last year wages had gone up slightly.

  32. Mark King

    runtingz
    if they had caught it earlier say after mon’s second season
    we might of been ok. remember the dross mon signed and was paying 40,000 a week on 5 year contracts? I think our average wage was 47K week. we were losing a lot of money. money at that the 40k level is no guarantee, we wouldn’t be getting much for 40k and as the injuries proved we would probably dropped with such a thin squad. It wasn’t a fantastic Idea but I can see the logic financially

  35. Ian

    Thanks Matt

    If there was a cap on spending then the whole scenario would change. Smaller teams would be able to compete. The big teams would actually have to scout and not be a child in a free candy store grabbing everything they think is good. Players would have to work at their game as every position would become competitive. Teams would be restricted in their raiding of other teams since the money would be limited.
    Transfer periods are stupid. have an open trade, sell, loan all season long with a deadline towards the end of the season-say 10 games to go.

    Was Villa lucky to land Cleverly or was it a fine piece of brinkmanship that brought him to Villa without a big spend?

  40. Mark King

    I would love one Ian, it would make football fun again. managers can’t build a team without seeing their work destroyed after 3 years when its just starting to bear fruit. forest and us would never have won the European cup today, even our managers would be nicked

  41. @RonnieBiggs

    Some online publications are saying that Villa Fans are unhappy with our dealings but I for one am satisfied with the job that PL and perhaps RK have done to somewhat rebuild and strengthen the team/squad of course bringing back the bombsquad and injury returnees helps. We’ll be 3rd just long enough for a nice cupper but a top ten finish is certainly doable if some of the vets play well and we get a couple of big performances where you’d expect like Cleverley, Sanchez (or maybe you’re not expecting much from either/both) or where maybe you didn’t want to ask for too much too soon (Okore, Grealish).
    Certainly ALOT more positive than I have been for a quite a while and the Delph progress is encouraging and sends a message to the likes of Westwood and Grealish et al to push on!!! UTV

  44. Paul Pears

    MK

    Thank you for all your excellent research which make interesting reading.

    Steamer….told you a long time ago on here that gabby never wanted to move, because, apart from Bent , he was villa’s highest earner, and yes the salaries are all fact, and can be identified from the club’s accounts, which are available from Company’s House in Cardiff.

    I hope as Villa fans that we get behind Cleverley, and make him welcome. Mcgrath would not have spoken if he did not think the player was someone who could become another hero at Villa.

    I hope everyone now appreciates how very average the players wages are, and that most of the experienced players are only on £25K to £30K per week.

    i am totally behind the team, and encouraged by the fact that we are basically playing the same team each week, so that they build together. Something Lambert has been unable to do before.

  46. steamer

    Someone in the caff just told what the London/Liverpool/Manchester rep team that beat Norway was, absolutely dire. If Grealish was on Arsenals books he’d have been in the squad at least, if Chambers can get in on a couple of games, why not JG ? If Hodgson isn’t careful he’ll lose JG to Ireland which England have often done in the past with McGrath, O’Leary, Nicholl etc and another Villa great, Bruce Rioch, to Scotland. The England bosses, Capello excluded, seem to think that outside of the clubs in Man, Liv and Lon no-one can kick a ball.

  48. Paul Pears

    Steamer

    Glad you have confirmed what we all really knew…..

    Us old timers have great memories, but perhaps glide more easily over the bad times, which always diminish with time. I was watching the third replay for the League Cup at Old Trafford the other day and it brought back some good memories.

    In time, from the last couple of seasons, we will remember beating Liverpool and Arsenal away, Man City at home and the destruction of Sunderland, but the rest will fade quietly.

    The only big bad memory from the past is Arsenal and Ted Drake scoring seven times in reply to our one….

  49. Ian

    Mark, that article are my thoughts exactly. Common sense has to rear its head sooner or later as like the fellow said, attendances are falling. It can’t be much different in the other leagues on the continent. Perhaps it’s good thinking to just keep one’s place in the Prem until things change.
    Aww Steamer, and I thought you were a nose giving Villa a beating every day in disguise as a Villa supporter. 🙂

  59. @RonnieBiggs

    Yes Mark,

    Wouldn’t it be strange if we beat the scousers and Chelsea then beat Swansea and we were 2nd.
    There I go again getting by hopes up only for Villa to let me down. U’d think I’d learn.

    Villa supporter= masochist sometimes I wonder.

    Til next week!

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