£25m as a transfer budget. You know, there was a time not so long ago that such an amount would have seemed a mammoth amount to spend, and not exactly so long ago that none of us were born.
No, a mere 17 years ago, we signed Savo Milosevic for £3.5m and, whilst he earned the unfortunate title of “Miss-a-lot-evic”, he has a better goals to games ratio than our very own Gabriel Agbonlahor – something to contemplate when we dispassionately review the squad through the manager’s eyes.
Back in the 90s, £25m would have been a fortune. Nowadays? Not so much.
With that said, and given Aston Villa need to be sensible and look at investing heavily in their repeatedly porous defence, £25m should buy most of a whole back four at a reasonable price. Oh and trust me, we really could do with a new defence after these few years.
It isn’t the sort of move that gets fans hearts racing – many fans would prefer to buy two flair players than a solid bunch of defenders – but, without a defence, we really are asking for trouble.
It is rare for me to be sitting quoting the Bible in my articles about Villa, but the old saying about building a house on sand rings true although I doubt Christianity ever wrote that with the intention of helping our club, despite how many times we might say “Oh God!” at games at Villa Park.
You see, we can’t move forwards if we don’t have some way of closing out things at the back. When Alex McLeish made this his ethos, he ended up in a whole world of trouble, but stopping losing sloppy goals is a good plan – just a shame he didn’t really do much else, and debatable he even did that much of the time.
Now I know there is a swashbuckling logic to simply outscoring your opponent, and it may well be seen as valid tactic, but ask yourself which is more feasible with £25m in 2012? Shoring up our defence or buying at least one winger and a new striker?
Don’t forget the club will probably want the contract cost included in that £25m net figure too – so you would be lucky to find two flair players for that kind of money.
Now I am no different to those that want good players coming in – I would buy Victor Moses rather than a defender in an ideal world – but, when any of us steps back and looks at our squad, we can’t really justify frivolous spending on icing on the cake when the cake, frankly, appears to have been made out of garbage. Needs must and all that.
Who knows though? Maybe Paul Lambert may have some ability to turn our defence into a solid brick wall without investing in them. If he does, then the guy will deserve a knighthood considering how ramshackle they have been for several years now.
Don’t expect miracles though. Lambert will do well if funded financially and backed with time, but he may see his first purchases sitting in the “solid and dependable” category rather than the “Cruyffian football” one.
Villa have based football on the solidity of defence in the past with past heroes such as Olof Mellberg, Martin Laursen, and Paul McGrath, getting back to players of that ilk would leave me very happy indeed. Getting back to a defence that doesn’t treat the ball like a mortar that needs to be fired 700 yards forwards as soon as anyone comes within 30 yards would be an improvement to be fair.
Whatever happens though, the manager has the potential to finally move forwards. After two years of the reverse, I will gladly take that even if it means signing the more sensible option players than seeing a gamble on another pacy winger.
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