35% possession. 13 shots. Four on target.
On their own, statistics mean little to nothing. Looking at the above, a person could be forgiven for thinking the figures above were for the losing team but, against Sunderland, it was enough for Aston Villa to take all three points.
Which is why, in a sense, casual analysis never really needs to go any deeper than who scored and who didn’t – the only true statistic that matters is the final score.
Of course, this isn’t to say that all wins are beautiful, nor that all wins are deserved. Yes, Villa, much like every other club on the planet, will have bad and good days. Sometimes there will be wins that were lucky, sometimes the same luck will give us nil points.
What is fairly evident though is that Villa need to augment the team, and fairly quickly. January is, sadly, a period where prices are inflated artificially, largely because of the fact that the league imposes a window of business when there had historically been free trade all season.
So, in a sense, if Villa are to buy genuine quality players, there may be multiple reasons why they have to pay over the odds. For a club like Villa, one who has operated at the wrong end of the table for several years now, the options are limited primarily to foreign players or people from lower leagues.
Why? Well reasoning dictates several things. Firstly, there is the well documented and illustrated fact that Villa’s wage bill is low, and is likely to remain in such a place for the short term at least – with unwanted players taking up hundreds of thousands of pounds per week, margins are tight.
It isn’t just the wage bill itself though. If Villa wanted to go for players with dedicated experience in the Premier League, there are several limited categories the club can choose from – players who are unwanted by their current clubs because they are too old or not good enough and/or mercenaries who will go where the money is.
Looking at those categories individually, neither particularly fits Villa’s plan. The first category is, surely, not sensible in the long term – will a failed player from another team be a worthy addition?
Some could argue that players who are surplus from the very top teams would be good buys, but much would depend on just how much money these individuals are looking to command. If you’ve played for a Chelsea, Manchester City, or Manchester United, chances are you won’t be on the £10-30k most of Villa’s newer recruits are earning. So, with that in mind, and with the required fans being unlikely to want to come to Villa just for who the club is, we’re back to one other category.
The other category, sadly, is one that has been well travelled in the not-too-distant past. Not only do Villa have their “Bomb Squad” full of individuals who are massively overpaid, but the whole of the Martin O’Neill era was based on flashing the cash.
Which isn’t to suggest spending lots of money is a bad thing per se, but it still ultimately comes down to value. For example, were many of the players put on £30-40k under O’Neill really great value? Or, to look at it from another angle, is Ron Vlaar a bargain being paid around £22k?
Of course, Villa biggest signing of all time – Darren Bent – was a January capture, and one who has cost the club a fair amount in terms of financial outlay, made even more poor value after the owner sold his supply line. At that point, it is honestly hard to understand two key things – how the owner or CEO has any kind of coherent plan, and how either of them understands the game at all.
All of the above leads me to the concern many feel in January – how can the club navigate an austerity based wage structure in January, without overpaying or being unable to bid because of such restraints? More to the point, do the board – not just the manager – have any longer term plan to know how to maximise value?
I have to admit I have my sincere concerns when they [the board] are willing to buy expensive individuals, only to make them pointless investments mere months later. Such an attitude makes all the financial work in the world an ultimately pointless venture – this is a football club, not a credit card company.
However, Villa won yesterday, and that is a step in the right direction. The issue, sadly, is that the longer term plan from the board is still something yet to emerge. January may well illustrate part of the club’s future, but for many there is still heightened anxiety that the club, despite their move in the right direction financially, have little thought of how to really build a football club from Aston Villa’s history.
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