The transfer window will soon be shutting and it is great to see that we have already done the majority of our business. It’s clear that the clubs around us still need to strengthen (Norwich and Sunderland spring to mind immediately) so we had to act quickly due to the huge rebuilding job that needed to be done at Villa Park this summer.
It is fair to say that our squad is a lot stronger than this time last year and we have some exciting attacking options in Adama Traore, Carles Gil, Jack Grealish, Scott Sinclair and Jordan Ayew, which is a huge improvement on Andreas Weimann and Charles N’Zogbia last season.
It is clear that we are still in the market for a few more players and it has been rumoured that Sherwood was snapped on the way back from Malaga last week. We do need to balance the squad with British players or players who have played in the Premier League, which could explain why Sherwood was at Molineux watching Wolves against QPR on Wednesday night.
The debate around the right back position continues but with Hutton, Bacuna and Crespo all able to play in that position it would be surprising if Sherwood used any remaining funds to buy another one. There has been a public pursuit for Joleon Lescott, a man often rumoured to be joining his boyhood club, and we have also seen several links with other centre backs from around Europe.
There is still some chatter about getting another goalkeeper but, with it being relatively late in the day, I can’t see us being able to bring in another number one goalkeeper due to the domino effect it would lead to at the selling club.
The Emmanuel Adebayor deal is dead (for now), Libor Kozak hasn’t played a minute yet this season and Gabby Agbonlahor’s goal-scoring record is one that causes concern. Sherwood stated that we focused on “lumping it up” to Rudy Gestede when he came on against Manchester United so we do need another option up front.
Our net spend has still been minimal this summer so I expect Sherwood to conclude his summer business by signing a centre back and a striker. Then we will have a squad capable of pushing for a top half finish.
