Aston Villa have been very active in the transfer window so far. Six players have come in with a few more potentially on the radar but are we in real danger of going into the season with a lack of experience?
Please don’t read this as me being negative. There are two sides to the argument in this article. I am as excited as the next Villa supporter right now. I can’t wait for the season to start and to see how Dean Smith works his magic in the Premiership. I will back whoever Villa bring in and give them my support this season. To make it clear, I would take 17th position right now, no questions asked and going by the odds on match-bonus-code.co.uk I am not alone.
Premiership experience
As it stands, the Aston Villa squad has 501 Premiership appearances between them. 356 of those appearances come from James Chester, Neil Taylor and Ahmed Elmohamady. That means the rest of the squad have an average of 5.8 Premiership games under there belt. Although the majority have never played in England’s top league before.
The average age in the squad is 24.59. Although we have some players who have played at the top level in other leagues, the young age showcases the lack of experience furthermore.
Villa are being linked with the likes of Gary Cahill. A former Villan who is currently available on a free transfer. If you believe the reports doing the rounds then Villa have apparently been put by off his large wage demands but could his experience prove priceless?
You can’t win anything with kids
In 1995, former Liverpool defender Alan Hansen criticised Alex Ferguson on Match of the Day. Following Villa’s 3-1 win over Manchester United on the opening game of the season, his comment went down in football folklore.
Manchester United went on to win the Premiership and the FA Cup with an average age of 26. Since then, only Chelsea has also gone on to win the Premiership with a younger squad. Now, stick with me here. I am not saying Aston Villa will win the Premiership next season. Even if I did stick a cheeky £10 on it after our 2-1 win over Derby at Wembley.
I am merely highlighting that experience doesn’t necessarily guarantee success. In truth, having a completely fresh unexperienced approach could be a breath of fresh air for what has become a rather boring, predictable Premiership in recent seasons. I guess we will soon find out as the season progresses.
What are your thoughts on the experience argument? Do you feel confident with how the squad is being built or would you rather see 2-3 more experienced players?
5 Comments
I like that we are getting young players but I do agree we just need a few heads In there, if we got Heaton Cahill and maybe an experienced DM I think we be okay but I do trust Smith, I just hope he isn’t building a team in Ade the worse happens
I can see the argument as we have removed a lot of premiership experience from the squad at the end of last season
However, We are now buying young and hungry and to be fair, it’s the approach we needed to do. All the players we have signed this season have a great potential to become a great Villa team. Also, don’t forget we have a great manager and backroom staff who will work at 100% to ge5 this new squad to gel for that first game against Spurs
UTV
How much PL experience was in the Wolves team that go promoted a year ago???
Have to reluctantly agree, lack of experience may well be a problem, I do think however if we can get Tuanzebe back on loan and with another new defender linked albeit albeit again with no PL experience I think we may just get away with it as far as our defence goes, and if Cahill signs that would be a big bonus. I’m particularly worried about our striker position our new CF Moraes is untried and he will definitely need help up front, and once again yes a Championship player but I would go for Maupay we know he’s a proven goal scorer, Impossible to know what will happen with Philips but we will need a player with his qualities. I do believe that we will do reasonably well and that we will stay in the PL, and like you I would take any position away from the bottom 3.
Gabby, Richards, Lescott. PL experience oozing out of their boots. Or Grealish or McGinn?
It’s over rated, just like most of the PL really. I’m more concerned that we’re shopping in the Championship.
Experience is great but we’ve been down the experienced pro route before and it got us nowhere other than paying high wages for mediocre players by and large.
Younger players have the possibility of improving with the right coaching and will get us a decent return when they move on allowing us to reinvest the transfer money on potentially better players.
It’s a different route for the Villa so I think we should give it a go and accept that some teams are going to destroy us this season, but players learn as do good coaches and they will improve. And within a season or three we’ll be the ones with the ability to walk through teams.