Taking it here rather than derailing transfer thread.
The point about some of the players you'll understandably want shifting on is that currently most of them are on fairly long term contracts with very favourable wages. Who will take Ireland on at 50-60k a week given his track record and pay a transfer fee on top of that? How about the older pros? That's the real problem most clubs are facing. Can blame City and Chelsea for really hammering wages up, but everyone's feeling the pinch and sooner or later will have to make adjustments. Spurs will be making some this summer and be running into similar problems as you guys are facing. God knows Liverpool are going to struggle to rectify some of the issues with our squad too.
Do you think such a young squad could cope with a few injuries and maintain a consistent level of performance over the course of a season? You've got a lot of excellent young talent coming through the ranks, definitely agree. If you can keep hold of them, in the medium term things look great. But can they reasonably be expected to keep you even mid-table as the team matures? It's a catch-22 I guess - the better the player, the more likely they are not to be satisfied with staying at a team which is running hard to stay still. But as soon as they move, it puts the whole team back.
Have been told that Downing is on between 55k and 60k (ie Villa's top tier in their existing pay brackets). Didn't mean he was on the same as both combined
That's the problem you have though, isn't it? Just how do you get back up into the top 5 or 6 whilst also cutting costs? The resale value of most of the players you want to shift on will be minimal. More cash coming in from Lerner when he's already covering your losses every season to the tune of £30m? This summer you'll get the cash for Young (presumably). Will that be sufficient to persuade your better players that they should be staying with the club? Bent is another player who will be watching carefully to see what happens. I can see you spending £30m this summer, but a lot of that will be from the Young sale and/or other sales.
True, though I think Ireland is less of a problem than Beye, Heskey et al - he does at least have SOME quality (if a terrible mentality). All the people I mentioned (with the exception of Young and NRC) aren't playing in the first team, with the exception of Petrov, and quite a few aren't even squad players. I think the time has come to bring up some of our youth. The likes of Albrighton, Bannan and Clark have all excelled this season, and Delfouneso, Baker, Johnson and Gardner are all excellent prospects. We would need to invest in new full-backs, maybe new centre-backs (offset by the sale of our current ones) a new keeper (the excellent Benjamin Siegrist can act as a No. 2) and maybe a creative midfielder and then we would have more or less a complete squad. For example, from our current starting line-up of this:
Friedel
L. Young - Collins - Dunne - Clark
Makoun - NRC - Delph
Downing - Bent - Young
to this:
New GK
L. Young - Cuellar - Clark - New LB/Baker
Bannan - Makoun - Delph
Albrighton - Bent - Downing
Would require very little investment, and likely end up with far less wages on the first team. And, I'd say, not too much drop-off in ability: an ineffective Young is replaced by one of the most promising wingers in the Prem, and Nigel Reo-Coker is replaced by a Champions League-standard defensive midfielder moving into his favoured position and an extremely talented young midfielder taking that spot. That's just an example, of course, but it can definitely be done.
The point about some of the players you'll understandably want shifting on is that currently most of them are on fairly long term contracts with very favourable wages. Who will take Ireland on at 50-60k a week given his track record and pay a transfer fee on top of that? How about the older pros? That's the real problem most clubs are facing. Can blame City and Chelsea for really hammering wages up, but everyone's feeling the pinch and sooner or later will have to make adjustments. Spurs will be making some this summer and be running into similar problems as you guys are facing. God knows Liverpool are going to struggle to rectify some of the issues with our squad too.
Do you think such a young squad could cope with a few injuries and maintain a consistent level of performance over the course of a season? You've got a lot of excellent young talent coming through the ranks, definitely agree. If you can keep hold of them, in the medium term things look great. But can they reasonably be expected to keep you even mid-table as the team matures? It's a catch-22 I guess - the better the player, the more likely they are not to be satisfied with staying at a team which is running hard to stay still. But as soon as they move, it puts the whole team back.
No. Ireland's on about 55k p/w, Heskey on 60k p/w. Beye's on 40k, and Downing on 45k. Downing's not on 115k p/w (which is what Heskey and Ireland would be) by any stretch of the imagination.
Have been told that Downing is on between 55k and 60k (ie Villa's top tier in their existing pay brackets). Didn't mean he was on the same as both combined
Well, that's your opinion. As I said, Lerner knows he won't challenge for Europe without retaining key players, and Downing is most definitely one of them.
That's the problem you have though, isn't it? Just how do you get back up into the top 5 or 6 whilst also cutting costs? The resale value of most of the players you want to shift on will be minimal. More cash coming in from Lerner when he's already covering your losses every season to the tune of £30m? This summer you'll get the cash for Young (presumably). Will that be sufficient to persuade your better players that they should be staying with the club? Bent is another player who will be watching carefully to see what happens. I can see you spending £30m this summer, but a lot of that will be from the Young sale and/or other sales.