Aston Villa - The Future!!!

I have refrained from posting on this blog since Tuesday as I have reserved opinion on the shenanigans and Villa Park; or should I say 'speculated shenanigans'!!!.

The future for Aston Villa in my opinion is quite clear as there are very few realistic eventualities that will present themselves in the summer regardless of where we eventually finish this season.
The history of the way we have strived to improve and restructure since the arrival of Lerner and O'neil will dictate the path of investment, there would have been a clear and concise plan on arrival, and while I think that this 'project' has proved more difficult than initially predicted, I would imagine the plan would be still relevant and achievable to an extent.

Martin O'neil will be Aston Villa manager in August 2010, Villa will again invest a net spend of between £20-30m on young english players who will improve with time. This is because, should Lerner walk away, or should the club hit a financial crisis, he can re-sell the players he purchased for a profit. If Villa sold Agbonlahor, Milner, Ashley Young, Stuart Downing, Carlos Cuellar and Steven Warnock, it his highly likely we would make a vast profit on the 'investment' (I', aware that Agbonlahor came through our youth system!) This is how Randy Lerner justifies the money he is allowing us to spend.

There has been a disagreement of some sort betweeen the manager and the owner, but I doubt that this will see a impact or change of any sort, if Martin O'neil walked out or was sacked, would a new manager want a figure of cash to make his own changes??, This would more than likely see Lerner being forced to invest more money. More time would have to be given to allow the new manager to succeed.

I would strongly suggest that Lerner and O'neil will be happy to be top 8 every season and challenge for forth, have cup runs and wait for the young players to mature and hopefully mean the need for less investment in the future, if you add a Torres and a Lampard to our side, we would be top 4, a goalscoring midfielder and a match winning striker is essentially what we lack.

Last Saturday was a freak game, we are a good team, the correct buys would see us as a very good side, we need to buy well and invest in quality now rather than quantity, you buy 2 maybe 3 players who improve the first team, you then naturally improve the squad, because two good players like Carew or Petrov now sit on the bench. This summer there will be departures, I for one would like to see Sidwell, Harewood, Heskey, Beye, Salifou, Shorey and Osbourne all go and be replaced with 3 quality players, they are out there, and are realistic, Steven Ireland, Oscar Cardozo and Veloso. Add to that some young flair like Dorrans and Carroll could see us as a lot stronger outfit, the question is, can we buy wiser than Liverpool, Spurs and Everton because eventually Manchester City will become title contenders due to the level of investment capability.

Lets all hope that we bounce back on Saturday, and I am also hoping for wins for Barnsley and West Brom, these are for my two pals 'Uncle Graham' and 'The Yam'.

Final note, Watch Benfica v Liverpool and let me know your opinion on Cardozo and Di Maria!!!