The Martin Semmens appreciation thread

What has he done that is so impressive this window?

Got rid of Hoedt and Lemina (who Ralph allegedly wanted to keep) for not much money as they were in the last years of their deal

Sold Ings for a big fee, but too early to say if good or bad until we see the replacements

Signed 2 players from Chelsea, one who seems very promising but nobody really has a clue about how close to being PL ready he is

Signed a full back from abroad who again nobody really knows anything about

I’m all for giving him credit when it’s due but does seem very early to be singing his praises about this window.

 

Have we signed "a donkey" in the Ralph/Semmens era? Danso was probably the worst but it was only a loan so no damage done.

 

Walcott

 

Yes the earlier comment seemed to curiously limited to this summer. When Semmens has been around for longer than that

 

I’ll post whatever I like thank you.

 

There's also the point that no of us know how much Semmens, or anyone at Saints, had to do with the fee. For all we know, there was no negotiation and Villa just came straight in with the fee. After all, it's not like the media got any sniff of anything.

 

Oooh errr touchy

 

No recruitment is ever 100% though. You're always bound to get a dud or two.

 

It's more that they have the correct focus back, IMO.

When we first reached the PL, we had success signing young players who were ready to make the step up from being very good with smaller clubs, but weren't yet ready to slot into the lineup of a big club.

For a while, we deviated and started signing players who had been okay for storied clubs. One or two worked out, but it also left us with Carrillo, Lemina, and Hoedt.

Now, we're back to signing young players who are ready to make the step up. We're in for a very difficult season this year, but management hasn't panicked and gone for "solid vets", they've stuck with the game plan. Tough needle to thread, because you have to wait on those players to mature, but it's the only way forward.

 

Not at all, as I said I think selling Ings for that fee was excellent business. I’d prefer to wait and see who replaces him before assuming it will be a donkey.

 

I didn't assume they would be a donkey. Just pointed out that if it were to be then I wouldn't consider it remarkable business.

 

It's a vast improvement on what we had though which understandably makes people more positive about it.

 

True but from who Semmens and Ralph have brought in so far (Salisu, Che, KWP) I trust them to get it right.

 

No, as I said, it’s 2 separate transactions, one of which hasn’t happened yet.

 

The Ings sale will still be good business, it’ll just mean we followed it up with bad business.

 

Which would make selling our top scorer without an adequate replacement bad business too

We'll find out soon enough I guess. I'm expecting us to sign a striker within a week now.

 

Absolutely. This is one signing we absolutely have to get right though as the potential consequences could be huge.

I actually think we should sign two strikers tbh.

 

We can sign 7.5 Charlie Austins though

EDIT: 7 exactly if we take out the sell on fee

 

I agree we need 2 strikers.

 

I wonder to what extent the rumoured 12m + Obafemi for Armstrong was in the budget even before the Ings sale. As the word from the club suggested that we didn’t expect a suitable offer to come in

And whether the intention was to sign him regardless of the Ings situation. Difficult to know

In which case you definitely would expect 2 attackers to come in. I hope so at least .