2024/25 Kevin Thelwell

[EFC_FRANCIS]

The blocking transfers stuff came from bobble and his mate on their podcast and tbh mate they love Dyche normally. Bobbles mate won't have a bad word said against Sean normally regardless of what he does.

Then how did we end up spending half our budget on a 4th choice centre back? If the leaks are true then Dyche isn't afraid to be honest about a target along the lines of he looks crap or I won't use him. So they nust have all agreed Obrien looked good and something has changed, or it's a meddling would be owner Textor palming off players to us.

There's no way the all got together and said yeah let's spend all our money on a fella but don't worry about it Sean, you can still play Keane ahead of him for the first 6 months

 

[GoldenToffee]

Well the £15m was meant to be on O’Brien to come in and actually play, which he should be doing, we didn’t buy him with the intention of him sitting on the bench behind Michael Keane.

It would suggest he was brought in to play, but the manager signed off on him joining, why didn't he start the season? I'll say because Dyche loves Keane and will give him every chance possible before it becomes too detrimental to the side (remember against Brighton he was at severe pains to emphasise that Keane played because he was apparently immense in pre-season). 13 goals in 4 games from the defence, the time has to be now to drop him... but Branthwaite comes in, not O'Brien.

Any old loan signing at CB would have been a drastic improvement on Keane, but obviously not in Dyche's biased eyes.

 

[hashbike]

I think a cheap loanee centre back coming in as third choice (who would then have started the season) with the £15m spent on full backs would have been 10x better than £15m on O'Brien to sit on the bench and be left with no full backs.

Absolute lunacy to spend that money while neglecting other areas.

Or we could have got a centre back capable of playing full back like lescott and jags used to.

Maybe they thought that Jake o’brien would be out of our reach given one more season at Lyon and they fancied him so much that it was now or never. But then - to not play him doesn’t add up

 

[MACCA75]

I think a cheap loanee centre back coming in as third choice (who would then have started the season) with the £15m spent on full backs would have been 10x better than £15m on O'Brien to sit on the bench and be left with no full backs.

Absolute lunacy to spend that money while neglecting other areas.

I agree. Lots of Ben Mee types were available. Cheap and better than Keane. That with money elsewhere was by far the better option.

 

[T LEAFE]

Our summer signings all looking good.
I'm not sure whether they have ever played football before on performances to date.
The only one that looks promising is Timbo.i guess that is because he wasn't scouted by us but merely offered as part of the financial fiddle with Villa.
We continue to waste our limited finance on players who are not very good

 

[DayL08]

It would suggest he was brought in to play, but the manager signed off on him joining, why didn't he start the season? I'll say because Dyche loves Keane and will give him every chance possible before it becomes too detrimental to the side (remember against Brighton he was at severe pains to emphasise that Keane played because he was apparently immense in pre-season). 13 goals in 4 games from the defence, the time has to be now to drop him... but Branthwaite comes in, not O'Brien.

Any old loan signing at CB would have been a drastic improvement on Keane, but obviously not in Dyche's biased eyes.

We have paid £15m for a centre half when we have one under contract next year if we work on the assumption that Branthwaite goes. That is peanuts. It was sound business.

You can argue both ways but centre half is a much more important position than full back as Keane is proving one again.

Dyche probably signed off but is being stubborn playing his hero Keane. If we signed a right back he would have played Young before him for 5 games before the pressure became too much. Just bin Dyche like we should have in the Summer. Simple

 

[ToffeeTim]

Well the £15m was meant to be on O’Brien to come in and actually play, which he should be doing, we didn’t buy him with the intention of him sitting on the bench behind Michael Keane.

It shows a complete lack of coordination and communication between the DOF and manager. It's absolutely shambolic to be honest. Do they discuss plans for a player before they make the signing?

If the manager didn't plan to select O Brien then he should absolutely not have been signed. It's not that unexpected either - lots of us said before Brighton game he would be back to having Keane as his first choice defender.

 

[Wat Tyler]

It shows a complete lack of coordination and communication between the DOF and manager. It's absolutely shambolic to be honest. Do they discuss plans for a player before they make the signing?

If the manager didn't plan to select O Brien then he should absolutely not have been signed. It's not that unexpected either - lots of us said before Brighton game he would be back to having Keane as his first choice defender.

It’s amazing how they are happy to start the season with them full backs and them wingers. Out of all the players that must have been available on loan. I see Villa loaned out Iling Junior to Como and he has already scored for them, he could have been a good option for us. But our DOF and Manager getting paid millions between them saw fit to spunk our money on a fourth choice CB who Palace deemed not good enough not very long ago.

 

[MikeH72]

It shows a complete lack of coordination and communication between the DOF and manager. It's absolutely shambolic to be honest. Do they discuss plans for a player before they make the signing?

If the manager didn't plan to select O Brien then he should absolutely not have been signed. It's not that unexpected either - lots of us said before Brighton game he would be back to having Keane as his first choice defender.

That’s the manager being an idiot though. People are in here trying, somehow, to argue that we shouldn’t have spent money on a centre back in the summer. It’s laughable, these opening games have proved exactly why it was a priority position to address. Tarkowski looks finished as well as Keane being the waste of space we always knew he was.

 

[MikeH72]

It’s amazing how they are happy to start the season with them full backs and them wingers. Out of all the players that must have been available on loan. I see Villa loaned out Iling Junior to Como and he has already scored for them, he could have been a good option for us. But our DOF and Manager getting paid millions between them saw fit to spunk our money on a fourth choice CB who Palace deemed not good enough not very long ago.

The fact he’s 4th choice is on the manager. On current form I think the partnership should be O’Brien and Branthwaite when the latter is fit again.

 

[ToffeeTim]

That’s the manager being an idiot though. People are in here trying, somehow, to argue that we shouldn’t have spent money on a centre back in the summer. It’s laughable, these opening games have proved exactly why it was a priority position to address. Tarkowski looks finished as well as Keane being the waste of space we always knew he was.

Regardless of who's fault it is, it makes no sense to sign a player the manager doesn't rate and won't select

 

[GoldenToffee]

The fact he’s 4th choice is on the manager. On current form I think the partnership should be O’Brien and Branthwaite when the latter is fit again.

Thoroughly agree with the options we will have soon. Don't care if we expect Jarrad to leave next summer, give them a few months together or at least a good run of games to build up a partnership. Tarkowski has been almost as bad as Keane so far.

 

[MikeH72]

Regardless of who's fault it is, it makes no sense to sign a player the manager doesn't rate and won't select

As if Dyche had ever watched him play before we signed him. If he won’t play players that don’t have Premier League experience then he should be sacked. It’s 2024, managers don’t dictate transfer policy to Directors of Football. If he doesn’t like it then we can show him the door.

I’m far from a Thelwell fan but on this one I won’t be swayed. He addressed a position that we were in dire need of strengthening in the summer, as our opening games have proven conclusively. And the manager is digging his heels in and playing his mate who concedes 3 goals per game over him out of sheer pig headedness and stubbornness because he doesn’t believe in playing players without Premier League experience. That is on the manager and he should be sacked. I’m sure the next manager will use the players that have been brought in.

 

[kiss the crest]

If he is part of the regime that wants to extend Dyches contract then this clown needs to be booted out of the club asap

 

[royvernon39]

Just because Thilwell bought Jake - who I think is a star of the future - does not preclude buying a decent right-winger.

As for right back we have Dixon who looks ok and Patterson is back soon . Left-back is a problem if Miko's injuries continue.

But the big issue which was not fixed is that we do not score goals - we do not have decent wingers, DCL is ok but nothing more and our full backs
do not overlap. Look at Digne- he must be responsible for 30 per dent of Villa's goals!