Aston Villa have struggled to recruit the right type of player in recent years.
Speaking live on BBC West Midlands Radio phone-in last night, ex-Aston Villa star Nigel Spink explained the need for his former club to get things right in this month’s transfer window, after a disastrous recruitment drive in the summer under the guidance of previous boss Roberto Di Matteo.
The Midlands club spent heavily before the 2016/17 campaign began, including the big-money acquisitions of the likes of Ross McCormack for £12 million, Jonathan Kodjia for £10 million and James Chester for £8 million.
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce
And it could be argued that the only real success has been Kodjia, with the Villans currently languishing in a disappointing 13th spot in the Championship table, nine points adrift of the promotion play-off spots.
And Spink, who made 361 league appearances for Villa, told BBC West Midlands Radio how he believes that Steve Bruce is making the right moves concerning the players he is attempting to bring into the club:
“You have to look at Roberto Di Matteo and his recruitment people. We are looking at the same mistakes being made at the club again. We have the right man in charge at the moment and lets hope the right recruitment people are in. It looks like it is working and he is bringing a bit of youth in. It’s just flabbergasting, I said it would take four transfer windows after relegation to sort this mess out. They wasted one of them. It’s all about recruiting the right type of player, Steve is doing that.”
Aston Villa manager Steve Bruce
The problem for Villa is that they have put themselves in such a difficult situation, whereby all of their January signings will need to hit the ground running, if they are to have any chance whatsoever of forcing their way inside the top six come May.
And, as is so often the case in football, that will be very much easier said than done.
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