Keith Wyness shares Aston Villa’s transfer plans; they’ll keep Steve Bruce happy

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Are Aston Villa acting sensibly with regards to their summer transfer plans?

Apparently splurging around £70 million on players and presiding over more than 20 incomings and outgoings isn’t a shortcut for success. Aston Villa, revolutionising their squad in the Championship this season, have discovered that the hard way, the Birmingham Mail reports.

As it stands, they are only just ahead of Burton Albion in the league table with a proposed play-off push giving way to an alarming slide towards the verge of the relegation zone. And this is despite another recruitment drive in January with Henri Lansbury, Conor Hourihane and Scott Hogan among those improving the quality of Steve Bruce’s squad.

However, according to CEO Keith Wyness, Villa may have learned from their mistakes, the Birmingham Mail reports.

“We want to get the right squad balance. We did a lot more work in January than we expected to,” Wyness said.

“The summer is going to be relatively quiet. There will be ins and outs but nowhere near as many as we have seen in the last two windows.”

And though a number of Villa fans will no doubt be concerned that the club appear unwilling to strengthen a club that has fallen so pitifully short this season, there’s an acceptance that the squad needs consistency and stability after years of upheaval.

This stripped-back approach is likely to keep Bruce happy though after the under-pressure manager admitted recently that the club has struggled due to attempting to throw money at the problem.

“We changed a few things but maybe there was too much change,” he said in quotes reported by the Birmingham Mail. “There’s been big change for far too long.”

Bruce has also spoken of the need to prioritise quality over quantity in the transfer market so the prospect of a few head-picked additions designed to improve the first-team will certainly make his job easier.

As he himself has alluded to, crowbarring ten plus new signings into the same team doesn’t usually bear fruit.