[Slick_Footwork]

Villa show a bit of ambition by pulling out the stops to get Watkins and Barkley,  and get the reward.
We pull out the stops to get a top striker, oh wait a minute, well at least we played our on loan midfielder,  oh !!!

Villa are in the fortunate position of having a bottomless pit of cash to spend.

Spent £100m last summer on reinforcements in all positions and still only stayed up due to a tragic goal line technology failure.

But the key learning about their survival was the change in philosophy post lockdown. That change kept them up. Pre lockdown, they were a soft touch, far too open and weak defensively. Lost 6-1 at home to City and looked like a joke of a side. Post lockdown, Smith decided to adopt a safety first approach. Added extra steel at the back, introducing a centre half at right back, extra man in midfield sacrificing a winger and they ground out results.

This year they have kept the steel of 3 midfield players but added quality to it. Their whole team look fast and athletic.

Watkins is a real handful who is fast, strong and can make something out of nothing. They have bought a quick right back, so that's no longer a problem area. Added Barkley who is genuine quality.

Fair play to them.

Obviously we'll not compete with them money wise. But we should learn from how they had to adopt to life in the Premier League. Villa spent a lot more money last season than we will and were a soft touch. So if we think we're going to outplay teams with our budget, it shows the naivety of the 'football people' at the club. It took Smith until lockdown to learn that Villa had to change the way they play to be competitive at this level. Let's hope Slav doesn't take so long to learn.