This is not ‘find a footballer, bring him to Birmingham and hope he works well for Dean Smith’
VILLA have tions they Fulham’. Dean Smith led the club to promotion in May and owners Nassef Sawiris and Wes Edens bankrolled a £127 million summer spree to sign 12 new players.
Brazilian striker Wesley Moraes became Villa’s £22 million record signing, while Tyrone Mings rejoined from Bournemouth for an initial £20 million.
That has led to comparisons with Fulham, who splashed out in excess of £100 million on a similar number of fresh faces last summer.
The Cottagers were relegated after one full season in the Premier League – then faced a summer of upheaval in trying to offload some of their costly purchases. But Villa chief
refuted suggeshave ‘done a executive Christian Purslow has dismissed such comparisons.
“I wouldn’t comment on another club’s transfer policy and I’m not particularly briefed on the fine details of Fulham but I am extremely close to our policy,” he said.
“The first thing I would say is that of the 12, four players were with us last season – loans that we converted into permanent transfers.
“Three had either played for our coach at Brentford or been about to sign for Brentford so this is not ‘find a footballer, bring him to Birmingham and hope he works well for Dean Smith’. These are players intimately familiar to our coach and our coaching staff.
“We had a scouting department put in place last October and all the players we signed were watched by our head coach, by our sporting director very frequently between October and June when we actually went in and closed those deals. And the other thing I’d say is that most of our business was done very early in the window.
“Those players who hadn’t played for Dean, who weren’t known intimately, were in the building, going on our overseas training camp in America, maximising the time they had to familiarise themselves with our coach, with our systems and with our great club.
“I feel very confident it was thought through, that it was strategic, that it wasn’t last minute, trolley dash, collect a footballer. I haven’t met a single Villa fan who is worried that our club has 12 fantastic new players to go alongside the spine of a team that, between February and April last season, won 10 games in a row for the first time in our history.”
Purslow also insisted Jack Grealish “can be Aston Villa’s Steven Gerrard”. He said the captain “lit up the Championship” and,
“unplayable”.
Purslow revealed how Grealish had a £60 million release clause in his contract and, if Villa hadn’t gained promotion, a club would have triggered it. He said: “Jack is the heart and soul and face of our club. He’s kind, generous and incredibly driven. He lit up the Championship. He was unplayable.
“If we hadn’t been promoted it would have been impossible to keep a player who’d performed at that level. He had a £60 million escape clause. Somebody would probably have invoked it.”
Purslow was managing director at Liverpool when Gerrard was captain and added how Grealish could have the same impact the Rangers boss had at his hometown club.
“Jack can be Villa’s Steven Gerrard in terms of importance and impact to his club,” he added.
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