Aston Villa made two late swoops for central defenders with James Collins and Richard Dunne arriving at the club. Dunne is a very good signing, in fact, I don’t see a massive difference between him and Man City’s new recruit Joleon Lescott. Martin O’Neill has got a bargain on his hands in comparison to the ridiculous amount Man City paid for Lescott. However, I’m not so sure about O’Neill’s other new recruit James Collins.

Martin O’Neill seems to be the king of signing Mr Average in the transfer market. The fans showed their disgruntlement in the opening day defeat to Wigan and I think a lot of that stems from the general quality of player O’Neill has been bringing to the club.

Players like Collins are hardly going to give the fans a lift, in fact I’m sure they’d want a bit more than this level of player for the reported £5m they paid. After all, the big centre-half was not even first choice for West Ham, a club I’m sure Villa fans would consider a lower level to themselves. The Welshman is another O’Neill recruit signed to literally do a job in the side but Villa fans will wonder why their manager is signing players like this when he has a billionaire owner at his disposal ready to bankroll new additions to the squad. It doesn’t send out the right signals to the fans that the club is ambitious to build on last season’s 6th position.

Villa fans are similar to Tottenham fans in the fact that they’ve had great success in the past and are desperate for a return to the glory years of the 1980’s. However, with the additions O’Neill has made compared to the giant leap forward made by Spurs and Man City, there can’t be too many Villa fans who expect their club to finish any higher than they did last season.