MikeMcKenna

Leicester should stick a proper Villa fan on their right. Marc Albrighton could kick Greedlick in the air.

C***!

Please lock!

So does that mean we are going to field 13 players in future?

Is that it? It really isn’t very inspiring.

Confirming Grealish has gone and that a release clause was agreed last year for #100m if Champions league club came in for him

**** him. I have deliberately not commented and this will be my last on Grealish as a Villa player. I do not wish him luck, despise his disloyalty and hope he fairs no better than Delph. Grealish claimed to be Villa through and through, which is BS as true supporters never change their colours. He is now an enemy glory hunter.

Sadly this has been coming for years. They need to be told to **** off, kicked out of the PL and their players be banned from national teams. Way back in 2008/9 some may recall that there was a group in the PL calling for the end of relegation. At the time is was reported Lerner was involved, although he denied it I heard he, Glazer et al were the main movers. Basically the billionaire owners have been trying to corner the top flight of English football for years and it now seems inevitable.

However Barkley perceives himself, I would argue he is a) no longer the player he was b) not a team player c) needs to grow up. His ‘look at me’ tactics when he was subbed spoke volumes and was disgraceful.

I am really at a loss to understand why Barkley keeps playing. Either he is not fit, not interested, has it written that he must play at least 60 mins or thinks he is owed a living. When he went off SJM started to run the show. Keep playing Barkley and kiss goodbye to any lingering hope of a Euro place.

Is this straight up?

Haven’t been on VT for a while but said exactly this to some friends during tonights game. Clearly the emphasis on an attacking midfield and breaking football has worked quite a few times this season but arguably we have been found out now. Over several games Barkley has been a passenger (I know he scored but that was it) who when involved invariably complicates things - I am not sure what he adds. Targett and Grealish have a good understanding, when Barkley gets involves he overplays and almost slows Grealish up.. For a guy who is known to be skillful on the ball, at times his short passing and speed on the ball is terrible. As the OP suggests, I agree it is time to try three in middle, maybe pushing SJM more forward, with Luiz and Sansom.

Villa fans need to stop obsessing over what manure or others think of our players - we are no longer a feeder club. Over the next few seasons with the right investment and kids coming through we could easily be among the top 4-6 and challenging for more. The current ‘top 6’ (whoever they now are) do not have a divine right to be there.

Huge praise for the lad in todays Times https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/carney-chukwuemeka-aston-villa-confident-their-rising-star-17-has-what-it-takes-to-be-next-big-england-thing-czz9mccxg Carney Chukwuemeka: Aston Villa confident their rising star, 17, has what it takes to be next big England thing Tom RoddyFebruary 01 2021, 12.01am Carney Chukwuemeka, 17, is widely considered to be not only one of the best players coming out of Birmingham but the entire country. The attacking midfielder’s swift progression to the first team, training under the head coach Dean Smith since last summer, meant that Chukwuemeka was part of the group that went into isolation for the third-round tie after a Covid-19 outbreak. Last year Christian Purslow, the Villa chief executive, described him as “probably the best 16-year-old in England”. Having represented England at youth level, Chukwuemeka is believed to have the potential to follow in the footsteps of the club captain Jack Grealish by breaking into the first team. He is also the latest on a conveyor belt of talent coming out of the Midlands. Chukwuemeka is in the year group below Jude Bellingham, the former Birmingham City midfielder who moved to Borussia Dortmund last summer. It is understood that Chukwuemeka has had offers from the Bundesliga but believes that his talent will help him to break through in the Premier League. At 6ft 1in, he has the physical presence of a dominant box-to-box midfielder. Yet he is deployed as a No 10 for the under-23 side because of the outstanding technical ability that grabbed the attention of staff four years ago. Chukwuemeka has been with the club since the age of 13, having been spotted by Villa when rising through Northampton Town’s academy sides. His older brother, Caleb, also played for Northampton and is still at the Sky Bet League One club. Chukwuemeka, 17, competes for the ball with Mark Duffy during Aston Villa Under-21’s defeat by the League One side Fleetwood Town in the EFL Trophy in October PAUL CURRIE/BPI/REX/SHUTTERSTOCK The pair were born in Austria to Nigerian parents and moved to England at a young age. It was clear to Northampton that Carney had more talent, with Manchester City among the clubs looking to prise him away. Chukwuemeka chose Villa with the belief that the pathway to the first team would have fewer obstacles. He signed a three-year deal at Villa Park in October when he turned 17. “We have been really pleased with his development and feel this contract will provide him with the platform to become a first-team player,” Mark Harrison, the academy manager, said at the time. Yet, because of Chukwuemeka’s vast potential, City have kept tabs on him, as have Manchester United and Liverpool, while Juventus and Bayern Munich have monitored his development closely. At Villa, there is little doubt that Chukwuemeka will be the next big thing out of England, following in the footsteps of Bellingham and Jadon Sancho. They just hope it happens in claret and blue.

As I said in my initial comment, the Doc was responsible for one of my best years as a Villa fan. Unless you were there it is hard to understand how utterly desperate it was in 1968. After playing 18 and winning just two on 9th November we faced Preston at home who hadn’t beaten us at VP for 48 years. I was on the Holte with my two brothers and it was desolate. I think the crowd was around 12,000 and there was zero atmosphere. We lost 0-1 which sent us to the bottom of the then division 2. Immediately after the game there was quite a large protest by fans as they invaded the Trinity making for the directors box. I remember quite a few police piling in and several police horses. It is no word of a lie to say that we thought the club was finished. The game was the proverbial straw that broke the camels back.Then things started to change. The manager Tommy Cummings was fired by the board and within weeks the club was sold to Pat Matthews. As one of a consortium Doug Ellis became chairman and on the 18th December he appointed Tommy Docherty which was quite a coup at the time. Instantly everything changed. Starting 21st December ‘68 we won 5 on the bounce and only lost 1 in the next nine. The fans came flooding back. Just over a month after Docherty arrived we beat Southampton 2-1 in the FA Cup in front of 52,000 at Villa Park- it was incredible. I remember standing on the Holte at the final whistle wondering how the hell we had gone from 12:000 in November to 52000 10 weeks later. I doubt there has ever been as big a transformation in support anywhere in football. It was all down to ‘the Doc’. We avoided relegation and somehow knew the tide had turned and that the sleeping giant was waking even though the club behind scenes was still a mess. I was gutted when Tommy was fired in January 1970 and felt he needed more time. Unfortunately we were relegated in 1970 but Tommy had made us proud again and we knew something special had started.

Hope I have done this right. Very sad to say the Guardian is reporting the passing of former Villa Manager Tommy Docherty RIP Tommy you gave me one of the best years ever as a Villa fan “He’s up Mrs Brown.... “ https://www.theguardian.com/football/2020/dec/31/tommy-docherty-former-manchester-united-and-scotland-manager-dies-aged-92 PA Media Thu 31 Dec 2020 16.29 GMT The former Manchester United [Aston Villa] and Scotland manager Tommy Docherty has died at the age of 92 following a long illness, his family have announced. Docherty, who was known as ‘The Doc’, spent nine years as a player with Preston and won 25 caps for Scotland. He went on to manage 12 clubs, including Chelsea, Aston Villa and Derby, and had a stint in charge of Scotland. But he was best known for his five-year spell at Old Trafford, overseeing an FA Cup final win over Bob Paisley’s Liverpool in 1977. Tommy Docherty at the centre of Manchester United’s celebrations after winning the 1977 FA Cup final. Photograph: Allsport Msi/ALLSPORT Docherty died at home in the north-west on 31 December. A family spokesperson said in a statement released to the PA news agency: “Tommy passed away peacefully surrounded by his family at home. He was a much-loved husband, father and papa and will be terribly missed. We ask that our privacy be respected at this time. There will be no further comment.

small heath getting smaller by the day. (if that is possible) 0-3 in 25 minutes at home. Hopefully Derby can make it 0-6 or 0-8 would be even nicer.

The club that I hate more than any other in the Premier League. If we could pull off a victory at Old Trafford it would be the sweetest of the season for me and help repair decades of humiliation.

He didn’t mention specifics. Commentator said earlier he was ill

Quite funny that Amazon could only find a female footballer who is a bluenose as a pundit for our game.

In the reactions thread I said that Jack is the best Villa player I have seen during my 61 years watching the club and I stick by that despite my hero worship of Brian Little. However, unsurprisingly there are those that dispute this and credit Paul McGrath aka God as the best ever. Obviously it will not be possible to get a consensus but could Jack be the Son of God? After all like Jesus (and Brian Little) he walks on water and is working miracles at AVFC

God was amazing and I know this will be considered blasphemous but imho Jack is even better.

Incredible performance. Grealish is the best Villa player I have seen in my 61 years following the club. Hopefully some time this season we will get full credit rather than the constant claims that we won because our opponents were poor.

Rough with the smooth.

Good article but not impressed by the last line ‘...a team looking to return to being the true villains of England.”