Papillon

A striker can be piss-poor and the team can still win, and the best team in the world doesn't necessarily have to have the best goalkeeper... But he at least needs to have the basics in place. But when a goalkeeper starts to gift goals away, he becomes the biggest liability and there is no room to give him free rides in the first team. Like I said, a striker can be poor and still play (Kane), but a goalkeeper cannot. If he is this dodgy, he needs to be replaced. What is it now? 5-6 points lost due to his howlers?

Abel Hernandez is supposed to be world-class? Dumbest thing I've heard in a while, he is one of many, many mediocre or below Premier League-players.

This is a lie. He let in that Dzeko-shot in the Community Shield and was targeted on set-pieces, but all in all he was pretty great from the start - making tons of impossible saves. If he looked shocking, please post all the Youtube-videos as evidence? He wasn't world-class, but he was easily amongst the best keepers in the PL. Using him as an excuse for Gollini is just daft

I remember the last time I played Football Manager a few years ago. I went into the editor and gave Villa tons of cash and bought a lot of great players. Got all the best coaches, spent 5 hours on tactics and training, started the season with 11 new players. Insane enthusiasm - this year Villa were surely playing for CL-places. First game of the season, my tactics were obviously crap and I lost 1-5 to Sunderland at home. Turned it off, deleted the game and never played it again. Somehow, I think this is how it's gonna turn out for Xia as well. Says a lot of stupid things, invests in a new team (just like Lerner did mind) and it does not turn out the way he thinks.... Tries some more, gets bored... Disappears, tries to sell the club and we're stuck in a rut. This year we supposedly got a lot of cash by relegating, the old cushion, and we've spent some cash on new players. Let's see the willingless from this chap next year, and the year after - my prediction is that he is going to be a travesty of an owner and that we will see a lot of embarrassing moments from him on Twitter before he buggers off.

Three goals at the back and six yellow cards - what the hell happened at half-time? Pathetic!!

I started to embrace the Championship instead of losing every other game or more in the PL - but now we're doing crap down here as well and it seems we are going to be down in the basement once again. Being a Villa-fan sucks - this start to the season has been nothing short of a shambles. Lost to Luton in the cup, and one in five in the Championship. Even I couldn't have imagined such a bad start

He wasn't. He was a bit dodgy on crosses and let in a Dzeko-long-ranger, but he made exceptional saves from the beginning.

There isn't much room for sentiment for a goalkeeper is there? Strikers and midfielders can do mistakes and it's no big deal - a goalkeeper's mistake directly leads to goals. If he cannot mangage the basics, he should not plat yet.

If he had notched it to the left, yes. He decided to bang it towards the striker and that's what happens when you're unlucky. Crap goalkeeping and rookie mistake. If that happened to de Gea or Cech, then would slide it to the side - where there is no striker. He was coming towards them, he saw that there were no players on the sides.

Most likely wouldn't have started anyway. Home debut vs. Southampton next Friday I reckon. Without Smalling and Pogba for the first game, two pillars in the central chain. Could go either way, but wouldn't be surprised if Man Utd won 3-0. God it's depressing we aren't even in the Premier League anymore. Can't even choose AVFC as my favorite team on Fantasy Premier League

And then you go on SkySports right now and almost at the top there is the headline "Xia Ready to Wield the Axe". This is what happens with baboons running shows on Twitter. Xia is the owner, he is not the manager, he is not a coach. He should stay away, the media will always pull headlines in any direction they want.

New owner attends a couple of matches? Wow, that changes everything doesn't it? Pretty sure Mr. Lerner did exactly the same in the beginning. Let's see how big of a fan this fella is in one year or two years when the "new shiny toy"-sensation has disappeared and he sees cash flowing out of his bank accounts. I wonder how long it is going to take before he realizes his outbursts about us being a top club in five years looks absolutely foolish. It's not a problem to be a dreamer, but of course anyone can say what they want w/o substantiating it - doesn't mean he is any better than a person holding his enthusiasm back a little bit.

It is pretty obvious and it's amazing you cannot see it, instead of blindly defending the current owner. He puts unnecessary pressure on himself and the manager, we all know transfers can look set in stone and then suddenly vaporize. Then we go on and lose a game, RDM is questioned about the potential transfer that was supposed to happen and fans get frustrated. Put it like this; do you think Mourinho or Conte would like it if their chairman constantly crapped out on Twitter about potential signings? No, because that would never happen with serious owners, they would let the professionals take care of it. Have you ever seen Abramovich blurting out in horrendous English about potential signings on Twitter? No, of course not. Posts like mine are read by Villa-fans on this forum, I am not a well-known person and what I say creates no consequence for the reputation of AVFC as I have no official role - so your little finish makes no sense at all.

I never believed I would be this indifferent about Aston Villa - in my 25 years as a fan, since I was a little boy. Relegation is one thing, I saw it coming and actually ended up looking forward to playing the Championship over the summer given the current high level in the Premier League. Sure I would have wanted to be there still, but when teams like West Ham can have such good players and Leicester winning the league, it goes without saying we would lose almost every game once more. Tony Xia, please get the hell off Twitter and stop embarrassing the club like you're doing. Your English is woeful and nobody fully understands you anyway. I have nothing against you being there to communicate with the fans, but please hire someone to help you out - someone who can say NO when your brain says yes after a defeat - keep it plain and simple, do not promise things which can go tits-up the next day. Do not say stupid things like becoming the best club in the world within five seasons, it's just coming back to bite you in the ass - although I suspect he will be loooong gone before five years have passed anyway. Do not promise signings and reveal that we are negotiating with parties, it only undermines the manager and can cause the selling club to get pissed off.

Never seen this guy play before and didn't like the price relative to his age, but his YouTube-compilation from last year is very uplifting. Anyone can look good in a video of course, but it's his touch and trigger that satisfied me. He is obviously very good at touching the ball and striking with the next, very good at finding angles - like he has already seen and chosen his next move before the ball is his. A bit like Kevin Phillips perhaps?

Exactly. We are fans on an online forum, we are "allowed" to burst out crap because we carry an opinion and almost nobody cares in the big world - we are not employees in AVFC the company. We can also talk crap between ourselves regarding political issues and who's banging who. Nobody cares except the people who reads your post or listen to you. If you are the owner of a football club or a politician, a famous person or have any official links to something important, the scenario is totally different and it goes without saying. Careers are brought down pretty fast when important people cross that line. When things turn sour, our owner will be under a lot of scrutiny from everyone including the fans - bad tweets will come back to haunt him and I suspect he will stay trigger-happy when certain individuals "attack" him on Twitter in the future. If so happens, it can only go one way and that is white handkerchiefs. That being said, Donald Trump has a 50% chance of becoming the most important person in the world - so I should probably rest my case.

All I can do is compare him to similar characters of the past who have come in and acquired clubs in England. It seldom ends well for people who puts themselves in front of the club, it usually goes better for the ones who appoints people and let them do their job. We have social media-employees at the club, let them take care of the communication - keep it objective and general - there is a reason why everyone else does it like that. Everything he says will be put under huge scrutiny, the smallest outburst can turn into a show under the wrong circumstances. He has been here a couple of months, he has accomplished nothing and we have not yet started the season, let's evaluate in a year. Everyone in the world has the right to do whatever they feel is best, does not mean that certain actions are clever at all and there are consequences. Leaders of organizations and owners of football clubs have little or nothing to gain in writing irrational, personal comments/attacks on Twitter. I don't care about where he is from and your comeback makes no sense at all. Aston Villa is an English football club and most of our fans are English, at least get someone to proof his messages or press F7 to do a bloody spell-check - sounding like a five year old is never a good thing when you are a grown man who has even been to the UK for studies! English is also my second language. Learn Chinese? Makes no sense compared to my original post at all, but I can tell you one thing, if I suddenly controlled a Chinese company I would sure as hell let someone else translate my messages on Twitter so I avoid sounding like a fool

Sticking up for the club because a random pundit put us in the lower part of the table in his predictions? I would call that extremely irrational, as far as possible from sensible as it comes. The season has not even started yet. RDM and the team should answer Holloway on the pitch, our owner should stay in the background and take a few English courses before Christmas hits us. If the leader of my company started to spout of crap online I would be embarrassed, but luckily he is smart and does not have a Twitter-account. Is this guy going to comment on every mistake from the referee and penalty-decision going forward? Could soon become quite tedious if you ask me.

In terms of personality, I would much rather have an owner like Randy Lerner. And let's not try and compare these different personalities against how to be a successful owner. Randy Lerner failed to bring Villa forward, but that has got nothing to do with the fact that he stayed in the background and never blurted our his thoughts on Twitter. His lap dog General Krulak came on here and communicated with the fans in a rather polite manner, see how that turned out in the end. Communicating directly to the fans is a dangerous game, there is a reason why very, very few leaders do it. Do you see Levy or Abramovich spouting off crap directed at Arsene Wenger or any other person in the business? Of course not, they handle the administrative part and stay way in the background and let the footballing people handle everything else. Our new owner is not a football person and he has no experience, he should shut up until we have promoted because of his backing - then he would have something to base his outbursts on. Everyone is entitled to have an opinion - but smart people in certain positions should know it does not always include them when it comes to social media. Clubs have PR/marketing people for this kind of thing, imagine them running around in the corridors shaking their heads right now. If let's say a social media-employee at United or Arsenal posted these exact tweets, they would have been removed from their positions immediately. I have nothing against modern leaders exploiting modern ways to communicate with the world, be it Twitter or Instagram or whatever. In certain businesses you would be a fool to not do it, especially if you are the founder, product and face of a company. Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg - to a name a couple, but these have deserved the right to do so. As an owner he has just bought the club and he knows nothing about how to run it - and he is not an important person for this club besides his money (well, throw in a few appointments of important people of course), and it all just smells unprofessional when his English is this bad. I just dread the day he is sitting there after a loss against Birmingham at Villa Park after throwing in a six-pack and a couple of glasses of red wine, could become very, very embarrassing for us all when he reaches his phone.

How far have we managed to sink? Mr. Jiantong Xia - if you are reading (and I am sure you are actually) - stop ridiculing us and our former great club. We relegated at the worst possible moment in the history of the Premier League and our entire squad didn't seem to care one bit, now you are slagging off a loyal servant who has not yet departed the club? Also, think what you want about pundits in general and Ian Holloway, but all of these guys have tenfold the experience and knowledge about English football and Aston Villa compared to the new owner. Respect them, and they will treat you thereafter. Now we have a new owner and he is doing all the wrong things, we have seen it so many times before. I do not really care where our owner is from, be it Asia, North America or Arabia, but we have seen numerous examples of non-footballing (m/b)illionaires coming in and destroying clubs for the fun of it. As far as this one goes, there are already red flags in the air and we haven't even kicked a ball yet. Pathetic. This guy might be successful in Asia and in other business sectors, but it does not mean a single thing when you operate a football club in Europe. Writing personal tweets of this character is extremely unprofessional and childish at the same time - it is something a leader should never, ever do - it will only bring him negative media attention and lead to ridicule from everyone, well, except from the few fans on here who thinks it's hilarious for some reason. This owner has not proven anything, he has accomplished nothing at Aston Villa and we face a ridiculously hard task in promoting at the first attempt from the Championship. Every team will be after us, we need a solid foundation and climate for the manager and squad to work in. Imagine this guy when results are going against us (and they will!) - he just seems incredibly irrational. Read a leadership book and look at the successful owners around Europe. Be more like the non-vocal, fully supportive ones - do not end up like the Venky's, Gillett/Hicks or the embarrassing Comolli. He came in and said we were going to be among the three best clubs in the world, that a lot of cash would be available for signings and that he loves Villa and has supported us for a long time. Yawn! This is what every person in the world would/could say, it's just empty words which will come back and bite him in the ass. Post a picture of yourself in a Villa-kit from when you were five years old or it didn't happen, so to speak. Spread these words within the club and share your resources with the ones in charge, do not act like a little child on the internet. I for one expected a tough challenge in the Championship before he took over, now I am pretty certain we will have an even tougher challenge because of this owner who has decided to interfere and embarrass the club before our first game has even been played. Less talk and more action, keep yourself out of social media when it comes to AVFC please. Furthermore, if you insist on continuing, at least freshen up your English and/or hire a PA to do the job for you - reading nonsense is even more cringe-worthy when it is seemingly written by a child.

Of course some luck counts over the course of the season, you basically hope no other team is extremely lucky in many games - compared to your own fortunes. Over 38 games is it impossible to stay on top if you are not among the best teams - luck will not get you there. Sure it is possible a team loses a deserved title based on luck; incorrect decisions made in extremely important games, red cards, penalties in the 96th minute and so on. However, nobody discusses a late own-goal against or a wrongful penalty in the 5th game of the season going against a team that end up winning the title in the end, those things are forgotten and all you end up with is the highlights of the season. Over 38 games, the element of luck can be discussed only if you analyze every single game for every single club. There might be some strange findings, but I would argue the better teams are "lucky" because they are better than the other teams - and the random referee error is distributed nicely between the top teams anyway. If a team with a normal attacking patters receives 45 penalties and 0 red cards over 38 games, then something's up, but it's not like that is happening anywhere. Vardy was sent off and they didn't win against West Ham, which was unlucky, but then they got a dodgy penalty in the end and got the draw, which was lucky. If Vardy was given a penalty (deemed not to be diving)/or nothing at all I think very few people would argue it was a dive after the game which Leicester would have comfortably won. Luck is not only about the big decisions in big games at the end of the season, it's about all decisions over the course of the season. Alli should have had a red card against WBA and Spurs might have lost that game, there are hundreds of these decisions for all teams every season. The fact is that Leicester have lost three games all season. Against Arsenal last they were playing well at 1-1 and got a red card in the 54th minute. What astounds me is not their resilience in "big" games against Man United, Man City and Chelsea - it's that they haven't lost against West Ham, Swansea, Sunderland, Everton etc. These teams always win out of nothing everywhere because the bigger teams have an off-day, but Leicester have not slipped once against these teams. I remember Sunderland beating Man City 1-0, a typical win out of nowhere which can be expected over 38 games - Leicester have none of them. I also remember the game where Leicester huffed and puffed against WBA at home, drawing and creating numerous chances without scoring - they lost two points and everyone was like "oh, it's starting". They actually gained one point that week as everyone else lost!

It must be fun - and at the same time extremely painful to be a Spurs-fan today. They are one of two teams that have gone completely under the radar, alongside Leicester, and they end up second. In the beginning of the season it was about Arsenal, Chelsea, Man City, Man United and stretching it, Liverpool because of Klopp. Everyone believed it was going to be between Arsenal, Chelsea and City - but it has ended up being a race between Leicester and Spurs. It is all about Leicester, nobody will remember Tottenham come the end of May. This was their shot, all the other big clubs have messed up completely and Spurs have been magnificent at times. However, it is not going to be enough and nobody ever will remember who finishes 2nd. Remember Liverpool when Gerrard slipped up. They came from under the radar and did brilliantly because of a working system and one single player, Suarez, then he left and the superb Liverpool-side just disappeared from day 1 the next season. Their side was very comparable to Spurs this season. Man Utd will win the FA Cup most likely, and Liverpool have a good shot at winning the Europa League. Trophies, for Leicester, Man Utd and perhaps Liverpool - none for Spurs, again. I know this Glaston-fellow will analyze his limited trends and come up with "facts" painting a glorious picture for Spurs going forward - but we all know the big teams will strike back next season and Spurs will yet again not win the league. Not all of them of course, but there will be a superior team and the top teams will be where they always are. One bad season for Chelsea and Man Utd will be rectified, they just have too much money and infrastructure to move towards the top again. It is the same with Real Madrid and Barcelona, they will move towards the top after a bad season or two, it's just how it is. Leicester will falter, I guess everyone associated with the club knows that pretty well, they are just enjoying themselves immensely at the moment. In five years they might be down there again with Wigan, Blackburn and ... uhm... Aston Villa. Great season Spurs, they have an exiting team - but who knows what happens in the next few years. Players might want to leave, the biggest clubs come knocking and take their players (one thing is the money offered which Spurs can reject due to the financial strength of the Premier League - but they cannot stop players from dreaming about bigger things. Alli, Kane et al will probably want to play for Barcelona or Real Madrid, just like Woodgate, Bale, Beckham, Ronaldo and the rest of them). Spurs is not a big team in the world of football, so why would anything be different with their players and moving to bigger things? Levy can say no, but honestly, an unhappy player seldom stays for long. If they do not perform next season, good luck in trying to keep Kane if he develops further. So like I said, must be great winning over the best teams this season, but they will end 2nd and in August every team starts with 0 points. It will be much, much harder for Spurs to finish 2nd or 3rd when they are no longer going under the radar - and the other teams will come back with shiny players and new managers. Pep Guardiola is coming to town and Jose Mourinho is back with a vengeance. Mourinho is a proven winner and Man Utd have the resources to change around over the summer - I would not bet against them vs. Spurs. These are guys that have won more trophies in a single season than Spurs have done since I was born in 1985.

We have no idea what kind of players Remi Garde would have brought to Villa Park in January, even if backed properly. Few players would like to play for a club with absolutely no chance of staying up this season. Also, what we do know about Remi Garde is that his team has lost 0-6 to Liverpool over the weekend, they were 11th in the table or something at the time. Liverpool is not Man City, Arsenal or Tottenham, they are not even close to being as goos as them, and we lost 6-0. A manager can't make players dribble better or pass smarter over the course of a month or two, but he can change other important aspects. He can make them fight harder, run longer, run faster, tackle harder and fight until 90+ minutes are over. Remi Garde did not manage to make our players run harder than Liverpool at all, which tells me he is nowhere near good enough to be a manager.

Moronic post. I would take PL over everything, being in the Championship is a tragedy for this club. We might not return in decades - look at the long list of former big clubs like Leeds and Forest. Besides, what has Remi Garde done here? He has no track record from France - and he has won two games during his entire stint here. Woeful, just terrible. He is crying over the lack of business and signings, but what about the job he did before signing the contract? Clearly he has not done his due diligence.

Ron Vlaar was a great CB for us, but the injuries are ruining his career. He is a leader on the pitch and made us play like a unit. Micah Richards is a horrendous player and captain, a poor signing who should not be in the middle of our defense.