Heretic

Re Garry Monk.

In essence, we've funded the removal of the best thing to happen to the sty in years.

What a time to be alive!

9 hours ago, TheStagMan said:

Right, I haven't been paying too much attention to the troglodytes down the road, so am catching up here - just so that I understand this properly... Small Heath have:

• Sold us Jota for £2m
• Taken Gary Gardner off our hands without us having to pay them anything to do so
• Sacked Garry Monk
• Used the £2m from the Jota sale to pay compo to Garry Monk (presumably)
• Are in massive financial difficulty and are trying to sell their two best players
• Have given CLOTLET the managers job for at least 12 months - a man with the managerial pedigree of a gooseberry bush
• Given CRAIG GARDNER a coaching role (Jesus wept!)
• Have agreed to groundshare with Coventry City (LoL)

Even 'screwdriver' has to feel romantically nourished after that.

I know I am.

Just now, Amsterdam_Neil_D said:

How is the Granite ticker these days ?

Coming in very useful indeed given the SHA gifts that keep on giving.

37 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said:

What's all this then

Their Chinese owner is called Rendong. They call him Dong.

I guess it's the polite version of 'Dong Out.'

You'd need a heart of stone not to feel sympathy.

I found out something new about myself today.

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

I know they have signed players from us but who was the last player we signed directly from them?

Pretty sure it was Alan Curbishley.

In the first leg, the Leeds fans sang to the Derby fans, 'try not to worry, you'll beat us someday.'

Hard to know where to put this, but it's worth watching until the end.

1 minute ago, Farlz said:

This isn't really something that Smith can fix himself but if our forwards can stop being so wasteful we can really blow some teams away this season. 

We've got quality players and should certainly be aiming for a play-off place. They didn't seem to have direction or self-belief. It all looked stale.

1 minute ago, Papillon said:

Not a great start Dean... hope you aren’t a fraud like Bruce, RDM, Sherwood, Garde and Lambert. What an awful list that is.

He needs some time right now. It's hard to give yet another manager time because we all know this club deserves better than where we are, but there's no option.

He's got to have 10 games, surely, before conclusions should be drawn.

1 hour ago, markavfc40 said:

This is a very good squad of players, one of the best in the division for me, and under the right coaching team they are capable of being up the top end of the table.

I completely agree.

At minimum, this squad should be in the playoffs at the end of the season. 'Thereabouts' is defeatist and sells short their quality and the legitimate fan expectations.

2 minutes ago, Paul33 said:

Henry who has never managed before ? Rodgers who manages a semi-pro team in a bush league ?

 

No. The Rodgers I'm thinking about managed Liverpool. Rui Faria has been extensively praised by and worked closely alongside Jose Mourinho, a man who's got 2 Champions Leagues with spells coaching at Barca and managing Real Madrid, Man Utd and Inter Milan.

As for managing a semi-pro team in a bush league, who's Dean Smith been managing recently? And where did he manage before?

Walsall.

Must confess to being underwhelmed, given the names previously linked.

Perhaps the owners tried to bring in bigger names and couldn't attract them?

Don't mean to rain on parades, but I would prefer someone with a bigger profile. This is a big club with expectations that are commensurately difficult to manage. I think this job is too big for him.

But I very much hope I'm wrong.

Given the names banded about, I confess to being underwhelmed.

The owners will know the difficulty they've had attracting the right candidate. Perhaps the club isn't as attractive a proposition as I'd like to think?

Perhaps their plan is to have one manager for promotion, another manager for the Prem campaign?

But if it's him, then best of luck to him. That said, he has many good players here to work with. Our league position doesn't reflect the strength of the squad.

(Might get the best out of Hogan. Note I said, might...)

Fulham down to 10 men! Odoi gone!

fulham 1-0.

I have no fear about the game.

It's a big game, and we have big game players.

I feel confident that we have the grit and creativity to win this one. I think we will.

Small feature in the Guardian about SB:

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2018/may/25/aston-villa-steve-bruce-solace-torrid-few-months

When Steve Bruce is asked whether work on strengthening the team will start immediately if Aston Villa win promotion to the Premier League on Saturday, the first thought that comes into his head has nothing to do with new signings. “The one thing I need this year, more than any other year, is a holiday,” he says.

The Championship can be a grind at the best of times with all those Saturday-Tuesday fixtures and all the more so when a 46-game season is extended by another three weeks because of the play-offs, but Bruce is looking forward to a break for reasons that transcend football.

More at the link.

Performance of the season.

They proved they could cope under the pressure of playing at a rocking VP against an elite team.

That said, I was a bit surprised with how cynical some of those Wolves players were. They know how to mix it up. Loved the fact the Villa lads rose above it and stuck to their task. Showed how much belief they have that a Top 2 position should be theirs.

Don't think Cardiff will look forward to VP.

Next 4 games for Villa, the best team we'll face is 16th in the league.

A Villa team playing like that could win all 4.

THOR - 1!

GRABBAN!

2-1 CHESTER!

1-1.