VILLAMARV

It's an answer he should be making, it's not difficult, he should be saying along the lines, it's not good enough, the support has been brilliant and they deserve better.

Spot on. Not along the lines of...just those exact words. Lambert should realise today that even if Kendrick's been in his Mrs bed by not answering a question "from the fans" he's just outwitted you and made you look very foolish and unsympathetic. 

Do we have a PR dept? are they paid anything? cant they at least give him a script to follow?

Ive been thinking about the significance of wheels anyway....

Big Wheels keep on turning - even when the nuts havent been put on right and the wheel comes off, the car careers off the road bursts into flames but the wheel keeps on turning all the way down the road far away from the fiery mess it created................

Weimann's out of contract end of next season. Apart from Baker, who i think we should keep hold of too the rest of them still have something to prove if they think they're worth a new deal:

Ireland, Albrighton, Herd, Clark, Gardner and Bannan

If we manage to keep hold of him then good coz he's been a bright spark on the pitch most of the time and apart from the fact that he needs to whinge less when things dont go his way we need to keep hold of him. If he is to be sold and you want a 7 or 8 million bid for weimann then you better have him tied down for 4 or 5 years or he'll leave for around 1-2 million this summer if not for free next year. 

Folks are mentioning N'Zogbia and Delph improving recently. Is that down to Lambert, their will to win or, the fact that they might just be trying to get themselves a new deal? I wonder.

if you mean new contracts at villa there's no need Delph's under contract till 2015 and Nzogbia 2016! if you mean elsewhere who knows. My point was every one of our players should be playing for their own personal pride right now. We might be seething right now but the rest of the footballing world is laughing at them. Nzogbia and Delph seem to have got that into their heads I reckon.......maybe the reason Lambert keeps saying "we cant lie down" is coz most of our Lions are really Lambs?

He should have got, Ireland, Nzog, Bent, weimann maybe even Warnock playing from game one. Ok you can say there not good enough, but he is the manager, he is paid alot of money yo manage these premadonna players, to get them playing the top of there level, is this not what we employed him for because we thought McLeish couldn't do it and Lambert could. If he played these players consistantly im sure we would have had a middle table team by now. Swapping and changing the team is not the answer, damm the big problem is inconsistancy though we have completely fell apart now. You cannot play different teams week on week out, our team is too inexperienced for that, most of us fans csn see major problems with tactics and team selection, some players just can't play together but he still don't see this and still can't find his best team!!!For these reasons and for me there is no defence (no pun intended) he has to go!

Needs to play a settled team undoubtedly. Defence has been crippled by injurys all season although we all have our opinions on hutton and warnock and that debate will run and run and run till they leave the wage bill. doesnt the fact that we're contemplating 2 of the worst players from last year being our "saviours" if we bring them back into the fold just prove we're scraping the barrell and need some new blood fast? I dont understand the benching of the senior players either to be honest especially as we need to sell them - why not have them in the shop window?......mind you i'll answer myself they are crap aren't they !

How a champions league winning midfielder, who played alongside Sammer, is in charge of a team with the worst central midfield i can ever remember in Claret and Blue is beyond me though. I've got to believe it's the players.

I think he's proving to be very stubborn with his tactics and that could be the difference. considering the amount of possession we already dont have in the opposition half every game (well the second half of every game anyway) what would be the harm of a back 4 and 2 holding midfielders (Clark/Herd/KEA/Westwood) and any 3 + Benteke running round like headless chickens occasionally spawning a chance here and there or giving it to Benteke to carve out a chance for himself which is pretty much the only reason we're out the bottom 3 at the moment?

I also reckon he's hanging Lowton and Bennett out to dry with the fans by not playing a 442 and giving them some help. 

I think he should try it now in the next few games. no point going and playing so open in the middle at Goodison Park or the Emirates imo and 2 home wins against Newcastle and West Ham who are both gonna battle are so desperately needed. If after the Man City game it's not working and we've seen no improvement its not going to matter that much as we'll need to beat everyone bar Man Utd, Chelsea and Liverpool to stay up.

sadly alot of fans cant see this, they judge him on how fast he can run and if he stops running then he is shit

or how many aimless boots ionto the air he can win, again, if he doesnt jump and fight for every header he is again .. shit

 

i didnt watch last nights game, i had something more important to do, which i cant remember qhat it was now, it may have been watching crap tv or something, it was better and less depresssing than watching the shit villa anyway.

 

but i do see that bent scored, so he did his job. i bet he didnt go back and defend every corner or tackle back in our own box, that will give the haters something to keep whining about as they cant maon about him not scoring

Lol, He scored with a mishit scuff of a shot that trickled in so yeah, he did his job perfectly. Do you advocate it being a good thing that we have players on the pitch who rarely contribute anything to our play? If so you must be well chuffed at the moment! If he was out there pulling defenders out of position giving a few of them the run around and linking up with the play then there'd be a point to him. He does and will score goals if you play him - even if they are off his shins from time to time. But it seems his nose is out of joint coz we bought someone who is younger and better than him and offers the team more than he does and he doesnt like it. Like richard said If he doesn't want to be here then fine. but 10 games, 2 goals 1 assist is not good enough from our "main man" - "we lack experience" well bent is the most experienced player isnt he? where is the leading by example? APPALLING in the first 5 games, no surprise he lost the captaincy and lets face it the writing was on the wall for his villa career at that moment. 

No-one's gonna come in for him unless they do it on the last day and he will be gone next year whether we go down or not. 

I'm not gonna slate him too much, he's been an important player for us while he's been here and if we lose him we'll have a much weaker squad on paper. I just think the clubs transfer policy has relied on offloading bent for loads of money and every other club in the country knows it so we hold none of the cards.

If I thought we could base the decision on results alone, I'm ready to admit Lambert should go. If I thought that the fact that he obviously can't get the best out of the players he inherited or bought at this moment in time, then I'm ready to admit Lambert should go. If I thought we should base this decision on the totally inept tactics on show every game (Lichaj marking Shittu? WTF) then again, Lambert should go.

Unfortunately for us - and it's a hard pill to swallow - I honestly dont think we have the luxury of being able to make footballing decisions based on footballing matters alone anymore......and that is because of how the club has been run since Randy came. Can we afford to pay off and hire another manager? If we cant afford new players what's the point in guaranteeing we cant sign anyone next year by spending more money and disrupting the club even further? We SO BADLY NEEDED A LIFT after McMuppet - and haven't got one.....yet. I also can't get away from the fact that the players simply aren't good enough, arent consistant enough and haven't been for some time....and its the same names it's always been that are letting us down. If they cant or wont play for Houliier or McMuppet why is it Lambert's fault that they can't or wont play for him? 

It seems to me the only ones with any pride out there are Guzan, Vlaar, Benteke, Weimann, Gabby, Lichaj, Holman, Lowton who visibly try. Nzogbia and Delph seem to have puffed out their chests and seem a bit more determined to prove themseves. The rest......huge huge huge problems whether it be illness, injury, confidence, application or just plain lack of ability. 

The austerity imposed on the club by the owner has been publicly acknowledged and we've heard nothing yet to suggest we're gonna see anyone shipped out or any investment made so there's no hope of signings.

So we're basically up shit creek without a paddle. Lerner's chilling out at the back of the boat doing sweet FA, Faulkners sat in the middle trying to get people to paddle with their hands in the shit in a vain attempt to get us going but actually making us spin wildly out of control and we got Lambert to swim through the shit to join us - seems he bought a couple of paddles with him that have pointed us in the right direction but now we want to **** him off coz he didnt bring 11 paddles and we're not going fast enough.

My heart has been broken this week, my heart does now want Lambert out, My head says we'd be nuts absolutely nuts to do it, especially now. 

As for start of seasons expectations - same players, same shit so i thought we'd be struggling to get to 40 points - guess what - we are.

And finally in my morning rant! Anyone on here saying "I wanted us to lose last night" and "I think we should go down". Go see a doctor. Depression is a real illness.

I remember asking my Uncle who was a season ticket holder at Man City if he liked the banner their fans unfurled at Villa park when we were challenging Utd for the title which was something like go on villa hope you win today from all us Utd haters. 

I cant tell you what he said coz it will upset the children. But he was less than impressed lets put it that way. Get a grip people. Whether it's Lambert, No-one, O'leary, McNeil, McMuppet, Venglos I dont care. I want Villa to win plain and simple. If you've lost sight of that you need to have a good hard look at yourself in the mirror and wonder where it all went wrong. Like Stephen Ireland should. 

Just been dumped out of the FA cup by Millwall. Thought I'd find some help on the internet. Found a questionaire and thought I'd share it here. Maybe I shouldn't have taken this quiz this week. Gotta go though coz there's some bloke at the door trying to give me a new coat but I think the arms are gonna be too long for me.............

Am I Depressed?

Apparently, the man said we could all get new coats - just tell your doctors about watching villa and you can have a bit of time off work too

So Benteke given a rest, no Dunne yet and Given is still our cup keeper it seems.

I feel a bit like tuesday only without the first leg defecit to turn around. Still if we go 4 up I might relax a bit ;P

Does anyone think we will sign anyone over the next 6 days. Genuine question.

No. I think we need to sell to buy and i cant see that happening. Loans wont mean a thing imo

Our only hope is the last day goes crazy, someone leaves for cash (not future fees or staggered payments) and we have enough time and money to reinvest before the window shuts.

So like I said - NO  

What did Houllier and Mcleish do? Bent saved us from relegation and we probably would've been a lot higher up the table had he not got injured against Wigan last year. Fair enough, McLeish bought Hutton but he wasn't exactly backed in the transfer market, something that caused further outrage towards the General!

Errr, Jean Il Makoun? Houllier bought him, McMuppet loaned him out so he lost his work permit and is now just sat there leaching money from us to play for someone else. McMuppet (with the benefit of hindsight) spent approx £17m loaning Jenas and signing Hutton, Given and Nzogbia to big, long contracts with no relegation release clauses. I dont think any of them have proved good buys. Personally I'm so glad the club didnt give him the downing money to play with too or god knows what sort of mess we'd be in. 

Add the fact that the club have spent a reported £15m over the last 3 years paying off MON's unfair dismissal case, paying off Houllier and McAllister, paying small heath for McMuppet - then paying him and Grant off to leave and finally compensating Delia for nicking their manager. 

That £15m would have been nice sat in the war chest no?

Though it was just Dunne. don't the other two have a year left?

Dunne, Warnock, Lichaj and Marshall are out of contract in the summer. 

Makoun, Ireland, Albrighton, Bannan, Clark, Herd, Weimann, Gardner and Baker till 2014

Bent, Agbonlahor, Hutton, Holman, Vlaar, Delph, KEA, Guzan, Bowery and Stephens till 2015

Given, Nzogbia, Bennet, Westwood, Benteke and Lowton till 2016

Our midfield is **** shit

Yes, yes it is.

Not really sure why this thread remains open

Very, Very good point. Could it not be left open but renamed "DREAM ON VILLA FANS, DREAM ON" ?

At this point though unless we bring a fee in by offloading someone, Lambert aint got a penny to spend. That much is obvious.

If it's true that Bent, Given, Nzogbia, Ireland, Agbonlahor and Hutton have no relegation release clauses in their massive contracts (Faulkner's so brilliant isn't he)  then anyone interested in them for real would be mad not to wait until the summer when relegated or not they will be available cheaper. If we go down they'll all be available for peanuts. Surely the reason they are all looking so down when anyone mentions transfers is they know that our rivals hold all the cards - Lambert must be well aware that no-one wants to pay for any of them - maybe when he came in he thought he could have forced warnock and hutton out by now and that he could have offloaded Bent, Given and Ireland for decent money and that he could have made himself some money to play with, maybe not - I'm very much guessing at that. If we could get £15 - 17m for Bent right now do you not think Lambert would be biting their arms off? Rumours suggest teams have put cheeky offers of around £7 - 8m for him, just to test our resolve. 

We all know we're in this mess thanks to Lerner, Faulkner, MON, Houllier and McMuppet. Seems Lamberts mistake was to blow all his season's budget before September and gambling on another team giving us some money to play with in January.

I HOPE it can never be more embarrassing than watching your own player just throw the ball into the net against your biggest rivals. 

Still makes me feel sick just thinking about it now.

6-0 against Newcastle was pretty sickening a couple of seasons ago. made me so angry i wrote the club a letter of complaint!

8-0 Chelsea was heartbreaking

Handing Man Utd the title by losing away at Oldham (Damn you Ian Olney)

Bradford, Burnley, Doncaster - any cup loss to a lower league team hurts

But that 3-0 is still used as a stick to beat me with now and it was over 10 years ago

Great day, my housemates were so sure Leeds were gonna roll over us I still blinked thinking i'd imagined Savo scoring 20yrs later! 

Carlton Palmer there in the Leeds team too I see. Always remember what Le Tissier said of him in his book - 

"He could trap a ball further than i could pass it" 

Not surprised to see we've had the most chances created against us than any other team this season. that is the most telling stat on the chart imo

As for defensive midfielders and Swansea in particular isn't Britton the guy who generally breaks stuff up for them? Just coz he's 5'5" doesn't mean he cant play in the defensive midfield role. 3 of the finest players in that position in my lifetime i can remember are off the top of my head Mascherano (5'9") Makelele (5'7") and Mattheus (5'81/2") - none of them particularly tall.

You're spot on about the second phase though. And against Bradford in the 1st leg it was embarrassing. They were first to everything in and around our box that night, but its been going on all season. We never seem to have anyone marshalling the D whether defending or attacking set pieces and this is costing us big time.

For me it's a shame that the soap opera I thought it would be has proved right with Ireland. 

Was always onto a hiding being a makeweight in the Milner deal. Personally it was like a swift kick to the right when i heard we lost Milner then a follow up kick to the left when i heard we had Ireland as part of it. Then I started to realise why MON felt it was time to leave. He slagged off Man City and their players after demanding £2m to leave on his way out the door

First season was a nightmare starting with his debut in the 6-0 thrashing by Newcastle ending up with Houliier saying he needed to "work harder on his game" then telling his agent he was free to leave in the first transfer window after signing him - then shipping him off to Newcastle on loan on the last day of the window (coz no-one wanted him) where he got into trouble before he'd even played for them being pictured out on the lash the night before a game

Came back to Villa, 2nd season under McMuppet. gets a run of games then gets done up by his mrs on twitter at xmas when she posts THAT photo of him errr "relaxing" at home. Cue NATIONAL OUTRAGE from the UK's Daily Mail readers, TV, Radio all on his case. suddenly the whole world is watching again and he goes and inspires that 3-1 win at chelsea where he scored his only goal to date in a Villa shirt and also set up the 3rd goal (one of only 2 assists in a Villa shirt) in a great, well deserved man of the match performance. 

Under Lambert he was unlucky to break his wrist against Southampton after some promising performances in the first few games. from what was said of him by Lambert early on he either rates him as a player or decided that building him up and praising him would get the best out of him. I seriously never wanted him here in the first place and think it was THE moment that the rot set in in Lerner's reign when we signed him. The really infuriating thing for me is he has an amazing first touch and the ability in passing and vision I could only dream of.

Im not ITK, I dont know what people are paid but it's often bandied around on here that he 's on £60k a week. If that's so it means between us (Played 55, Goals 1, Assists 2) and Newcastle (2/0/0) in the last 2 and a half years we've shelled out around £7,800,000 in wages for 1 goal and 2 assists.

The even stranger thing is I want Lambert to play him. I just wish any of us had ANY idea what goes on in that shiny little head of his. If he suddenly finds the form that led him to score 20 goals in 3 years at City we'll beat the drop - that I'm sure of.

How many of those midfield "succesful" passes are one's where Delph gets in a spot of bother, shits himself and knocks a dodgy pass back to Clark who has to pump it? (i see this sort of thing happening a lot)

.

Sounds like pretty spot on analysis of the midfield passing anomaly to me con although granted they are probably short passes lol

Yep, has he spent £8m plus 50% of any player sale revenue (not that that would be much!)? So the obvious answer is he has spent more than that so that particular constraint was either bollocks or Lerner changed his mind on transfer funds.

Lambert has spent the money from Downing and Collins on the players he's bought in. Considering the amount of money we've shelled out replacing manager after manager id be surprised if there was anything left in the pot that's actually being generated by the club. Barring Lerner upping our debt to him some more and putting cash in (Highly unlikely) the only way Lambert will have anything to play with is by selling what we already have.

So what happens if that slim chance happens and we stay up?  Does Lambert have to stick with what he has got next season as well as the squad is so depleted and we wont really have anyone to sell to generate funds to buy?

This is the problem for Lambert at the moment. I reckon the difference between the wage bill and the income of the club will be his transfer kitty so i wouldn't expect a huge amount unless he can sell...

Why if we have to stay with this wage bracket, okay we get shot of 3 - 4 high earners in the summer.  Going to cost a fortune to bring quality players in.  Be under no illusions, this is a 3-5 year project.  We will be poor for a long time. 

 

Or Else RL wants to keep us up on the cheap and sell in the summer.

Squad needs a drastic overhaul. I reckon everyone has to come to terms with the fact that when Lambert took over - paywise the "First 11" at villa have underperformed (with the obvious exception of a fit Petrov) Lambert didnt sign any of them - Lambert didnt negotiate their wages. He shouldnt get stick for the mistakes he hasn't made. after all he's making enough that he can be criticised for at the moment! IMO the McMuppet signings backed by the board were suicidal. 

I strongly agree with everyone who's pointing out that the Lambert signings aren't really the problem. Even if Bennett has been found wanting, KEA has not been the player we were expecting and Lowton isn't instantly as good as Caca like those knocking him seem to want him to be. 

Also cant believe people are seriously questioning his judgement in signing Benteke - are you for real?

last published accounts (2010/2011 - pre McMuppet) showed we had a wage bill of £83.4m a year (7th highest at the time in the Premier League) Income was around 92m and the debt owed to Lerner was £113m. That was when we bought Bent + Makoun, took Ireland instead of just cash from Man City when we lost Milner (Lerner and Faulkners biggest mistake in my opinion or maybe signing Heskey.....I digress) took Walker on Loan and signed Pires - at the same time shipping out half the youth team and the likes of Sidwell, Harewood, Shorey, Davies and Bouma. 

During the disaster that was last season (and dont forget who was responsible for choosing the manager) McMuppet was allowed to spend the money from the sales of Lowry, A Young, L Young and the fee for loaning Olympiakos Makoun On Given, Nzogbia, Hutton, Enda and loaning Jenas. We lost Carew, Friedel, Pires, Salifou and Downing along with some other youth players from the wage bill. I would expect that actually cut the wage bill quite a bit even if we get lumbered with Given, Nzogbia and Hutton who've never really cut it so far in their villa careers.  

The money from the sale of Downing alleged to be around £20m is what Lambert seemingly got given at the start of the season. We FINALLY got Heskey off the paysheet (how much money did that actually cost us in the end) and lost Cuellar, tha amazing Habib Beye! and Collins too (Last one's undoubtedly a mistake whatever his attitude was like). 

If it's to be believed that the likes of Vlaar, Benteke, KEA etc are on less money than previous signings then I reckon the costcutting exercise is going well.

Now I dont work for Villa and I have no real idea what individuals get paid, I'm not a shareholder and ive never seen their accounts. But one thing is for sure, the following 10 players - Hutton, Warnock, Dunne, Bent, Agbonlahor, Ireland, Nzogbia, Given, Makoun and Petrov are surely among the highest paid players at the club. For a miriad of different reasons they have clocked up 47 appearances in the premier league this season between them - 

Gabby 12

Bent 10

Ireland 13

Nzogbia 10

Given 2 (conceded 4)

They've contributed 4 Goals:

Gabby 2

Bent 2

and 5 Assists:

Nzogbia 2

Ireland 1

Bent 1

Gabby 1

(In writing this out I notice with the addition of another centre back that's a whole starting 11!)

Now I know we bleat on about the money paid to footballers these days and all that but for whatever the reason is the club getting value for money from these players at the moment in your opinion? Discuss  

Icing about him. Baker Dozen Knead it Dough. Glad to hear he's quite good when he Pasty ball too. 

I think you're right. The defenders are concious of conceding goals and want to make amends. They want to right their wrongs themselves, by personally making the attacking ball. 

 

They've got to stop doing that. It's a team game. The midfield services the attack, not the defence.

I just feel it's too simplistic to draw a proper conclusion - I was just trying to add my few words to the idea that the raw data doesn't include what percentage of long passes were made by the relevant positions when there were a) other options or no other options (mainly because the midfield have pushed up leaving Bennett and Lowton isolated time and time again) the midfield must be the link between the defence and the attack. I agree that the stats prove we do it too much (DF hitting the long ball) but I dont agree that this is the fault of the defenders. I dont think the midfield are organised enough, I dont think they work hard enough with or without the ball. I get slated for suggesting bannan is our best crosser - especially when he takes corners like the ones against Bradford in the second leg but I'm chuffed to see the stats back this up.

That can't be true.

 

Only 27% of our long balls come from the CMs, 52% come from the defence.  At Man Utd and West Brom midfield contributes between 40-50% of long balls, so either our midfield is not hitting enough long balls or the defence is hitting too many. It's the latter.

 

You want your midfielders to be hitting the long balls, because they are more accurate passers.

 

 

 

Lowton and Bennett have dreadful long passing and crossing statistics compared to our midfield.

 

They are classic ball hogs who try to do everything themselves, and end up messing up.

 

 

Yep, I know that. Most grounds are similar in size though. 

Its all about where they're passing to and from still. Lowton and Bennett never seem to have anyone running any sort of angle in front of them and get isolated alot. The pitch size point was really just reminding everyone that a cross from Lowton or bennett to the far post would still be classed as a long pass from a defender

The long ball doesn't require a team. It doesn't require much organisation. Get it in there. If you miss it the first time, get the rebound and hit it in.

 

This is what our defence has resorted to so they can feel like they're doing something useful rather than conceding goals all the time. No imagination, which is why they should not be in charge of the attack.

 

Not much point training passing and movement if the defenders by-pass the midfielders with long diagonals to Benteke or hoofs from CB to the same place.

The main reason why im still fully behind Lambert (and the reason i want him to work out in my heart) is that i cant remember having a manger who wants to keep possession more. There's been a noticeable change recently but from game one against portland timbers or whoever it was the goalies have been instructed to ALWAYS try rolling the ball out and attempting to play our way out from the back. I wonder how many less hoofs up to the big man from the keeper we've seen this year over previous years for instance? Lambert wants to play football unlike O'leary, MON and he who must not be named. 

For the record though con I'm loving the stats and how people interpret them. I just think you should use your eloquant typing skills and obvious flair for numbers to hammer the midfield not stick up for them and criticise the defence for the right things. how high does our midfield as a whole rank for goals scored, assists provided and more importantly points gained at the final whistle aginst the others? Are there any stats for which team looks the most scared if we conceed a corner? I bet we'd be top of the league on that one

Aston Villa - The best team of the 1880's

This all leaves me wondering what the stats looked like from the first few games compared to the last few. Seems to me that we're getting longer and longer with our passing every game (though thats an opinion i got no stats to back it up!

I dont buy the defence giving it to the midfield argument though - Holman is the worst passer of the ball we've seen for a long time bannan and delph both seem to come deep to collect the ball off the back 3/4/5 all the time then guess what.... hoof it forward and we lose possession. Nzogbia is always good for getting his head down and running into the opposition to give the ball away without trying to ever pass. Also with Lambert playing wingbacks it puts the onus on Lowton and bennett to get more involved but the woeful movement from our midfield constantly leaves them with no other option than to hit it long. 

But like you say stats are always able to back up your point - whatever it may be. with that in mind remember villa park is 68m wide and an average pass length of 21m is shorter than a corner to the near post. 

Too much is made of this "long ball" theory in this country, When the long ball is on - spot it and hit it long, when it's not - keep possession, play it short. The first one is easier. The second one requires a team that plays for each other moving into space, dragging defenders out of position which makes the short passing game look easy when it's done well. Passing is the half of it. movement (and shape) is what we're lacking and apart from distance run i dont think there are any stats for that. 

Theres people who still think Ireland will come good

only his missus surely

I'm a great believer in the idea that some foreign imports need a season to adjust to the pace of the game in Britain

Took Petrov a season to adjust...

Bergkamp had a pretty poor 1st season too for Arsenal and he is one of the greatest players Ive ever seen live. 

I'm not suggesting KEA is in that class! but he might be useful IF he can get to grips with the pace of it all over here. 

Also he only passes sideways so if recent history is anything to go by he's perfect for us!!

In fairness to Vlaar he didnt miss a header for their goal coz he wasn't watching and never made a challenge! Benteke mistimed his jump fractionally and missed with his header while Vlaar was too busy watching Hanson run about to bother about the ball!

That mistake aside forgetting all stats and staistics and basing it purely on what ive seen of him this season I feel much more comfortable when he's in the team. He's our most composed defender by a mile. He deserves the captaincy too and with the exception of maybe Guzan has been the most consistent performer too.

The question mark over him is his fitness. He's had injury troubles in the past and I think thats why the bigger clubs weren't really looking his way.

But he is quality imo