flashingqwerty

James Wilson?

Bunn is out of contract so i dont think hed add any weight to negotiations.

The problem is SB hasnt put down a marker. We conceeded goals at roughly the same rate under SB as RDM and achieved a far superior shots per game under RDM. I firmly believe that much of SBs supposed success has to do with playing 10 men behind the ball most of the time and Kodjia getting used to playing here. If SB had been judged in the same way as RDM then he would have been sacked in jan/feb when we went 10 games without scoring. As i say, i dont think either manager was right for the club and didnt want either hired in the first place. Nothing that has happened on the pitch has changed my opinion. Major difference between SB and RDM is forwards (kodjias) form improved under SB but i think that would also have happened under RDM. And we have next to no attacking intent now whereas we did under RDM.

If someone were to ask me if i preferred the first 12 games of the season or the last 36 - despite myself, id have to say the first 12. We created loads of chances in those games only to be undone by lapses in concentration. I dont think rdm was a good choice, but i do think had rdm been given the same treatment as sb then we would have finished in roughly the same position and have been a hell of a lot more exciting to watch. For me rdm and sb are opposite ends of the spectrum one attacking and one defensive. We need something in the middle. A lot of people have been saying that the manager roundabout and team overhauls are ruining the club. And this is true. But all it takes is for the person in charge to choose the type of football they want us to play and hire personel that fit that identity. The reason our manager changes have done so much damage is because each manager we hire is completely different to the last. Perhaps its time the higher ups stamp an identity on what they want avfc to be and bring in people who fit this rather than saying "he was good for club x, lets buy him and see what happens"

As i understand it, Tony has an underlying condition and this issue has been expected for a while. I doubt his lifestyle helps but it isnt all down to that.

Actually, no it isnt. Go take a look at what German clubs charge. Even Bayern only charge 15-30 for match tickets. And despite what you may think , we arent even n the same planet quality wise never mind in the same league!!! 40k * £35 is 1.5 mill approx. In modern footballling terms this is a pittance. Reducing the cost of match tickets will have a marginal impact on the clubs income. As others have said, get more bums on seats and merchandising increases.

Just please god dont let SB sign him. Over the hill would be an understatement!!!

I dont know where the idea comes from that Bruce stopped us conceeding lots of goals... Under RDM we conceeded 11 in 12 and under Bruce 35 in 36. As percentages go that improvement is so slight as to be statistically insignificant. Bruce stooping us conceeding lots of goals is a myth despite him playing with at least 4 more players behind the ball than RDM did.

He lost momentum last season when we lost kodjia to afcon and we had nothing to replace him with. We will start the season next year without kodjia so bruce needs to put a style in place that wont see us implode without him. Is he up to doing this? In my opinion , no , as he has so far in his villa tenure showed no sign of being able to utilise the abilities of the players we have other than kodjia. I hope im wrong

Sam Allardyce is available... Just saying...

Ill take that bet if you mean by 'far better' that he gets 22 points from 11 games which is whats needed for automatic promotion

To be fair TRO your response isnt a debate. You responded to a far fetched opinion with another far fetched opinion, that in my opinion is completely unfounded. But each to their own

Of those 6 i only trust 1 of them (kodjia) to score goals. Hogan has only shown he is made of glass, mccormack has only shown he cant be bothered, Gabby just simply isnt good enough and RHM hasnt played enough to know what he is. If we have serious asperations for promotion we need at least 2 strikers to score 15+ goals. With a serious injury who knows what kodjia will be when he returns and at present i dont see any of the other 5 scoring more than a couple each.

I think the reason we looked better after going down to 10 is because it was Baker that went off. Although Elphick is a disaster waiting to happen he is much better on the ball than Baker and this helped us. I reckon we might see 2 new CBs in the summer as our marqee signings and that may be enough to resolve a number of our poor performances.

Shows how bad the ref was when they were taking the piss out of his decisions on sky

On the plus side this has been one of our best performances of the season if only we had scored one of the chances weve had

With any luck SB wont still be manager when kodjia returns. The new manager will have Lansbury, Hourihane and Hogan scoring for fun and we can ease him back in slowly

Oh if anyone knows of good sites to buy retro villa shirts at reasonable prices please drop me a message. Always on the lookout for older replicas

I have the long sleeve of the white one. Its looking a little tired as i wear it so much. Never liked any of the shirts with genting on them as i really hate the look of the sponsor on them...

I saw them on ebay for 10 each so just had to get them especially as it celebrated the cup final

My favorite away shirt ever I own 6 of them with the cup stenciling on them :-D

I think we are seeing the players following instructions and not being good enough to fulfill them. Bruce is asking attacking players to play defensive roles and they arent very good at it

I think the players are carrying out instructions given to them by the manager but in most cases the instructions dont play to the players strengths so the player doesnt meet the managers expections. I firmly believe ( as bruce has a history of playing negative football) that he is asking the likes of lansbury and hourihane to sit deeper and protect. The problem is that isnt what they are good at so they cant meet the managers request because hes effectively playing them out of position. One of the reasons Taylor is doing ok - he is a defensive left fullback which suits bruces style. Lansbury and hourihane at attacking creative forward looking progressive players being asked to sit back keep it tight and tackle. Complete waste of talent.

I have never been a fan of SB even when we were on that great run. I dont think his style of play and his ethos match in any way the players he signed in january and this i think is the issue with our issues on the pitch. SB doesnt set teams out to play good football and be attacking and/or creative. He builds teams with guts and determination with limited ability to be solid and graft. Lansbury and Hourihan are not those things - they are footballers who play pass and move attacking and creative football. I winder whether SB chose these players or someone else did and now SB is trying to make it work but doesnt know how to. I think a different manager with a different style could get a lot more from this squad than SB is currently managing to do.

Assuming we are to play 4-3-3 as our primary formation i'd expect a squad balance as follows: 3 x GK 2 x RB 2 x LB 4 x CB 2 X DCM 4 X CM 3 X WF 3 X CF Leaving 2 spaces plus any u21 players. Steer is unproven, i believe Bunn is out of contract and i've not seen enough of any of our younger keepers to include them so we need 2 GK signings Bree is our starting RB for me, and we have an aging Hutton and a returning De Laet. Either one of these could take a spare squad place but RB appears covered. Taylor is our starting LB, and my sources at the club tell me Amavi is unlikely to be at the club next season. Whilst we could gamble on De Laet or Hutton covering i'd rather we signed a dedicated LB (though i think Taylor is good enough, if we are looking at a LB we could upgrade). Chester and Baker are our current starting CB. Bruce doesnt appear keen to use Elphick or Richards who are our backups so i think we can assume we will see at least 1 if not 2 new CB's come in. Again, if we are looking why not upgrade? Jedinak for me is our only DCM. We need another, so why not upgrade? Lansbury, Hourihane, Gardner, Bacuna and Thor are our CM options. Whilst this may appear sufficient i dont feel Gardner and Bacuna are good enough, whilst i'm still undecided on Thor. If we can find buyers i think we need to upgrade these 2 with players at least as good as Lansbury and Hourihane appeared at their previous clubs. Adomah and Green are our only recognised wingers (you could lump Grealish in here but i frankly dont think he fits into our squad at all). I dont think any of our wingers are good enough and this is an area that needs at least 1 signing. Kodjia and Hogan are fine strikers on there day (and i mean fine in the 'fine art' way and not in 'they are ok' way). But strikers lose form and confidence and we need more options. McCormack, Gabby arent up to it IMO and jury is still out on RHM so perhaps a loan signing here? So thats 6-9 players coming in just to balance the squad. Now, we do have a lot of returning loan players who could take these spots, but thats a big if. I'm also not saying this all needs to be done in a single window but its what i believe we need to compete for automatic promotion. (Please dont sign Johnstone!!!)