villabromsgrove

I have a big Villa supporting family, but sadly none of them want to watch players that they expect will be sold on to other clubs rather than get into our first team. I shall be there on my own (sad). If you see a large fella with a silver beard talking to himself, that'll be me.

It's hard to compare but I would say he has more fluid movement and better instinctive positioning than his big brother. Craig was - and remains - a grafter who impresses through his hard work and flashes of brilliance. Gary just looks a more naturally gifted footballer. Sorry if this counts as "gushing". Obviously, it can all go pear shaped for him, as it does for so many promising youngsters but he looks the part at just now. Craig is a good player but has one serious flaw, a lack of pace. Gary has sufficient pace to make his ability more effective.

Gardner impressed me as a self assured seventeen year old, and now he has added height and strength to his undoubted ability. He could well emulate Steven Gerrard, as he has a lot of SG's attributes.

Albrighton is a potentially good player in a poorly coached squad. He is a proper winger in a team that doesn't play proper football.

The Villa team don't seem to understand what to do with a football. This situation will continue until we invest in better coaching. AM out and A.N.Other in please.

I may be wrong but I thought that Martinez was offered the job but turned us down in favour of that bigger club Wigan!! Unfortunately RL's archaic approach to Martinez was by letter through Dave Whelan, requesting permission to invite Martinez to put himself forward for a shortlist interview. Whelan being the savvy media streetfighter that he is, turned it into a 24 hour ultimatum to RM to decide on keeping his job at Wigan (with a considerable raise in salary) or join an unspecified shortlist for a job he may or may not have got. Not surprising that RM didn't actually get to talk to Randy under those circumstances.

Martinez, Rodgers, Lambert, Poyet etc are up and coming managers and good coaches who would love to manage the Villa if they were actually offered the job. (imo)

Thats what makes yesterdays defeat so much worse. It was so clear that everything about the set up swansea had was better than us. The players were clear about what they were doing and their movement and passing was clearly from good coaching and having it drilled into them on a daily basis. They taught us a lesson in how to play football. Spot on BJ. If every Villa fan can see the blindingly obvious truth, then surely RL/PF can see it as well!

If I were able to sit down with Randy for five minutes our problem could be very clearly explained. "Swansea do not have better players than Aston Villa Randy, but they do have far, far, far better coaching. Simples!" It takes a big man to admit he's cocked it up, but RL must now see that AM was the wrong appointment on so many levels. Spend the january budget on righting a potentially catastropic wrong Randy, and get a manager/coach who can coach the beautiful game to our squad of reasonably talented players.

Having watched Gary develop both physically and technically through the Academy and reserves, I believe that he will be a very good player .... perhaps even great. We need to give him time and space to get used to the pace and quality of the Premiership. Let's not jump on every mistimed tackle like we did with Albrighton and Delph. With patience we could see a good crop of youngsters become valuable first team Villans. UTV!!!!

With fans waiting to jump on AM for the slightest perceived error, playing GG against Swansea would be too risky for AM. If we win great, but then we should beat Swansea shouldn't we? If we lose or draw then, what on earth was AM doing putting an untried kid on the pitch in such a crucial game? Imo playing Gary Gardner would be a positive thing to do if we intend to play attacking football. However, with three points being the least that fans will accept against Swansea AM is not going to experiment. GG will add real quality to our midfield when he gets a run in the team, but with AM/PG under real pressure I think that he'll have to wait for injuries to get any more than 15/20 minutes as a sub.

Sir Gary's posts have always entertained me even though I rarely agree with them, espescially about GG. He obviously enjoys the development process from Academy to first team squad, as do I. We need posters like SGC to brighten up the VT experience. Keep em coming Sir Gary.

The stats indicate one thing .... poor coaching.

I read a recent interview with Andre Villas Boas when he said that the most important thing for a manager was to give the fans entertaining football. He recognised that supporting a team is expensive and fans at least deserved to be entertained. My one question is this .... Will we ever play entertaining football with Alex McLeish in charge?

If AM was a car, he would probably be a Trabant! If your car breaks down by the side of the road everytime you take the family out for a drive, then pretty soon the family will refuse to get in the car. Randy needs to invest in a new car if he wants to keep the family on board!

I feel exactly the same way Shillzz.

It was probably just about acceptable at Birmingham City to send a team out with one aim in mind .... survival! AM and PG seem to have come to Villa with the same mantra, Stay in the Premiership and stay in a job. If we had a squad full of cloggers I would still find this style of "backs to the wall" football unacceptable, but we actually have some decent footballers who cannot hope to perform without the ball. Randy has to realise that he's going to have to make management changes for the health of the business and the sanity of the supporters. The longer this "anti football" continues, the more difficult any recovery will be.

Even if Alex McLeish realised that "anti football" may take us down, he would never convince Peter Grant that we had to change. PG is far more influential than an assistant should be imo.

I have a few friends who are Blues fans and the consensus of opinion is that although they obviously didn't want to be relegated, it resulted in AM leaving. At least they are now able to enjoy watching their football again under the management of Chris Houghton. The problem with Villa's current woeful football is nothing to do with the squad of players imo. The problem is .... Alex McLeish and Peter Grant.

Nabby, you make a good point about the keeper launching the ball upfield. In order to play football you need the ball, and at the moment AM doesn't seem to realise this.

Agreed. The Mc*insert expletive* trend is embarassing Its not even funny. Only thing less funnier and more worrying is Gary Megson name keeps popping up in these threads as well :s I sat next to Gary Megson at a Villa reserve match at the Bescot a few seasons back. He was so boring that I forgot he was there after about ten minutes!

Are you for real? The point stands. To say in DEC you wont renew due to 'the football' is idiotic. It's actually "the football" that I go to see Gingerlad, and it's probably below Conference standard at the moment.

Guilty. Send them down for ten years .... Eck, Grant and Paul Faulkner and they can take Heskey with them. To be fair, I don't mind Emile BUT only if he is playing as a no. 9 and not a f***ing CM'er or winger! I love Heskey's effort, but bringing him on to score a goal or two is about as likely as me winning the lottery!

If AM thought he could turn things round then this post could be the nail in his coffin! Those of you who've read (and probably got annoyed at) my relentlessly positive posts, will be surprised to hear that even I've had enough. I still think that we have a decent squad, and a well meaning if sometimes misguided owner .... BUT! I've always said that win, lose or draw, as long as we try to play entertaining football then I'm happy. Alas, as long as AM manages us I've got more chance of being entertained by an ingrowing toenail than the current style of Aston Villa football. I was shocked by McLeish's appointment but in typical laid backed VB fashion he's had my full support. However two things that happened on Sunday have convinced me that we need a change of management asap. 1) We were one nil down and AM was still vehemently yelling and gesturing at our midfield to "GET BACK!" 2) When Jenas tripped over a worm and injured himself, Peter Grant yelled at McLeish "Heskey, Heskeyyyy!!!! I rest my case your Honour.

It looks like Mon is close to being appointed Sunderland manager. Do you think he will be ringing Randy about signing some of our players? I'd love to hear that conversation.