LukeMoore

I'll be gutted and wonder what Villa scout are doing with there time!!

yeah 21 starts and 10 goals in the prem

our scouts must be stupid if we want a striker like that.

The stats im looking at, says 9 Goals, 32 Games Premier League this season.

Nope, it's definitely 10 goals in 20 starts.

Actually its 9 Goals, 32 Games in the Premier League, atleast according to 2 major sites providing stats.

i think strikers deserve to be judged by the amount of games they've started, funny i'm sure you felt the same when discussing angels record.

That is funny, cause i remember you judging JPA on GT mk2 season, where he suffered the life of the wooden bench, and had 12 sub-apparances..

yep your right i've judged him on just one season :roll:

When you discuss how effective strikers are, you consider open play goals, and not penalties.

so you say angel was great but his record this season was 23 appearances 3 goals from open play. :?

No strikers record has ever been goals/starts.

You do it based on overall appearances, let's not move the goalposts to make Defoe look better than he is.

i disagree, i think you can't really judge a players goal/games because defoe has come on for the last 10 minutes quite a few times this season and it's hardly fair to expect him to score.

I think goals to minutes on the pitch is a fair one but i'm not sure where you can find that info out.

I'll be gutted and wonder what Villa scout are doing with there time!!

yeah 21 starts and 10 goals in the prem

our scouts must be stupid if we want a striker like that.

The stats im looking at, says 9 Goals, 32 Games Premier League this season.

Nope, it's definitely 10 goals in 20 starts.

Actually its 9 Goals, 32 Games in the Premier League, atleast according to 2 major sites providing stats.

i think strikers deserve to be judged by the amount of games they've started, funny i'm sure you felt the same when discussing angels record.

I'll be gutted and wonder what Villa scout are doing with there time!!

yeah 21 starts and 10 goals in the prem

our scouts must be stupid if we want a striker like that.

i'm not afraid of signing new players to replace them i just don't see the point spending money on someone who i don't think is that much better than what we have.

Bent is someone i think is better and unlike defoe bent is someone who can play upfront on his own if we need to and he could play a similar role as carew when played upfront with either gabby or luke.

---Boruc/Sorenson---

McShane---Mellberg/Cahill---Distin/Laursen---Bridge/Bouma

Petrov/Barton-----Barry----Young

Agbonlahor---Carew---Defoe

Thoughts?

Gabby on the wing is useless and i'd assume considering defoe is an out and out striker that playing him on the wing woud also make him useless.

I'm a big fan of defoe but i don't see to much point signing him while we have luke and gabby in the team.

I think both have the ablity to score a similar amount of goals given a run in the team.

i'll be gutted if west ham stay up and he ends up there.

I could see maybe liverpool going for him to replace bellamy

Trouble with viduka would be his wages they would be extortionate. I know we don't have the transfer fee but he's just so lazy at times, i personally wouldn't like to see viduka at the villa. Bent on the other hand is my personal no1 target for us, as is a new GK. A keeper that is confident in the air is a must.

if we could get bent then i'd be over the moon.

Viduka has scored 12 prem goals in 21 starts, lazy or not that is impressive and on a free would be a decent addition to our squad.

I would only want gabby or luke not to be regulars next season if we brought in real true quality. I rate defoe but id rather see gabby have a whole season upfront.

I could see both luke and gabby scoring goals for us next season. Gabby has 9 this season from playing most of it as a right winger.

I think he could get 15 next season as a striker next to carew and i think if luke played most of the season he could get around that number also.

We have gabby and luke who can alternate during the season so we need someone who can do the same with carew to keep a balanced partnership.

I'd sign Viduka on a free as cover for Carew as well as Bent/Defoe if I could.

viduka on a free wouldn't be a bad shout.

I'm not sure we need a striker to come straight into the team at the moment as i believe gabby or luke could score the goals that bellamy or even defoe would upfront with carew.

We also have maloney and young as cover if we need them.

The one thing we don't have is someone to do what carew does if he is injured and i think MON will try to bring someone in who can do that role.

I think distin and viduka on free signings would be great additions.

4 strikers of carew/viduka/moore/gabby

4 defenders of mellberg/laursen/cahill/distin (i'm assuming ridge is off)

If the badge was changed to please those that are unhappy and then this upset a new set of fans would the same people be as supportive and vocal in trying to get it changed again?

Also no one has been able to tell me what problems this badge is going to cause for us, the new badge on the scarfs certainly didn't ruin the mood or the performance today.

There are many people on here who will say "Just forget about it, move on, it's not important.", but they are wrong, it is MASSIVELY important to get this right as the club expands it's brand on an international scale. Pressure must be put on management immediately to get this thing done right, because as it is now, it is a total embarrassment.

I've read other posts like this, i've read why people don't like the badge and i've read fellow designers tell us why the new badge is a poor design but i haven't once read what real negative effects this will have on us.

What will having a badge that some like and some don't really do to our club? What will happen thats so bad it's MASSIVELY important to get this right and pressure must be put on the management to change it?

I understand why some don't like it and after reading the posts from designers i can understand why they feel it's a flawed design but can someone help me understand why this will be so terrible for the club?

Do people really, really believe that a board containing an exec who is CEO of one of the biggest sports marketing companies out there will throw something together?

This is something i mentioned in the closed thread. There are people on our board who surely know about this kind of stuff and even Randy will know how important logos and marketing a brand is from his NFL experience.

I certainy respect paulos comments after reading about his design background but i still don't believe it could have pleased everyone.

They could have come up with something that impressed fellow designers but then i'm sure there would be sections of normal fans who wouldn't like it.

I don't see how this badge can possibly effect the future of the club, as long as success is acheived on the pitch surely all merchandise and marketing issues will take care of themselves regardless of how the badge looks.

i did want barton but not anymore, absolute disgrace to attack your own team mate like that.

Bent is the best premiership based option available as we need someone who can both partner Carew and cover him should he be injured! We won't get him for less than 15m as there will be a lot of competition for his signature! Someone like Bellamy is too much like Agbonlahor and Moore!

I couldn't agree more but I still think we could get him for 10. When is the last time premier club paid a relegated club that much? Johnson had a similar impact in the prem and he went to everton for 8m, Ashton 7m. 10m would get him because in my opinion our only real rivals will be spurs and whilst both clubs have money, neither club have a reputation of throwing it away.

i agree that we may be able to get him for around £10 million it just depends on who else is interested.

But if we need to pay £15 million or maybe slightly more to get him above others then i still think he would be worth spending that amount of money on.

You only have to look at how many games we've drawn this season to see how important someone who guarantees goals is for our team.

I love Bent but I'd NEVER pay 15m for him. 10 tops. Especially after less successful second season.

he hasn't scored as many as last season but taking into account that he is playing for a relegated team and has had to play injured at some parts this season 12 prem goals in 30 starts is pretty decent.

IMO darren bent is someone who will pretty much guarantee you around 15 premiership goals a season and is also someone who can play as part of a front two or up on his own.

He is still only young and will continue to develop and get better

I would personally pay what ever it takes to bring him here in the summer.

yesterday just showed how wasted he is on the right. He has to be played as a striker, i've been on his back this season but i have to say he has scored 7 premiership goals in his first season and played mostly out of position and that is a dam good return.

Has to play upfront with carew instead of ashley young, with his pace and cool finishing i think he would excel working off carew who would win pretty much any ball played up to him.

Barcelona and Real Madrid are producing players like Fabregras all the time

fabregas is one of the best players in the prem at 19 i doubt that is true.

The point to all this is young players from abroad can be brought in for next to nothing and make a massive impact. This is how Arsenal have done it and there's no reason why we cant for a few additions in the summer.

and the problem is you have to compete with the likes of arsenal, chelsea, man u and other big clubs abroad to bring in the young quality your on about.

What other prem teams outside the top 4 have managed to bring in young quality like fabregas and ronaldo?

Luke, gabby, ridge, davis and cahill are good enough to be part of a squad aiming for top 6 football IMO.

^ That was my point....We can buy better young players with potential then what we currently have. It would be great if we could produce these players through our academy but at the moment the players we have produced aren't good enough and until they are we need to look to bringing players in to improve.

do you think we are in a position to bring in the young talent that you mentioned?

Newcastle were laughed at when they put a bid in for rooney before he went to man u, ronaldo cost like £12 million and i'm sure there were other big teams that would have snatched him up had man u not got there.

I don't see us attracting young quality players to our club over the likes of arsenal, chelsea or man u so i'm happy to keep the young kids we've got who look more than capable of helping turn villa into a top 6 club. And i hope cowans keeps producing kids like luke, cahill, gabby and the rest of them for the next few years

Moore: (7) Ran hard, and badgered the Reading defence from start to finish. Had a couple of half chances, but occasionally dwelt too long on the ball in front of goal. A strange performance from Luke, “worked hard but no goals†isn’t a line that seasoned reserves watchers are familiar with.

It seems strange that if luke isn't in his plans he is still out there trying hard, maybe the attitude thing is wrong or maybe mon does see him as part of the team.

I'm confused and hope to see him jump up from the reserves soon.

Fighting without results is all well and good, the side in 1987 had plenty of fight but couldn't win a raffle if they held the only ticket.

i agree we still lack quality in the team.

we are talking about improvements and the fighting spirit is an improvement. Once quality gets added it will be a good combination to have.

This idea that we've got more fight keeps being trotted out.

If you read the things written on here, you'd think e never, ever fought our way back into games last season (except the five times in the league that we came back to draw & the other time we went on to win) Never, Ever! No fightback you see.

How many times have we done it this season? Oh, six to draw and one to win. So about the same then!

And what about letting teams back in to draw/ lose.....3/2 last season and 6/1 this season.

So we're marginally better at pulling games back, but we're now more likely to allow the other team back in.

Fight/resolve works in two ways - coming back in when you're behind and fighting to stop the opposition coming back into it.

thats why stats shouldn't be the only source of an argument.

I've seen with my own eyes at games a better fighting spirit and determination to get back into the game once we've gone behind. And as others have said games like reading (a) newcastle (a) bolton (h) arsenal (h) won't appear on your stats because we didn't manage to bring it back but it doesn't mean that the commintment, fight and determination that was lacking last season wasn't shown during them

Had DOL been in charge, we would have lost 3-0 and Barry wouldn't have been on the pitch

thats opinion and not fact, and its also not accurate. When he had an injury free team to pick from the corresponding fixture last season we won 4-0.

comparing exact results against teams last season to the results this season will not help your argument that things are worse.

Is that a fact?

last season we did seem to roll over and die at times and it was very rare that DOL would make tactical changes at half time to have a positive impact so i don't think it's crazy to suggest we would have lost by a few goals last night.

(That said if a certain Columbian or Brummie had missed those chance they could expect a public hanging, JC still has the fans 100% backing there)

i thought it was a good read but i have no idea what this added to your article.

Carew has been here 6 games, do you rememeber the support angel had when he first arrived?

Anyone changed their minds yet?

the team once again did not just give up when going a goal down.

We also had a manager who made tactical changes at half time to improve the performance and get us a point.

thats better than last season.

Its irrelevant 66 appearances, 11 goals not good enough imo

how is it irrelevant? do you not take into consideration that he is only 21 years old and untill last season he has been making sub appearances (usually the last 15-20 minutes in a game) to gain first team experience.

Last season was the first one you could really class him as a first team player and in 15 starts upfront he scored 8 premiership goals.

Thats the same as the expensive baros and more than angel has scored in the last 3 seasons.

This season playing as a left winger he still managed to score 2 in 7 and play an important part in our unbeaten run.