danceoftheshamen

So thankfully I can now update my post Beale / Pre Critchley prediction to 6th to 10th

As it stands having lost Beale I would be happy to survive.

We need to replace him in my view. Why does this always happen to Villa?!

29 minutes ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Villa are the perfect middling club who pay well, and where quality players are guaranteed to play and show their chops.

Villa are known as a feeder club and have sold every decent player they've had since the war, who have gone on to do great things at the top clubs.

Do well at Villa and the big clubs always come a knocking.

From Danny Blanchflower to Jack Grealish, the Villa have cashed in and the stars moved on to greater things.

 

For me this is exactly where the club has gone wrong. 

It's fine selling the odd "star" player but only if the overall quality of the team is invested in & improved as a result. Then & only then will we have any chance of estalishing ourselves as a top or "Massive" club again. We need to emulate what Spurs have done basically. Once you have consistent top 6 finishes then you can attract and hold on to your best players more often.

The issue with Villa has been selling those players and not reinvesting or making poor purchases (Yeah thanks Ellis & Lerner & co) I trust these owners to finally see the light however.

It's all a bit concerning tbh. By all accounts Beale is exceptional as a coach, the Rangers fans I know swear he was the bigger loss rather than Gerrard himself but then I think there were a few sour grapes in there maybe too as it was just after they had left for Villa Park! 

Obviously we need a top notch replacement rather quickly as this may even affect the type of players we need to sign.

I personally think it is largely money, or well lets say "the money has to be right" but I do think other stuff comes into it too with some players. For example It wasn't long ago both we & Newcastle had similar offers on the table for a certain former Bournemouth striker & he chose them "Because his young son preferred them". So sometimes different personality types work on different levels. Kamara seems to be one who likes the project and the true football aspect or "story" if you will. Others no doubt don't give a monkeys and will just go to the highest bidder / biggest perceived club or simply follow (As in Steve Stones case which was mentioned) what their agent says without so much as a glance at anything else.  You can see similar personality differences in every workplace. Some don't give a stuff and have the attitude of "i'll do as little as possible so long as I still get paid" whilst others take a pride in their work & surroundngs. Others are highly ambitious and others have their eye set on working at a certain company or reaching a certain goal. I guess football is not much different although has definately been infiltrated by money grabbers since the big money has arrived.

4 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

To be denied 2 clear pens, in a game that big, when you have VAR operating will hurt bad for Huddersfield fans. But they’ve been up in the not so distant past so you cant begrudge Forest. We really need to sort out the referees union in this country its just too infuriating. The FA need to make it a priority going forward

Well it's the FA who pull their strings and pay their wages so that's never going to happen. How on Earth will they ensure the Scummy 6 stay in situ if they ruin their own scam which is exactly why those clubs stay there?!

14 hours ago, Ghost said:

Surely the song writes itself?

"Na na na na na na na na Botmaaaan!"

 

I assume "Botman" is the Black country version? 

I'll admit it.... Never even heard of him or have any idea what the fuss is all abot

19 hours ago, MakemineVanilla said:

Villa did their best and fell short.

I don't begrudge Man City their league title but what has happened to the fans?

I used to think Blue Moon was the best club song ever, which summed up the trials and tribulations of supporting a middling club, and captured the romance and pathos of being loyal in the face of rare success and serial failure.

By today's evidence their success has killed all that romance and has done nothing but embitter them about their past.

Where there used to be humour and irony, there is just bitterness and entitlement.

They are now everything they used to despise about United - and they call that success.

I don't think so!

 

 

It was hilarious how they were sat as though identifying a deceased friends body with the score still at 0-0! Then like the bunch of glory hunting babies they are the disgust and disownership of their team was clear for all to see and as for when we scored the 2nd lol! Then the pathetic gloating and p-taking as soon as they got the third summed up exactly why those kind of plastic fans support "whoever the top team of the moment is". For me it shows a chararcter weakness, the fact they pick those teams even though they live in somewhere like London or Birmingham just highlights that it's purely because they want to be part of the mick taking crew at school or something. They can't handle the idea of losing and being ridiculed, so they pick the team which wins most rather than the logical local club at which they can attend games far easier.

Of course you then have the people who don't understand local loyalty because they don't actually originate form this country. I understand that better and welcome our overseas fans with open arms but if you were brought up here and your family history is UK based I simply can't understand why you would not support your local team? Unless that aforementioned character weakness is prevalent of course.

I am surrounded by Man U, Arsenal, Liverpool & Chelsea fans at work..... in the east Midlands. They are always the ones who gloat and have that entitled attitude. There are also around 4 or 5 Villa fans, several Forest, Leicester & Derby fans and other random ones. Those guys are usually the more genuine fans who actually attend games. The Glory hunters never or very seldom do. Says all you need to know.

For me this last game summed up the season nicely. Lots of false hope littered with a whole swathe of atrocious passing to the opposition, soft goals and awful forward play. 

Watkins has been great at harrying and pressing but shocking at most everything else. 

McGinn has been very hit & miss with a myriad of poor misplaced passes and silly dives littering his game.

Luiz has been careless in possession far too often.

Mings has been good on occasion but is so error prone at other times.

Konsa has been really poor in possession and has not been himself.

Coutihno has shown some top class play but seems really unfit

Buendia does one good thing followed by one bad thing.

Ings has real quality but appeared to lose his shooting boots at the crucial part of the season/

Positives

Ramsey looks a real prospect (Though i feel lost his way for several weeks)

Chambers looks a steal and a fabulous squad player

Cash has continued to improve

Digne looks very good lately

Martinez looks good still 

Oh! & the Premier League is still quite clearly taylored for the success of the scummy 6.

Same **** Different day.

I think folks (Including me) are just annoyed that we have been sent off into the Summer now with a kind of final embarrassment which we now have to sit on for months. It was the pathetic collapse which hurt. City did exactly what we should have been doing when they got the 3rd goal and that was shamelessly waste time. I though we could have done a lot more in the dark arts area to get over the line in that game. We may still have conceded but 3 in 5 minutes was pathetic and an embarrassment in front of a global audience. It needs to stop! There should never have been 3 goals in that game for City.

Thought his "dive" for the second was pretty poor tbh. There was barely any sideways movement in it towards what was a pretty saveable shot from what I saw. 

As for the assaults, Well that's a disgrace and I hope they get punished severely.( which we all know they won't of course)

1 minute ago, VillaChris said:

It was a logical sub tbh. Think error was not putting Sanson on aswell at same time.

In early games Gerrard was clever making double subs around 70th minute mark to keep energy levels up, Leicester and Man. City at home were good examples yet he seems to have stopped that for some reason.

No matter what he did the players just s**t themselves as soon as their first went in so that's simply a mentality problem and not an easy one to solve unless you get an amazing shrink in.

In a normal game yes i would agree, but to remove a threat like him (He'd just scored and they were very wary of him) with such a short time to go effectively said "Ok, we are sticking .....come & have a go if you want". They did and we paid the price. 

We were doing great and for me there was no real need to change it and risk upsetting the apple cart in this particular game. 

Thank goodness the season is over mind and we live to go again.

A sad day all round to see them stay up & us gift wrap the title to the money men. I simply can't believe they did another Wolves it's just so patheitc.

I thought the Nakamba sub is what changed the game today, likely brought about by tired legs after Thursday (Well done Premier League on creating that situation).  We were woeful after he came on. For me with 15 mins left you may as well keep the threat of Coutihno on the pitch. Bad mistake to change it in my opinion from Gerrard.

You just don't even remotely expect him to score in situations like those today. Shocking display of everything a striker shouldn't do today (apart from his harrying of course)

Feeble season. Considering the players here compared to clubs that have finished above us (Which is the majority of them) that was not acceptable in my eyes.

You just knew that as soon as the Plastic Mancs scored today we would implode. To be 2-0 up in a game like that only to implode with 15 minutes left is shocking. Especially when you know what to expect from the opposition. It was Wolves all over again.

Thought he was taught just how physically strong he needs to be last night. He was often outmuscled by the Burnley thugs and had little impact in all honesty... but good for his overall development.

15 hours ago, gwi1890 said:

Tempo quickened  and possession stuck when he came on.

This. They could not live with us when he came on. It looked like he was under instruction to speed the play up a bit as it had been way to slow up to that point. That speed up in play started to open them up time after time but poor finishing and a few decent saves stopped us getting the winner.

A lot of huffing and puffing from us holding the score down to 1-0 until about 60 mins when we totally run out of energy and hope having been battered & bruised playing a bunch of thugs on Thursday coupled with being run around by Citys extra energy & playing style meaning they then take total control and we lose 4-0 to end the season with a whimper.

Shockingly dirty performance from a bunch of desperate cloggers in Burnley. Their lad should have gone for the elbow on Mings in the first half never mind Lowton later on. Filthy team. Same ones who did Wesley of course.

As for us we were as we have been all season long. Lots of huff & puff with little end product. Spent most of the game in the same mode as the Palace game just running round in circles with little to no penetration and weak finishing on the rare occasion we created a decent chance. Their keeper was busy making basic saves from what I saw. One or two were decent but all ones he would be expected to make.

Great perfomance from Mings who got my vote for MOTM.

14th is diabolical for this squad in my eyes. Should have at least been top 10 but shocking displays against the likes of Watford x2, Wolves x2 Brentford x2, & weak away performances against Newcastle, Southampton etc have really undermined us and nothing at all from the Scummy 6 is just poor.

It's all just so ....Meh! 

Serious work needed in the Summer.

Well my Rangers supporting mate reckons he is an unbelievable coach (Said If we got him it would be bigger than actually getting SG for what it's worth)

I agree, the songs are largely not unique to us and get sung at most grounds all over the country. I know a Wolves fan at work and he's always saying "Hi Ho Wolverhampton" & others are traditional Wolves songs. It's like the away fans all sing the same songs.. "You're support is ******* ****" or whatever..