14 hours ago, Stuartc445 said:

The fans are going crazy because results aren't improving and the performances are getting worse with each passing game.

Sheffield United>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>Reading>>>>Ipswich.

Sheffield United have embarrassed us twice this season for 1 and 8/9ths of two games. They are where they are for a reason. They've impressed me.

For the sake of comparison to those who automatically dismiss Smith because of his previous record at smaller clubs—before managing United Wilder had spells with Alfreton Town, Halifax Town, Oxford United and Northampton Town. He did well with Northampton over three seasons. First, avoiding relegation, next a mid-table finish, and the third winning League 2. When he got United promoted, he joined them in May and had a full summer and so on to prepare.

It is too soon to be getting on the manager's back here. What's the point?

11 minutes ago, LakotaDakota said:

Yet Smith did actually do this for a few games...

With Jack Grealish and Axel Tuanzebe, two of our and the league's better players. Jack especially. How many goals were instigated or aided by him I wonder? I'm not talking about direct assists but his work with the ball, running past players and opening up space. How can we replace that in this squad? There's literally nobody.

12 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

If you play Jedinak you know what you're gonna get, naive of Smith.

He was the wrong decision but he's never been as bad as he was yesterday.

23 minutes ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Jedinak is a poor player at the end of his career, but I blame Smith more for selecting him, what do you expect from him? To keep the ball and play a pass and move game? He has never, ever done that in his career.

Jedinak didn't have to do anything complicated. With the simplest passes he kicked it to the opposition or out. That's on one person and it isn't the manager. 

A lot of players embarrassed themselves at times yesterday. Jedinak, Hutton, Hourihane and Al Ghazi in the first half for sure. The team needs fresh blood so badly. I wouldn't blame any manager for the way they played. First half those lot and more had their worst performances for Villa. 

5 hours ago, Stuartc445 said:

Bruce got time because he came into a team that was in free fall and pretty much stabilised us immediately which brought him time. Whereas Smith came in and had a couple of good results but almost immediately after those restaurants the performances have gone bad and we now hardly win games. 

Whilst I remain fair and will give Smith the same time as Bruce because I am not a hypocite, but Smith is making it difficult.

Today was a great come back but all we did was save face and for 82 mins it was as bad a performance as the Wigan match and Sheffield United were well worth being 3:0 up. It also has to be said where was that fight for 82 minutes. 

Doesn't that bit in bold also apply to Smith this season? Don't forget Bruce also had terrible runs in both seasons (if I'm remembering correctly). 

11 minutes ago, poitier said:

Great comeback, but for me that is the end of our season.

Sheffield United aren't shit. I don't think this game is the one to draw conclusions from.

7 minutes ago, Django_Zooms said:

Are you in fact a Blade?

The bench isn't looking very strong. That's my point. There was not much else to do teamwise.

4 minutes ago, Django_Zooms said:

Sheffield U are a very decent team but still building. Our squad selection is unexpected. Therefore, we must hope that our management team have spotted a tactical weakness. That or all of our other players are injured...

And the rest are shit. I think that's the biggest problem. It's basically the team I'd have picked through there being no options. 

39 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

What's the agenda against Adomah?

All our wide players have been shit recently. I don't really see how Adomah have been worse than what we already have.

The worse for me recently got to be Kodjia. All he ever does when he comes on is to dribble and lose the ball resulting in us getting countered.

Ah it's all explained...by this comment you don't even watch the games!

That's mainly aimed at the Adomah comment. I like him as a person but he's been really bad recently. Kodjia has looked at least a bit bright when he's come on. 

Here's hoping for a loss eh!  (oh maybe that's why you want Adomah to play, I get it.)

8 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Looking at his winning percentage and the fact he have achieved nothing better than mid table finishes so far in his managerial record nothing tells me he is the real deal.

Really hope i am wrong, but stats don't lie. You can say he's only managed small clubs, but Bournemouth ain't a big club either.

Not one VIlla fan is saying Dean Smith is the real deal as of now. You're not being as reasonable as you pretend you are, and it comes across as a bit disingenuous: you have been actively saying he is definitely not right, that he is a bad manager. Everyone else is saying that it is early days and there has been enough early promise, coupled with mitigating circumstances, that warrant holding off any extreme opinions right now. I think that's the reasonable way. I hope he's incredibly successful here and that he is the real deal but only time will tell. I want that because I want Villa to do well.

Also, Bournemouth spent big to go up. They were not a tiny tin-pot club, but one with investment. Eddie Howe though is still doing an incredible job and they have made a lot of good decisions. We can't have Eddie Howe as manager though, so it's pointless talking about him.

http://www.cityam.com/214581/how-bournemouths-promotion-push-was-funded-russian-millionaire

 

Bournemouth hope to be celebrating promotion to the Premier League by beating Bolton tonight (Source: Getty)

After smashing Bolton on Monday night, Bournemouth sealed (barring a miracle) their place in next season's Premier League.

 

 

 

Just six years after they avoided relegation from the Football League, the final step into the promised land was one of the easier tasks Bournemouth have faced in their steady climb up the Football League.

On the surface, the Cherries’ ascent appears to be a timeless tale of football folklore. The narrative which followed victory over Bolton wasn’t hard to foresee: little old Bournemouth, with their 12,000 capacity ground, flirtations with financial meltdown and likeable young manager (who also happens to be a club legend) win three promotions in six seasons to earn their chance to duke it out with the big boys.

Hollywood doesn’t do football very well, but if it was looking for a story replete with the required magic, romance and sentimentality, the Bournemouth tale surely has everything it is looking for.

 

Bournemouth's rise to the top:

 

 

 

• 08/09: League Two 21st
• 09/10: League Two 2nd
• 10/11: League One 6th
• 11/12: League One 11th
• 12/13: League One 2nd (promoted)
• 13/14: Championship 10th
• 14/15: Championship 1st/2nd possible finish*

*Unless they lose 19-0 to Charlton this weekend...

 

Yet while an attractive style of football (Bournemouth are the Championship’s top scorers), manager Eddie Howe’s expert coaching and smart recruitment have all been essential elements in the club’s rise, so too has the money pumped in by a Russian millionaire.

The mysterious Maxim Demin became Bournemouth’s full owner in 2013, after buying a 50 per cent stake two years earlier. The director of Surrey-based Wintel Petrochemicals, Demin became interested in the club after building a £5m mansion (in place of another he bought for the same price) on the luxurious Sandbanks peninsula outside Bournemouth. Yet little else is known about the man writing the cheques, other than the fact he has been generous with his wealth so far.

Until January 2012, Bournemouth’s transfer record was the £210,000 paid for Gavin Peacock in 1989. That was duly smashed in the first transfer window following Demin’s arrival - striker Matt Tubbs signing for upwards of £800,000.

The club has continued to increase expenditure on transfers ever since, yet with match-day and commercial revenues dwarfed by those of their rivals, Bournemouth have been reliant on the deep pockets of Demin to refine their squad.

 

When the south coast club seized promotion to the Championship two seasons ago, they did so as League One’s biggest spenders, having outlayed £1.38m - over £1m more than anyone else. Yet in the process the Cherries also racked up a hefty £15.3m loss and required an £8.7m loan from their wealthy benefactor to ease the burden.

The accounts for their first season in the Championship are yet to be released, although they have continued to spend more than they earn when it comes to transfers. In a league packed with examples of financial mismanagement, Bournemouth are far from the most lavish spenders, but neither are they minnows swimming in a sea of sharks.

In fact, of those clubs who don’t currently enjoy Premier League parachute payments just three - Nottingham Forest, Leeds United and Middlesbrough - have spent more in the last two seasons than Bournemouth. Two of those clubs (Forest and Leeds) were hit with transfer embargoes by the football league for breaching financial fair play rules.

Like so many others in modern football, the remarkable story of Bournemouth’s rise has had its script written by a millionaire.

I'm sure there are better resources for this too, but everything I looked at put Walsall at near enough second bottom in the wage bills for League 1. I predict Villalad's reaction to his cognative dissonance to be, 'He did this at small clubs. Villa is too big for him.' Now he can sit back and look forwards to us losing again.

https://www.footy.com/footballers-vs-the-fans/#efl-league-one

2 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Looking at his winning percentage and the fact he have achieved nothing better than mid table finishes so far in his managerial record nothing tells me he is the real deal.

Really hope i am wrong, but stats don't lie. You can say he's only managed small clubs, but Bournemouth ain't a big club either.

What's your opinion on Dean Smith though? I don't think I've heard it over and over again.

Found this @romavillan and @villalad21 (who will turn away from this dissonance and justify it somehow)...

I'm sure there's a better resource out there, but personally, I don't see how Dean Smith never got Brentford promoted and into the Champions League.

Wage Bills In Championship

Just seeing these numbers make one realise two things. It’s not all about money. Some teams with big budgets do badly and little old tinpot Brentford do rather well. One example might be Norwich with a wage bill triple that of Brentford or Middlesbrough which approaches five times that of Brentford

https://arcticterntalk.org/2018/05/18/wage-bills-in-championship/

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

Yeah, true......its the passengers that's killing us....The decent players are having to do too much.

I agree. And as of the last few months how many decent players have their been...Abraham and McGinn only?

Mings obviously had a good debut, Chester has been injured, Elphick looked stronger with a partner like Mings. Kalinic is new and it's yet to be seen how good he is. Kodjia has blown hot and cold, but has definitely had an impact. Al Gazi is flattering to deceive big time at the moment.

But we have nothing else.

5 minutes ago, Zatman said:

coinciding with Jack and Tuanzebe injuries? 

New managers only win their first few games and that's it. Its like Guardiola...he had a honeymoon period for about two years then lost Fernandinho. Their form dropped because the honeymoon period was over and definitely didn't improve when he returned. 

Seriously though, maybe we should all just leave villalad alone. He literally wants the club to fail rather than be wrong so he is, basically, a pretty weird fan. 

16 minutes ago, Wainy316 said:

But when they played we kept winning so we can only go on the evidence we have.

Nah ignore that. It doesn't suit what he's saying.

10 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

Can't wait till Grealish and Tuanzebe returns so this myth that everything will be turned upside down will finally be exposed.

There will be no more excuses when they return and i am looking forward to it.

You've said this how many times already? 

Also, you'd rather be right in your prejudice than us be successful. Why? Ludicrous.

4 minutes ago, screwdriver said:

He should be on the bench at least against Sheff.

Personally if my job was on the line and he was leaving anyway at the end of the seaons I'd give him a pain killing injection and throw him in.

Just like we did with the goalie in the champions league final...and look how that ended up.

Be a man Smith!

This is insane. Be a man? So if Jack's not fit he has to 'be a man' and put him on the bench before he's ready? WTF.

Also, I don't think his job is on the line.

1 minute ago, Demitri_C said:

The cop out is saying "inform" QPR and Hull. We should not be dropping points against these sides at home if you want top two. That's excuses. Smith should be doing better. 

The truth is somewhere in between. Form matters for us as much as other teams. It would be nice to be getting more points though too.

11 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

And, by the way, I thought he had a great debut. Hope he can stay fit and remains with us after the end of his loan.

He and Elphick played together before, and the performance showed that.

Didn't I read the other day that it was for about 15 minutes until Mings/maybe Elphick got injured?

(OK sure in training they will have played together more, but I'm not letting that stop me).

How about a midfield of Jedinak, Carroll and McGinn in the meantime?

Jedinak looked pretty solid when he came on against Reading. He certainly has some strengths to his game. I think I need a break from Whelan/Hourihane.

6 hours ago, Merson08 said:

Matchday	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19	20	21	22	23	24	25	26	27	28	29	30	31	32	33	34	35	36	37	38	39	40	41	42	43	44	45	46
Ground	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	H	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A	H	A	H	A	A	H	A	H	H	A	H	A
Result	D	L	L	W	D	D	D	W	W	W	W	L	W	D	W	L	W	W	W	D	D	L	D	L	W	W	W	W	W	W	W	L	D	W	L	W	W	L	D	W	L	W	W	W	D	L
Position	10	21	23	16	15	18	18	13	10	8	7	7	5	6	5	6	5	4	4	4	5	5	6	8	7	5	4	4	3	3	2	3	3	3	3	3	3	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4	4

 

Please show me where "a lot" of shite happened, as your referencing Villalad subjecting 17/18 season. I agree he should of gone this season, but last season he did a great job. 

I look at everything objectively and use hard facts to back up pretty much everything I say. If were referring to game 20 to 24 its a pretty poor run of 5 games over the Christmas period. Outside of that we had 3 draws in a row early in the season, but never went on any mad losing streaks.

Steve Bruce has shown every side we need to see of him to make an assessment, ultimately leaving our defense threadbare, which showed in our results were too bad to allow him to stay. 

deleted

And one more thing—some of those results, the 4-2 against Sheffield Wednesday particularly, were weird. I remember that we were a bit shit that day and yet ended up winning with four goals.

EDIT: I think Grealish makes a big difference and my stat analysis was bad.

Just now, wedge said:

Are you really this dense? Yes I must have forgotten that all football clubs have the same budgets, players, fanbase, opponents, directors, coaching staff, training facilities, ambitions and expectations.

Haha. Why would you think of any of that kind of 'context' crap? It doesn't fit what he's trying to say.

5 hours ago, villalad21 said:

What are you on about? We finished 4th last season scoring 72 goals. There were alot of good times last season.

Say what you want about Bruce, but last season he did a great job with the team.

Ok then, how many of the exciting games did we not have Jack Grealish?

1 minute ago, Merson08 said:

Bruce needed to go. His 17/18 season had a lot more games than just the 4-1 against Wolves. Short memories of Villa fans? 

Norwich at Home was 4-2.

Barnsley away 0-3.

Burton away 0-4. 

Fulham at home 2-1.

Bristol City at home 5-0.

Sheff Wednesday away 2-4.

Sunderland away 0-3.

Wolves home 4-1.

Ipswich Town away 0-4.

 

Yep! Short memory. Those were good games to be fair.