JPAngel

3 pages of guff followed by a comment from someone complaining about the page count in relation to credible links - ad infinitum. Can he just sign already so we can stop this.

Interestingly, the AVFC Official Instagram just posted out that Suso's contract had actually expired and they've essentially opted not to renew it...

Thanks. Really noble of you.

I don't see Watford and Bournemouth drawing today

Bugger. I'll remove that from the next one hehe.

Can I just repost my prediction until it's proven wrong?

I know it's all pie in the sky stuff at this point and people will most likely tear this to shreds but here are my predictions for the end of the season. Aston Villa Everton (a) - DRAW Arsenal (h) - DRAW West Ham (a) - WIN Bournemouth Man City (a) - LOSS Southampton (h) - DRAW Everton (a) - DRAW Watford West Ham (a) - LOSS Man City (h) - LOSS Arsenal (a) - LOSS West Ham Watford (h) - WIN Man Utd (a) - LOSS Aston Villa (h) - LOSS Brighton Southampton (a) - LOSS Newcastle (h) - DRAW Burnley (a) - LOSS This results in a final table of: 15 West Ham United 37 16 Brighton & Hove Albion 37 17 Aston Villa 35 18 Watford 34 19 AFC Bournemouth 33 20 Norwich City 21 Yes, I'm probably being too optimistic and this will probably get shot down but hey, let me dream!

I agree with this. Although I think the board will act in the following way: We stay up - Smith keeps his job because he kept us in the division We go down - Smith keeps his job for getting us into the division and also to continue with the master plan* *Which presumably included getting relegated

Watford look absolutely awful, as do Bournemouth. Hopefully Norwich have some fight left in them and can hold on for a point!

I’m generally quite pleased with today’s game. Don’t get me wrong, I would have preferred to have come away with something but these are the Champions for a reason. We set ourselves up very well defensively and had some good counter attacking opportunities (even if we didn’t find the final ball). Plus, for the two goals, it’s not the usual individual mistakes that cost us. It was just Liverpool being Liverpool. There is still only one point in this and our goal difference didn’t take the pounding a lot of people expected. This was definitely the hardest game of the rest of the season post-lockdown and we came out of it without a hiding.

I definitely agree with the above regarding keeping our expectations tempered. If I was offered promotion this season, investment in the summer and an uneventful 14th/15th placed finish come the end of next season then I'd snatch your arm off. We need to get into the Premier League and, primarily, cement ourselves there.

Crikey, that really does put things into perspective doesn't it? I'm not sure I 100% trust Bruce to go out and buy 7-10 players to make us Premier League ready but if the board does, then that's all that matters to me. Plus, the other option is to get in a new manager (and potentially a new coaching team) to oversee the changes and that scares me even more.

No offence taken on the ITK. I'm simply passing on the message. I like Bruce as a bloke and it's good to see that he's as frustrated as we all are - but the key point here is that if he can't change it and only has excuses then it's time to go. The only way my outlook has been changed by learning this is that I should probably be a little less ruthless in my criticism (which I was elsewhere) and at the end of the day, he's just another human. Or a potato.

Hey folks, It's been an awful long time since I posted here (I tend to visit forums at work when I get a spare minute (or hour) but VT is blocked by our proxy sadly. This means I can only use the Vital Villa board. Anyway, I posted something on there a couple of days ago that I thought you might be interested in regarding Bruce (if you haven't already read this). I just had a very interesting conversation with a friend of mine. He was at the day night test cricket last night and was sat in a box with a few other people. Three people of note were someone on the board at Villa (he couldn't remember his name), a certain Mr Bruce and his son Steve! After talking to Mr Bruce, Steve's step dad - an avid Newcastle supporter, he asked him what on earth was going on at Villa Park at the moment. Mr Bruce replied that he should speak to his son as he'd tell him all about it. Apparently SB was the most genuine bloke you could image and spoke very candidly about it. Take any of the below how you like, but at least we have a little bit of an insight into what Bruce is actually thinking right now. Here are the key points: - After the Cardiff game he wanted to take off every single senior player and replace them with the youth team - that was how angry he was with that performance. - He wants to sign more players but his hands are completely tied at the moment (but we already knew that). - There are certain players in the Villa squad that simply don't want to be there. One that was specifically mentioned was McCormack and the gate incident was specifically alluded to and apparently SB believed that the player simply couldn't be arsed to play. - He has identified "the right players" but currently they're stuck with some "wrong ones". It was a very eye opening conversation. My friend said that in the end he just felt sorry for SB as it's clear as day that he's as annoyed as we are and is having trouble turning it around. To be honest with you, it's changed my outlook on it quite a bit.

I'm in a position now where I think that no matter who we appoint it's just going to go wrong again soon. We just cannot catch a break at the moment. Thoroughly disillusioned with this club at the moment .

Are people seriously talking about sacking RDM? in September? I took a week away from VT because I know how things get on here when we're not winning. Good to see some things don't change

This made me do one of those quiet, wheezy laughs in the office. Well played.

Ignoring that this team has 12 players, I see your point. If you wanted more solidity then you could always do this? --------------------Gollini------------------------ De Laet---Chester----Elphick----Cissokho ---------Tshibola-----------Jedinak------------ Adomah---------Grealish-------------Kodjia -----------------McCormack------------------ OR (as we're doing at the moment) --------------------Gollini------------------------ De Laet---Chester----Elphick----Cissokho ---------Tshibola-----------Jedinak------------ Adomah-------McCormack---------Grealish --------------------Kodjia-----------------------

I think you're overlooking McCormack there. I know he was bought to score goals but he's created more chances than anyone else in the division so far (18).

What's sad is that for some, if we don't get promoted it'll be a travesty because of the money spent assembling the squad. On the flipside if we do go up, it'll be brushed aside because "we should" go up with the money spent assembling the squad.

Signed sealed and delivered by the good Dr!

Did that reject leave and get promoted like Adomah, too?

Looks done!

That is honestly the shittest, saltiest smile I have ever seen.

And here's the same for the 2014/15 season: Watford - 12 Norwich - 10 Brentford - 8 Bournemouth - 7 Middlesbrough - 6 Ipswich - 5