Raver50032

Your optimism is as rampant as the lion on our badge... Let's hope it prevails this time

It's now or never for this season.

That's football though isn't it? Surely this is all a bit 'chicken and egg,' no? What comes first, building a team, or getting promotion? Smith inherited an imbalanced squad, and must surely have been limited to what he could actually achieve in the January Sales. There's the 'injury circus' that some acknowledge and some besmirch amidst rampant societal noobery. Either we miss those players because our squad wasn't as good as we thought it was when we were noncing Derby and Boro... or we don't. Personally, I am in the camp that we shouldn't be a one player team. We need to find a way to win without Jack... like we would need to win without Colonel Abraham. The loss of 'Axel,' was bad at the time because of how threadbare our defence was in the middle. Smith has endeavoured to solve that in January. Whether it works or not, we'll see. But this millennial fetish of 'I want results NOW,' is of limited sense. And people like that will be disappointed, more often than not. So... how can Smith get promoted without constructing and effectively managing some sort of team of his own? Not having a pop at you, I like you (!!)... I just can't get beyond the fact that he's been here all of less months than the number of fingers on a standard human hand. The last twenty pages all seem to be some sort of self appointed in depth analysis on someone we know nothing about. For all of the 'I'll give him a chance' rhetoric, from certain posters, it's all bullshit. And the less said about the guy who seems to be looking forward to Smith failing so he can hold his own circle jerk and wag the finger on VillaTalk, the better. Sheesh...

Jaxel Tuanzealish? Like the sound of that.

After nearly getting properly mauled by the Tigers, we risk getting ploughed by the Tractors. Seriously need to win this game to keep the season's embers aglow. Once more, we failed to really capitalise on other 'play-off/promotion hopefuls' suffering negative results. It is quite feasible that we could win this one 5-2, but make no progress in the table because everyone else has reverted to 'winning type.' We're rapidly approaching the stage in the season where we start looking at what we need to do just to finish above Blues.

Rather come from two down and earn a hard fought draw against the form team, than be two up and draw. Next up, the mighty Tractor Boys.

Best wishes @Villan4Life Very sorry to hear this news. There are some posters here at VT who I seem to read their posts in a particular voice. Often, this is associated with either spelling/grammar mistakes. But most often, this is associated with the avatar they choose. So, I've spent most of the time reading your posts but with Bungle's voice in my head. Take care... hope you get back to full time VT service soon.

Fair play to you for investing time to do all of that research. Semantics I know, but you do not 'disagree entirely' with what I wrote. You referenced some similar angst to me about certain VAR decisions at the World Cup. The system isn't perfect because there is still the interpretation of what somebody sees in a slow motion replay some time after the incident has happened. Is a boot lace or an unfortunate long nose offside? Is a 'ball to hand' a handball or not? Technically, it is... VAR gave some of those. I thought the Russia World Cup was one of the best World Cups in my living memory (maybe slightly edging Italia 90) in terms of actual entertaining games. But I thought the VAR input became a bit of a glitzy, melodramatic sideshow, complete with a cast of half a dozen 'full kit rocket polishers' in the VAR box waving to the viewers overseeing the 'Townsend Tactics Truck.' Happy to accept that things can, and probably will become more efficient in terms of deliberating over decisions and wasted time on the pitch. I still have reservations as to how robust, and consistently enforced the outcome of a decision will be. Happy to bet 50p that the 'top clubs' will see more iffy decisions go their way. As is believed to happen now. I wonder if there are any stats on that.

Yes... I used to find that Andy Gray on Sky used to change his interpretation of the offside rule every week depending on which team was playing.

LOL!! Gosh, the amount of times I grumble under my breath when I see or hear him speak on BBC. Proper cynic he is... I'm just a little old fashioned. Something needs to happen... the quality of referees, particularly at our level seems like a caravan of ineptitude at times. However, I can imagine that it's a difficult job. I just don't see VAR being the magic elixir it is being heralded as in football circles. Danny Effing Murphy... FFS!!

I do not believe VAR will actually solve very much. Presently it has been time consuming and disruptive, like 2 minutes worth of deliberation and faff. We've also seen questionable decisions given through VAR, specifically at FIFA's showcase Russian World Cup last summer. Some of the decisions actually given by VAR were piss poor. You can call 'teething trouble' and 'early days' all you want. But it's crap. And it won't end well.

The longest period in our history without winning a 'major.' Heartbreaking... Since football was invented in 1992, Villa have been fingered a few times by rule changes. We finished 2nd in 1992/93... only good enough for UEFA Cup qualification. A couple of years later, 2nd was a European Cup/Champions League spot. Finished 4th in 1995/96... only good enough for UEFA Cup qualification. A couple of years later, 4th was to become entrenched in 'holy grail' success measure of a football team when it was changed to be Champions League qualification. I'm sure we'll get back one day. As a reasonably successful football club over the course of history, I am gutted to think, that at the age of 44, there is now a big risk that I will never get to see my side win the FA Cup. For the mighty Aston Villa, it's a sobering thought.

Yes, there is a lot of build on that as well to be fair. What I got into the habit of doing was recording the highlights show and delaying my viewing by 30 minutes so I could skip adverts and most of the build up. I don't mind the grid walk per se, but the rest of it is needless gunk. I'm not an engineer or anything, or have any particular interest in cars... but the start of a GP is always worth a watch...

Paddywhack beware...

Yes... assuming that C4 have a highlights package, it will be a case of trying not to hear the result of the GP and watching the highlights in the evening. Suits me, because some of the build up on race day is needlessly drawn out.

Yeah, I'm a bit nervous of saying that things 'will get toxic' if we start the Hull game poorly and may even go a goal down. In the form table, Hull are going to be coming here with the expectation of winning. Our form suggests that we should be happy with a hard fought draw. We already know that promotion 'isn't essential' this season - that came straight out of the posh guy Purslow's mouth. So how can Smith be under any sort of pressure so early on in his tenure? We should be embracing the positive change that has occurred (up to now) in the club following Bruce's termination, and supporting the club in it's journey towards making even further positive changes. To see seasoned posters on here be on Smith's back so soon really is concerning for me. Come on, we're better than this. We all want the club to succeed. We won't be doing the team, or the manager any favours at all by getting all pissy pants so quickly. The last few games have been dicey... dismally disappointing. I'm sure Smith, and the players know this. Smith might not work out in the medium or long term. And hopefully, when the time comes that he really isn't going to be able to do anything for us, that we treat him (a fellow Villa fan) with a little more respect than we showed Bruce. It's churlish to be on Smith's back so soon. JMHO.

Smith has to pick this player... just has to. Because... you just know he's gonna score one or two...

We hadn't lost at Wigan since 2006 IIRC. Wigan hadn't won at home since November (against Blackburn). So, records are of course there to be toppled. Hull are in diamond form. "Mauled by the Tigers... you're getting mauled by the Tigers... mauled by the TIGERS..." We can expect some of that. As for the recent big crowds... "Come to see the TIGERS... you've only come to see the TIGERS..." We can expect some of that too. I mean, who would really want to come and pay to see VILLA right now? I was thinking of taking my daughter for this... but as it stands, I think I would really be taking her to watch Hull in this one.

In a Ford Mondeo?

Is Abraham really staying though? Wolves are still confident of signing him once FIFA ratify that he can play for them. And today, BBC Sport Football gossip page has announced that Palace are sniffing around him as well. My concern is that there is still some snakery around all of this, and that if FIFA come back and say he can play for Wolves or Palace etc, then he might still go. Everything is not as clear as it seems to me. I'd be a lot happier if the Abraham situation was actually him declaring that he really wants to stay here and help us get promoted. I'm still amazed that he would countenance turning down a reported 120k per week. Unless he was an actual Aston Villa fan playing for his boyhood team. More to run on Abraham's story IMO.

I'm kind of in the same boat as you here in that essentially, I'm not overly deflated about being out of the FA Cup considering we are a Championship side. That said, the 3-0 scoreline is a proper spanking on paper. It's the kind of result that can knock any kind of positivity and momentum we may have been feeling as a club, fanbase or playing staff. Having just about got through our 'hard fixtures' with a very positive way of playing/results to match, all of a sudden, our form has tailed off with the run of 'winnables.' Okay, we aren't losing many, but our wins have trailed off big time and isn't good enough for getting into the playoffs. It can't all be down to Grealish and Tuanzebe. If it is, then we have no right to be chasing promotion at all. There has to be another way or we are built on sand. We flatter ourselves and believe our own hype if that is the case. I shrugged at the prospect of defeat when the first goal went in... I wasn't bothered. But crikey, to get spanked 3-0 in your own backyard in that manner is an indictment. Will be a big couple of games for Smith and the team to put that to bed and do better and get ourselves back on the way to positivity. Right now, I don't know what to think.

Might need a blue pill to get myself up for this one...

I'm pretty sure that Phelan will be the one pulling most of the strings and OGS being the smiley, likeable front man for the media. A kind of 'fan service' that film franchises like to toss in every now and then.

Have a festive like for the use of that wonderful word.

So, what other threads are worth looking into during the Parliamentary hiatus and Brexit pause over Christmas?