Harry

The safest bet is surely a loan to the Championship for this season. I agree we run the risk of being sentimental about 'one of our own' but the truth is he has never set the world alight at any level for us and we cannot risk relying on him if we get the inevitable injuries. A season elsewhere to prove himself but most likely we will be selling him this time next year.

5 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

It will be very interesting to see if he does return to bodymoor on Monday or not. If he doesn’t, it pretty much confirms our worst fears. 

I would agree with that thought. All we are seeing at the moment is Man City's tame journalists stoking things up in the media. I would be surprised if they could afford both Kane and Grealist even after all the media speculation about how much money they have raised and what financial fire power they allegedly have.

He is 30 and on sky high wages, allegedly. I honestly think his best performances in the PL were when he played for us and that tells its own story. Anyway we have moved on from giving past their players their last big pay day. Much better to pony up the money and buy Tammy. Younger and better.

If ever there was a player that needs to go out on loan its him. A season at a decent Championship club could be his making. What he really needs is game time which at the moment he is unlikely to get at Villa.

For me the key thing is to hang on to him and the others. I guess whether he goes out on loan will in part depend on signings over the summer. You cant really go wrong loaning to a decent Championship side. Its a tough physical league and it will benefit any of them. 

Really disappointed that it did not work out for him particularly as he started with such promise. In some ways his decline in form saved us a problem. Chelsea allegedly wanted £35m for him and he is on high wages. We could certainly spend that money better and we should not break our wages structure which has taken years to fix. Also he probably fails the test set by Purslow of only buying younger players with resale value.  

1 hour ago, hippo said:

The likeness is simply uncanny.

Despite the rollercoaster of this season 11th is a very creditable position given last season and he has earned his right to manage next season. He makes mistakes for sure and still has plenty to learn. The more established in PL we are and the better our squad is the more chance we have attracting a high quality manager if a change needs to be made.

No wonder Spurs wanted to join a European League that they could not be relegated from.

And Kane off in the summer, that solo walk applauding the fans just told everyone what he wants to do.

20 minutes ago, Rightdm00 said:

Probably not. Grealish looks miles from being fit. Fair play to Dean for giving him a chance to showcase before the Euros but he is probably not going to be the answer for our remaining fixtures. 

I agree Grealish is miles off being match fit and he is being played in the vain hope that somehow he will make the difference. I doubt we will get any more points this season and I would much rather Smith tried something different for the last couple of games namely different tactics and formations. We seem to have a Plan A and nothing else.

The game today summed up Villa perfectly this season. We have enough ability in the side to be in the PL but we need a stronger squad, there are too many gaps when players are injured or out of form.

Having said that we lose games like today for two reason. We have zero mental strength or resilience and the tactical decisions made by the management are woeful. As some have pointed out Hodgeson saw the problem and fixed it. We saw the problem (I hope!) and did not. Blaming the ref or blaming Palace for being too physical is seeing the symptoms but not the cause.

We need to be tougher both mentally and physically. We were bullied second half and we were just not capable of dealing with it and it happens in far too many games. Fix and that and we are a long way to solving our problems. We need more class in the squad but that is only part of it.

I don’t think he will play again this season and personally I’m tired of the BS from the club that he might. Mind you I don’t subscribe to all the conspiracy theories that Twitter and Instagram are awash with

Our biggest problem yesterday was I don’t think we went on the pitch believing we could win. OK we scored first but I just felt the attitude of the players was let’s hang on for as long as we can. That is a bang average Man U side and we were undone by lack of self belief, stupid errors and poor refereeing. Can the players honestly say they made Man U work for those three points? It’s all in their heads, they need to believe in themselves.

We need to have more options from the bench too as well as a little more class on the pitch at the start.  I’d not think bringing on inexperienced or young players is a sustainable solution. More money to buy quality needs to be spent in the summer.

Typical Villa, get a good result and then gift 3 points to comfortably the worst side in the league. If we have any aspirations to be better than a mid table side we have to be much better and much more consistent. I rate Smith and he deserves the job but I do always wonder if he has that little bit of magic to get us to six or four.

Against the bottom side playing for over half an hour with ten men we should have battered them. As it is the manager and the players need to hang their heads in shame. 

Radical suggestion, let’s wait for any official announcement rather that relying on the sages  on Twitter. Not saying their wrong but seemingly they are being treated as gospel.

Sadly this was DS being outsmarted by a much more experienced PL manager who had done his homework. (much as I dont rate Moyes).

Schoolboy error to persist with the same tired players who luckily won at the weekend albeit I accept we should have won the Burnley game.

We need to rotate players and have the likes of Barclay available to bring on and not expect them to tear up trees every game. Hving those sort of players on the bench is a Plan B.

1 minute ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Lose against Arse too and suddenly the season starts to turn into one big comedown after looking so positive for so long.

 

Surely they have to react against Arse but the way they've played the last 2 games you have to worry.

I can't see us touching Arsenal based on tonight. Players look tired and devoid of ideas.

Just now, Farlz said:

Martinez has had a proper howler tonight. 

Really really bad day at the office for him.

Good to see we can make a bang average player like Lingard  look like Ronaldo.

1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said:

I really wish I disagreed with this comment but you’re right. He’s not bad, but he isn’t going to take us to the next level. Central midfield is starting to become a problem area for us and McGinn’s sloppiness in possession is a big part of that problem. 

Love the guy, love the intensity but the quality just isn’t there on a consistent basis is it? 

He is packing a lot of timber these days. My wife commented on the size of his arse in the Southampton game 

3 minutes ago, DCJonah said:

Absolutely. Me too. But you just know the usual crowd will be out in force to get on the manager. 

With no plausible or gettable alternative except for some foreign manager that most people on VT have never heard of.

Per the BBC website one shot on target versus 8 and 4 shots versus 15. Are we the home side or cannon fodder?

Why is it we capitulate to WHU every single time we play them?

3 minutes ago, est1874 said:I don't want Smith out. I want him to start managing the **** team. We have very capable players, it's the coaches' jobs to gel their unique abilities and the manager's job to deploy tactics that are tailored for the opposition and make logical sense.

We give the ball to Grealish, he gets crowded out, we lose possession. That's been the plan here and last week. If he sends us out set up the same way in the second half, I can honestly sympathize with people who have no patience for him.

Now, personally speaking, I'd said elsewhere that Smith had learned from last season, which ofc was his first in the Premier League and that comes with a huge learning curve. But it's like he's hit his head and forgot it all again - there is no evidence of a game plan out there. It's poor at best.

 

I would agree with that summary. I actually think we do have most of the payers we need to be a decent PL side but at minimum they need to do the basics properly, something that has been lacking in the last two games. The good results we have had so far this season are not flukes, we played well. There will be huge pressure on Smith to deliver given the investment by the owners and performances like this will not help him.

Super lazy journalism from the Mail today. Why on earth would we want Romero? It’s just Man U’s media pussies doing their usual.