KMitch

Remember reports of Bruce chasing Joe Bryan down the freeway?  The press doesn't know what they're spouting most of the time.  Don't let some unfounded rumor flip your opinion on this kid.  He gave his all for us in every single performance this season.  If he actually does go to Wolves this week fair play to him.  He deserves his chance to play in the Premier League and I won't begrudge him in any way.

I don't know why everyone is complaining about this being a loan.  If the kid turns out to be a diamond in the rough, we have a fixed fee already agreed for him.  If the coaching team doesn't rate him this season, he goes back to Wolves and we pass on overspending on a dud.  Either way, we now a have a left sided CB who can fill in at LB, instead of Hutton in both roles.  Welcome, Kortney!  UTV.

I'll let the legend that is Jim Mora sum up our situation...

He has the passing ability we need in that deep midfield spot, but his tackling/pressing is horrendous.  If Hourihane can't track runs into the box from midfield, Lansbury isn't going to do better.

Well, I guess everyone knows why he hasn't been playing.  I didn't even realize he was on the pitch until around the 25th minute when a chance fell to him that he squandered.  

5 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Sounds like Smith wants to field a strong team tomorrow.  Can’t remember the last time we played in the 4th round.

Yep.  I love that he isn't writing off the cup.  Sounds like Taylor is fit as well.  I'm looking forward to seeing how our new defense will fair.    This will be, on paper, the strongest defense we've sent out all season.  Will be interesting to see how we do.

Kalinic

Bree - Elphick - Chester - Taylor

Staying with us for the remainder of the season seems like the best option for both Tammy and Chelsea.  Going on loan to a struggling Premier League team isn't a great idea.  We're creating chances for him left and right to put away, a struggling Premier League team won't give him that luxury.  He's the current Championship top scorer, and has played less games than all the other people around him on the top scoring charts.  If he keeps this form going through the rest of the season, Chelsea will be able to get more for him in the summer, Tammy will have more interested clubs in him to choose from, and we might possibly have a chance at signing him, if we go up.  The only reasoning for Chelsea selling him this month is if they think his stock is at an all time high and will be able to get more for him now than in the summer. 

Hope he grabs a goal tomorrow and puts himself into contention for more minutes.  I know Tammy is a monster and the first name on the teamsheet right now, but if we can find some way to play both of them together to try to grab a late winner, it can help us get more points added to the tally this season.  

8 minutes ago, Random Observer said:

Fosu-Mensah is a much better RB than he is a CB; he has the same problem with aerial balls that Tuanzebe has, but he's absolutely rapid which allows him to recover from some position errors he still makes as he is still learning.  I think those skills make him better suited for RB, and he uses the ball pretty well too, although he isn't a great crosser from what I've seen so far.  If Villa can land him (loan or otherwise) it would be a very good pickup.

Smith likes to play with a very high line.  The pace will help when the opposition tries to go long on the counter.  This was one thing Tuanzebe brought to our backline this is really lacking right now.  Another rapid central defender will help us make up for our fullback/midfield issues.

...and we got McGinn for £4m.  Shows what they know!

I think we're all so used to everything going to shit when it involves the club, that it's only natural for some of us to start to question things that aren't exceeding our expectations.  We're a miserable lot, us Aston Villa supporters.

30 minutes ago, hippo said:

Other sources suggesting that the Cheick Doukoure  move has stalled due to players wage demands. Maybe we won't be spending as much as we thought/hoped this window.

Or maybe we're being sensible for once?  We still don't know what league we'll be playing in next season.  Dropping a lot of money on players this month isn't a guarantee that things will pan out in our favor.  I'd rather haggle over a few bargains this month and spend more on targets this summer when we know more about our situation next season.

25 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I think it's 2.0mill.

Good thing with hause is he's 6ft 2" n a half, so for the first time in a long time we have a airiel ball winner.

Kortney is sposed  to be a powerhouse as well,  does not mess about and commands his area.

For a young player Hause certainly seems like the business, I hope he lives up to the hype because he could be a game changer for us.

Sounds like his awareness and positioning are the weakest aspects of his game.  Physically, the guy is a monster.  If Terry, who survived playing to his late 30s because of his awareness and positioning, can't coach those into him, he won't make it as a footballer.  Also 2-4 mil isn't that big of a loss if he turns out to be pants.  It's not like dropping 15 mil on a player who rots in the reserves while seeing out his contract.

I honestly wouldn't be bothered if we let everyone in that 2019 list go, if Smith & Co. don't rate them.  I would like to try to sign Tuanzebe on a permanent, regardless if we get promoted or not, and Tammy if we go up.  The others?  I think our scouting team can find better players to replace them and fit within our budget.  This has to free up ~200k/week in wages to work with next season.

I also like that 3/4 of our long term contracts are for our best players.  The jury is still out on Hogan, though.  I still think he can come good under Smith again, but he's going to find it hard to get time on the pitch, playing behind Tammy at the moment.

36 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

 

Don’t you just love our press? 

They get wind of a transfer target, put it to a club or clubs who don’t deny it and then fall over themselves to report it. In doing so they either report each other’s speculations as inside info causing a snow balling effect or claim advanced knowledge of the time scales of the deal.

Then when things don’t happen as quickly as they had said they would they throw play the “ooohhh there is a problem card” like they’ve a clue what’s going on. We’ve seen this so many times but window after window people buy their BS.

 

Remember Steve Bruce chasing Joe Bryan down the freeway to London?  hahaha

24 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

Villa report (twitter), said 1hr ago that Hause is currently undergoing a medical, seems a bit late in the evening for a medical???

The club doctor must have had a wicked hangover from the NYE festivities...

16 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

what is everyone's obsession with O'Hare?

I hope he develops as much as the next man, and he looks like he has potential, but he isnt Messi, and if you watch the U23's, he doesnt exactly blow them away, good yes, blow them away?, not really.

I agree we should look over time to give him game time, develop him and expose him to the first team, but citing O'Hare as an immediate natural successor to Grealish is kinda just nuts for me.

I hope im wrong, and he is given a chance and blows us all away, but i would literally bet cash it doesnt happen that way.

Maybe with exposure to the first team this year, with a view to seeing if he is ready next season?, yes quite possibly, but i think the only real way we can have a player to do anything remotely similar to Grealish right now (for the rest of this season), is to buy someone, like Sawyers for example, or a spanish/english gem that our team find?, i dunno.

All im saying is, yes he has potential, but he isnt Grealish as of this moment, and expecting him to be will likely lead to some unnecessary disappointment for anyone who does expect it, and unreasonable expectation put on the lads shoulders.

 

Im sure all supporters of all clubs over inflate the talent of their players sometimes, but we seem to have it down as a fine art

I'm going to guess that most of the supporters calling for him to play haven't seen any of his play in the reserves, even highlights.  His hype/reputation is based on the echo chamber of fans talking him up left and right. I remember before Jack went out on loan there were people on here screaming for him to start.  When Jack played most of a season in League One, he looked decent, but obviously not ready for Premier League football, which showed in his first season for us under Lambert/Sherwood.  Throwing kids into the starting lineup without knowing anything about how they're performing in training or taking to things off the pitch isn't the best strategy.  I remember Houllier didn't rate a lot of our first team players and benched them for kids (Albrighton, Bannan, Herd, Hogg, Clark, Baker, Lichaj, etc.).  He was slated by fans left and right for playing players who were out of their depth and not good enough.  Besides Herd, every other player in that group is an established Premier League or Championship player today, which showed that they needed a more time to development than we supporters were willing to give them.

3 minutes ago, Czechlad said:

I think he deserves a call up based on what he is doing for us. Just because a player is in the championship, doesn't mean they don't deserve a national team chance. Tammy is dominating in the last couple of months. 

Anyone remember David Nugent?  Was scoring for fun in the Championship and got a call up to the Engerland squad because of it.

28 minutes ago, PompeyVillan said:

I'm not immensely impressed by his YouTube highlights for Hause. If you were to do the same for James Chester he'd look like Paulo Maldini. Chester has done some incredible 'highlight' defending. A highlight video is less important for a defender, it's better for them to not have to defend by barrelling through someone, or a last ditch challenge. 

Hause looks a bit clumsy on the ball to me. We've got enough of that ourselves already.

If he wasn't good enough for Wolves in the Championship, what suddenly makes him good enough for us? Not flawless logic because their defence last season is massively better than ours this season. 

I very much understand that Smith is the sort of manager, like Eddie Howe, who is used to signing players with potential to improve them. Unfortunately we're in a bit of a rush and can't really afford players the luxury of learning on the job. 

But, a center back is a center back... 

He was 20-21 playing for Wolves and was playing well enough to get in the England U21 side.  Wolves replaced him with better, more experienced defenders that are already the finished product.  They fell into a lot of money and didn't need to develop players anymore.  Doesn't mean he won't be good enough for us.  He may take a half a season of playing time to shake out all the rust of not playing first team football for 2 seasons, but after that he could be a bargain.  He looks a lot like a left sided Tuanzebe to me.  I still want to try to sign Axel this summer...

42 minutes ago, villalad21 said:

No one is paying 25 mill for a championship player

Leicester did last summer...

4 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I know. We've been trying to get Defoe here for years.  

I'm pretty sure Dale Stephens is still locked up in JulieB's basement.  

With Kalinic coming into the squad, Elphick filling in for Axel, Bree at RB, Taylor coming back from injury for Swansea, and hopefully a new DM this month, our defensive issues will be a lot less prevalent in the 2nd half of the season.

I mean, we looked a lot better at the back today with Elphick & Bree.  Get Taylor in at LB on Saturday and someone else besides Hourihane playing at DM and we should dominate the match.

Excellent today.  Glad he is back and will suit Smith's style of football.  Looked extremely comfortable in possession and solid defensively.  

30 minutes ago, TrentVilla said:

 

Absolutely carrying us.

Spot on...  We'd be battling relegation without him this season.  Not even joking.

Wolves Forum reaction to the Hause Rumors:  https://www.molineuxmix.co.uk/index.php?threads/hause-to-villa.208696/

Overall, the consensus is that he is a promising prospect who isn't getting any game time under Nuno.  Most are happy for him leaving to play, some aren't happy that he is coming to Villa Park, many are trashing Villa, most think they're going to get more than 4 million for him, but he hasn't played much at all over the past 2 seasons.