Sam3773

The best appointment we could have got. Hands down, the club have done very well here. 

I know we often make stupid comments at the start of these threads which we inevitably come back to in a couple of years when we want him sacked, but I don’t think it’s too soon to start designing his statue. 

Up the Unai. 

It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. [/thread]

The most exciting manager we’ve appointed since Tim Sherwood. 

What a coup. The good times start here!

COME TO ME!

I beg. 

I love everything about this. Team Emery from day one. Emery for life, not just for Christmas. 

I have a suspicion it’ll end up being Pochettino. Not sure why. Mentioned from the start and faded to a whimper with only one or two mumbling as he might not be interested. 

It’s all very quiet. Suspiciously quiet. I would not be surprised to see him holding up the Villa shirt come the end of this. 

Interesting that our team selection leaked 24 hours before the game, yet the step-by-step guide our new manager supposedly handed Danks, along with the new manager’s identity remained a secret. 

I’d be straight back on that phone to Mauricio, telling him to put his big boy pants on, watch Match of the Day tonight and get himself down Bodymoor in the morning. 

That squad showed everything today. Togetherness, passion, flair, determination, etc. 

So, so much to get excited about for a manager. Hopefully this will turn some heads. 

Purslow still looks unhappy, bless him. 

UP THE DANKS!

Really like this shape. Attacking flair with defensive numbers. As others have said, great balance to it and limited spaces in behind for them to exploit. McGinn with a much needed break. 

11 minutes ago, Laughable Chimp said:

I think there a whole of missing context in this comparison. if we wanna talk purely winning percentages, why not go for OGS?

Well that’s kind of my point. What’s the context? 

Some don’t want to take a risk on someone like Amorim, instead preferring a ‘safe pair of hands’ like Dyche. My point is he isn’t that safe at all. We’re just choosing to watch paint dry because he has, what, experience winning 3 in 10 in this league? 

This is all kind of a moot point in fairness. We aren’t going for Dyche. He is not what the owners are looking for. You don’t go from offering Pochettino £10m a year to Dyche in a matter of 48 hours. 

Anyone with a tendency for mardiness is a risk while Purslow keeps sticking his beak into footballing business. Not sure Bielsa would take too kindly to a Christian pep talk before a game. 

16 minutes ago, WallisFrizz said:

I’m not sure we should keep looking for statement signings either at player or manager level. I’m not necessarily advocating Dyche or Rogers who would both leave me cold but I do think, given we seem to have regressed we need to walk before we can run and worry more about points, safety and team balance/harmony than how we look to the outside world. 

I’m inclined to agree with the first part. I don’t think we should necessarily go for a statement, however from the noise from the club it looks like that’s what they are going for, hence Dyche likely off the table. 

I would disagree with the last part. While there are definitely issues I don’t think a short sighted managerial approach fixes anything. The owners and fan base clearly want to push on. Appointing a ‘steady the ship’ manager now means another managerial change in a year or two to achieve that pushing on - more upheaval and upsetting of the balance. Besides the issues, there is no rot that needs stopping this time. No need for a Bruce style signing.

I’d be looking for long term now. A rarity in football I know, but I’d like a coach who will commit 3 years to us and has a chance of getting us that progression we’re after. Not as guaranteed to keep us up as a Dyche or Large Sam, but let’s start building and focusing on that project again. It’s a risk-reward game and we’ve had mixed luck so far. 

Our most successful manager in the last 10 years wasn’t one of the stalwarts. It was a progressive, relatively new coach from Brentford that no one else went for. High risk - high reward. 

Anyway, that’s a long way of saying Unai Emery. Unai Emery. 

I’d imagine Dyche is nowhere near the statement signing the club want to make. 

Big story brewing at Chelsea apparently. 

Sawiris has just stormed in, dropped a suitcase of cash in the dressing room and walked out with Potter over his shoulder. 

Danks is shooting his shot for the £10m/yr deal. 

I don’t want to get my hopes up for Emery only to see Ian Holloway holding up our shirt. 

As has been said before, we weren’t free flowing under Beale either. He’s doing well at QPR, but any jump to a Premier League team now really would be premature with only a handful of games under his belt. 

What he says is a worry though and something we saw from the outset of Gerrard’s tenure. I, perhaps naively, believed we were going for a structured Brentford style set up where new ‘head coaches’ can come out and slot in as needed. The ‘machine’ would scout young talent which could be coached to a profit playing football the ‘Aston Villa way’. 

That, as we know, seems to have gone the second we started going for older, established players. Perhaps as a result of Gerrard, almost certainly as a result of Purslow. 

So yes, it appears we have more to fix than just the Head Coach position, but Beale and Gerrard played their part in ensuring it was broken. 

1 minute ago, villa4europe said:

Taking him because he's a well known name based on where he was before and not where he is now

He's dying on his ass at Leicester

I presume Klopp’s out too?