MarkLillis

9 minutes ago, Galway Lion said:

Beginning to realise why previous managers and other fans call Villa fans fickle.We really do have a large percentage of entitled fans 

It’s not just Villa who have a large percentage of entitled fans……

Leeds

Man Utd

Arsenal

I could go on……..you can talk to Baggie’s fans who think their club is well known for an attacking brand of football based on a couple of seasons in the late 70s

Or West Ham fans who think that they should only see a certain brand of pure passing football when their team plays.

All fans think they deserve a good team with a good style of play……it’s normal for a fan to think like this.

20 hours ago, Zatman said:

like the first minute of his debut when he hit the post at Spurs from a ridiculous shot, or when he made a great assist from Ollie at Norwich or when he helped change the game vs United and nearly equalised vs City

 

Thanks for listing Carneys highlights.These have come during approx 20 first team appearances btw.

I can’t be sure but I think Gareth Barry was in the frame for England by then.

But Carney has hit the post I guess

What I have to say is that if a player has something special you see it.

You see in the first few touches of the ball no matter how young they are (in fact the younger the player the more fearless they are).Gareth Barry or Jack are good examples and you could tell very early on that Lee Hendrie would have a good career.

I have yet to see it with this boy.

Good career maybe….great one  highly unlikely.

9 minutes ago, allani said:

But seriously none of my friends who support other PL clubs think we have a prayer of challenging for a place in the top 8.  They all think the Sly 6, West Ham, Newcastle and Leicester are ahead of us.  These are people who have followed football like me for over 40 years.  They think we are a bang average mid-table side.  My West Ham mates say that they wouldn't be interested in any of our players apart from Emi.  My Newcastle mates think that they have recruited much better than us.  My Sly 6 mates see West Ham and Newcastle as the main threats and laughed when I asked whether they thought we could challenge for Europe.  There seems to be a massive disconnect here.

This is the after effects of our horrendous decline in the past decade.

Nobody relates Aston Villa with having a good team anymore.

We are not considered capable  of getting it right by the majority of (dare I say it….) knowledgeable football fans.

In fact I find it hard to convince myself we can!

15 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Personally, I wouldn't really call it a rivalry.  Just the majority of Leeds fans are awful

This is the truth…..they don’t back their own side…. they put pressure on them their intense desperation to achieve something like past glory (which cannot be possible in the current climate IMO)

Very lucky not to drop last year.

Ive said it before and I’ll say it again there is always a sense of desperation around Elland Rd especially in big matches. it effects their players and until they can attract the standard of player that can cope with the atmosphere there during important matches they will struggle.

Just don’t buy it.Any of it!

Replica kit is always overpriced and generally not good looking or particularly flattering for most blokes.

it’s been a rip off for years.

Agree with the point (sorry can’t remember who made it!) that kids prices should be subsidised so that we would have more young fans able to run around the playground or park in our colours.

56 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

nor me

wasn't he in new contract talks with Leeds? something tells me the summer will end with Mr Leeds showing his "loyalty" whilst coincidently becoming their highest ever paid player, pep and man city sat at home bemused by the whole saga

Then one year later sign for Man City because they paid his release clause and “he needs to play the highest level he can”

Pep will then proceed to play him in approx 20% of the seasons matches….

I was just beginning my love affair with football and Villa.

I hadn’t attended a live match (Dad was unemployed which was not unusual in 1982) but watched anything I could on TV and played every chance I got.

I was actually on a Coca Cola super skills(remember them?) class at my local park and the coach finished early so we could get back to watch that game.

I don’t remember much about it tbf Nigel Spink coming on and doing a lap of the living room followed by a very strange press up type celebration in front of the tv when we scored before being told to settle down it’s only football!

At the time I thought Villa winning stuff was normal…the naivety of youth eh.

I have to say I want Leeds to go.

Elland Road has an incredible atmosphere but the way they are it actually works against their side in important fixtures IMO.

You can almost feel the desperation through the TV….

Everton would be good for the spectacle but i think their fans have really rallied round once they realised how much sh@t they were in.They will get a result against Palace.

However I think actually will be Burnley and that will be……dull.

He was great for us! One of our best ever players without a doubt.

However he is now playing against Villa, he’s not “one of us” he’s a player…a player that swapped possibly legendary status at his boyhood club for a bit part play in a trophy winning franchise. 
 

If they win of Sunday it won’t be an Aguero moment there will be nothing special about it and the rest of football will forget what happened by the start of June.

However an Aston Villa player scoring a winner or an equaliser will go down in Liverpool  history in the same way as Bosco Jankovic is fondly remembered here.

UTV

I think that level of refereeing will improve as soon as we start quizzing refs after the final whistle.Like players and managers are.

They should be interviewed about the key decisions in the game and asked for their perspective.

We will soon see which refs are actually in control and know why they have made the decisions they make.

It’s too easy for them at present no matter what there performance is like they are protected from the aftermath of their mistakes by refereeing pundits who watch replays and think of excuses for them.

Make them defend themselves in the full glow of the media after all they are happy to take centre stage during the game!

There is a lot of opinion out there on Steven Gerrard.It’s understandable that as he hasn’t exactly set the world on fire (like Howe at Newcastle that people feel underwhelmed.

However the PL is an unforgiving league and a new coach will make mistakes and they will be punished.I think we have suffered from Gerrard and his teams “teething” problems this season and hopefully next year will be better.

We aren’t the only fans to maybe expect to much from a new manger in his first season….Talk to a Wolves fan about Bruno Lage they are confused as to whether he is the right man or not too!

Did great work for us!

Agree with a lot of points here.

For me it is a simple fix…

We have two train stations….they need to run more specials (with more carriages) to and from Villa Park.

Obviously they don’t see the congestion as a big problem or else this would be already done.

Excellent today

Can’t see a win there….no matter how hard  I try.

Not twice in a season.It’s just not possible….

I think that it is clear Dean Smith had assembled a lot of good players and staff around him at VP.

The set up at Bodymoor Heath is also very good.

This was an open goal for SG.

Dean Smith can consider himself very unlucky i don't know how he let it slip but he did. I would have backed him to come back from it too like on the other occasions he rectified a loss of form.

However the owners want consistent improvement and slipping back once a season and having to find your way back is not this.

For me when he came into the team for the Wolves game (did we win one nil) he wasn’t spectacular but looked like he “should” be there.

He did all the right things.

Hes not another Jack who could be? However he will have a very good top level career.

Hopefully with us. UTV

24 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Apparently that means he’s a shit defender.

Not necessarily…..just not a good one

55 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I understand those not happy with the appointment but now it’s done you have to try and change your mindset about it to get behind him and see how he does.
 

Otherwise you’ll just find yourself looking for negatives and ignoring positives throughout his time here. Just like many fans that wrote off smith from day 1. They continually said he would fail and he continually proved them wrong (until he didn’t).

How can this kind of support ever be enjoyable ?

This is exactly how I think.

What is the point of being the type football supporter who is constantly pointing out how bad things are going to be and how things are going to fail?

Joyless

I am constantly surprised at the negativity and maybe I shouldn’t be?

it’s the easiest thing in the world to be a naysayer…..just say something won’t happen/will go wrong and then sit back and wait for something to actually go wrong (generally a good chance of that happening in football! so no real risk….)

ohh look at me I’m so clever……  “told you so it was never going to work”

All this hope I’m wrong rubbish too…

20 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

It would be a real cock up at this point. Hopefully we’ve not gone all Lernery at a critical moment. 

How can something that hasn’t actually happened be a real cock up?

There has been nothing from the club about this…..nothing.

On this thread we’ve talked ourselves into a world where Gerrard has been approached and he’s rejected us all before a single fact has been announced.

Crazy

I can understand why people feel a little down about the window.

It can be summed up in two words

Jack Grealish.