MarkLillis

I am not going to quote stats (basically because I don't really know them that well tbh),but the Hendrie I remember had a great work rate and stamina and used it to great effect in the 90's sides he was in. in comparison to Jack who has tremendous talent, but appears to lack Lees will and desire....... Both are Villa youth products and so have longer rope as far as I am concerned, so maybe I have looked back on Lees earlier Villa career with rose tinted glasses? Jack on the other hand could really be something at Villa and I hope he can be!

Fulham were very impressive during our defeat there last season. Derby have been there or thereabouts for years no reason to think that wont continue. Sheff Wed (see Derby) Blues will no doubt be good under Candle wax face Brentford I like but the may lose Jota, which would hurt them Villa of course....Steve Bruce will have the failings that caused us to go on the two bad runs last year under control Honourable mention to Sunderland Hull and Middlesboro who will all have good spells...it just depends how long they can keep it up after dropping out of the premier. And finally Barnsley not sure how strong they will be after they have finished being raided during the transfer market, but I think they must have some pretty impressive scouting system up there........

I think Adama Traore takes some beating for me.... The fact that he was at Barcelona but still managed to have no idea what to do with the ball when he had it or where to stand on the pitch, shows a high level of ineptitude... The man must have a good agent!

Tbf he does not look half the player Lee Hendrie was

On the transport bit... Witton station is very near to the ground. Wouldn't it be great if we could somehow purchase enough land leading up from the station to the ground to create a concourse similar to Wembley. On match day it could be filled with bars and fast food joints, leading up to a Fan zone type area that other clubs already have. Our match day experience could be so much better!(both on the pitch and off it )

Doctor Tony thinks that we will surpass 20000 season tickets - http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-season-ticket-sales-12868811 If so 20000 x £500 (approx.) = £10,000,000 in revenue. Its not to be sniffed at but if we dropped the prices to £250 each Villa Park would be full to the rafters every week. That would cost (approx.). £5,000,000 Lets "buy" some supporters!! The atmosphere would be fantastic! All for the price of one Micah Richards

We are in a position to mount a challenge next year along with a few other sides.... The teams that come down from the PL will be dangerous of course, but last year it was reasonably easier to predict the top two. Newcastle had Rafa who had already started the recovery before they went down. Brighton were ready to go up after a few near misses... No sides like either of them in this division next year (assuming Reading go up that is...)

Well I would have given Garde more time (could he have coped in the Championship? we will never know).....or Sherwood even (with hindsight would also not have been pretty, again we wont know) and was always arguing for Lambert to get one more season too....but I think in the end he was given a fair crack at it although most fans would have had him out in season two. The only one that didn't really have my support was RDM he just didn't feel right for us. What I AM searching for is a manager I can trust running a club with an identity, which we have definitely not been for almost ten years. How can anyone create this in 9 months? In my opinion we have to keep giving managers time until one of them creates the club we are looking for.

We have got to stop hiring and firing..... We all know this that is why excuses/reason are made. Villa need to play the long game (not long ball!!) what I mean by this is when a big ship is off course, changing direction is a slow and laborious process. Can we please give at least ONE manager time to do it properly?

I liked the look of this lad...if we can keep him around getting gradual game time I think he could develop for us in the same way Delph did....

Old "Arry" has had a chat with Brucie and suggests that he knows he has a difficult job on his hands...... I could see during the derby game that Redknapp had a plan to score and it didn't take long to notice what it was, but he had obviously looked at what he had and said "right this is how we get a result today".as some have you have stated above Bruce doesn't seem to be trying to do that. The question has to be why? I mean Steve Bruce knows football and he knows players, he hasn't just forgotten this knowledge lifetime of being around football can give. He CAN see their strengths and weakness's so why has he decided to play this non progressive un attacking anti football when we have some (on paper anyway)good attacking players. Please don't tell me this man who has been in and around football success all his life is just crap.....

RIP Ugo.

Bruce will get it right. I agree with the comments about players taking responsibility. There is no way Bruce should be made accountable for a 20/30 grand a week player not being able to pass 5 yards to his team mate or in some cases not even notice that the pass is on. Unless he keeps on picking the culprits.....and I like to think (personally) that he knows who they are and he won't once he can replace them. Next year will be different!

I do agree. None of it sounds good. Recently, although performances were not pretty the team looked solid and like I said stable.Johnstone was showing good form..... Baker and Chester with Jedinak were looking strong, Taylor and Hutton were fine at full back. Lansbury and Hourihane were starting to show flashes of previous form and Kodjia was knocking them in.. Now three games after the winning run has come to an end this improvement will go away never to return? Virtually every team in this league goes through spells of good bad form the improvement cannot be linear. But rather it will be gradual and sporadic regardless of how much money we spend. How many people tell us that money is no guarantee for success, then when success doesn't arrive say it should have done because such and such a club has spent X amount? I have faith (I hope it is not in vain) UTV!

He is stabilising the club..... After the last 7 years of instability, I imagine that is a difficult job. The signs are there that we are getting better as a team. The goalkeeper has settled in,we generally have a settled back four/five (depending on what Bruce is trying out) and he obviously does not have the personal yet in midfield/upfront but I imagine he knows who and where to get them from in the summer. It is going to be a good season next year.

Jackson Irvine looked a real player for Burton this year. Will go on from them....should be to us!

I see this and its massively important..... We are slowly staring to enjoy the efforts/performances of certain players,soon we will have cult hero's again! (The Scottish Cafu amongst others).Its a slow journey we are on but there are green shoots.... and fans clapping the team off because they played well at Huddersfield but still lost shows that we are appreciating their efforts and not just blindly getting upset and stating "we should not be losing to Huddersfield" This club was fcuked and for a long time I felt no connection with our players. But watching their battle this year, and the improvement over the last couple of weeks is giving me hope.UTV

Our decision making has been poor all season. In fact its been dire......we hardly ever make the right decision with the ball and if our current batch of players are under the kind of pressure the top teams put on the ball I would fear for us. Thankfully we are seeing signs of improvement recently.... maybe Bruce is working on it, and if he can coach Kodja (amongst others) to get his head up and make better decisions then he will be a great player for us!

Nice read! I was also told that "you should be pissing this league with Newcastle the amount of money you've spent" on the train afterwards. Its not the first time I've heard a similar thing either, teams in this league are not keen that we've tried to buy our way out. When they beat us they take the piss when they lose they use it as an excuse........

Haven't seen it mentioned much here but Huddersfield's pressing play deserves a mention. At time our players were surrounded by blue and white shirts. The effort and fitness levels were all important last night and i just think we ran out of gas in the second half where as Huddersfield players are clearly suited to the style of play and were able to keep it up for longer. When they had the ball there was little in the way of creativity, Arron Mooy looked like he was very difficult to play against so credit to him. The pressing game also gives there fans a sense that the players will give 100% in every challenge and whilst SOME of our our players can hold their heads up high,last night others were not at the races and were virtual passengers ....(Albert I'm looking at you!). On the whole we lost to a club making 100% best out of its resources which results in a very proud set of fans who feel that the club is on the verge of something special. We on the other hand have a very expensively assembled squad of players that on paper are under performing and most of us,(i think) wouldn't care if they left tomorrow.

Yes! A favourite player of mine at the time,very limited in comparison with players who only a few years before had been part of a very good team... Scored a cracking goal against someone like Reading I think and as a 15 year old I was hooked.....

When we get back to the Premier we will be a solid side that is difficult to beat. Bruce has started this process by signing players that are more suitable to this division. These players will perform at the required standard I'm sure,once the partnerships are sorted out. We can all see that we are stronger with Chester and Baker protected by Jedinak. Soon we will have a midfield combination that works (no idea what that maybe, but I'm sure Steve is working on it) and making sure that the full backs and the wide midfielders know what each other are doing. He will be working on Kodjas awareness so that other players supporting runs don't go to waste.... The list is endless!! Derby are a good example of where we are heading, they looked like a team all over the pitch. I know it seems like a low benchmark but small steps start a long journey, after all didn't I just see a stat showing that only Stockport County have been worse than us since O'Neil left?

Shocker last night..... Players that were pretty impressive for other sides this year looked poor for us. Brentford were very good though so credit to them and the team which gets into 6th place in the play offs usually comes on strong during the last third of the season and the momentum takes them all the way. Not saying I see any signs that this will be us though

If the Shane Long link is true, then I would take him over Ayew anytime. Its not that I think he lacks ability (he obviously doesn't) his effort is fine by me too.. Decision making is awful and this is they key point for me,a good footballer makes the right choices more often than not. Ayew doesn't do this, hence he will fail at his next club in England too. He will make it back to France and have a nice career were he is under less pressure to make those decisions

Jack is an easy player to handle with his present attitude. To stop Villas momentum all teams need to do is touch him and he will then go down. The risk is minimal to the opposition (unless this touch is in the penalty area or just outside) as refs are highly unlikely to do anything other than award a free kick which is relatively easier to defend against than quick Villa break... He should take a look at his team mate Albert Adomah and the determination he shows when breaking away with the ball.