Dave J

OBE; yes I am one of those who very clearly do not believe he is good enough to play for Aston Villa or in the premier league for that matter. In my humble opinion he is championship material at best. Do you not wonder why there has hardly ever been any interest in him going to another club? And most of my friends who follow the baggies or the Dingles wouldn't want him anywhere near their club? Having been raised on the likes of Little, Gray, Shaw, Yorke, Saunders can you not share my frustration at his lack of technical expertise on the ball? Crickey that chance he missed the other week was nothing to do with being rusty, just rank bad technique in my view. I would still back Little and Shaw to finish that chance now!.

Lots of if buts and maybe going on. Do you not honestly feel that for 70k a week you mightn't want more than half seasons and as stated approx 9 goals per season? You say better than most players in the last 10 years, not a difficult feat to accomplish I would have thought, and in all honesty I would challenge even this. Not good enough I'm afraid.

I'd imagine because others are eventually sold/dropped once it becomes clear they lack in ability. They aren't given jobs for life at other clubs. What Gabby has done well also is always his usual little run of form just when the tide has turned against him to fool people into thinking that he has finally turned it around. Edit: Also it isn't limited to the last few years. Even during his supposedly 'good' years under MON all he did was play well until around Christmas, burnt out, then contributed naff all for the remainder of the season. He was crap under Houllier and would've been sold there and then had the latter continued as our manager. Started brilliantly for all of 7/8 games in the McLeish season. You see the pattern here. Everything you ever need to know about Gabby is right here. Completely bang on the money. But how very dare you!

So would you agree that to be some way short of scoring 100 goals, in as you point out playing so many games for Villa, would not justify the salary he commands?

My take on this is quite simple. The fans who are prepared to step back and take stock of Gabby and put to one side, all of the villa fan/ loves the club nonsense that seems to endear him to so many supporters are the ones that do see him for what he is, and that is a limited professional footballer IMO. However when someone dares to raise this issue, they get pilloried for having the audacity for doing so. I can't help feel that any other player who had delivered so little for so long would have been hounded out by now. Take Andi Weimann for example, in my honest opinion there is nothing between these guys in terms of technical abilities, let's be fair here this guy puts in a shift every game, might not be enough I would agree with you, but does he get cut the same amount of slack as Gabby? Hell no!

You know what Doug; this is only just a bit of fun for me, I don't rate him, never will, but I've never been rude to anyone. So when the fun's gone, I'm done here.

Just pace, not a lot else going on mind. Yawn!

Just pace, not a lot else going on mind.

I could not agree more.

Stevo; please has it really? come on be fair how would you describe the last 3 games then? sorry i just don't follow.

Tad harsh? it's actually bang on the money if you ask me, i don't see this recent run of impressive performance as a coincidence that he's not been involved.. I have said this so many times, he's not very good at playing football IMO and we are a better proposition without him. ok time for the tin hat!

That's funny

Two of our best performances in a long long time.

Two of our best performances in a long long time. Errmm. Just saying!................what's that I hear stampede to the keyboards

Fair play to Gabby. It is always good to hear stories such as this. Good luck to the little fella, I send him my sincerest best wishes. Come on Villa do it for the little fella!

It amazes me why people rate him!

You don't seriously believe that? Without any shadow of doubt

Really, is he?

What is it you like about Andi just out of interest, I think he is one of the worst players we have in the squad personally but that's just my opinion of course

And of course, Gabby has been really good

Putting a shift in is a reference to him working hard. It's not impossible to work hard but still have a bad game. Are you being pedantic on purpose? Ermm! Weimann being the classic example He's the perfect example. He runs his nuts off every game, seems to always look for the ball and you can see it hurts when things go wrong. He's still not good enough, but I respect him for at least trying. I think you must be agreeing with me really? Because I think Weimann runs his nuts every game as well, do I think he's good enough? No way. Does Gabby work as hard as Weimann ? IMO no way, is he good enough? Again In my opinion no way. Still curious how Gabby is cut so much slack, compared to say Weimann for example, when the reality is that their is nothing between them.

Really? A shift every time he plays, even when he's not playing well. Ermm!

But Steve is right though, he is on form isn't he? Even if he's not scoring every game, he's playing well. Over his career he's definitely had more better games than worse. He's saved us from relegation, has the second fastest prem hattrick (the only 'perfect' hattrick on the list, I might add) And always puts in a shift, even when he's played shit, I don't know why you hate him so much. Right now he's a constant threat and is linking up great with Benteke, even Tekkers said himself in an interview yesterday that he's loving being partnered with Gabby. I understand that people rate players more/less than other people do, but in your case it seems more of a personal vendetta. Did he ever cut you up in his Lambo and give you the finger?