dukes

Are you a greetings card writer ?

Let us just be clear, said n his entire career Gabby has never been prolific (over 15 goals in any season). I know he has been played wide a lot, but he isn't suddenly going to start scoring goals, and has not looked like dong so in either of his sub appearances. McCormack is lacking confidence, but has scored 15 league goals in 4 of the last 5 seasons, and also has a football brain and consistently creates chances for others. i hope I have to eat my words, but Gabby has so far done nothing that says to me he can b a consistent performer for this club, and I personally would rather see us giving game time to more deserving players such as Hepburn-Murphy. I do of course acknowledge that Gabby made the pass for The goal, I just think he did absolutely nothing apart from that, and is yesterday's man.

I felt McCormack was making things happen for the 10 mins prior to being taken off. gabby went for about 20 headers and didn't win one. Anyway regardless, we have so many more worthwhile options, and for me Gabby's reintroduction is the one negative since Bruce came here.

Brilliant, and in my opinion our man of the match today. A stark contrast from his first few games.

For me, it's nothing to do with any of the supposed off the pitch issues. it was lunacy to swap the intelligent mobile play of McCormack for this idiot. Fair play he had an involvement in the goal, but apart from that all he did was miss headers. His day has passed, let it go.

Have his performances been worse than Gardners ? Or Tshibola's ? Or Jedinak's (excepting Sunday) ? The fact is we don't currently have other options that are better, otherwise manager after manager wouldn't be picking him. Also, the negativity surrounding him itself creates negativity, I am sure the player is aware of the criticism he is receiving.

I just don't get al the hate for Westwood. He needs to play in a settled and organised midfield. He's not a spectacular player, but he is steady, a team needs both types of player and for me it's the fact that we don't have anyone capable of making something out of nothing that puts pressure on Westwood. He will be better alongside Jedinak (on Sunday's form) and someone with real creativity (which we don't really have...Grealish maybe ??).

He'd be shit away from home.

If Schmeichel and Platt can be classed as Villa Men, then why not add Sasa Curcic to that back room team

The only one I can think of is David Villa.

Ok so what "Villa Man" has the experience needed to get a team in free fall back up the table and promoted ? Don't you see you're asking for the impossible. There are no candidates that fit your strategy, so it's impossible for the board to do that, but it's also foolhardy of you to believe that the board don't want success, and also that the manager that gets us promoted has to be the one to take us forward in the premier league, the phrase horses for courses springs to mind. modern football is very different, there are no Villa Men anymore, there are players that played for us, there are some who even have an affinity with us as fans (such as Petrov), but there aren't people like Brian Little and Gordon Cowans whose blood runs Claret and Blue anymore, because quite simply footballers are much much further from reality and struggle to comprehend the average guys day to day struggles, or the importance a football team has in distracting from them.

Years ago when there were fires on oil rigs they brought in Red Adair, rumours are he was a total asshole with a preference for Shell Oils, but when Texaco had a fire they knew who to call and it was good old Red that put the flames out. Bruce is our Red Adair, he is a short term answer to a longer term problem, let him put the fire out and then we can Get in a manager who can take us to a higher place in the Premier League. on another note (and only so you aren't disappointed) Aston Villa "the club" includes Bruce now (more than likely), you can't truly be behind one without being behind the other, since the success of one is intrinsically linked from here on in.

Honestly would prefer Richards at right back to Bacuna.....

Yes, very wise....well done you

Anybody know how Huntelaar and RDM got on while they were together at Shalke ? It does seem he did ok during that season (14 goas in 37 games). He'd rip this league apart.

Guess he thinks he can force a full pay off from Villa then run off to the MLS

And you know this how ?

While it's probably true, hardly constructive

I'm not certain about this, but since Tony Xia has made quite a big deal about knowing the Chinese President and suggested that he hopes one day he will even make a visit to the club, if having prompted those links in the press here, he then was found out to be a fraudster and not to have the funding in place for the purchase, then surely that could prove to be a very bad career move given how things are done in China. I'm not certain that crossing the president of China would be a good move for anyone.

Interesting that the announcement was made in the 18th hour on the 18th day of the month. 8 is considered lucky for Chinese, so I am hoping we dont have to wait until the 28th for the manager to be appointed.

....but there isn't any suggestion that Lerner is involved with Comolli...quite the opposite actually the only links to Comolli have been with potential new owners. Are you suggesting you will lose faith with the potential new owners, even before they have taken over because this appointment is Randy Lerner like ?

I can't understand this bloke. What did he have to lose by blooding a few youngsters ? He wasn't ever in the running for the full time job (or at least I hope he wasn't), and whoever comes in during the summer is likely to bring their own assistant with them, so this was his chance to show he could make some form of difference. Nobody expected him to keep us up, why not see if we have a few bright sparks coming through so that we can at least end the season with some promise. Instead he picks the same old sh1t week in and week out, and we get nothing not even a glimmer of hope. if the mnager is on cruise control how can we expect the players not to be. Too many buffoons collecting big money week in and week out and doing nothing for it.

Of course he could, nobody said he couldn't, but it's still a very big risk, and one that without investment would be unlikely to reap the rewards you talk about.

Depends how much free cash he has, if he doesn't fancy propping up the club for a few more years then it's better for him to cut his losses and accept a lower fee now. if we don't come straight back up then the value of the club will drop in any case as turnover will be much reduced, so it's all about how much of a risk he might want to take. The money in Villa is from the Lerner Family fund though I think, so maybe he won't want to risk any more than the £250M that has already been spent.

Moyes would be a great appointment for this club at this time, I cannot understand why anyone could think otherwise. I do not know if he is gettable, but of all the names linked to us in the likely event that Garde leaves he is the one that I think could unify the dressing room quickest, and if necessary get the best out of the undesirables (Gabby, Richards, Richardson, Lescott etc) if as expected we don't have any takers for them. I'd also take Dyche if we go for a young manager, he has the necessary experience in the championship. I saw Monk linked earlier today, this would in my opinion be a stupid appointment and way too much of a risk.