Chicken Field

I think the majority of people would agree that Wesley has been a let down, but I also think majority of people realize he is still young, in a new league and had a difficult job. There were definitely glimpses of quality, but overall disappointing, I also think most people realize that these type of players often need more than a half season to settle in a new country and league, especially when they don't speak the language. But, to compare him to N'Zogbia and to say N'Zogbia "was in terms for value for money a miles better purchase than Wes." is absolute garbage. You're comparing a half season by a youngster, to a player bought for similar price (when considering inflation) who was disastrously bad and spent a year or two in the reserves eating up his massive massive wages. Some people on here might be "blowing smoke up his arse", but you are, with exaggerated posts like these and above, spewing hatred towards Wesley.

Weirdly enough, I'd much prefer Wood over Wilson, bot similar age, Wood would have a smaller wage and has a better scoring record. And his hold up play etc. is really good Wilson's scoring record really isn't that good, I have always found him to be quite overrated

I was expecting him to be sacked after Villa released the statement distancing themselves from his comments on COVID. Not very often you see clubs do that. Wonder what impact those comments had on his future.

I do agree that we have recruited poor managers, just look at their records after Villa. But look at the types we have had, Martin O'Neill counter attacking to Houllier Short passing and possession based, to McCleish abomination of defensive football, to Lambert who attempted possession football, but it was a bit everywhere and nowhere, to sherwood a bit gung-ho, to Garde who tried possession football to Di Matteo, no idea what his philosophy was, to Bruce and his defensive counter attacking to Smith who has always played possession. Every manager has at very least an input to who we sign, do you believe that Bruce would have signed all those strikers that Di Matteo signed? Do you think Smith would have signed players such as Neil Taylor, Glen Whelan, Elmo, Samba and so on? This means that every time we hire a new manager, they have to "clean out" what the previous manager did. This means we will always have a bomb squad and a lot of fringe players that will never play, but just eat at our budget. We will have players on big wages, that should be good, but just don't fit our football. There is no way that Smith would not revert back to the style that got us promoted, this is the style he has always had. The reason we changed this season, is that the other style just wasn't working. He attempted the easier style, to see if it would save us, which it has not at the slightest. I'd rather a manager showing a bit of versatility and was willing to "abandon" his style for results, than a manager stubborn and unwilling to change styles. For me, kudos to Smith for attempting to change our style. We have gone for managers that go for results first for so many years now, it doesn't work. It's a re-build every few seasons. I'd rather we actually build something sustainable, an identity. People seriously underestimate the work Smith and co had to do this season, I am amazed at how people are reacting. We finished 5th in the championship last season, thanks only to a record breaking run, we lost our entire spine, and people expect us to do well in the Premier League. It's unrealistic.

I don't think firing Smith is the best option, as someone mentioned, we can not continue to do hard-resets. I'd be surprised and disappointed if we went for Dyche. We are clearly trying to create a team that plays more modern football, one of our biggest mistakes under Lerner and Xia was the constant changing of managers and styles, we went from playing long defensive football to attempting attacking fluid football and back and forth. Even though the football hasn't been great this season, we all know Smith wants us to play attractive football, Dyche is the complete opposite. There are so many players in the team that would not fit a Dyche club and getting him would mean we AGAIN have to make a total re-build. If we fire Smith, I pray that our board actually does some scouting and goes down the Wolves/Norwich route, and find someone not currently managing her, maybe a young upcomer. Most importantly, one that fits the style we want to create, so we don't have to build an entire new XI. Also one that is willing to give youth a chance and buy younger, if that is the route we want to go. Dyche ticks non of those boxes

For all my 30+ years on this earth, I have been passionate towards Villa and football in general. I’ve spent countless hours on football forums and news sides, studying everything football related, especially Villa. I fondly remember my first Villa memory, which was the league cup win against Leeds in 96. A match I was sent a VHS copy months later, from my Grandad. A VHS I watched so many times, that I still remember details from the match, even though I haven’t watched it for many years. I passionately started following and understanding football when Martin O’Neill became manager. This was an exciting time to be a Villa fan, we had many great players and some good memories. Though, they ultimately, still, always seemed to end in disappointment. I have stuck with Villa through 2x FA cup final losses, including spending £100’s to travel and attend the Arsenal trashing, 2x League cup finals losses, one play-off final lose, which I again spent £100’s to attend. I’ve experienced so many lows. The ones that pop to mind include the yearly decline following MON, the humiliating semi final loss to Bradford, the nearly 700 minute goalless run in 14/15, in what must have been the least entertaining team to have ever played in the Premier League, the 8-0 loss to Chelsea being maybe the stand out in a plethora of humiliating losses, Petrov’s illness, relegation, including the humiliating way that we got relegated in, and some dreadful seasons in the championship (including nearly going bankrupt). And all my favourite players leaving year by year. So many horrible seasons, so many horrible experiences. On the contrary, I can count the good experiences on one hand. Promotion, Semi-final vs. Liverpool, and some decent wins here and there, particularly vs. Blues. Despite majority of experiences being horrible, I have always stuck with Villa, watched every match I could, which has not always been easy due to the limited coverage of them we get here. I never turned a match of, not even when we lost 8-0. But I think I might finally have cracked. I can’t stand to watch football that is not Villa related, and I can’t stand to watch Villa. There are simply more entertaining ways to spend my time. I have missed some matches lately and turned multiple off. I feel numb to results, with only referee decision resulting in any response from me, like the one today against United. These are always negative emotions. Villa always seem to be a team that plays the least entertaining football in the world, with this current team being up there with the worst in pure entertainment value. Is this an experience anyone else has had? Did the passion come back and how? Would be interesting to hear what made people crack and stop caring? (or what is your worst experience or time as a Villa fan).

I am both surprised and not surprised at all about how many people seem to have lost faith in Smith. The situation we are in is difficult to take, and I do understand the frustrations. One of the more commonly used argument as to why Smith deserves the sack, is the vast amount of money wasted, therefore, for fun I directly compared our strating XI with other teams starting XI, just so we can get a better picture VS Newcastle. On average, each player in the starting XI cost 3.5m more than Villa’s. This is without Danny Rose, who according to transfermarket, is worth 16m. . This also doesn't give a picture of how much more established their team is, compared to ours. People were upset about our lacklustre performance against Chelsea. On average, each player in their starting XI cost 16m more than ours. This is excluding homegrown players such as Christensen, Loftus-Cheek and Mount. And not counting the 64m they used on subs Pulisic and the 17m on Barkley. On average, Sheffield United starting XI was just 3m cheaper, this is excluding Basham, Stevens who were free transfers and their best player, Dean Henderson. Sheffield United have simply just exceeded expectations. Sheffield United have also been building this team for many years now. I think people underestimate how little 100m is when building a nearly entire starting XI today. When comparing our starting XI, and our extreme lack of depth with other teams around us, I can not understand why people expect us to do better than we currently are. I believe if given the option, most of us would take and start majority of the starting XI available for West Ham, Bournemouth and Watford. With only a few of our players good enough to start for them. People also underestimate in what mess we were in before the season started, we had no wingers, one striker, nearly no defenders. The rebuilt has been immense. If we are relegated this season, we are in a much better position than we were in last time, as we will be keeping the majority of players, as they are works in progress. Another figure people underestimate is the hidden figure of wages, and I am willing to bet that our league position is not far off from what we pay in wages compared to others. I am as unhappy as the next person about our depressing position, though I cannot say I’m surprised and am having a difficult time blaming Smith for it. We have been a shitty run team for years, and it will take years of good management to get us out of it, there is no short term fix.

Do you really think the players released this summer would be better options than what we have? 3 of them have gone into pension, as they were incapable of playing, lost their appetites or no one wanted them Elphick is average at best in the championship and 32. Adomah is warming Nottingham Forrests bench, whelan is in League one. They don't turn shit over night, our team last season got carried by our loanees, Grealish and McGinn. I think even Smith and purslow would agree with the sentence that there were too many changes in a short space, and I expect them to use that as the excuse when we are relegated, but we just didn't have any other option, as much as you dislike any one at Villa, Smith, purslow etc. there just is no arguement that we bought and sold too much, everyone agrees, we just didnt have a choice. This is always an issue with teams Bruce has managed, once he leaves they turn horrible, as he fills them with average and older players, and they always require massive fixes afterwards. This isnt helped by the fact that we had piss poor recruitment before Bruce too. As much as I'm unsure about Smith, I just cant blame him too much for the mess we're in, people are talking about changing players and formations, I just don't think we have good enough players (bar three; McGinn, Grealish and Mings (also the keepers)). We have bottlers and players scared of fighting, like El Ghazi and Targett. people are asking for massive changes for the final, but what changes can we realistically do? once a again poor recruitment has ruined our season, though at least some of the players we have now might be deccent in the championship. I wonder who was in charge of our transfers?

I'd be surprised if his contract is longer than to this summer, potentially with a 1 year extension if we choose to activate it

pretty similar to when we signed Christ Sutton, low risk, low wages and short deal. Would rather play with a shit striker than no striker. Majority of the clubs in the prem are trying to sign strikers, and it seems like the majority are failing, at least we got something Who knows, maybe he'll actually suit us and everything clicks?

I don't want Smith out, though I'm starting to become unsure now.. the football served these last few months has been dreadful, selection has been trivial and performances abysmal. Even though I know he is not in charge of recruitment, someone has to be punished for it, the recruitment has been horrendous, apart from Mings we will be making losses on the rest. The question to me is, if we keep Smith, I honestly believe there is NO chance we will stay up, but dose he deserve a chance in the championship with us next season, or do we role the dice and try to stay up, but most likely end in a manager limbo in the near future? I cant see any new long term managers available to us at the moment.

Somehow this tells me that you may be out of touch of modern football. He is, as most clubs are run today, head coach not manager, this means that he is most likely involved, but is no by any means the main man when signing players, this is the job of the scouts and director of football, so you really can't blame him solely on the signings. He took us from 15th to promotion last season, I think everyone would agree that this was a fantastic achievement, we lost our main right sided center back and one of our most important player in Tuanzebe, also, probably more significant, we lost our topscorer and one of the premer leagues highest scorers this season in Tammy. Add to that we basically lost our entire rotational squad. FFS we had only 9 senior outfield players left at the club after last season, and this is including a broken Chester and players like Elmo, Taylor, Kodija, Lansbury and Davis. Also there are no decent youth players available, which could have made filling the squad up an easier task. Also, there are two types of expenditures in football, net transfer spent, where we addmittely have spend a bit (though apart from Wesley and Mings, I'd argue that our players are very very cheap in todays market) and contract expenditure, where I'm willing to bet our majority of our players are very cheap. Not to forget that all the players apart from Heaton, Jota and Mings are 25 or below, meaning that they have been signed with the long term in mind, players that can and most likely will improve. When have you ever seen a club having to buy a new 9 out of starting 11 and be successfull?? we miracly finished 5th in the championship last season FFS and are arguably weaker as we lost so many players !! Things arent going great but people really need to be realistic.. So whats the plan after sacking Smith? go for Mark Hughes, Harry Redknapp or another dinosaur, play hoofball again and sign players above the age of 28 on high contracts? I feel like we have tried that a few times. For the first time since I was old enough to follow football, we are actually a club that tries to play football the right way and that are trying to buy players that dont bankrupt us and have sell on value, for the first time we are actually trying to be smart and modern about it. Give it time for crying out loud, success doesnt happen overnight.

I remember last season when we got the new owners, and I think it was purslow who was talking about something along the lines of copying the Dortmund method, buying younger players, developing them and either keep them and improve the team or sell them on for profits and replace them with new youngsters. I remember fans creaming themselves with excitement. If people think that players will develop massively and become the finished the article after 15 games, then we might as well scrap our new philosophy and go back to buying overpriced older British players, that end up rotting in our reserves. Wesley has not been flawless, but we the fans really have to be patient and realistic, if fans think posting on a forum or facebook doesnt affect anyone, then you are wrong, it will affect his confidence greatly. The fans play a big part in a players development and confidence. I get this is a forum, but 99% of the posts critizing the guy are not constructive nor created for debate, but merely to bash the guy.

Am I thinking about another header? did the goalkeeper not catch the ball?

Very good today, our new Brad Friedel !

This hounding players mentality we have have is so tiresome, all it creates is negativity. I really want us to avoid being like Arsenal fans and creating that type of toxicity that they have, it's not good for anything. Criticising players and attacking players are two very different things. We are talking about a 22 year old striker, who has never played at this level before. He's got 4 goals in 10 and if he continues this goal scoring form will finish on 14-15, which is a great return. people that are expecting a 20 goals a season striker should look at the history of premier league and realise how few players actually get more than 20 each season. I see potential in him, but of course realise he needs to improve and has some very frustrating traits, like the way he falls over much to easily and gets outmuscled, but guess what, this kid has never played against this calibre of players before, this league is much more physically demanding than any other league he has experienced, it's gonna take time for hime to get used to it. He's young, moved to a new country, new culture and a new language, of course he has to be given some time to adapt and it is our duty as fans to support him and make the transition easier for him. Confidence is the main attribute of a succesful attacker (or footballer in general), he's not going to become a confident player with the support he is currently getting I wonder what the fans opinion of Benteke was after 10 games? Also worth mentioning that the only players at clubs around us in the league that have outscored Wesley so far pukki (who started really well and has faded away) with 6 and an established Callum Wilson with 5. And Wesley has been incredibly effective, as chances presented to him have been very limited.

Heaton is an experienced premier league and international player, Steer was on loan in League 1 one year ago Taylor has played a role in our fantastic rise. Have people here actually seen Targett? what are they judgning him on? Smith is most likely judging them on their on the field performances from the past 6 months and what they do every day in training, I trust and support 100% every decision he makes, as he is in a much better position do be making them Taylor has been nothing less than consistant in our first three matches this season, I just dont understand the scapegoat mentality Villa fans seem to have.

Of course! Smith has my support 100%! I think he's a better judge of player than any of us and this shows in how performances and results that he has achieved. Are you saying you've stopped supporting Smith because he is using Taylor?

Without checking, I'm pretty sure he played in all our games in our 10 match winning run last season, played in all our play-off games and has been nothing but consistant so far in the Premier League, wish the fans would get of his back for a while. Another good performance and deserves some praise for helping and playing a part in getting us to where we are at the moment! Thanks Neil Taylor.

They sold Trippier as they trust KWP more, may be the weak'ish team, but they still had one of the worlds best strikers in Kane, Brazilian international Lucas, £75m new signing Ndombele, World cup winner Loris, world class defenders in alderweirald and Sanchez. 6 of the starters started last seasons champions league final And we were actually leading until eriksen came on! Though I'm happy to see that your expectations have become more realistic

So, judging from the comments Wesley is a waste of money and will never be any good Hourihane is the worst dm in the world Douglas Luiz looked poor when he came on Jota was terrible El Ghazi was terrible Taylor and Elmo are at best average championship players Grealish will never succed in the prem And Dean Smith is an idiot for using the players he preferred for the match and should have started all the new players and is therefor a terrible manager Feel like we might as well just give up. Especially considering how embarrasing it is to get dominated away by the champions league finalist when you are a newly promoted side, disgrace.

Thought he was one of our better players today, defended well and was invloved in the very few times we threw together any passing combinations

I actually thought he had an okay game until the end. He played muuch deeper than normal and put in some tackles and supported Taylor really well. I thought he seemed to put in more tackles than any other of our midfielders. He'll learn from the mistake and become better. As with every player, it'll take some time getting used to the premier league again

Tottenham are just multiple classes above us and anyone expecting anything else was unrealistic. We fought well and the players will have learned a lot. Was a bit disapointed that we were sooo poor in possession, but really pleased with Engels and especially Mings today. We are back in the premier league, fans need to accept and expect to meet oppositions that are a lot stronger than us. Tottenham are just behind City and Liverpool in quality and look at how those two teams destroyed their oppostions this week. Bring on next week!!

Very surprised by the line-up, but expect the reason for it, is that these are the majority of the players that got us here, so they deserve a chance at defending their position. The new players will have to prove their worth to get into the starting XI.