GeordieVillan

Sky sports reporting that he will consider his future. He hasn't gone yet. Lets see what the source is.

https://twitter.com/simplysellars Breaking news of our first signing of the window on Twitter!!! Aston Villa FC ‏@SimplySellars 2 hrs2 hours ago TRANSFER NEWS: We are delighted to announce the signing of Fackin NoWan Story here: http://bit.ly/1eNkaZt #AVFC

Villa managers age at the same rate as the Prime Minister. The two most stressful jobs in the country!

One week later...still no striker....unbelievable really. Not even a "punt". How incredibly disheartening for the fans, the manager and also the players. The manager has been banging on about how much he wants a striker all month and nothing has been delivered. There's no point in throwing individual names out there (Bamford, Rhodes etc.) as we don't know who Remi would have wanted. However, we havn't signed anyone at all - can't believe it. We are bottom of the league and struggling to catch up, and all the teams above us have strengthened. We are not helping ourselves at all. We could actually be only 4 points from safety if results go our way by Saturday. The none signing of a striker could be one of those "what if" moments for our club if we are left languishing in the Championship for many years.

Actually - this is better....

A bit of it is in here towards the end...

Exactly. The same people will then say Swansea fully deserved their win at Everton, even though Everton's players were having a "miss the open goal" competition. Coleman just sneaked it for me.

Regarding "duty of care" - and it being a legal principle - yes I know what you mean, that in basic terms applies to the board acting in the best interests of the business as defined by the shareholders and as the only shareholder is Randy, its unlikely he would challenge his own board on this issue. However, there is some legal precendent for when privately owned businesses have significant additional external stakeholders (usually social or environmental stakeholders, but in this case the supporters of AVFC), that a case can be made. However, regardless of that, we would need to demonstrate that the board had acted poorly and not in the best interests of the business, based on all the information at their disposal - which is difficult for us to do, as we are not privy to all the information - so you are still right. Thats my understanding of duty of care, but my reference is probably in the hope of a more utopian world of football.

We are still in it. As long as we are within 6 points of safety by the time we get to the last 6 games, then we have a chance. Obviously we would much prefer to be less than 6 points from safety by then, but if you offered that to me now, I would probably take it and hope for the best - because it would mean either we are performing slightly better than (or slightly less worse than) the teams above us, as we've made up at least 4 points on them all. We are currently 10 points adrift, so based on my above paragraph - 1) are we able to make up 4 points (minimum) on the teams above us in the next 9 games? Yes of course we are 2) from that position, could we make up 6 points on the teams above us in the last 6 games? More difficult, but still possible. As long as we don't fall further than 4 wins behind, I will cling to the hope we can get back to within 6 points of safety with 6 games to go. A win against West Ham (difficult given their current form and Payet in particular) and a win against Norwich and we will be right back in the mix, and the teams above us will know it.

I've been avoiding this thread all month as it just annoys me to see people get their hopes up and then be let down, especially when one of those people is me. And I am in the camp of people that still think we can stay up - so I'm not a pessimist. However, I have to say that I am staggered that we still havn't bought a striker in this window. Our board and owner should have a duty of care to the club and its supporters - and that being the case, I don't believe they have fulfilled that duty on this specific point. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying they should be going out and spending £20m on a striker, for well documented reasons - its not that simple. However, I find it impossible to accept that given its obvious that our manager is not particularly trusting of Kozak, Gestede or Gabby - that we have not even got £5m to spend on a striker from a lower league that might be a bit of a punt, and if it didn't work out then they might still do a job in the championship. Or £5m we can spend on a short term loan to bring someone in that has something to prove and might just keep us in the league, without that player necessarily being committed to staying with us next season regardless of what league we are in. Of all the arguable mistakes that have been made during Randy's period of ownership (boardroom, managerial, public relations, transfer dealings etc.), I would say that if we do not sign a striker before the window closes, it would be the biggest mistake and error of judgement beyond doubt, and would be a damning indictment on how the club is currently being run.

Would be interested to see Richards at right back and Bacuna on the right of the diamond - could be quite tasty. Conversely, they both could get caught ridiculously out of position. Of course the inclusion of Richards would probably mean Gil misses out. Thats the only change I would consider for this one, bur wouldn't be surpirsed to see the same team again.

To be fair - Fox in particular makes some decent points in the transcript, and certainly doesn't shirk responsibility. I also don't think he's pushed the blame onto Sherwood as much he could have. Obviously without being at the meeting, you can't judge the mood, tone, body language etc. but looking at the text in black and white I find it hard to give him abuse. Hollis on the other hand seems a little bit out of his depth right now, certainly from the point of view of what he is saying to fans and media. Sadly because of our position, the fans patience is minimal, and if we were at the top of the league and he referred to a supporter as a "customer", it probably wouldn't be jumped on so quickly. He's is going to have to get up to speed very quickly and gets the fans on his side. Pleasing anyway that the summer contracts all had relegation clauses - some prudent planning for once, and that it is hoped that the manager and the squad will stay together if we go down. If the manager leaves and the squad is broken up, then I'm sure that will be thrown in Fox's face later down the line!

I agree to an extent - I don't think its SMART goal to say we will be out of the relegation zone in 4-6 games time. However, its possible/realistic that we can do it in 16 games. If we can somehow win the next 2 games, things might look very different going into the Norwich game. I like that Garde hasn't given up, but at the same time he is being pragmatic and acknowledging that relegation is a possibility. I think this should be the approach of the fans.

I don't think anyone is expecting us to be out of the relegation zone in 4 games time. I personally am just acknowledging the fact that we are playing better now than at any point during the season, we have 3 "winnable" games ahead of us, and there is still plenty of points to play for. Its entirely possible we could lose the next 3 games, but in the same breath its possible we could win all 3 or win 2 and draw 1 - and if we did put a run of 3 results together, there is no way all of the teams above us will remain the same distance ahead of us. We need to chip away at the deficit every week so that we are within touching distance with ideally 6 games of the season left.

Come on Rodders son....you know you want to believe...just indulge yourself for a moment....

This is where we disagree - I think we are actually very capable of it. This season has in general, and I'm even including the games under Sherwood, been one where we have lost games because of defensive lapses and a lack of concentration and organisation. I don't think its fair to say that the players have "only been turning up in the 70th minute" - in general I think the effort has always been there, and we have just been undone by an epidemic loss of confidence which has ultimately led to stupid mistakes being made in games. The same people who say we have been lucky to score our goals in our last 2 league games aren't looking back to the games for example against Chelsea or Watford where we were very unlucky for example, or the games at Palace or Sunderland where Guzan has had moments of madness. Alot of our games have had a very fine margin, and unfortunately either because of bad luck or momentary bad play, we've ended up losing games. I'm not in denial - in all likelihood - we will be relegated this year. However, it is not impossible by any means that we can win our next 2 games and other results go our way, and all of a sudden we are back in it. Imagine if we won the next 2 matches, you would have to then fancy us against Norwich. At that stage we might then be only one victory from safety, albeit with some tough fixtures ahead of us. Are we capable of winning the next 2 games or the next 3 games? Looking at the opposition, of course we are capable. This is afterall the season where anyone can beat any one. We aren't playing City, United and Arsenal in the next 3 anyway, its WBA, West Ham and Norwich. Will we win the next 2 games or 3 games - I don't know, but I refuse to say that its impossible, because quite frankly - it simply isn't the case.

4 games unbeaten - regardless of who the opposition were - we are currently in our best run of form this season. It will only take 2 consecutive wins (hopefully in the next 2 games) and we will be right back in it. I think the mood has changed for fans and players. If we were playing WBA last month, most of us would have this as a nailed-on defeat, instead alot of us actually fancy our chances now. You've got to keep believing brother!

Very disappointed by how things have gone for him this year, especially if the reason is his own lack of focus or determination. Certainly the inclusion of Gil shows that the manager is prepared to include flair players as long as they make an attempt to work for the team, so I don't think any blame can be put at the manager's door. I'm not sure I even buy the argument of Jack's loyalty to Sherwood - didn't Grealish make similar comments when Lambert was sacked about how "gutted" he was? I think he has suffered from a combination of - second season syndrome (he's no longer a surprise package because of the hype around him early in the season), his antics off the pitch, the fact the whole team has been poor and has been lacking organisation and leadership until the last month or so - and ultimately his confidence is now shot to bits. There was some comments about him choosing the easy pass alot yesterday - which would be a tell tale sign for me that he is afraid of making mistakes now. I still think he has a future with us, but I don't expect to see much of him for the rest of the season. He could be a key player for us next year if we are relegated, likewise if we manage to stay up I think Remi will sort him out in the summer. Sadly, he's a bit of a distraction at the moment, so I wouldn't have him in the matchday squad for crucial league games.

Got to be the same team really. Get Gestede on for Gil if we aren't winning by 60 minutes.

Yeah perhaps thats fair. I can't remember us making a decent chance after that.

I thought we were the much better team before conceding the first goal in both games. Sunderland picked us off on the break, and we suffered at Norwich from being very poorly organised at the back - which we seem to have got past now with Lescott and Okore together.

I don't think we were terrible against Sunderland and Norwich - just very sloppy goals conceded.

To be fair - Everton is the only league game since Remi has took over where we have been poor. You could argue that Southampton were wasteful and that could easily have been 3-0 or 4-0, but as you say we dug in and got a point. Arsenal, Sunderland and Norwich - we didn't play that badly - we just made terrible mistakes. We could easily have won against West Ham, Newcastle and Watford. If we've cut out the mistakes now, in general we look quite solid at the back, so there's no reason why we can nick a few wins.

The more I look at it, the more I think we are still in it. We are currently 10 points from safety and arguably of the bottom 6 we have the "best" fixtures in the next 3 games. If we can get back to within 6 points from safety in the next 6 games, then we will only be 2 wins from safety with 10 games to play. Then we only need one good week to be within 3 points from safety. If we can be within 3 points of safety going into the the last 6 games, then we are right in the mix. Its all about momentum now. The teams around us are all picking up points here and there which is obviously making it more difficult, but in the last 6 games we have been doing the same (even though we've only won one), so they are probably saying the same about us. If we can put even just 2 back-to-back wins together, the teams above us will start to get nervous. Saturday is massive - if we win that, then people will start to seriously think we can put a run together. If we lose, then I don't see us getting a result at West Ham, and we could end up being at least 12 points from safety before we play Norwich. Every game between now and the end of the season is huge. It feels different to previous years as although we've been in the relegation mix, we've never been so far behind, and we've never been under this pressure so early in the season. Its normally in the last 5-10 games that we start to feel the pressure and every game seems to carry added weight.

While I agree in all likelihood we would lose in the next round anyway - you never know. City may play a weakened team and we may be full of confidence having had a decent run. I also think that we are perhaps on the verge of putting together a sequence of positive results for the first time all season, and while a player who's rested may not personally feel responsible for what would ultimately be a 3rd round shock defeat. losing and winning are both infectious, so a win today would just continue the recent positive vibes around the club. Quite honestly I would be playing our full strength team tonight, other than maybe resting Lescott. Every other player is young enough and fit enough to handle it. If we are 2-0 ahead at half time, bring Ayew and Veretout off for a rest.