AJ

21 minutes ago, Jareth said:

Nice to look at the fixture list and think, we can win that.

Aston Villa win? Hard to remember what that feels like.

Should Villa give Gabby, Bacuna, Richards, Lescott, and Guzan at least another second chance?

No No No No x 1000

A frustrating player. His positives and negatives literally cancel each other out. Great at tackling, then passes it straight back to the opposition!

9 hours ago, Michael118 said:

Any money spent on replacing Guzan, Bacuna, Okore, Clark, Amavi, Hutton or Cissokho is money down the drain.

These guys are good enough for promotion from the championship and survival in the premier league easily. Clark, Amavi, Bacuna and Okore have potential to go further.

 

 

 

Seriously though, Mike, as someone said before, of those players keep Okore, Clarke and Amavi. The rest are coach killers.

9 hours ago, Michael118 said:

Any money spent on replacing Guzan, Bacuna, Okore, Clark, Amavi, Hutton or Cissokho is money down the drain.

These guys are good enough for promotion from the championship and survival in the premier league easily. Clark, Amavi, Bacuna and Okore have potential to go further.

 

 

 

Interested in anyone from the Brad Guzan Goalkeeping Academy?

Backed Germany and Argentina for the WC. For the Euros, backed England, and Turkey as my "dark horse" bet.

On ‎9‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 10:26, kurtsimonw said:

Definitely need more 45th and 90th minute goals too. 80% of them is just not enough, all goals should be scored then.

Then just cut and paste Villa's games from last season.

On ‎8‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 07:43, Giro said:

Possibly the best city I've ever been too. It was my first solo trip and I'm glad I went on my own to be honest. The amount of walking I did was nuts! (Think I lost half a stone in a week) 

I have nothing but praise for the people as well, just so helpful. One morning before heading out, it absolutely tipped it down, so I grabbed shelter. Out of nowhere this old Japanese Man appears with an umbrella for free. Brilliant stuff 

I found it an easy city to get around. The subway system is spot on. Never late but you do miss out a lot if you just constantly take the train. 

Food was amazing and wa

Apologies, Giro, didn't see your latest post before jumping in. I fully agree with your take on Japan. Like I said, heading over there again next month.  Looking forward to it immensely.

On ‎3‎/‎06‎/‎2016 at 16:47, Giro said:

Tokyo was amazing, wow what a place

Heading there for the 4th time next month. The thing I love most about Japan is the food. There are a few stalls around selling these things called bakudan, which is just a very large takoyaki with extra ingredients, which comes with a wide choice of toppings. They are amazingly delicious and very cheap ( from 300 to 450 yen each, depending on topping).

Graphics look fantastic, but that means squat if the gameplay is crap.  I hate the scripting. Does EA think that FIFA stands for Frustration Is Fun, Assholes?

11 hours ago, rodders0223 said:

A well balanced post would have included the weight gain, the laziness, the attitude, the spats with Keane, the spats with Wilkins, the lack of effort, the lack of development, the smoking, the drinking, the drugs () Not just looked back with rose tints on a decent spell the best part of a decade ago.

Really, I don't give a toss about balance, I was just expressing my thoughts, and definitely wasn't trying to sway anyone's way of thinking. If you hate, dislike, or not really like Gabby, that is totally fine. Really, the bottom line is, he cant stay at Villa. He is not a 65k/week player, he is not a 65k per week anything really. It is just such a shame that somebody who showed so much potential those many years ago has shot himself in the foot. As I said, I cant really bring myself to hate him, just to harbour a desire to go back in time and slap him at a critical moment.

I am pissed off with a lot of the players this season, but I find it hard to garner too much animosity towards Gabby. Sure enough, the sun is truly setting on his Villa career, but I really liked him years ago under Martin O' Neil when he was filling in for John Carew. He was quite exciting to watch, he had pace, and he was once described as a "nightmare" to defend against. He has done great work with Acorns, and it is obvious he loves this club. I recall a story that he wanted to bulk up, be stronger,but Houillier advised against it, as he would lose his main strength, his speed. When I see Gabby out there for Villa now, I cant help think it is more tragic than anything else. I wanted him to have a long career, consistently ripping it up for Villa, but there is no room in a football team for a pot bellied striker. He also made me chuckle when he made that One Direction boy cry too. I wish him the best, but there is no room for him at Villa anymore.

9 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

I see what you mean

Pessimism/Optimism doesnt come into it though.

There are factors in our situation at the moment so we cannot rely on a whim/hope or it'll be alright on the night kind of mentallity.

I really do hope that the wheels are turning and Dr X gets the sale through. RDM is not my first choice but he'll get my full support. I really want a new start after the Lerner-disaster, so all the cancers that are associated with his idiocy have to be removed from the club. That's a lot of work getting rid of enough old so the new takes the lead in forming a positive atmosphere.

Like I said, there is not a great deal of margin for errors to get us back on the up. How much "up" we can get, who knows, and if its enough for top 2/6 remains to be seen.

I'd rather see things as they are and get behind Dr X RDM & the (new) players expecting an improvement in the right direction so that we get promoted eventually.

I can see a danger of people expecting too much, showing no patience, then calling the players Shite, wanting to Sack the Manager and calling Dr X "RL mk2" after a few bad results.

This Club is broken and the repair job is huge, second only to the even more huge amount of money needed to put it right.

Having said all that, nothing would please me more than Dr X

1) financing the payoffs of the said cancer/scum

2) budgeting enough to bring in the players needed to get us Up (Ch winners if possible).

3) spunking enough to challenge in the PL next season

4) being a major player in PL & CL for years to come

Anyway

back to todays reality

Gaby, Lescott, Richards, Bacuna, Sinclair & Guzan all due back for training after Euro's as it stands.

Good post, and I cant disagree with you. The first questions that are probably asked by Dr X and RDM is how did Villa turn so bad, and how do we undo the damage? Lerner, who I believe was responsible for a lot of the problems, is now gone. Therefore, hopefully we now have an owner who wants to see the club improve on its standings, rather than settle for making up the numbers in the PL.. From RDM's view, he is probably asking WTF were they doing out there? How we have been playing the last few seasons, no other team in the PL played like us. Keep ball, slow build up, and rely on crosses to try and get goals. Unfortunately, we were really bad at this too. We couldn't keep the ball because we would pass it straight to the opposition, we killed off any chance of counter attack, and the crosses were too wayward and the forwards were too scared of doing anything with it. If certain players are lazy, or they don't want to follow instructions, then ship them off. Some so bad, they shouldn't be allowed anywhere near Villa ever again. We all know who they are, and hopefully RDM agrees too. I do believe we are on the mend. When you get a fresh start and want to improve, you don't get there by repeating the same mistakes that got you in the shit in the first place.

40 minutes ago, Grasshopper said:

Have you considered the quality of our play from last season too?

And the quality we showed against lower league opposition over the last few years?

We no longer have N'Zog and Richardson, but as of now the rest of the disgraceful shite is still clogging up the bog.

We've got to get rid of at least 6 Shisters and replace them with suitables for a promotion push.

Thats a minimum of 12 difficult deals to push through, bed in, and set a pattern of play within 6-8 weeks.

We need a good start otherwise teams will come to VP and look to sneak 1-3pts.

Lets face reality, we've been shite for 5/6 seasons now, we need more than just new owners, board, manager, coaches and a few players to turn it around.

Nearly EVERY decision, Manager, coaches, budget, sales, buys and a philosiphy has to be right. Our margin for error is something like 6-8 from 23 home games, and 12-16 from 23 away games.  Basically 23 away Cup finals and 23 home games equivelent to 23 trips to Wembley for teams coming to VP.

Throw in 2 Cups and we are in for a 2 games a week slog more often than not.

 

Yes, I have considered our quality of play from last season, like I said, we have been so good at being awful, and we do need to get rid of a lot of crap out of the playing squad, especially the lazy bastards and the disruptive asshats. If we can get a squad that is motivated and actually enjoy playing football, then we have a good shot. I believe we can do it. If I am a fool for being positive, then I will be that fool. It helps me sleep better at night.

10 hours ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

I don't think we will finish in one of the automatic promotion places next season. I think it's an admirable but totally unrealistic aim given the sheer amount of work we will need to do to overhaul the squad in time. 

However I will say this - just like losing, winning can become a habit. If we make all the right moves this summer, it only takes 3 or 4 wins on the bounce and in a division notably weaker than we are coming from those stats posted become completely irrelevant. Winning 26 games in the Championship is not an impossible dream, it's just one that is a bit beyond us this coming season, IMO. 

Fully agree. I believe the overhaul is in progress. We were so glaringly bad as a club, we really needed an enema to clear out the crap. Some people are a little pessimistic about our chances, due to our recent history of being good at being awful. However, with Lerner gone and a good manager, we can make progress to where Aston Villa belongs. Also looking at the quality of game during the promotion play offs, I believe we should give ourselves more credit than we do, especially if we manage to overhaul the playing squad. I  think it is better to stay positive.

Yayyyy!!

OK Robby, grab a shovel and off to work you go, because there is alot of shit that needs to be cleaned out of the playing squad.

Then...we can be on the road to happiness.

70 to 80 points!

5 hours ago, Nicho said:

Bannan is just as useless as he was here . Neat and tidy with no penetration or speed

That's what my Grandma said about my Grandad.

Socceroos and Brisbane Roar.

Just watched the friendly with England. Proud of their effort, and England played well too.

Good game, I enjoyed it. Good luck in the Euros, England!

After watching Aston Villa all season, it feels strange watching this. There are two  teams out there making an effort.

Strongly considering putting 100 on England for the Euros at 9s.

Just putting something crazy out there, but what if we bought Schwarzer? Even though he is in his 40s, he would still be an improvement on Guzan and Bunn, would be cheap, and is a good down to earth bloke. Even though he hasn't played much, he has won in two different premier league teams with Chelsea and Leicester, so he would at least be good luck to have around.

Announcing, Aston Villa's manager for the 2016/17 season....

Hugh D' Fugzat