TheStagMan

48 I think Diane Abbott has been helping me with my maths.

Blind hope and optimism :-)

How many were there?

We've tried, we really have :-) OK, so a different question. Bruce has had 30+ games in charge of Aston Villa, he has had a good 10 of those under no pressure (not going to get relegated and not going to get playoffs). There has not been any testing of the younger players (bar a couple of cameos), there has not been a development of formations or tactics. Bruce has said he knows the problems, but has not shown any evidence of being able to fix them (or even trying to do so). Serious question: I would like to know what is going to magically change in the summer and what is going to happen in a handful of pre-season games against Walsall and Kiddiminster Harriers that is going to turn the dross performances we have seen into a slick, oiled machine? Yes, we will likely get in a couple of players, but if history is anything to go on we will immediately destroy any form they had before coming to us.

I am not a fan of Bruce, but I am not sure that starting again would work either, although if we were to pull the trigger, now is the time (which seems unlikely) - not 10 games into the season.. I know we were a shambles when he took over but we have massively underachieved under him. 13th in the Championship after the highest net spend ever is abysmal. . Yes, at the start of the season there was a renewed sense of optimism and bounce at the club with Xia and RDM coming in, but that quickly evaporated under a very poor run of results, and yes we then reverted to our downward spiral. Bruce did come in and rectify that to an extent, but disastrous decision making to the issue of Kodjia being unavailable (pinning our hopes on Gabby FFS) did for us. And it was an issue he knew was coming from the day he arrived. Whilst we had a great run of wins, there was never a feeling of the wins being convincing - and I don't mean the general Villa feeling of "we're gonna **** this up", each game was a rollercoaster ride that any minute you felt the wheels would come off. At no point in any of those games did I think - "yes, I can see the tactics", "yes, we have this under control" etc... and that was borne out in the following results. Overall we did not seem able to change up in games (i recall one or two where the subs made a bit of a difference, but mostly they did not), and I still don't know what our best team is - but more worryingly the players don't seem to know either, nor do they seem to understand what their team mates are going to do. I'm not after sexy football, I am after wins - we need to get out of this league, but you can have agricultural football that is effective and reliable - we dont have that and seem to be relying on luck. We need to attack more and we need to score more goals. We have the most expensively assembled Championship squad in history.......we need to make it effective I genuinely feel that we have won the games we have won and avoided losing the ones we have drawn because we have individually better players than most teams in the league, and there is just enough there to keep us around mid table on skill and experience alone. That wont last - It needs to be knitted together by a manager that has a plan and direction so that everyone knows what each other is doing, and what is expected of them. At this point, I am not convinced that Bruce is that man. I would so love to be proven wrong, I really would, but I have not seen anything from Villa this season that makes me think that the blind optimism being shown towards him is warranted and based on anything more than he has achieved 4 promotions in the last 20 years - by that measurement we may get back to the premier league in 5 years time (maybe 4 if we count last season).

Don't be silly, it will be much bigger than that - 30ft will just be the size of the statue's penis!

Sorry mate, but the payment for that is much higher than £10 ;-)

Agree with all except: Adomah and Amavi - I would keep Adomah and push Amavi up the field and play him as a winger, unless we can get two better wingers. Gil, if we could convince him not to leave AND play a system that suits him. Hogan should come good if we can play a system that suits his strengths (and is likely the same system as for Gil). I think McCormack is toast here though. GateGate ended him in Steve's eyes, and he hasn't really pulled up any trees since...... So i think we also need a striker. I had completely forgotten that Micah Richards was still around. What a disaster he turned out to be. As above - shooting him would be fine by me*. * Please note: I do not condone the shooting of football players. Even obnoxious over-paid wasters that have taken the piss for years undeservedly stealing a living from the club. Apart from Gabby. You can shoot Gabby

Is that not a Shisha pipe at the top left of the picture? Oh heck!

Seriously, No! Westwood was very poor.... very very poor, and unlikely to get any better for us - best for him and us to go. Absolute major Fck up is nowhere near accurate mate! :-) But, on topic. Bruce Out/In* * Delete as appropriate

Is it Gabby? I think it's Gabby. It's Gabby isn't It?

Just like the ball and most of our midfield then

Oh i am worrying about it.... big time

You do realise that we are Aston Villa dont you? That sort of thinking just never enters our minds.

That's the thing for me.... if we were showing signs of improvement I would say more time is reasonable, but we have seen nothing to suggest that the football is getting better (generally, good football = good results) which is the crux of it. Yes, we are not in free fall any more, but I don't see anything to give me confidence that we know what we are doing. The plan seems to be "buy the best players and hope for the best". That hasn't worked. I still don't think that Steve Bruce knows what our best team or formation is - AFTER 33 GAMES!!!!!!! I don't want to go chopping and changing managers again as it really hasn't worked the last 5 times and Yes, stability is the key, but the stability we are looking at right now is mid table championship team.... Not good enough. I think someone earlier said we have been so shit for so long that our expectations are much lower, well they are too low. We will not get back to the premier league playing like we are, and we need to get back there quickly, the longer we stay down here the harder it will be to get back. Despite his record of promotions, Bruce has not shown anything that makes me thimk he can do it here. I hope i am wrong. But as others have said....if he goes I won't bat an eyelid, I just hope that if he does it is as part of a plan, and not another month of uncertainty whilst we scratch around for a candidate and then hire Dwight Yorke.

**** hell, how hard were you wiping?

Will it be a national express coach?

OK. Gabby always has had a history of scoring against the scum and he is a figure of hate for them (more so than most things Villa) - so he is always going to have an impact on this particular fixture - so for that reason he is useful to rile the scum up, and he did inject energy into the team - that seemed to be mostly because he got the crowd going (noses first, and then Villa in reaction), that in turn woke the team up. On this occasion he came in useful. The goal - yes, he was in the right place at the right time (you could argue that is the job of a striker), but the goal was mostly luck, that ball could have gone anywhere and on most other occasions would not have fallen to a striker for a tap in, so there was a large amount of luck involved, the goal was not due to any particular skill or stroke of genius. Whilst I am happy that we won the game and beat the scum, I am really perplexed by people losing their shit over this and Gabby being a legend and a hero again. One lucky goal does not undo the damage he has done and the utter piss take for the last couple of seasons. But more importantly than that - HE IS NOT VERY GOOD ANYMORE. We pay £70K plus for a bang average striker who does not score goals very often any more, whilst he runs around a lot, he is not a patch on say, Kodjia. If we were paying him £10k/week as a backup striker, maybe, but for £70K/week (reported) we can get so much more effective players. He is the past and we need to move forward, not rely on old failures to get us back where we belong. Hopefully this is a nice end to his Aston Villa career and he can now piss off into the twilight of his career to bang a few more slappers and spend the money has conned out of this club for the last few seasons.Yes I know he has another year on his contract, hopefully though we can get rid in the summer. If Bruce gives him a new contract I will personally drive to Villa Park and punch him on the nose.

I also liked the nose who had a go at the presenter (who wasn't doing the commentary) for being so biased towards Villa during the match commentary and wanted to make a big thing about it...... only to be told there is a Villa commentary on FM and a Blues one on DAB...... and he was listening to the wrong one.

Shall I have a try???? :-)

Probably ours! ;--

I heard Redknobbs post match interview. He really is a word removed rocket polisher.

Does everyone realise that SHA out "Aston Villa'd" us, at home. It's a technical term. It means to be struggling in the league, playing a team who are also struggling, and arguably being the better side until they bring on an out of form player who hasn't scored for months/years and the bastard scores and wins the game.

LOL