DaveAV1

I’d like to think that whoever we appoint next will, over a period of reasonable time, take us to the top 6 ourselves.

I don’t believe Dean Smith has a big say in recruitment. Which for me brings more worries. I don’t believe the blame falls on any one individual’s shoulders, although I know how it works and it will probably end with DS losing his job. I can’t believe many people believe our recruitment policy has worked. Some of the signings have been poor players in my opinion but I think on the whole we have signed for future potential. There’s nothing wrong with that, but the PL won’t wait for them to get up to speed. We needed to sign more players that could hit the ground running which would mean that we would be a better team in the short term and would have helped to stabilise and improve the younger players in the squad. I think it may be beyond Dean to turn us around now, but we must look at the failures elsewhere as well or we will just end up making the same mistakes.

Eddie Howe would be great for us I think. In the past he has been very loyal to the Bournemouth project, but it would be worth a try. Shankley said you can only make the same speeches so many times before either the players or you have to go. So perhaps he could be persuaded to take on a new project with much bigger potential than his current one, no disrespect to Bournemouth. Of course a wage rise and a big war chest never does any harm either.

This is no time to discuss your carnal desires.

It’s against the rules to abuse posters on here, but if it was allowed I’ve got a vocabulary learnt on the construction sites of England plus additions I’d make up for you personally that I would love to unleash here. Never mind perhaps another time another place. Enjoy your evening and don’t forget your Kleenex.

I couldn’t agree more. I think this “want it all now” attitude is a societal problem in general, but it manifests itself more so on social media. People watch TV programs about celebrities, many of whom are celebrities purely because of writing about themselves online and gaining some sort of bizarre following. The programs show them living a lavish lifestyle and they mistake that for reality and instantly become dissatisfied with their own lives. We all spend too much time on these little screens that give us some insight to the wider world, the trouble is, it isn’t on the whole a particularly accurate insight. Anyway I can feel myself going into a long, drawn out and rambling rant so I’ll do you all a favour and shut up!

On the internet everything is black or white. Players, coaches, teams, matches are either brilliant or terrible. The reality of course is usually somewhere in the middle. The other problem is that people become entrenched on one side of an argument and can’t or won’t see the other side. The language becomes more strident and exaggerated and so people are reluctant to give an inch to the other side. It’s all very unnecessary, unhealthy and not at all helpful.

Oh right

I think you missed the point. I wasn’t comparing agents.

Haven’t Wolves built an entire squad on the recommendations of an agent?

They'll certainly know it now! Hopefully plans have been in place for a while and we manage to pick up some unexpected gems from under the radar. That would require a huge step up from the recruitment team though.

I’m sorry you’re disappointed. I hope it hasn’t ruined your Christmas.

At that time Darren Bent actually transformed our season in that he scored the goals that kept us up. He was expensive at around £20m but worth it. The trouble is finding a player, that could have a similar impact, is much harder now. We were an established, if on the slide, PL team then and a player like Bent would probably be £60m+ now. We have to be much smarter than we were in the summer that’s for sure.

You make a good point that judging a player in the context of the team that he’s playing for and fitting him into a different team is a tricky job. Over the years it’s not been a job we’ve been particularly good at either.

He’s a real goal threat. I think his form has dropped a little recently but he’s always busy and I believe he’s scored 9 so far this season. I’m struggling to compare him to Wesley myself, as anything but a huge improvement.

Whilst it is a slight over simplification, the basic tactic of getting it to Jack does form the basis of almost everything we do. But when you have a player that is so very much better than anyone else on the pitch, particularly creatively, any other tactic would surely be remiss? The only way that basic tactic could or in fact should change is by adding more capable players to the team. If we had a decent winger and/or striker I’m sure we’d be able to use those options more.

Spot on. Everyone is concerned and Dean definitely has a lot to learn, but when he gets things right he deserves some praise. Some people seem to have formed the opinion that they want him out and it appears that they can’t find a good word to say for the fella. It almost seems that they are more concerned with winning the argument than with Villa winning games.

I think persuading Norwich to sell Pukki to us might be a long shot! Good player though and the sort we need.

Clearly not!

You must know my ex girlfriend. She worked on the same principle except swap striker and winger for Dolce and Gabbana. However I agree with you and rarely agreed with her!

I think what that proved today was that we have a lot of average players. The only real quality comes from Jack and Tom. The rest have to be playing at their best for us to really compete and get consistent results. We must add quality to the team in January. Outfield there’s only Jack that provides us with any inspiration and who is able to elevate the players around him. I know we’d like to add about 5 quality players next month but that ain’t gonna happen. If however we could find one or two real quality players, we all know the positions, that could be massive for us. Imagine another Jack on the pitch and a proper striker, it could transform us. Not easy to find, but we must try.

No I’m not referring to you, definitely not. I’m not critical of those who have been critical, that’s just opinion. I don’t see Dean Smith as being nailed on to be the man to carry us forward, he deserves some criticism and I think he would agree with that himself. It’s just that some posters can see no good in him and haven’t from the start given him a reasonable chance. The criticism is becoming somewhat vitriolic and posters who offer Smith support are being called losers etc. I like to think that AVFC is the only thing that matters to us all, but I’m starting to think that the destruction of Dean Smith and being “right” has become more important to a small number of posters.

I wouldn’t like to be in trouble and look around me and find that my supporters were some of the posters in here. Nobody is immune from criticism, but some of the stuff on here is borderline hatred and abuse. Some have been finding ways to rubbish the 5-1 away victory at Carrow Road. I’m not sure this is a healthy place to spend leisure time anymore.

Oh right.

Just explain to me what John Terry does?