DaveAV1

It’s about time the EFL were investigated. The “Fit and Proper Person” test seems to be farcical. Dodgy owner after dodgy owner seem to get their snout in the trough. The latest TV rights deal was rubbish and the clubs were barely consulted. There was a meeting at VP of clubs to discuss their concerns. I think if we hadn’t been promoted and the EFL had got heavy about FFP, our owners and others would not have taken it lying down. Something stinks at the EFL. At the very least it is incompetence at the worst it is corruption on a grand scale. Possibly a combination of the two. It may not be on a PL scale, but there is a lot of money sloshing around the EFL, certainly enough to attract the wrong sort of businessman. Clubs get desperate to varying degrees and the more desperate the situation the lower the relative cost of entry gets and so the pond life squirm their way in. How was Xia and his set up ever allowed to own Aston Villa? As other posters have said, we got seriously lucky last summer.

Send him out on loan until January then if he’s done well we can either sell him to the club he’s at or he will have attracted attention elsewhere. There’s always someone desperate in January. Some desperados paid £7m for him last January........

He’s settling in to life in the PL with a lot of new players around him, who are also doing the same. To expect him to excerpt the same level of influence on games as he did last season in The Championship isn’t realistic. He’s a quality player who will grow with the team given time and patience. We must also bear in mind that we’ve played three of the better teams so far.

We were 1-0 down then too and went on to win the series 3-1. I’d settle for that to add to The World Cup. Next summer Villa to win the FA Cup and England to conquer Europe!

This reminds me of a bloke who spotted a friend coming out of the toilet in the upper Holte. The friend shook is hand and apologised for his hands being wet. His bloke said, “Don’t worry there are never any towels in there”, his mate replied, “That’s why I didn’t wash my hands.”

You’re worried that we may lose him to one of the other top 4 teams?

Thanks for posting this. It now seems that the team is run as a meritocracy and players have to both earn a place and work hard to keep it. It would be very easy to put the players who we’d spent money on straight into the team. I’m sure sometimes players will be swapped about for tactical reasons and to rest etc. But this sends out the message that everything must be earned and that applies to both new and existing players. Excellent management.

Both clubs are in a financial mess and have been for a while. They’ve made bad decisions and spent money that they haven’t got. Expecting rich clubs to bail them out just doesn’t work and for all the obscene amounts of money flowing around the game that isn’t the solution. These clubs wasted their own money, so I wouldn’t expect them to be more prudent with other people’s. Clubs such as Brentford, who are historically considerably smaller than Bolton and Bury are run extremely well and have a sustainable plan. There’s no reason why other clubs can’t have their own sustainability plan. I feel for the fans but pumping money in just puts a sticking plaster over it. Money, although important, can’t save or kill a club. It may be a necessary evil, but the heart is the fans and that will never die. They need to regroup and find a way to carry their clubs forward, which may be extremely painful in the short term, but if the will is there, then it can be done.

But they’re no longer allegations, there has been a full investigation and he has been sacked. For as far as this is likely to go, that’s pretty much proof that he has been bullying kids. I doubt it would ever go to a court of law, unless of course he takes the club to an industrial tribunal. If this is as far as it goes then the case is pretty much closed and he’s been found guilty.

That’s a great post and brings up difficult questions, such as when is criticism bullying. A lot of bullying is clearly obvious but some much more subtle and criticism is received differently by different people. There appears to be overwhelming evidence that KMac was a bully, had stepped way over the line and got, eventually, what he deserved. Good man managers know how to deal with people. I watched an interview with Ron Saunders when he gave his view that different players respond to different approaches. Some needed an arm around the shoulder and some a kick up the backside. He said, for example, if Tony Morley hadn’t had a bollocking by 10am Tony thought he’d fallen out with him. Morley himself tells a great story about Ron being on his back all week and then he scored and ran past the bench giving the Vs. He said he immediately regretted it, wondering what Saunders would say after the game. He said Ron didn’t say a word, but fined him 2 weeks wages a fortnight later! Saunders was a strict disciplinarian, who knew how to get the best out of all his players, recognising their different characters and treating them accordingly, but he was never a bully. I understand the attitude that life is tough sometimes and there’s times when you need mental toughness. But bullying people doesn’t prepare people for tough times it just breaks them down. It’s a sledgehammer to crack a nut approach. My Dad had 14 years in the RAF, a couple of years at Dunlop’s and then went into teaching. The government at the time, which would have been the 60s, thought that men from industry would have life experience that would serve to make good teachers. A sensible approach that worked, for Dad anyway. He wasn’t a tough guy, but he didn’t take any nonsense. He seemed to have an affinity with kids, but was never a pushover, if you were in trouble you knew it. But he hated bullies and wouldn’t stand for any form of bullying, from teachers or pupils. That for me is the only approach. There are lots of ways to build character and I’m not an advocate of wrapping kids in cotton wool, but bullying is just wrong. Using “character building” as an excuse is equally wrong. The idea that it wasn’t regarded as bullying at the time is again wrong. My Dad taught from the 60s to the early 90s and never bullied anyone in his life but he commanded respect the kids learned and developed as people. Anyone who knows me wouldn’t class me as a hand wringing liberal and I do think that some kids today often don’t leave school with the life skills that prepare them for the world. Perhaps there is an element of mollycoddling in the education system and society on the whole. Although kids brought up in the inner city tend to find toughness pretty quickly. However the answer is never, ever bullying.

I agree with offside decisions being looked at by VAR, because as you say, where do you draw the line, offside is offside, certainly with regards to the line of the last defender. Strikers are actually trying to gain an advantage, as are defenders trying to catch people offside. Interfering with play is a whole different can of worms. However there’s a good argument, in my opinion, against a VAR overruling when the ball has just brushed someone’s shirt and a) wouldn’t be spotted by the referee and b) didn’t alter the direction the ball was travelling. Nobody trying to shoot for goal, tries to deliberately get a deflection. Surely a bit of common sense should prevail in circumstances such as this?

That’s a good point. For all the legalities and clauses, if Douglas is happy and wants to stay it would be very difficult to make him move. Who would want to buy an unhappy player?

I think the rule for VAR being involved is, as you say, for clear and obvious mistakes, but also for anything that results in a goal. So that’s why the City goal was disallowed, which by the sound of it was a stupid decision. VAR must be used in keeping with the spirit of the game or risks ruining matches and alienating fans, players and managers. Marginal offside decisions I can live with, as gaining a fraction can make a difference, but micro analysis of whether the ball has brushed a fibre on a player’s shirt is a total nonsense and has no practical impact on the goal being scored.

I had a season ticket for years and years but moved away a couple of years ago and so only manage a few games here and there now. I was hoping to read that service at the bars had improved under the new regime, but it appears not. I remember going to Derby, their new ground a few years back and at halftime they had the bar full of pints already pulled or at least half pulled and the service was super quick. Like many I gave up with halftime pints years ago, but the Derby idea seemed to work fine. It was packed but I still got a beer and with time to comfortably drink it. Actually Ian Taylor was in with us, he must have been injured, so come on Tays have a word! It’s such a simple idea.

Well that’s the BBC for you. They don’t just do football either.

A few seasons back, I think it was their first season up, Southampton had lost something like 4 or 5 on the bounce. Then as was our habit we stopped their run by losing to them. However it wasn’t a one off and they went on to have an excellent season and in fact their stay in the PL has over all been very good. My point is we’re just 2 games on with virtually a new team. Benteke for example took around half a dozen games to find his feet. If I were to go back in history there’s lots of examples of players taking months. It will take as long as it takes, panicking and not supporting players, coaches and the team as a whole will do nothing to help or speed things up at all. 36 games to go!!!

Only time will tell mate. I’m not saying you’re wrong by the way, I just think almost anything can happen.

And you’re certain of what after 2 games Jim?

I didn’t see the game, or even get chance to follow it. However it sounds like we had a slow start and that cost us. We’re just 2 games in and there seems to be a lot of people almost writing some players off already. I recall people doubting Benteke was a PL player after the first 4 or 5 games. If we had spent £500m on world class players it would still have taken a lot of them time to settle and gel. Before the season started most people were saying it will take time, we need to remember that.

I think despite the lads troubles and whoever you might blame for them, I think the boy has got 300 pages in his locker.

Perhaps we have an out of contract player, other than the usual click bait rubbish, who we feel could do a job if called on. Even so we’d be paper thin up top. Unless there are other youngsters that have impressed in the summer and are ready to step up?

Watch them Yammers, if he wants Aynock he’ll want Ayli as well. Before you know it there’ll be faggots and peas on the menu and the first ream will all look like an RMC and Stevie 4 Times convention.

Page 999, who will be the poster to break the 1000. As tension starts to build, will VTers start to hold back to try to time their post to perfection, or will there be a sprint for the line? Perhaps a first time poster will pop in to say hello and write his or her name in history. As a side bet, what time do we think the 1000 page mark will arrive? My money, (2 buttons and a match), is on 10.54am today.

The problem is that he’s a poor man’ Scott Hogan. By which I mean we bought him on the strength of a fairly brief peak in his career, we clearly didn’t do enough proper due diligence, as you’ve pointed out.

I think Bruce’s recruitment over all wasn’t so bad. Some successes some failures. The policy of recruiting older players towards the end of their careers was however the wrong one.