DaveAV1

I hope you're right Mark. There's a lot of faith being put in this summer's preseason. Steve Bruce has a huge turn round to make. At the moment he's being cut some slack as he's seen as sorting out someone else's mess and in a relatively short period of time. Pretty soon if improvements aren't made then the blame will be placed on his shoulders. It's a big summer for Steve and for AVFC, No pressure Brucie lad!

Well if that is obvious to fans, it's concerning that those who actually make the signings, whoever they might be, didn't notice themselves.

TRO is at about a quarter to patience, I'm about five to and GH is a week next Thursday!

Whilst I'm not about to disagree with GT or TB, it was a different game in those days with regards to how clubs functioned. The manager was in charge of almost everything, where as now we have directors of football, CEOs and the like running the club and shaping the culture and direction they want their clubs to go in. At least they should be!

The players who have had the most impact this season, in my opinion of course, are Kodjia, Jedi, Baker, Chester and Hutton, with an honourable mention for Taylor. I was, like many, very excited by the January signings, but Taylor who was probably the least exciting, is the only one who has shown any sort of consistency. This concerns me greatly because Hourihane, Lansbury and Hogan were probably the best players at their clubs and had all been having great seasons. I know people will say they need time and there is some truth in that, but they haven't just struggled they've been rubbish. The main reason for this I believe is that we don't play in a way that suits their style of play and so every ga,e they loose a bit more confidence and a bit more form. They all looked pretty decent for the first game or two but they've all gone backwards since then. I'm concerned that we will never get the best out of them because we will never play a style that suits them. Steve Bruce keeps complaining about performances but continues to set us up negatively what ever formation he picks. The definition of madness is repeatedly doing the same thing and expecting a different result. Equally worrying with another transfer window on the near horizon, does Steve Bruce have a plan regarding the type of players we need to suit the style he intends to play?

And a grape I guess

But can you walk the rice paper?

Sadly the later, the side effect being the former!

Ah but we're drawn like moths to the flame

Quite right too, none of this new man, bloke hugging how's your father. It's bad enough with the players hugging and kissing when they score. Although we seem to have managed to cut that down considerably over the last few seasons.........

I really do hope you're right TRO because he is definitely going to start next season with us and I want to win every game and storm the league. I just don't have as much faith in him, blind or otherwise, that you do. I think by now we should be seeing signs of a consistent plan and players should be more comfortable with each other. Because when players are more at home playing together things like poor first touches and stray passes become less frequent. By the way I don't have a problem with a little blind faith, after all we are supporters and should be supportive. Sometimes blind faith is all we have to cling on to!

TRO I like a lot of what you say, it's always well put with reasons behind it, even if I don't always agree with everything. However I have to say that your defence of Steve Bruce does at times sound a little on the blind faith side. Some posters are criticised for not being able to see the good in Steve Bruce but at times you seem to see only good. Please don't take this wrongly, but no manager is perfect, even I get somethings wrong from the comfort of my screen.......

He was the only player who started that realised we were playing a derby. The only other who got it was obviously Gabby.

Perhaps Mike Phelan wouldn't be a bad addition to the coaching squad. A good assistant often shapes the style and set up of the team. Often managers careers are depended on who is behind them.

Does anyone know who was Bruce's assistant manager and/or 1st team coach at Hull?

I was busy yesterday and I didn't hear the sad news until later in the afternoon from a client, who's a Spurs fan. I was surprised that such a fit bloke had suffered a heart attack so young, but I just assumed he'd be ok and make a good recovery. So to hear of his passing was really shocking and incredibly sad. It's the finality of it that leaves a sort of numbness, particularly for his family and close friends, my heart goes out to you all. I hope that the rousing send off he receives from the Villa family on Sunday provides some small comfort and in years to come, when things are less raw, makes his children proud that their Dad was so highly thought of by so many people. RIP lad.

Try vaping. I've never smoked but my business partner has smoked all his life until he tried vaping. He hasn't had a fag for, I think, 5 years this summer. It's worked for him and he always had a roll up in his mouth. In fact it's become his hobby, he makes and collects box mods now.

I'm 10 years older and just slightly less fit than Ugo. I've just moved an Easter egg out of reach!

He is being given some leeway by many posters by using the assumption that he had a lot of stuff to put right from years of failure. Surely most of the stuff that needed sorting about was about behind the scenes infrastructures and nothing to do with day to day 1st team matters. Managers no longer get involved much with really running the club, certainly not at clubs the size of Villa, which is why they are now often referred to as head coaches. Getting the mentality and culture of the club turned round is part of the manager's remit, but he has a lot of help with that behind the scenes. His main job is to get the 1st team playing well and achieve good results in a sustainable way. At the very least for me, the jury is out on whether he's making sustainable progress in this respect. He's had 32 games now, which surely is enough to workout what the best set up is, but we are still jumping from, 442, 433, 352, 532, you name it we've tried it. To say it takes time to turn the club around is true, but that's not his job. To say it takes more than 32 games to turn the team around is very debatable and that is his job. If it takes that much time then why do clubs swap managers and appoint blokes like Fat Sam with reputations for quickly turning round teams and keeping them up? I hope that other posters are right and he has had more problems than we as fans understand and he is working through them. So that next season we hit the ground running without any behind the scenes distractions. But for me the actual stuff on the pitch that we can all see is miles away from a consistent winning team with a consistent plan. I want Steve Bruce to succeed because then Villa succeed and I actually like the bloke. But I'm a little worried right now.

I recall that Norwich game well. Big Ron was his gaffer then and coined the phrase, "Having a Ugo" for anyone who cocked up in training or had a bad game. That was great man management by Ron, making a joke of it and in doing so helping him to quickly move on. And move on from it he did, a great defender in a much happier era for us. Get well soon big fella.

No I obviously don't think the football was better in the 60s and agree dangerous play and deliberate acts likely to seriously hurt an opponent should have no place in any era. However Kodjia's was a foolish, heat of the moment act of petulant retaliation. He shouldn't have done it but to compare it to the type of violent acts you've listed is somewhat unfair on the lad. A mistake made, not the type of thing that needs stamping out. My reference to the modern game was directed more at Fredericks over reaction and running up to the linesman to try, successfully, to get him sent off. That's not an element of modern football that I like.

I think it's a clear technical red card, but no common sense shown by the ref. If he'd really kicked him he'd have gone off on a stretcher! But modern football is what it is I suppose.

I don't think he will win the appeal to be honest. Although he stops himself, his foot moves forward and into the player, albeit with almost zero force but the panel will say he showed intent. They will conveniently ignore the fact that their right back had his studs unnecessarily in Kodjia's chest, leapt up as though he'd just had the most heinous of crimes perpetrated on him and retaliated, before running to the linesman to report Kodjia for genocide. The linesman and ref obviously agreed and reacted as though their own families had just been wiped out in the slaughter. Technically it's possibly a red card, but a decent ref would have had a stern word with both of them and left it an 11 v 11 contest which it is supposed to be. But hey why pass up a chance to be in the limelight eh ref?

I'd do it for a fraction of the cost and I'm already halfway there!

But surely we've seen enough of them over the years to know them by now? Where as with the obvious exception of next Sunday, the games left are sort of a free hit. People would be far more understanding of the value of playing a few kids with potential, than playing the same old squad players.