Darth Villa

Did well when he came in for Terry last season but I suspect the relationship with Bruce meant he was going to be pushed out regardless.

We can only hope we're getting the composed organiser from Hull rather than the overly nervous player with one bad mistake per game guaranteed. I'll reserve judgement but genuinely hope he does enough to earn a new contract as I can't help but admire his professionalism.

Let's see what Smith and Terry can do with him...

Would be a big confidence boost if we can hold out but definitely need to get another if we're to win this...

9 hours ago, praisedmambo said:

I think you've been hanging out in the dark side a bit too long. There were plenty of other shit things going on around both of them—Lerner cost cutting and Xia being a fraud and having no money—that led to their exits, as different as those were, without them also managing to screw squads over in spite.

Hanging out in the dark side for a bit too long  classic line, you really made me smile. 

As for the other points you raised, I agree both are correct in the broader context of Lerner and Xia but MoN made his decision and took Lerner to the cleaners as he was only interested in safeguarding his reputation when the spending stopped and not the club's (in my view), same goes for Bruce - the new owners were installed and the money situation fixed by the time he let Elphick and De Laet go out, hence I see it more down to him ruining the squad (in my view) rather than being under pressure to save cash.  To be fair to both, MoN did give us some memorable results and Bruce did stabilise a team in terminal decline but I still think both wasted vast amounts of money and also acted petulantly in the end, so no amount of broader context justifies their behaviour in my opinion.

Happy for you @praisedmambo to disagree as it's an opinion I hold and not 100% based on any concrete ITK facts beyond information I have about how Bruce treats his "favourite" players versus those he wouldn't urinate on in an inferno... 

It's quite clear that Dean Smith will need time, it's frustrating for all of us (including our manager and his team) as the league is wide open this year BUT... With the infrastructure sorted and squad deficiencies addressed we will ultimately get to a better, sustainable position.

I suspect Bruce knew his day's were numbered and hence he screwed the club by leaving an unbalanced squad for his successor (hence Elphick and DeLaet loans, and overpaying for an unfit Bolasie) - similar to a MoN departure in intent I.e. Maximum harm in a fit of spite.

Smith can't address the gaps until January but what I saw at QPR was individual mistakes but a far better team performance so  it's going to be a rollercoaster season but that's the price of long-term sustainability and hopefully success.

The game against the small heathens will be a real test given their improvements and our continued slump but let's keep any result in perspective. We are now going places, they are still awaiting an FFP points deduction 

3 minutes ago, Nigel said:

Rodgers hasn't ruled himself out of this job.

 

I thought he did rule himself out yesterday?

I was chatting to a friend today who has previous insight into Bruce and his methods, specifically;

1. He doesn't coach the team at all. He really is tactically inept.

2. He has his favourites, and bombs people out to the kids. Players work hard to avoid being in the bomb squad.

In combination, that motivates in the short-term but after a couple of years the player's suss him out and he loses the dressing room. Terry and Snodgrass were his lynchpins last season and he's struggling without them.

I'm not ITK but when I was told this it confirmed to me what I suspected, it's definitely time for Bruce to go, his 2 years really are up and we're only going downhill with him in charge.

We need a Brucexit...we need it now!!!

We're not pretty to watch, seemingly lacking an effective system but Mr Potato head lives on to fight another day. Kodjia had a cracking game alongside Tammy with McGinn man of the match for me. Jedinak provided the physical presence at CH too.

I just wish we inspired more confidence as I still can't see Bruce getting us up this season or any season for that matter!!

I'm already feeling depressed and we haven't even kicked a ball yet.... can anyone offer even a glimmer of an optimistic thought..
 

2 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I think the premise of a protest is that the owners need the situation bringing to their attention. I’m pretty sure this isn’t the case, I’m sure they know where we are in the league and probably have watched most if not all of the games. Even if they haven’t they’ll have plenty of reports coming back to them, that’s what businessmen do. 

I believe the main reason they haven’t made a change is because they haven’t yet secured the right replacement. There could be any number of reasons why this is the case. People are right when they say we can’t just keep changing managers, we can’t. So whilst I believe we do need a change, it needs to be a well thought out change and one that will hopefully be the last one for a few years. I’m a football supporter, so of course I want it to happen tomorrow, and the new bloke to come in be brilliant and win every game for the rest of the season. But that is highly unlikely and so if it takes an extra few weeks or months, but ultimately we find the right man to take us forward for years to come then I’m prepared to wait. Albeit extremely impatiently. 

Attempting to force the owners hand wouldn’t, in my opinion, be helpful, necessary or indeed likely to happen, no matter how well intended. 

Totally agree with this, we're looking at owners with a long-term outlook and whilst they won't want to hang around in this league you can bet they won't do anything knee jerk either. Bruce will get us promoted or be kicked out, we just have to hold our nerve and wait for him to keep screwing up. The end will come soon enough but I still wish it wasn't like this. We're Aston Villa, we'll be here long after Bruce and i'd love him to prove us all wrong...but just can't see that happening!

Something has definitely changed with regards to Bruce and his relationship with the players. Not sure if it's down to Terry and Snodgrass no longer influencing the dressing room or the bizarre team selections but for me that's the major step backwards from last season.

Whoever comes in next should provide an immediate lift in moral amongst players and fans. I think we need an established manager who can demand respect, coach during the week and kick arses on a matchday. Just not sure who fits that profile?

We often debate Bruce's ability to setup a team with regards to cunning (or more like basic) tactics and now we suspect (hope) he has hatched a fiendishly brilliant way to bring JT back despite giving his number to Kodjia?

As @Junxswas right, that ship has sailed and we need to keep everything crossed that Chester can stay Injury free between now and the January window..

17 minutes ago, TheAuthority said:

 

Whilst positive in lots of ways, the stories about his knee being shot are a concern - although we did once sign a player from Man Utd with suspect knees and he turned out to be God.  Hope this Bolasie doesn't turn out to be like the Devil, Christ it's been bad enough with McCormack all these months... 

7 minutes ago, wilko154 said:

Unfortuntaly we do... it's looking likely that we will go into the first game of the season without a striker unless Kodjia is fit. If we can get someone in on loan (Abraham would be fantastic...) then we will be all set.

You only have to look at the difference that Mitrovic provided for Fulham to see the importance of a goal scoring striker.

I think a Mitrovic type striker is exactly what we need... anyone know of a Portuguese equivalent we can get through our new international super agents? 

20 minutes ago, markavfc40 said:

 

That is probably where we and a few others differ in that I don't think things have to improve for us to get promoted. If things stayed as they were from last season we'd be in with a great shout. From last season of the main players we have lost Johnstone, Terry, Snoddy and Grabban (for a half a season). On the other hand we hopefully get Grealish and Kodjia fit for the whole season and also Green who was out for much of last season and looks more than capable of being a handful for opposing teams at this level. We have also brought in a new keeper and I'd now expect we will also see a couple more come in

Whilst we can debate till the cows come home why we fell just short last season be it the players, the manager, the system, fatigue, being too negative the facts are we got with in a whisker of going up. It was so close that for me it isn't really worth going around in circles as to why we did fall short.

^^ Very much this, I know it's a dull, damp afternoon and therefore the perfect time for a VT debate but I equally think we were so close to going up that over analysis will indeed lead to paralysis (to quote the old pun).  We have a good core of players, albeit lacking pace (and one or two much older than we'd like) and with no consistent team style but I feel confident that things will come together.  That's not a reflection of the manager or any given player, it's simply that we now have owners who know what they're doing.  Steve Bruce will get a final chance to deliver, if he fails then he'll be gone.  No messing, no doubt, just decisive leadership - I'm not sure we can ask for more than that?

I think the timing of the letter is key, were clearly selling players to balance the books but we knew that already. So i'm guessing it's bye to Jack next week (Tuesday always seems a popular day for such things) and a few others.

Seems Bruce is staying and so is Xia - so if we survive the summer from a financial perspective then we've at least a season of both staying put.

Now I really am depressed..

4 minutes ago, lexicon said:

I think I'd stop supporting us if Trump bought us. 

Lerner - Xia - Trump (the unholy trinity)

What club would survive that sort of ownership?

19 minutes ago, John said:

So I gather Donald Trump is going to buy us on Super Tuesday?

Make Aston(Villa) Great Again!

Who knew Trump was a Villan all this time?

43 minutes ago, TheEgo said:

and we should also factor in I was literally told "keep an eye out for Tuesday" and I posted exactly that. No "wait, huge news Tuesday, but I can't say what it is"  which I'd expect to be questioned, I would too ha! I don't know it to be true, but it made me think "eh up, maybe there will be some news" so I shared. I clarified this 3 times, whilst adding I don't know anything else, so no teaser or preview, literally word for word what was said. Yet some get so gnarly its unreal. Some of the OTT reactions reminds me why I stopped posting. 

I think we all get hot and bothered some days and perhaps that triggers some OTT reactions. 

It's not surprising that people are getting a bit twitchy though as the football world has gone mad this summer as I can't believe Japan are 2 -1 up against Belgium.

Makes some of Xia's behaviours almost seem sane! (if that's even possible?).

37 minutes ago, jackbauer24 said:

That never ending circle of ITK respect... People scared to question it for being seen as negative, others lapping up every word out of desperation.

My issue with 99% of people who claim to be ITK is the self important censoring they imply they have to do to protect people.

If you have some information you are not allowed/not comfortable to share then say nothing. Really, what is the point of saying 'I know something but I can't say what' on a chatboard?! The only reason that makes sense is they like to look important on a board that means nothing. Quite pathetic really. If I have privileged information at work then I use my professional judgement to decide whether it stays completely confidential (I.e. shut up) or I share either snippets or the whole story. What I don't do is walk in to the staffroom and say "I've heard something that impacts you all but I can't tell you anything at all". Worse still, I don't return day after day giving pointless snippets of non-information like "well you might find out something on Wednesday about any tiny facet of your job that I can attribute to my prior knowledge"

Assuming I have info I feel I can share I'll give them a real heads up with actual facts but ensure that it can't be traced to me if I wasn't supposed to say anything! In this instance it'd be something along lines of "there will be a statement this week about a takeover, can't say anything else yet/ don't know what it's about". Not something may happen on some day unless things change.

I've had a bad day too and I'm sick to death of people full of such self importance or pathetic enough to need people to read their crap and then whine they're not being respected.

If you can't say anything then DON'T say anything. 

I think this is a reasonable stance regarding ITK type posts but equally isn't it the random speculation and insinuations that keep us coming back to Villa Talk? 

What we know for certain is tomorrow is definitely Tuesday and it will be followed by Wednesday.

We suspect out owner is a tw@t and our club is fooked financially speaking but let's not forget we definitely all want a good outcome, no matter how irritating we find some posts...we're all Villans after all or at least I think we are?

4 hours ago, TheEgo said:

We ought to, but who knows with the club these days. They'll be force feeding us that much content on twitter with pics of players arriving back and training that they will think we're idiots and forget the club is up sh*t creek without a paddle. God I know hate this regime

Fair enough, I agree the propaganda machine will be on overdrive alongside click-bait stories from all and sundry too.  The truth will out in the end as they say...

4 hours ago, TheEgo said:

Ha!! Something else to discuss as the thread is dead until we know more, we forget what was said at the time by the club. I'm doing some more digging on Xia's earlier interviews and promises/statements made

That makes more sense, although I would caution you in going over the historical statements as you are very likely to be even more angry/depressed with the current regime when you confirm to yourself that it was all indeed a pile of bollocks

6 minutes ago, TheEgo said:

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2016/05/18/club-statement-sale-confirmed

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2016/05/19/hollis-ownership-in-quotes

 

Looking back at the avfc statement revealing the club had been sold to Xia and Hollis comments......How do we all feel now? #depressed

Now you're just taking the p!ss…