Darth Villa

We are a total embarrassment to the club, please Dr Xia put us out of our misery and end Steve Bruce and this crop of overpaid, past it journey men masquerading as a Villa team!

Christmas, a time for peace on earth and goodwill to all men. Except Steve Bruce unless our poor performances against Millwall and Derby are rapidly put right on Saturday. I think we can all guess what he put in his letter to Santa...

That's pretty much where we all are isn't it?

3 hours ago, Nigel said:

There are games for slating Whelan but yesterday wasn't one imo. 

His job is simple, retaining possession of the ball to keep us moving, anything else is a bonus. Since we dominated the ball yesterday is say his job was done. I'm not trying to paper over his clangers but everyone is capable of messing up, we are human after all.  

In fact as soon as we lost him for Hogan we immediately lost the midfield battle and allowed derby s lot more into the game.

I agree it was whelans fault that we had to gamble in the first place but pervrsely it did highlight how well his general play was for me.

This 100%. Whelan did drop a massive clanger but without his type of presence we are too easily overpowered in the middle of the park, I am not his biggest fan but I can only look at Bruce if we're looking to apportion blame as he picked the team. We need a clear plan B for when our wingers are nullified and that is down to the manager and coaching staff to sort. The only mitigation is we have been very unlucky with injuries to key players but please no more suggestions of playing Elphick under any circumstances!

Poor game, Villa players walking around as Millwall ran past and simply wanted it more. Snodgrass was poor (again!), Davis wasted a great chance but that would have been papering over the problems in my opinion.

I simply can't figure out why we can be so easily caused problems by poor but physical sides - I thought the old heads that Bruce recruited were meant to stop such things?

I can see both sides of this debate, Gabby has been a useless drain on our club for too long and should have been shown the door BUT if he helps us to preserve the future talent I.e. Davis by helping to share the physical burden then I can just about accept that given the injury situation.

He owes us big time but I can't see him coming good now, so let's use him as best we can, even if that's as cover for any injured ballboys when we need the ball back in play in a hurry!

I would rather have Samba on one leg in the team over Elphick or Richards any day of the week. Samba is a unit and respected by the other players, even when Crocked.

I think he's physically knackered just like Davis, he has some ability but needs a rest. Grealish to take the number 10 role for me for the Millwall game,

Glad Lansbury scored tonight, as we are too light upfront at the moment (amazing given the money we've wasted on the wrong type of forward) to mount a serious challenge for an automatic spot but the resilience we're showing these days fills me with hope for a return. via the playoffs,

I felt Leeds were better than us by some margin last season but not anymore, we are making progress with a depleted team, that's what it takes to be a top side in any league!

I think it's departures only now...hence  the padlock, either that or he too feels Bruce should be locked up for inflicting his brand of negative-football on us!

7 minutes ago, peterms said:

It's not a 'perceived mistruth' or an 'opinion', it's a simple fact that he made a false statement about the involvement of someone who many fans wouldn't want to see anywhere near the club.

It's very odd that you seem to keep denying that this simple observable fact is a fact.  Why are you doing it?  Would you prefer it not to be the case?  Do you think you can make it go away by denying it?

It's also odd that you are making up things about this outweighing in my mind anything else.  It's like you are trying to reduce everything to 'Tony good' or 'Tony bad', and are trying to arrange reality and the views of others around this simple distinction.

I welcome the investment that has been made so far.  I don't welcome untruths.  I have serious doubts about the choices he has made about advisers.  I think his choice of manager doesn't at all fit his claims about long term strategy or his professed philosophy of forming a young team to grow over time (I mean managerial team, not players).  It's quite a mixed picture, in my view.  Apparently not in yours.

I never realised VT had a conspiracy thread but I always thought Dr X would make a great bond "Villain" with his secret South China Sea hideout..

3 hours ago, Nigel said:

In reality there is no one realistically available to us to make us jump.   Out of that list i would choose Bruce to stay on TBH!

Very much this ^^^.  I have seen Rafa Benitez suggested because he's a big enough name to handle it. I think that sums up our problems.  Bruce is part of the problem with his negative mindset, he could be part of the solution too IF he can get the players to respond against Reading.  Quick fixes aren't working so whoever is in charge needs time...

31 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

The players should know their role before they step on the pitch. It is all very ad hoc at the moment, like the school playground.

It really is down to the manager and his coaching staff.

Whilst I can't defend or justify yesterday's performance and agree that Bruce has many failings, I cannot accept that a lack of bottle and desire to compete is solely down to manager and coaching staff. I think the players know their job but something is lacking at the club. I actually think they're paid too much to care and so can't be bothered as another manager will be along shortly, so why worry about anything the current one is asking them to do!

Most of the team had an off day, even Chester (who struggled again against a physical forward). Hence we got humiliated..

7 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I've tried to defend him and give him a chance but I just can't understand what happened yesterday. 

My biggest worry is I don't even think the problem is Bruce. There is something still rotten at the club.

This for me is spot on. Bruce does have his limitations but the players and coaching staff are too easily able to hide behind him. We need someone else to step up on the pitch and stop the weak displays, clearly not Terry after yesterday!

53 minutes ago, AshVilla said:

So do we only have one LB at the club now?

I thought we had a lad called Borg, a left back we poached from West Ham?

We certainly need a different option up front and Hernandez is proven at Championship level but I was expecting more of a target man for Hogan to play off whilst Kodja is out.

Although I too am starting to wonder how many more departures are in the pipeline given the FFP position mentioned by @DCJonahand Bruce himself today.

Could it be that we've finally learnt how to get good deals by pleading poverty? That or some kid from South America is having a laugh at our expense!

We have been too soft in midfield for far too long. Whelan will not fade away under pressure and instead help our more creative players finally emerge from their shells.  Not sure he would work alongside Jedinak but equally I wouldn't expect us to lose any physical game with them both on the pitch and Samba at the back!

11 hours ago, Dr_Pangloss said:

Just speculating here, but if it is mental health related then it does deserve sympathy and understanding, with the club sitting down with him to help him proactively improve his situation. 

Just to clarify in my original post, I was attempting to make the point that any medical issues (mental or physical) are somewhat academic (I.e we don't need the details on this forum) given the challenge of getting back to the Premier League facing our club. I think the club is supportive  of the player and agree that's the right thing to do. I just feel Bruce has looked at the need to reduce the squad size, looked again at pre-season performances and decided McCormack can go as he can't rely on him when the chips are down..

His biggest issue was hacking off his manager.  Does is matter if it was mental or physical health?

Not trying to be unsympathetic but if Bruce is looking for people to rely on then surely McCormack is the last name on his list?

Grealish did have a good game in the semi-finals but I feel Green gave the team more balance last season and Grealish needs to add consistency if he is to fulfill the obvious potential we can all see. (well I think we can all see it?)

If he added that last element to his game then no doubt we'd be worried about losing him but at the moment I don't feel he'd be a big loss, (how many clubs are chasing him this window?) assuming any transfer would have a significant sell on clause, just in case!

Agent Elphick? Now that would be fun...

Several bluenoses I work with warned me the football under Bruce wouldn't be good to watch and that's his major downfall. Accepting that their standards are normally a bit lower than we might expect down Villa Park, that's a damning admission. I hate agreeing with them but the football has not been inspiring has it?

I just hope the end result will be a return to the Prem and I will accept the mediocre displays only if that's where we are a year from now.

Wyness and Xia have both stated FFP is not going to stop us signing the players Bruce wants this summer and they're working on contingency plans for next season. So unless those plans include selling Kodjia shouldn't we have more faith?

Good call but I'm not sure Hull will do business with Villa given their feelings towards Bruce?

1 minute ago, nnock1984 said:

Scum, quite simply! Puts me off going to the football! 

It doesn't take a lot for the media to knock our club, we don't need idiots behaving like this. It is a good thing imho that we're highlighting that as genuine fans we don't find it acceptable.

Although I do wish we were talking about something more positive at this stage of the season. Maybe next year we will be...

Hi, long term season ticket holder (in the Doug Ellis upper) and just joined Villa Talk as I have been reading posts for a while.