El Kami Ghazi

Grealish isn't going anywhere. We have the third richest owners in England. I think even if Spurs offered the 40m we wanted in the summer our owners would point blank refuse.

He's recently signed a new contract and thats pocket change to our owners. Its clear for all to see how important he is to the team by the last 3 games. 

3 hours ago, LakotaDakota said:

Even getting Samba back in for a month may not be the worst idea in the world

I mean James Collins would be weird enough but the thought of Samba playing out from the back gives me the shivers  Side note : Fair play to him its rare in this day and age for a professional to do this. 

59 minutes ago, ramshackler said:

I'm not getting hung up on whether TA stays or leaves. 

I think his impact is massively overrated. He has missed almost as many as he has scored. He is a good player not a great one. If he leaves I'd be more than happy that Hogan / Jimmy could step up and score a lot of goals. 

This teams key is the wings and Grealish, they will great bag full of goals for whoever is up top

Agree with the last bit but I think Tammys movement is much better than Hogan and Kodija, I think we'd score goals but nowhere near as much as with Tammy up front. Kodija can create something out of nothing (for himself usually) and Hogan likes to get in behind the defence. But Tammy for me is much more of an all-rounder (despite him being raw at such a young age). 

23 minutes ago, villa89 said:

"We're richer than you, We're richer than you, OOOOHHH OOO, We're richer than you"

"We're Aston villa we'll buy who we want" 

Quite a few sources mentioning this today, came out of the blue but they have all said its near to being completed so probs been in the pipeline for a while.

I'm absolutely delighted as I think hes the type of signing who could do a job in the premier league too !  

Just now, KH** said:

I really hope so, I've only watched him a few times but have heard good things. GET IT DONE JESUS

10 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

I honestly think we need to sign an RB and an LB. Elmo is average and makes mistakes, Hutton is poor tbh, and Taylor is poor. They’re all mid-table champ level, and we need better to push up the table. 

 

We could do with a better RB i agree but not immediately. We're well stocked in that department with Hutton,Elmo, Bree (Even Mitch Clark can play across the backline if needed). GK,LB,CB and maybe a CM/CDM before for that for me. I think we will be fine waiting until the summer for that position.

4 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

What Tammy rumours..?  

Story out this morning about Cardiff and Palace interested in Tammy. 

29 minutes ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

I dunno, plenty of desperate Prem clubs at the bottom who need a goalscorer. Tammys stats are there for all to see. Wouldnt at all be surprised if a Palace or someone test the waters

Can you see him leaving us mid season to leave to go a team who could very well be battling relegation again though ? I mean it didn't work out at Swansea for him and the benefit there was that he still had Chelsea to go back too... wouldn't it be better for him to stick with us and see where hes at come the end of season ? As much as I think he'll suit Palace more than Benteke... he's a fine example of leaving us to go for 'better' things which hasn't worked out too.

56 minutes ago, Tomaszk said:

They'll want a fortune for an English striker that age. More than £20m. I don't think anyone would pay that at the moment.

I agree, in fact I think its kinda promising. If (When) we go up I want us to 'break the bank' for him... never mind Onomah.

I'd love to see Heaton, Mckenna, a LB (Rico Henry ?) and another CM/CDM if we have any spare change. Understand its a big ask given our circumstances plus we'd have to offload some players too which would probs be difficult given Jedi,Whelo and Lansbury all on a decent wedge.

But a good point mentioned which i haven't thought about before above about Jesus being brought in. I cant see him going for pure British based players. May aswell have a british based Technical Director if we're going that route. Hell if he can cover those positions with some cheap worldie foreign players id be even more happier mind. But thats the type of calibre i'd be looking at anyway. 

On 14/12/2018 at 18:04, mjmooney said:

This is Dean Smith's Villa. We don't have to set up the same way every time. Keep the opposition guessing. 

Welcome to VT, btw. 

In hindsight this may have been the better option. But i was referring to the fact we were on a pretty strong run of results therefore assumed it would be wise to change the team/formation as little as possible. 

Thanks for the warm welcome btw 

46 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Jack's Not the team. We have enough talented individuals in this squad. Most were off par yet we still managed a point. I think grealish wouldnt have been that effective today simply because so many were off the pace and he would ahve been kicked all around the pitch.

The team performance generally was quite poor and that I think was reason not grealish miss.

 

He is not THE team, no-one is. But as posted above he's a vital part of the team and Saturday proved that IMO. For e.g: We're used to seeing Tammy have multiple chances each game every game since Dean Smith & Co have came in yet Saturday was just wasnt the same.

He is our creative outlet and this is why Hourihane and Mcginn suit him in a 3. Hourihane is a danger from set pieces (It is usually Grealish winning them) and Mcginn battles all game winning the ball to give to Jack (I think Grealish's defensive game has come on leap and bounds since the start of this year though too tbf). 

 I honestly thought we'd cope fine without him as its not like the days before DS & co where we just used to give it Jack and hope for the best. I still think we do have enough to cover but that just wasn't it on Saturday. Dean Smith plays possession football and Jack doesnt give the ball away. This is why he is instrumental in us moving forward. 

1 hour ago, Adam2003 said:

I have been thinking about this and I'd love to see him get a shot v Stoke if Jack's out - and for the first time in years it's not "God I hope one of these kids can save us" it's "OK I think the rest of the attacking machine is looking good, let's give this kid an hour and bring on Kodjia or whoever if it's not working out."

Flipside I suppose is players like JK, even Hogan, Whelan etc (depending on how he shuffled) are all doing their bits with cameos and probably desperate to start a game, so not that easy a decision for Smith, but it's nice to think it could go one of a few ways and we would still hopefully look good going forward.

 

 

Its easy enough for us to say give him a chance/throw him in. But whenever i've seen him play hes a 10/RW and atm we need someone to cover Grealish's position (LCM). 

3 hours ago, villa89 said:

This is what will happen IMO.

I think so too considering its Whelans old club. He'll be raring to get his chance plus he hasn't done a bad job when hes come off the bench under Smith tbf.

However as suggested previously I'd like to see El Ghazi try fill in Grealish's role (Or swap Mcginn to LCM and El Ghazi on RCM). I think El Ghazi's defensive work rate has improved dramatically since the Forest game and would be intrigued to see if he can do a job.

Hi fellow Villans, Villa fan for 24 years, been watching the forum for a while but now i've decided to create an account UTV