villanwesty88

Villa have a long history of producing players through the academy that go on to play professionally - something that I think all Villa fans are proud of. 
I've often wondered why we don't have a feeder club though? The natural steps for a young player seem to be:

Academy football
U16
U18
U21/Reserve/Next Gen Series
Loan spell
First team

Obviously this isn't always the case - for example players like Wayne Rooney at 16 skipped many of those steps.

Agbonlahor and Weimann have had loan spells and have become top players for us. I feel like there is a point in a young players career where it can go one of two ways and if they are playing first team football they have a better chance of making it at Villa Park. 

I felt that Albrighton should have been loaned out a couple of seasons ago instead of sitting on the bench and the same with Delfouneso - two of our brightest talents that we were all hoping to see great things from have not produced what we hoped. I put some of that down to not playing.

So, why don't we have a feeder club system to make it easier to loan players to a club to ensure players will play?

You only have to look here to see how many feeder clubs some English sides have. Our very own Matty Lowton benefited from some time in Hungary when at Sheff Utd. Man Utd have been loaning players out for years - I seem to remember a lot of their players going to Antwerp. Imagine the benefits players get from going abroad - they are completely out of their comfort zone with language barriers and cultural differences etc, not knowing anyone. I think it would help a lot of young players to mature and come back mentally stronger. I think Matty Lowton has touched on this before in an interview.

What do you think? Would have a few feeder clubs benefit us? Personally I do and I've always wondered why we haven't explored it. 

I think Albrighton and perhaps Gardner would benefit from a 3-6 month loan in the Championship at the start of next season. It takes time to come back from long injuries but it also takes games. It'll be no use for them just sat on the bench here. Then assess where things are after that.

Old game but I'm addicted to Halo Wars! Anyone else play it?

Great win there for us. Still 40 points might not be enough....IF Sunderland were to beat Stoke on Monday AND Wigan were to beat Swansea on Tuesday the table would be like this with 2 games to go....

Southampton   40

Stoke               40

Fulham           40

Sunderland     40

Villa                40

Norwich          38

Newcastle      38

Reading         R

QPR               R

That would be pretty uncomfortable with 2 games to go for all involved.... Obviously hope Wigan lose and Sunderland draw with Stoke...

yessssssssssssssss

surely thats it????

need to make a final sub now, to run the clock down

GET IN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It all depends on Wigan. If they beat WBA and Swansea, which isn't beyond the realms, then they'll be on 38 with 2 games to go. Then it'll go the the final weekend. Hopefully WBA beat Wigan tomorrow then it'll be very tough for them, especially if we beat Norwich. I won't be relaxed until it is impossible for us to go down.

I think Herd is versatile and decent, I'm just not sure on his attitude. I've seen him in interviews and seems to have an ego problem. Also the whole thing that happened out in Brum he was involved with. If he can take the bad attitude away he has a lot of potential, but attitude seems to be more difficult to correct than ability. 

Agree on N'Zogbia, would be a player we could probably live without so long as we replace him.

2 mill for Bannan

 

More likely to get 2 mill for the tea lady

£2mill isn't much in football these days. Bannan is still relatively young, has premier league games and international games under his belt. I think it would be a fair price...Lowton was £2.5 million and he was completely unproven at Premier League level.  

I'm not sure if his contract is up or not, but I think he could be a player we wouldn't have too much trouble selling. I wouldn't expect a huge fee but perhaps £2million or so.

 

Drink drivings got nowt to do with it. 

 

Guys been rubbish and lazy all season - gives the ball away and cant tackle !

That's a tad harsh , hes been average yes but better than KEA, Herd, Holman .

 

Bannan, KEA, Herd and Holman could all go - none of them have played well enough. Bannan could do with a fresh start somewhere where he will play week in week out. I can see him doing well somewhere. Maybe Celtic. He's not managed to cement his place in a poor Villa midfield which suggests with a couple of decent additions he will be further down the pecking order. 

Big clear out in the summer if possible. Don't think we'll offload everyone we want to but in an ideal world i'd let the following go:

Given, Marshall

Dunne, Stevens - Loan, Williams - Loan

Ireland, El Ahmadi, Albrighton - Loan/Sell, Holman, Makoun, Dawkins, Bannan, Herd, Johnson - loan

Bent, Delfouneso

Leaving a squad of:

GK Guzan, Siegreist

DF Vlaar, Clark, Baker, Bennett, Lichaj, Lowton

CM Westwood, Delph, Sylla, Gardner, Carruthers, Grealish

Wingers/FW N'Zogbia, Agbonlahor, Weimann, Bowery

CF Benteke, Burke,  Drennan

That squad would be too light on numbers and experience but it would give some youngsters a chance to get in and around the squad - the likes of Siegreist, Grealish, Drennan, Burke make make a handful of appearances. 

I think Clark could move into central midfield much like David Luiz has at Chelsea (I'm not comparing the two on ability!). 

IMO we need to sign about 3 or 4 players who are aged around 24-28 who have a decent amount of games under their belts and have the potential sell on value. I think a CB, CM, winger and CF are required to boost the side. For me I'd be raiding Belgian players and looking in Holland and across Europe. Clearly this is where the value is - you'd never pick up a player like Benteke in England for £7million and in one season is looking like a £25-£30M player.  

CB: Toby Alderweireld (Ajax) - looks a handy player wouldn't be easy to get him but would be a good addition

Winger: Necer Chadli (Twente) 

CF - Jelle Vossen (Genk) / Wilfried Bony (Vitesse) - only issue with African players is the African nations every couple of years takes them away from the team for a while. 

Not sure on a CM but we could do with an enforcer in the mold of Fellaini/Toure but, again, someone who isn't going to cost the club £20million. Saying that I've been impressed with Sylla, Westwood and Delph lately but I'm still unconvinced we can play with just 2 CMs which is an option we could do with at times. 

I hope the powers that be at the club are thinking somewhere along these lines to reduce the amount of dead wood and to continue signing up and coming players whilst giving our own youth a chance. As long as we stay up of course. 

If we get the 3 points today we could be in 14th - if Norwich lose at Arsenal this afternoon. We have to go for the 3 points as it'll turn up the pressure on Wigan, Sunderland, Norwich and Stoke!

COME ON YOU LIONS

Look at all the teams sacking their managers. Has it done them any good? No. Yes Lambert could have done things better but I'm glad we're sticking by him. QPR,Reading and Sunderland to go for me. All replaced their managers during the season. Can see sunderland losing the majority of their games now which is a shame because they are a good club that has been completely mismanaged.

Wigan stick by Martinez even though they are shit a lot of the time. If a change is to be made it has to be when the season is over.

Everton 1-0 Stoke....

If we can draw against Liverpool and win at Stoke we will be level on points with Stoke (assuming they get beat at Everton now). So many possibilities still. Norwich and Stoke are in it due to their form. Sunderland have a tough run in but it's down to us to get the points

I reckon 40k is on the cards. Would love to go but I'm away. I think we can keep this up for the rest of the season and be the difference between survival and relegation.  

At least this means the players won't get too complacent with Wigan right on our tails. They could even be above us the next time we play. 

I think Sunderland are right in this with their fixtures.

Sunderland's remaining games:

Man Utd (h)

Chelsea (a)

Newcastle (a)

Everton (h)

Villa (a)

Stoke (h)

Southampton (h)

Spurs (a)

The game between us and Sunderland is going to be another massive game I sense. We need another 38k attendance and atmosphere like yesterday.

Alan Hutton is currently playing for Real Mallorca against Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.....and Mallorca are winning....

If Sunderland fail to beat Norwich they have a really tough run to follow and could be right in the mix. Also MON doesn't like March 

But it could well be the 3 that are in it now

38500! Amazing support. Best game I've been to in a long time with a really good atmosphere to top it off. UTV

I'm hoping we have more than 35k for this one... it's a 3pm kick off on a Saturday and it's a crucial game.

I've been disillusioned with Villa this season and I haven't attended as many as usual but I'm putting all my discrepancies to one side to get behind the team. I hope lots of others are thinking the same and we can create a good atmosphere and bring home the 3 points.

UTV 

Ok... key 6 pointers so far....QPR draw, Reading win, Wigan loss....mixed bag. We're just very unpredictable but with N'Zogbia and Gabby back the last few weeks we've performed better and actually challenged for victories...ok the results haven't come good and that is all that matters but I just feel our luck will turn.