Leeroy

What has happened to this team? The last 4 games we just look clueless. Dopey defensively and brainless going forward with the wrong pass time and time again. Injuries explain no depth but we’ve still got 11 senior pros out there. Three defeats on the bounce if we lose this, I’m not sure when that last happened under Unai.

They need to get a grip because we could feasibly end the season with 5 defeats on the bounce which would be such a comedown on a very good season.

Well we may as well just hand them the game and rest for Liverpool. No chance now.

Once again we just can’t defend. Been our problem all season. It’s literally just one counter attack and they score, so ****ing easy.

1 minute ago, ozvilla28 said:

Are the injuries just bad luck or do we need your dive deeper in fitness and conditioning mot talking about the ACL injuries.

I think we should carry out an investigation, these injuries aren’t normal. Still Newcastle would probably say the same.

Zaniolo being out annoys me most when his agent came out a few days ago saying he wants the end the season as strong as possible with us. He needs to get fit quickly then you muppet as there’s only a couple of games left!

Christ, why can’t Tielemans and Zaniolo just get themselves fit

At least Emi is back but no Tielemans, Rogers or Zaniolo is just ass. And god knows where the hell Moreno is.

3 hours ago, PeterSw said:

Their business has generally been good but still a couple of misses in my opinion -

Going off Transfermarkt -

Franca £20m - not done much

Henderson £17.5m - been backup until Johnstone got injured

Edouard £15m - been meh

 

Yeah that's fair. Although I'd counter that by saying Edouard was pretty cheap for a striker and they seem to have pulled off a good deal in Mateta if he keeps up his recent form. Henderson very early days too.

Franca I'd agree with, seems a waste of money, although he's been injured and still very young so still time. 

1 minute ago, duke313 said:

A lot were positive, but then there was comments like this below 

Lol, thanks for that. I must admit I got Rogers totally wrong, he hadn't looked that impressive in the Championship, but he was a great find by Unai and Monchi. He's been an excellent signing.

I still thought that a holding midfielder was more priority though and think I've actually been proven right on that given how lacking we are in CM now. 

We obviously have to go for high profile players as well as hidden gems, but when we do spend big money on players we have to get them right is all I'm saying. Diaby still has time though. 

17 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Because you seem to put it out there suggesting ours isn’t so great yet people are showing how ours is just as good.

Not at all. We have done some very good business ourselves but 1-2 we have yet to get what we paid for. Palace's business over the last 3 years has been really good, can't think of a bad deal. Just feel they should be acknowledged for that.

16 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Ok leave Tim out, still very good.

According to many of the salary sites both Eze and Olise are on £100k per week so not so different to Tielemans and Kamara, and E got them free.

I honestly think Buendia will thrive under Emery, he wasn’t doing too bad before injury.  Diaby was raved about early in the season before his drop off in form but that’s probably first season settling like many overseas players and like Bailey will be better in following seasons so jury is still out.

That's because Eze and Olise have since signed new bumper contracts I think. 

To be fair Nick I said this myself just now that it is too premature to say whether Diaby has been a failure so you're agreeing with me. I think so far for the money we spent he has underwhelmed and we would struggle to get our money back for him, whereas Palace would get potentially 10 times what they paid for Olise if they sold him. Of course Diaby's value may have skyrocketed this time next season and I agree it is too early to make a judgement one way or the other. 

Lol, I only praised Palace's business which is perfectly reasonable given how some of their players are performing right now and suddenly in typical Villatalk fashion everyone goes on the defensive. 

I never even mentioned Brennan Johnson, said at the time Spurs were spending too much on him and didn't want us going near him.

No one seems to know what price we paid for Diaby given no one can say an exact price but my point was it was significantly more than Olise and many outlets have suggested he was our record signing. 

3 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Not sure how true but apparently a lot of clubs were in for Olise and Eze but they wanted to stay in London. Even if Villa wanted them at the time they wouldn’t have moved to us.
 

Agree Wharton is a great signing too.

If that's true it's a bit narrow minded of them, I get they might want to be near home but this is their career. Eze was one I was hoping we might look at this summer if not too expensive but if he's not up for moving outside his comfort zone then he can jog on. 

6 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Our midfield of McGinn, Dougie, Tielemans, Kamara and Rogers cost just over £30m plus we have home grown talents of JJ and Tim.  I get they have made some astute signings but so have we and that midfield hopefully get us 4th this season.

Tim? He'll be gone next season, clearly not good enough as he's barely played. Not a patch on Wharton.

Fair point on the others and I don't disagree, our business has been good too. One caveat is we paid Tielemans and Kamara £150K per week to come here, but both freebies so certainly we can't complain. We've also overspent at times on players like Buendia and Diaby as mentioned who haven't had the impact we were hoping for given the large transfer fees. 

2 minutes ago, PeterSw said:

Diaby was in the last France squad and made an appearance against Chile in one of the Friendlies. 

I think Olise was a bit of an unknown quantity of sorts when Palace signed him whereas Diaby was already a French international playing at a top level when we signed him - hence the difference in fees.

I do agree though that there is a lot of talent (and value) to be found in the Championship. Rogers a perfect example. Leeds have a couple that could be looked if (hopefully) they don't get promoted.

Oh I get that, not sure Olise was an unknown quantity as he was considered the best young player in the Championship but he was raw, they have developed him over three seasons and he has been quite injury prone too. 

But considering the outlay on Diaby he has been underwhelming, he surprisingly got himself back in the France squad in March but since then he's been playing himself out of the squad rather than into it when he had a great chance to go to a major tournament. 

I realise we can't just buy players with potential, we do have to buy some proven quality, that's what top teams do, but we need to get those signings right because they don't come cheap. Diaby may come good next season though so this discussion may be premature. 

Palace have made some very astute signings from the Championship - Eze, Olise and Wharton for a combined £40-45m is only slightly more than we paid for Buendia. I actually think they might be one of the best clubs for signing players, Guehi and Anderson were also really clever signings and Munoz their new right back looks good too. 

Olise for £8m compared to £50m for Diaby is ridiculous, Olise much more likely to get in that France squad for the Euros than Diaby and he's three years younger too. Given our issues in midfield right now it's such a shame we didn't go for Wharton, Blackburn fans were raving about him 2 years ago. 

14 minutes ago, ROTTERDAM1982 said:

We miss Ramsey, and his pace, more than we miss Luiz when they are not playing.

 

We were in title contending form first half of the season without Ramsey and Luiz was probably our most important player to achieving that. We are in the top 4 this season despite Ramsey playing very little due to injuries. Luiz has been poo in the last couple of months but that doesn’t take away how important he is to this team when he’s on form which he has been the majority of the time in the last 18 months.

I don’t think fans will agree on this though so it will come down to opinion. 

20 minutes ago, John said:

I hope not too, but given his injury-hit season, I doubt that many clubs would pay the sort of money that we would be wanting for him, until he has proven that he can play a long run of games again, without having another spell on the treatment table. 

I don’t know what will happen, it seems to be if we have to sell one key player based on the rumours in the press it’s either Ramsey or Dougie.

As much as Dougie has been poor recently, and as much as Jacob is one of our own, if we had to sacrifice one I have to choose Ramsey. I think Dougie is more important to us, but I obviously hope we keep both. 

7 hours ago, ozvilla28 said:

To many here relying on results that's the worse thing. It's in our hands still. I don't want to hear this tired bs we're talking Premier League players here. Get back a few from injuries and stand up to be counted not go missing when the heat is on simple as that leadership.

Well said. Although be careful, most on here have already used tiredness as the reason why we're not going to pick up another point this season and accepted that even if it means finishing 5th.

We're Aston **** Villa, we need to show some fight in these last 2 games and not rely on what Spurs do or don't do. I'll be devastated if we miss out on 4th from here on in. 

3 minutes ago, Zatman said:

We have no players left. 2 of our attacking subs today were full backs

What should he do, clone players

Fine we have limited options and we're tired etc etc etc but we still had a front three with 35 goals between them and a midfield with 15 goals between them and could only muster one shot on goal the entire game. 

I don't deny we need Tielemans, Martinez, Zaniolo back to boost the options but even so the whole performance today was well, well below what we should be capable of. 

25 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Because they are ungrateful words removed that moan all season long and don’t deserve this manger and squad. 
 

Wow, ridiculous take. 

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

And he is right....nothing else to say really. Even if lose next 3 games it has been an incredible season, best in nearly 30 years and no Villa fan can say otherwise

No one is saying it hasn't been. It's more we are ending the season not with a bang but rather a whimper which is a bit of an anticlimax really even if we end up finishing 4th.

8 minutes ago, Rightdm00 said:

Tielemens, Emi, and now Rogers all go down with a muscular issue. That's all due to the sheer #s of games played. Throw in the long term injuries in the squad and it's obvious that the players will be tired no matter what strategy we employ.  We obviously need additional quality at various positions if we are to continue with 50+ games next year. 

Don't disagree with the bolded bit.

We are so very lucky that it's Spurs on our heals, they look truly abject.

We may not need another point this season after all but it all hinges on that Spurs-City game, I hope it doesn't go to the last day as that will be agony.

22 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

I'm sorry you're annoyed by me pointing out that 'Ok let's just give up and concede the season then' is a childish reaction, but it is. It's also not a paraphrase of anything anyone has said. Grow up. 

Essentially it is what you said though. I am guessing by revise my expectations you mean I should be happy finishing 5th and going out of the semis of the Conference, which is practically giving up given we are in pole position to get 4th even after today.

I won't be told to grow up so if you say that to me one more time you're going on ignore. Or actually why don't you put me on ignore and save me the hassle.

3 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

You can react childishly if you want, but if your thesis is there should be absolutely no detriment to the players from having played more matches then you're just obviously wrong. 

We shouldn't give up, but you probably need to revise your expectations substantially downwards for the rest of the season. 

See, you've got personal and I haven't. So instead of reproaching me for being frustrated, disappointed, angry for us not turning up at a crucial stage of the season, maybe you should work on your own way of dealing with some people's negative emotions. 

And no, I won't revise my expectations. I still maintain that if we finish 5th from here on in, we have bottled it just like so many other seasons we have been in this position and failed to get over the line. 

4 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

We have players out there who've played 15-20% more matches than any of theirs this season. 

Ok let's just give up and concede the season then.