AvfcTheObsession

32 minutes ago, Kingman said:

You know what i mean, If we are getting thumped 2-3 nil with half hour left and still playing 2-1-2-5 then i will have little interest in seeing it end up 3-4 nil (hence the turn over)  

To be honest if thats the case, there will probably be more folk walking out than turning over! 

 

I'd rather approach the game in a positive mindset, we are at home where we are unbeaten (obviously our points tally is poor), but we haven't been thumped by anyone so I don't massively fear a team who are inconsistent having lost 3/8 this season so far. I'm expecting at least a point from this.

36 minutes ago, Michael118 said:

No, it's related. 

My post was referring to the managers abilities on a psychological level.

I agree with mantis that fundamentally it's a psychological issue, but one which stems from having successive managers who are not adept with that aspect of the game. That's the root cause which has led to the poor performances and over time any negative feeling which may be attached to the club. However, I don't see it as something which couldn't be set straight pretty quickly by the right manager.

Any possible carry over from last season would be unimportant if we had the right manager because it simply wouldn't penetrate. 

My view is last season's squad with the right manager and some good additions would have blitzed this league. We are weaker now especially in defence but not as weak as our performances or position on the table would suggest. The one constant from last season and previous seasons is another manager failing on a psychological level and that's my reason why we have had another poor start when expectations were so high.

 

 

 

Really? I'm guessing that's because you think Clark and Okore should have stayed and been the CB pairing, despite one not being able to get a game in Denmark and the other being more often than not on Newcastle's bench.

You'd also rather have Kozak and Agbonlahor upfront than Kodjia and McCormack though wouldn't you?

12 hours ago, Kingman said:

On the plus side, At least if we are getting bummed can turn it over to the Arsenal Chelsea game. 

Great support that is. I'm hoping many are up for this game like I am and will be roaring us on from the Holte End.

5 minutes ago, striker said:

Villa have improved their defence and forward line but neither are really kicking into gear yet because the midfield don't have the creativity to supply the forwards while there is not enough energy or physicality to protect the defence.  

Sadly, this hits the nail on the head and we can't do much about it until January. Although I think even a 35-year-old Leon Osman could come in as a free agent and be an upgrade on Westwood and Gardner. Not sure if we'd have the legs with him alongside Jedinak though?

Season defining game for RDM this one. If we get in front, I think because of who it's against our confidence will be up and we'll win. If we lose, the crowd will start to turn on RDM after 1 win in 9 and it could be the beginning of the end for him.

Still think Moyes would have been a good fit for Villa. A relegation battle was not what he needed after his last 2 tough jobs. He would have got us organised a lot quicker than RDM has and built from there, rather than trying to shoe-horn 4 attackers into a team.

Best fans in the world? http://www.themag.co.uk/2016/02/reason-mike-ashley-not-raising-newcastle-united-ticket-prices-must-read/

Quote

 

After failing to sell out St James Park for fourteen months now, little wonder Mike Ashley has done Newcastle fans a 'favour'...

Newcastle United announced on Tuesday night that Mike Ashley was freezing adult season ticket prices for next (2016/17) season and knocking ‘up to 54%’ off Under 18s season tickets.

 

3 hours ago, bobzy said:

In addition to that, actually, ticket prices are borderline irrelevant for our club (long term).

If we assume £30 a ticket, with 30,000 tickets selling at that price and having 29 home games in a season, we'd generate £26.1m from those sales.  If we knocked the £30 down to £20, but managed to increase attendances to 40,000 tickets per game, we'd generate £23.2m.  A difference of £2.9m, to gain 10,000 extra fans per game.

Obviously an incredibly simplistic example, and I'm sure there'd be extra costs (more staff needed, more stewards needed etc) that would come with this.  However, for the sake of losing out on maybe £5m a season, surely this is worth it?

We would lose a lot more money than that. I'm not against reducing the prices (it would benefit me too of course!), but take this weekend's game as an example.

We play Forest at 1.15PM on a Sunday, live on Sky. Say average adult ticket price is £30, projected attendance circa 30k, by reducing this to an average of £20 an adult ticket, no way that will add anything like 10k on to the crowd. You might get a couple of thousand at most that are put off by the price as the main factor, but we are in the hands of Sky and sadly that is one of the more important factors as it had messed up the kick-off time, the day of the game, coupled with the fact it's a second-tier match with us not having a great start after a few bad years, and I don't see a lot of extra fans willing to justify the overall cost of the day out (petrol/parking or train fare, food/drink, their kids tickets if applicable), just because the price of one of the 3-4 things they have to pay for reduces by a third.

2 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

That's how I read it too. But I suppose it might not be over..

I've told myself the same many times

Bottom line is if we finish high up the league and get promotion or come very close, players such as Kodjia who have moved from other Championship clubs will be justified. At this moment in time I feel like some of these clubs still look at us as a club on the decline.

3 hours ago, TrentVilla said:

Don't get to tight to players much stronger than you, don't lose your man on crosses because you are too busy ball watching, don't switch off after 85 mins....

It's actually infuriating that a player who played in the PL for so long didn't learn from and improve on the first two points.

I play fullback at Sunday League standard, and am furious with myself if I make an error as obvious as the first two, however he continued doing both season after season. I'm glad we kept Baker as he's stronger and not afraid to stick his head in where it hurts.

Just now, StefanAVFC said:

I understand that and sympathise with them.

However, a Villa forum isn't the right medium to moan about that.

It isn't. The reasons are clear anyway, if we are still down here in a couple of years or 3, we'll have to cut our cloth accordingly.

15 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Unsure what this paragraph has to do with Kodjia. Just reads like a pointless, off-topic pop at Villa.

I think lots of Championship teams/their fans have been unhappy at the amount ourselves and Newcastle have spent. It's almost like we are the two biggest clubs down there, also benefitting from parachute payments for the first 3 years.

2 hours ago, thabucks said:

As he has decided he is not interested in playing football for at least the next 4months. Rather than us doing him a favour and having him around the youth teams, training using the clubs facilities etc IMO we should should just pay him off and release him and let him train on his own away from the club until he can find a team in Jan stupid enough to sign him. He can't sign for anyone else until the window opens, it's his choice to get paid not to play. Dr X should tell ok that's your decision which your entitled to however this is ours, thanks but here's £X now piss off, 

Here's the problem, say for argument's sake he's on £35,000 p/wk following relegation. He has a contract until summer 2018, so he'd only consider a pay-off if it was something like 18 months worth of salary, so could be in the region of 2.75 million. Nothing to stop him then getting signed by someone else sharpish as free agents can still be signed (see Bendtner at Forest).

We will have to hope the next 4 months of him rotting in the reserves gets him to move in Jan, though I have my doubts with this guy.

Ultimately we (Lambert/Tom Fox/whoever else had a say in it) were stupid enough to offer him a 4-year deal on wages way above what he was worth a couple of years back, so we are paying the price, literally for that. Same as with Alan Hutton but to a lesser extent, big wages he'll be on for a backup RB in the 2nd tier.

1 hour ago, VillaChris said:

Big thing for me is who will miss out if we continue playing 4-2-3-1....

Kodjia, Adomah and McCormack will all be starting regularly so it's a choice between Jack and Ayew...Jack has been excellent so far this season...Ayew simply hasn't.

Mad to think our best player in the premier league (albeit in a car crash season) probably is going to be a substitute in the near future. 

We can't just think about having a good 11 though. All of those 5 plus Gestede will get a lot of football this season. Take next gameweek, we have 2 games in 4 days, no reason why Grealish can't start the first and come off the bench for 30 mins in the second, and Ayew come off the bench in the first to give someone like McCormack a break and then play 90 mins in the second.

What was the point of this lot having a Chinese takeover? Their window was no different to what it would have been anyway. Can really see the difference with us and Wolves with what we've spent but aside from Chadli there's nothing noticeable here to excite the fans.

10 hours ago, VillaAlex said:

So not the window Everton fans were particularly hoping for, and Koeman too?

They've signed Gueye a player who was part of the worst Premier League side last season  Although he has started off extremely well.

Ashley Williams, who has been a fantastic defender for years now but is on the decline.

Valencia, a player West Ham fans can't wait to see the back of, and even we turned our noses up at. 

And finally Stekelenberg a keeper who was backup for Koeman's old side who he left for greater things.

Ignoring the last bid for Sissoko which was probably a bit of a blessing to miss out on where is this war chest? Especially with the sale of Stones? Other than getting a superb manager who will make a great difference, it's hard to see where Everton have improved? Still expect them to do well, but expected so much more.

Edit: Forgot about the huge Bolasie (which I guess comes from the Stones money), not even the best winger at Palace. 

I'd be very underwhelmed tbh as an Everton fan. Big talk about investment after Moshini came in, their fans were signing 'we're f***ing rich' at the end of last season, and it looks like they actually ended with a negative net spend as the 47.5m for Stones more than covers the Gueye (7m), Stekelenberg (1m), Williams (12m) and Bolasie (25m) fees.

2 hours ago, Michael118 said:

                                  Gollini

                  Chester  Elphick  Baker

          Bacuna                                 Amavi

                      Jedinak  Westwood

                             McCormack

                        Kozak  Agbonlahor

Bunn Cissokho Adomah Kodjia Grealish Tshibola Gardner 

 

Disagree with that team, I'd go:

                    Bunn

Hutton Richards Baker Cissokho

Bacuna Westwood Gardner Green

             Gabby Kozak

Disappointed we let Richardson and N'Zogbia go as they could have sured up that left side.

17 minutes ago, Jareth said:

I'm going for Morrison, Jedinak, Delaet, Pantmillion

I hope it's Jedinak and De Laet.

We've also been linked with Tom Lees (CB) and Traore - on loan (another young winger).

7 minutes ago, useless said:

Looks like they're signing Talisca if this photo's anything to go by...

Unless it's purely coincidental, and he's passing there on the way to somewhere else.

You wouldn't see Molineux at that proximity from a plane!

Would anyone else honestly rather have had their takeover if given the choice? Obviously it's very early days but just a hunch that the contacts and wealth they appear to have as a combination could be very, very good.

Excellent player to have for this season IMO, shouldn't just be judged on his goal return as his all-round game is impressive. As others have alluded to though we desperately need a 'number 9' CF who will lead the line and be expected to be the main goalscoring talisman.