NIVillan

I think the fans will play a big part in this and the size of the club.

Think about it -

Go back and play in front of 10-11,000 who are not that into you

OR

Play in front of 40,000 + Fans chanting your name and cheering your every move

Seeing Mings interaction with the fans etc I think he has been caught up with the possibilities that being at Villa can provide.  Hoping we keep him as he has become one of my favourite players

Villa return to the Premier League and our new Owners want to make a statement of intent:

They Bring Bale back to English Football

:):):)

OK I was just joining in with our wild transfer predicitons

On 06/05/2019 at 13:38, Xela said:

Hutton was been a very good servant to the club. In an era of having a huge amount of charlatans play for the club, at times it looked as though he was the only one who gave a shit. He was treated poorly by Lambert but has rarely, if at all, complained. He's just got his head down and played as well as he could. 

I won't miss his ability on the field but I will miss his attitude and drive. 

Thanks for your efforts Alan. 

Lambert was given directions on excluding Hutton from higher up and never had a personal issue with his fellow scotsman.  This is why Hutton does not have any hard feelings towards Lambert.

As soon as Lambert was able he brought Hutton back into the fold.

4 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Norwich is a small nobody club.

Yeah i know we are on their level at the moment but i will never be content or "happy" to compete with them. I'mg lad to see progression in the team, but i would be happy to compete with bigger teams like Everton, not Norwich.

 Aston Villa should always be a top 8 club in The Premier League and we just have to cross our fingers we can get to that level some day.

Personally I expect Aston Villa to compete with every team how ever big or small they are, every single week.

If Villa compete with the team they are playing against I will be happy as I know results cant always go our way but we need to at least compete.

13 hours ago, Pez1974 said:

We seem to be great at bringing through OK-ish players - but not good/great ones.
Jack, Albrighton and Cahill are the real highlights from the last 15 years - I can't think of any others.

We've had some solid journeymen players come through - the Gardner's, Ridgewell, Weiman, Gabby (could argue good, but not overall for me), Clark, Bannan. These can help fill the squad for a few seasons, and keep the cash rolling in - but the academy is there is produce genuine first teamers. And it rarely does. 

Shit - Birmingham have brought through Nathan Redmond, Butland and Demarai Grey in the last few years - so we're really not performing much better than them.

Time for the academy to get a thorough overall in my opinion.

I know Albrighton won the League with Leicester but I honestly think Gabby achieved more and not be written off as a journey man. His last 6 years were fuelled by laziness rather than lack of Talent.

The Championship contains quite a few of our old players in various teams so the Academy has not done a bad job at all in developing players.  What has failed is the coaches/people in charge of the tranisition from Acadmey football to First Team Football.  We have had as proved by the Nextgen win and successful youth/academy set up, but what we dont do is bring many of those players through.

Grealish looked like he was going sideways until he started rooming with John Terry who sorted his attitude out.  That one thing, not in a way football related just who you shared a room with has helped create one of our most exciting players for the past 30 years.

Just think again about Gabby and if he had a pro like Terry looking after him instead of the likes of Dunne.

Sliding doors and all that

These players are 22-23 and I dont doubt they are excellent players as to get to this level you have to be, BUT something just hasnt happened for them.

I think this clearout is to create room for the next batch of players.

As said it is a gamble and some may come back and haunt us but it is too the future we must look.

49 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

He’ll have a good career, I think the natural ability is there but there may be something lacking mentally, that’s an observation from afar, could be completely wrong

First time I think you have described one of our academy products as less than World Class

44 minutes ago, mykeyb said:

Tweet from John Percy has been deleted

Probably to hide form the 'whatabout' tweets from the Leeds Fans

Difference and improvement in performance from early on in the season is that Smith has a plan for him and direction on how to play.  Bruce didnt.

36 minutes ago, AntrimBlack said:

Is your boy a Villan as well?

Both are

Only ones at their School, plus on the summer football camps they always seem to find one of the coaches who is a bluenose to torture.

Youngest wears his Villa Goalkeeper Kit every week for football practice.

Should play wacky tactics against Leeds, Bruce style players playing out of position etc.

Bielsa has shown when he gets a close look at a team he can quickly identify how to beat them.

Mess up his planning for the playoffs

Former Villa Manager Billy McNeill passed away aged 79.

Came to us early in the 86-87 Season from Man City, replacing Graham Turner, and was basically a disaster.

Has the distinction of that season managing both Man City and Villa with both being relegated.

The only good thing I can remember about him was an interview together with Ellis in the Brum Mail where he took critisised the breaking up and selling of the European Cup Winning team so quickly.

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Leeds have completely bottled it. Maybe it’s young players not able to handle the pressure or fatigue due to style of play, but they look a shadow of the team earlier in the season.

Well the Leeds players  pre-game briefings would not have been as detailed as the first half of the season

As Spurs have shown last night doesnt matter who are technically the better team, just need to get the Job Done.

1 hour ago, Mazrim said:

Morley, Sid, Yorke, Platt, Young, Grealish...

If comparing to Walters I would say Walters at early age far above Young and Grealish and comparable to Yorke.

Sid easily the most skilful and for his position Shaw was far above the level.  But I do remember Shaw scoring a hattrick in 82-83 European Cup campaign and then being replaced by Walters who also promptly scored.

A couple of fantatstic goals in the UEFA Cup from Walters as well.

Morley was senior player (Age Wise) when he arrived at Villa.

Walters never kicked on to next level after Rangers.  That Liverpool move seemed to ruin him but before that he was as good as anything out there including Barnes.

Mark Walters Celebrating his goal at the Holte End

23 hours ago, BOF said:

Abraham has now gone joint 2nd all-time for Villa in average goals per season.  He has only had the one season, but then Harold Halse in 1st place also got his goals over one season.

P	PLAYER (Scoring seasons)	Gls Per Season
1	Halse, Harold James (1912/13)	28
2	Abraham, Tammy (2018-)	24
2	Hitchens, Gerry (1957/61)	24
4	Brown, George 'Bomber' (1929/33)	22.25
5	Hampton, Harry 'Wellington Whirlwind' (1904/15)	22
6	Hateley, Tony (1963/67)	21.5
6	Campbell, Johnny (1895/97)	21.5
8	Waring, Tom 'Pongo' (1927/36)	18.56
9	Wheldon, Fred 'Diamond' (1896/00)	18.5
10	Withe, Peter (1980/85)	18.4

 

The one that sticks out for me is Peter Withe, didnt realise he had such a good return in what were really his twilight years of his Career.

Though before my time, Tony Hateley would have scored all those goals in Shitty Villa Teams leading up to where we went down in 69/70 to the old Third.

Didnt Gibson and Boro spout tripe when they went down on how much money they were going to spend and blow other teams out of the water?

Looks like they spent money but didnt get the desired results, and now are crying everyone else is cheating.

Every Team will look at how they can push the limit on FFP and get away with it.

Our own Alan Evans was signed as a Striker and converted to a CB.

Kenny Swain was a winger and ended up a right back.

1 hour ago, mottaloo said:

I may have dreamed this but didn't Everton have to play defender Steve Watson up front for a while cos they were strapped for cash or all their strikers were injured ?

Then again, in Blackburn's title winning season (or poss the season either side) centre half Paul Warhurst did pretty well as a forward.

At Leicester and I think under ONeill they used to play Steve Walsh upfront though his main position was CB.

We of course went the other way and took Dublin and made him a CB in his final season

On 06/04/2019 at 17:42, villalad21 said:

Who ever have 2 first team keepers out injured at the same time?

Never heard anything like it, sounds too ridicilous to be true.

Watford just before a FA Cup Semi Final at Villa Park.  Played one of the executives son in goal, I think they lost 4-0.

2 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

At the same age, McGinn is better than Milner was.

Let's hope McGinn has a similar looking career at the end of it! 

Well apart from the leaving Villa bit

Playing for England isnt the that important for successwhen it comes to the Villa.

Villa Euro Champs in 1982 and only Peter Withe made the England squad and unused at that.

Euro Young player of the Year Gary Shaw totally ignored and Tony Morley who had terrorised European defenses left out of the squad at the end.

Then you have Cowans and Mortimer.  

It is outstanding how that Villa from 80-82 had so few established (If any established) Internationals