wilko154

This is what frustrates me with our fanbase.... 'Play the kids' 'Give the kids a chance' 'We never promote youth players' Smith gives a young player like Green a chance, Bree a chance, O'Hare a chance, RHM a chance... 'Nah he's rubbish' 'He'll never make it' 'League 1 standard' Give the lad a chance! He's 20 years old, he is being given game time to improve. It's not going to be instant, he needs to be playing to a) build his confidence b) improve in a competitive side at a decent level c) improve with better players around him I thought he was poor in his first start for us since being back from loan, but every game he is getting better and his confidence is growing. At this stage he is the best option on the wing along with El Ghazi.

Carrying a knock from the Boro game. Hopefully they can get him back to full fitness for Saturday. Good management by Smith getting him off the pitch early. I guess this is why he was wearing a bandage in the photos with JPA.

Just shows how much better a player a confident Neil Taylor is. He's been brilliant over the last few games, long may it continue.

Interesting, I remember running the same numbers earlier in the season when the same argument came up. The results were almost identical to those you have now pulled up. People seem to have huge expectations for Tammy everytime he has a goalscoring opportunity. The fact is Davis and Hogan may be able to get into the right positions, but they would be far less clinical. Kodjia is just as good a finished but is too selfish and wouldn't be on the end of half of the stuff Abraham is. At this level Tammy is as good as we will get, and at 21 year old he is only going to improve.

Yeh picked the wrong one there

If's and But's Big week with one game in hand being played out midweek. Boro to draw to Bristol City Forest to beat Rotherham Preston to lose to Sheff U Derby to draw to Brentford Swansea to draw to Boro Bristol City to beat Wigan Villa to beat Sheff W 5 - Villa - 63 points 6 - Bristol - 62 points 7 - Forest - 60 points 8 - Boro - 60 points 9 - Derby - 60 points 10 - Preston - 57 points Games in hand - Derby x 1 & Bristol x 1

If's and But's (updated) Doing the business on our side! Bristol City to lose to Sheff U - Win Sheff W to draw to Stoke - Draw Preston to draw to Reading - Lost Derby to beat Rotherham - Win Boro to lose to Norwich - Lost Villa to beat Blackburn - Win 5 - Villa - 60 points 6 - Derby - 59 points 7 - Bristol - 58 points 8 - Boro - 58 points 9 - Forest - 57 points 10 - Preston - 57 points Games in hand - Boro x 1, Derby x 1 & Bristol x 2

He's actually very good on the ball but this season has been playing injured and on his wrong side to accommodate Tuanzebe and Elphick.

Steer Elmo Hause Mings Taylor Hourihane McGinn Grealish El Ghazi Abraham Green Bench: Kalinic, Tuanzebe, Whelan, Lansbury, Adomah, Kodjia, Davis For me we don't need to be changing the back 4, Tuanzebe needs to build his fitness up and break back into the team. With 5 loan players in the squad unfortunately Carroll will now miss out, Lansbury can come in onto the bench. Absolutely buzzing to see JPA and Laursen back on the Villa Park pitch tomorrow at half time. Only Juan Pablo Angel!

Update for anyone yet to renew, Zebra Finance have today pulled the plug on season tickets for all clubs. Season tickets purchased prior to 27/03/2019 will be honoured. Villa haven't announced anything yet but a few other clubs have - see Sheff Utd below https://www.sufc.co.uk/news/2019/march/payment-plan

Yep we need to stop spending on overpriced players on big wages whilst in the Championship, find our own young players in the lower leagues that we can improve and build a team with. However if we make it back to the Premier League then 3 or 4 big signings would be needed. Could Abraham do it for us in the PL though? The one plus for him is he's young and improving, if we can pick him up for 20/25 million then he could be worth double that in a few years, especially if he breaks into the England setup. Unfortunately I think he would rather try his luck at Chelsea regardless of which league we are in.

Two of the daftest statements I have seen on VT. He's 20 years old... he's picked up a bit of a knock in his first season in mens football. He hasn't struggled massively he scored in his last game. Again it's his first season in mens football, it's about learning a different side to football and improving from there. The perception on this forum of our young players going out on loan and absolutely tearing up a lower league is frankly ridiculous.

Grealish is not going to be a part of us solving FFP if we remain in the Championship. From reading the reports we are currently on the border line of crossing FFP and are therefore submitting monthly financial reports to the EFL to prove we are working to becoming compliant with FFP. There is no way that each report stating 'we will sell Grealish for £40 million in the summer' would accepted by the EFL, as we all know values of players increase and decrease and they are always one injury away from being worthless. It would seem to me that Purslow is correct in what he has been saying and the club have implemented a long term plan to ensure we stay within FFP, without selling Grealish. A bulk of players will leave at the end of the season due to their contracts being up, this is a fact that we can submit to the EFL, it is then down to the club to sell others and bring in players on lower wages going forward. Obviously we all hope that we bounce up and don't have to work in these restrictions, whilst not going up and massively overspending in case we slide back down as Fulham are now doing.

The bonus is it's one position we don't have to spend money on next season. With FFP we will have a small pot of money to strengthen the squad. If we remain in the Championship next season we will largely be relying on loans and loans to buys again. The following season we can then invest in a centre back. Mings, Hause, Tuanzebe, Chester would be a fantastic selection for the centre back positions.

Unfortunately we don't have any friendly matches anytime soon. This time around they are both European qualifiers, then in June it is the Nations League Semi Final. U21 football is aged 21 in a calendar year - so if you turn 22 this month you can play for the U21's for the remainder of 2019. Unfortunately Jack is 23.

O'Hare's passing is fantastic. Almost Grealish like the way he holds it and then plays it at the last second.

Best situation for Villa, he's picked up a slight knock ruling him out of international duty and is now on holiday resting up for a week. From his Instagram he looks as though he will be fine for Saturday. He looked like a player who was slightly burning out, a bit like McGinn a few weeks ago. Hopefully he comes back fresh and ready to fire us into the playoffs.

Love the Luke shirts and overall they have been brilliant this season, the gear in the club shop has been the best we have had for years. However, if the owners have found a financially better option for shirt provider and sponsorship's next season then I'm all for it. We all know that next season we miss out on parachute payments so we need to make as much money / save as much money wherever is possible. It would be brilliant to go up, sort out the finances and then give Luke another season or two when we are back in the Premier League.

There's no rush, he's only 20. Another season out on loan in League 1 or the Championship next season if he won't get game time at Villa (which will mostly depend on which league we are in)

Surprised Southgate has come out and said what he's said. He's effectively saying Grealish needs to leave Villa if he wants a call up to the England squad. I understand you need to see players doing it against the top opposition but players like Mount & Hudson-Odoi have been called up for doing far less than Grealish has. We really need to go up this season as there is a chance Jack now looks to leave if he is desperate for caps.

I have read this also, and done the math's... This would be the current league table. Villa, Boro, Derby & Forest would also lose a fixture before the end of the season. 1 - Norwich - 72 2 - Sheff U - 68 3 - Leeds - 67 4 - WBA - 64 5 - Derby - 56 6 - Boro - 55 7 - Villa - 54 8 - Preston -53 9 - Bristol C - 51 10 - Nottm F - 50 11 - Sheff W - 49

I'm happy for Grealish not to get a call up until next season after the transfer window closes. We all know what happens when a Villa player get's called up to the England squad, see Young, Downing, Barry, Milner, Delph... For this season and especially right now we need him regaining his fitness, steering clear of injuries and flying under the radar as much as possible whilst being the best player in the Championship as we all know he is. The same goes for rival fans calling him overated, let them think that whilst he tears them apart.