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Welcome Dean, an exciting appointment!

Isn't it about time he had a thread? Things seem to be moving in the right direction - http://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2017/06/21/aston-villa-make-concrete-offer-john-terry/?WT.mc_id=tmg_share_tw

https://www.dailystar.co.uk/sport/football/aston-villa-club-masseur-alex-21747408 Get well soon big fella !

Been brought in from WBA as goalkeeping coach He’s got a lot of work on his hands....

There is an Asian and a ginger haired members of our backroom staff, does anyone know their names?

is Bodymoor Heath an Albatross around our necks as opposed to an advantage for us? Now I'm not proposing that we sell and go back to training over the local park, but it seems to me that ever since we have had it, we have struggled. It could be a complete coincidence or some of the very average players we have signed take one look at it and think "Oh I've arrived in the big time"...." I haven't got to graft now" There seems a very soft under belly to all our teams at every level.....I don't see controlled aggresssion or total graft in the sides, I don't see a leaning towards Physical encounter to platform the talent, I see very few players big in stature or powerful, with drive and determination to succeed. are we producing shrinking violets down there or nurturing a philosophy of Que sera sera. I might be miles of course here, but ever since we have this gin palace of a training ground it seems like we have developed a rest home for over inflated ego's of football players.....who never got picked up by the elite.

Apparently Richard O’Kelly has joined the coaching team from Brentford with Dean Smith. I thought he deserves his own thread. Not confirmed on the OS yet so still speculation for now.

Thought this was interesting, If true, welcome back George! Hopefully he can coach some of that grit he used to have into the kids! CLICKY George Boateng returns as youth coach George Boateng re-joins Aston Villa in Youth Coaching Capacity George Boateng has returned to Aston Villa, coaching within the academy setup. The former Dutch midfielder who played for Villa between 1999 and 2002 before joining Middlesbrough, joins the club from Blackburn Rovers where he was Youth Team Coach for age groups ranging from Under 13’s up to Under 16’s. Our sources tell us that Boateng has joined as Aston Villa’s new Under 18’s coach following the departure of David Hughes to Southampton, however this is yet to be confirmed by the club and he could well be working within various age groups within the Aston Villa academy. As a player, Boateng starred for Feyenoord before moving to England. He went on to play for Coventry City, Villa, Middlesbrough, Hull City and Nottingham Forest before brief spells in Greece and Malaysia. Boateng was a well liked figure at Villa Park and built up a strong partnership in the midfield alongside the likes of Ian Taylor, Paul Merson and Lee Hendrie. Following his retirement in 2016, Boateng completed his coaching badges and revealed how he would love to manage any of his former clubs, especially Villa due to the training ground, fan base and great stadium. Boateng had a brief spell as manager and technical director of Kelantan FA, a professional club in Malaysia. He was appointed as a Youth Team Coach at Blackburn Rovers in 2018 and has nurtured mainly the Under 13’s side at Ewood Park. It remains to be seen exactly what role Boateng will have at Bodymoor Heath but with the departure of David Hughes and the yet to be confirmed exit of Kevin MacDonald, there is certainly room for additions to the coaching set up. Villa are undergoing somewhat of a change within the academy setup with the arrival of Mark Harrison from West Bromwich Albion as the new Academy Manager. The academy has been an area needed to improve according to Chief Executive, Christian Purslow and the rejuvenation of the academy is being led by Harrison and Sporting Director, Jesus Garcia Pitarch. Boateng was well liked by the Villa faithful during his time at Villa Park. His addition to the youth team set up can only be a good thing for the young lions. Having a player who was successful at Villa and well liked by fans and players alike coaching you can only be good and Boateng knows what Aston Villa is all about as a club. He knows what it takes to succeed not only as a professional footballer, but also whilst wearing Claret and Blue. In an interview with the Birmingham Mail in 2014, Boateng revealed how he feels he was destined to play for Aston Villa; “ People don’t know this but when i first came to the UK and i signed for Coventry i lived closer to Bodymoor Heath than to Coventry’s training ground. In my heart I was always destined to play for Aston Villa”. Boateng will certainly be in familiar surroundings as he looks to guide the future Aston Villa stars forward. Welcome back, George!

With Ian Atkins, Tommy Mooney and other personnel leaving the club today after disagreeing with the current Manager. What would you suggest the NWSE Board and Purslow will do from now on regarding the Player Recruitment/Technical/Scouting part of Villa? The crazy thing is The Technical Team that left suggesting younger (European maybe even UK Based) players and disagreed with Bruce who may have wanted more experience or just down the British route only. Thought the board wanted younger players coming in according to Bruce in interviews last month. What on earth is going on currently and why can't we have someone step up and sort the whole scouting/coaching from the top downwards or will that happen when we appoint a Technical Director/Director of Football or whatever they are going to title it? What's everyone's thoughts? and what do people think will happen going forward? Is there a plan? https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-6186057/Aston-Villa-sack-seven-members-technical-staff-Steve-Bruce-present.html

After triple checking the correct spelling, I think our new Assistant Manager deserves his own thread. Steve Clarke should be a good appointment and has the right experience. Only time and VT opinions will tell. Currently, Clarke's appointment is pure speculation, even though the BBC states otherwise, thus - http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/36435484

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-set-appoint-colin-12193974 Looks pretty nailed on.

Hull City goalkeeping coach Gary Walsh departs for Aston Villa

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2016/10/13/stephen-clemence-arrives Aston Villa are delighted to confirm that Stephen Clemence has joined us today as first team coach. Clemence joins Steve Bruce’s backroom staff, having previously worked with him at Hull City and also at Sunderland. Welcome to the party

Apparently he is joining bruces backroom staff according to the gazette. Flopped as manager but highly rated as a coach and worked with bruce before this can only be a positive surely?

We all knew this was happening. Now it's happened Thoughts? Care? Cash? Lerner's Fault?

Whats everybody's thoughts on him new Assistant Manger?Seems a good move to me.Welcome Ray.

http://www.avfc.co.uk/page/NewsDetail/0,,10265~5627279,00.html From the official site. We've talked some real hype about our new fitness coach, who has had a celebrated coaching career. Thoughts? Personally, this new backroom staff is bringing all of the good vibes.

Last thing I heard was we had appointed a guy called Tom Bates whose jpob title is Head of Performance Psychology & Culture. He was recruited from Brentford halfway through last season, although he had previously been with West Brom and SHA. He was recruited by Villatalk's favourite whipping boy, current scapegoat No.2 and designated dinosaur No. 3 (I guess, after Bruce and Wyness) - Steve Round. Here's an article about the appointment http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/aston-villa-steve-bruce-psychology-13280256

It's not been confirmed on the OS, but Andrew Stone has confirmed on his Twitter account (@ajstone24) that after 6 years at Southampton, he is the new Head of Performance Analysis & Technical Recruitment at Villa. The end of Paddy Reilly, perhaps?

This stood out for me from the AVST thing last week: https://social.shorthand.com/stevewollaston/ugFwyf4tbY/steve-hollis-meets-the-fans To me, it beggars belief that its 2016 and we have only just begun to do this kind of stuff, when you think that teams other sports in the US, Australia etc have been doing the sports science thing for 20+ years, and clubs like Arsenal, Barca, Lyon, Ajax etc have had wide reaching scouting networks for at least the same amount of time (eg. Fabregas being signed as a 16 yr old in 2003, young African kids in Holland, France etc) Is there any way to get an idea about the structure of our backroom staff?

So, we've had 11 permanent managers thus far in this century. Some have fared better than others, some have worked under difficult circumstances, some under difficult chairmen and it's fair to say some have been better than others. Which leaves it to you fine people of VT to judge. What I'm looking for from you is these eleven managers, in order, by your opinion of who did best for us through to who did worst. John Gregory 2000 - Jan 2002 Graham Taylor 2002 - May 2003 David O'Leary 2003 - July 2006 Martin O'Neill 2006 - Aug 2010 Gerard Houllier 2010 - June 2011 Alex McLeish 2011 - May 2012 Paul Lambert 2012 - Feb 2015 Tim Sherwood 2015 - Oct 2015 Remi Garde 2015 - March 2016 Roberto DiMatteo 2016- Oct 2016 Steve Bruce 2016 - present Enjoy!

It's clearly a problem and has been for ages. Give the lazy shites double sessions till they start getting results

Seems all sorts of rumours about the new backroom team Brucey will bring with. Keith Berschin (Really !) Clemence and Walsh were reported by the telegraph. Steve Clarke - is well liked with in the game and from what I can gather is an easy enough bloke to get along with. My only reservation would be that he sat on his backside whilst the team floundered. Berschin - would be a complete joke imo - I remember my bluenose mates used to take the rip out of him in the 70's -"superpuff" and the "breast feeding centre forward" I think we should retain our current fitness coach- changing them doesn't seem to make any difference - apart from a one line in the press about "state of the art fitness techniques - and how he is held in high regard throughout the game" I wonder if Stan Petrov might get a call.....

I'm convinced in my own mind that our problems this season are mainly down to the fitness of the players. In many games we have played well in spells in then looked like a completely different side later on; running out of steam and looking incredibly lethargic. We've conceded god knows how many late goals too. Take yesterday Vs Wolves and I think that we were extremely lucky to escape with a point - I've read that we failed to register a single shot on target in the second half. Wolves on the other hand had all of the ball and so many opportunities. We failed to close down, press or have any long spells of possession. All I can put it down to is our players are way off of the pace in terms of fitness. Wolves were miles fitter than us in my opinion - they've had Tony Daley as their fitness coach for some time and they looked like they could play another 90 minutes, whereas our players struggle to cope with 45 minutes. I can't get my head around how two professional teams, both with access to incredible facilities, technology and fitness personnel could be so far apart on fitness. My answer is simple; sign up Tony Daley, get the lads in for double training sessions and then on the international break in November get them doing some altitude training. How did it get to this with players being monitored daily? Who was our fitness coach under RDM?

Someone posted this on twitter yesterday re: our new goalkeeping coach... thought it was a good insight: http://www.thenational.ae/sport/football/euro-2012-italian-influence-made-hart-grow-fonder#full