cyrusr Posted August 30, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted August 30, 2016 Although I was going to respond to a comment in another thread; i was going to go way off topic! So probably felt better here. A number of people seeming to be wary this season and making comparisons to buying lots of players in a short amount of time. The problem with last season, and this is with MASSIVE hindsight we had 3 or 4 people fudging the transfers. Each signing individually had promise/reason; however the culmination was a fiasco and we had such an oddball team that really didn't gel together. The characters also is an exceptionally difficult one to judge from an outside perspective. We "mere mortals" have no idea how the players are in training and how they work. What again became apparent is that we signed players that either: 1. Wanted the money and that's it; 2. Based on previous reputation and were significantly weaker than we expected; 3. Mentally weak and had no fight in them to begin with; 4. Wholly inexperienced in England/Premier League; or 5. A combination of the above. Don't forget also we had the scraps from years gone by too. And add on top of that the fact that we had a completely inexperienced manager start of us off with his "pashan" rather than tactics and training followed by someone who was properly ill-equipped to work in England let alone deal with what he had got dealt. The reason this (feels) massively is that all the players appear to have a head on them and all fit into the team. There is a clear plan and clear identity. In essence, when they ar all fit we now have 10 out of the first 11 who played very little or no part in last years fiasco (Amavi injured and Grealish out of favour for most of it). In fact the only 1 who appears to remain is, by most accounts, the one player who came out of last season with any credit. Yes we have blatantly over paid but Dr Xia has ambition and is clear that we need to seek promotion this season. He is willing to pay over the top to make that work. Yes the pressure is on RDM but he cannot argue he hasn't been give the opportunity to do it. He has to deliver the goods; no question. Do I have a problem with that? Hell no! It gives me something to get excited about going to Villa Park again. It means we must challenge and we must fight and nothing less will do. Does it mean we've bought the league if we get promoted? Maybe. Do I care? No because it means Villa get back to where they belong! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
NoelVilla Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Tony is having a go at it and I love it. Think we will at least reach the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 Can't see it this season. Next season I will bet on it! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 50m + and mid table dosen't make sense to me. Has to be play offs at least. We can surely win a game or two with these new signings!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest av1 Posted August 30, 2016 Share Posted August 30, 2016 24 minutes ago, foreveryoung said: Can't see it this season. Next season I will bet on it! I'm not sure automatic promotion, but the playoffs should be a minimum i think. The championship is a funny old league, you see teams knocking around mid table before putting 3/4 wins together and finishing in the top 6. There is normally 8/10 teams fighting relegation and 10 or so hoping/capable of making the playoffs. If we aren't one of those looking up rather than down after the investment made something is seriously wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesBCFC Posted August 31, 2016 Visiting Supporter Share Posted August 31, 2016 6 hours ago, av1 said: I'm not sure automatic promotion, but the playoffs should be a minimum i think. The championship is a funny old league, you see teams knocking around mid table before putting 3/4 wins together and finishing in the top 6. There is normally 8/10 teams fighting relegation and 10 or so hoping/capable of making the playoffs. If we aren't one of those looking up rather than down after the investment made something is seriously wrong. For me it's a bit like when people say the Premier League is the best in the world. It's subjective and depends what is meant by "best". But I believe the Championship is the best major league (so not the Algerian First Division- no disrespect to them) in terms of competitiveness. Brighton went from a relegation fight one season to almost getting promoted the next. Brentford almost managed it while selling their best layers and buying relative unknowns using the Moneyball method, it's one of the hardest leagues to predict because although there seems to be one club that is a shambles each season (Bolton last year, Blackburn this), the rest is very tough to guess. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I think once we get a couple of wins in a row there will be no stopping us. Hopefully we will be in a strong position by the time the African Nations comes round. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Expectations are rising. Need top 2 to meet my expectations. and i'm sure Tony Xia agrees. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wazzap24 Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 Playoffs is the minimum for me and assess from there. A lot of money spent yes, but we have never been at a lower ebb in the 30 years I've supported Villa, so I'd be prepared to cut RDM some slack if we just miss out, but progress is being made. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 I'd love to think that we'll get automatic promotion - which is light years away from my expectations of bottom half but outside the relegation scrap. But I think it will take a while for everything to come together so I'm not sure it is attainable. Plus with the number of people we have signed one or two are possibly not going to deliver quite what we expect (and will probably be replaced in the starting XI in January). So I'm hoping for the play-offs this season. Then I reckon we'll have a poor away leg first, come back to VP and deliver a spanking to get to the final. Then at Wembley one of our new strikers will miss a hat-load of chances and we'll scrape into a penalty shoot out. Aforementioned striker will then blaze his pen over the bar and look to have condemned us to another season in the Championship - only for Gollini to pull out three world class penalty saves on the trot and be paraded around the ground on the shoulders of his team-mates as we sneak back into the Premier League. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
allani Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 PS - I reserve the right to edit that prediction once the prescription drugs have worked their way out of my system and my new found positivity is identified as nothing more than a side effect... 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 You can be in the bottom three at xmas in this league and still make the play offs...Palace did it one year. The play offs should not be unrealistic for a team who's just spent 50m!!! I really don't want to be in this league for years and years like Leeds and Forest. I agree top 2 will be more difficult...much more consistency needed and us going on runs of 4/5 wins straight. We don't look capable of that and need to get going quickly to achieve automatic promotion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPAngel Posted August 31, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted August 31, 2016 I thought I'd dig around just to see how are start to this season compares to the relative starts of the top 6 from last season. Interesting to see that Brighton were unreal and didn't go up. Brighton - 13 Hull - 10 Middlesbrough - 8 Burnley - 8 Sheffield Wednesday - 5 Derby - 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JamesBCFC Posted August 31, 2016 Visiting Supporter Share Posted August 31, 2016 1 minute ago, JPAngel said: I thought I'd dig around just to see how are start to this season compares to the relative starts of the top 6 from last season. Interesting to see that Brighton were unreal and didn't go up. Brighton - 13 Hull - 10 Middlesbrough - 8 Burnley - 8 Sheffield Wednesday - 5 Derby - 4 Brighton didn't lose for about 17 games, but had a serious fall away in form Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JPAngel Posted August 31, 2016 VT Supporter Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) And here's the same for the 2014/15 season: Watford - 12 Norwich - 10 Brentford - 8 Bournemouth - 7 Middlesbrough - 6 Ipswich - 5 Edited August 31, 2016 by JPAngel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rodders0223 Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 No excuses now RDM.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ender4 Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 6 hours ago, JPAngel said: And here's the same for the 2014/15 season: Watford - 12 Norwich - 10 Brentford - 8 Bournemouth - 7 Middlesbrough - 6 Ipswich - 5 who went up in the end that year? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
It's Your Round Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 (edited) Seems as it stands it's........... Yep you guessed it, 50/50! Edited August 31, 2016 by It's Your Round Photo editing meltdown Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keyblade Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 1 hour ago, ender4 said: who went up in the end that year? Bournemouth won the league with Watford finishing 2nd. Norwich won the playoffs. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted August 31, 2016 Share Posted August 31, 2016 It's a failure if we don't reach the play offs with the quality we have in this squad now. Facts are Elphick, Chester, De Laet, Jedinak, Adomah all key players in teams who went up. Infact most of those went up automatically. I'd like to see people arguing missing the play offs would be o.k, I don't think Dr Tony would agree with the amount he's invested already. Top 2 is a little more difficult...we're going to be need far more consistency. I think it's a case of making sure we're in the top 6 by xmas and then pushing on second half of the season. We will strengthen further in January I'm sure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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