Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)

[hippo]

16 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Nothing like giving someone an opportunity to prove you wrong though right?  I'm sure you know best  

He has a twice weekly opportunity to prove me wrong. I hope he takes it. The best way out of this is that is that we start winning games. but I don't think we will

[TRO]

20 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

 

Individually we seem pretty competent.  

As a team it's pretty obvious we struggle when we come under pressure. 

are those statements compatible?

isn't coping under pressure a key component of competency?

for me, they can't cope under pressure they are not competent.

Edited September 15, 2016 by TRO

[Tommo_b]

1 hour ago, Richard said:

I'm not sure we are going to be in the top six at any point this season so if true we will find out soon

We will be. 

[Tommo_b]

10 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Without sounding harsh Mr DDID, most of that is emotionally driven (drivel)  

The rot has stopped, we've lost 1 in 7.. Last year we could have dreamed for those stats. 

We've dropped more points from winning positions, which is incredibly frustrating, but at least we are - at some point - winning games.  Yes.  That makes it harder to accept when you concede in the last few minutes, but we can't change how long a football match is.

So the next steps in our "rehabilitation" are to close out games.  That'll come - providing you give the players/staff enough time to do so.

Lapal, your posts are knocking it out the park! Could not agree more with you. 

 

[Infinte_Pest]

Quote

Gutted throughout the whole day&night. 85-86-87-88th, improved or xxxx? I'd like listen to ur constructive suggestion!

(sorry not sure how to get image from twitter , without going the long winded route)

 

well we haven't really improved........ 

Edited September 15, 2016 by Infinte_Pest

[TRO]

36 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

We've suffered through 6 years of disappointment verging on utter despair and no matter how much you, me or anyone bangs the fresh start drum, you can't really blame people for being at the end of their tether. The decline hasn't stopped, regardless whether it has looked like it might at times this season. 

Also this is not a knock on anyone in particular but when you physically go through that emotional journey every week, home and away, and come out the other side a loser, again, over and over, it gets to you. It eats away at your soul. 

I'm not broken yet but having shaken off the numbness, I'm hurting. 

3 points on Saturday will see me right I'm sure.

absolutely and utterly bang on.

How can anyone write that 6 years off as some sort of "que sera sera"....It was gross incompetence by many seniors at the club.

are WE not to be forgiven for being a tad edgy, nervous and doubting...In the light of what we have witnessed.

If there is any slack to be cut or mitigation to be dished out.....The fans deserve a large portion of it.....they deserve a bloomin' medal.

ps We have no divine right to any success and any we have had over a hundred years we have fought and scrapped for ......and that is the bloody issue here.

pps...... Its damn hard to score goals it shouldn't be that hard to preserve them.....Its not the earth we are asking for.....its basic stuff.

Edited September 15, 2016 by TRO

[sharkyvilla]

Even with all the players we signed, we seem to lack a balanced side.  Our central midfield has been shocking for years and unfortunately the two players brought in haven't had a chance to play together.  It creates a soft underbelly and I'm sure is largely why we concede so many damaging goals.  I still think it is way too early to judge Di Matteo, I know people assume as we are Villa we should walk the league but it just doesn't happen like that.  I'm hoping that we can get into the play offs on a run of good form and there is still time for us to achieve that.

[lapal_fan]

15 minutes ago, TRO said:

absolutely and utterly bang on.

How can anyone write that 6 years off as some sort of "que sera sera"....It was gross incompetence by many seniors at the club.

are WE not to be forgiven for being a tad edgy, nervous and doubting...In the light of what we have witnessed.

If there is any slack to be cut or mitigation to be dished out.....The fans deserve a large portion of it.....they deserve a bloomin' medal.

ps We have no divine right to any success and any we have had over a hundred years we have fought and scrapped for ......and that is the bloody issue here.

pps...... Its damn hard to score goals it shouldn't be that hard to preserve them.....Its not the earth we are asking for.....its basic stuff.

Good PS's because I was about to call you "entitled"  

The fans have suffered, I being one of them, although I am evidently not as pash-un-ate as you are.  In fact my last season ticket was on MON's final season when I got the feeling things were going downhill (some fan right?). 

But the first bit,

17 minutes ago, TRO said:

It was gross incompetence by many seniors at the club

That's been fixed, has it not?  We have an entire new business/board structure.. that's not something to be taken lightly.  The biggest thing in the last 5 years was lack of investment, due to one man.. Who has now left. 

You have to give new people time to do things.

7 games, imo is not enough time to sack RDM, particulalrly because we HAVE improved, whether that improvement is enough for you, is my not choice. 

I'm just saying, I can now see green shoots, where there was once a big shitty piece of dirt.

[markavfc40]

7 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

7 games, imo is not enough time to sack RDM, particulalrly because we HAVE improved

 

I don’t think many want him sacked now and those that do I would hazard a guess weren’t in favour of him coming in the first place and felt he was the wrong choice so to me them wanting him gone now is fair enough.

I personally don’t want him gone yet, not even close, but I would imagine that he is less than a handful of games away from getting the boot if we don’t win a game in that time. I base that simply on the fact that I don’t see Xia as being a patient man especially given the amount of money spent.

[TRO]

1 minute ago, lapal_fan said:

Good PS's because I was about to call you "entitled"  

The fans have suffered, I being one of them, although I am evidently not as pash-un-ate as you are.  In fact my last season ticket was on MON's final season when I got the feeling things were going downhill (some fan right?). 

But the first bit,

That's been fixed, has it not?  We have an entire new business/board structure.. that's not something to be taken lightly.  The biggest thing in the last 5 years was lack of investment, due to one man.. Who has now left. 

You have to give new people time to do things.

7 games, imo is not enough time to sack RDM, particulalrly because we HAVE improved, whether that improvement is enough for you, is my not choice. 

I'm just saying, I can now see green shoots, where there was once a big shitty piece of dirt.

In bold...me too.

• Passionate, oh I think you are, but we all have different levels of composure and hurt thresholds.
• It has been addressed and hopefully fixed ( that remains to be established) but our scares are still just healing....just remember, PL,TS,RG were all recruited as the answer.
• I happen to think the one man was more guilty of not having his finger on it /incompetence  than lack of investment ( albeit not great)
• I can see improvement in some things, but in others which are important,I can't.

We will see.

[tom_avfc]

57 minutes ago, lapal_fan said:

Without sounding harsh Mr DDID, most of that is emotionally driven (drivel)  

The rot has stopped, we've lost 1 in 7.. Last year we could have dreamed for those stats. 

We've dropped more points from winning positions, which is incredibly frustrating, but at least we are - at some point - winning games.  Yes.  That makes it harder to accept when you concede in the last few minutes, but we can't change how long a football match is.

So the next steps in our "rehabilitation" are to close out games.  That'll come - providing you give the players/staff enough time to do so.

We've actually lost 2 out of the 7 games played so far (Bristol and Sheffield Wednesday). We're scoring bang on a point a game in a league which is far inferior to last year. Our next home game is against the team many expect to win the league by some distance and we haven't won an away game since August last year. We're nearer the relegation zone than the play offs.

If this constitutes stopping the rot then we're accepting failure. 

I'm not actually all doom and gloom as I've seen signs this season that we may turn the corner. However as DDID said it is incredibly depressing going to match after match and coming away feeling as if we've lost.

[lapal_fan]

1 minute ago, tom_avfc said:

We've actually lost 2 out of the 7 games played so far (Bristol and Sheffield Wednesday). We're scoring bang on a point a game in a league which is far inferior to last year. Our next home game is against the team many expect to win the league by some distance and we haven't won an away game since August last year. We're nearer the relegation zone than the play offs.

If this constitutes stopping the rot then we're accepting failure. 

I'm not actually all doom and gloom as I've seen signs this season that we may turn the corner. However as DDID said it is incredibly depressing going to match after match and coming away feeling as if we've lost.

We had 17 points last year, so it was more like <0.5 points a game   We're >100% better off than we were!   (useless stats obviously).

I think the depression will get worse if we keep chopping the manager every 10 games.  

[This Could Be Rotterdam]

57 minutes ago, Tommo_b said:

We will be. 

ITK? Source? 

[tom_avfc]

1 minute ago, lapal_fan said:

We had 17 points last year, so it was more like <0.5 points a game   We're >100% better off than we were!   (useless stats obviously).

I think the depression will get worse if we keep chopping the manager every 10 games.  

I'm not one for getting rid of RDM at the moment either but he does need to pick up a couple of wins fairly quickly to buy himself some time IMO. Like I said, I've seen something in the vast majority of our games to suggest we can turn it around but there's only so many games you can say that for when you're not picking up the wins.

At the moment we're on track to win a grand total of 7 games and thats rounding up (small sample size admittedly!). To put that into perspective, only Bolton won fewer games than that last season. Yes we've drawn a lot but we need a win or two to get us the confidence to turn a few of these draws into wins.

 

[Designer1]

 

[Ingram85]

He has to give RDM until Xmas's at least. It's ludicrous to get rid after so few games. New league, new team, new boss, new everything pretty much and yes we need to start performing and getting some wins but that's not how it works.

Time is the key here, there's still more games to play than a premier league season so a bit early to start pooping our pants yet.

Its not even imperative that we need to be promoted this year, I'd take mid table and some stability come the end of the season. No, I haven't been too impressed with RDM yet but he needs time and our support, let's not be 'that' club and 'those' fans who call for heads to roll everytime things go against us, let's get behind them and just wait until Xmas's for now.

 

Edited September 15, 2016 by Ingram85

[Gary Thomas]

Maybe he means this "Invincibility lies in the defence; the possibility of victory in the attack." Sun Tzu

Edited September 15, 2016 by Gary Thomas

[terrytini]

Thanks Lapal fan saved me an awful lot of typing.

I cant think of anything worse than sacking RDM. Plain madness IMO.

Since when was 7 games time to definitively judge a manager, the world has gone mad.

And I see now, all of a sudden, Steve Bruce is the answer. Words fail me.

 

[terrytini]

And I didn't even want RDM.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

3 hours ago, lapal_fan said:

Without sounding harsh Mr DDID, most of that is emotionally driven (drivel)  

The rot has stopped, we've lost 1 in 7.. Last year we could have dreamed for those stats. 

We've dropped more points from winning positions, which is incredibly frustrating, but at least we are - at some point - winning games.  Yes.  That makes it harder to accept when you concede in the last few minutes, but we can't change how long a football match is.

So the next steps in our "rehabilitation" are to close out games.  That'll come - providing you give the players/staff enough time to do so.

It is emotionally driven yes, absolutely. With all due respect, we're not automatons. 

If this is the rot stopped then we are ****. We're 17th in the championship. How much time should they be given? Genuine question, not loaded. Sherwood wasn't given time, was that the wrong decision? 

I'm not advocating sacking the manager, not today. Not at all. But having a permanently sunny disposition and ignoring the cold hard facts will get us nowhere. This, right now, isn't good enough. That has been made clear and now the onus is on them to respond. 

I have for weeks been a strong supporter of the way we have been playing, safe in the knowledge that the results will come. Yesterday was a kick in the bollocks not only emotionally but in terms of my faith too. Physically weak, mentally shattered, we looked a million miles away from being anywhere near good enough and I make no apologies for being rattled by that.

Football is a ruthless sport on and off the pitch and if we have genuine ambitions to compete at the top end, we need to incorporate some of that spirit into our club. Top to bottom. 

They are being given time. They will be given more. How much more is not for me to say, but another half dozen games and we are staring down the barrel of a wasted season, or worse. We know how quickly things can completely unravel...