Tony Xia (no longer involved with AVFC)

[dont_do_it_doug.]

5 minutes ago, terrytini said:

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.

 

It's not long enough no, but I can only say that there is something *wrong* and he doesn't have an awful lot of time to sort it out before the season is potentially lost. 7 games very quickly becomes a dozen in this league. 

[lapal_fan]

7 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

It is emotionally driven yes, absolutely. With all due respect, we're not automatons.  - Nor am I, I honestly don't think I care as much as others.  Villa are my team, but I don't let results upset me (anymore, by God they used to!).

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? - IMO no and I'll try to explain why.  Sherwood was a good answer to Lambert's sacking.  He came with a rising reputation with decent results with Spurs (dat winning % doe), and he was a friendly shoulder to cry on, which the players needed at the time.  However, if it had been my decision, he'd have been gone after the final whistle at Wembley (not because of that, mostly because of Burnley truth be told).  Giving him the summer budget we gave him, an entire preseason yadda, yadda, yadda only for them to essentially kill himself with his post-Leicester interview, he should have been gone again.  "This is the worst thing that's ever happened".. That was my "told you so" moment with him, and to give him weeks and weeks more?  Wow.. He's also the reason Remi Garde still gets a free pass from me.  That poor man, putting up with all those nasty so-and-so's in the team who didn't respect themselves enough to try, never mind the fans, the club, their own profession.  So that's where I am with that  

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. - Unfortunately I didn't attend the game last night, so I have to go on other means on which to judge the game (which is wholly stupid), but it does sound as though we were poor. 

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. - Yup, no gripes from me there.  I honestly think mentality is our biggest problem, our CM options are the other.  Westwood and Gardner are OK if you play them right.  If you put either with Jed/Tish, they'll be ok.  But on their own they are not physically strong enough (I'm aware they played with Jed last night).

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... - We don't have a divine right to be in the PL unfortunately.  We have to work as hard as everyone else and hope that our players perform well.  Should they do that, and as a team, then I fully expect that we should see ourselves climbing the table.  I also think people are forgetting that whilst we might well have better players than the rest of the teams in this Division, they'll all be raising their games for Villa this year, so we need to be better than teams playing at 110%.  Time is key.  I think we're getting better (bar last night!).

 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

For what it's worth if we see a rousing response against Ipswich then many of these doubts instantly disappear as we will have shown a propensity to respond. 

@lapal_fan I agree with the majority of your response, though I take umbrage with the "divine right" comment. I'm not suggesting we have that at all, what I am positive of is that we have the quality to not be languishing towards the bottom of the championship table. If we don't then again the manager bears the brunt for that. 

FWIW I do think he will turn it around. But I also think it needs to be soon, because I don't think he's special enough that we should be concerned with losing him and trying a different avenue. If we're going to do that, then the sooner the better also.

I have no emotional ties to RDM, only to Aston Villa Football Club. 

Edited September 15, 2016 by dont_do_it_doug.

[Villarocker]

29 minutes ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

 

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? 

 

We really don't know the answer to that question because we got relegated. Given the full season, Sherwood might have turned it around and kept us up. Let's face it, it could hardly have been much worse than it ended up.

 

[dont_do_it_doug.]

Basically, I'm glad I'm not Tony Xia right now!

[lapal_fan]

1 minute ago, dont_do_it_doug. said:

For what it's worth if we see a rousing response against Ipswich then many of these doubts instantly disappear as we will have shown a propensity to respond. 

@lapal_fan I agree with the majority of your response, though I take umbrage with the "divine right" comment. I'm not suggesting we have that at all, what I am positive of is that we have the quality to not be languishing towards the bottom of the championship table. If we don't then again the manager bears the brunt for that. 

FWIW I do think he will turn it around. But I also think it needs to be soon, because I don't think he's special enough that we should be concerned with losing him and trying a different avenue. I have no emotional ties to RDM, only to Aston Villa Football Club. 

The "divine right" wasn't aimed at you DDID, more of a generality than anything, apologies if it came across as criticism. 

And like you, I also harbor no emotional ties to RDM, but I do think that the calling for his head (not necessarily from yourself) is much, much too soon.

  Good chat.

[dont_do_it_doug.]

I didn't take it as criticism, I enjoyed responding to the premise.

Yeah, sweet chat bro! 

[Grasshopper]

The Dr. X is very quiet atm.

Has he tweeted?

Has anyone tweeted him?

[Xela]

On 15/09/2016 at 15:41, terrytini said:

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.

 

Since last season here. Sherwood was written off after roughly the same amount of games with a new team and Garde wasn't much longer

 

[KHV]

13 hours ago, Xela said:

Since last season here. Sherwood was written off after roughly the same amount of games with a new team and Garde wasn't much longer

 

Sherwood and Garde didn't have things as good as RDM either. There was always a debate about the signings under Sherwood and Garde as much as I disliked him didn't have a pot to piss in. RDM has spent £60m and has us just above the relegation trap door to League 1.

[TRO]

On 9/15/2016 at 15:12, Ingram85 said:

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.

 

Why Xmas?....what is particularly relevant there?

We all know it takes time.....what we don't know is how long is reasonable.....Maybe RDM has an inkling on that.

I understand "Stan" has not been very complimentary on RDM....maybe we have gone an done it again?

Issues like this do not just disappear over night or get fixed with a "lightswitch" action.....signs from game to game, incremental improvement appears.

so far, in terms alone of closing a game down......I don't see any improvement, incremental or otherwise.

 

[praisedmambo]

13 hours ago, Xela said:

Since last season here. Sherwood was written off after roughly the same amount of games with a new team and Garde wasn't much longer

 

Under Sherwood and Garde we didn't look like winning a single game. We were lucky that Bournemouth missed two absolute sitters. To be fair to RDM, we've looked like we should have won the majority of our games, and even when we've been bad it's only been for a half at a time. 

Having said all this, I would like us to start winning. One win in a million days is not very nourishing for my soul. For all the money we've spent, we were coming from a position of free fall and a lot of the teams we're competing against have been solid and well-run for years—there has for certain been improvement and we have some decent players for this level. We've had to basically buy a whole new team and it's a cliche, but it'll take time to gel. Newcastle were nowhere near as bad as us last season—we were awful, decrepit, washed up and gutted out, a flimsy pretend premier league team. It was never going to be an easy fix. RDM was never my choice as manager, but whoever came in was going to have a tough job. I'll be patient and, I predict, frustrated going forwards. 

But, yep, start winning please. I've endured enough of disappointment—I genuinely think Villa over the last few years has been a weird and unnecessary sequence of cheesy life lessons. But I'm sure we're all 'stronger' for it somehow. 

Edited September 17, 2016 by praisedmambo

[TRO]

On 9/15/2016 at 15:41, terrytini said:

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.

 

Terry, I too agree with you wholeheartedly.....but the question is how long is reasonable?

With the wholesale changes that have happened, it is inevitable that time will play a big part....." Rome was not built in a day " as they say"

.....but that was equally rolled out for the previous managers, one had 3 years.

However, where my view may differ slightly is time on its own means nothing, time is the requirement for the actions to manifest themselves.

That begs the next question, what actions?

This issue will not go away overnight, it will be gradual in its improvement, it should be identifiable as games go by.

Is it too much to ask for the manager to seek calm and support and to come out within reason and explain what he see's and how he plans to deal with it?.....(without giving too much away to the oppositions intelligence sources)

Our owner,His Boss.... seems to have a complete handle on it.

Edited September 17, 2016 by TRO

[TRO]

10 minutes ago, praisedmambo said:

Under Sherwood and Garde we didn't look like winning a single game. We were lucky that Bournemouth missed two absolute sitters. To be fair to RDM, we've looked like we should have won the majority of our games, and even when we've been bad it's only been for a half at a time. 

Having said all this, I would like us to start winning. One win in a million days is not very nourishing for my soul. For all the money we've spent, we were coming from a position of free fall and a lot of the teams we're competing against have been solid and well-run for years—there has for certain been improvement and we have some decent players for this level. We've had to basically buy a whole new team and it's a cliche, but it'll take time to gel. Newcastle were nowhere near as bad as us last season—we were awful, decrepit, washed up and gutted out, a flimsy pretend premier league team. It was never going to be an easy fix. RDM was never my choice as manager, but whoever came in was going to have a tough job. I'll be patient and, I predict, frustrated going forwards. 

But, yep, start winning please. I've endured enough of disappointment—I genuinely think Villa over the last few years has been a weird and unnecessary sequence of cheesy life lessons. But, arg, I'm sure we're all 'stronger' for it somehow. 

Good post

• I still think Sherwood had issues behind the scenes, but that is history now.
• Not my choice either, but agree with your sentiment.

My worry is, the issues we have, seem to attract varying opinions to the source of the problem.....I would like to hear from the manager on this.

Edited September 17, 2016 by TRO

[sharkyvilla]

19 hours ago, Grasshopper said:

The Dr. X is very quiet atm.

Has he tweeted?

Has anyone tweeted him?

I think that's a good thing, once the window shuts, it's down to the manager to do all the work.  The last thing he needs is the owner talking too much publicly about results.

[Zatman]

It doesnt matter if a manager has manager 7 games or 700 for the club but if he isnt good enough then its best to cut your losses early as it will only make things worst

**Im not saying we should sack RDM but just a response to people saying about how he needs time

[a m ole]

11 minutes ago, Zatman said:

It doesnt matter if a manager has manager 7 games or 700 for the club but if he isnt good enough then its best to cut your losses early as it will only make things worst

**Im not saying we should sack RDM but just a response to people saying about how he needs time

it comes down to the judgement of whether he 'isn't good enough' or not. I find it highly confusing that fans think they can make that call on the basis of watching 7 games in charge of us, ignoring his previous successes and not being privy to how he operates day to day at the club.

[Kingman]

 

[PieFacE]

Go on Tony,  pull the trigger.  

[Richard]

Not so tweety now is he ?