nick76 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 1 hour ago, burchy said: Not singling you out bud but he did have his first child last year as well and anyone who’s had kids will tell you, they’re knackering. I remember in one of the vids from when the players returned for preseason testing you can he Ollie talking to Sanson and saying something like ‘it’s different when you have kids’. I think for where we are now he’s a decent striker, for where we want to go, perhaps not. So we suffer because he’s had a kid? We have to take into account he’s not going to be 100% because he’s had a kid? Wonder if he’s wanting a second kid, we’ll lower our expectations that season when he does. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 7 minutes ago, Mic09 said: To be fair you probably should judge a player on a sample of last season. If not, then Konsa should be our starting CB. Write him off based on last season? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said: I don’t get why a lot of us have decided a certain players such as Watkins isn’t good enough based on last seasons inconsistency. Did the season before that never happen ? Let’s see how they get on this season before completely making our mind up about them. The question we’ll find out this season is whether last season was the anomaly or the season before. Is Ollie as good as the first season or is he limited like the second season and the first season was the exception. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mic09 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 3 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said: Write him off based on last season? Not write off - but be able to judge current ability based on a sample of last 30/40 games. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 7 minutes ago, nick76 said: So we suffer because he’s had a kid? We have to take into account he’s not going to be 100% because he’s had a kid? Wonder if he’s wanting a second kid, we’ll lower our expectations that season when he does. No? But possibly gives an explanation on the differences between last season and the one before. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DaveAV1 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 10 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said: Sorry, I just can’t get on board with the idea his new child is the reason he struggled last year. If anything, I think it would make him better as when I had my children my performance at work increased I think because everything was about providing for them rather me going out and getting pissed I must admit since I ended various sponsorship deals with various brewery outlets and concentrated all my finances and efforts on a small person I’d never met before, my general health and body shape changed in a very positive way. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 1 minute ago, bose said: No? But possibly gives an explanation on the differences between last season and the one before. So the baby is not a year old yet, so we say ok if it continues this season. We are paying him millions per year, at what point are outside influences to his job whether reasonable or not can be acceptable? It’s a reasonable question given the money involved both to him and us in the league? Life isn’t always about money but football is about absolute peak performance and the slight margins make amazing differences in this league. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 5 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said: I must admit since I ended various sponsorship deals with various brewery outlets and concentrated all my finances and efforts on a small person I’d never met before, my general health and body shape changed in a very positive way. Tommy Elphick? 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bose Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 4 minutes ago, nick76 said: So the baby is not a year old yet, so we say ok if it continues this season. We are paying him millions per year, at what point are outside influences to his job whether reasonable or not can be acceptable? It’s a reasonable question given the money involved both to him and us in the league? Life isn’t always about money but football is about absolute peak performance and the slight margins make amazing differences in this league. There is no one saying it’s okay if it continues. There is the possibility that he’s gotten more used to life with a young one and his performances will improve. If he doesn’t well then we’ll probably need to replace him if we want to improve as a team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rolta Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 My word nobody knows if him having a baby is affecting anything. You guys do make leaps. Is Watkins the first footballer to have a baby, or do we just like joining up random dots? 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarryOnVilla Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 1 minute ago, Rolta said: My word nobody knows if him having a baby is affecting anything. You guys do make leaps. Is Watkins the first footballer to have a baby, or do we just like joining up random dots? The lack of speculation tweets does much harm to the VTer mind 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam2003 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 3 minutes ago, Rolta said: My word nobody knows if him having a baby is affecting anything. You guys do make leaps. Is Watkins the first footballer to have a baby, or do we just like joining up random dots? He’s far from the first and in almost all cases it leads to a drop in form for a few weeks. Actually beyond that Brian Little once told me the club know when a player gets married their form will dip for six months or so but the club still prefer it because they think it makes a player more settled longer term. I actually think the issue here is that a poor few weeks at a time of personal (baby) and professional (Jack going, manager who signed him getting sacked) change have been extrapolated over a whole season when largely his form was back in a good place in the latter part of the season. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vive_La_Villa Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 32 minutes ago, Mic09 said: Not write off - but be able to judge current ability based on a sample of last 30/40 games. Fair enough, I am seeing ‘he is not good enough’ though which is writing off really. 36 minutes ago, nick76 said: The question we’ll find out this season is whether last season was the anomaly or the season before. Is Ollie as good as the first season or is he limited like the second season and the first season was the exception. Agree, big season for him at the club. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul514 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 6 hours ago, eholm said: Our striker situation is a tricky one tbh. I get the consensus around upgrading but that is not as easy as we would like. There is no way that the club looks to improve on Ings….yet. Prior to signing he was one of the leading PL goal scorers and we invested a serious amount on him. There is probably real belief that he will recapture that form….not saying he will but I’m just trying to look at it from the Club’s perspective. Ollie, as most of us agree, is not a ‘natural’ goal scorer. However, to upgrade on him would still require in excess of £40M, imo. The lad Scamacca has had one good season a has been mentioned and West Ham are taking a significant risk on him at £30-35M…..we aren’t yet in a position where we can spend that sort of money on potential. To buy a ready made upgrade we would be looking at huge money - money we probably can’t spend yet due to FFP. SG has consistently said he will only bring in players that he believes are of a better quality to what we have (this is a more straightforward process regarding the midfield) and so I think he will be content to go into new season with the 3 strikers we have, knowing the financial ability we have and the quality of strikers we could realistically attract. Summer 2023 will be window we sign the top striker we desire. Imo. We have no FFP issues. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CarryOnVilla Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 last season was a mess in how we play our attacking football. trying to play 2 up top has been a disaster for both Watkins and Ings. how we try to play Coutinho and Beundia with our strikers, was a bit of a mess too. all those rejigs to the formation wasn’t going to help anyone. Particularly Watkins and Ings Stevie and Neily need to work out how to get the best out our attack and stick with it. Be it, someone’s on the bench.. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
villa4europe Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 (edited) 24 minutes ago, Rolta said: My word nobody knows if him having a baby is affecting anything. You guys do make leaps. Is Watkins the first footballer to have a baby, or do we just like joining up random dots? Maybe not solely the baby but I do think something off the field is impacting him, probably a mixture of things, Ings coming in and earning more than him for example, or we've changed his role, or we've got rid of Smith, lots of factors - no one wants to say it but we lost grealish... I think footballers are very precious and his dip in form is in his head, Gerrard has to find a way to get him his mojo back And he's not the only player in our squad who had the same problems last season, far too many of them dipped, Konsa being another obvious example, Targett too Edited July 25, 2022 by villa4europe Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post IrishVilla10 Posted July 25, 2022 Popular Post Share Posted July 25, 2022 3 hours ago, tinker said: Midfield still looks to weak defensively, until our ability to hold the ball there is sorted I don't think we can judge our attacking play to much. I will be very disappointed if we don't get a proven DM. This is Kamara. 7 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nick76 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 1 minute ago, villa4europe said: Maybe not solely the baby but I do think something off the field is impacting him, probably a mixture of things, Ings coming in and earning more than him for example, or we've changed his role, or we've got rid of Smith, mots of factors I think footballers are very precious and his dip in form is in his head, Gerrard has to find a way to get him his mojo back And he's not the only player in our squad who had the same problems last season, far too many of them dipped, Konsa being another obvious example Problem is there is always going to be factors that affect, he needs to develop a harder skin otherwise he’s going to be not enough for us. A second baby, a family issue, favourite coaches leaving, friends/players leaving the club, new players taking spotlight in forward positions from him like Bailey/Archer this season, injuries or whatever. I’m not convinced it’s all this though, I worry the first season was a one off assisted massively by Grealish making him look good. I hope we are after a new striker this summer because I’m not convinced he also fits Gerrard’s system anyway. A season of frustration in front of the goal is not something I’m looking forward to otherwise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KevinRichardsonsMoustache Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 I pine for the days of entering the transfer window thread and seeing an embedded tweet loading, the little box literally throbbing with anticipation. I knew it would probably be BS but goddamnit it felt good to wait for that little sliver of conjecture to load. Oh those were the days. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Delphinho123 Posted July 25, 2022 Share Posted July 25, 2022 1 minute ago, KevinRichardsonsMoustache said: I pine for the days of entering the transfer window thread and seeing an embedded tweet loading, the little box literally throbbing with anticipation. I knew it would probably be BS but goddamnit it felt good to wait for that little sliver of conjecture to load. Oh those were the days. Too bloody right. Even better when it loads and it’s a foreign journalist confirming your interest in a player you’ve never heard of. Halcyon days. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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