Villa players and managers who don't seem so bad now ...

[VillanousOne]

On 05/07/2023 at 18:37, ChesterDad said:

I don’t really get the Southgate gate, he was a really good player for us and full value for £4 mill if I remember correctly, he is a bit conservative as a manager but overall he has done a good job with the national team. 
The anti Villa thing is something that I find hard to swallow - surely he would not spite himself ? 

It's a toxic combo of things - not just about Villa.

He was a brilliant player for us, we moved him into defence (at Palace he was used in a number of positions) and helped him get his England role, he then mouthed of about us having no ambition after he moved to those powerhouse giants Middlesborough... (Ugo did the same to be fair as Middlesborough were briefly the 'next big thing').

His treatment of Grealish, Mings and Ollie - is greatly exaggerated, but hard to ignore that he has his continuously out of form favourites that he relies on whilst ignoring form players, not just Villa ones.

There is the feeling that anyone could do well with this current crop of England players which is partially true, but we did need a manager who is defensively minded to help us rebuild confidence.

Anyway back on topic.

Most of the French players who signed when were relegated have done well since.

 

[Villatillidie95]

Stephen Warnock, thought he was unfairly maligned a lot of the time. not the most exciting signing or player, but someone who was fairly solid and held his own in our team at a time when investment was starting to be pulled and just before we were starting the 'wilderness years'. He was a much better option than some of the dirge we would go on to sign in the years after imo

[GarethRDR]

My favourite conspiracy theory will forever be Warnock scoring OG's on purpose.

[villa4europe]

1 hour ago, VillanousOne said:

His treatment of Grealish, Mings and Ollie - is greatly exaggerated, but hard to ignore that he has his continuously out of form favourites that he relies on whilst ignoring form players, not just Villa ones.

its not an anti villa thing, he puts way to much emphasis on experience which has the effect of preferring players who play for the sky 6 as they have CL experience, or international experience, it means that he can pick his favourites, its something that impacts all the other teams not just us - as i said recently in the mings thread the idea that you need CL experience to start a game vs Malta is **** stupid - i'll add in that what doesn't help is that the media bought in to him for a long time, he's as bad as all the others have been but we keep being told how brilliant he is which grinds my gears even more

in general he's a hypocrite though, he'll say he wants experience or players that play every week or wont pick players that play in the championship or whatever else comes in to his head and then he'll do the exact opposite whenever it suits him

on top of that he has a terrible brand of conservative football that tries to shore up the defence as its the teams weakness rather than play to the teams strength which is the depth of the attacking options, basically he's a boring word removed

Edited July 7, 2023 by villa4europe

[ChesterDad]

16 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Hey, I can Google, too. He never really hit the levels again that he did with MON. But "stole?" Did he not have a contract? Did we not agree it? 

I’m one of the very few who still has time for Lambert - but he may as well have walked out into Trinity road and poured millions down the drain aka Gobby’s 4 year contract 

[Zatman]

3 hours ago, GarethRDR said:

My favourite conspiracy theory will forever be Warnock scoring OG's on purpose.

Yeah that stuck on here for a while. Richard Dunne i could understand

[Zatman]

1 hour ago, ChesterDad said:

I’m one of the very few who still has time for Lambert - but he may as well have walked out into Trinity road and poured millions down the drain aka Gobby’s 4 year contract 

I doubt it, Lambert got a similarly shit contract in the same time period

[Marka Ragnos]

11 hours ago, Zatman said:

No. Gabby was a poison especially when he got made captain

His "efforts" in the relegation season were criminal

 

5 hours ago, ChesterDad said:

Oh gosh - you are incredibly wide of the mark.

Gobby was bang average at his very best, fast but tactically inept as a footballer.

I have no qualms in saying, he is one of the luckiest men to play for Aston Villa imo.

He should have purchased running spikes and joined Birchfield Harriers 

I do think he is also a terrible pundit - but don’t let this blind you into thinking this impacts my view of the footballer - he was awful.

Oh and don’t forget his behaviour the season we were relegated.

 

I hear. Fully noted. I think it's accurate to say that his last years here weren't too likable and he didn't win many new fans (no argument there), and his playing post-2010 cratered, which I haven't disputed here. But it doesn't take away all he did under O'Neill, when he was often beloved by VT.  Dozens of VT Gabby love-posts demonstrate it , and the stats (more than 10 goals for three seasons running, which is nothing to sniff at) tell us why. He thus made a considerable deposit into the Bank of Villa Supporter Goodwill. Had he left when MON left, he might be seen differently today. But then he drained the bank, didn't he? I understand that. We all do, I reckon. I think it can be very hard to separate Gabriel Agbonlahor the player for three seasons from Gabby the laughing gas-huffing money sucker "betrayer," but now I'm sounding patronising, sorry.

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by Marka Ragnos

[ChesterDad]

17 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

 

I hear. Fully noted. I think it's accurate to say that his last years here weren't too likable and he didn't win many new fans (no argument there), and his playing post-2010 cratered, which I haven't disputed here. But it doesn't take away all he did under O'Neill, when he was often beloved by VT.  Dozens of VT Gabby love-posts demonstrate it , and the stats (more than 10 goals for three seasons running, which is nothing to sniff at) tell us why. He thus made a considerable deposit into the Bank of Villa Supporter Goodwill. Had he left when MON left, he might be seen differently today. But then he drained the bank, didn't he? I understand that. We all do, I reckon. I think it can be very hard to separate Gabriel Agbonlahor the player for three seasons from Gabby the laughing gas-huffing money sucker "betrayer," but now I'm sounding patronising, sorry.

 

I’m sorry but I can’t agree that 10 goals a season represents anything more than average. Gabby lived off his pace alone - otherwise you have a shockingly below average footballer - who in all reality was not good enough for the premier league - If you remember he got called up by England and then subsequently shipped back out again, when they saw him close up.

I don’t look upon his time with us as anything other than disappointment that he got game time.

I remember Bruce bigging Gabby up because he had managed to get into training early in the lead up to  playing Blues - I didn’t know who to be more appalled with? Gobby for his total lack of self  awareness or Bruce for falling for it.

Will never be a Villa legend !

[DeadlyDirk]

He had a few good seasons but I said at the time, if he didn't have that pace and let's be honest, he was ridiculously fast, he would be a league 1 player at best. Thanks for the goals but let's be real, the freeloading times far outweighed the good times. 

[VillaChris]

On 05/07/2023 at 19:22, Villatillidie95 said:

N'Zogbia, he was the bit of  quality we had at a time the rest of the team was devoid of it. He never lived up to that ridiculous Wigan form, but he did okay for us and remember him curling in a few important freekicks

Did he ever play again after leaving us? I remember he went on pre season trial with Sunderland and there was a heart issue and he was effectively told to retire.

Just done google search and one of those who's gone completely off the radar since retiring so Football was obviously just a job for him.

Seen the Athletic did a piece on him a few years back and from opening paragraphs he was generous helping out our young players at times so it wasn't all greed.

[VillaChris]

On 05/07/2023 at 19:30, villa4europe said:

My memory of bent was under ginger bollocks the fans around me in the upper holte shouting at him every week that he wasn't trying hard enough, that he should press more, that he should jump more and challenge for balls more

They seemed completely oblivious to him having no other villa player within 40 yards of him... Moaning cos he's not doing a 1 man press vs 4 defenders or challenging to win a flick on to absolutely no one...

There were games though when Bent was just touching the ball 6-7 times. Was a very very odd choice for Lambert to come in and make him captain and then drop him 3-4 games later and then he joined the bomb squad a few months later.

Ultimately we just signed him at the wrong time. Signed and then six months later Young and Downing left. He'd have been great in a MON team with the endless focus on crosses and set pieces. Should've signed him or Defoe instead of Heskey that January.

[rodders0223]

On 05/07/2023 at 19:30, villa4europe said:

My memory of bent was under ginger bollocks the fans around me in the upper holte shouting at him every week that he wasn't trying hard enough, that he should press more, that he should jump more and challenge for balls more

They seemed completely oblivious to him having no other villa player within 40 yards of him... Moaning cos he's not doing a 1 man press vs 4 defenders or challenging to win a flick on to absolutely no one...

My abiding memory of him was watching him in preseason with a caravan on his arse.

[rodders0223]

On 03/07/2023 at 08:29, ender4 said:

Remi Garde. He didn’t stand a chance with the team, players and club we had at that point.  Who knows if he could have been a decent manager in the right set-up.

7 likes. The man wad an absolute clown and a disgrace. Gave up after about 3 games.

[villa4europe]

17 minutes ago, VillaChris said:

There were games though when Bent was just touching the ball 6-7 times. Was a very very odd choice for Lambert to come in and make him captain and then drop him 3-4 games later and then he joined the bomb squad a few months later.

Ultimately we just signed him at the wrong time. Signed and then six months later Young and Downing left. He'd have been great in a MON team with the endless focus on crosses and set pieces. Should've signed him or Defoe instead of Heskey that January.

Yeah bent or defoe, or even weimann being a couple years older and coming through when MON was there, or Falcao if that link was ever true

Basically anyone but heskey...

[sheepyvillian]

56 minutes ago, ChesterDad said:

I’m sorry but I can’t agree that 10 goals a season represents anything more than average. Gabby lived off his pace alone - otherwise you have a shockingly below average footballer - who in all reality was not good enough for the premier league - If you remember he got called up by England and then subsequently shipped back out again, when they saw him close up.

I don’t look upon his time with us as anything other than disappointment that he got game time.

I remember Bruce bigging Gabby up because he had managed to get into training early in the lead up to  playing Blues - I didn’t know who to be more appalled with? Gobby for his total lack of self  awareness or Bruce for falling for it.

Will never be a Villa legend !

He's a kid who grew up in inner city Brum that managed to play for Aston Villa in the Premier league. He also gave us some great memories, especially against the noses. 

He loves the Villa through and through, and he's one of our own.

I really don't get that kind of hate, it's distasteful to say the least. 

Of all the wasters we've had, you pick out Gabby, get a grip.

[rodders0223]

This thread is just useless players being praised.

N'Zogbia was alright? Jesus wept he was trash.

[villa4europe]

3 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

This thread is just useless players being praised.

N'Zogbia was alright? Jesus wept he was trash.

He was just about OK when he bothered to turn up, was shit for the other 36 games a season

Edited July 8, 2023 by villa4europe

[briny_ear]

On 06/07/2023 at 22:53, ChesterDad said:

I actually liked Houllier and Roy Keane as they both called out that useless Gabby Agbonlahor - even at the time, he was somehow managing to hoodwink many fans. There is a reason Gobby didn’t like Keane, he knew he was woeful.

Makes you wonder though what good this “calling out” actually did. Just added to the general disharmony within the squad as far as I can recall. Houllier always seemed only half-bothered about the Villa job and did little to sort out the squad. Keane seemed mainly interested in attracting publicity to sell his book.

[rodders0223]

Yeah , erm...Ross McCormack. In hindsight he played a pivotal role in our promotion and set us on the path to European football.