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Are we expecting too much ?


smetrov

Can we go any Further under MON ?  

142 members have voted

  1. 1. Can we go any Further under MON ?

    • He's done his best - but I don't see any further progress
      61
    • We are improving year on year - MON can take us higher
      82


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Here we go again

1 poor result and off we go.

Better question than the thread title

Who is available that is better equipped than MON to take us further ?

Most of the available managers probably. Except perhaps Hristo Stoichkov.
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I don't expect us to finish in the top 4 this season, but I expect us to compete with the likes of City and Spurs. Which to be fair, we are doing at this moment. Anywhere below 8th is failure IMO unless with can win a cup.

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Are we expecting too much?

I don't think that can be asked as a collective question as fans will have there own individual expectations.

Me personally I expect us to finish 6th again. Anything less than that and I'll be disappointed anything more and I'll be over the moon. As things stand today we are on course to meet my expectations. I can't answer for anyone else.

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I don't think it's expecting too much to beat a West Ham team that hasn't won since the opening weekend, Wigan at home on the first day, and Wolves.

What is expecting too much, is getting Champions League football with Heskey, Beye, Sidwell in the squad.

Some matches we look great, like against Chelski and Liverpool, but then we get overran too easily against the so called 'weaker' opposition. We're lacking in creativity, and really struggling to break teams down to create chances, so therefore goals are still a problem. We haven't got a 'natural' goalscorer. Everyone wants a 20+ a season marksman, but they don't come cheap or easily or play for a team thats been relegated. I just think we missed a massive trick by not getting Darren Bent. Im not 100% convinced by him, but he's a MON type of player, and once he went to another club, they've had the benefits of his goals and all round play.

I love MON, I think he's the best manager we could've got and wouldn't swap him for anyone in the world (except maybe Mourinho), but his transfer policy and formations baffle the living daylights out of me. If he wants to progress, he can't buy players that have stagnated at other clubs, then play formations that display all our flaws for the world to see and stick with it. We're better in a 4-5-1 as we need to toughen up the midfield. NRC needs to be playing and we need creativity. There just isn't any. Why we didn't pull out all the stops to replace Judas in the transfer window, who knows. That opportunity has passed, and so did Europe this year. We won't get a playmaker in January, cos no-one will be selling them, or strikers, so we're stuck til the end of the season with what we've got.

We'll finish top 6 (just).

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i was expecting MON to take advantage of our unique cash rich position in the premiership at the time when we were pretty much one of the top 3 clubs cash wise, to make significant investments in quality players, rather than buy dodgy players and then slightly less dodgy players then average players then decent players, a total waste now that all clubs have the same spending power if not more than us.

I don't think players were jumping at the chance to sign for villa after a 16th and then an 11th place finish.

Spurs have always had money and we only had one season over man city before they got money so not sure we had a massive window to outspend all these clubs.

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In all honesty, we are roughly where we should be.

The only team that may break into the top for this year is City.

It would be great if we could get fourth but its just hope thats all.

At the start of the season, most people thought we would finish between 6th and 8th and I have seen nothing to change my mind from that.

Hopefully we can win the league cup and have a good day out at Wembley.

What makes me laugh though, is that if we had have won last night, the majority on here would have been jumping through hoops shouting how we are going to finish in the top 4.

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I'm sticking behind what I said at the start of the season and not basing my reactions on one poor result. I am 100% behind MON and feel that he has done very well for us thus far. I think some people are expecting too much and expect us to finish in the top four. Without a minor miracle that won't happen, although I am hoping for that minor miracle.

Anyway, despite the fact that I am 100% behind MON, I do have my doubts. He seems to lack ambition, makes silly decisions with the team line-up and isn't good enough in the transfer market. We are still lacking a creative CM and a goalscorer and MON should have realised this before the season started.

I'm not sure if he is capable of taking us forward. However he has done wonders for us so far. For that reason alone I am behind him for now and just feel that some people expect too much. Of course he has his downsides (as I mentioned), yet he also has his positives. Hopefully he can take us higher in the league and get us some silverware from a cup competition.

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Every single year since he arrived we've got better. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. More points. Better football. Better players. Absolutely everything on and off the field has been consistently improving since the day Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner arrived.

Aston Villa is probably (off the top of my head) the only club in the Premiership that can say that. In my opinion, anybody who thinks that's not good enough probably has too high expectations.

At some point in the future the improvements on and off the field will peak and we'll no longer get any better. If by that point we have not won the Champions League THEN and only then will the question "can MON (and Randy) take us any further?" become a valid one.

It may just be my opinion but it seems so obvious to me that I can't believe it has to be said.

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Careful what you wish for.....Who do you think are we going to attract if eventually push MON out?

People need to think back to OLeary days and see how we have moved on year on year. I get just as pissed off as the next person that we dont get the results sometimes but jesus...I am lost for words...

Can MON take us any further? Unless we spend millions and can attract Torres / Rooney / Essien I dont think we can, we are where we should be....top6, on our day can give a top 4 team a beating but sorry to tell everyone this as good as it gets for the next few years, my expectations are real!

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You see, the difference of having someone like Bent in the squad is not the difference between finishing 6th or 4th, more likely , at best, it'd be the difference between finishing 7th or 6th, which is not worth the investment.

but you see, thats bollox

every potential signing, is possibly one who can be the difference between 7th or 6th on their own

no player can lift a club from 6th to 4th single handedly

this is where you need to look at a bigger picture, and think "well, if we bring him in it allows for carew and agbonlahor to dip in form a bit and us to still have a potential goal threat", which in itself isnt worth **** all. but add it to the new defensive line we signed

and that young chap from leeds

and that guy from boro whos injured at the minute

do they all add up to a potential jump of more than one spot? i think they do, coz it covers ALL the positions that needed attention

especially when you consider that delph is under 20, and downing and bent are both under 26

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You see, the difference of having someone like Bent in the squad is not the difference between finishing 6th or 4th, more likely , at best, it'd be the difference between finishing 7th or 6th, which is not worth the investment.

but you see, thats bollox

every potential signing, is possibly one who can be the difference between 7th or 6th on their own

no player can lift a club from 6th to 4th single handedly

this is where you need to look at a bigger picture, and think "well, if we bring him in it allows for carew and agbonlahor to dip in form a bit and us to still have a potential goal threat", which in itself isnt worth **** all. but add it to the new defensive line we signed

and that young chap from leeds

and that guy from boro whos injured at the minute

do they all add up to a potential jump of more than one spot? i think they do, coz it covers ALL the positions that needed attention

especially when you consider that delph is under 20, and downing and bent are both under 26

Fair enough, but IMO the young chap from Leeds and the guy from Boro, who's injured will not be able to put us in the same bracket as the top 4, at least not in the next couple of seasons. We lack quality and we're not in the financial position to attract that quality.

Two players have proven to be able to lift a club from around 6th do 3/4th , see Liverpool. We don't have anyone that good, Bent is nowhere near as good and the collective signings' improvement is not good enough to send us there.Not yet.

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Every single year since he arrived we've got better. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. More points. Better football. Better players. Absolutely everything on and off the field has been consistently improving since the day Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner arrived.

Aston Villa is probably (off the top of my head) the only club in the Premiership that can say that. In my opinion, anybody who thinks that's not good enough probably has too high expectations.

I don't agree with much of that. The football now is atrocious, and was actually far better at the end of 07/08. Sidwell is now a fixture in midfield, and he isn't a patch on Gareth Barry. Emile Heskey. Emile flaming Heskey.

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I think expecting to beat West Ham, Wolves or Wigan when you've spent the money we have, and with our manager saying he wanted to challenge for 4th place isn't asking much.

But surely, based on the money we've spent, we shouldn't be finishing top 4. There are probably 5 or so teams that've spent more money than we have in recent years. So surely 6th place is about best we can hope for going by this logic.

I'm not having a dig at you here, but are there four or five teams that have spent more than us over recent years? I can only think of Spurs, Chelsea and Man City. Does anyone have a list of club spending over the past few years (in total)? It would be quite interesting to see. Perhaps also seeing what players were purchased with that money would also create a better picture.

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I'm not having a dig at you here, but are there four or five teams that have spent more than us over recent years?

We have had to COMPLETELY REBUILD a team....and buy strength and depth, dont think Man U and Chelsea have had to do that in recently....

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I think expecting to beat West Ham, Wolves or Wigan when you've spent the money we have, and with our manager saying he wanted to challenge for 4th place isn't asking much.

But surely, based on the money we've spent, we shouldn't be finishing top 4. There are probably 5 or so teams that've spent more money than we have in recent years. So surely 6th place is about best we can hope for going by this logic.

I'm not having a dig at you here, but are there four or five teams that have spent more than us over recent years? I can only think of Spurs, Chelsea and Man City. Does anyone have a list of club spending over the past few years (in total)? It would be quite interesting to see. Perhaps also seeing what players were purchased with that money would also create a better picture.

I don't get this "past few years" stuff. Are players signed more than a few years ago ineligible to play? No. Rooney cost a **** load but because he was brought quite a while ago he isn't taken into consideration. Bollocks to that, Plop and United have both pumped money in, the result of which are squads that cost far more than ours.

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I expect us to finish 7th. I don't expect us to break the top4, no worries there anymore. But based purely on our average performance I expect bottom6 finish. Even Wigan play better football. That's where I lose my sleep.

It will be torture but there won't be any changes until Downing gets fit and (the 11th hour of) the January transfer window. Until then (from West Ham match thread)

I would be delirious about a win, however it is achieved, and to those people who are posting over and over again criticising our "style of play", I would just say take the points, lie back and enjoy it.
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Every single year since he arrived we've got better. EVERY. SINGLE. ONE. More points. Better football. Better players. Absolutely everything on and off the field has been consistently improving since the day Martin O'Neill and Randy Lerner arrived.

Aston Villa is probably (off the top of my head) the only club in the Premiership that can say that. In my opinion, anybody who thinks that's not good enough probably has too high expectations.

I don't agree with much of that. The football now is atrocious, and was actually far better at the end of 07/08. Sidwell is now a fixture in midfield, and he isn't a patch on Gareth Barry. Emile Heskey. Emile flaming Heskey.

Well I don't think the football is atrocious and Sidwell is backup for the currently injured Downing. Heskey and Sidwell would have walked into the Villa team when MON first arrived - now they're on the bench.

In my opnion the squad is better this season than last season. Last season's was better than the one before and so on...

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We are getting what we deserve, these are run of the mill game's and should present no problem at all.If you play a system that doe's not suit your player's and move people around in that system you are asking to lose point's. Expectation's are not wrong, it's tactics, formation's and personal that are at fault. Man management is a myth at villa park, pet's corner rule's the day.

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I've sadly come to the conclusion that MON has more weaknesses than strengths at this level of football.

He is clearly a great motivator - especially when geeing his team up for the "big" games - and this is a skill not to be sniffed at.

But when it comes to the bread-and-butter stuff of player purchases, team selection, tactics and substitutions, he is erratic and unfathomable, to put it kindly.

I like the man enormously, and I'm sure he will yet pull off quite a few impressive feats for us - but not in enough games, or consistently.

I do not believe that we will win a major trophy under him, and that if we are serious about competing at the top level he will ultimately have to be replaced.

How and where we find the man to do it though, is a question to which I admit I have no answer. :(

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