Rob182 Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 CI i know what you are getting at and the answer to your question is that i know as much about him as you do but i have read other poster's opinions on him who have seen him play and they generally seem to be saying that his ability on the ball is indeed very limited. If this is the case and i've no reason to doubt the general opinion on him then i am greatly dismayed at this type of signing when there are better players available on a free. While i understand that we can no longer attract the type of player that even Spuds would be interested in i do expect any signing we make to be a step up from the Sidwells and Bradleys of this world. If you want to watch Villa play the type of attractive football that gets us on the edge of our seats again and indeed attract more fans to our club then you must have the right players to do that i.e having the ability to be technically proficent on the ball. Thats why i'm pissed off CI. We have got to get away from the hoofball type of player and thats the only way we are going to progress. I don't know whether Holman is a 'hoofball type' player. To play attractive, attacking football, we don't have to have a team of 11 players who have excellent techincal ability. You need to throw in some players with graft, some players with strength and a few magicians to pull off a party piece once in a while. I think Holman is a decent signing. At worst, he'll just be competition for Albrighton & Zog, on lower wages than Heskey & for no fee. At best, he'll score a couple of goals and actually be a good signing. I don't see many, if any, negatives in this. We've gotten rid of Beye, we're more than likely going to get rid of Heskey (and hopefully a few more). I'd much rather us use part of those wages to sign someone like this for free, than give Heskey a new contract, or buy a player like Heskey for £3m. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
iancharlie Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 as long as he is hungry and plays well as part of the team and has the necessary desire then he will be a good signing. time will tell! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theunderstudy Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 You do realise McLeish signed Arteta for Rangers. What a shit player he turned out to be... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stevo985 Posted March 14, 2012 VT Supporter Share Posted March 14, 2012 People with Barca's badges as their avatar should be taken out the back & shot Jealousy is an awful thing to have didn't you learn to leave all that bad feeling at home ? Anyway were talking about Villa/BCFC who is talking about BCFC except you Thing is it's like Barca and Real Madrid us as fans always argue who is the biggest and i guess its the same with Villa and BCFC who is the biggest ? Because right now i,d say BCFC and Villa are about equal. Part of me wants to ask you to provide some sort of evidence to back up this frankly unbelievably ludicrous comment. But another part of me wants to tell you to **** off Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stu_The_Villan Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 We have got to get away from the hoofball type of player and thats the only way we are going to progress. So is that the players fault or the manager? The hoofball i mean Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Houlston Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Isn't Bradley doing well in Italy right now at any rate. Yep, he is, in fact an article about how well he is doing was only written the other day. Another player that was written off and slated without really being given a chance along with Makoun, Hutton, Nzogbia and now Holman. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Where's Bradley playing & how do his stats look ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Where's Bradley playing & how do his stats look ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Chievo. Played 25 league games, 1 assist but his role isn't one of creator; Chievo play with a relatively withdrawn midfield line of 3, with Bradley in the centre sitting behind Cyril Théréau and the two strikers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Oh , 1 assist in 25 games ? How are they sitting in the league and cups ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Look, find out for yourself you lazy git. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 10th in the league. If they finish there, they'll have (gradually) improved their league finish season-on-season since they were promoted in 2008. They were knocked out in the quarter finals of the Coppa Italia by Siena (who themselves need only a draw in the 2nd leg of their semi against Napoli to get through to the final itself). Again, an improvement on previous years for Chievo where they've generally peaked at the last 16. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 So all in all spectacularly average Why on earth are we wasting text space dealing with Bradley ?? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Hey, you asked the question. I didn't even bring up Bradley! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 It was all started by that clown legov Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 No, it was started by, er, someone, and continued by me (I hope that was just friendly banter re Legov. He is a fellow crackpot foreigner) a couple of pages ago. I was merely reflecting on the parallels between Bradley and Holman, in terms of underwhelmingness and other stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 Morpheus, do you think youve written him off based on the fact you've never seen him play live (& yes there is a difference to MOTD or YouTube), and he's not kicked a ball for us yet Yes CI to a large extent i have done that and probably one should wait until you see the player before forming any opinion but generally everyone on here who has seen him play is stating the same thing that he lacks quality on the ball. I would hope that this player shoves the general opinion of him down our throats and turns out to be a very astute signing although at his age i don't think he is suddenly going to improve his technical ability with our present manager. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I think you should give him at least 10 mins on his debut before ripping him apart I mean, it's only fair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Morpheus Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 CI i know what you are getting at and the answer to your question is that i know as much about him as you do but i have read other poster's opinions on him who have seen him play and they generally seem to be saying that his ability on the ball is indeed very limited. If this is the case and i've no reason to doubt the general opinion on him then i am greatly dismayed at this type of signing when there are better players available on a free. While i understand that we can no longer attract the type of player that even Spuds would be interested in i do expect any signing we make to be a step up from the Sidwells and Bradleys of this world. If you want to watch Villa play the type of attractive football that gets us on the edge of our seats again and indeed attract more fans to our club then you must have the right players to do that i.e having the ability to be technically proficent on the ball. Thats why i'm pissed off CI. We have got to get away from the hoofball type of player and thats the only way we are going to progress. I don't know whether Holman is a 'hoofball type' player. To play attractive, attacking football, we don't have to have a team of 11 players who have excellent techincal ability. You need to throw in some players with graft, some players with strength and a few magicians to pull off a party piece once in a while. I think Holman is a decent signing. At worst, he'll just be competition for Albrighton & Zog, on lower wages than Heskey & for no fee. At best, he'll score a couple of goals and actually be a good signing. I don't see many, if any, negatives in this. We've gotten rid of Beye, we're more than likely going to get rid of Heskey (and hopefully a few more). I'd much rather us use part of those wages to sign someone like this for free, than give Heskey a new contract, or buy a player like Heskey for £3m. But we've had too few 'magicians' in our team for several years now 'Rob182' and thats one of the main reasons why we haven't won anything for a very long time. You are talking about the correct balance of a team and i agree 100% that no team can be successful with eleven flair players. Thats not what i'm trying to get at. Even your ball winning midfielder should be able to string a few passes together or when the situation presents itself, be able to put a team mate through on goal. For far too long now with the very odd exception such as Merse or Ash we have been lacking real quality to break down teams. We also have struggled to pass the ball out of defence due to continually having hoof defenders. What i have been waiting for is a manager to come to villa and start buying players who are comfortable on the ball such as Redknapp has done with Spuds or indeed how Newcastle have progressed. Parker is a perfect example of what i mean. He is a ball winning midfielder but looks comfortable when in possession and can pass to a team mate. He only cost 5m. If we keep purchasing players with limited technical ability on the ball how in the hell are we suppose to attract the punters back to Villa Park other than the diehard fans? We simply must have a more forward thinking plan to create a team that plays exciting football but you simply must buy the right players to do that and leave the likes of the sidwells, Bradleys, Collins, Dunne and by all accounts Holmans to other teams with less ambition. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GarethRDR Posted March 14, 2012 Share Posted March 14, 2012 I think you should give him at least 10 mins on his debut before ripping him apart I mean, it's only fair Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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