AntrimBlack Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Inconsistency has always been his problem. Not sure if I am correct here, but I think you can tell in the first half, even quite early on, if he is up for it in any particular game. But I suppose subbing him at half time would be taking a chance with using up a sub, and would not exactly help his confidence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaChris Posted March 17, 2014 Share Posted March 17, 2014 Gabby is far from the worst finisher I've seen. Vassell was much poorer when through on the keeper imo. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Set for a new deal although Lambert says he hopes his players aren't motivated by money, maybe indicating that there will be a pay cut or at the very least no pay rise. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JAMAICAN-VILLAN Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Set for a new deal although Lambert says he hopes his players aren't motivated by money, maybe indicating that there will be a pay cut or at the very least no pay rise. I saw that article, very much doubt there will be any sort of pay cut. Worst case it will be no rise on basic, but probably with increased performance related bonuses. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo69 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 If Gabby is on a MON era contract that I doubt he will need a pay rise...for the rest of his career! Wouldn't even right off a cut in pay. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
samjp26 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 He's our highest paid player I think? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Woody1000 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Maybe blind faith, but I love what Gabby offers us when he is on song. Sure he has games that seem to pass him by, but his pace and strength is such an asset to us, and while his overall goals to games ratio isn't fantastic, he has scored some very important goals for us over the years. He is one of only a handful of players in our team that you really notice the difference when not playing IMO. I think he will play for Villa for the rest of his career, and I for one am more than happy for him to do so. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 If Gabby is on a MON era contract that I doubt he will need a pay rise...for the rest of his career! He signed his last contract in November 2010 ( 4 and half year contract ) when Houllier was manager. No player is on a contract signed under O'Neill. The only other players that are on contracts signed whilst Houllier was manager are Delph, Bent and Albrighton. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) I have never had a problem with gabby....more a problem with the club for allowing him a comfortable berth. If we were more ambitious, he would be a squad player and finding it more difficult than it is to get in... ....but that's not his fault. He definitely gives us something, but not often enough IMO. Edited March 23, 2014 by TRO Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dr_Pangloss Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 I have never had a problem with gabby....more a problem with the club for allowing him a comfortable berth. If we were more ambitious, he would be a squad player and finding it more difficult than it is to get in... ....but that's not his fault. He definitely gives us something, but not often enough IMO. Gabby is likable and can be very effective with his pace. But you're absolutely right, to really push on, we'd benefit more from someone with more technical quality and delivery playing in Gabby's position. We'd get a lot more out of Benteke that way as well. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markavfc40 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 (edited) If we were more ambitious, he would be a squad player and finding it more difficult than it is to get in... ....but that's not his fault. It all depends what you think our ambitions should be. Personally I think we should be looking to compete for at the very least the top 6 - 8 and Gabby is good enough for that. In fact he has proven it when he was a very important part of our side when we finished sixth three times on the spin. He isn't consistently good enough to play for one of the top clubs in this country though. I do have a lot of time for Gabby. I have never judged him solely on his goalscoring record as I think that would be unfair. He has played well over 50% of his games for us out wide. Given that 79 goals in 289 starts is a very decent return. On top of that he always works his bollocks off and is happy to track back, has a very decent cross on him and has proven over the years a great outlet for us certainly away from home. The one criticism I would have is that on his day he is totally unplayable and I just wish he'd have more days like the first half he had at Liverpool. Having said that if he did he would possibly not still be playing for us. Edited March 23, 2014 by markavfc40 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo69 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 If Gabby is on a MON era contract that I doubt he will need a pay rise...for the rest of his career! He signed his last contract in November 2010 ( 4 and half year contract ) when Houllier was manager. No player is on a contract signed under O'Neill. The only other players that are on contracts signed whilst Houllier was manager are Delph, Bent and Albrighton. Fair enough but it was still a time when the owners seemed to be happy to pay higher wages, e.g. Hutton, Given etc. I could be wrong but I reckon Gabby is on decent wages compared to the average premier league player. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amo69 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 If we were more ambitious, he would be a squad player and finding it more difficult than it is to get in... ....but that's not his fault. It all depends what you think our ambitions should be. Personally I think we should be looking to compete for at the very least the top 6 - 8 and Gabby is good enough for that. In fact he has proven it when he was a very important part of our side when we finished sixth three times on the spin. He isn't consistently good enough to play for one of the top clubs in this country though. I do have a lot of time for Gabby. I have never judged him solely on his goalscoring record as I think that would be unfair. He has played well over 50% of his games for us out wide. Given that 79 goals in 289 starts is a very decent return. On top of that he always works his bollocks off and is happy to track back, has a very decent cross on him and has proven over the years a great outlet for us certainly away from home. The one criticism I would have is that on his day he is totally unplayable and I just wish he'd have more days like the first half he had at Liverpool. Having said that if he did he would possibly not still be playing for us. This is spot on about him being unplayable at times but not often enough. I do wonder how good he could have become had he moved on to a better team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dont_do_it_doug. Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 I have never had a problem with gabby....more a problem with the club for allowing him a comfortable berth. If we were more ambitious, he would be a squad player and finding it more difficult than it is to get in... ....but that's not his fault. He definitely gives us something, but not often enough IMO. Gabby is likable and can be very effective with his pace. But you're absolutely right, to really push on, we'd benefit more from someone with more technical quality and delivery playing in Gabby's position. We'd get a lot more out of Benteke that way as well. I think it's the other side that's the problem. Gabby is inconsistent, but he is inconsistently devastating at least. He's absolutely good enough for us to "push on" with in my opinion. Him and A.N. Other, perhaps somebody a bit more consistent to take the focus off the other two a touch, flanking Benteke would be good enough to break into the top 10, top 8, maybe even top 6. Ask yourself this - would Gabby and Benteke look out of place at Everton? Give them those two along with Barkley, for example... 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CrackpotForeigner Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Please allow me to maintain my delusion that Gabby would stay with Aston Villa no matter who came in for him. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ghost_of_Pongo_Waring Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Please allow me to maintain my delusion that Gabby would stay with Aston Villa no matter who came in for him. I'm not sure it's a delusion. There was a quote from a top agent, when we were finishing sixth under O'Neill, that the reason no clubs were attempting to sign Gabby was because it was well known that he wouldn't even consider leaving Villa. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vandaq Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 I frickin love gabby, it`s just the inconsistency that gets me, like it does with many others. I also think he has huge effect on the team, specially after Lambert came but that`s just a guess. Does anyone know who the leaders are in the changing room and so forth? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KMitch Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Does anyone know who the leaders are in the changing room and so forth? From what I understand, Vlaar, Guzan, and Gabby are the vocal leaders, but you have many others who lead by example, ie Westwood, Delph, Weimann, Clark, etc. I would love to see Gabby close out his career with us. You don't see that kind of loyalty from players anymore. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ROTTERDAM1982 Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Not worth £50k per week imho. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bunnski Posted March 23, 2014 Share Posted March 23, 2014 Another disgraceful performance. The last 4 or 5 games he has been absolute shit and has barely broke a sweat. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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