Ashley Westwood

[DCJonah]

4 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Hutton, Gabby and Clark have been fairly consistent in our starting XI for a longer period than Westwood and have been just as bad if not worse. Hutton in particular has been shocking for 90% of his time here, a complete liability at times...and was still playing in our Championship struggle. Never once booed from what I can remember. The situation is not all that unique.

Hutton was exiled from the squad for years, came back and wasn't too bad for a while. He's also started around 86 games for us compared to the 129 that westwood has started. That's a huge difference. 

Clark was sold.

And there's no doubt in my mind gabby would be booed if he had been picked as much and played as poorly as westwood has over the last 12 to 18 months. 

[Phumfeinz]

1 hour ago, sne said:

I didn't know there was a highlights reel for Westwood's five years at Villa.

[sexbelowsound]

11 minutes ago, Phumfeinz said:

I didn't know there was a highlights reel for Westwood's five years at Villa.

Westwood regularly puts on a hat and walks in and out of a room?

No wonder people think he's shit if he's been doing that all these years!

[AJ]

We need Delph back. Sounds like some need a more realistic person to hate.

Edited October 25, 2016 by AJ

[Zatman]

I have seen the word model professional bandied around here in last few days. Is he really a model professional.

a model professional would work really hard to improve their game. for example he would realise they take crap set-pieces and go on the training ground and work on it and if that didnt work they would say to the manager I am shit at these. Robbie **** Savage one of worst technical footballers in living memory near end of his day start taking decent enough free-kicks because he went and practiced them

[Phumfeinz]

The only reason he gets called a model professional is because he's not in the headlines for reasons he shouldn't be. 

He doesn't try and he applies minimal effort every game. It's been 5 years and he's shown no improvement at all. Piss-poor professional. 

[roadoftrinity]

1 hour ago, AJ said:

We need Delph back. Sounds like some need a more realistic person to hate.

I'd welcome Delph back with open arms, he might stuggle to get back in our team though 

[Keyblade]

5 hours ago, Phumfeinz said:

The only reason he gets called a model professional is because he's not in the headlines for reasons he shouldn't be. 

He doesn't try and he applies minimal effort every game. It's been 5 years and he's shown no improvement at all. Piss-poor professional. 

Improving as a player is the only sign of a model professional, and not doing so makes him a piss-poor professional?

Perhaps he has a ceiling, like every player does especially past a certain age? You probably would have thought of that if you weren't so desperately reaching for something to shit on him with. Can't you just call him shit and call it a day? Jheeze, tell us how you really feel bro  

[Keyblade]

9 hours ago, DCJonah said:

Hutton was exiled from the squad for years, came back and wasn't too bad for a while. He's also started around 86 games for us compared to the 129 that westwood has started. That's a huge difference. 

Clark was sold.

And there's no doubt in my mind gabby would be booed if he had been picked as much and played as poorly as westwood has over the last 12 to 18 months. 

I don't see why 89 and 129 is a huge difference, they're still both a lot of games. What's the cutoff point of games before a player gets booed?  Or why Clark being sold makes a huge difference, I feel like you're just nitpicking at this point. Your overall point is that he had unique circumstances which were being consistently shit over a number of years. It's really not that unique unless you nitpick to very fine details as we've been spoiled for choice of players who fit the bill. Not least Cissokho who's been here 3 seasons, and just conceded 2 penalties in 2 games. I guarantee you he won't be booed any time soon, even if he stays another 10 seasons. It goes deeper than simply him being shit for a long time.

 

[bannedfromHandV]

15 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Did you make this comment secretly hoping I would say Gabby?

There have been a few over the years, not that I can necessarily name them off the top of my head, I think Hutton is one which has been close on the past (Nice guy and hard working pro but not the best). Bacuna etc (Although his "champions league comments were funny). As far back as JPA, McCann etc. No need for me to name names as the majority of people on here get the point I was trying to put across.

What was your comment meant to achieve exactly?

No, I think it's pretty obvious I was hoping you wouldn't say Gabby.

 

 

[Phumfeinz]

6 hours ago, Keyblade said:

Improving as a player is the only sign of a model professional, and not doing so makes him a piss-poor professional?

Perhaps he has a ceiling, like every player does especially past a certain age? You probably would have thought of that if you weren't so desperately reaching for something to shit on him with. Can't you just call him shit and call it a day? Jheeze, tell us how you really feel bro  

Did I say that? No. I also said he barely tries and his effort every game is laughable. A model professional doesn't shy away from the ball or pull out of important challenges. Maybe read the whole post before you start sputtering out replies that aren't relevant.

[Swerbs]

He looked good when part of the 3 with Delph and Cleverly under Sherwood. Still think he would be decent as part of a 3 now.

[Villaninireland]

He looked "good" in a 3 because the other 2 carried him through games .

Edited October 26, 2016 by Villaninireland

[eddiemunster]

17 minutes ago, Villaninireland said:

He looked "good" in a 3 because the other 2 carried him through games .

Totally agree mate and just so "Keyblade" is aware, yes he is shit and certainly won't get any better than shit.

[Keyblade]

23 minutes ago, Phumfeinz said:

Did I say that? No. I also said he barely tries and his effort every game is laughable. A model professional doesn't shy away from the ball or pull out of important challenges. Maybe read the whole post before you start sputtering out replies that aren't relevant.

"It's been 5 years and he's shown no improvement at all. Piss-poor professional."

Literally your words, but okay. 

Anyway, 'shying away from the ball' is perhaps the most absurd criticism of him I've heard yet...it's patently false.Up there with 'he only passes sideways'. If there's one thing that he does and does well it's consistently show for the ball. What he does before or after that is up for debate, but just watching any game without viciously biased lenses will prove it. You can hate him without lying about him you know. Like, I think Gabby is pretty awful for example but I can admit that he's still fairly fast and strong. 

Besides, I'm not sure what shying away from the ball or challenges has to do with being a model professional. I don't think you understand the term, you're really reaching. Like I said, you can still think he's a bad player and concede he's a model professional as has been reported by all accounts from people who work much closer to him than you do like Paul Lambert, Tim Sherwood and even Stan Petrov. 

[Bunnski]

Why are people stating that hes always been shit etc...?  In his first 2 seasons he had 3 goals and 8 assists while playing as a defensive midfielder. I think it was his second season when Sky Sports put up stats that showed him to be only behind Gerard for chances created by an English player.  If people wanna say he's always been shit then they either have an agenda or are clueless.  Truth is he's regressed but I can't think of any of our players that improved over the past 2 seasons, it's too early to write this season off for any player and while Westwood has had a few bad games lately, prior to that little bad run he had a solid start to the season. 

[StefanAVFC]

Found this from March this year. Haven't seen stats from this season but can't imagine they've changed. 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/find-out-how-far-gabby-11075810

Quote

Ashley Westwood covers more blades of grass per game than his other Aston Villa team-mates.

On average Westwood runs 11.42 kilometres a match in the Premier League

 

1 hour ago, Phumfeinz said:

I also said he barely tries and his effort every game is laughable. 

I mean, there's enough to criticise him for without totally fabricating things. the ability often isn't there but lack of effort, while he's been a Villa player, definitely isn't something you can criticise Westwood for.

Edited October 26, 2016 by StefanAVFC

[Dodgyknees]

If he plays this weekend, what set of fans will boo him more?

I'm going for ours.

[PieFacE]

Naturally, I don't advocate the booing of any player, I thought it was pretty harsh on Bacuna last year, and he's done far worse than Westwood. All Westwood has done is not be good enough at football. I think we can all see that. He's not physical enough, he's not good at tackling, he's not good at shooting, he hasn't got very good vision (or if he has, he doesn't like to use it), his passes result in nothing other than "keeping possession" which as Fulham showed on Saturday, is pointless without intent.  Unfortunately, he has no influence on the games he plays in, he just needs to go really, for his own career more than anything. 

Not good enough.

 

Oh and I hope to god he's no where near the first 11 on Sunday, not the game for Westwood.

Edited October 26, 2016 by PieFacE

[Keyblade]

16 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Found this from March this year. Haven't seen stats from this season but can't imagine they've changed. 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/find-out-how-far-gabby-11075810

 

I mean, there's enough to criticise him for without totally fabricating things. the ability often isn't there but lack of effort, while he's been a Villa player, definitely isn't something you can criticise Westwood for.

If I remember correctly, he was also in the top 15 in this category in the entire PL for much of last season despite our struggles and the fact that it looked like almost nobody was trying. 

Nothing wrong with criticizing the bloke, but you don't have to make things up. Why would you have to if he's so obviously shit anyway?