nick76

Wasnt he disliked when he owned Cleveland Browns? I'm guessing not to the extent he is hated here so there is precedent for disliked, I wondered how he reacted towards the end of that era there

Problem is I dont think that is tactics as we have different managers with the same problem. Given the speed of football these days it has to be natural instinct to get into the box. There isnt enough time to time stop, think "where should I be tactically" and then run into the box, therefore I think it is the players we have. Our midfielders on the whole arent "get into the box at the last minute" type of players. Our Forwards in Ayew are creators rather than in the box poachers.

Remi walk for your own sake, us fans have no choice but to be here with these idiots above you.

Not only that but I think we have completely given up and could be onto a total hiding for the rest of the season in some games whereas a signing or two would've given us false hope and potentially we may have not been beaten so often or so badly. Just scared now that while we all thought we were going get relegated is different from completely giving up....that slight change of mindset may result in some big and depressing losses

I'm just numb with it all now. I'll always be a Villa fan to the core, I'll stand there and defend them, I'll keep buying Villa stuff and watching the games but I'm truly going through the motions at the moment. I don't look forward to the weekends anymore in relation to the Villa and it's a real chore and I rarely talk about the Villa at work (a fairly non-football conversational environment work place anyway). I came into the transfer window with the hope but not the expectation of getting a reasonable striker but nothing more. I knew it would be hard given where we are at the moment, hard also because of the Lerner situation and hard because our competitors wanting the same things. I'd prepared myself that nothing would happen. I also knew that one or two players are very very unlikely to make any difference to our highly probable relegation. For me it wasnt about that, I was just hoping for something to pick me to get me through the remainder of the season. Either something to make the games more watchable, or a flair/trickster player or a player that could be of real help next season or just something............just something!!!!! Something to cling onto something.....I'm hoping the final day brings something, but I'm resigned to nothing or more likely something really desperate like a fourth string nobody that will never get close to the first team during the second half of the season that we'll wonder why we purchased in the first place...... I want to be optimistic and I am generally an optimistic person but even my pessimistic times the Villa recently have failed to deliver......... As ever, us fans will go again and continue to support our team........

Just no fight in the Villa hierarchy. Everybody understands not to spend big, everybody understands the difficulty in signing players in our position but it feels like they have completely given up. A striker before the WBA game could've made a difference, a couple of games before that even more of a difference.........but no just roll over and die

I'm a bean counter and we aren't all about cutting costs. My role in my company is to squeeze the best out of the resources we have and find ways of increasing that revenue base through synergies, new avenues for revenue generating and exploring new markets. Obviously there are far more people than me involved in my business but I am a senior person and over the 5 years our revenue has doubled and our employees have almost doubled. You squeeze the resources you have , re-invest and just just keep growing. Bean counters always get the bad rub of the green in terms of "come to cut costs" which is not true, we get value for money from the cost some of us use that to generate more. I'm not defending him, I'm defending the argument that because he's a bean counter he obviously wont benefit Villa and will continue to cut costs. I'm pretty sure that if I was put in his role, with my background you would say the same about me but if you talk to anybody that knows me I'm all about growth, expansion and improvement.

I agreed with the start of your post and while not agreeing with everything else I agree with the essence of your piece. I actually think that Amavi, Vertout, Gana and Ayew will become really good players.....whether that is mid table type players or european place challengers I'm still borderline on. I think the first part of your post is the key around that we had no backbone and we expected these young(ish), foreign, from a weaker league, who have definitely showed huge potential at their previous clubs to suddenly gel, step up and be the real deal in the premiership, which is arguably the hardest league around. We had a complete overhaul of our team and then expect them to perform straight away, it was just insane. To be honest I actually think it's the established players that have really let us down like Richards, Lescott and Gabby. Ayew and Amavi I've been impressed with and with my glass half full glasses on I've seen glimpses from both Gana and Vertout that suggests that their is something there. Richards and Lescott I have been bitterly disappointed with and Gabby has been sliding for years. The big thing for me though outside of this is that we never brought a real striker. Ayew plays wide and we can argue that Gestede was going to be that player, did any of us at the time believe he was going to be that No.1 striker.....at the time we thought Adebayor was going to be the main striker (whether we wanted him or not). So I'm laying off the foreign contingent as I dont think they have been the real problem...the experienced players we have/brought in and the lack of striker for me from a playing side has been the issue this season.

I agree when you are trying to add that one extra player or a couple but our mass turnover in the summer was harder as managers are on the go fully with games and training and reviewing all those players and then the alternatives, there isnt enough time in the day. Not sure what the answer is but I agree the manager must choose his own players but part of me wonders how that is physically possible these days with all the games and all the changes we needed to make

We dont play to his strengths. As soon as we whip a ball in the box, he looks a real threat....we just dont whip in many balls from the corners, it's all from deep. It's the same point we said to Liverpool fans about Benteke and them not playing a system that suits him.....and that's now coming to fruition. We can't take our own advice. We buy a striker that is good with wingers and then we play down the middle with little width....friggin obvious isnt it

We are struggling up front aside from Ayew and we need something different and we dont create many chances so let's stick this chap up front and if he fails then he fails but it is surely going to be entertaining whether he falls flat on his face or scores a hatrick. Gestede isnt ready and we dont supply balls into the box like he needs, Gabby is off the radar now along with Kozak and Sinclair is a waste of space. Gil and Grealish arent really creating anything so we have nothing and I mean nothing to lose wasting a space in the XI for a raw luxury player like Traore.........there you go my son, do what you can!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I totally disagree about bringing on Gil or Grealish, we needed solidity in the midfield and with either of those two on it may have created more chances but as in the past may have left more openings and thus may have led to Newcastle taking back over the midfield. Therefore rather than naive I thought it was good management. The fact we then didnt score in the end was down to the quality upfront not midfield. Gueye and Sanchez gave us solidity and defence, and I agree will never create chances and was the right thing to do, losing that defensive midfield would've really opened us up.

Definitely not. I think throwing another central defender at it is going to make a difference, these are individual mistakes that are happening so throwing another defender, especially Lescott is not going to make a difference. I think having Sanchez infront of the back four is sufficient and then we need to cut out the mistakes until January and hopefully get a defender in then to shore up that defence. I'm not sure that Gestede and Ayew are a good complimentary partnership either, so either use Grealish and Gil with Ayew or create width for Gestede with Adama and another on the wings

For some reason I have belief this kid will come good and be a good player for us. The reports before we signed him and just one or two glimpses of something there when he's been on the pitch. I can't argue that he's really done nothing so far but those few glimpses give me hope that it is just time he needs.

I agree about this football knowledge. Football pundits who are ex players are always talking about knowing the game can only be achieved by playing the game at that level, it's just rubbish. You are either good at your job or not and experience helps with that obviously but playing the game is very different from managing the game or being a business person within the game. They are completely different skill sets. Most of you work in companies where generally the best individuals get promoted to managers so they get more money. Being an expert technically doesn't make you the right fit to be a manager and I see that in business all the time. Companies don't like losing key staff so they promote them to management so they can pay them more. These individuals don't have that skill set, they don't have a business brain and it's causes many problems.

It's a shame that the Villa job is such a poisoned chalice these days. We know that at some point in the next three years we will hounding this guy out the place and that's if he's lucky. He will be slaughtered by a large amount of people, supported by a few, as that seems to be us these days (and many other fans of other clubs). Hope I am wrong but I would love some good years (meaning not flirting with relegation), some stability and just enjoy watching the Villa again. Come on Remi, make me believe again!!!!!

I don't think Lerner sees it like that. I don't think investors see it like that either. Valuations of a business isn't solely based on history which negates the first post.

We wanted to focus on our title push anyway, going further in this would've hindered that.....

people are just sick of seeing Westwood play, its no coincidence the players that get most abuse on here are the ones we have watched consistently for last few seasons. Guzan, Gabby, Bacuna, Westwood and Clark and the phrase of doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result comes to mind. This kid was very highly rated in France, it's going to take time to adapt to English football but let's give him a chance as our midfield is clearly not working and hasnt done for years. Continuing the way we are seems to be leading to only one outcome so we brought this kid in and others to mix it up, they were highly rated so let's throw our eggs into that basket as maybe the grass isn't greener on the other side but this side the grass is fading into a dirt patch so we have nothing to lose.

Have to agree with this. We know that if we put good balls into the box he'll score with his head. This is probably the simplest form of football there is....no tippy tappy, no step overs. Get the ball out to the wing and let players like Amavi cross. Let's obviously develop Gestede over the coming seasons but let's not try and change the fundamental player and try and make him play like Messi. If we get more crosses into the box, he will score a bag full of goals because he is that good with his head. He could easily score 15 goals from doing that this season and we would all be delighted with a striker in his first season to do that wouldn't we? it's not as if many others will even get close to that number.

I don't think it questions his coaching as bringing in players from abroad and from a lower division they need time to adapt to this level. As for his management ie acquiring this player, well that really can only be judged over time not the first handful of games. Personally I'm not impressed with Ayew at all and Gestede for me has shown glimpses but we arent playing his style of crosses into the box. We all laughed at Liverpool for buying Benteke considering a team that dont play to his strengths and then we go and buy a striker who thrives on crosses and we then play 4-3-2-1 formation thus lack of width. As I say though they need time to settle, gel with each other and learn Sherwood's tactics and then I will judge later in the season about the players individually. Anyway it's not as if we can do anything until January anyway to change it. This is our squad and we have to live with it but I'm not going to lose faith in players after a handful of games just like I wouldnt be singing from the rooftops if we had a player who played exceptional after a few games.

I agree, he is a fabulous talent but I would put him on the bench for a few games and bring somebody else into midfield. I think Gil is playing well and has the position for me over Jack. I think the team can accommodate both when we are playing well but at the moment when we are struggling for confidence I think we need to lock up midfield more

We conceded a single goal by one of the best strikers in this shitty-arse league. Forgive if I don't freak out. They were better to the first and second ball all game. They dominated midfield despite all our flair players they made us look poor. Pulis tactically was much better than Sherwood as was Ranieri in the second half v Leicester. As it stands I think Sherwood is tactically inept. forgive me if I'm wrong but I thought the stats seem to suggest we were the better team in the first half despite the score line?

Unless he does something before the transfer deadline I think he's got some explaining to do. The fact that selling Benteke and Delph and using that money to buy all the players we have makes it look like he has invested, whereas on the true net spend it isn't that much. Sherwood and Fox have had to rebuild the squad and it would've really scared me if they had to do that without that incoming money, granted it would've required two less players. While it has been a good summer rebuilding, with a bit extra investment we could've made a really good step forward.....as usual in recent times it's Lerner that lets us down.

? Why Because it's bloody obvious where our shortcomings are and after such a great window it would be great if Lerner allowed Sherwood the opportunity to finish the job.and despite all the signings we've only slightly above net spend. So in an alternate universe where we just survived relegation and Delph and Benteke stays, we spend virtually no money....net spend even too. So far Lerner has allowed no further investment apart from that of sales......so far! We still need a couple of signing and Lerner needs to allow some investment