david-avfc

1 minute ago, useless said:

Just looking on Huddersfield forum and one of them quoted their manager as saying that when Ollie Turton is fit he will be a guranteed starter, he's a right-back, and he said this after a game in which Kesler-Hayden got an assist and was named man of the match. Maybe we're recalling him, if other Championship teams interested that might be the better option.

To be fair if you’re 23rd in the league you probably don’t want a very young and slightly gung-ho full back in the side. Hopefully another championship side in a more stable league position could take on the loan instead. I think this lad has real potential but still a bit raw especially on the defensive side judging by the times I’ve seen him 

Aaron Ramsey loan cut short apparently due to injury. A shame because he was doing well there after a bit of a slow start. Hopefully the injury is nothing too severe but if we’ve decided to cancel the loan it doesn’t look good as presumably it would be best to leave him there if he had the chance of playing a decent number of games later in the season 

The difference between good players and the top players is the ability to read the game and to have a picture of how things will unfold in advance. This guy has that. He’s a bit under the radar at the moment but wouldn’t be surprised other fans / pundits taking notice by the end of the season or next. 

29 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Anyone saying no to sarr just watch how good he was for watfordz goal just now vs norwich.

He was absolutely rapid. Imagine him under emery

Pace is dangerous at any level of the game, we don’t really much of it in our squad apart from Bailey. I’ve always like Sarr when I’ve seen him, quick, powerful, direct.. shame we couldn’t get him in the summer 

I feel like I’ve seen enough of Deulofeu to know what to expect, a very creative player at times but marred by inconsistency and often lacking a final product. From memory he was very good at Watford one season but not so great the next and they were relegated. He was also very hit and miss at Everton for a couple of seasons. Always saw him as a “nearly” player… nearly a top player but never seems to materialise and ends up disappointing in the end. 

19 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Ings 12 months left, Ollie two years left so we'll have to decide which CF suits Emery style and will get value out of given they'll probably be back to whoever the new CF is.

Wouldn't at all be surprised to see Ings moved on in the summer. It is surprising though that we paid £20m+ for him but only gave him a 3 year deal so feels strange talking about his contract being nearly up already, still feels like a "new" signing. But he hasn't really hit the heights here so it would make sense to cash in rather than let him leave for free, I think we could still recoup maybe £10m for him as there will always be at least one side interested in a "proven" PL striker even if he will be 31 in the summer

6 hours ago, Villan_of_oz said:

We'll probably have to pay 5 million in wages ....

and the rest... he's reportedly on £125k per week until 2026 so £22m remaining in total, no way anyone would walk away from that contract without a serious payoff and no other club is picking up that tab

33 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

So at 21 Ollie Watkins was playing for Exeter. Yet to taste Championship Football.

Tammy was 22 when he had the breakthrough season at Villa 

Archer was given a chance in Championship and in a handful of months made himself probably theost desired loan signing in the league

He'll be a Premier League footballer. What level he'll achieve in his career I don't know. 

Archer seems like a bit of a late developer having looked to be going nowhere just a couple of years ago so I’d agree time is still on his side. It’s a shame he’s / we have wasted half a season though. But having already had a successful loan in the championship previously I would say he’s ahead of most of the kids who come through our academy 

Woefully poor management to keep him in the squad and then effectively freeze him out for half the season. Feels like he’s lost momentum and a wasted opportunity for him to get more experience and for us to have a better look at him over a full season of competitive football. Hopefully he can get back out on loan in the championship and recapture some momentum.

Not the worst keeper we’ve ever had but considering we’ve only just bought him you’d have hoped our scouts could have come up with someone better. For an experienced keeper he lacks composure and that sucks out the confidence of those around him. He doesn’t seem to have good athleticism either and has very poor distribution. To be fair playing 1 game every 2 months must be bloody difficult to have any match sharpness at all, but I feel like we could have plucked an obscure keeper or a golden oldie from somewhere for half the price and wages who’d have more to offer.

17 minutes ago, duke313 said:

This is spot on for me, a clean slate for everyone else except for Phil because he's "Gerrard's mate".

You only have to look at the social media accounts for Martinez, Buendia or Luiz to see all the South American players seem to be a close group with along with all their families. And I have heard nothing to suggest that Phil wants out. 

So, unless we hear from the player himself that he wants to leave, or from UE that he doesn't want him, then he should get our full backing.

I think everyone wants him to do well, I can’t imagine there are any serious fans who want him to play badly. Unfortunately Coutinho was a big signing, big wages and a long contract and has been in poor form since we signed him. We know he has incredible technical ability but the question is whether he can convert that into being effective consistently in premier league matches. I am not convinced, but hopefully a better manager will get far more out of him. It would be fantastic for us if he can turn it around but at the moment it looks like a vanity signing which has backfired. £20m and £100k+ p/w for four years, it’s a shame we are having these questions just 6 months after signing him. 

39 minutes ago, sne said:

Linked to Terem Moffi, can't say I know anything about him. Has 10 in 14 for Lorient this season.

He's only 6ft 2 thou so no were near tall enough.

That is incredible record this season but without knowing much about the player it’s hard to work out if he’s genuinely top quality or just in a crazy run or form. 8 goals in 34 starts last season but 14 the season before  in his breakout season, still only 23 years old 

3 minutes ago, Made In Aston said:

We only scored more than 1 goal in a game once in the league under Gerrard this season. We have done it 3 times out of 4 since he has gone (4 out of 5 if you include the cup). That is no coincidence. 

But according to the pundits it's all down to the players who didn't want to play for him! Nothing to do with the tactics which stifled every single player on the pitch

On 05/11/2022 at 10:51, jayEm said:

Apologies if this has been done already. But I think the shield option looks way better with a yellow lion. Currently it just feels very.... blue. In my opinion a golden lion stands out brilliantly against the claret background of both the badge, and the home kit as a whole. On the kit it's a lovely little highlight. It's admittedly a bit West Ham, but we do it far better.

Switching the lion to yellow immediately works so much better, which is a shame because that makes me realise the gaslamp design could have had so much more potential than what we've been given. The official gaslamp option just doesn't scream "Aston Villa" to me, which fundamentally makes it a bad design from my perspective for Aston Villa's badge! I'm no graphic designer so can't describe the issues exactly but the lion seems a bit too cartoony for me which is possibly exacerbated by the baby-blue colour, the thing is I actually like the lion in yellow but hate it in the light blue

Callum Wilson is an average PL striker, that’s not a criticism as it’s one hell of a level to get to. But the difference is he’s playing in a side that is well balanced and is set up to create chances for him. Since Deano left we’ve seem to forgotten how to get the best out of Watkins… Smith always said he was the best “pressing forward” in the league, a lot of Watkins’ goals came from forcing defenders into mistakes, running in behind or getting early low crosses into the box quickly for him, we don’t bother with any of that any more.

As for Ings I don’t think we ever knew what to do with him but he has a similar record Wilson, maybe better actually, so he should be able to score goals but again it’s about having a system which works. Both players look devoid of confidence… Watkins in particular, that’s an outcome of poor form and poor tactical set ups which don’t suit either of them for the last 12 months at least. Hopefully the new manager has a better plan for what to do with them

On 22/10/2022 at 02:18, Laughable Chimp said:

Looking back, I think this will probably become our worst signing of the bunch. We purchased an injury prone and on the decline player and gave him massive wages and a long term contract without ever really signifivantly improving the position. He’s gonna be impossible to shift for the next 3 years

I can’t even be that mad at gerrard for this considering many of our fans thought and some still do think this was a very good signing. They’re making the very same mistake Gerrard did. Thinking just because a player is a “big name” they’re a sure fire improvement over what we have

 

The Digne transfer / selling Targett was the first red flag with Gerrard for me as Targett was a solid player for us for the most part. Yes he was down on form and confidence but a decent manager should have been able to help him recreate his form from the previous season when he won player’s player of the season. Instead we just turfed him out immediately and replaced him with a far more expensive older player who had actually been bombed-squaded by a far more experienced manager at his last club and hadn’t done anything for months

Maybe Digne will look better again when we get a new manager who hopefully doesn’t play Digne in some of the ridiculous positions he did under Gerrard’s tactics 

Had echoes of the James Rodriguez to Everton transfer at the time and unfortunately that’s how it’s panned out. A lot of excitement, flashes of brilliance but fizzled out pretty quickly leaving the club with a big wage packet to cover. 

I still think there’s a player in there given a tweak in systems but he needs to contribute more, work harder and be more aggressive on the ball and without it

2 hours ago, MrBlack said:

Could well have been intentionally leaked to try and improve the feel good factor around the club. You only have to look at the positive reaction its given people towards Danks, to know that its not going to be seen as a bad thing for him to be dropped.

Club can easily just say its not rocket science and someone made a lucky guess, but reap the benefits of the fans knowing that Gerrard's system has died a complete death with him gone.

Why on earth would leaking the team sheet lead to a feel good factor? 

I agree McGinn has been below par and could have been dropped earlier (although I’m not convinced Dendonker, Nakamba or Sanson are better and Kamara is injured) but fans almost cheering because he’s been dropped is just crass  

27 minutes ago, mikeyjavfc said:

This is it really. People have a go at Lange for bad recruitment, but since Purslow appointed Gerrard the recruitment and strategy has clearly been led by Gerrard and any previous long term strategy has been ripped up. Just think about the Sarr deal that Gerrard supposedly torpedoed for example. We really did go all in on Gerrard when he rocked up with his 20 staff. Just too bad he has turned out to be a charlatan all along. I bet Lange has felt very marginalised during Gerrard reign.

The strategy showed signs of collapsing before that anyway, Ings is the prime example but even Sanson who was signed the previous January as a major signing has been a total disaster. Things obviously accelerated further with Gerrard at the helm but I think it’s fair to question the recruitment strategy and decisions of the club / board

1 hour ago, HKP90 said:

Genuine question to those who want Rodgers. What makes you think we'll get the Rodgers who was historically successful, and not the Rodgers who is imploding at Leicester? 

They finished 8th last season which isn’t bad considering the strength of the top 6 clubs. 5th the season before with the FA cup. So when you say “historically” you’re talking 6-18 months, hardly any time at all. 

Leicester seem like a basket case at the moment, selling key players and not replacing them. I get the sense Rodgers probably wants to leave, but with the termination pay outs these days probably doesn’t want to resign, that’s poor on his part but kind of understandable if there’s the reported £10m at stake. 

He ticks a lot of boxes when it comes to experience at this level and getting success with club in a similar position to us, and is apparently more of a technical coach which we have obviously lacked

3 minutes ago, R.Bear said:

We're not in relegation battle ffs.

The league table says otherwise 

We should be good enough for mid table, but if we get the wrong appointment then it could end up very quickly a slog for the rest of the season. Lose on Sunday with no manager and we could be in the bottom 3

I would be (pleasantly) shocked if Poch turned up here as manager... a top name manager with genuine credentials. I think the writing is on the wall for Gerrard but with a game mid-week I'd be surprised if the trigger was pulled before next weekend unless we have someone waiting in the wings to take over immediately, from the reports it seems like talks with Poch are tentative at best

24 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Big if true.

They wouldn't normally do a press conference to sack the manager, it would just be announced via a statement. This is either bollocks or something unrelated

4 hours ago, useless said:

 

I know it's the way it is nowadays with these foreign owners across the Premier League, but something just does not sit with me with owners who never turn up to the games. I can't believe that are genuinely into the sporting project when they attend maybe once or twice a season, I just don't buy it. I'm not niaive I know they are here for a financial reason but you'd like to think they would show more passion for it

13 minutes ago, Ingram85 said:

“They should wipe the floor with us”.

That amazing world renowned winning mentality coming to the fore there. Used car salesman. Absolute chancer. 

It’s less bad in the context of the interview but to me just shows how awful he is at communicating, same as the ridiculous comments re Mings after Bournemouth which caused an unnecessary circus… he’s like a bull in a China shop with the lack of foresight in his comments. He must be the same behind closed doors there’s no way you can naturally turn that carelessness on or off