Oh dear, oh dear, what to say?
I had the game on Radio WM, but the site’s SSL security certificate ran out which meant that you were probably seeing a warning about the site being unsafe. Let me reassure you, it isnt.
Anyway, I updated the certificate, only for the site to crash, which meant I was working on that and didn’t really concentrate on the commentary.
Hence any real assessment is vague at best, but the general tone of the commentary was easy to catch and when you hear “worrying”, “no shape” and “poor” etc, you have to be concerned.
I’ve said previously that our first few fixtures are tough and I hinted that I didn’t think we’d have many points racked up, which would probably lead to fans calling for Bruce’s head.
But from what I’ve seen on various other Villa sites, it seems the clamour has started already.
Now of course, it’s still very early days, but we’re already five points down on the league leaders and you have to wonder how much of a lead we might be able to pull back before it’s too late to challenge.
The most single worrying thing today was the comment that “Cardiff are a very average side, that will finish around tenth at best, yet they still beat us comfortably”.
So where does that leave us?
By the sounds of it, Warnock did his homework and targeted our right side, meaning Hutton had a shocker.
But more worryingly, it seems our defence was utter rubbish today, something I find strange given that we are supposed to have beefed it up. Words like “slow” maybe justify why some of us were concerned by Terry’s signing.
And just maybe my viewpoint about playing our “best” eleven so they get to know each other was also justified?
I don’t know.
As I said, it’s early days. Nothing is certain yet and Cardiff away is never going to be an easy game.
But we have another tough game coming up, away to Reading.
Are we confident that we’ll get anything there?
We need to start gaining points, even if they’re only single one’s because if we don’t, the season will be over before it’s really up and running.
I wonder what Tony Xia is thinking?
No reasonable owner is going to sack a manager this early, but you have to wonder how many poor performances he’ll tolerate.
I’m also intrigued as to how some of our more positive posters are going to react to this result.
I expect some very lively debate!
Comments
316 responses to “Cardiff 3 – 0 Villa; The clamour begins”
Normal service has resumed – full of optimism over the summer for us to fall back to earth with the normal thud of reality… The club seems to drain players and managers like kryptonite around Supermans neck – god knows what the answer is, maybe we are all living in the past and expecting too much ????
You should listen to uncle OOHAGH you know I never sugar coat it. I told you we’d be around midtable again this season and that’s where I expect us to finish unless Bruce goes
I think we will be around mid table whether he stays or goes mate – God knows what the answer is !!
Not sure where any optimism was coming from. We were dreadful for pretty much the entirety of the time Bruce was here last year and the signings over the summer were a joke. Chris Samba, a mercenary who was instrumental in QPR becoming a farce, Whelan who’s legs went about 3 years ago, etc. How can anyone feel we could do any better this season.
Bruce has offered no solutions, regurgitates the same old cliches and has shown he is totally out of touch with the modern game. I’m afraid to say Wyness seems another dinosaur of the Bruce ilk, who is badly advising the club.
Wolves are showing us how to rebuild, their owners look a lot more clued up and they weren’t afraid to bin Lambert and have brought in a top European coach, with excellent young hungry and technical players. Dr Tony must act now otherwise his credibility and investment are going down the pan.
Problem is…. what is the answer, the club has tried most things and we have been utter sh1t for years…. Should we lower our expectation as fans, as it seems the club certainly has !!
Decision making has been horrendously poor for the best part of the last decade. However, that does not mean expectations should fall. We have no divine right to win this league, however when you consider the investment and financial advantage we have over so many teams, our inability to compete at the top of the 2nd tier is a massive failure and one that falls primarily at the door of the management team.
We IMO have needed for years to stick to a philosophy and build on it. Thats why managers like Wagner or Jokanovic are invaluable and successful at this level. They bring players to fit their systems and stick to their beliefs. Currently we have no style, no philosophy, no tactics. Players like Hogan or Hourihane haven’t just turned to shit having been stars at their previous clubs, they are being used completely ineffectively by an outdated manager whose idea of tactics is putting Chris Samba, a washed up old mercenary, upfront and hoofing long balls for him.
villa having no playing style, philosophy, through the club from top to bottom is something that has been happening for years. not the fault of current manager. but is being addressed now. players like Hogan hourihane Lansbury I think these are not totally down to steve bruce alone.but they have a system, a panel where names are discussed.
samba was used once, just to change things up. hull had managed to cope with everything villa threw at them, so for the closing stages they tried something different. most teams do this when pushing for a win. teams like utd and everton used Fellaini. like this.
we all know the problems around villa. but what are the solutions we all want to know the solutions and the club need to. they have experts there like brian little ian taylor both have claret and blue blood. you can bet that they are searching for the answers.
does that sports devil not work anymore, ???? been trying to get a link for the spuds game. nothing 🙁
Nath join a spurs group on Facebook maybe you’ll get a stream 😁
nothing bloody works, call this technology lol where’s my hammer, I will try spuds fan for the day
Try the Russians for any EPL games. They do not have them all when more than one are played simultaneously, but they have the best at that time and all that stand alone time-wise. Put these words into IE or Chrome search engines “VK.COM football blood” and it should lead you to the site. NB very important you need an ACE player not any other media player to make it work but this is a free download.
just been reading that internet providers will be blocking illegal streams including kodi boxes starting with 2017~18season. so that’s probably reason why my tech is failing today. football was a sport of the working classes. now that my football is being blocked, I will have to upgrade my tv to watch the football or NOT.
I wonder if all the foreign countries will have their football blocked by their internet providers or is this just another rip of the British. conversation on this blog will suffer. with nobody seeing the games, we could relying on what the papers say or radio. channel 5 coverage of the championship is about as good as villa football
All true but like I say above because the EPL & SKY/BTSPORT have sold their TV coverage to several foreign countries, those countries can broadcast it to their people how they like. Probably because their domestic TV is still decades behind the times they broadcast it by streaming direct to computers. All you need then is that link. Click on the advert for the game to open up the channels and copy the Ace stream link into the Ace player stream ID. What you get is HD pictures with Russian, Bulgarian or Romanian commentary.
Post deleted as it advises on contravention of Footy copyright rules (Badger)
What’s OTT Langford. How do I know what country to set VPN to.
So with this VPN can I watch every prem game and championship. Why set it to USA why not uk thanks
Post deleted as it advises on contravention of Footy copyright rules (Badger)
Ps does it have to be watched on computer or can it go onto tv thanks
I’ve just watched the extended highlights and wow, we looked absolutely awful at the back. So sloooooow!
I’ve also just watched SB’s post match interview and he looks truly gutted.
Worryingly, I didn’t see any hint of him knowing how to sort things.
Also, I logged in to AVTV yesterday, only to see that I apparently don’t have any subscriptions.
Yet guess what arrived today?
An email receipt confirming a recurring payment.
Unbelievable 🙁
What the hell is going on with this part of the club?
Somebody will probably blame Bruce for your subscription issues
Lol….well he has had 2 games to fix it 🙂
Nath…should have said every 3pm PL game, not every game!
Expected to wake up to news that charlie has sacked dinosuar Bruce but no he has not lernt his lesson from signing up dematteo instead he in china counting up his money like scrooge mcduck and this utter shyte i hear from so called villa fans still defending bruce wake up and smell the coffee you dumb f ucks nothing is gonna change worst thing that could happen now is that bruce blags a couple of scummy 1-0 wins by getting an early goal and then putting 100 players behind the ball play hoof ball for 70 mins i want them to loose and losse badly next game so charlie can get them jack duckworth specs off and see that bruce is wrecking the villa with his utter shyte tactics
When he came to villa he asked where the chalk board was they said times moved on steve we now have whiteboard but it dont matter anyway his forst tactic talk was ‘why aye man we play like this bang it up to centre forward, then to wings, then wing nob it up to back peg and striker nods it in’ because i cannot imagine it getting any more texhnical than that and for the rest of the tactic talk he gets out the wagon wheels while he drags out the VHS and starts bashing the old bish to his playing days of 1989. My point is this utter shyte is getting more and more accepted by the fans where is the passion anymore we just seem to accept this shower and its getting worse and worse i mean we sign glenn f ckin whelan and people get excited we sign john f ckin terry we are only about 20 years to late to sign these players next he will be signing up his old pals from united paul ince and dennis irwin because feck me he defintely dooes not need any attackers with these tactics and anyway we got abonglanhore he will save us vite with your f ckin feet vote with your f ckin voices lets get this deluded old dinosaur out kf villa park and if i hear any cheering in next game when we make another 2 yeard f ckin pass im done with this shower
Post allowed John, but please try and add some punctuation.
I leave you lot for two weeks and mayhem, what the fuck happened? I wouldn’t mind but befriended a Cardiff fan and boy was I glad to get off that ship. I haven’t seen sod all of that match but reading comments we was dire again. I give up are we going to be a big club or going into oblivion. I’m gutted.
Welcome back to Blighty Bill and mahyem – hope you brought plenty of vodka with you – might need It! :-). 🙂
Bill…welcome home! Hope you had a good time! Yesterday was abysmal mate. All I got for my trouble was a hangover and a sore throat. On a more positive note, enjoyed the company of 5000 amazing Villans. Worry not as we will be in the top 4 before the end of October and promoted in May!
thank you langfordvilla 🙂 I will definitely look into that. that ipvanish I have been researching all afternoon, but i was undecided sounds dodgy. but if this helps me to watch my football I am in
Nath…what do you think is dodgy mate. Haven’t paid Sky or BT for more than 3 years. What box do you use….I have an Amazon Fire TV. Let me know if you need any help setting up mate!
I just thought it might be a scam. i got a amazon firestink pre loaded. i just downloaded the ipvanish it will cost 8.99 monthly. fingers crossed
Nath…,dont pay that much. I only pay £46 a year shop around. If you need any help FB me!
ive downloaded, but its not activated i intend to shop around, the price is 8,99. now that i know it works i will try to find to get it cheaper. i am already paying a fortune for internet which keeps increasing.
@ Langford.
“Worry not as we will be in the top 4 before the end of October and promoted in May”!
You do spout some bollocks. Weren’t you the same bloke who constantly used to put “we will not be relegated”? More bollocks spouted.
Post also allowed ITK, but don’t get too insulting 😉
We like to develop a bit of a relationship first before we slag each other off 🙂
Fwiw, Langford has accepted that we were poor yesterday.
I don’t neccessarily agree with his overall positive view, but a bit of optimism doesn’t hurt, imo.
Badger…may be wise to take down my earlier posts regarding OTT TV and IPvanish…..authorities may not like them!
And I’m not the slightest but worried about abuse…nothing changes my positivity lol 🙂
Done 🙂
ITK….AKA as BWS me thinks…!
ITK – just as a matter of interest what are you ITK about?
Frankly I’d rather read Langford’s positive posts than all the negative stuff on here. Having said that we are all realistic about yesterday’s dire performance but don’t believe the solution is as simple as appointing a ‘young foreign manager’!
There is a deep rooted cancour at VP which is not easily removed – but then the young and optimistic lack the synicism that us old and negative tossers have experienced through our lives! 🙂
Onward and upward – the future is claret and blue.
UTV
Cheers Langford, I’m pushing the boat out now, I’m now looking for a clairvoyant, don’t care how much it cost but I must find out what the hell going on. If we lose anymore think you’ll have to agree the writing on the wall, we all stuck with him but hey do we have men or mouse, me thinks mouse springs to mind. I cannot take more of last season results but it started again.
Bill…only 2 games mate. Yesterday was shocking. I can put up with poor displays but not lack of effort, desire or commitment! Thats totally unnaceptable! Yes, Bruce got the tactics wrong but as I said yesterday you cant convince me that he asks them to play without passion and determination…..thats solely down to the players! Having said that, Bruce must have seen what I saw and he’s responsible for making sure it never happens again! If he can’t do that then I will be calling for his head as this will mean he’s lost the dressing room!
Hello Bill.
In fairness, I think we all knew our opening games were going to be tough.
It’s not the results that bother me so much, but more the manner of them.
The performances have not convinced me in the slightest.
I expect to be expanding on this after the Reading game.
thanks you all,for your help guys 🙂 you should delete my post a few minutes ago as well badger sorry lol
Nowt wrong with using a VPN mate.
ok 🙂 my granddad used to say that word nowt and yonder lol
Nath PM me on FB…dont pay £8.99 a month…shop around. I only pay £46 per annum. It works out at less than £10’per month with the service I suggested earlier! Just pm or mail me. Will even set up for you if your willing to lose your fire stick for a 3 or 4 days!
i replied further up lang. but i will shop around. i am not a tech guy, but i used you tube that showed me how to set it up. i followed it. but then i came to the price, it was freedownload but monthly fee.
i will continue tomorrow with it 🙂 thanks for your help
Ok Nath…but the offer is there if you want it! Could set up for you and have it back to you within 4 or 5 days mate.
I see bacuna has officially joined reading if a player is ever up for a game Tuesday night don’t look much further than bacuna
Oh no…I was dreading that would happen! Has the story been written already? 87th minute winner by Bacuna. I wouldnt have let him go before Tuesday!
i joked earlier about that very thing. but in football that sort of thing happens more often that than not. he has received some abuse rightly or wrongly and he will want to have the final word. i wish him all the best, but i will have fingers crossed he doesn’t do us over and have the last laugh
Bacuna might not have been the best player in the world and he did say some silly things but to blame him for all our ills is just silly. I wish him well and if he does for us on Tuesday we only have ourselves to blame.
And whilst Bacuna is a subject of debate, it may have escaped many that we actually made a profit on his sale! Now how many players can we say that about?
He’s a champions league player you know 😄
Logan…did you understand the details I gave you earlier?
Oohah Not Logan lol
It seems we made money on Bacuna, wages apart, which can’t be bad business.
Just another far too average player during his time at Villa and I don’t see this as a loss even if he does score against us.
Oops, missed that comment Hitch.
But yes, it’s rare we make money.
badger
how is hull at home with complete new squad new manager,and cardif away under warnock who is in charge as long as bruce but with 3m profit hard fixtures and to only get 1 point is criminal ,you might say bruce has sold players ,none he bought spent 30m in january they are worth about 10m at minute
to many excuses for bruce now
We really don’t know how Hull will pan out yet.
It’s their first season and they could do a Newcastle or a Villa.
And Cardiff away is never going to be an easy game, with their physicality.
You might think it’s criminal, but I never expected 2 wins here.
Same as I don’t see many points in our next three games.
It’s just a bad set of fixtures to start with, which don’t leave much room to get momentum going.
The fixtures after, look kinder to me and that’s where we should begin to rack up points.
If Bruce gets the chance, that is.
I know. With our squad, no game should be overly difficult, but we have to be realistic and we always knew we weren’t going to go the season undefeated.
badger
4points should have been picked up,or at least 2 performances,villa have spent best part of 100m on players in this league added to massive wages,we should have been saying no fixture is hard ,remember this is bruces level for getting out of,
Testing
Some of Bruce’s latest comments being reported;
“They looked so fragile.
A team of mine shouldn’t be like that. They can get beat but it’s the manner in which they get beat.
Since I’ve been here, it’s happened too many times.
That’s why I got the experience in but even they couldn’t give us that determination that we need.”
Those to me, are the words of a man who knows his time is up, because he knows he cannot sort what is fundamentally wrong at the Villa.
I’m beginning to get seriously worried.
There’s something massively wrong at the club, as I’ve often said and if an old hand like Bruce can’t sort it, I’m wondering who can.
My god, I hope we can scrape some results quickly, because if we can’t I predict years in the wilderness.
Which is something I’ve refused to consider up til now.
Thoroughly depressed after reading that 🙁
The mentality at Villa is worrying. We’ve destroyed multiple average English coaches who were held in high regard, whether you thought they were good or not. Lambert, Sherwood, now Bruce. McLeish I know isn’t English, Lerner and Fox and the players destroyed Garde. I mean I’m aware Villa fans expect a lot, as we should. Most clubs fan’s should expect a lot, but these guys come in all happy and become incredibly miserable within months. Bruce actually looked decent before coming to Villa, now look at him. He looks… Dead. We’ve changed owners, we’ve changed managers, we’ve changed directors, I mean bar Gabby who I can’t really see having this huge of an affect on the mentality, it’s shocking how bad it’s turned out. I don’t rate a single manager we’ve had in the last 10-15 years or so, but you have to wonder just what can cause such a dismantling. We desperately at this point need something different, as I’ve harped on for years now. We’re literally the definition of Insanity. Doing the same thing over and over and expecting something to change. I’ve sadly read fans want Allardyce to come out of retirement to replace Bruce. God help us if he does.
Lerner set in motion a cycle of terminal decline which is constantly being refuelled through a combination of expectation, weight of being a ‘big club, financial pressure (FFP) and fear of being left behind – for a comparison think Leeds. for an antithesis think Huddersfield.
Unless the manager and players can free their minds then fear of defeat becomes the driver rather than the ability to consistently play and express their abilities. What is the expression – they ‘freeze’ on the pitch. This is a phsychological problem not an ability one.
Or we’re just cursed 🙂
Bruce summed it up in a very similar way to me only I wasn’t so polite!
that post by Andrew is about the best he has ever posted. it has truth running through it. whether you want a young foreign manager or English. the managers we have destroyed is unbelievable. you only need to look at their records before villa. I can’t understand why. big sam is another manager I have admired from afar. his teams, like bruce are always tough to play against, but like bruce they are not the prettiest to watch. but I want results first then style. we can’t manage one of them let alone both.
that young german at Norwich is struggling alittle I thought they would do well this year and sunderland would struggle as villa did first year down. but football isn’t easy to predict or we all would be rich of our winnings.
Badger, I’ve looked at bits of the game and to me its the reason why we lost, ever team is told go at Villa and they will buckle, we only have two players that tackle hard, Chester, Terry, the others they try to play football, that doesnt work in the Championship the have to show aggression and we don’t, on that showing I don’t see us going up, sorry but it looks that way to me. We will as fans make opinions it will drag on at another season over, they are weak players.
Yes, we’ve made desperately poor choices for a decade now… the underlying problem is the lack of philosophy or style. We were clearly trying to improve our style under Di Matteo (albeit he was very naive) and had finally banished the wasters like Gabby, then we appoint Bruce and throw the small bit of progress we made all away. However, we are no better now than 1 year ago.
Signing Terry for me is also a huge mistake. Besides the exposure against teams with pace, he’s made us a scalp and a team every youngster wants to up there game in. He’s no longer good enough to counteract this effect and for that reason we will be up against it in every away game.
I just want Dr Tony to act now, Wolves got it wrong twice last year with Zenga then Lambert, They didnt bang on about giving him a pre season or time otherwise theyd be in the same trouble we are in now, they got on with it and brought in a top coach in Nuno and several good technical players who look brilliant at this level. The consequence is they look well placed for a good season, we are in turmoil again. We have to act fast now to give a new man at least a week of the window.
villain 1
good post ,said a few times on terry about young up and coming looking for a name for themselves,you also hit the nail on the head about gabby ,should been doc first job to get shot of 2 matches 1 goal disappeared v hull after 20mins never appeared v cardiff usual story,hutton gets praise on here from some but he is god dam awful footballer,
But that’s just it.
If an old hand like Bruce can’t sort us, I don’t think a young technical foreign type manager has a hope in hell; not in a million years.
Haven’t we already bought some therapist or something in to look at the mentality?
I’m pretty sure we have.
So the board have that covered.
As much as I can understand those that want Bruce gone, so the thought of us trying to get a replacement is equally worrying.
We’re at very big risk of becoming a bargepole club, if we aren’t there already.
this post is what I have been saying……… you have hit the problem badger right on its head. I also understand other wanting a new attacking manager. but as you put very wisely. if a old hand like bruce cant sort us. what chance on a novice coach.
I don’t for one minute know the answer. but I am happy that this question ia now being asked. instead of the easy solution of get rid of another manager, their must be something wrong at villa. for so many managers to fall flat on their face
Something that really bugs me we bring in players with a previous good reputation at their club then wear the claret and blue & simply go stale before everyone jumps on Bruce this has happened with previous managers aswell is it now a villa thing??
I think it is a Villa thing Giddy.
The “something” none of us can put our fingers on.
It’s why I haven’t been so quick in calling for Bruce’s head just yet.
I’m beginning to think whichever manager comes in, is going to have exactly the same problem.
As has been said, look at what’s been tried before and it’s all failed.
All we need now is Xia to bail and we’re truly in it.
Hopefully it won’t come to that just yet.
Still, trying to stay positive and if we get a result at Reading, the mood changes drastically.
giddy makes another great point. players …..we buy good players, they score many goals and create many goals just before they sign. put them in villa colours they seem like different players. WHY are we really suggesting that bruce can make them play shit instantly. Whelan class player yet other day ppl saying hes slow and a weak link in our midfield. I didn’t see that game, but I have seen his many times at stoke and he his better than championship so was this game a one off. or is he going to be another player we bought another dud.
again like giddy says this happened before bruce, and rdm etc… what are we doing to the players. we have constantly adding to the dreaded deadwood yearly
I do believe this new formation he’s trying ain’t working I can see it being 4-4-2 tomorrow & everything crossed
I don’t knock Bruce he’s had enough disfigurement over his years in the game, its that we do have weakling in the team, one sees one not trying so he don’t, the whole team dont believe in them selves , they can play football but lack guts and determination. Look at how lower clubs have played against us an got a result, they are made to believe in each other. It’s making me think he’s not the man yet he’s proved he has, kick them players up the arse and sod this being abused lark out the door.
From what I’m reading Bruce is going to ring in the changes this evening so the team sheet should be interesting.