The news first came out in the Guardian, but it’s also being reported by Skysports and the Beeb, etc, so you’d expect it’s probably correct.
Of course, nothing is certain until it’s certain, is it? It was only yesterday that he was guaranteed to go, after all.
Of course, I’m massively biased in my views, but I do believe this is the right decision for the lad at this current time.
Yannick Bolasie sent a Tweet or an Instagram thingy that asked Tammy not to go with a picture of him having Tammy in a friendly headlock and you get the sense that the striker has got a great rapport with the rest of the Villa players, even though he’s only been with us for a few months.
Couple that with the fact that while I don’t think he’s anywhere near the finished article yet, he’s having a great season thus far.
As I suggested the other day, why would he want to leave?
There are of course, some good reasons though.
He’d be playing at a Premier league club for a start. But Wolves are going quite well and would Tammy be able to get much playing time there? You have to doubt it and substitute would probably be his usual position.
I do think we got a little lucky when Chelsea came out and said that the player wasn’t for sale.
I think that if Chelsea had wanted to sell the player, he’d probably have gone, as he’d have a much better chance of fighting for a place.
As it is, Tammy (or more likely his agent) has decided to opt for the status quo.
It was interesting to see that Abraham apparently didn’t train yesterday. Either he met the Wolves staff and asked for guarantees that weren’t forthcoming or Dean Smith just gave him the day off to have a think about it.
If it was the former, well, it’s to our benefit that we’ve still got him.
If it was the latter, we have a short term legend on our hands.
Either way, this is great news that I’m welcoming with open arms.
Wow. I thought we might make this a difficult game but that is a shocking scoreline. We need to turn this around sharpish, but we are lacking in leaders in the team, and clearly miss Grealish badly.
Perhaps a pivotal game – a win and we’d be in 7th and two off the play offs, lose and we’re in 12th and five points off the play offs.
Looks like another season in the Championship and perhaps that won’t be such a bad thing. There is obviously a lot of work to be done at VP and I don’t want us to get up to the Prem and then get thrashed every game because we’re nowhere near good enough.
I’m still convinced that Smith is the man to take Villa forward but we all need to have some patience. Otherwise we’ll end up with having a revolving door of managers and that never, ever ends well.
Fine – as long as we don’t get ‘we’re still only 5 points off play offs’ – that’s a cop out.
With only half decent form over the last few weeks, we would be in the play off places and today has really f***ed up our goal difference so add another point to the 5.
Can’t agree more Pat. It’s just depressive we’re going through this rough patch. I hope Smith and the recruitment team can unearth a couple of great unearthed players. A Platt, Yorke or Bosnich would do.
Come on you Villa
Sorry but I cannot see how Smith and Terry can turn us around with players like Whelan Taylor, Bjarnason, shall I go on.? Yes that was the worst game under Smith it looked as if The team was on strike or playing the manager out of a job. What can he do now only bring in loans., I’m afraid we are not going up with that team.
its a hard game to single out blame as the whole performance was dire. i thought first half we struggled to pass from A to B and simple passes also. our left flank was a open invitation to attack both taylor and ghazi were poor defensively.
second half we made changes early but we didn’t improve, we just crumbled more, or wearing claret blue shirt expectation was too much for our feeble players.
couldnt pick out a villa man of man. i thought we would see a reaction but i didnt see this coming. has smith spoke yet ??
smith basically said same we couldnt pass the ball, he mentioned us doing things individually towards the end and i agree with that. we are not a good team in like leeds were last night. i harped on earlier but if anybody watched that game. they tackled derby in twos and threes, also when leeds lost the ball they got it back in seconds, that desire leeds showed was miles of the desire the villa showed today,
Have to say smiths honesty is refreshing, no bull just as it was, admitting subs didn’t work, not talking the players up regarding today. Needs changes for next game, Taylor, bree, bjarnason all need dropping, need more energy in defensive midfield which sadly we don’t have unless youth gets a chance
Have been saying as far back as last years in Prem…if players cant at least give effort i.e. show energy and close down players then after a few games OUT and that means OUT of VP…..even little Burton were still doing this in added time and they were 9 down….
Just been reading Birmingham live. It says it all, Smith has some explaining to do, mainly over the substitution fans was singing your f#$@kin shit not fit to wear the shirt, they also gave players scores goalkeeper got the most with 6 the rest low scores, Bree, Taylor, and Bjarnason along with Chester.says it all.
I fear there are massive problems at our club – but I’m completely at a loss to understand what they are.
Smith has a massive challenge ahead of him – the positive is that I believe we have owners that can (financially) and will back him.
We need to be realistic – promotion is beyond us this season – it’s now down to Smith to make the right calls to mount a serious and sustainable challenge next season.
UTV
i was trying to think of our player of the match and i couldnt come up with a reasonable suggestion. our goalie did make some fines stops, his distribution towards the end was shocking, but also the pass backs were too.
i think its best to draw a line through the game as a write off,we were that poor. the swansea game last week was poor, but swansea forced villa to make mistakes. wigan today were equally poor, until we gifted them confidence and the game.
i am really shocked and clueless to the solution, its everything today rather than one player or two. havent been this low since the relegation year were we all walked around like zombies in a daze to whats happening to our team
New owners, new managers, new players and still the same old shit! Getting totally disillusioned with our over hyped and over paid players! I’m at a loss to having any opinion that will answer this continual nightmare we find ourselves in. I maintain that we don’t have any battlers apart from McGinn and Hutton. The rest seem happy to swan along picking up their fat pay packets whilst having a big laugh at the fans expense. Bruce made a comment about rolling sleeves up and putting boots on as basics we weren’t doing and that’s the problem we still have. I mean who wants to mix it up with a team fighting relegation on a cold windy January Saturday? Our spoilt team that’s who! After all for a Wigan team and it’s supporters, today’s game was probably the highlight of the season. I wish Smith would drop the lot of them except McGinn and play the kids. Doesn’t matter if we don’t win next game because we aren’t going up anyway.
watched the first goal back. during the match i only saw taylor done up like a kipper and that player pulled it back and they scored. but having seen it again. none of the villa defenders in the box tried to pick up the wigan three attackers. one guy who scores is free all the time hourihane is too far off him. the other two wigan players move before the ball is crossed off the cb to edge of box and nobody went with them. its a bad goal all round.
second goal is worse a simple cross to the back stick and wigan have three unmarked players, one of them heads the ball into the other corner unchallenged
was it a pen who cares.
also the only chance we had which i forgot was Tammy goalies makes a poor throw out lands to Bolasie who passes to Tammy after he screams to him demanding the ball, tammy somehow misses unchallenged with only the goalie to beat who is also off his line in a vain attempts to close the angles, its a easy chance missed
Nice thought that Holte66, there’s got to be a reason as to what.ive been scratching my head why did we play that bad, might it be Abonglahor popped his head round the door, could it be that word got out as to who getting the boot soon. Someone said Kodjia was at the airport today, but he might have been going to Bristol to see family, or knows he’s off and players are unsettled. Either way that performance should not have happened to our traveling fans who are known to be the best in the country.
Bill, the least the fans can expect is effort. Imagine what Sir Ron would think of players not giving 110%. Wigan players put a shift in and got their reward. What does JT think after that performance. It’s one thing losing but to get rolled over by an ‘inferior’ team is embarrassing. The club doesn’t deserve the following it gets. Isn’t it ironic that the ones who will be feeling the most depressed are the fans who spent good money travelling there, while the players probably have already got over their ‘bad’ day and will be picking up thousands of pounds for their ‘efforts’ Absolute madness!
It hurts Holte66, I was thinking seeing the fans it was empty of Wigan supporters and where Villa fans was packed, I feel for the supporters it was what I did in my younger days but I never seen games like that, far from it.
We’re now going to find out if Smith is really any good as a manager. To be fair he can only play with what he inherited and from that squad he’s lost, arguably, his two best players in Grealish and Tuanzebe. It can’t just be a coincidence that this extended run of poor results has happened during their absence.
What it demonstrates is that the squad we have is unbalanced and lacks depth in cover in key areas – is that because Bruce made poor decisions or because of the financial hiatus at the club or a combination of both?
I’m sure the new owners will cut Smith some slack and back him financially to the extent that FFP allows but he will have to demonstrate he can sort this mess out.
For a start I’d recall Andre Green and send Bolassie and El Ghazi back where they came from.