Some more in the know news has come out of Villa Park today and as usual, take it with a grain of salt. But, the last time I did an ITK post, all things became true, minus Kozak going out on loan. But that move was largely influenced by the arrival of Remi Garde. Nonetheless, let’s begin:
Aly Cissokho can and will definitely be brought back to Villa from his loan move at Porto. Villa are in need of a new left-back and Garde has previously worked with Cissokho. Cissokho isn’t getting too much game time at Porto and appears to be keen on reuniting with Garde. It’s not known whether or not Cissokho will be brought in before January to get some extra training but Cissokho can not play for Villa until January anyway.
The rumour of Adama Traore’s £80,000 a week contract is simply not true. There are no appearances clauses in his contract and will not become Villa’s highest earning player any time soon. What does remain true about Traore is that he hasn’t be playing because the coaching staff simply don’t believe that he is ready to be playing first team football. Traore has a bag load of potential, but he is very frustrating to work with in training. Garde has tried to tell Adama numerous times to track back, but he is apparently very stubborn and refusing to adapt his playing style. Traore will most likely not be anywhere near the first team any time soon.
A new centre-forward is a top priority in the January transfer window, until then the plan is to try and get as many points as possible and try to push on from January on wards with a new forward. Speaking of January, a new goal keeper is not on the list with Guzan set to remain Villa’s first team keeper.
In training, Garde has prioritised set pieces with Veretout now responsible for the majority of set pieces at Villa. This showed against Watford with Villa scoring a goal from a set piece. Training has also been intensified and Garde’s first day of training was labelled as incredibly physical by the players standard. But this was an average training session for Garde’s Lyon side. It seems as though the players were seriously lacking match fitness and Garde is continuing to work on this aspect of the game.
You can take this with a grain of salt, but this information is incredibly interesting and gives fans a small insight into what is really going on, behind the scenes of Aston Villa.
Traore should be starting! He is clearly ability wise head and shoulders above anything we have and maybe the reason he looks a bit selfish when he comes on is because he gets 15-20 mins max and were normally losing and he is desperate to impress. Let him start and maybe we will see more give and go, tracking back etc. The lad needs game time and as much as possible!
But if he refuses to act as part of the team, then he’s a luxury we can’t afford can we? He’s no Ronaldo. I wonder if that’s why Barca shipped him out?
Good point Bum Bum. Sell him to the Villa for three years with a buy back clause. If we sort him out Barca win, we lose; if we don’t Barca win, we lose! Now where have I heard that before? 🙂
http://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/barcelona-no-interest-buying-back-6924317
Thanks Badger – most of the time I just don’t know what to believe in the press!
I was looking for the headline that read “Barca pissing themselves at off loading off player simply because they once played for us”…
Hmmmm interesting they obviously don’t rate the kid & snapped our hands off for the money.so we’ve invested in a dud or certainly someone way off the mark??? We’ve only seen him in glimpses but I suppose the bigger picture is on the training pitch & behind the door friendlies.I’m lost now how to judge his abilities this kind of throws a spanner in the works no one seems impressed with him.
Barcelona, the current best side in the world. We’re not going to get anyone they wanna keep. Traore’s ridiculously talented but his attitude towards hard work, tracking back and not being a show off is going to kill him off. Of course if they rated him we’d have no chance, we’re not even close to their level. No one in the Prem is.
We brought him from Barcelona not Stoke lol..
Plenty of players wouldn’t make it there who would do incredibly well at Villa..
Look at Sanchez.. bombed out by Barca and in the Prem he is one of the top five players..
I had resigned myself to relegation after Saturday but your ITK comment that a new goalkeeper is not on the January cards just clinches it. I said last year that Guzan would take us to the Championship, so I am not going to change my mind now.
Hutton’s OG is an example of what a duff goalie does to a defence. All our defenders are terrified of putting a back-pass to Guzan’s right foot so Hutton toe pokes the ball to his left, a more difficult angle than to Guzan’s right which is nearer straight. Guzan is leaning to his right, since if Hutton does not make the tackle that is where the attacker will be, and cannot adjust.
Having said that, back four are awful, playing for an offside which you have not got for goal 1 and an all round shambles for goal 3.
Lerner Fox and Reilly really shot the messenger when firing Sherwood. The message remains. “The Frenchies are not fit enough” (Sherwood) see above from Garde.”I need players of proven EPL quality” (Sherwood) yet much of the dross from last season who proved conclusively they were not EPL quality are still proving it. Richards, Sinclair and Gestede were gambles that other managers did not think were EPL quality who haven’t contradicted that fact. Grealish and Clark, two home grown youngsters invited to make the great leap forward – have blown it – and now have question marks against their careers in the top flight.
As always OLL, a thoughtful piece although I wasn’t sure if you were defending Sherwood or criticising the owner / directors whereas I think both (all) are worthy of criticism.
Sherwood’s view of proven EPL players (including Adebayor, Townsend and Lescott who he finally bought – but apparently didn’t rate Austin) was hardly likely to be an improvement on the squad we have and I distinctly remember Sherwood saying the French League was the closest to the Prem in terms of speed and style of play. Sherwood’s subsequent bleating doesn’t sit too comfortably with me given that
1. if he really didn’t have a say in the signings we made he should have resigned earlier before we were in complete disarray and
2. If the French players were not fit enough it was his job to get them fit quickly
Reality was (is) that Sherwood was not of proven PL quality. It remains to be seen whether Garde is.
Kozak scored for the U-21’s, while I know a lot of fans think he’s shit, I do think him coming off the bench for Ayew would work well. He has the predatory instincts, his movement off the ball is class and with Veretout providing set piece work, I don’t see why he couldn’t get a few goals till January at least. I do have a feeling Garde’s not willing to test too many players out now though, maybe other than in defense because the senior fullbacks are just awful. Wonder if we’ll see Bacuna back at RB and Kinsella coming in eventually.
It’s not all that surprising the players weren’t fully fit under Sherwood though. You could see them dying after 60 minutes, some like Richardson not even making it that long. Gotta wonder what manager’s do in training because Sherwood said the exact same thing when he came in that the players weren’t match fit under Lambert.
Saying that just take a look at Hutton looking at the player going on goal , he just had no effort in him to tackle as if shattered, as for Richardson a usless defender as a footballer full stop. Cuzan cannot position himself in reaching for shots across goal. Yes your right our defenders are rubbish and will never go any further than Aston Villa as players,
clark sanchez hutton and richardson shouldnt be playing. for some time our club has adopted a backwards way of football – hoof the ball anywhere under no pressure but try to play our way out when there is pressure.
yes gabby has his faults but time after time when a simple ball puts him through a daft ball to the corner flag or no attempt to play forward keeps happening.
grealish goes for a lads night out and in my opinion is the scapegoat.
so as i say will garde do the same to those who are at fault on the field
Clark’s currently our best CB or at least no worse than the others and Sanchez is our best midfielder, how the hell can you say they shouldn’t be starting? Ridiculous. Sanchez doesn’t hoof the ball, he often looks for a runner when on the ball. The other two obviously shouldn’t be playing.
sanchez has poor ball control and gives the ball away more times than ive had hot dinners.
and as for clark he has a costly mistake in him every game. so what villa are you watching
He doesn’t give the ball away though, a game a season ago and you’re still on that… Move on mate, actually watch him play.
Clark doesn’t make a mistake a game though, yes he’ll make a mistake but not half as many times as you’re claiming.
Are you for real?! Clark our best centre half?! Richards, Senderos and Okore are in a different league to him! Even Baker is better! Clark is a ball-watcher who is constantly sucked out of position, leaving the others in the back four wondering what the hell is going on! Richards picks up most of the pieces, just as Vlaar used to do – and gets a lot of stick as a result. Watch the goals back from the last few games and see how many Clarke was responsible for by simply not marking his man, not challenging in the air, getting the wrong side of his man, or being totally out of position. I personally think he is the worst defender I’ve ever seen in a Villa shirt – and there’s been a few strong contenders for that title!!! I’m sure he’s a nice guy and all and, yes, he’s homegrown, but he’s just not up to this level of football, sorry.
And if we don’t buy a new goalkeeper, we might as well start preparing for the Championship now! Again, worst goalkeeper I can remember in a Villa shirt. Can’t think of many worse I have seen in the Premier League. Again, I’m sure he’s a top lad and a genuinely nice guy, but he fills me with dread between the sticks!
I would like to see Kozak as a surprise sprung on opponents, as a paiiring with Ayew to start the game.
I think the whole crew at BMH down to and including Gordon Cowans needs scrapping.
Our players have not been as fit as the average side in the EPL, that is the first fault, I absolve Richardson because he is no longer capable of 90 mins and gives his best for as long as he can. But who the hell is training the rest?
Second fault is the lack of any training ground practice moves that is obviously carried through to success. Maybe last week and with the news above that Veretout is to take all dead-ball kicks we will see the first sign of that changing. I hope he has a talent for it, because Veretout does not impress me with a live ball.
Third fault is lack of players breaking through from the reserves with the right attitude. Where they do seem to have spark they have been loaned out – and a player who behaves like a tosser, Grealish gets picked again and does not get slapped down pronto. I just imagine what SAF would have said to Grealish after reading the first party-boy story. More blow-torch than hair-drier.
agree with most of your views.
but i would like to add that for what i see each week is a team of individuals who dont apply basic rules to football.
such as playing out from the back when under pressure. and when we do have time and space its either an awful attempt of a pass or kick it into touch. and for some reason there is no complaints from players manager or coaches.
my one difference is grealish. yes he needs a word but if he is to be dropped then so does most of the team because at the moment the on field mistakes are costing us.
are some of the villa coaches posing as fans on here.
to say clark and sanchez are our best players has me in stitches.
not only that but when fans start moaning at other fans for booing during the game and when i hear if we win 4 out of the next 6 we might be ok but knowing weve won 1 out of 14 keeps me reminded how deluded some people get.
as much as i want us to win games and back the team but reality does kick in and if we play shit then fans who pay hard earned cash will boo
andrew (the recent one), you have mail on the addy you used to sign up on.
Fwiw, I think Sanchez is the only mid we’ve got that can make a tackle on a regular basis and he does look for a decent out ball.
But yes, he does give it away a lot too.
U on the night shift Badger? Or is our plight keeping you awake?
Working daft hours mate, which keep changing.
The joys of being a subby.
Currently 4pm- 2 am and I’m knackered.
Sanchez is the right type of player for protecting the back 4, but he is so inconsistent. When on his game he is great, but often he is well off, losing the ball in very dangerous areas. I would still put him in the team above Westwood as he can actually win the ball.
Ive been a disappointed with Veretout and Gana (although Gana started brightly), but if you look at what happened at Newcastle when they brought in a whole team from Ligue 1, we should have maybe seen this coming. But our midfield trio cost us around 20m and we were outplayed by Watford’s bargain basement midfield on Saturday.
As for Traore, given that we still needed a RB, a quality centre back and a keeper, I’m not sure whose bright idea it was to risk 7m on him. Potential in abundance, but not ready for the Premier League yet.
Benno, I posted this a couple of days ago: Watford bought in 15 new players over the summer. Why can they gel so quickly when us and the likes of Newcastle can’t? The whole thing stinks of mis-management again to me. It’s the psyche of the club that is killing us. When an owner wants to get shot of his ‘investment’ that has become a white elephant, then for the players and staff, the club becomes little more than a well paid day job. Attitude and positivity can’t be bought or learned it seems. That’s the root of it all to me. Looks again at Watford. Palace. Stoke. Leicester. Even West Brom.
Until we get an owner that gives a fuck, forget it. Because none of the players will. Lerner is a loser and always has been with his sporting connections. And it’s rubbing off on the club. He’s a Jonah. (Allegedly)…
Agreed steer well clear of the sporting industry FIFA should wack a lifetime restraining order on the bastard.
It’s because we are poorly run from top to bottom
He lost ball a few times v Watford putting defence under pressure and was part responsible for their first goal
I suspect there’s a lot of pussy-footing around about what some think, because we want to try and keep things upbeat on the whole.
Here’s my very frank take;
Veretout and Gana are utter crap, as it stands and shouldn’t even be in a Villa midfield.
There you go, I’ve said it.
I we put all our players & I mean every player in a hat who we don’t rate I guarantee you that would be the whole of our squad.so the overall opinion is we’re absolutely utter SHITE.there is not one single player we have that everyone agrees is decent.
IF we put *
I think there are two possibilities –
1, Lerner invests some cash to help us stay up, like he did with Darren Bent – problem here is I think we are clear out of luck and think we will go down anyway, which could leave us in financial sh1t…. I doubt anyone will come to us unless, like previously, its for their one last chunky pay cheque.
2, Lerner bury’s his head in the sand and thinks we will fight our way out of it – most probable possibility with the club coming out with their building for the future/transition crap !!
Whatever – I think we are down due to the woeful running of the club and purchasing replacement players by way of a computer game.
Shame on you Lerner !
I think Amavi is quality. Injured of course.
Not really sure I agree that all our players are crap, I still think that they’re better than their current position (mind you that might only mean 16th instead of 20th) but they’re just not playing together, especially the defence where it’s most crucial.
Yes Watford got a lot of new players in but they also got their new manager in at the same time (he joined last June). This gave him some time to sort out the team he wanted.
Unfortunately we also gave our manager some time but it turned out to be the wrong manager. Even with some time Tim just couldn’t make it work.
Just wondering if Garde had been in place in the close season and with the same squad would we be doing somewhat better?
Oh well it’s all supposition now. Anyway Milton Keynes is just down the road from me so it’s handy for at least one away game next season :-((
Pat there’s even fans who knock amavi for his defending abilities but good going forward & crossing the ball.guaranteed someone out there don’t rate him.
Interesting – originally lots of optimism on here – much better squad than last season was the general consensus. Now, understandably not only does the owner / management stink (no change there then) ALL the players are useless – not one gets a tick in the box even Gana who was widely accepted as a good buy has descended to being ‘utter crap’ to quote Badger.
So, at last, we have complete agreement on this site.
Aston Villa are utter sh**e and deserve to go down probably no matter who the manager is or who we buy / don’t buy in January.
‘So, at last, we have complete agreement on this site’
Not quite, I’m still harbouring a little hope. There is a light at the end of the tunnel, okay it’s only a tealight and the wind is bloody strong yet…
Won’t totally give up until January. At least I’ll have something to take my mind of it then, I’m hopefully going to see Barca thrash Bilbao at the Nou Camp for my 65th.
At least one of my teams are okay 🙂
Pasalo bien at the nou camp pat hope they stuff em MATE.
Thanks Giddy.
Should be an experience, I mean actually watching a team I support win a game. Nearly forgot what that was like 🙂
LOL 😀 funny enough I’ve started supporting Bayern Munich I wonder why???
Glory hunter!!
Remember seeing Cruyff do his turn at Villa Park (1978?). Thought it was entirely magical. Supported Barca ever since – as my second team of course.
Well one out of two isn’t bad I suppose 🙂
2-2 John Deehan scored the equaliser in the dying moments, them where the days Pat.