I don’t suppose either subjects are massively important, but it’s news anyway, given that we don’t play again until over a week’s time.
Call it me cynically trying to maintain some interest, if you like. Which is basically what it is and I’m not trying to hide it.
So first off John McGinn has spoken to prince William and suggested that he might be ready in six weeks.
Dean Smith seems to confirm that his protective boot is due to come off, so that’s good.
But I personally think six weeks sounds ambitious.
It seems McGinn is a good healer, but even so it sounds a bit of a push.
Six weeks to be running, maybe, but fully up to speed, ready to play? Well, I’m cynical.
And then of course, there’s the mental effect.
Will the injury mean that McGinn won’t go in for tackles the way he used to, as we all know can affect players?
Personally I doubt it.
McGinn reminds me of one of my all time favourite Villa players and another Scot, in Alex Cropley.
He broke his leg twice while at Arsenal and came back just as willing to put the boot in for us. Indeed it was only(!?) his third leg break that finally finished him off.
He was a crafted player, who had an eye for a decent pass, while being tough with it, all while being only slightly built.
I doubt there’s any footage to see, but if there is, you should have a look.
So hurry back John, we massively miss you!
And then there’s a bit of news about Bodymoor Heath, where it seems there’s some good work going on in improving the facilities.
I can’t say I’m a big fan of the place, ever since the club stopped you going and actually watching the players train without an outsized pair of binoculars and I’ve been a constant critic of our academy which never seems to produce much of note (Grealish apart).
But I do appreciate that it’s where the players do most of their work and needs to kept up to date.
I seem to remember that the last time we refurbed it not long ago, it was called state of the art.
But now, it seems that the gym was small and needed extending?
Hmm, it would seem there was some club PR going on at the time and there probably still is.
Whatever, the fact that we’re improving the facility (albeit that the club has had a payout from HS2, which has probably paid for most of it) is to be commended.
Roll on the important stuff, which is the footy eh?
Comments
61 responses to “John McGinn update and BMH news”
All very boring, with no footy to watch.
I’m off out for a sunbathe and a bit more rum and coke.
£3m – that was the payout from HS2 for BMH land. Suspect the upgrades probably cost a few more bob than that.
And yes Alex Cropley / McGinn comparison a good one.
I thought it was £5 mill, but am probably wrong.
That was according to the accounts report that I was reading but you may well be right Badger. Either way, in the context of football finances, it wasn’t a fortune!
Bottom three now. Watford winning.
whats the news on Davis? Is he out again?
No news that I’ve seen, Benno.
You’d have thought the club would know by now and the cynic in me says they would have shouted loudly if it was good news.
Hence I suspect it’s not good 🙁
Feeling a bit bored without games so decided to calculate points for bottom six teams as below. Let me know what you think!
Norwich remaining games:-
Liverpool H lose
Wolves A lose
Leicester H draw
Spurs A lose
Sheffield Utd A lose
Southampton H draw
Everton H draw
Arsenal A lose
Brighton H win
Watford A lose
West Ham H win
Chelsea A lose
Burnley H win
Man City A lose
Points 12 – Total 30 points
Watford remaining games:-
Brighton A draw
Man Utd A lose
Liverpool H lose
C Palace A draw
Leicester H draw
Burnley A draw
Southampton H win
Chelsea A lose
Norwich H win
Newcastle H win
West Ham A draw
Man City H lose
Arsenal A lose
Points 14 – Total 37 points
West Ham remaining games:-
Man City A lose
Liverpool A lose
Southampton H draw
Arsenal A lose
Wolves H win
Spurs A lose
Chelsea H draw
Newcastle A draw
Burnley H win
Norwich A lose
Watford H draw
Man Utd A lose
Villa H draw
Points 11 – Total 35 points
Villa remaining games:-
Spurs H draw
Southampton A lose
Sheffield Utd H draw
Leicester A lose
Chelsea H draw
Newcastle A lose
Wolves H win
Liverpool A lose
Man Utd H draw
C Palace H win
Everton A lose
Arsenal H draw
West Ham A draw
Points 12 – Total 37 points
Bournemouth remaining games:-
Sheffield Utd A lose
Burnley A draw
Chelsea H draw
Liverpool A lose
C Palace H win
Wolves A lose
Newcastle H win
Man Utd A lose
Spurs H draw
Leicester H draw
Man City A lose
Southampton H draw
Everton A lose
Points 11 – Total 37 points
Brighton remaining games:-
Watford H draw
Sheffield Utd A lose
C Palace H win
Wolves A lose
Arsenal H draw
Leicester A lose
Man Utd H draw
Norwich A lose
Liverpool H lose
Man City H lose
Southampton A lose
Newcastle H win
Burnley A lose
Points 9 – Total 35 points
So bottom six:-
15th Bournemouth 37 points
16th Villa 37 points
17th Watford 37 points
18th Brighton 35 points
19th West Ham 35 points
20th Norwich 30 points
So I’m predicting safety for us based on an improvement in our results when Super John McGinn returns hopefully mid March. All speculation of course. 😏
We won’t beat Wolves at home, Holte. Traore will tear our whole defence a new one. So we need to find another 3 points, or the ‘new one’ will be stuffed, if you excuse my turn of phrase!
you got guts to even try to predict so many fixtures lol so i am not gonna knock your efforts. i looked through and i struggled to find 7 points. i just hope we return from the week off playing better than we did at Bournemouth especially first half. were we lost on application of effort rather than lack of skill.
target the wins in games like sheff utd newcastle palace and hammers. rest of the games target as the bonus games. we should be good enough to get point at Leicester were we already drew there in cup. only team to really fear is pool and they will be champions long before we play them.
We need to get results at home. If we can put in performances like we did against Leicester, we will stay up. Chelsea, Spurs, etc are all winnable.
McGinn could be a huge factor for the last 5 or 6 games too.
TalkSport have spoken – they’re computer has us relegated so that’s it then 🙂
*their computer duh!
16th would be good.
What worries me is the way we’ve been playing, but we have shown that we can scrape wins against the odds.
It’s just too close to call and I could see us taking any one of those bottom five positions.
See two (ex) Villa players scored for the scum tonight – traitors 🙂
Hogan (again) and Weiman own goal.
Hmm.
What money would you put on Hogan going on to score 10 goals for the scum now?
That would be just our luck.
Still think he isn’t suited for us though, because it’s quite simply not in the stars.
Which, it seems to me is all you can go on, these days.
Not luck really is it? He was our player and the manager didn’t rate him. Maybe it’s that he wasn’t the kind of player Smith wanted. Maybe it was personal. Who knows?
I like Smith and want to see him succeed, but maybe his style of a play (or at least what he wants to play) is beyond the ability of himself, the players and finances to create in such a short time frame. Given a couple of seasons and sustained investment we might well get there but it’s academic if we can’t stay up this season.
I hope we can somehow survive and move forwards but I struggle to stay positive. Something tells me we need to beat Spurs to stay up. They are a decent team with some really good players, but poor occasionally, with a manager that probably pisses off the players. We need to beat one or two teams unexpectedly, and Spurs for me are one that we might just turn over.
Watford winning, bottom 3 now.
watford the king of time wasting drew 🙂 great result for us but that referee friend is utterly crap i thought it was just us he hated but no he just is a crap referee who is clueless.
great own goal, was a great finish from a great cross. even i would have been proud of that finish. only dampener was it was in the wrong net homer
Chester had a stormer for Stoke today; all the comments refer to composure on the ball and the whole defence looking more assured with him in it. No wonder we let him go, then! FFS the decision making at the club is looking more like Faulkner and Lerner by the day. Hogan out. Random nobody from Swansea in. Chester out. Nobody at all in. WTF???
Palace really struggling. Could they do us a favour and squeeze into 18th by Easter?
Everton a different team since Silva (inept) left and Ancelloti (world class manager) arrived. If I was a betting man, I wouldn’t put top 4 beyond them. Just goes to show what a class manager can do with decent players! I was jealous the day he checked in at Goodison, and even more so now. With all due respect to Smith and the great work he did in getting us promoted, that’s the calibre of manager AVFC should be looking to attract.
Remember when Ancelotti was linked with Villa just after he left Chelski? Oh, if…!!!
Two games today will be interesting to us, Sheffield and Bournemouth, Man City and West Ham. We did a brief spell in being bottom three until Brighton scored with an own goal. Lads its too close for comfort for me every game is a cup game or its up for us, I have a very good neighbour who is a West Ham fan to the core, today fingers crossed they lose by a big margin. Chester was to me a good player and I’m thinking like you BFR and Bum Bum , the problem is in the Villa higher up staff not the coaching staff heads should roll over some decisions being made. Bye the way Benteke scored his first goal yesterday in 10 months i didn’t want him to come back.
i believe the teams which are relatively safe now, likes of palace and newcastle are in big dangers. teams like watford brighton and Bournemouth are battled ready and teams above the immediate dangers are stuttering with no form. it will be hard for them to find form if the teams below them keep picking up.
i said we would finish 17th and i still stand by that. but calling this is ludicrously impossible. i would go with norwich hammers and newcastle but it will be very close indeed. squeaky bums time
we needed that three points last weekend badly to bring palace and newcastle within touching distance. we will now have to get that 3 points as soon as possible. its massively important to drag the toon and palace into the fight. then watch them crumble
Citeh / West Spam game called off through weather. That’s not really going to help the Spammers. If we could somehow nick 3 points off Spurs …….
Don’t think we’ve beaten them for about 10 years 🙂
Then it’s about time we jolly well did!!!
Exactly!
Daily Telegraph reporting Jack is ready to move on at the end of the season. Not much substance to the report, but it wouldn’t surprise me. Does he really want to face the prospect of life in the Championship again?
If we’d have managed to be in the top 8, then I think he’d look at staying if it looked as though we could crack the increasingly open CL places. Unfortunately just outside the bottom 3 means we’ll have shot ourselves in the foot by losing the best player we’ve had in years.
Agreed Bum Bum, if we go down he’ll leave, as much for financial reasons as anything else.
I understand that Lee Mason has been appointed as the referee for the Carabao Cup final. He is from Greater Manchester for god’s sake
Let’s hope he’s a Red!
That’s a f****** disgrace, based on where he’s from. If he’s City, disgraceful against Villa; if he’s United, disgraceful against City. Joke.
Really BFR – it’s just disgraceful full stop! 🙂
I’ve never understood why the FA constantly ignores looking into back ground of a referee, don’t tell me a referee hasn’t a boy hood favourite.
Another of our favourite referees!
Doesn’t really matter who is the ref! It will be a final with damage limitation in mind.
Lee Mason is a Bolton fan so more likely to favour Villa possibly?
Does anybody really believe that referees are honest about which team they actually support when asked to declare it ? I remember Graham ‘3 yellow cards and you’re off’ Poll refereeing the 2000 FA Cup final against us. Apparently he stated that he was a QPR fan when there was allegedly evidence that he followed Chelsea. I went to Old Trafford a few years ago for the first of two Premier League reserve finals against Manure Utd. I recall that Lee Mason gave that ‘where is he now ?’ bighead Federico Macheda a very dodgy penalty to make it 3-3. They went on to win on penalties. He is a red.No doubt.
Mark, remember him giving 3 yellow cards in that game, ive always advocated some refs are inclined to favour their team. That’s why it fell on deaf ears when I said the FA should look on games of critical importance to thousands of fans. I firmly think it should be part of our game that if you employ a ref from his home town its subject to being unfair to fans.
is anybody around ??
can not seem to get the leeds game working. i had problems other day too watching Bournemouth game. i thought it was the weather but i just have upgraded my hub 2 to hub3 and i suspect my providers have blocked me watching footy 🙁 can somebody try to get a working link for leeds game so i can see if i can stream or not. much appreciated
thanks for your concern guys lol i don’t think the leeds game is not on any working links, i found some footy so i am relieved my systems works still. i can not miss us on the run in