It’s another quick one, where I’m wondering what fans think.
The fantastic news is that after Steve Bruce warned us Kodjia might miss the early months of the upcoming season, so that advice has proved to be wrong and the player is already back in training;
Given that this was supposed to be a broken ankle, the recovery is remarkably quick, seeing as he only had the OP on May the 4th, which is a month and 10 days or so.
Early predictions were 3-4 months, with Bruce saying a possible 6 months.
So either Bruce was guessing or the quacks don’t know what they’re talking about.
God, do we need a clear-out in the medical department too?
I suspect not, as the crew we have are supposedly highly regarded, but I do wonder why there’s such a disparity between the prediction and reality?
Whatever, it’s good news and should relieve us of the need to get another striker in.
Or should it?
We currently have Kodjia, Hogan, McCormack and Gabby, with back up from RHM and Keinan Davies.
Which sounds reasonable until you consider Gabby is finished, RM is still very much up in the air and Hogan has still to prove himself for the Villa.
The young lads seem promising, but we’ve seen it all before, haven’t we?
It strikes me (geddit?) Gabby’s wages are eating far too much of the striker’s part of the squad’s budget and there’s no chance we’ll get another major striker in while he remains with us.
But my opinion says we could definitely do with one.
And we really need to try and get rid of Gabby to any mug that will take him.
Sadly, I don’t see even the Chinese doing so and we’re stuck with him.
In short, thank god Kodjia’s back.
As it stands, if the midfield don’t start doing their bit, he’s about the only one I have serious faith in.
Partly because he can do it for himself. Which is the main reason he gets moaned about, in being too selfish.
It’s a funny old game.
Funny old game indeed.
If Kodjia wasn’t so greedy, how many goals would we have got?
I recall that massively mised pass to RM, but that apart?
Yes, I think we need one. I don’t trust McCormack at all to be back to his best in Football again. Even under special training and such, you don’t get over depression that easily. Gabby never had it so losing it… Something he can’t really have done. Nowhere near his mediocre best of 10 years ago. Two kids, it’d be great to see our youth finally given a chance but I have no hopes we’ll ever pursue that under current management. So yes, a striker is a must, after a few positions are finally filled.
Don’t know if I’ve mentioned this before but a Fulham fan friend of mine told me last week that McCormack’s ‘issues’ we’re well known amongst fans, which begs the question, why the hell dos we buy him? (Allegedly etc)…
“you don’t get over depression that easily”
You never get over depression. It is something to learn to manage but NEVER get over it.
My understanding is that it’s not depression as such and it’s more to do with his relationship problem.
If that’s true, it will be temporary and he could get over it.
It depends on what’s actually happened and none of us know the facts.
More or less what I meant, Savo. I know one never gets rid of it, but some do get over it as in are able to control it. My brother went through it, and after ten years he’s a hell of a lot better. Of course it still impacts him, but it’s far more manageable
My problem with McCormack is his age. If he was 20-25, I’d say yeah, keep him. Decent player and he’ll be able to have it under control where he can play again for us. Unless this training regime actually works, which I doubt, at his age, I don’t think he’ll play well enough again. And it sucks to say, we should try to get rid. Not to be an arse about it, because I 100% feel for the guy, and wouldn’t wish this on anyone, and I hope he gets better, but if he doesn’t… .
If we’re going to have 4 new player’s to which Ive doubted from the off, get that midfield sorted, sod central strikers they cannot get goals if they don’t get that service,, up till now we are being told nothing.I’m seriously worried now.
agree totally bill. striker position is sorted. we have two top strikers in Hogan and kogjia. McCormack and gabby are good enough to fall back onto, if they fail murphy and davis can be called on. how many do you need ??? barring a mass injury jinx we should be sorted upfront
we need to sort the midfield out, their has been no creativity for years, since young and downing left. no width no supply. so get midfield sorted and a centre half and a left back
Only if one of our existing strikers leave
So kodjias on the market now,he’ll be linked to God knows how many clubs.lets see if he stays
It’s simple to me Hitch , pay off Abonglahor to move elsewhere, he’s been a thorn in Villa for yonks, we cannot keep making excuses on players contracts, get rid of dead wood now i say. I wonder how many fans have made a move to buy seats up till now, not many I’d say.
Wouldn’t argue with you there Bill but I think Bruce sees Abonlahor as an impact player in the Championship – I’m not so sure and who would want him anyway on his wages?
I see that saggy chops has offered Terry a contract. Not sure that I really want him at VP. We need a CB but one that can provide a stable partnership with Chester for the next few years and hopefully in the Prem. Terry will be a one year wonder at best and, at worst, ripping too much cash out of the club.
I’ll agree with that Hitch, think Villa are dragging feet at minute and not thinking of putting mistakes right for the fans, i would just realish one solid buy knowing they mean what they’re saying.
Bill, we’ve been told there will be no business in June.
Probably because Bruce himself isn’t interested and the game generally is on holiday.
We’ll get players in, I’ve no doubt about it.
Don’t worry 🙂
Badger I do worry, other teams do business so why do we hold back, you have to agree Villa have not shown its fans by personally admitting whats true and just a load of codswalop, ok Bruce made that statement how does he know what he will have in June when other clubs do busines and build a team, what’s he waiting for?, you know I know what out team lacks, does he that’s my question.
Pretty sure we all know what we need, we may differ on who should be those to fill in the positions, but it’s pretty easy to tell what positions need players in. The four mentioned by the media and such are correct, a Center Back, midfielder, Winger and attacking midfielder. (and a couple others obviously but if we’re getting four players then I’d be happy to fill those positions) and the obvious one, goal keeper. Which I’m not including in the 4 because I think it’s fairly obvious that’s the big 1 we need.
I agree with Badger as well, I don’t think we need to be that worried we haven’t gotten anyone in yet. It’s only midway through June. Very few clubs have gone out and done the early business. Milan mainly, Everton just screwed Sunderland who are going to be in trouble if they can’t replace Pickford with someone adequate.
We have plenty of time. If it’s mid-July and we’re still not signing players, I’d be worried.
There’s claims we decided to sign Richards and Lescott over Lindeloff 2 years ago. So we decided to sign the two center backs who had a giant hand in our relegation instead of one of the best young center backs at the time. We really know how to pick our managers. Our scouts said sign him up as they were impressed. But we went for those two experienced Brits, and look how well that turned out. Now if only we ever listened to our scouts, we’d have won the Premier League with the amount of talent we decided to go for crap home grown players for instead of the talented foreigner.
All lessons learn Andrew, think that was fans influence, I for one didn’t think he would be that much of a disaster and as for Richards ,well words fail me. Just remember Andrew Bruce wasn’t involved then. I know by your posts your not a fan of Bruce but you have to give him that chance by letting him have 10-12 games in the championship, that’s my opinion.
I don’t blame him at all for that. In fact I have nothing but praise for what he did with Lescott and Richards, and signing Chester was a great move as well as making Baker his partner. I’ll praise Bruce where I see he deserves it, and center back’s is definitely where he deserves it.
Villa away to Colchester in the league cup.
Week commencing August 7 and it’ll be a midweek game.
Televised I hope Badger, Colchester no pushover, beside we have to show our determination in going forwards in the championship with that being our home game .
I’m going barmy thought it read home game, doing two things at once here , still we do have to beat them even at their ground, they might even they have the tv rights for that game.
Middlesbrough 7/1
Aston Villa 15/2
Norwich 9/1
Fulham 10/1
Hull 11/1
Sheff Wed 11/1
Derby 14/1
Leeds 14/1
Reading 14/1
Sunderland 14/1
Wolves 16/1
Cardiff 22/1
Birmingham 22/1
Sheff Utd 22/1
Brentford 25/1
Bristol City 30/1
Nottm Forest 33/1
QPR 40/1
Preston 40/1
Millwall 75/1
Bolton 80/1
Barnsley 100/1
Ipswich 100/1
Burton Albion 175/1
Fans of sides lower down the English football ladder will have to wait a little longer to know when and where they will see their team next season.
The fixtures for the Championship, League One and League Two will all be released on Wednesday June 21 at 9am – a week later than the Premier League.
I’m surprised at the odds for Sunderland, although they are going to be seriously weakened.
They should have plenty to spend, but momentum is very much against them, as it was for us.
Villa second favourites?
I’ll take that, as it means promotion, but it’s the Villa isn’t it? and we all know things never go as smoothly as we think they should.
Sunderland have lost their two best players already and Sunderland’s owner seems stingy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they do worse than we did last season.
And that’s the thing Bill, is we haven’t learned from them. All started when we never went through with signing Roberto Carlos which we easily could’ve had him. O’Neill made 100 transfer mistakes, who knows how many McLeish, Sherwood and Lambert made. Bar Houllier and who knows with Garde, we haven’t had a manager with balls in 20 years.
On the other hand, Bruce could be signing a Barcelona youth center back as a free agent after they rejected to offer him a new contract. I’ll give him a lot of credit if it goes through, whether he does well for us or not, that’s at least trying. Because we’ve been far too afraid in the market, from Cavani to Falcao, Sneijder and Van Der Vaart, etc just under O’Neill alone we could’ve won the league if we simply had an above average manager.
No arguments there Andrew, glad you see it as i do on Bruce, believe me ill be the first if things dont improve with him, will be flying the flag next month in Russia, shirt packed and ready for the season to start.utv.
we can continue to flog the dead horse. regrets over the managers and players we had over the years. but all that was overshadowed by the lack of ambition from the clubs owner.which have lead us to the downfall we currently occupy. no ambitious manager would dream to manage aston villa. what dream would they fulfil by doing this. so we have taken gambles on managers that have backfired. players they had to buy all gambles.no decent players would want to play for villa. not because we couldn’t identify them. but because we couldn’t afford them, or couldn’t persuade them to take a 95% pay cut to play for aston villa. who are we kidding. we are not a force in the English game. we haven’t been in many decades.
hopefully we have reach OUR bottom. now we rebuild. we do this by small steps and solid foundations. if we don’t we will become the yoyo clubs. we have a long road ahead just to get back to where we was. so why some keep talking about another manager change. we need stability. that’s massive in a football club. without it you have too many mismatch players thrown together.
Bruce is the man to bring stability the club needs, NOBODY is saying we are back nobody said we will win things under him. nobody said we will play Brazilian style sexy football. but none of this will be possible without stability.
if he is given a little time. he will take villa back into premiership. this season. then if the club wanted to compete with the elite . then another manager could build on the foundations left by bruce. lets look at what the past managers left. garde he was out of his depths. he was everything Andrew wanted foreign young and he was managing nothing. senior players took the piss out of him and fans under him. they all lost discipline. so bruce compared to garde I know who I would have
breathe
The thing is, would Garde have lost the team if he had Xia and Wyness instead of Fox and Lerner? I personally don’t think so, because Fox and Lerner were screwing him themselves, Xia and Wyness would’ve backed everything he wanted.Garde also would’ve changed up the team, much like Bruce has, but he didn’t get the chance. He also didn’t get the January transfer window, and he didn’t even get a transfer window because of Lerner and Fox. I have no doubt Garde would’ve done well under new owners and better management. Because the problem players would’ve been gone.
the facts of his reign doesn’t reflect well. only strengthen my last comments. about the club can only hire decent players or managers under good ambitious ownerships. without that you get garde promised funds that never materialised. you get managers without real experience being recruited. any decent manager would never have been in gardes positon in the first place. if they did they would have quit once the money had been rejected. but he had plenty time to gel the team according to you. he had as much time as bruce had last season. its not easy to sort things out during a season and no window open to change things.
Moyes took over Sunderland knowing he had no funds. We probably could’ve enticed Bruce last season before we signed Garde, or Allardyce or whoever other experienced British manager. The thing for Villa too attract managers is we’ve always been one of the highest paying clubs for a manager. Even McLeish was on near 3m a year. Only ones topping that were Wenger, Ferguson, whoever was at Chelsea, Liverpool and possibly Moyes at Everton. Maybe Redknapp at Spurs. Experienced managers take over teams at any time they can get them like the ones mentioned, Bruce, Allardyce, etc and they’re always going to be mid-table or lower, or even a Championship side.
Problem is, you go back to Houllier, who wanted the likes of Agbonlahor out and he replaced O’Neill. He and his assistant also turned us around in the January window after having no pre-season and went from a relegation battle to 9th. In the Premier League no-less. And they did that by signing what, 3 players? And yet here still sits the likes of Agbonlahor, so clearly one has been screwing up the mentality of the team unless he’s favored, and he wasn’t favored under Houllier and he wasn’t favored under Garde. Bruce has done nothing but talk him up and the team somewhat seems behind him.
Don’t really think my comment helps yours because we could’ve attracted Premier League experience who go for poor sides at any time. In fact after Houllier and “no money because Lerner was stingy” we still attracted McLeish, Lambert, and Sherwood. And they were all crap managers from the get go, bar Lambert’s first season which I keep going back to as the way we should play. The one season where we actually scouted players and a few of them stuck until his second season where he decided the likes of Senderos were the way to go. So we’ve had multiple experienced British failing and 1 young inexperienced manager who had no backing from the players, was screwed over by management and the owner. Add in Di Matteo who’s experienced in the English game, while foreign he’s not actually “foreign” as he’s always been in the English game and that’s 4. I’ll give Bruce a half so far so 4 1/2 since O’Neill left to 1 with huge reasons to fail. I’m gonna go with lets try more foreign young managers.
I look at the squad now and back in premiership under garde. the current villa side would have beaten gardes villa. which doesn’t mean much as gardes villa were a joke. but this means RDM and now bruce had a massive task to change things in just one season. I reckon had bruce been employed instead of RDM we might have been in premiership now.
its time to draw a line in the sands and continue to look forward not back. we are progressing and this season will see us back in the premiership, but that means more work needed to stay in premiership. but as long as we keep improving as a club. means better quality of players and managers will want to represent villa or we can attract
Sorry guys but I really don’t get the relevance of a hypothetical debate over Garde or any previous manager for that matter. Frankly it’s the same as saying if my uncle was a woman he’d be my aunt 🙂
Time to draw a line under the horrors of the last few years and look to the future.
i have drawn a line under it. but every time i visit the debate is on the same subject. villa have had to pay big salaries to his last post. because they know they are on a mission to no where. the last word i will say is repeating myself.
but for what it is worth, villa as a club can not attract the best players or managers. even when we was mid table in premiership. because long before the fans got a wind of the owners lack of ambitions. the footballing community all knew. so nobody at the top of their game. manager or player would come to our great club. so paying top wages to a manager just meant you got experience but without a decent player budgets we were fooked = relegation and where we are today.
i could have rhymed of the players or rats jumping ships not just for far better wages but to win stuff. villa have been in a rut for so long it will take a decent manager in bruce more than one window and half a season to correct. is what i believe the discussion was on before we ventured down memory lane
I tell you what Andrew, Nath, pleasure to read your take on the Issues of our great club, i just don’t know how you remember it all, to pick up on what other clubs do or say or even what managers have said and done beats me, keep it coming. I just hope this is our year to come good and our team realises us fans are starving of being great again.
Nath, whilst I was frustrated by our lack of flowing football under Bruce, I also recognised the need to reverse the decline of so many years. For that reason I believe Bruce deserves a chance to turn our fortunes around. A pre season and how many games? That’s the question.
i don’t know the answer to that question. but your right he needs the preseason. i expect he will get more done in preseason than all of last season. so such was wrong last year. but i believe he has ridden out the worst and the january signings will be far better now settled. i can’t see him lasting a bad start. he really needs to hit the ground running. i expect will start fast. and last the distance.
Alright, so no more Garde talk. I don’t think we really need to go back to the Pro Bruce v Anti-Bruce argument as that went around in circles itself. Not really a whole lot left bar maybe arguing over who we should sign.
under garde i never thought we would win a game. that is really as low as i have ever been supporting villa. i never villa bash but i was really close to that under him. under bruce i don’t just have hope i have expectations again. ok not gonna play great football like under big ron Atkinson. many fans didnt like him but his villa team played good stuff. bruce will get us promoted and you can all record this with your smart phones and if iam wrong i will accept a public lashings but i aint gonna be wrong. sit back and enjoy
Neither did I honestly, but I also realize one of it was Garde’s fault. I’ll have no problem remembering this argument over Bruce. Now the question is, is this automatic promotion you’re claiming we’ll get or through the playoff?
Andrew are you an insomniac???
Why yes I am, actually. I also don’t live in England so the time difference helps. But it being 4:30 in the morning still here, I am in fact an insomniac.
I’m a confest whisky drinker Andrew, sorry to say the Villa drove me to drink.
Nowt wrong with that Andrew I’m a piss head & bill my ex wife drove me to that.
Gettin there Giddy, had to have my loverly bath taken out for a wet room, ooh how I love my bath, still the girl next door said i can use hers, when her old man goes to work. Hey BWS get your arse back on here mate, miss your take on things.