Sorry if you are really coming Steve, it’s only a joke, honest
As is often the case these days, I had to work and missed the Man City game.
I did though belatedly realise MOTD was on and managed to turn over for it just as they were analysing what I think was the third goal. The one that showed the City players waltzing around just outside our box while our defence did absolutely nothing in trying to stop them.
No doubt you’ll understand why I frankly couldn’t even be bothered to hit the catchup or rewind buttons to view what I’d already heard was yet another utterly abysmal collapse.
From bits I’d heard/read, it seems the first half was a pretty turgid affair and to be honest, I just wasn’t in the mood to see us get another whipping.
But it led my thoughts back to the manager, Mr Garde.
I made my thoughts fairly clear in stating that I thought Sherwood should have been given a bit more time, which was very much a minority view and I think I was pretty early in saying I wasn’t sure about Remi Garde being the right man for us a good few weeks back.
At least you can’t say I just go with the flow all the time.
The truth is, I don’t rate Garde tactically, as he’s far too pragmatic and unadventurous in my opinion.
The Man city game was a typical example, as I see the idea was to hold them deep into the game.
And then do what exactly?
Go out and hit them with a counter? With our attack? and their attack/our defence?
You have to be kidding me and the idea was just preposterous.
So it should be easy for me to jump on the bandwagon which now seems to have arisen and call for Garde’s head to roll immediately.
But I’m not going too, at least not yet.
Especially when you consider the latest press BS is that Steve Bruce is the man to replace him.
That suggestion just doesn’t work on lots of levels for me.
Thinking about it, Bruce does have a decent record when it comes to getting clubs promoted, but he’s not a manager I’d have considered previously, as I don’t believe he’s good enough for us.
In fairness, I guess that’s just the part of me where it’s not quite sinking in, in that we’re now a championship club-in-waiting.
But there are other reasons too, such as why on earth would Bruce want to come to us?
Okay, I doubt anyone could deny that we’re a bigger club than Hull and yes, we could probably offer him more wages (and even then I’d question if we’re willing to pay them), but surely that’s our only appeal.
Any new manager won’t be offered serious money to spend and will have to watch our rubbish squad decimated even more than it already is.
It’s blindingly obvious to me that we’re a basket case and no decent manager would touch us with a bargepole unless there’s upheaval in line with what us fans want, in a top to bottom clear out. Which simply isn’t going to happen unless Lerner opens his wallet and pays them all off.
Simply put, it means Bruce isn’t going to leave a comfortable position at Hull, where things are going quite nicely and promotion definitely isn’t out of the question.
It’s a non-starter for me and even if there is a hint of truth in the story, I’d take my time in choosing a replacement. We’d look even more desperate than we already are, if we were to replace the manager now.
Let’s face it, the bookies have already started paying out on us being relegated, haven’t they?
So nothing will happen before the end of the season, in my eyes.
In fact, I saw a comment on here that suggested that Garde may already have resigned and he’s just covering.
That actually sounds very plausible and Lerner has history for it, doesn’t he?
Thinking ahead, it’s Spurs up next, so without doubt another loss, to put it mildly.
And while I’m at it, let’s have a close look at the remaining fixtures;
Aston Villa V Tottenham
Swansea V Aston Villa
Aston Villa V Chelsea
Aston Villa V Bournemouth
Man Utd V Aston Villa
Aston Villa V Southampton
Watford V Aston Villa
Aston Villa V Newcastle
Arsenal V Aston Villa
At best, I see nine points there, with wins against Swansea, Bournemouth and Newcastle, with the rest losses.
More realistically, I see five points, with draws against Swansea and Bournemouth and maybe still a win against Newcastle.
It wouldn’t surprise me at all if we don’t win or even draw a single one of those games though, so fragile is the bunch of wimps we have.
And it’s why I agree with Garde, that we shouldn’t subject the kids to this (which is another seemingly contrary view).
But even though I’m terrible at predictions, you’d have to be pretty optimistic to suggest we’ve any hope of staying up.
Hence there’s absolutely no point in bringing in a manager now, who’ll just relegate us and start off on the wrong footing.
Final point.
I spoke to my Derby supporting mate yesterday.
There was a small amount of stick/abuse as you’d expect, but then he got serious and after admitting that he was gutted to see us go down (in line with fans of other clubs, as I’ve previously said), he volunteered that Derby were actually way worse when they got relegated, than the Villa currently are, as we have better players.
Derby just weren’t good enough, but at least they tried, in his opinion.
I’m not sure which is worse, myself.
