Judging by the crowd, which was around 23,500 minus 6,000 Citeh fans, it seems that my appreciation of the FA cup isn’t shared amongst the Villa fans in general.
It’s totally understandable that many didn’t bother to turn out though, as there have been a lot of games to pay for over the last few weeks and the over-riding feeling was always that we didn’t have much of a chance in the game.
I didn’t expect us to lose 4-0 though and welcome to what you’re going to see on a regular basis Mr Lerner; massively reduced crowds and the loss of merchandise sales that will go with it. I suppose Fox might actually start to be concerned about that latter point.
Never has the saying “you reap what you sow” been more apt, to my mind.
As for the game, I took part in a genuinely terrifying 6 mile Goan kamkikaze taxi run to try and see it.
We got to the biggest sports bar in the area, only to find that the game wasn’t being shown anywhere and we had to settle for the Arsenal game.
Which gave me the right hump, although I took great solace in the fact that the Burnley fans easily outnumbered the Arsenal contingent and were making a lot more noise too.
So, in short I can’t comment on what happened apart from what I’ve read.
Which is that we offered nothing up front.
I didn’t realise Gestede and Kozak were still injured, but it explained my surprise that Gabby started.
Which shows how desperate Garde must have been, after telling the player that he wasn’t wanted.
I know Gabby got a warm welcome and it’s understandable after his playing for us and being “one of our own” for so long, but to me he’s now become a typical example of what’s so wrong at the Villa.
The player is contracted to the club for another two and a half years at around £65,000 a week.
Quite simply unbelievable, although in fairness, maybe his pace might be some use next season. If he can actually get a game.
Am I the only one who’s wondering why on earth it seems our only incoming player is going to be a right back, in Debuchy, when it’s plainly obvious we need a striker who can put the ball in the net and a bit of quality to actually supply him?
I know we’re cutting back, but surely it borders on total negligence to not at least try and improve the side?
Unless of course, you think what we currently have is going to be good enough for the championship.
So while it seems many aren’t bothered about last night’s result, I’m disappointed that we’re out of the cup.
There’s only one thing to look forward to now.
And it isn’t good.
Comments
149 responses to “Villa 0 – 4 Man City; The aftermath”
Gabby came on rather than started. I listened to it on BBC and the commentators said after a poor start villa had played solidly for a while before, as Tim Flowers put it, turned into Keystone Cops to concede the last two. I’m disappointed because with city’s away record I truly believe if we put the best defence out and really went at them we might have got something.
Note our seems that the players will have to really pick themselves up for Tuesday, which already looks virtually impossible for the points. Let’s hope west ham are still knackered from their game versus Liverpool as they put a shift in. That game is on bt I think?
Even if West Ham played 3 hrs before us they would still win we are shit
Hi Badger – hope you’re having a good time in Goa. At least you won’t have to watch the non event transfer deadline day!
It’s lovely Hitch, ta.
But the bigger concern is that I can’t keep up with all things Villa.
It’s the only thing the missus hates about me.
Relegation,relegation.
It’s what Lerner needs (wants),
If you wanna be the best,
If you wanna beat the rest,
Whooo oh,
Relegation’s what Lerner needs (wants)…
As fans, we really need to start spitting fire at the Board. This Hollis sounds a complete non-footballling pr**k. This deliberate incompetence is infuriating. How can this be allowed to happen? Is there any point complaining to the EPL? Getting a petition going in Parliament to debate foreign ownership? (We should be able to get the 100,000 signatures along with all the other fans whose clubs have been shafted…). This is willful destruction of part of our national heritage. Disgusting.
On a positive note it’s good to have Gabby is back in the squad. If we ever needed a prolific goalscorer it’s now and Gabby will provide that.
That’s one thing I love about us football fans – gallows humour. Nice one Stubbs!!!
Thanks, it means a lot.
The results are not embarrassing any more, I’m all out of that, the pathetic embarrassing thing is the dismal activity in the transfer market and footballing decisions being made by people who either have no clue or are in the wrong job. You look at other signings around us which has (if it hadn’t all ready) made sure of relegation without a fight in any way. Other smaller clubs are making better signings which I think is absolute bollo it all down to our position. We are being fed bull PR regarding players we are going for, then might sign debuchy, why? What an absolute waste of s signing, he will be exposed, get frustrated then get sent off, JOKE!!!!!!!!!
I’ve been thinking about why we might not want to sign any more strikers or supposed no 10s, regardless of what we hear from Garde’s hierarchy-led bollocks in the press.
The only answer can be that we have enough, squad-wise.
And it’s a tough one, in that you go with what you’ve got or get rid and look to better the side, which means getting rid of the dross, at a loss.
I think we’ve totally made our bed, having pissed in it beforehand and are now going to have to lie in it.
If we had any ambition whatsoever, Garde would have been able to sign a couple of players at least.
The fact that the “board” hasn’t pushed the boat out to make him at least look like he’s trying says everything to me.
There’s still time, I guess, but I suspect the reality is I’ll post more on this point tomorrow.
the boat has long since sunk. like many fans have said, many seasons ago. players wearing the villa colors are not up to standards. some would struggle playing in sunday league.
cant see why we bother to pay a loan fee for a right back and pay another 60k wages, when we have enough bloodsuckers on board already.
surely we should look to fire sale most the squad, plenty teams are in the panic modes. swansea would pay more than the 2.5 mill we payed for sinclair. carlos Gil is another wonderful bag of shit, that struggles to cross a decent corner,
seriously we should get shut of the deadwood NOW, promote some of the youths and keep some of the players, gardes thinks could play in the championship. cause that’s what we have been budgeting towards for years.
Nath, my sentiments the fear of the drop been with us for a long time , I’ve got to the point now that we all know boardroom and directors, plus owner have not a clue how to take the club the way us fans want, the clubs on course to be run as a sports business, I feel they will find out and time will tell, I predict low gates, low sales, and loss of sponsors, my hope is with the Chinese moving into Birmingham and not London some person will buy.
Seriously……If it was that easy to get rid of the deadwood do you not think Garde would?
He has got rid of some players he has told others they have no future at the club yet they decide they want to sit on their contract which means no one at the club can do anything about it.
Garde is now in the position where due to injuries he is practically forced to pick and play players he would rather ship out.
The club don’t want to spend money, to “get rid of the deadwood” will either cost money or mean selling them, bearing in mind it doesn’t look like there are many clubs lining up in an orderly queue begging our players to join them and with only 1 day of the window left it’s looking highly unlikely that many if any will be sold.
i never said it would be easy to clear the deadwood. i just stated that’s where they should be concentrating on. sinclair has swansea interested. they are desperate, so should be willing to pay some.
we all know, some of these players in the squad. are on more wages than they should. thats the price we payed to attract um. also the price we pay is relegation, because the squad inability to cross a decent ball, or to defend without making school boy errors.
4 goals conceded yesterday and all were mistakes. been the story of villa for seasons. we need to blood some youths now. blend with gardes pick of our current shower of shit squad and send the rest to train with the under 7’s or buy out their contracts
Your 2nd paragraph sums it up perfectly but we can’t do anything about it. The player(s) have every right to sit on their contracts regardless of how shit they are or what position the club is in. Just another fuck up made by whoever gave these contracts out.
why are footballers not accountable to the same rules, as the rest of the society. if we dont meet our work standards. we’re sacked, look through the villa squad and you could argue that all of them, are guilty of giving less than whats required. yet getting rid of charles the parasite is impossible. even with just 6months left, still wont release his grip on easy money. hes also laughing at us fans, fooking ****hole
i had to vent, so angry at how things are with villa. blood pressure back to norm 🙂
I know what you mean mate. What is going on at that club is enough to make anybody ill. I’m going to ask my boss for a 5 year contract. 🙂
it’s nice to see the board backing their new manager in his first transfer window.
I see GARDEs looking to bring a striker in to say he’s leaving it a bit late is an understatement to say the least.most of this window he’s concentrated on the other end,I expect the first & second division teams should be placed on alert because that’s the standard of player we’ll attract someone who’ll think the championship is a step up.the one team you would of expected to be the busiest in this window was us well that’s shows what a spineless club we support just to accept defeat when mathematically we could still be safe DISGUSTING & ASHAMED
Heard a lot over the past few months from posts here about ‘fear of relegation’, indeed I’ve written a couple myself.
No longer fear it but now looking forward to it.
Looking forward to –
– Waking up on a Saturday knowing that the day might actually get better
– Looking at a fixture list and thinking ‘Oh there’s a few games we could win’
– Not being the laughing stock of the league (if I hear ‘Aston Vanilla’ or ‘concentrate on the league’ one more time I’ll swing for someone
– 6 points guaranteed from the Bluenoses
I no longer fear relegation, bring it on. I wish that next season could start tomorrow, I’ve had more than enough of this one.
UTV
Well – if we believe Garde – then it seems that Debuchy (or any other defender) will not be joining us as he’s stated that he hopes to bring in one player and that would be a striker. reckon the only striker we’ll see is on the side of a match box!
Hopes to bring in one player – what a farce but no doubt Mr Holly will see it as a sensible investment plan – and will state that all the other prem sides spending all that money are deluded and don’t understand what a business plan looks like.
Badger – why do my posts keep going up with the heading ‘awaiting moderation” has Mr Holly infiltrated your software?
SSN reporting RHODES move to Boro has fallen through you never know.
We will be lucky to get Cross Roads!
More like a dead end.
I couldn’t be bothered looking for any news on transfers I have given up. Those bastards have run our club to the ground. The way I feel I have so much hate for the board and Lerner. I need to pick myself up and go again never mind the team lol.
Its funny, at the start of the transfer window we were all listing 3 or 4 positions we needed to get players in for in order to stay up….and now we are all just praying we sign one player!! The state of the club is just abysmal.
On another note, I see a lot of fans slating Gana for his back pass yesterday. Before yesterday he lad had been our stand out player for the last 4 or 5 games. There is no point taking it out frustrations on one player for making a mistake.
We might & that’s a big MIGHT get debuchy then watch the VILLA PR machine having a huge wankfest over the signing.normally this site is pretty busy nearing the end of a window & diddly happening.
Agree that’s the only one we MIGHT get but that’s it. The rest of it is all PR bollocks from club to pretend we are signing someone. Usual bullshit from sky and club
God this is so depressing http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/gossip –
LA Galaxy want to sign Aston Villa’s 33-year-old defender Joleon Lescott.
Roma’s 28-year-old striker Seydou Doumbia, Aston Villa boss Remi Garde’s number one transfer target, is expected to join Newcastle on loan instead.
Aston Villa have failed with a bid for 29-year-old former Swansea striker Michu.
That last one is worst – Michu’s in the Spanish 4th division and he’s turned us down!!!
There is no hope…
Michu turned us down because he said he knows his fitness problems and turned a couple offers down, not just from us but from German sides as well.
His brother’s the manager of that club as well.
Andrew,
Thanks.
Still doesn’t cheer me up much if I’m honest. Looking at the rumours today all I can see is that Sinclair might be going to Swansea, Lescott to the MLS that is players going the wrong way.
Just hope that Garde has several rabbits in his hat. Not for the PL, as I’ve said before we need players in now who will stick with us in the Championship. Leaving all the re-building until the next close season might mean at least another year in the Championship.
It’s transfer window deadline and I’m not the least excited.
Don’t know what happened to him he was a good player once
What is there to get excited about? We are relegated in all but numbers. It’ll be a clear out, which is probably a sensible idea at this stage. The summer will see more cheap bargain basement signings funded by the sale of several of our better players. Whoever we buy, the club is such a shit hole we’ll not bounce back up.
No future.
No future.
No future for you, AVFC.
Agree it’s not a question of IF its a question of WHEN we are relegated. I think Easter it will be confirmed
There is no future – just more misery in a downwards inclined tunnel with no light at the end.
Wouldn’t surprise me if after the transfer window has closed the board announce that they have all been given pay-rises!!
More likely they’ll come out & say funds will be made available to the manager in the summer to bolster the squad.they’re a bunch of LIEING bastards
I haven’t been able to understand why we have been in for Debuchy- Hutton and Richards are right backs.
But today Sunderland are in for Richards – it could make sense.
Villa get some money and a high earner off their books and Debuchy is only on loan.
To me this proves Hollis is either preparing already for the championship or HE IS ASSET STRIPPING AHEAD OF A SALE. The latter i think is more likely.
Lerner will pocket the parachute payment.
Us fans (customers) are insignificant to the owner and board.
That’s a good point Steve. I reckon you’re spot on regarding the asset stripping and sale in the summer.
We are down anyway and Lerner will no doubt pocket the parachute money, or a percentage of it along with the other board members.
If it meant Lerner and the whole board fucking off in the summer I’d take all the asset stripping they can manage.
PS, No doubt the new kit deal will be used as a massive selling point to any interested buyer.
We’ve stuck a 10 mil price tag around Richards neck SSN, we could well be cashing in before the drop.
Good if he won’t play right back then bin him off
I would cause he’s shite.
Sky talking about the transfers at the clubs at the bottom: “Let’s leave Aston Villa aside, the other four clubs…”
We ain’t even worth the airtime….
Other clubs who have a similar financial footing to us are investing respectable sums in new players. We’re looking at players who can’t even make the bargain bin. A relatively modest £8m sum compared to our loans and retirement home options. Lerner is a true bastard. The Browns fans warned us this would happen. We have such a bunch of greedy calculating idiots running the show we will struggle in the Championship. If they can’t see what it takes to run an ELP club, why should they fare better in what os meant to be an even more competitive league.
It’s all deliberate now Bum Bum Lerner wants us down he will asset strip club and pocket the 100m or most of it anyway. Then will just concentrate on us staying in championship that’s it. Pointless ever supporting them again imo the club has been run into the ground and I think it’s deliberate imo
Why would he do that? He could pocket the SKY money anyway.
I think you flatter him Oohah, he’s never been a man with a plan, it’s his sheer incompetence that’s got us into our present state and any financial gain will (imo) be by accident rather than design.
Pat Murphy BBC says –
“Remi Garde admits it’s disappointing to lose out on his two main targets – goalkeeper Lovre Kalnic through work permit problems and Seydou Doumbia, who chose to join Newcastle on loan.
“He admitted Villa’s league position was relevant in Doumbia’s case and that the club were surprised Kalnic’s application was turned down by the FA.
“Matthieu Debuchy will not be joining from Arsenal who wanted a permanent transfer while Villa just wanted a loan deal.”
Oh well that’s it then. Shortest deadline day I can remember.
The club surprised that Kalinic work permit refused – so our esteemed Board can’t even figure out or establish beforehand what the rules are! No wonder we’re in deep sh*t