Would you accept a mid table finish this season if...

[VillaZogmariner]

...we were to see more of the younger players, notably Fonz, Albrighton, Bannan, Lichaj, Clark, Wiemann, Delph and Gardener more game time.

I'm not saying play all of them all of the time, but over the course of the season see the players play in 15-20 league games each.

Personally I would accept a mid table finish. The players I've listed above, from the little I have seen/read about them, will be very good players in the future, and if we can start to blood them in more now and build the side around them it will stand us better in the future.

[eastie]

The kids will get games in the Europa but if he's still here I expect mon to continue with his policy of running the same 11 players into the ground , and only changing things due to injury or suspension.

Would I accept a midtable finish if the kids were blooded? Well in a word no, because having been the 3 rd highest net spenders according to the generals figures , we should be in a much better position, and for many things I blame the manager.

Fonz should have been the option on 70 mins rather than heskey continually , and I don't see our kids blossoming into the first team unless mr o neill vacates his seat.

[darren woolley]

I would'nt bring them through at the expense of our league position i would bring them through gradually.

[Chris Harte]

I think I would accept it.

The only visible benefit for us fans for finishing 6th yet again rather than 11th/12th would be European qualification, and lets face it, when push came to shove O'Neill showed that we was prepared to wave the white flag in Moscow.

And let's not even mention the pathetic showing in Europe last season.

And aside from that, maybe dropping back for a season may give us all some perspective regarding how decent a finish 6th actually is.

[Slaphead]

How many of our kids have been regular members of the first team over the years? Not many so it's not worth the sacrifice.

[German James]

It would be good to involve the young players, supposedly coming though. Unfortuanately I think if we take our foot off the push for the top, it will be disproportionately difficult to make up that lost ground. Certainly making substitutions more varied than swapping Heskey for Carew would be a good thing anyway, and it's got to help the youngsters' confidence. If MON named an experimental starting line-up against Blackpool or Stoke and was able to change it if it went wrong, I'd welcome it. I'm not sure he could, though...

[Karl Bridges]

I think we will be dropping back this season anyway, without question. We know Chelsea, Man U, and Arsenal are way ahead of us.

I think Woy will sort out Liverpool and they have more quality in their squad than we do. Man City have more quality and so do Everton. They all score more goals than us, so will win more games.

Spurs may suffer from the distractions of Champs League depending on how long they stay in it but we could be looking at 8th behind that lot anyway.

 I would definitely like to see the kids given a hell of a lot more time on the pitch. If we aren't going to be spending any money on players unless we sell, we need to see what we have got in terms of possible replacements before they have to be thrown in and have to sink or swim. It should have been happening last season already. It's one of the things that annoys me about MON.

It needs to start gradually with players being given 30 minutes here and there to take away the nerves and then they need to get the odd start based on what they've shown. If they look comfortable happy days, if they don't we can move them on and look at the next crop.

[Surrey Villain]

The 'kids' and other fringe players largely performed better yesterday than the first choice players and the chairman will have noticed that so will be asking why they are not playing in the Premier League if the regulars don't do the business.

[UK Redsox]

Its not a matter of "accept a mid-table finish", it looks just about a certainty regardless of whether "the kids" play more games.

I can't see Villa finishing above any one Chelsea, Man Utd, Arsenal, Man City, Spurs or Liverpool (I think that Hodgson will turn them around).

Therefore, it'll only take a minor slip for Villa to be passed by the likes of Everton, Fulham or Birmingham.

[Chris Smith]

No.

[villasjf]

We are in the Best of the rest band anyway, give them a chance.

[Rancid custard]

I'd like to see them feature more this time round, I don't want us to keep losing good prospects (insert MON substitution/tactics gripe here) like Cahill.

I think the way to go would be every time the tactics called for it go to five in the middle to give Delph, Bannan more experience. Fonz should be starting whenever Gabby looks like he's out of form, or be brought on when he looks tired. If MON's going to stick with Cuellar at RB then when Collins is out of sorts Clark should come in.

That said I wouldn't mind if MON used all these players together in the early stages of Europa or the cups, they are the next generation.

[Villa'Zawg]

Perhaps we can set up one of those 0898 numbers and have the public text in the number of the player they want to play in our next game.

There's only a list of 25 players this season, 2 for each position and 3 goalies. This would wortk.

The fans get the team they want, we wouldn't need a manager and just think of all of that lovely premium text money for player wages.

[saunders_heroes]

We'd probably be relegated if we played all those kids.
A lot of our fans tend to think we have we have brilliant players coming through the youth system, but they rarely ever amount to anything. It would be madness to play them all.

[Karl Bridges]

We'd probably be relegated if we played all those kids.
A lot of our fans tend to think we have we have brilliant players coming through the youth system, but they rarely ever amount to anything. It would be madness to play them all.

I don't think anyone is saying play them all at the same time, that would be utter madness. Lets just see what they are made of with a bit more time in the first team. Bed them in gradually.