Jordan Veretout - gone

[SoccerHQ]

Struggling in Seria A. Viola started with two defeats.

[Dave]

Struggling in Seria A. Viola started with two defeats.

They did sell around half of their starting eleven this summer and brought in a load of punts from elsewhere.

He should probably be used to it by now.

[olaftab]

@pauliewalnut good stuff you have summed it up very well. We had the relegation notice 4 seasons before it happened and the fuckers incharge did nothing about it😡

[LukeJames]

They've signed Benassi from Torino who will be a fine player (probably for Juventus in a couple of years) but losing Bernadeschi, Kalinic and Vecino were big blows for them.

[Dante Lavelli]

Their first game was on BT Sport and the commentators picked out Veretout in the first half as one of the few bright spots for Fiorentina.
I hope he does well, but equally would be surprised to see him playing in England again.

[Dave]

They've signed Benassi from Torino who will be a fine player (probably for Juventus in a couple of years) but losing Bernadeschi, Kalinic and Vecino were big blows for them.

West Brom legend Borja Valero to Inter as well.

[LeeB]

I honestly think a lot of our problems have been caused by failing to replace Petrov. Not just for what he did on the pitch, but off the pitch, too.

That and that ridiculously naive "just buy a load of lower division youngsters and, if you want it enough, and throw them in, they'll become good enough" strategy.

The real overriding problem is that since 2006 this club has been run by clueless halfwits. Yes, 2006-10 included some decent finishes, but even then it was all built on sand, by a spoilt man-baby who flounced off at the first whiff of it being hard work.

Lerner has done incredible damage to this club, and look at us now, playing in front of 30k in the second flight and not looking anything like getting out of it, when clubs we used to compete with such as Spurs and Everton are in a different stratosphere to us. Once Spurs get that 60k stadium built, they will be about as relevant to us as Arsenal are.

The fact that we ever found ourselves with a shortlist of one potential manager is bad enough. That that one was Tim Fucking Sherwood is unforgiveable.

Players like Veretout are not the problem, they're really a sympton of the real problem - an ongoing total lack of awareness about where the club was going.

This this and this. The extent to which the club has been mismanaged over the last decade is almost impressive - it's like we set out to systematically let all developments on the sport fly past us, and when one (i.e. the new TV money) required merely staying in the same division we flopped right out of it.

We even managed to come runner-up in the cup final the year they took away the European spot. 
We couldn't even lose properly.

[ChicagoLion]

I honestly think a lot of our problems have been caused by failing to replace Petrov. Not just for what he did on the pitch, but off the pitch, too.

That and that ridiculously naive "just buy a load of lower division youngsters and, if you want it enough, and throw them in, they'll become good enough" strategy.

The real overriding problem is that since 2006 this club has been run by clueless halfwits. Yes, 2006-10 included some decent finishes, but even then it was all built on sand, by a spoilt man-baby who flounced off at the first whiff of it being hard work.

Lerner has done incredible damage to this club, and look at us now, playing in front of 30k in the second flight and not looking anything like getting out of it, when clubs we used to compete with such as Spurs and Everton are in a different stratosphere to us. Once Spurs get that 60k stadium built, they will be about as relevant to us as Arsenal are.

The fact that we ever found ourselves with a shortlist of one potential manager is bad enough. That that one was Tim Fucking Sherwood is unforgiveable.

Players like Veretout are not the problem, they're really a sympton of the real problem - an ongoing total lack of awareness about where the club was going.

Exactly,the problem I have is that I am not convinced that the lessons from the Lerner era have been learnt.
We still seem to be drifting along spending money on players with little thought to the future or consistent with any long team plan or discernible playing style.
Add to that the wasters that are still on the payroll and an inability to organize match tickets.

[sickbeggar]

What happened after MON is a matter of record, but the rot really set in with MON still here. He built a very competitive 1st team, which at worse, was 2 or 3 players off getting into the CL. Instead of buying those players, he ran out of ideas, and filled the squad with expensive reserves on massive wages who still didn't get a game. You only have to look at the fee's and wages for MFH, NRC, knight, Sidwell, Shorey,  to name a few and just imagine if that money had been available for any striker other than Heskey

[saunders_heroes]

I honestly think a lot of our problems have been caused by failing to replace Petrov. Not just for what he did on the pitch, but off the pitch, too.

That and that ridiculously naive "just buy a load of lower division youngsters and, if you want it enough, and throw them in, they'll become good enough" strategy.

The real overriding problem is that since 2006 this club has been run by clueless halfwits. Yes, 2006-10 included some decent finishes, but even then it was all built on sand, by a spoilt man-baby who flounced off at the first whiff of it being hard work.

Lerner has done incredible damage to this club, and look at us now, playing in front of 30k in the second flight and not looking anything like getting out of it, when clubs we used to compete with such as Spurs and Everton are in a different stratosphere to us. Once Spurs get that 60k stadium built, they will be about as relevant to us as Arsenal are.

The fact that we ever found ourselves with a shortlist of one potential manager is bad enough. That that one was Tim Fucking Sherwood is unforgiveable.

Players like Veretout are not the problem, they're really a sympton of the real problem - an ongoing total lack of awareness about where the club was going.

Exactly,the problem I have is that I am not convinced that the lessons from the Lerner era have been learnt.
We still seem to be drifting along spending money on players with little thought to the future or consistent with any long team plan or discernible playing style.
Add to that the wasters that are still on the payroll and an inability to organize match tickets.

The crime committed at Villa was the hacking away at our PL infrastructure for more than 6 years and finally relegating us with a skeleton of a club and one of the worst PL teams ever. Everything that is wrong with the club right now and why we continue to struggle can be solely blamed on the way this club was outrageously run from 2010 onwards. You don't just turn around a mess as big as this overnight.

[ChicagoLion]

I honestly think a lot of our problems have been caused by failing to replace Petrov. Not just for what he did on the pitch, but off the pitch, too.

That and that ridiculously naive "just buy a load of lower division youngsters and, if you want it enough, and throw them in, they'll become good enough" strategy.

The real overriding problem is that since 2006 this club has been run by clueless halfwits. Yes, 2006-10 included some decent finishes, but even then it was all built on sand, by a spoilt man-baby who flounced off at the first whiff of it being hard work.

Lerner has done incredible damage to this club, and look at us now, playing in front of 30k in the second flight and not looking anything like getting out of it, when clubs we used to compete with such as Spurs and Everton are in a different stratosphere to us. Once Spurs get that 60k stadium built, they will be about as relevant to us as Arsenal are.

The fact that we ever found ourselves with a shortlist of one potential manager is bad enough. That that one was Tim Fucking Sherwood is unforgiveable.

Players like Veretout are not the problem, they're really a sympton of the real problem - an ongoing total lack of awareness about where the club was going.

Exactly,the problem I have is that I am not convinced that the lessons from the Lerner era have been learnt.
We still seem to be drifting along spending money on players with little thought to the future or consistent with any long team plan or discernible playing style.
Add to that the wasters that are still on the payroll and an inability to organize match tickets.

The crime committed at Villa was the hacking away at our PL infrastructure for more than 6 years and finally relegating us with a skeleton of a club and one of the worst PL teams ever. Everything that is wrong with the club right now and why we continue to struggle can be solely blamed on the way this club was outrageously run from 2010 onwards. You don't just turn around a mess as big as this overnight.

But you have to make a start, and I am not sure we have.

[olaftab]

It's a sign of hard times once again when every thread turns into the Villa mismanagement theme.

[KevinGage]

What happened after MON is a matter of record, but the rot really set in with MON still here. He built a very competitive 1st team, which at worse, was 2 or 3 players off getting into the CL. Instead of buying those players, he ran out of ideas, and filled the squad with expensive reserves on massive wages who still didn't get a game. You only have to look at the fee's and wages for MFH, NRC, knight, Sidwell, Shorey,  to name a few and just imagine if that money had been available for any striker other than Heskey

Aye, but a big striker -the kind who could have made a difference- will invariably have a big ego.  And there was only room for one ego at Martin O'Neill's Aston Villa.  Young, Milner, Downing et.c all good players, but never the sort who would have challenged pubehead.

[aldridgeboy]

But we had Marlon Harewood ))

[Matt Collins]

If it's a flat 4.5 that's terrible.

What has he done in a Villa shirt to warrant someone paying more ?

Answer = Fuck all

We got shafted on him, just as we did/will Amavi. All fart and no shit the pair of them

Just thought I'd resurrect this one I stumbled across