Albrighton

[WarszaVillan]

He wanted more than we were prepared to give at the time. As usual we got it wrong...

Of course we did...

Anyone ever thought of putting together an 11 of current players we got rid of because they weren't good enough?

1 Scott Carson
2 Phil Bardsley
3 Antonio Luna (but a lot of competition in this position I have to say)
4 Habib Beye
5 Richard Dunne
6 Brett Holman
7 Stephen Ireland
8 Karim El Ahmadi
9 Nathan Delfouneso
10 Marlon Harewood
11 Barry Bannan

"I don't know what effect these men will have upon the enemy, but, by God, they frighten me."

All sold because at the time they just were not up to the Villa required  standard.  Don't start getting too romantic over ex players. The only one who I hold a proper candle for would be Richard  Dunne.

You could add Gary Cahill, Steven Davis and James Collins

[joe_c]

*heavy sigh*

Stirchley Villain was suggesting that letting Albrighton go is yet another example of us letting talented players slip through our fingers. The patently awful XI I have posted (with hindsight, Curtis Davies is more worthy of inclusion than Dunne) was my attempt at saying that Albrighton is the exception rather than the rule and as other more diligent in their research posters have pointed out, barely anyone had noticed he had gone such was his lack of impact at Leicester.

I can't believe anyone is overly misty eyed about any of the players I listed and there are plenty more I could name. So I will. Lichaj, Herd, Tonev, Stevens, Salifou, Bowery (who I had to look up so dim was my recollection of him). That Albrighton has belatedly done well with his new employer is to his credit rather than evidence of some fundamental flaw in our player retention strategy. Maybe the change of scenery is what has spurred him on to deliver consistently and had he stayed with us he'd be no more effective than when he left.

There will always be "the one that got away" and I think most of us are in agreement on Gary Cahill in this respect but the vast, vast majority of exits from Villa Park have seen the player moving onto a level appropriate to them, like Milner or Young to title challengers, Collins or Davis to similar middling clubs or finding their level in a lower division like Weimann or Whittingham.

[Boz]

Of course they weren't the only two options. I'm giving a hypothetical, based on what we had and what we ended up with. I'd say that's pretty fair.

I'd have said it at the time, and still believe now that Marc Albrighton would have been a better player in the last 12 months than Joe Cole. He'd have had a similar impact to Jack Grealishs development (it's down to Jack and coaching staff ultimately).

We didn't play him often enough when we had him, and we didn't try to keep him. He's doing well for himself at Leicester and will more than likely have a good career in the premier league.

His improvement has coincided with the arrival of Ranieri and the style of play he wants from his team, based I imagine on the ability of the players in the squad currently.

Obviously the loss of Vardy would have a big impact, but as a squad they have something Villa don't have at present, confidence and a player who's on fire, but that will eventually change or they'll sell him
.

[conman]

I've already said i'd have preferred to keep him, my point is that this thread has appeared with hindsight. There were no such threads for 8 months and virtually no one was overly fussed on his leaving thread.

And we sent Tonev out on a season long loan and let KEA go that summer.

I think you will find that I was critical of letting him go, I still am.
Another fuck up

Which is why I said virtually no one, rather than no one. You obviously missed that part.

loads of villa fans wanted him to stay ,,,,,he is one of our own and was playing well enough for a new contract
 maybe he took time to settle at leicester
or pearsons attitude  was the reason he left him out the side for most of last season
untill he realised what marc can do and as someone posted earlier ,
he started the last 9 or ten games of last season and they practically won them all
this season he is one of the reasons they are where they are

[olaftab]

So who do you think is better Grealish or Albrighton ?

For pure football talent there is no contest Grealish all the way. For application and hard work it has to be Albrighton. Combine those two and you have a world class player.

[SoccerHQ]

So who do you think is better Grealish or Albrighton ?

Albrighton did more and contributed more than Grealish has so far.
Jack has more potential.
I also remember Albrighton comming on playing well and getting dropped a few times and being taken off when he was playing well.
I think he was pretty badly managed.
Thanks Lambert

Albrighton made a great impact for us in first half of 2010/11 but tailing off towards the end and then really struggled the next season so not too dissimilar to Jack although Marc is as good as gold off the pitch.

I can't help feeling the problem when we do produce youth products who do show promise in the first team is we then at that point sell some of our major players and try to make the youth player a focal point of the team when they're not ready for that.

When Albrighton broke into the team in 2010, opposition didn't know who he was so would double up on Young and also Downing so would leave Marc one on one with a defender and he exploited that. Of course both left the following summer we just signed CNZ and teams started doubling up on Albrighton and we had a problem as he didn't have enough experience/quality to beat it.

Same with Grealish. Looks a player then we lose Benteke and d*lph and suddenly the opposition don't have as many things to worry about so can mark Grealish out of games hence him looking pretty ordinary for most of this season or worse in the last month.

[footyskillz]

Paul merson says albrighton is nice and maybe too quiet. And that Jack is cocky and has a swagger. Both have ability but very different personalities. I think if offered chance to come back sharkfin would say yes and help us in our plight. There are those players who are affiliated with clubs and albrighton is one. Even weimann could come back to do a job. Probably stretching it in asking for benteke, Barry, milner or youngy though !

[darren woolley]

Good article I liked Marc I wish we had kept him now.