Relegation and rebuilding

[Stinkin_Thinkin]

As much as they didn't fit into our plans. I regret Lowton and Weimann leaving now.

I liked Matt Lowton although his defending was a bitdodge. imagine Lowton delivering for Gestede?

[myf]

Watched the league show today.  Its dog eat dog down there with lots of big clubs scrapping it out. Im worried VP will become another great away day for a new set of clubs. Being centrally located,  thered be big away followings and we'd be the biggest scalp. Our current lambs wouldnt stand a chance

[NeilH]

Watched the league show today.  Its dog eat dog down there with lots of big clubs scrapping it out. Im worried VP will become another great away day for a new set of clubs. Being centrally located,  thered be big away followings and we'd be the biggest scalp. Our current lambs wouldnt stand a chance

VP has long been an easy three points for too many teams. There is a great sense of unease over the place which feeds from the top to the pitch. I can't see it changing much next season and I suspect that our route to promotion will lie on the road, like it did last time around.

[auntiesledd]

I really don't see the point of looking to buy players who are 'Championship quality' at present. What we need are players who can make a difference now & ship out the majority of the dross as soon as this wretched season is over. Our current mob - with a handful of exceptions -  have done absolutely nothing to convince me that we will be successful when the inevitable finally happens. It's extremely unlikely that any meaningful business will be done before the Summer, although the budget afforded to bring in new players can presumably be worked out in the meantime and individuals can be sounded out. Goodness knows what the result will be, but if Garde is going to remain here he HAS to be given the power to assemble a squad that he believes will be good enough to be successful. Unfortunately, I can see the recruitment muppets behind the scenes completely undermining the manager's wishes: and the outcome will be clear to see. I can only hope we will be in for a pleasant surprise, but I won't be holding my breath. God I feel depressed. 

[Holte L2]

I'd appoint Mark Warburton as Manager. Knows the league, did very well with Brentford. As is doing a cracking job at Rangers so knows how to handle a big club. I'd also like to see Harry Forrester and Jordan Graham back in midfield.

[ChicagoLion]

This squad will not get us out of the championship. Come the end of the season the morale will be unrepairable.
I doubt if we have relegation clauses allowing a reduction in wages for those who stay.
So the budget to create a team to get us out will be severely restricted.
Unless radical action starts now we could be fucked for a very long time.
This is the perfect storm, a bunch of over paid under achieving mercenaries with a losing mentality without the slightest bit desire,protected by long term contracts with revenues about to decline significantly.With an owner that wants out and a manager without the relevant experience.
It is hard to imagine a worse scenario than what we are facing.

[FarEastVilla]

We are looking like a club that employs the worst type of footballer.  The type that has no emotional connection to the club they are with,  they have no passion for its wellbeing.  Just as long as they get their extortionate wages they are happy,  the money keeps them insulated from real life. The crest on their shirt means nothing to them, the club is a vessel to give them the means to maintain ridiculous lifestyles that we can only dream of. They have footballing talent that most of is would die for, but they don't care, their god given talent is a money maker and that is all. They just do the bare minimum with this talent to keep the money flowing in until they can get another club to prop their lifestyle. We have too many of these guys at the club that have nothing other than money to believe in.

Spot on !

[Boz]

Harry Redknapp anyone? Yes he's had his relegations but he's had promotions too. Very experienced and higher profile. Doesn't strike me as anyone's yes man.

Cheque book manager.

Do you think he'd get the money he'd want for players from Lerner,unlikely? In any case, Redknapp would need to commute every day from Poole as he did at Spurs so don't think it's a goer and he wouldn't be my choice.

[Toronto Villa]

Can you imagine a clown like Bacuna rocking up at Rotherham with his ridiculous headphones and couldn't care less swagger?

don't players at Rotherham have access to headphones? I don't think a young man with headphones is a PL thing to be honest.

[oswald funkletrumpet]

Can you imagine a clown like Bacuna rocking up at Rotherham with his ridiculous headphones and couldn't care less swagger?

yes and he would still be shit

[Ads]

One thing O'Neil did was establish a means to an end. He brought pace into the side, height and somebody capable of delivering the ball. He opined that if you have ten dead ball opportunities per game then they shouldn't be wasted. If you can go back to front very quickly, then the opposition has to sacrifice territory. If you're strong out wide, then you need to be good in the air. We had a style, which at home could be blunted, but nonetheless was effective.

We've had no discernable means since. We've spent a lot of money, but it's a scattergun approach and a hotchpotch mesh of different managers half baked ideas.

We need to address this for next season and we should start now.

The Championship is poor quality. Watch the games on Sky and see for yourself. The pace isn't any quicker, it'd just more frenetic because there is less quality on the ball. The best sides always come up. When they say it's a tough league, they mean it's a poor one blunt of quality.

We will be the biggest club down there, with the biggest wage budget and likely one of the biggest transfer budgets too, depending on who joins us in the drop. The name Aston Villa holds currency, as would Newcastle, in a way Hull or QPR never will. Use this financial and physical size advantage to target players.

The way I see it, Gestede offers very little outside the box. He's a championship player and he bagged 20 which tells you a lot. Amavi and Ayew have excellent delivery, but we are short up front in this league and we'd be short in most.  A few pages back somebody categorised the two characteristics I think the side should have to come back up; pace and power. Flood the forward areas with pace, control territory for set pieces or crosses and Gestede will actually be an asset.

We need more mobility though and a couple of quick forwards would be ideal. I am not the best at examples, but the Palace lad we were linked with; quick and direct, somebody to get the opposition to face their own goal more often than not and get squared up. That would at least be a second dimension to our attacking play.

Ayew may well get poached but it won't be cheap. If he stays I would suggest one fast winger, if he goes, then two. Again, as examples, Hoillet, Philips,  Puncheon, players of that ilk with experience of the league would be useful. Added I to Sinclair, whose delivery I don't think is good enough for this league, I think we'd force a lot of sides to sit very deep and away from home let us go back to front like the ONeill days. Sinclair has done well in that league before and would weigh in with goals. Equally, Traore would be an asset and you'd have four quick wide men to get you through a long season. We would also have greater capacity given our turnover (albeit reduced) and size under the rules to put together  forward options like that.

Gil and Grealish I think we'd keep and may be able to provide guile and flair but only if the platform behind them is provided. Sanchez is powerful enough, but isn't good enough and cannot be trusted to cover the back four. We need a big horrible git in there to really provide steel to the spine. Jedinak is your typical horrible Aussie and I'd welcome him, or somebody like him. That type of player would complement Veretout and his industry. We are too soft and easy to defend against, sides should find it physically difficult first and foremost to.play against us; pace and power are a must to let the extra quality we have flourish.

You can take a broom to the back five. Amavi I like, Okore if he could string games together offers potential, but the rest are garbage.

[Toronto Villa]

That's a good analysis Ads. I thought Lambert knew what he was doing with the front line of Benteke, Gabby and Weimann. It was a quick and often exciting front line that had pace, power and potential. It should have built on but all too quickly fell apart for any number of reasons. Around that we've had a mixed bag of theories, things that I would hesitate to call tactics or strategies and with it inconsistency in players being brought to the club. How is it possible for someone like Garde to come to the club and want to play a certain way when a good number of the players are not good enough or simply aren't the types of players he would look to buy? We need to stop this constant change so that means to an end can be Garde's version. It will take some time to do that and patience within our supporter ranks couldn't be any thinner.

[LTA]

This squad will not get us out of the championship. Come the end of the season the morale will be unrepairable.
I doubt if we have relegation clauses allowing a reduction in wages for those who stay.
So the budget to create a team to get us out will be severely restricted.
Unless radical action starts now we could be fucked for a very long time.
This is the perfect storm, a bunch of over paid under achieving mercenaries with a losing mentality without the slightest bit desire,protected by long term contracts with revenues about to decline significantly.With an owner that wants out and a manager without the relevant experience.
It is hard to imagine a worse scenario than what we are facing.

It might get us out of the Championship.  Just not in the right direction.

[auntiesledd]

Harry Redknapp anyone? Yes he's had his relegations but he's had promotions too. Very experienced and higher profile. Doesn't strike me as anyone's yes man.

Cheque book manager.

Do you think he'd get the money he'd want for players from Lerner,unlikely? In any case, Redknapp would need to commute every day from Poole as he did at Spurs so don't think it's a goer and he wouldn't be my choice.

How VERY dare you! He's a triffick geezer wiv a triffick attitude, gaw blimey guv.

[aj2k77]

As much as they didn't fit into our plans. I regret Lowton and Weimann leaving now.

Lowton can't get in the Burnley team and Weimann has 3 goals. These aren't the players you are looking for, move along.