Next Season: Anyone positive

[levico]

Never underestimate the capacity of Fox, Riley, Almstadt and probably Hollis to do the wrong thing.

Other than that I think Garde is definitely beginning to have an affect. The work rate of the entire team yesterday was impressive.

[adrenachrome]

My wider family of Villa faithful are all of one mind about relegation. Namely that it is no more humiliating than half a decade of flopping over the line to Premiership safety by a point or two or by goal difference.  I cannot be more ashamed at what we have become than I was at Christmas of this year. This has been coming for five years and we have sleep walked into it.
The ownership of the club by Randy Lerner is a fact we have to live with, like we have to live with his right to do whatever he pleases with the club whether we like it or not.  The choice whether we carry on supporting the club or walk away is down to us.
If we had been a mid table club until this season and the trap door had opened under our feet, it would require a different rationale but it has been staring us in the face ever since Martin O'Neill opened the seacocks on his way out.  Lerner, Krulak, O'Neill, Houllier, McLeish, Lambert, Sherwood, Karsa, Culverhouse, Faulkner, Keane, KMac, a whole ship of blundering incompetence.
I am entirely positive about the future because all that incompetence will be proven beyond doubt by relegation.  Like a fox  has to submerge himself to the point of drowning to rid himself of fleas, the Championship and Remi Garde offers us the chance of a new start.

Well said, Brian.

Aston Villa is not a brand, it is an institution forged by the life force of its fans.

[four fornicholl]

team confidence is growing , our unbeaten run is growing and were going to stay up with a half decent striker on loan
"living the dream"

[Pete3206]

I'm not saying we're going to stay up, but I can see us eroding that points deficit a little more over the coming weeks.

Anyone else think the players are starting to look fitter?

[four fornicholl]

I'm not saying we're going to stay up, but I can see us eroding that points deficit a little more over the coming weeks.

Anyone else think the players are starting to look fitter?

definitely look fitter but also happier too , confidence is an amazing attribute

[SoccerHQ]

Impossible to know until we see what sort of first 11/squad we've got to play with.

[DeKuip]

Like most football fans I'm always positive about next season – it's the current season that depresses us all.

Okore will be gone in the summer though, he's far too good for the Championship and there'll be plenty after him.

[Chico Hamilton III]

Nervous. Lerner "distances himself" from the club by putting his son on the Board and letting his mother control  our spending. Nothing tells me anything will change with these lunatics at the helm.

[Locko]

Nervous. Lerner "distances himself" from the club by putting his son on the Board and letting his mother control  our spending. Nothing tells me anything will change with these lunatics at the helm.

This. The bungler in chief remains. His bipolar approach, ridiculous largess to total parsimony is damaging. The invisible man now intends to become even more aloof, hiding behind the ramshackle  structure he's cobbled in place, at board level. If it goes wrong as it invariably will,I can't see a way back. The mans judgement is suspect at best, he's so inept I'd not be surprised if he gets lost in his own mansion the best we can hope for under Bungle's ownership is to tread water in whatever division we're in... Five years of watching the same mistakes being repeated is no cause for optimism.

[Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air]

Looking at the arithmetic. 5 points from our last 3 games.
Keep up that rate for the rest of the season we take 25 points from the remaining 15 and finish on 38 points. That could just be enough to stay up. Unlikely I know but it's the best I can come up with.

[Ian.]

As long as we keep Remi on side and liststen to his needs and he gets good men alongside him. With a steady boardroom which hopefully now we have a chairman alongside Fox I can see us coming straight back up.

The steps we have made he last week or so are little but it's progressive and I really believe we have turned a corner for the first time in years.

It's a bit late and it should not have happened, it's been one mighty cock up after another. Here's to the future, how bright? Anyone's guess but I'm feeling more confident than I have for a long time.

[tomd2103]

If we can keep the team below and fill in the gaps with decent players, think we'll be fine whichever league we find ourselves in.

                                    ?

Richards          Okore       Lescott      Amavi

                                   Gana

                    Veretout                  ?

                                     Gil
 
                          Ayew                ?

[Chris Smith]

If Garde remains in charge then I have a good feeling for next season. He comes across as a man who knows what he wants and appears to have exerted his authority over the mess he inherited. Of course you have to take into account our knack for screwing things up, which is why I say 'if Garde stays" as he doesn't strike me as a man who will hang around if he is undermined from above by a failure to fulfill their side of the bargain. Therefore, if he is here it will mean the club is finally getting it right.

[supertom]

I'm fairly positive that if we add in some more footballing knowledge at boardroom level and also give Remi the freedom to mould himself a squad this summer, that we'll have the quality to come back up and in the process build a cohesive unit with a winning mentality that may keep us up the following year and potentially build something. Garde does seem like a long term option in a way that McLeish obviously wasn't and Sherwood definitely wasn't. Lambert seemed to be a decent long term option but was proven to be out of his depth sadly.

We're undoubtedly going to lose a lot of players. I think Ayew is too good to stay. Veretout will probably go. Gana perhaps. Westwood is limited but he's upped his game in recent weeks and would at least stand out at Championship level. Amavi will have little choice to stay and rebuild his fitness here, but if he starts the next season well we may struggle to keep hold in Jan.
Grealish needs to really respond in the right manner and work hard. A bit of humility and a year in the Champ could make him a better player and allow him to finally fulfil his role of being a key player for us.
Richards will probably go. I don't envision him having much loyalty nor wanting to drop down but will we miss him? Not really.
Lescott and Okore will be rock solid in the Champ.
If Traore doesn't have ideas above his station and stops getting injured, he'll tear that league apart and also provide ammo for Rudy.
I hope Gil will stay.
Sanchez might be useful at that level and then we can sell him the following summer.
I'd keep Hutton around for the champ. Keep Cissokho too.

Rico, Sinclair, Zog, Gabby, Senderos, Guzan, and Bacuna can all go.
I can see 10 players leaving. Then we need to bring in 6-7 who can perform in the Championship. We need to strengthen our spine. First things first will be the attitude and workrate of the player and then the quality. Gestede will score at Championship level, provided we get a reasonable winger in and play to his strengths. We need to buy another striker to either play up top with Gestede or rotate with.

We have to hope that the club are finally learning from their failures and will get it right.

[Ian.]

If the press and other people in the business believe all the bull shit that our French summer imports were the reason we have been useless then we may see Ayew and Veretout back next season.