Midsummer Press-ings

[dave.woodhall]

Go on, guess the subject...

http://thebirminghampress.com/2017/06/terrys-all-gold/

[Richard E]

Go on, guess the subject...

http://thebirminghampress.com/2017/06/terrys-all-gold/

The Treaty of Westphalia?

[PeterWithesShin]

What is the record number of marshmallows stuffed up one nostril?

[Tayls_7]

Go on, guess the subject...

http://thebirminghampress.com/2017/06/terrys-all-gold/

The Treaty of Westphalia?

Enlighten us.

[Richard E]

Go on, guess the subject...

http://thebirminghampress.com/2017/06/terrys-all-gold/

The Treaty of Westphalia?

Enlighten us.

It ended the Thirty Years War in the 17th Century. It doesn't really carry much significance for Aston Villa FC 2017-18.

[Gareth]

Spot on Dave!  The whole Terry thing is care less if, care less if not....

Biggest cheer from me was seeing 'MLS' not 'the MLS' :-) :-)

[tomd2103]

The last paragraph sums up the dilemma perfectly.  It really is a gamble and if it were to go through, I can see one of the three outcomes below being most likely:

A) A formerly international class defender, admittedly past his best but still capable at a lower level.  Fired up with a point to prove and a season or so left in his legs. 

B) A player who genuinely thinks he has still got a couple of seasons left in him, but it quite quickly becomes apparent that he hasn't, is way off the pace and is pretty much finished.

C) Someone looking to top up his pension pot now he has left his beloved Chelsea and sees us as a willing bunch of mugs.

I'm not sure we should be gambling the best part of £5m on it really.   

[darren woolley]

Nice to have you back another fine read Dave.

[paul_e]

The last paragraph sums up the dilemma perfectly.  It really is a gamble and if it were to go through, I can see one of the three outcomes below being most likely:

A) A formerly international class defender, admittedly past his best but still capable at a lower level.  Fired up with a point to prove and a season or so left in his legs. 

B) A player who genuinely thinks he has still got a couple of seasons left in him, but it quite quickly becomes apparent that he hasn't, is way off the pace and is pretty much finished.

C) Someone looking to top up his pension pot now he has left his beloved Chelsea and sees us as a willing bunch of mugs.

I'm not sure we should be gambling the best part of £5m on it really.   

I think C is non-starter for the same reason as Dave.  If he wanted to do that there are much better places to go so I'd see him coming to us as a rejection of that choice.

It comes down to A or B for me and my real concern is that when someone in their mid 30s takes a season off (as he has effectively just done, having played 450 minutes of football all season) they very rarely come back from that in the way that someone 10-20 years younger would.

[Diablo]

I love this... Footballers aren’t the most deep-thinking of creatures. Their prime interest seems to be the acquisition of shiny things, whether that be cars, jewellery or winners’ medals.

[Hookeysmith]

I love this... Footballers aren’t the most deep-thinking of creatures. Their prime interest seems to be the acquisition of shiny things, whether that be cars, jewellery or winners’ medals.

Or fellow players wives bejazzles (or whatever they are called)

It is a gamble - its about time one of these came off

[brian green]

We have made enough of them and no mistake.

[Lucky Eddie]

A very open minded article Dave and not what I'd expected to be honest.

He has his flaws; but don't they all?

We are indeed long over due one of these types of signings coming off for us. 

[ciggiesnbeer]

Good article Dave. Lots of very nice one liners and you summarize my firm ambivalence very well

[Clark W Griswold]

Yep, good article. Basically the sensible way of looking at it as a fan would be whether you think we should be taking the gamble, because it is that. I think we should because I don't think it's a gamble on proffesional attitude unlike many that haven't come off in recent years but purely about fitness. For a 1 year deal in which is a very important year I would take the gamble. If it pays off he should turn us into the best defence in the league. If it doesn't the defence may still be ok anyway, hopefully we'll get a few other players in as well with the chance of improving other areas.