Brentford v Aston Villa post match thread.

[AV82EC]

When Hogan missed that easy header in the closing minutes of the play off final all our chickens came home to roost in one huge flock.  All the waste, all the mismanagement, all the blunders, all the scandals, all the greed, all the lead swinging.  The net result of all the post MON wrecking is what we now are.  A mid table second division side propped up by borrowed players unable to give a decent game to most of the teams we play.

There really is no alternative but to tear the whole, creaking, crumbling edifice down and build it again  including new foundations.

I’d argue, admittedly with hindsight, the early Lerner years under MON were as damaging as everything that has happened since, it was only given a veneer of respectability by our league placing and a couple of losing trips to Wembley, with a few exceptions in terms of player signings it was the same shit or bust approach as we’ve experienced since. Splashing the cash is great but if it’s just done for show with no underlying ethos or plan, well you end up where we are now.

[JD]

When Hogan missed that easy header in the closing minutes of the play off final all our chickens came home to roost in one huge flock.  All the waste, all the mismanagement, all the blunders, all the scandals, all the greed, all the lead swinging.  The net result of all the post MON wrecking is what we now are.  A mid table second division side propped up by borrowed players unable to give a decent game to most of the teams we play.

There really is no alternative but to tear the whole, creaking, crumbling edifice down and build it again  including new foundations.

That's the way I now feel Brian. We should also give Dean Smith time, I can't see the point in constantly changing managers. 

[Roller]

This is an interesting observation from a Brentford forum site.                                                 John Terry spent the game bending the 4th official's ear, or standing as far away from Dean Smith as possible or flouncing back to his seat. The only communication between him and Dean Smith was after a spell of pressure (a spell LOL, probably most of the game) Smith turned to Terry and told him to advise his defenders. Terry did this wirly thing with his fingers and pointed, it was very bizarre, I had to laugh, WTF was that meant to mean. On another occassion, when Villa were going forward, 2 of the defenders looked at Terry and strugged, looking like a couple of lost kids on a pitch not knowing what to do. I've never seen a pro footballer do this before. All in all, Smith & Terry are NOT working well together, their body language and lack of communication said it all. Villa were cr@p[/b]

[West Derby Villan]

You are not going to win games unless you compete in the middle of the park.  If you keep on giving the ball away, you are inviting pressure on to you with the most likely outcome being that you concede goals.  To compete in the middle of the park, you need energy and have quickness over a short distance.  We do not have that and I do not see any fit players in the squad that can change that.  For years, our passing has been atrocious and ball control no better.  For years, we have relied on individuals, rather than playing as a team.  Too much money to spend has encouraged this approach.

The owners decided that the Club needed to be rebuilt on the playing side from top to bottom and looked for a coach to do this over a period of time, not a short term dash for promotion.  To lose faith in that approach due to unrest from supporters wanting instant success would be a disaster for the Club and would see us remaining in the wilderness for years to come.  We have a limited squad that has shown to be weak when injuries to certain positions have occurred.  We need to see out this season and start again in the summer.

As supporters, we should be recognising the reality of the situation, rather than ignoring things like, losing your best player through injury, spent very little on buying players in the last 18 months (the most expensive squad in this division was assembled more than 2 years ago and those players have either failed to deliver or aged), have had a constant churn of loan players over the last 2 years with no consistency etc., etc.  I am not going to support change in management until this guy has been given the chance to do what he was brought in to do.  I could understand the need to change Remi Garde because of the mismatch with the players and the pressure of the PL but not going the same way with Dean Smith.

Great post

[JD]

Agree, great post OMVF and I totally agree.

[Nunkin1965]

That is indeed a great post.
The sad reality is though that we live in a want it yesterday society and the football fan is no different to anything else these days.
And some contributors on here are not prepared to wait or be patient or see beyond just adding to an already proven unworkable method.

For years we’ve just attracted players who bloody feed of us and have been run by owners who are short sighted in their thinking.
The whole philosophy of this club needs to be re shaped or else we will never get anywhere.
We haven’t realistically competed in this league yet.
Ok we got close last year but can anybody honestly say that we looked anywhere near like Premier League material?
This final 10 game and Summer to follow may well be tough but we may well start to actually realize that  we’re preparing to play in a tough league and mould a team accordingly and not just buy our way out of the bloody thing.