Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Rip Van We Go Again on January 20, 2013, 10:40:50 AM
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He was bought to take on the role vacated by Ashley Young.
Do you think he can do it?
Over to you.
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His ball to Benteke was perfection.
He is taking a long time to get going but there are promising signs emerging.
One thing that he isn't is a cheat like Young is.
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I've always had a lot of time for him and always hoped he would come good, it's early days but he may enjoy playing in the framework of the side that Lambert favours.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
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He's has shown recently that he is capable, it's whether he can do it week in week out.
Also off the ball he needs to work a bit harder.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
It's a big act to follow, but I reckon he's capable of being a real asset for us.
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I've always had a lot of time for him and always hoped he would come good, it's early days but he may enjoy playing in the framework of the side that Lambert favours.
Well, I've never rated him; his temperament is too flaky. However, yesterday there were glimpses of the player Wigan benefitted from in the latter stages of the previous season.
I will cut him some slack if he plays with the verve and spirit he showed in the first half.
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Everyone i spoke to after the game (who watched it on the tellybox) was raving about him.
I find him very frustrating to watch at times but there's obviously a very good player there. I just wished he'd look up and pass the ball a bit more instead of trying to take on 2 players. He did that yesterday and looked better for it. Also i'd like to see him pushed out more wide.
It's up to him now to keep that form up.
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He played well yesterday but overall I've been disappointed with his contributions when he's been selected.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
True, but he's still better in that position than anyone else at the club. He has PL experience and can win games with his skill. He has to start every week for me. We need our big players on the pitch not on the bench.
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Perhaps if so called fans didn't shout he's shit at every opportunity, then he'd feel a bit more confident to demonstrate his ability. Ask Wigan fans if he's shit after he single-handedly kept them up. Our home support has been dire since MON left.
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I think he's more talented than Young, but lacks his effort and application.
But, I think he's turning a corner, and I think the manager likes him.
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I'm pleased he has got rid of his habit of running the ball straight out of play, endearing as it was. We've finally got shit enough for him to start playing well. That's how it worked at Wigan, right?
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We're starting to see a flavour of the player we thought we'd signed. Needs to find some consistency, both of form and fitness, but I think he's got a manager who wants to look after him, hence taking him off yesterday as he faded to protect him for Tuesday.
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We've finally got shit enough for him to start playing well. That's how it worked at Wigan, right?
Bizarrely, players like him at their best when everybody else is below par.
Se also Young.
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I was against the idea of playing him in the middle -which I believe is his favoured role, but it seems that this is the way to get the best out of him. Up to recent games have considered him lightweight and uninterested with no redeeming character. Maybe he will grow in confidence playing in the hole-it is worth a few more games to find out as he has been dire out wide.
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he worked hard yesterday i think that is significant
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His problem since he's been with us has been that he holds on to the ball for too long.
Yesterday he seemed to release it quicker, and it paid off.
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Last season was a nightmare, but dont think the way the manager was tactically playing helped N'Zogbia at all. That said, he still has to put the effort in and at times I feel this was sadly lacking. This season, when fit, I think he has generally done okay and yesterday was excellent. Think he has a manager who believes in him and lets hope he can continue to influence games, starting on Tuesday
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He needs to get his head up and look for passes, he showed yesterday he could do it. And not just run with his head down.
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We're starting to see a flavour of the player we thought we'd signed. Needs to find some consistency, both of form and fitness, but I think he's got a manager who wants to look after him, hence taking him off yesterday as he faded to protect him for Tuesday.
Good summary. I'm not sure TSM knew how to get the best out of him. Young was something special, N'Zogbia can be his own man and still a great asset if he plays to his full ability.
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I don't think he is a Young replacement as Mr Tickle doesn't seem to like out-and-out wingers.
However, if he keeps playing like he did yesterday he might just be able to fire us to survival, like when he almost single-handedly kept Wigan up the year before last.
*Prays*
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He has an ability to breeze past players with ease. He provides a lot of movement in the space between midfield and the forwards too.
My biggest criticism is that his end product is lacking, but it was definitely there yesterday.
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He's just about the only player we have with the ability to take on and beat his man, and while he should be encouraged to carry on trying to do so, he needs to reminded there is also a time when it's more beneficial to lay it off, shoot or whatever. I think the phrase is 'all fart and no shit'
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I was never Young's biggest fan, I thought he was inconsistent, though less so than Zog, and too often chose the wrong option. By all accounts Man Yoo fans aren't too keen on him for those reasons. But when he was good he was very good. Zog has the ability to be very good but again too often takes the wrong option. He set up two or three great chances yesterday but there were two occasions when he went alone and tried to dribble the ball in past several defenders. On each occasion he had initially made the space to have a dig and I think he should try his luck a bit more often by getting a shot off. To be honest even if inconsistent he is always likely to make something happen in the final third and is just about the only player we have with the ability to run directly at the defence with the ball at his feet and cause a bit of panic.
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I like him. Think he tries TOO hard at times.
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Thought he was very good going forward yesterday, but do have some concerns about him defensively if he is going to play in that attacking midfield role.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
I totally disagree. I thought yesterday, and in the last few games, he is starting show how good he is with the ball at his feet in dangerous areas. He took half of Albion out a couple of times yesterday. That front 3 was as dynamic, quick and skillful as we have had in a long time, and all played their roles well. The only different thing I would have done yesterday was Bent for Gabby, not Holman for NZogbia.
If he plays like yesterday for a couple of seasons, he will have replaced Young very well.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
Completely disagree OzVilla. Young ran and crossed and most of the time crossed to no one and nowhere. He had some ability from dead ball but nothing more than average. However Young doesn't have the subtle sublime control and trickery that N'Zog possesses. If only he can make better decisions and execute ...than....than I am afraid e will be paying for a champions league team.
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Has three assists since Ipswich now so is doing better.Front 3 yesterday is a threat to any team ,pace ,skill and Power and still have Bent and Weimann in reserve ....if only we could defend better.
Like Zog seems Lambert is working much better with him than TSM.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
Completely disagree OzVilla. Young ran and crossed and most of the time crossed to no one and nowhere. He had some ability from dead ball but nothing more than average. However Young doesn't have the subtle sublime control and trickery that N'Zog possesses. If only he can make better decisions and execute ...than....than I am afraid e will be paying for a champions league team.
Ashley Young nothing more than average? Wow! I'd love someone as average as Young in the team now. Perhaps we wouldn't be staring at relegation then.
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We were staring at relegation in Mr Young's last season. Lets not have short memories..
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We were staring at relegation in Mr Young's last season. Lets not have short memories..
Yep, and I'd just about settle for that season's finishing position of 9th this year.
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John winning 3 out of last 4 did that for us but for a long while that season I remember people sitting on toilet pans bricking themselves.
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I'm sorry to say he couldn't lace Young's boots.
Completely disagree OzVilla. Young ran and crossed and most of the time crossed to no one and nowhere. He had some ability from dead ball but nothing more than average. However Young doesn't have the subtle sublime control and trickery that N'Zog possesses. If only he can make better decisions and execute ...than....than I am afraid e will be paying for a champions league team.
Ashley Young nothing more than average? Wow! I'd love someone as average as Young in the team now. Perhaps we wouldn't be staring at relegation then.
Got to Agree that young is average and not good enough for Man utd or England
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We were staring at relegation in Mr Young's last season. Lets not have short memories..
Yep, and I'd just about settle for that season's finishing position of 9th this year.
Creating space for Benteke and Gabby/ Weimann has been difficult this and last season for Bent and Gabby. If NZogbia can start to play as he did yesterday we look to have goals in us. If we miraculously sign a defender and a proper defensive midfielder, we could string a few results together.
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John winning 3 out of last 4 did that for us but for a long while that season I remember people sitting on toilet pans bricking themselves.
West Ham away end of Easter was the turning point wasn't it? Bolton away 2-2 was a real moment of panic I recall.
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We need to get Nzogbia in those 1 on 1 situations because 9 times out of 10 he beats his man if we can get him doing that with Benteke in the box it will be a great combination.
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I'm just hoping tha Lambert has realised that dismissing width entirely was a mistake. Giving N'Zogbia licence to roam and get wide fits him and fits the team. Our midfield's lack of strength told in the end but while they were playing well the forwards were getting supprt and looked really quite outstanding at times. In the end it starts and ends with the middle of the park. We are better going forward and we are better in defence with a midfield that operates for 90 minutes and not 45. That will allow the likes of Zog to be the player he can be. He's clearly a confidence player and yesterday he looked the part. If he can recreate that on Tuesday we'll be fine.
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He seems to click well with Benteke,and when hes up for it he'll chase back. If he can have a good game on Tuesday,hopefully with more games under his belt he can hit some form.
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I remember seeing Nzogbia once against Arse and thought omg what a player , he will be snapped up by Wenger after this , would love to see that Nzog at Villa.
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I'm just hoping tha Lambert has realised that dismissing width entirely was a mistake. Giving N'Zogbia licence to roam and get wide fits him and fits the team. Our midfield's lack of strength told in the end but while they were playing well the forwards were getting supprt and looked really quite outstanding at times. In the end it starts and ends with the middle of the park. We are better going forward and we are better in defence with a midfield that operates for 90 minutes and not 45. That will allow the likes of Zog to be the player he can be. He's clearly a confidence player and yesterday he looked the part. If he can recreate that on Tuesday we'll be fine.
I agree re the floating bit to get wide when he likes. We were OFSTED inspected a few months back at work, and there was 1 male inspector and about 6 female, of which none were into football. He was a massive Wigan fan, and said Charlie was 10 times the footballer Moses is, and the problem is Villa are putting a label on his position. Martinez just said from half way to their goal is yours, do what you like, create havoc. And he did, regularly. I do wonder if Lamber and Martinez discussed the issue after Wigan gave us a beating.
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He's had a couple of good games, yesterday's in particular was an excellent performance.
That is nowhere near enough to convince me he is good enough. He has been a complete and utter waste of space for the vast majority of the time since we signed him. We need someone who can deliver more consistently. Looking at his career with us to date he hasn't got enough form in the book yet to make me think its him.
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If he plays like yesterday for a couple of seasons, he will have replaced Young very well.
He seems to click well with Benteke,and when hes up for it he'll chase back. If he can have a good game on Tuesday,hopefully with more games under his belt he can hit some form.
Both of these positive statements betray the true problem with him.
If he can play like that...
If he's up for it...
No way should we be hoping that if he can be arsed he might play well. There's just not enough evidence to think he might. Just because he got the better of Liam Ridgewell doesn't mean it was worth the two year wait for that performance.
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If he was a little less greedy and did the basics a bit more, he'd be decent.
He looks like he's up for the fight.
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He was good yesterday, but is selfishness is a problem, it wouldn't be so bad he would just shoot, but he doesn't. It was him losing the ball while trying to walk the ball in that led to their first goal.
But yesterday was a big improvement overall.
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He is the sort of player with experience we need at the moment, we looked much better when he was on the pitch, i was surprised he was subbed. We looked a lot lighter in midfield when he came off.
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If he can play like he did yesterday he will be a top player.
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It's clear how much we need him to perform. He has things in his locker that nobody else we have possesses, and if he brings it to games we look a different side.
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If he can perform like that, it'll help save us he was excellent and worked very hard.
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Once again.
Our forward line is very good and full of different options.
If only we could sort out midfield and defence.
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Also don't ever bring Holman on for him again.
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Also don't ever bring Holman on for him again.
I'm really puzzled as to what Bomb Scare's function is as he enters the pitch.
He's all over the place like a mad Woman's shit.
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John winning 3 out of last 4 did that for us but for a long while that season I remember people sitting on toilet pans bricking themselves.
It was more than that. The2nd half of the season form, after Bent signed, was top 6 standard.
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Got to Agree that young is average and not good enough for Man utd or England
Well Manu fans don't like him and think he is a bit part player for them and distinctly average. Playing for England theses days means nothing in terms if international class. Just look at the type of players winning caps over the set few seasons.
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John winning 3 out of last 4 did that for us but for a long while that season I remember people sitting on toilet pans bricking themselves.
It was more than that. The2nd half of the season form, after Bent signed, was top 6 standard.
Agree that Bent made a big difference not sure Young was going to save s that season.
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Also don't ever bring Holman on for him again.
Only bring Holman on if Dame Edna is not on the bench!
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Stephens?
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Best game (or half a game) for us by miles yesterday imo.
Much more effective than playing out wide anyway as he can release the ball to the other two forwards rather than running into 2-3 defenders out wide.
There could yet be a player in there if he continues in this role, about time tbh.
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We were staring at relegation in Mr Young's last season. Lets not have short memories..
Yep, and I'd just about settle for that season's finishing position of 9th this year.
Creating space for Benteke and Gabby/ Weimann has been difficult this and last season for Bent and Gabby. If NZogbia can start to play as he did yesterday we look to have goals in us. If we miraculously sign a defender and a proper defensive midfielder, we could string a few results together.
I agree with that.
We certainly have goal scorers in the side, our problem is we've been too busy picking the ball out of our own net to supply them. Stiffen the spine and start getting the basics right and we have enough up front to win us games!
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Once again.
Our forward line is very good and full of different options.
If only we could sort out midfield and defence.
Yep, I'd start the same front three on Tuesday and we'd have Weimann and Bent as back up options on the bench.
I think it's fair to say no other team in the bottom half has those options upfront.
We really need to sort the defence and midfield out.
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IF we sorted the defence and midfield, which is 3, maybe 4 signings at most, I think we would hurt a lot of sides regularly enough to be top 8, maybe higher.
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lets not go OTT on him. he has shown the odd flash of inspiration before but has an awful lot of catching up to do to be a reliable regular. Both Gabby and himself seemed reborn yesterday in the first half . I had pretty much given up on both of them. Need to do it consistently though. He was completely anonymous against Southampton last week.
Gabby, Delph, Nzogbia - three key players for us to avoid the drop. If they pick it up for the next 6 or 8 weeks we will be nowhere near relegation.
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Thinking about it, if he does have a good run between now and May it could have the double benefit of helping keep us up and also disguise his previous poor form to the point we may be able to off load him. I know it would seem daft to sell him when he's playing well, but given his history do we expect it to last? If he has good last third of the season and someone then comes in with a decent offer, I'd bite their hands off!
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As a few others have mentioned too often he's had no end product. Saturday was a glimpse of the player he could be if he concentrated on doing what's best for the team. He's done that in 3-4 games in the entire time he's been with us and he's got assists every time, but then he falls back into head down running into trouble.
It's summed up by the fact that Benteke's goal was his first league assist of the season, and he hadn't scored either.
On Saturday we saw an hour of a £10m player but it's only when we start seeing that player regularly that I'll think he's worth keeping. At the moment he's at the point Ireland reached against Chelsea last year, if he goes missing for a month like Ireland did then we still need to replace him, if he steps up now then we've got once less player to look for in the summer.
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Thinking about it, if he does have a good run between now and May it could have the double benefit of helping keep us up and also disguise his previous poor form to the point we may be able to off load him. I know it would seem daft to sell him when he's playing well, but given his history do we expect it to last? If he has good last third of the season and someone then comes in with a decent offer, I'd bite their hands off!
Agree totally, knowing Charles if he does play well, he'll possibly engineer the move himself.
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He has the ability. That's never been in question.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
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IF we sorted the defence and midfield, which is 3, maybe 4 signings at most, I think we would hurt a lot of sides regularly enough to be top 8, maybe higher.
Agree.
3 or 4 of the RIGHT quality would make all the difference.
We don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to do it either.
As you pointed out on another thread, about £15m would do it.
Peanuts compared to what we'd lose being relegated.
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Our defending at corners is really pitiful. Albion's 2nd testament to that with none of our lot attacking the ball sent in. It's painful to watch and we're watching it week in week out. Sort it out Villa and by that I mean get a big tall defender who makes the box his own. I'd have any of our former defenders of the last 5 years in that position instead of Clark. A good prospect he might be but he's not a central defender in a million years.
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Zat Knight?
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
He's had a couple of good games, let's not get over excited.
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Zat Knight?
Yes, even Zat Knight.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We are better under Lambert at keeping the ball than we was under McLeish (******)
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We want to though, which is an undeniable difference to last year.
As Paul Doyle said in the Graun, every now and again we play really really good stuff, which makes how poorly we play the rest of the time just weird.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We want to though, which is an undeniable difference to last year.
As Paul Doyle said in the Graun, every now and again we play really really good stuff, which makes how poorly we play the rest of the time just weird.
In the first half v West Brom and Liverpool we played with a good tempo and kept the ball down. Sometimes we pass it sideways too much then hoof it down the pitch.
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Zat Knight?
Zat Knight it's not right,
I don't feel so bright,
I don't care to sit tight.
Maybe I'll find on the way down the line
that I'm free, free to be me.
Zat Knight is a long way from home.
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I don't know why people are so suprised by how N'Zogbia has played recently anyway. Ever since he was dropped after the Everton game, I've thought he has always looked up for it in the sub appearences he made. He was also brilliant against Citeh in the cup. I still don't understand why he didn't get a run in the team after that game. Much more effective also playing more centrally in a free role.
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Double post.
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IF we sorted the defence and midfield, which is 3, maybe 4 signings at most, I think we would hurt a lot of sides regularly enough to be top 8, maybe higher.
Agree.
3 or 4 of the RIGHT quality would make all the difference.
We don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to do it either.
As you pointed out on another thread, about £15m would do it.
Peanuts compared to what we'd lose being relegated.
I think we need to upgrade what we have in most cases, the only out and out new signing we need is still , really, a replacement for Petrov. Given that over this window and the summer we need 6 signings to replace 5 outgoings.
In order of priority:
A big physical midfielder to replace Petrov - Sissoko (£3m) would be a good choice, strong defensively but has some drive going forward and keeps the ball pretty well.
A fit, ball-winning, dominant central defender to replace Dunne - For me Douglas (couple of million) at Twente looks perfect.
A right back to replace Hutton - I like Lowton but he needs some competition. Lichaj isn't good enough to start a run of games if Lowton is injured. I have no idea who to go for though.
A left back to replace Warnock - I'd want someone more versatile, and preferably an "older head"; someone towards the end of his career who can cover centrally and maybe in midfield as well would be perfect.
An attacking option who can play right across the field behind a front man to replace Ireland - Gouffran (£750k) seems too good to be true for this one, experienced, 2 footed, can cross, can shoot, runs with the ball well, can play the neat passes, we should get him.
A goalkeeper to replace Given - Guzan is rightly first choice, Given is a very very expensive bench ornament. Someone with a bit of experience who's willing to come in and wait for a chance.
That would see us set for next year and could probably be achieved for a net outlay for £15m (the 3 I've named would be 6m-ish so 3-4m on each full back and 1-2m on a keeper - Remember Vlaar is a current Dutch international who we picked up for well inside that range).
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We want to though, which is an undeniable difference to last year.
As Paul Doyle said in the Graun, every now and again we play really really good stuff, which makes how poorly we play the rest of the time just weird.
In the first half v West Brom and Liverpool we played with a good tempo and kept the ball down. Sometimes we pass it sideways too much then hoof it down the pitch.
I think the hoofing it down the pitch is born out of the inexperience of the team. Passing it sideways is fine, you just have to have the patience to wait for it to open up a bit, and you have to have the movement off the ball to make little spaces in the midfield to help you get up the pitch - and of course you have to pass the ball with a bit of zip. We did that in the first half, but forgot it entirely in the second.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We want to though, which is an undeniable difference to last year.
As Paul Doyle said in the Graun, every now and again we play really really good stuff, which makes how poorly we play the rest of the time just weird.
In the first half v West Brom and Liverpool we played with a good tempo and kept the ball down. Sometimes we pass it sideways too much then hoof it down the pitch.
I think the hoofing it down the pitch is born out of the inexperience of the team. Passing it sideways is fine, you just have to have the patience to wait for it to open up a bit, and you have to have the movement off the ball to make little spaces in the midfield to help you get up the pitch - and of course you have to pass the ball with a bit of zip. We did that in the first half, but forgot it entirely in the second.
We're still mentally fragile, we knew they'd come out strong and needed to ride it out, after we conceded early in the 2nd half we lost the confidence to play our natural game.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We want to though, which is an undeniable difference to last year.
As Paul Doyle said in the Graun, every now and again we play really really good stuff, which makes how poorly we play the rest of the time just weird.
In the first half v West Brom and Liverpool we played with a good tempo and kept the ball down. Sometimes we pass it sideways too much then hoof it down the pitch.
I think the hoofing it down the pitch is born out of the inexperience of the team. Passing it sideways is fine, you just have to have the patience to wait for it to open up a bit, and you have to have the movement off the ball to make little spaces in the midfield to help you get up the pitch - and of course you have to pass the ball with a bit of zip. We did that in the first half, but forgot it entirely in the second.
We're still mentally fragile, we knew they'd come out strong and needed to ride it out, after we conceded early in the 2nd half we lost the confidence to play our natural game.
I still think the mental fragility is down to the Chelsea 8-0. That result was so damaging which is still showing now.
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I don't think it's just mental fragility, we effectively lost the midfield when Delph had to come off for Bannan who is not suited to that role at all, and especially after N'Zog was subbed for Holman we were completely floored as we couldn't keep ball at all.
WBA game really showed why we need physical midfielder who can keep the defensive duties and bring energy to the midfield.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
We want to though, which is an undeniable difference to last year.
As Paul Doyle said in the Graun, every now and again we play really really good stuff, which makes how poorly we play the rest of the time just weird.
In the first half v West Brom and Liverpool we played with a good tempo and kept the ball down. Sometimes we pass it sideways too much then hoof it down the pitch.
I think the hoofing it down the pitch is born out of the inexperience of the team. Passing it sideways is fine, you just have to have the patience to wait for it to open up a bit, and you have to have the movement off the ball to make little spaces in the midfield to help you get up the pitch - and of course you have to pass the ball with a bit of zip. We did that in the first half, but forgot it entirely in the second.
We're still mentally fragile, we knew they'd come out strong and needed to ride it out, after we conceded early in the 2nd half we lost the confidence to play our natural game.
I still think the mental fragility is down to the Chelsea 8-0. That result was so damaging which is still showing now.
Without Chelsea I don;t think we would have lost 0-4 to Spurs. And without Chelsea and Spurs our heads wouldn;t have dropped after that early goal from Wigan, which means we wouldn;t have lost 0-3. And so on.
It's really a cumulative effect, but it all started with Chelsea.
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I don't think it's just mental fragility, we effectively lost the midfield when Delph had to come off for Bannan who is not suited to that role at all, and especially after N'Zog was subbed for Holman we were completely floored as we couldn't keep ball at all.
WBA game really showed why we need physical midfielder who can keep the defensive duties and bring energy to the midfield.
Most people can see the problems in midfield; unfortunately management can't!
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Great that Charlie had 2 assist in WBA game. However has a tenancy to hold on to ball and not pass. Against Bradford it was insane that he wanted to shoot and dribble past not pass to players. Has ability and atm coming back to fitness as he is currently overweight. I think he needs to keep a good attitude and application -which Lambert demands- and be benefit us all. Of course if he hits top form he ll wanna leave and i remember how he really wanted to go to arsenal but he's not that good.
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Maybe he is actually enjoying himself playing under a manager who actually wants his team to play football
I don't think we actually play that good football, personally.
So you think the football we played in the first half on Saturday wasnt decent? I aree we have been dire at times, but the difference this year is at least we have a manager who is trying to get the team to play football. Personally I enjoy them trying to keep the ball like the two goals on Saturday rather than hoofing it up the pitch. There is still a tendancy to play long ball when we are losing, Bradford away was a prime example. The first 15 minutes at their place, we were playing decent football and looked like winning easily, but went a goal down and instantly starting playing it longer, needed a calm head in there.
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IF we sorted the defence and midfield, which is 3, maybe 4 signings at most, I think we would hurt a lot of sides regularly enough to be top 8, maybe higher.
Agree.
3 or 4 of the RIGHT quality would make all the difference.
We don't necessarily have to spend a fortune to do it either.
As you pointed out on another thread, about £15m would do it.
Peanuts compared to what we'd lose being relegated.
I think we need to upgrade what we have in most cases, the only out and out new signing we need is still , really, a replacement for Petrov. Given that over this window and the summer we need 6 signings to replace 5 outgoings.
In order of priority:
A big physical midfielder to replace Petrov - Sissoko (£3m) would be a good choice, strong defensively but has some drive going forward and keeps the ball pretty well.
A fit, ball-winning, dominant central defender to replace Dunne - For me Douglas (couple of million) at Twente looks perfect.
A right back to replace Hutton - I like Lowton but he needs some competition. Lichaj isn't good enough to start a run of games if Lowton is injured. I have no idea who to go for though.
A left back to replace Warnock - I'd want someone more versatile, and preferably an "older head"; someone towards the end of his career who can cover centrally and maybe in midfield as well would be perfect.
An attacking option who can play right across the field behind a front man to replace Ireland - Gouffran (£750k) seems too good to be true for this one, experienced, 2 footed, can cross, can shoot, runs with the ball well, can play the neat passes, we should get him.
A goalkeeper to replace Given - Guzan is rightly first choice, Given is a very very expensive bench ornament. Someone with a bit of experience who's willing to come in and wait for a chance.
That would see us set for next year and could probably be achieved for a net outlay for £15m (the 3 I've named would be 6m-ish so 3-4m on each full back and 1-2m on a keeper - Remember Vlaar is a current Dutch international who we picked up for well inside that range).
Nail on the head Paul. It is glaringly obvious where we are short.
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Still doing well.
He's going to be a key player for us in this relegation dogfight.
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He's been superb lately. The run and pass for the first goal was outstanding. He's working hard and making better decisions.
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He has good experience of the situation we find ourselves in!
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He's a vital player for us now and if we could just defend better, his improvement means we are actually a threat going forward again which gives us the slightest chance.
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Playing consistantly well at long last.
We need to keep him in the free role as he's much more effective there than out wide imo. I think that's our best chance of staying up as we're certaintly not going to magically start keeping clean sheets.
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The formation and selection is almost right, but I would probably go Clark into midfield for KEA and put Baker in the back 4. Giving us more height, and more strength from corners.
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Charlie is definetely improving. I have more faith in him for the fight ahead than that useless nutjob Ireland.
He seems to have improved since I had a screaming rant at him from the Trinity a few games back.
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Very pleased with his recent games - one of the rare positives of the last month.
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Charlie is definetely improving. I have more faith in him for the fight ahead than that useless nutjob Ireland.
He seems to have improved since I had a screaming rant at him from the Trinity a few games back.
Randy may want you as the next manager, good luck
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I'm glad he's seemingly got his act together and long may it continue! This role suits him perfectly, he can make things happen in the final third.
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Charlie is definetely improving. I have more faith in him for the fight ahead than that useless nutjob Ireland.
He seems to have improved since I had a screaming rant at him from the Trinity a few games back.
Can you do that to a few more of them, please?
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Starting with the defence.
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From The Mirror
Charles N'Zogbia says he is ready get nasty and physically “hurt people” to ensure Aston Villa stay up.
The Villains' French attacking ace was the hero as he won a penalty and scored a brilliant free-kick in their 2-1 win over West Ham.
He then hobbled off late on after taking a whack on his calf while playing in the hole behind Christian Benteke.
But N’Zogbia insists he will be fit for Villa’s next game at Arsenal on February 23.
And he says he is willing to put in the boot himself if necessary as Villa battle relegation.
Asked about the physical nature of the Premier League, N’Zogbia claimed: “I do enjoy it. Sometimes I kick and I get kicked.
“That’s football. This one really hurts but it’s okay. But I’m happy to hurt people too! Sometimes it’s good.
“Some French people like to kick as well. I’m a man. I got a kick at the end on the calf and it was really sore but it’s fine now. I’ll put some ice on it.”
Victory against the Hammers lifted Villa out of the relegation zone.
It was one of N’Zogbia’s best displays for the club since he joined from Wigan in July 2011 for £9.5million.
N’Zogbia successfully helped keep Wigan up during his spell at the club from 2009-2011. He even scored 10 goals in 2010/2011 - including five in the last six games to inspire survival.
And now N’Zogbia has urged all his Villa team-mates to keep battling to secure safety.
He added: “I’ve been through that many years and I just know we have to keep working together, keep believing in our football and our players. It will be the best way.
“All we have to do is stick to the manager, stick to the players, and hopefully we are all working in the same way and it will be good for the team and everyone.
“The secret is you have to stick together and never let people down. West Ham was important for the team and the club to win.
“Now we have to believe in ourselves and be confident for the next games.”
Villa captain Ron Vlaar has told his teammates to start handing out rollickings in a bid to avoid relegation – including to him.
Victory over West Ham was just Villa’s third League win at home all season. A few disillusioned supporters had already written Villa off for relegation after a lack of investment in January.
N’Zogbia said: “When you get bad games at home, it happens.
“Some fans can be against us but it is normal when they don’t see their team winning. Now we just have to believe in ourselves and the fans will believe in us and that is the best we can do.
“We are going to have two weeks to prepare for the next game so it is going to be good. We are going to work together and hopefully we will be fit and confident to play in two weeks.”
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The extra week to recover has come in handy.
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He finally looking the part, he can be a match winner for us
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He finally looking the part, he can be a match winner for us
Well, effectively he was on Sunday, there`s hope yet.
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I think he will shoulder (rightly so) a large amount of the on pitch blame if we get relegated as he has been hopeless for 18 months. That said if he has another 3 good months (as opposed to 3 games) then he will be seen as a saviour.
Don't think he is a long term fit for us regardless of where we finish this season.
However at least there are likely to be a couple of mug punters willing to remove him from our wage bill in the event of relegation unlike Ireland, Given, Hutton, Gabby.
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Yes,let's sell a player now he's finally settling and hitting some form????.He was clearly unhappy last season under the most negative manager in the world and said as much.He's also been plagued by injuries and this is the first time he's had a run of games in his favoured position and appears to be doing the business.He also seems popular with his team mates and should we stay up will hopefully push on next season
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It's only now he's been getting a clear run under PL after injuries, and clearly it suits him more. Lets face it, McLeish drained the lifeblood out of every spec of flair we might have had last season.
I'd like to see Zoggy stay with us next season, IF we're still top flight and IF he keeps the form up.
I quite like Zog in the free role. It allows him freedom to attack either flank. He's good at running at the fullbacks, and it's then hard to keep track or which flank he's on. He can go inside, outside, where-ever.
At the moment we need to make use of all our matchwinners. That might not be a very long list, but Zog is proving his worth now. I still think we haven't seen nearly his best either. The more confident he gets, the better he'll get.
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I like him, even through his poor form I never felt it was through lack of effort, in fact I said on here earlier this season that I was more worried that he was trying hard but just looked shit.
Credit to him for working hard to find his form, and credit to the manager for playing him in a position that suits him well.
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I like him, even through his poor form I never felt it was through lack of effort, in fact I said on here earlier this season that I was more worried that he was trying hard but just looked shit.
Credit to him for working hard to find his form, and credit to the manager for playing him in a position that suits him well.
His poor form previously was down to him trying to do too much. Where he's done well recently is that's he's looking for other players a lot more and not trying to beat 4-5 men every time he gets the ball.
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The only thing he's ever been lack is a final ball, as he's always been capable of breezing past players with ease.
He has recently added that final/killer ball and looks a good player. I would agree that he is getting his head up a lot more too.
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He's a real talent when his head is one straight and it seems to be coming together for him right now. Lambert has given him licence to move around the pitch and he's beginning to show us what we all knew he had. Look at the way he weaved between three players for Benteke's first at Everton. It's that inventiveness that we've been missing. Going forward we always have a chance and he's now a big reason as to why that is.
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I'd say he's improved a lot and now looks half decent, but compared to the way i saw him play a few times for Wigan he's a long way off that.
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Yes,let's sell a player now he's finally settling and hitting some form????.He was clearly unhappy last season under the most negative manager in the world and said as much.He's also been plagued by injuries and this is the first time he's had a run of games in his favoured position and appears to be doing the business.He also seems popular with his team mates and should we stay up will hopefully push on next season
More than happy to keep him if he plays like he has done recently on a consistent basis. I don't think that is likely to happen based on the previous 18 months, 3 good games does not equal £10m + £3p.a.
If we get relegated then I suspect some end of season eye catching performances will see him on his way regardless.
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Yes,let's sell a player now he's finally settling and hitting some form????.He was clearly unhappy last season under the most negative manager in the world and said as much.He's also been plagued by injuries and this is the first time he's had a run of games in his favoured position and appears to be doing the business.He also seems popular with his team mates and should we stay up will hopefully push on next season
More than happy to keep him if he plays like he has done recently on a consistent basis. I don't think that is likely to happen based on the previous 18 months, 3 good games does not equal £10m + £3p.a.
If we get relegated then I suspect some end of season eye catching performances will see him on his way regardless.
And what if he helps keep us up as he did Wigan?
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Charlie is definetely improving. I have more faith in him for the fight ahead than that useless nutjob Ireland.
He seems to have improved since I had a screaming rant at him from the Trinity a few games back.
Can you do that to a few more of them, please?
Can you tell us what the rant :)
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Agree with most.
Always knew there was a player in there, as we'd seen at Wigan. Can look as if the ball is glued to his foot at times and always looks capable of beating his man.
If I was to be critical, he does have a tendency to take on too many defenders when there's often an easy lay-off available and perhaps his crossing isn't so great, but regardless, you daren't leave him out of the side atm.
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I think he will shoulder (rightly so) a large amount of the on pitch blame if we get relegated as he has been hopeless for 18 months. That said if he has another 3 good months (as opposed to 3 games) then he will be seen as a saviour.
Don't think he is a long term fit for us regardless of where we finish this season.
However at least there are likely to be a couple of mug punters willing to remove him from our wage bill in the event of relegation unlike Ireland, Given, Hutton, Gabby.
That's all it took, give or take, for Patrick Berger to get a new contract.
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Problem is that fans expect players to always hit the ground running. Petrov was shit for the first season with us yet many would have him back in the team in a flash. N'Zogbia has at times flattered to deceive but has never been lazy as some have accused him of being. He is an attacking player that was forced to do anything but attack under McClown and the fans decided to turn against the player rather than the tactics. This season he has had injury probs but I believe we are now seeing what he's all about and long may it continue since he's one of very few players that can make things happen and if we do stay up I'm sure he'll be one of the big reasons why.
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Problem is that fans expect players to always hit the ground running. Petrov was shit for the first season with us yet many would have him back in the team in a flash. N'Zogbia has at times flattered to deceive but has never been lazy as some have accused him of being. He is an attacking player that was forced to do anything but attack under McClown and the fans decided to turn against the player rather than the tactics. This season he has had injury probs but I believe we are now seeing what he's all about and long may it continue since he's one of very few players that can make things happen and if we do stay up I'm sure he'll be one of the big reasons why.
I think that's about right.
Petrov was great for us in his last season and a bit, but, with the exception of his first match, he really struggled for us for a good season or two, I thought.
I think a lot of the frustration with N'Zogbia up till now has been his decision making. Hanging on to the ball too long, passing when he should be shooting, shooting when he should be passing, but I wonder how much of that is a mental thing, feeling the pressure.
Let's not forget, he was a big fish in a small pond at Wigan, so it wouldn't be the biggest surprise.
I think confidence has been a massive issue for a lot of our players this season and last. Look at Albrighton (another one who suffers with final decision making), whenever we've seen him of late, he has looked completely shot.
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Took him a while to really get going for Wigan too...
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Yes,let's sell a player now he's finally settling and hitting some form????.He was clearly unhappy last season under the most negative manager in the world and said as much.He's also been plagued by injuries and this is the first time he's had a run of games in his favoured position and appears to be doing the business.He also seems popular with his team mates and should we stay up will hopefully push on next season
More than happy to keep him if he plays like he has done recently on a consistent basis. I don't think that is likely to happen based on the previous 18 months, 3 good games does not equal £10m + £3p.a.
If we get relegated then I suspect some end of season eye catching performances will see him on his way regardless.
And what if he helps keep us up as he did Wigan?
Well if he helps keep us up then he will have played 10 good games then let's hope the form continues next season and we keep him. Simple.
However if we get a mug punter to give us 10m+ (which I also doubt will happen) then it would be hard to turn down based on a dozen good games.
Just my opinion.
But yes I have been impressed with him since he moved into centre just off a Benteke - which for the Bent lovers (and I used to be one believe me) means no place in starting line up for him.
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I would also factor in the lack of movement from our players. It's easy to run into a blind alley or dwell on the ball when no bugger moves.
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I would also factor in the lack of movement from our players. It's easy to run into a blind alley or dwell on the ball when no bugger moves.
Fair point and well made
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Sadly my take on N'Zogbia is that he is only interested in Charles N'Zogbia, his improved performances stem from the fact that he is worried that if he shows nothing and we get relegated he'll miss the next premier league club willing to pay him stupid wages. Long may it continue and he keeps us up with his free kicks and wing wizardry but for the money we paid he's been terrible up to this point and has let us down.
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I would also factor in the lack of movement from our players. It's easy to run into a blind alley or dwell on the ball when no bugger moves.
That's an excellent point.
Lack of movement off the ball is something we've been guilty of for several years now. Decades, possibly.
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I would also factor in the lack of movement from our players. It's easy to run into a blind alley or dwell on the ball when no bugger moves.
That's an excellent point.
Lack of movement off the ball is something we've been guilty of for several years now. Decades, possibly.
Our forward movement is improving I think. Certainly better than last year.
I'm not sure N'Zogbia's game is head-up and find a clever pass. He's more head-down, direct, fast running. It's a confidence thing with him for sure.
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It's noticeable our movement off the ball is much better when we're confident. Also Bent coming on on Sunday had an impact on it, his movement created space for N'Zog to be more of a threat.
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It's no coincidence that we are now getting the best out of N'Zog playing him in his most effective position. There also appears to be a good understanding between him and Benteke about when to give and when to go.
Regarding the lack of movement in general. I think Weimann can't be criticized in this area. He's always on the go trying to make space, Gabby too is effective at this. With N'Zog carrying the ball as he likes to I think we will become far more effective for the remainder of the season creating chances.
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It's no coincidence that we are now getting the best out of N'Zog playing him in his most effective position. There also appears to be a good understanding between him and Benteke about when to give and when to go.
Regarding the lack of movement in general. I think Weimann can't be criticized in this area. He's always on the go trying to make space, Gabby too is effective at this. With N'Zog carrying the ball as he likes to I think we will become far more effective for the remainder of the season creating chances.
I agree about the understanding with Benteke both speaking French will be a big help to both of them I'm guessing.
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It's no coincidence that we are now getting the best out of N'Zog playing him in his most effective position. There also appears to be a good understanding between him and Benteke about when to give and when to go.
Regarding the lack of movement in general. I think Weimann can't be criticized in this area. He's always on the go trying to make space, Gabby too is effective at this. With N'Zog carrying the ball as he likes to I think we will become far more effective for the remainder of the season creating chances.
I agree about the understanding with Benteke both speaking French will be a big help to both of them I'm guessing.
Sur la tête, le fils.
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It's no coincidence that we are now getting the best out of N'Zog playing him in his most effective position. There also appears to be a good understanding between him and Benteke about when to give and when to go.
Regarding the lack of movement in general. I think Weimann can't be criticized in this area. He's always on the go trying to make space, Gabby too is effective at this. With N'Zog carrying the ball as he likes to I think we will become far more effective for the remainder of the season creating chances.
I agree about the understanding with Benteke both speaking French will be a big help to both of them I'm guessing.
I think it's more that Benteke makes other players look better by finding space for himself. The only player who hasn't looked good alongside Benteke is Bent, who is the only one who isn't really suited to regularly finding Benteke when he makes space. That's the main reason why they don't really work as a pair.
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(http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb411/lemsta007/2013-02-11233732_zps5a5974e1.jpg)
I want to see more of this .
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(http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb411/lemsta007/2013-02-11233732_zps5a5974e1.jpg)
I want to see more of this .
Amen to that brother.
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When he scored players ran from all over,you don't get that if your unpopular. He has played well since being put in his natural position.
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(http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb411/lemsta007/2013-02-11233732_zps5a5974e1.jpg)
I want to see more of this .
Amen to that brother.
Surely there is a caption competition for that photo ?
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(http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb411/lemsta007/2013-02-11233732_zps5a5974e1.jpg)
I want to see more of this .
So, I would guess, does Mrs N'Zogbia.
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(http://i1204.photobucket.com/albums/bb411/lemsta007/2013-02-11233732_zps5a5974e1.jpg)
I want to see more of this .
So, I would guess, does Mrs N'Zogbia.
i think her eyes might water
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When he scored players ran from all over,you don't get that if your unpopular. He has played well since being put in his natural position.
I suppose the persona he gives off of hardly ever smiling and doing the whole Gallic shrug when things aren't going his way lead me to think he's a bit of a loner in the dressing room but I think the arrival of another french speaker in the dressing room like Benteke has probably sparked him up a bit.
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He has picked up quite a few assists lately which is a positive sign. I think the guy can score goals too, he showed it at Wigan, and in form and with confidence can go on a 5-6 goal run, which lets face it, would be very useful in the last 10 games or so. If he and Benteke and Gabby one end, and Vlaar, Clark, Baker etc the other can scrape us to stay up, then we might just have a bit of fun next season.
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We've needed at least one (and preferably two) of the likes of Ireland, Albrighton, N Zog, Bannan and Delph to step up. We've probably needed it since the second half of last season, in all honesty.
It would be a tad ambitious to expect them all to respond, but it looks like Delph and N'Zog have accepted the challenge.
What concerns me about CNZ is that -even at his best at Wigan- he was more than capable of one or two outstanding performances and then disappearing for four/ five games. We can't afford that at present.
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When he scored players ran from all over,you don't get that if your unpopular. He has played well since being put in his natural position.
I'm not sure if it's his natural position or it's just the position he thinks he should be playing. During his time at the club, he hasn't seemed to interested when he has been played out wide, but definitely has perked up since he has been playing in a more central role.
I still think his best position would be on the right hand side of a front three, as a lot of his best moments in recent matches have come from that position (the screamers against Newcastle and West Ham, and winning the penalty).
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We've needed at least one (and preferably two) of the likes of Ireland, Albrighton, N Zog, Bannan and Delph to step up. We've probably needed it since the second half of last season, in all honesty.
It would be a tad ambitious to expect them all to respond, but it looks like Delph and N'Zog have accepted the challenge.
What concerns me about CNZ is that -even at his best at Wigan- he was more than capable of one or two outstanding performances and then disappearing for four/ five games. We can't afford that at present.
The Zog almost single-handedly kept Wigan up in the last 10 games in the season before he joined Villa. Perhaps he'll do the same for us?
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Zog and Delph have really improved a lot, but they have to sustain it. I really didn't expect it from the latter, but if he can improve his first touch he could be good.
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sometimes it is simple a case of maturity, or a run of games in a preferred position, or faith shown by the manager. N'Zogbia was bought by TSM, and it still surprises me that he didn't know how to get the best out of him. His best position or how he could be most effective. Lambert has found that, and along with other factors and Benteke being one them he is now having his most consistent spell for us. We all know what he can do, we haven't seen it enough. If what we are seeing is the arrival of N'Zogbia then he will do his part in trying to keep us up. We just have to hope those behind do their part.
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sometimes it is simple a case of maturity, or a run of games in a preferred position, or faith shown by the manager. N'Zogbia was bought by TSM, and it still surprises me that he didn't know how to get the best out of him. His best position or how he could be most effective. Lambert has found that, and along with other factors and Benteke being one them he is now having his most consistent spell for us. We all know what he can do, we haven't seen it enough. If what we are seeing is the arrival of N'Zogbia then he will do his part in trying to keep us up. We just have to hope those behind do their part.
I doubt Lambert still knows his best eleven let alone N'Zog's most effective position in that eleven.
That's not really a slight at Lambert 'cos I don't know our best eleven either but I've known for some time that N'Zog is more effective playing just behind the front one or two.
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I doubt Lambert still knows his best eleven let alone N'Zog's most effective position in that eleven.
I think he's now found his best front 4 and formation for them. I know playing Bowery last game was tactical to combat West Ham, but it also allowed us to keep that shape.
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sometimes it is simple a case of maturity, or a run of games in a preferred position, or faith shown by the manager. N'Zogbia was bought by TSM, and it still surprises me that he didn't know how to get the best out of him. His best position or how he could be most effective. Lambert has found that, and along with other factors and Benteke being one them he is now having his most consistent spell for us. We all know what he can do, we haven't seen it enough. If what we are seeing is the arrival of N'Zogbia then he will do his part in trying to keep us up. We just have to hope those behind do their part.
I doubt Lambert still knows his best eleven let alone N'Zog's most effective position in that eleven.
That's not really a slight at Lambert 'cos I don't know our best eleven either but I've known for some time that N'Zog is more effective playing just behind the front one or two.
I think he's very close on a few players, but doesn't have the overall quality in the squad to account for the numerous errors we make. I think a few players are cemented like in goal, Lowton, Vlaar, Westwood, N'Zogbia and Benteke. You put the right pieces around them, a strong CB, a solid CM, a much better LB as examples, all of a sudden we are that much better. N'Zogbia is being given a lot more freedom to play out wide, or in the middle and he's developing a better mentality overall because of it.
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sometimes it is simple a case of maturity, or a run of games in a preferred position, or faith shown by the manager. N'Zogbia was bought by TSM, and it still surprises me that he didn't know how to get the best out of him. His best position or how he could be most effective. Lambert has found that, and along with other factors and Benteke being one them he is now having his most consistent spell for us. We all know what he can do, we haven't seen it enough. If what we are seeing is the arrival of N'Zogbia then he will do his part in trying to keep us up. We just have to hope those behind do their part.
I doubt Lambert still knows his best eleven let alone N'Zog's most effective position in that eleven.
That's not really a slight at Lambert 'cos I don't know our best eleven either but I've known for some time that N'Zog is more effective playing just behind the front one or two.
I think he's very close on a few players, but doesn't have the overall quality in the squad to account for the numerous errors we make. I think a few players are cemented like in goal, Lowton, Vlaar, Westwood, N'Zogbia and Benteke. You put the right pieces around them, a strong CB, a solid CM, a much better LB as examples, all of a sudden we are that much better. N'Zogbia is being given a lot more freedom to play out wide, or in the middle and he's developing a better mentality overall because of it.
I think Weimann is more or less a sure starter too. As to his best position, he's a striker, but he reminds me of Wayne Rooney (bear with me) in the way that you can put him anywhere in front of the defenders and while he might not be particularly effective you can be sure that he'll work his bollocks off
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sometimes it is simple a case of maturity, or a run of games in a preferred position, or faith shown by the manager. N'Zogbia was bought by TSM, and it still surprises me that he didn't know how to get the best out of him. His best position or how he could be most effective. Lambert has found that, and along with other factors and Benteke being one them he is now having his most consistent spell for us. We all know what he can do, we haven't seen it enough. If what we are seeing is the arrival of N'Zogbia then he will do his part in trying to keep us up. We just have to hope those behind do their part.
I doubt Lambert still knows his best eleven let alone N'Zog's most effective position in that eleven.
That's not really a slight at Lambert 'cos I don't know our best eleven either but I've known for some time that N'Zog is more effective playing just behind the front one or two.
I think he's very close on a few players, but doesn't have the overall quality in the squad to account for the numerous errors we make. I think a few players are cemented like in goal, Lowton, Vlaar, Westwood, N'Zogbia and Benteke. You put the right pieces around them, a strong CB, a solid CM, a much better LB as examples, all of a sudden we are that much better. N'Zogbia is being given a lot more freedom to play out wide, or in the middle and he's developing a better mentality overall because of it.
I've long thought that our best 'shape' is benteke with a fluid 3 behind him, ahead of a flat 4 at the back and 2 proper midfielders (as in good going forward and back). Nzogbia, Gabby, Weimann and hopefully Dawkins, Albrighton and Bannan can form a good 3 between them if we can get them confident and on form. We really need Bowery to step up as a viable alternative to Benteke and/or Bent to start to fit into that shape and our attacking side will be fine.
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sometimes it is simple a case of maturity, or a run of games in a preferred position, or faith shown by the manager. N'Zogbia was bought by TSM, and it still surprises me that he didn't know how to get the best out of him. His best position or how he could be most effective. Lambert has found that, and along with other factors and Benteke being one them he is now having his most consistent spell for us. We all know what he can do, we haven't seen it enough. If what we are seeing is the arrival of N'Zogbia then he will do his part in trying to keep us up. We just have to hope those behind do their part.
I doubt Lambert still knows his best eleven let alone N'Zog's most effective position in that eleven.
That's not really a slight at Lambert 'cos I don't know our best eleven either but I've known for some time that N'Zog is more effective playing just behind the front one or two.
I think he's very close on a few players, but doesn't have the overall quality in the squad to account for the numerous errors we make. I think a few players are cemented like in goal, Lowton, Vlaar, Westwood, N'Zogbia and Benteke. You put the right pieces around them, a strong CB, a solid CM, a much better LB as examples, all of a sudden we are that much better. N'Zogbia is being given a lot more freedom to play out wide, or in the middle and he's developing a better mentality overall because of it.
I think Weimann is more or less a sure starter too. As to his best position, he's a striker, but he reminds me of Wayne Rooney (bear with me) in the way that you can put him anywhere in front of the defenders and while he might not be particularly effective you can be sure that he'll work his bollocks off
I like Weimann but I think he's being played because there isn't someone better who is actually an attacking midfielder. It's why we overrun in midfield because he's trying to be a forward when there's really only room for one main striker. This is going to sound a little stupid, but if he's not scoring then he's not doing a whole lot else that helps the team. In a 4-4-2 or 3-5-2 where we actually play two forwards I think he'd work really well with Benteke, but we don;t have guns in the middle or at the back to do that, yet. Weimman is only a dead cert starter for me once the midfield and defence are sorted.
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It's amazing to think that a forward line of (a mix of) Benteke, Gabby, Nzogbia and Weimann is embroiled in a relegation battle. Not to mention Bent coming off the bench.
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Bizarre, isn't it?
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It's amazing to think that a forward line of (a mix of) Benteke, Gabby, Nzogbia and Weimann is embroiled in a relegation battle. Not to mention Bent coming off the bench.
Agreed, we've got as good a set of forwards as anyone outside Manchester (and chelsea I guess but with Torres still not the player htey thought they were getting that's debateable) but for some reasonfor months we couldn't get the balance right and just didn't score enough and then, once things started to work up front, our defense and midfield went missing for a month or 2 and completely undermined any improvements. I think that's why a lot of people on here think we're not far away from being a good side, once we get the defensive side right we've got the firepower to give anyone a game.
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Not many teams in our position are literally two players away from rocketing up the league. It's frustrating but what we do have is good enough to survive this season and press on.
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What's bizarre is that we didn't do anything about it in Jan. A couple of loan/short term signings wouldn't have effected the wagebill all that much and the rewards would have been more than worth it.
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Not many teams in our position are literally two players away from rocketing up the league. It's frustrating but what we do have is good enough to survive this season and press on.
This is why our inaction in January was so strange.
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Bizarre, isn't it?
As I have said, all through my time supporting villa we have (generally) been among the very best defensively and lacked a certain cutting edge up front.
Now, the reverse is the case. We finally have a formidable attack but are crap in defence.
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N'zogbia is better centrally.
Out wide his crossing is nothing special and in any case he cuts inside and runs into 3 players and loses the ball.
Centrally he's got more space to work with.
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We're two players short of being a very good side - an authoritative MF and a commanding CB.
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We're two players short of being a very good side - an authoritative MF and a commanding CB.
Yes, a situation which should (could?) have been sorted in January.
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N`zogbia is now feeling part of the team with Benteke speaking French and now Sylla. Having Baker as LB made the defence look a lot more solid and better from corners and free kicks. Really think things are going to turn for us ........
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I worry about the centre of midfield still. I like both Westwood and Delph but I would prefer an extra body in there. Nzogbia and Weimann/gabby could play off Benteke and I do not think we'd loose too much from an attacking perspective as Delph would have more licence to get forward knowing westwood and [insert player here] were coving his run.
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Charles N'Zogbia in modern footballer more interested in money than playing shocker...
http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/35129566
I can't quite decide who was the biggest waste of money - N'Zog or Ireland...
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I am happy that Remi isn't pussy footing around and giving nothing answers to questions the fans want answering. He is name checking all the players we know are a waste of space. Gabby, useless free loading twat, Nzog, not even a footballer anymore. Leeches and parasites who through our stupidity have been allowed to help bleed the club dry, rich reward for barely any effort.
With a bit of luck there will be another huge cull in the summer. We need more Veretouts and Amavis and less Gabbys and Nzogs, no matter what the press say. It isn't the nationalities that are a problem it's the attitudes and we have so many of the wrong ones at the club.
Remi to stay and turn this sinking ship around. It might be blind faith but he is the first manager in a long while I have any sort of faith in.
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I am happy that Remi isn't pussy footing around and giving nothing answers to questions the fans want answering. He is name checking all the players we know are a waste of space. Gabby, useless free loading twat, Nzog, not even a footballer anymore. Leeches and parasites who through our stupidity have been allowed to help bleed the club dry, rich reward for barely any effort.
With a bit of luck there will be another huge cull in the summer. We need more Veretouts and Amavis and less Gabbys and Nzogs, no matter what the press say. It isn't the nationalities that are a problem it's the attitudes and we have so many of the wrong ones at the club.
Remi to stay and turn this sinking ship around. It might be blind faith but he is the first manager in a long while I have any sort of faith in.
I'm feeling the same.
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Ireland and Zog, there's been around £35-40m of Villa money invested in those two.
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Naturally I'm hoping it doesn't come to this but I'm almost at a point of accepting relegation to ensure we rid ourselves of the numerous anchors that are holding us back as a club. We need a long term approach and a manager who is going to tear the system up and start again. We keep bouncing from one volatile and unstable situation to the next. That absolutely must stop for us to progress.
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I've never known a situation like the N Zogbia one. He's been here 4 and half years and literally never been any good. Right from the start. How has he stayed here for at least the last 2 and half years. Gabby has obviously peaked as well and I'm surprised he wasn't sold 12 months ago or in the summer. Have McLeish, Lambert and Sherwood literally buried their heads in the sand with these lot and Garde the only one with the bollocks to tackle it head on. I must admit I've really warmed to him with his no nonsense approach to Grealish and those 2. Ship out the freeloaders I say.
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I'd clean forgotten about Zog again.
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Refreshing now ship the total waste of space out, it can do nothing for morale having freeloaders like nzog hanging around
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I've never known a situation like the N Zogbia one. He's been here 4 and half years and literally never been any good. Right from the start. How has he stayed here for at least the last 2 and half years. Gabby has obviously peaked as well and I'm surprised he wasn't sold 12 months ago or in the summer. Have McLeish, Lambert and Sherwood literally buried their heads in the sand with these lot and Garde the only one with the bollocks to tackle it head on. I must admit I've really warmed to him with his no nonsense approach to Grealish and those 2. Ship out the freeloaders I say.
In a well functioning club, the clubs buys better players and moves players who become obsolete on.
We sell the good ones, replace them (the quality of replacements is a whole other issue), but then expect the new recruits to line up alongside the same players that haven't been good enough for 4-5 years.
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I've never known a situation like the N Zogbia one. He's been here 4 and half years and literally never been any good. Right from the start. How has he stayed here for at least the last 2 and half years. Gabby has obviously peaked as well and I'm surprised he wasn't sold 12 months ago or in the summer. Have McLeish, Lambert and Sherwood literally buried their heads in the sand with these lot and Garde the only one with the bollocks to tackle it head on. I must admit I've really warmed to him with his no nonsense approach to Grealish and those 2. Ship out the freeloaders I say.
I agree 100% percent.
If it takes relegation to sort this mess out, and Garde has said he's stay, I'll take it ( we might not have a choice! )
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The only time NZogbias done anything since he arrived is:
Chelsea Away in the McLeish season when we won 3-1.
Norwich Away in the League Cup qtr final when he had a superb cameo for the last 30 minutes which meant we ran out easy winners.
The West Brom FA Cup qtr final when he played well.
Other than that I can't remember anything else of note in his 4.5 years here. He seemed happy to sit on his arse and be pictured wearing ever more bizarre clothing he bought on
His frequent trips to Dubai.
Modern football eh?
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I've never known a situation like the N Zogbia one. He's been here 4 and half years and literally never been any good. Right from the start. How has he stayed here for at least the last 2 and half years. Gabby has obviously peaked as well and I'm surprised he wasn't sold 12 months ago or in the summer. Have McLeish, Lambert and Sherwood literally buried their heads in the sand with these lot and Garde the only one with the bollocks to tackle it head on. I must admit I've really warmed to him with his no nonsense approach to Grealish and those 2. Ship out the freeloaders I say.
In a well functioning club, the clubs buys better players and moves players who become obsolete on.
We sell the good ones, replace them (the quality of replacements is a whole other issue), but then expect the new recruits to line up alongside the same players that haven't been good enough for 4-5 years.
every club has its shit signings. We just notice ours a lot more because they are ours. But I'm sure Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs have a list of players that cost them a lot to get in, who didn't perform, and they either rarely played and/or sold were sold on at a significant loss. We just don't pay attention to them.
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I've never known a situation like the N Zogbia one. He's been here 4 and half years and literally never been any good. Right from the start. How has he stayed here for at least the last 2 and half years. Gabby has obviously peaked as well and I'm surprised he wasn't sold 12 months ago or in the summer. Have McLeish, Lambert and Sherwood literally buried their heads in the sand with these lot and Garde the only one with the bollocks to tackle it head on. I must admit I've really warmed to him with his no nonsense approach to Grealish and those 2. Ship out the freeloaders I say.
In a well functioning club, the clubs buys better players and moves players who become obsolete on.
We sell the good ones, replace them (the quality of replacements is a whole other issue), but then expect the new recruits to line up alongside the same players that haven't been good enough for 4-5 years.
every club has its shit signings. We just notice ours a lot more because they are ours. But I'm sure Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs have a list of players that cost them a lot to get in, who didn't perform, and they either rarely played and/or sold were sold on at a significant loss. We just don't pay attention to them.
Of course, but generally at those clubs those players are on the bench, or loaned out. With us, they're key first team regulars, not through finding form, but because they're too shit for anyone else to want them.
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With Nzog and Ireland, everybody knew they were problems.
It is one thing getting a player and them not working out but buying known basket cases is just daft.
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Villa have seriously mis-managed a lot of players in recent years. The whole bomb squad approach was nuts.
N'Zog in, out, in out
Bent - record signing to loaned out to championship to bomb squad, back to first team, sold
Ireland - basket case
Jean Makoun II - bought, loaned out, not eligible to come back, doesn't learn english,
Hutton - first team to bomb squad, loaned out to championship and abroad, back to first choice
Given - first choice to reserve(s) to bomb squad to first team coach, back to first choice to bomb squad - sold
Jenas - loaned then injured, went back to parent club and we paid his wages.
Kozak
Also the list of players on our books right now, that should be off loaded
Baker, Llori, Bennett, Senderos, Cissokho, Crespo, Cole, N'Zog
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The only time NZogbias done anything since he arrived is:
Chelsea Away in the McLeish season when we won 3-1.
Norwich Away in the League Cup qtr final when he had a superb cameo for the last 30 minutes which meant we ran out easy winners.
The West Brom FA Cup qtr final when he played well.
Other than that I can't remember anything else of note in his 4.5 years here. He seemed happy to sit on his arse and be pictured wearing ever more bizarre clothing he bought on
His frequent trips to Dubai.
Modern football eh?
Free-kick against West Ham in Lambert's first season (VP Feb 2013) when we couldn't buy a win.
Think he scored against QPR in his first season to help grab us a point (?).
And last season at Sunderland he actually looked great, feeding Gabby and Benteke as we ran rampant.
So...yeah. A bargain.
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With Nzog and Ireland, everybody knew they were problems.
It is one thing getting a player and them not working out but buying known basket cases is just daft.
I still find it unbelievable that we brought in Ireland when we didn't have a manager. Utter madness.
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I've never known a situation like the N Zogbia one. He's been here 4 and half years and literally never been any good. Right from the start. How has he stayed here for at least the last 2 and half years. Gabby has obviously peaked as well and I'm surprised he wasn't sold 12 months ago or in the summer. Have McLeish, Lambert and Sherwood literally buried their heads in the sand with these lot and Garde the only one with the bollocks to tackle it head on. I must admit I've really warmed to him with his no nonsense approach to Grealish and those 2. Ship out the freeloaders I say.
In a well functioning club, the clubs buys better players and moves players who become obsolete on.
We sell the good ones, replace them (the quality of replacements is a whole other issue), but then expect the new recruits to line up alongside the same players that haven't been good enough for 4-5 years.
every club has its shit signings. We just notice ours a lot more because they are ours. But I'm sure Man U, Man City, Chelsea, Arsenal, Spurs have a list of players that cost them a lot to get in, who didn't perform, and they either rarely played and/or sold were sold on at a significant loss. We just don't pay attention to them.
The financial clout at those clubs means they can afoord to make expensive mistakes. As the last few years have shown, we can't and one of the main problems has been our top earners have been contributing the least. If we are paying big wages, we desperately need those players to perform.
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Mistakes are mistakes. Every club makes them.
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Mistakes are mistakes. Every club makes them.
Yep, but we seem to have made more than most over the past few years.
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With Nzog and Ireland, everybody knew they were problems.
It is one thing getting a player and them not working out but buying known basket cases is just daft.
I still find it unbelievable that we brought in Ireland when we didn't have a manager. Utter madness.
It was that or sell our best player and not replace him, with hindsight that's a better option, but probably not at the time.
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Villa have seriously mis-managed a lot of players in recent years. The whole bomb squad approach was nuts.
N'Zog in, out, in out
Bent - record signing to loaned out to championship to bomb squad, back to first team, sold
Ireland - basket case
Jean Makoun II - bought, loaned out, not eligible to come back, doesn't learn english,
Hutton - first team to bomb squad, loaned out to championship and abroad, back to first choice
Given - first choice to reserve(s) to bomb squad to first team coach, back to first choice to bomb squad - sold
Jenas - loaned then injured, went back to parent club and we paid his wages.
Kozak
Also the list of players on our books right now, that should be off loaded
Baker, Llori, Bennett, Senderos, Cissokho, Crespo, Cole, N'Zog
Makoun was the worst of the lot above, up there with Balaban for me
some of those were poor signings, others the terms of the deal were wrong e.g. Given's deal
With the exception of Cole, Cissokho and Senderos, there werent too many objections to signing the list above at the time.
Bent's ankle injury killed his mobility, what he lost on him we made back when selling Benteke
swings and roundabouts.....
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N'Zogbia not making enough effort? Well there's a surprise.
Prick. Bloody awful, awful, cretinous bastard. Waste of oxygen. Pack him and his wardrobe up and fuck him off.
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With Nzog and Ireland, everybody knew they were problems.
It is one thing getting a player and them not working out but buying known basket cases is just daft.
I still find it unbelievable that we brought in Ireland when we didn't have a manager. Utter madness.
The plan I think at the time was to give McDonald the job for the season (or for a period until a capable candidate became available) until Newcastle 6-0 destroyed that idea.
However I remember reading at the time Ireland had worked with Mac in the Ireland set up before he retired from the team and they had a good working relationship so that's why it went through as it was assumed MacDonald would be managing the team and Ireland for a while that season.
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in some far flung language, im sure you can rearrange nzogbia,as an anagram into,
you fucking wanking bastard free roller fuck off
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I liked Makoun II. Houllier actually wanted us to play with the ball and Makoun was definitely talented in getting moves started.
His performance at Man Utd away was excellent, then we never saw him again.
Since Houllier left our central midfield has gotten worse and worse.
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His performance at Man Utd away was excellent, then we never saw him again.
United didn't even press him. They were happy to let him have the ball all day long, because we were doing fuck all with it.
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His performance at Man Utd away was excellent, then we never saw him again.
United didn't even press him. They were happy to let him have the ball all day long, because we were doing fuck all with it.
.
And beat us comfortably.
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NZogbia having one of his fun Q and A sessions with the fans on twitter tonight
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NZogbia having one of his fun Q and A sessions with the fans on twitter tonight
Has anyone asked him what he does for a job?
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NZogbia having one of his fun Q and A sessions with the fans on twitter tonight
Has anyone asked him what he does for a job?
This pretty much sums him up.
@drt03 Im a baller, why should i be off The ball ?? I learnt to always have The ball not to chase it
Tell that to Messi or Suarez you lazy sod.
He also seems to have no idea why Garde wouldn't want him in the team.
Steven Harford @steven1harford 36m36 minutes ago
What's going on with @CharlesNzo been given 15 mins against man city looked more threatening than anyone and hasn't been seen since
Charles N'Zogbia @CharlesNzo 30m30 minutes ago
@steven1harford and 10mins Vs Everton, the next day training with the under 21 until further notice.
What a prick.
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Presume we'll be paying him off if he hasn't found a club by Monday. Good riddance.
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Someone has pointed out that he is not being picked because of his work rate off the ball - his response was that he is a baller and why should he have to do things off the ball.
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Here's another one. I'm going to stop looking now - it's just making me angry.
The Each Way Bandit @TheEachWayBandi 51m51 minutes ago
@CharlesNzo - Genuine question Charles...Why do you think none of the last 3 Villa managers have picked you? We all know you have ability
Charles N'Zogbia@CharlesNzo
@TheEachWayBandi Genuine question... I guess my contract was the problem
Yeah, it's your contract. Nothing to do with your performances Charles.
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Why do morons on twitter arse lick him?
Why this, why that? Oh Charlie you have talent why aren't they picking you?
He's a fucking leech of a man, sums up our stupidity with money the last 10 years. We've acted like that considerably richer than you moron from Harry Enfield and thrown the stuff about.
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
He's the sort of cretin, and they are the sort of morons, who make me feel dirty even showing an interest in top flight football these days.
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I'll remind you all again.
Charles Nzogbia - £9m back in them days.
Marco anautovic - £2m not that long ago.
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i was told he was off to germany off one of the lads
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Well, he may as well take a holiday. He's not doing anything else.
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Him and Gabby costing us about half a million a month. Yes Sky, you CAN pay for that.
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Fuck him. One of the least memorable players ever. He is a complete testicle,and Im simply hoping he falls down a well or something.
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I forgot we had him
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Why do morons on twitter arse lick him?
You kind of answered your own question.
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
I don't think Charlie is the stupid one in this case. You can't blame the guy for signing on to a fat contract. I think the stupidity bit needs to find it's way into the second paragraph.
Contrarily, Charlie could be brilliant. I mean the man literally does nothing but kick a ball around with some 20 year olds and goes home, only to receive a check every two weeks with more zeros than you or I could ever imagine.
The guy is swimming in money. Some may say he's rotten, but he masterminded/conned his way into millions and will still probably get another decent gig in the MLS after this all ends.
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As a player who was subbed or bombed out for years (in particular after his injury) I think he has some justification for taking the money and running.
I will also say he seemed genuinely angry with Sherwood / Lambert at being subbed every single game even if he had played alright. He seemed to have that "Dammit I just want to play" look about him as he was inevitably hooked 10 mins before the end.
I dont think he was all useless or lazy at all. Not worth the money obviously but I think he genuinely wanted (wants?) to play for us.
Anyway, just a bit of a counter point to the justified negativity about his costs and contributions.
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As a player who was subbed or bombed out for years (in particular after his injury) I think he has some justification for taking the money and running.
I will also say he seemed genuinely angry with Sherwood / Lambert at being subbed every single game even if he had played alright. He seemed to have that "Dammit I just want to play" look about him as he was inevitably hooked 10 mins before the end.
Why was he subbed every game and bombed out? Why have three consecutive managers come to the conclusion that he is of no use to the squad? Because his contributions have been nowhere near good enough in terms of product or effort. He even asked on Twitter yesterday why people thought he should have to chase and work for the ball!!!
If anyone in any normal job put the lack of effort in and produced the lack of performance he has they would have got a warning, a written warning and the sack. This arsehole gets millions of pounds instead. No, that's not his fault but his lack of any personal moral fortitude and standards is. He couldn't give a flying f***k.
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Only one word to describe him. ******. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
double c***
i have never seen a player like him for running with his head down. still he has only cost us 25 million
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As a player who was subbed or bombed out for years (in particular after his injury) I think he has some justification for taking the money and running.
I will also say he seemed genuinely angry with Sherwood / Lambert at being subbed every single game even if he had played alright. He seemed to have that "Dammit I just want to play" look about him as he was inevitably hooked 10 mins before the end.
Why was he subbed every game and bombed out? Why have three consecutive managers come to the conclusion that he is of no use to the squad? Because his contributions have been nowhere near good enough in terms of product or effort. He even asked on Twitter yesterday why people thought he should have to chase and work for the ball!!!
If anyone in any normal job put the lack of effort in and produced the lack of performance he has they would have got a warning, a written warning and the sack. This arsehole gets millions of pounds instead. No, that's not his fault but his lack of any personal moral fortitude and standards is. He couldn't give a flying f***k.
I complete agree about Ngobia
But I must say If you mean TSM. TSM2 and the cockney geezer . They wasnt no use to the club neither .
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
I very much doubt he cares what you think. I've just seen his Twitter page. He has a picture of a sinking ship called No Worries as his page header. Says it all.
Personally, I've never really been a fan.
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I've just seen the best description on a newsnow article - Aston Villa Wastrel
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hubristic fuckwit. Another lucrative few years beckons in the US of A though no doubt - some preying mantis' have all the luck
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Has there been a series of overnight lobotomies? What has Nzogbia ever done or shown to suggest he cares about playing for Aston Villa? Have you watched him play? Have you read his guff? Every single manager he's had has given him some time to show what he can do and every single manager has ended up keeping him as far away from the team as possible. Imagine fighting for your Premier league lives right now and having ''baller'' Nzog standing still waiting for the ball whilst daydreaming.
He's a prick and we have been pricks for paying him.
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I was quite pleased when we signed him, he had come off the back of a really good season at Wigan where he almost single handedly kept them up.
One of the more disappointing signings of recent years.
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Unfortunately it was the usual of us signing a player who had performed well for few games which was the exception, when the rest of his career had been pretty poor which was the norm. See Ireland, one good season his whole life, same for this waster.
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
I very much doubt he cares what you think. I've just seen his Twitter page. He has a picture of a sinking ship called No Worries as his page header. Says it all.
Has he really? What an absolute wanker.
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
I very much doubt he cares what you think. I've just seen his Twitter page. He has a picture of a sinking ship called No Worries as his page header. Says it all.
Personally, I've never really been a fan.
If that is true, then it lifts him up to Hodge level.
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
I very much doubt he cares what you think. I've just seen his Twitter page. He has a picture of a sinking ship called No Worries as his page header. Says it all.
Has he really? What an absolute wanker.
https://twitter.com/charlesnzo
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Odious bastard
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
I very much doubt he cares what you think. I've just seen his Twitter page. He has a picture of a sinking ship called No Worries as his page header. Says it all.
Has he really? What an absolute wanker.
https://twitter.com/charlesnzo
Fucking tool. No wonder we are where we are. I wonder what the club think of this and if there's anything they can do? Save a couple of weeks wages with a fine perhaps?
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As a player who was subbed or bombed out for years (in particular after his injury) I think he has some justification for taking the money and running.
I will also say he seemed genuinely angry with Sherwood / Lambert at being subbed every single game even if he had played alright. He seemed to have that "Dammit I just want to play" look about him as he was inevitably hooked 10 mins before the end.
I dont think he was all useless or lazy at all. Not worth the money obviously but I think he genuinely wanted (wants?) to play for us.
Anyway, just a bit of a counter point to the justified negativity about his costs and contributions.
Bit early for the funny fags
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I was sat near him and his bird in the restaurant at Coombe Abbey recently. He was up until after 3am getting pissed up on champers and ate about 7 courses. My better half had to keep elbowing me every time I commented what a **** he was.
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Only one word to describe him. c***. Never should have signed him he's not interested in football just a rich lifestyle and he's had our fucking pants down
I very much doubt he cares what you think. I've just seen his Twitter page. He has a picture of a sinking ship called No Worries as his page header. Says it all.
Personally, I've never really been a fan.
That sinking ship photo is hilarious, I'm sorry.
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Use this one Charlie boy, and do us all a favour.
(https://activerain-store.s3.amazonaws.com/image_store/uploads/1/0/1/5/2/ar126636220725101.jpg)
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
only to receive a check every two weeks with more zeros than you or I could ever imagine.
Do footballers get paid fortnightly, like people on the dole?!
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
only to receive a check every two weeks with more zeros than you or I could ever imagine.
Do footballers get paid fortnightly, like people on the dole?!
Does it really matter how they amass their fortunes?
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
only to receive a check every two weeks with more zeros than you or I could ever imagine.
Do footballers get paid fortnightly, like people on the dole?!
Does it really matter how they amass their fortunes?
Not at all, I just thought it incongruous.
Having just clocked that your name looks like a pun on Philadelphia, and the way you spelt cheque, I'm now assuming that you're American. Apologies, I didn't realise at the time I posted. Do Americans get paid fortnightly? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, incidentally, just interested!
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
only to receive a check every two weeks with more zeros than you or I could ever imagine.
Do footballers get paid fortnightly, like people on the dole?!
Does it really matter how they amass their fortunes?
Not at all, I just thought it incongruous.
Having just clocked that your name looks like a pun on Philadelphia, and the way you spelt cheque, I'm now assuming that you're American. Apologies, I didn't realise at the time I posted. Do Americans get paid fortnightly? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, incidentally, just interested!
For the most part, yes. However, seeing as I'm in retail I don't collect my commissions until the end of the month.
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To think decent people like Westwood have had stick in the streets for only trying his hardest and we have this twat on our books.
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He is a great poster child for the stupidity, recklessness, and the profligacy that has created the mess we are in.
McLeish (and the morons) who allowed a 5 year contract of nigh on $3.8m in guaranteed salary to a player who at best, had already displayed a tendency for laziness, exemplify why we have sunk to the levels we have.
only to receive a check every two weeks with more zeros than you or I could ever imagine.
Do footballers get paid fortnightly, like people on the dole?!
Does it really matter how they amass their fortunes?
Not at all, I just thought it incongruous.
Having just clocked that your name looks like a pun on Philadelphia, and the way you spelt cheque, I'm now assuming that you're American. Apologies, I didn't realise at the time I posted. Do Americans get paid fortnightly? I'm not trying to be sarcastic, incidentally, just interested!
For the most part, yes. However, seeing as I'm in retail I don't collect my commissions until the end of the month.
Major League Baseball players Stateside get paid every two weeks, including the ones being paid $20>$30m per season
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To think decent people like Westwood have had stick in the streets for only trying his hardest and we have this twat on our books.
You know I'm pretty sure Westwood is a decent chap and doesn't deserve abuse in the street. I know plenty of people who are useless at being a Premier League footballer but don't get abuse in the streets so I guess he's just unlucky.
I wonder what kind of compensation he gets (fortnightly) for putting up with this abuse?
I bet he hates his life. Not.
I have no sympathy for our highly paid players at the moment (but in the real world no one should be abused on the street of course.... Except N'Zogbia😉)
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What's this about Westwood getting hassled in the street?
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He's been abused more than once while out for meals etc with his family. Got to the stage where he apparently stopped going out much for a while.
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Absolutely ridiculous, some people are idiots.
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Absolutely ridiculous, some people are idiots.
Yep, totally unnecessary and out of order. I have never really got the logic that just because someone earns good money makes it OK for them to receive terrible personal abuse. For every N'Zogbia who seemingly doesn't care, I'm sure there are others who it has a deep impact on and it takes them to a dark place. I would imagine that is definitely the case for players who try their hardest but ultimately just aren't good enough.
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The question for those who succumb to such bollocks is, "How much would we have to pay you before being permanently worried about going out with your family in case someone you don't know starts calling you all the ****** under the sun in front of your children was OK?"
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@10Zoggy I'm not moaning, trust me right now I'm laughing 😂
10:06am - 30 Jan 16
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He's been abused more than once while out for meals etc with his family. Got to the stage where he apparently stopped going out much for a while.
Well we pay him enough to fly his family to Paris every evening for a meal however no one should have to suffer this sort of thing especially in front of their family.
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I still think that Zog should be on the bench for every game and made to warm-up for the last ten minutes (longer if its raining) and then never, ever brought on.
The same should happen for every U21 game
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And called in for extra training Sunday mornings at 6AM.
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Well N'zogbia may have earned a lot of money while he's been with us but he hasn't earned any respect. Perhaps in later years he may come to realise money isn't everything. The likes of Tony Morley never got that sort of cash but the respect they get from villa fans whenever they meet any is something money can't buy.
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Am amazed he's still with us. Giving him abuse in public is very sad and uncalled for. But he has been dire throughout his run and even in the Championship I don't see him offering much. Get rid.
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that's a certainty isn't it?
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And called in for extra training Sunday mornings at 6AM.
Followed by cleaning the bogs
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Am amazed he's still with us.
Why are you amazed that no other club wants to take him and his salary off us?
I'd have thought that there way be few things more certain than that.
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Am amazed he's still with us.
Why are you amazed that no other club wants to take him and his salary off us?
Because at times there is more money than sense in Football. I'm sure a Championship club would take him at least. Maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.
I'd have thought that there way be few things more certain than that.
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Because at times there is more money than sense in Football. I'm sure a Championship club would take him at least. Maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.
I would say so. If Championship clubs were about to start throwing £60k per week contracts about, I still don't think he'd be high up the list of people they'd be giving them to.
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Because at times there is more money than sense in Football. I'm sure a Championship club would take him at least. Maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.
I would say so. If Championship clubs were about to start throwing £60k per week contracts about, I still don't think he'd be high up the list of people they'd be giving them to.
Are we really paying him that much? Shocking!
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Because at times there is more money than sense in Football. I'm sure a Championship club would take him at least. Maybe that is wishful thinking on my part.
I would say so. If Championship clubs were about to start throwing £60k per week contracts about, I still don't think he'd be high up the list of people they'd be giving them to.
Are we really paying him that much? Shocking!
65k a week over 5 seasons
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another of Randy's monumentally stupid fuck ups.
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Am amazed he's still with us. Giving him abuse in public is very sad and uncalled for. But he has been dire throughout his run and even in the Championship I don't see him offering much. Get rid.
That's the problem! We can't get rid and he's milking lerner for 65k a week. Another prime example of the incompetence of the lerner regime
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That summer really was the most bizarre when you think back.
Firstly McLeish
Then
NZogbia on a 5 year deal on £65k per week
Then
Given an over the hill stuck on his line 35 yr old keeper also given a 5 year £60k per week deal
Looking back it just beggars belief......
I've seen nzogbia have 2 half decent games for us in those 5 years.
Norwich League Cup Qtr Final, lovely little 25 minute cameo which won us the game.
The Bitters in last seasons FACup Qtr final when he was alright....
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That summer really was the most bizarre when you think back.
Firstly McLeish
Then
NZogbia on a 5 year deal on £65k per week
Then
Given an over the hill stuck on his line 35 yr old keeper also given a 5 year £60k per week deal
Looking back it just beggars belief......
I've seen nzogbia have 2 half decent games for us in those 5 years.
Norwich League Cup Qtr Final, lovely little 25 minute cameo which won us the game.
The Bitters in last seasons FACup Qtr final when he was alright....
I don't think I appreciated it for its full glory. Sixty-five thousand British pounds per week.
Sixty-five thousand pounds a week.
He'll blow it.
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That summer really was the most bizarre when you think back.
Firstly McLeish
Then
NZogbia on a 5 year deal on £65k per week
Then
Given an over the hill stuck on his line 35 yr old keeper also given a 5 year £60k per week deal
Looking back it just beggars belief......
I've seen nzogbia have 2 half decent games for us in those 5 years.
Norwich League Cup Qtr Final, lovely little 25 minute cameo which won us the game.
The Bitters in last seasons FACup Qtr final when he was alright....
I don't think I appreciated it for its full glory. Sixty-five thousand British pounds per week.
Sixty-five thousand pounds a week.
He'll blow it.
£17m pounds given to Charlie on the basis of he had a good end to the season one year for Wigan.
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I can't stand the bloke, but at least he doesn't pretend he'd rather be playing football than taking the money like a lot of them do
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That summer really was the most bizarre when you think back.
Firstly McLeish
Then
NZogbia on a 5 year deal on £65k per week
Then
Given an over the hill stuck on his line 35 yr old keeper also given a 5 year £60k per week deal
Looking back it just beggars belief......
I've seen nzogbia have 2 half decent games for us in those 5 years.
Norwich League Cup Qtr Final, lovely little 25 minute cameo which won us the game.
The Bitters in last seasons FACup Qtr final when he was alright....
His freekick against West Ham a couple of years back was important at the time too. He's a money grabbing toe-rag though.
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That summer really was the most bizarre when you think back.
Firstly McLeish
Then
NZogbia on a 5 year deal on £65k per week
Then
Given an over the hill stuck on his line 35 yr old keeper also given a 5 year £60k per week deal
Looking back it just beggars belief......
I've seen nzogbia have 2 half decent games for us in those 5 years.
Norwich League Cup Qtr Final, lovely little 25 minute cameo which won us the game.
The Bitters in last seasons FACup Qtr final when he was alright....
I don't think I appreciated it for its full glory. Sixty-five thousand British pounds per week.
Sixty-five thousand pounds a week.
He'll blow it.
To think we have real heroes who still have to go out to work after they finished playing and this parasite does the absolute minimum and becomes a millionaire.
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ez, don't blame him, blame the idiocy of management that allowed it to happen
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Should be arrested for impersonating a footballer.
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ez, don't blame him, blame the idiocy of management that allowed it to happen
This. 100%.
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ez, don't blame him, blame the idiocy of management that allowed it to happen
While that is true, this doesn't excuse his lack of effort, his lack of pride, his blatant goading on fans on Twitter, believing he shouldn't have to chase the ball. That has nothing to do with Lerner or anyone else manager, that is solely in N'Zogbia's court.
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but even that's not a separate a separate issue - it's still about an executive management decision to hand the very average footballer you describe an obscene amount of money every week, and not the pot plant's fault in accepting it
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but even that's not a separate a separate issue - it's still about an executive management decision to hand the very average footballer you describe an obscene amount of money every week, and not the pot plant's fault in accepting it
He's not a very average footballer. He's a very talented footballer who chooses not to put in the requisite amount of effort or in fact even a basic amount of effort to realise that talent.
And when he was signed I don't remember an outcry of 'but he's shit'. I'm seem to remember the majority (including me) being quite pleased and not bothered at all by the contract he was given.
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I think he is average - he had half a good season at Wigan and we fell for it to the tune of £20m plus.
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I think he is average - he had half a good season at Wigan and we fell for it to the tune of £20m plus.
I think you're rewriting history.
After he signed for Newcastle, Bobby Robson said "N'Zogbia could go to the very top with the right coaching and motivation, and I hope it is with Newcastle. I signed him as a teenager and he was one of the most naturally gifted players of that age I'd ever seen". He was linked with Arsenal for a couple of years. He got two caps in the French squad. None of these things happen to 'average players' who have only ever produced for half a season.
I can see exactly why we signed him and giving him a long contract and loads of cash is the same thing as Newcastle are doing now to attract better players. I blame him and him alone for the way his Villa career has turned out.
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We had Bent and then Benteke as centre-forward, injuries permitting, for his first four years here. Fill yer boots time for any winger worthy of the name. An absolute waster in a Villa shirt, and only he knows why.
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Managers say a lot of things when they have young players. I'm sure we've heard Westwood described as a real talent and future England international laughably. Nzog scored 9 in about 200 games at Newcastle, crap. He scored 9 in the season before we bought him, 5 of them in the last 6 games. He was linked to Blues before us, because he is and always was blues. We got conned, buying another player with little substance on the back of a good run.
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Managers say a lot of things when they have young players. I'm sure we've heard Westwood described as a real talent and future England international laughably. Nzog scored 9 in about 200 games at Newcastle, crap. He scored 9 in the season before we bought him, 5 of them in the last 6 games. He was linked to Blues before us, because he is and always was blues. We got conned, buying another player with little substance on the back of a good run.
He was also linked with Arsenal and Liverpool.
Also, there is a difference between Lambert and Sherwood bigging someone up, and one of the best, most respected managers this country has ever seen doing it.
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My favourite thing about N'Zogbia is what Joe Kinnear said about him when he was manager at Newcastle.
He said that every day at training he'd tell him his agent had said that Man Utd, Arsenal, Real Madrid etc were all keen to sign him and not wanting to stand in his way he naturally had to sell him. To Wigan.
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Managers say a lot of things when they have young players. I'm sure we've heard Westwood described as a real talent and future England international laughably. Nzog scored 9 in about 200 games at Newcastle, crap. He scored 9 in the season before we bought him, 5 of them in the last 6 games. He was linked to Blues before us, because he is and always was blues. We got conned, buying another player with little substance on the back of a good run.
He was also linked with Arsenal and Liverpool.
Also, there is a difference between Lambert and Sherwood bigging someone up, and one of the best, most respected managers this country has ever seen doing it.
Maradonna was once linked with the rags.
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We're after Messi.
That's about as accurate as the Maradona and sha crap. It was never even remotely on in a million years.
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Managers say a lot of things when they have young players. I'm sure we've heard Westwood described as a real talent and future England international laughably. Nzog scored 9 in about 200 games at Newcastle, crap. He scored 9 in the season before we bought him, 5 of them in the last 6 games. He was linked to Blues before us, because he is and always was blues. We got conned, buying another player with little substance on the back of a good run.
TSM was committed to buying him, after being refused permission by the Blouse hairdresser. It didn;t really matter what form he was in; it became an obsession for TSM. we were simply complicit.
Sad - he had one decent half-season; that was it.
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this site was rejoicing when we signed him, I remember it well
so if we were conned most of us fell for it lets not forget
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It's much like Ireland. Awful signings that show how incompetent we are, conveniently forgetting that most of us on here were delighted with both*, especially Ireland. Ireland was the signing of the decade and we had royally mugged Man City.
*Cue folks having the urge to say "well not me" despite the most of us bit.
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It's much like Ireland. Awful signings that show how incompetent we are, conveniently forgetting that most of us on here were delighted with both*, especially Ireland. Ireland was the signing of the decade and we had royally mugged Man City.
*Cue folks having the urge to say "well not me" despite the most of us bit.
yep, your quite right
I thought Ireland was a great signing at the time, he was going to run the midfield for us and bomb through everyones defence at will
I didn't know much about Nzogbia so didn't have a strong view on him if I'm honest,
but just went with the very knowledgeable posters on here who were fortelling the great things to come and how we fucking laughed at Sunderland
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I thought Ireland was a good signing I'll admit that. Another lazy Wanker
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I thought Ireland was a good signing I'll admit that. Another lazy Wanker
Me too.
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this site was rejoicing when we signed him, I remember it well
so if we were conned most of us fell for it lets not forget
Yes, half of us changed our usernames, including me.
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I'll hold my hands up and say I thought Zog would be a good signing.
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
Hendrie?
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
I still think NZog is the worst culprit.
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
Yes, they did. And which of them do you think had as good a career as they could have (which was the point I made)?
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
I still think NZog is the worst culprit.
If you're referring to Baros, he actually won two derbies. Can't argue with N'Zogbia being the worst culprit on the grounds of longevity alone.
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
Yes, they did. And which of them do you think had as good a career as they could have (which was the point I made)?
Milosvic went on and did well in Spain for. Few years, Curcic was a complete basket case, Collymores head came off, Baros flattered to deceive and had and like refuelling, Atkinson was exceptional at times and lost his way, Ireland was our best player for a period but obviously has issues. Nzogbia is a complete and total waste of space.
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Maybe my memory is worse than I thought, but my recollection of Atkinson would never be of him under-achieving. Very entertaining player. That goal against Wimbledon in the rain was probably one of the most memorable goals I've ever seen us score, along with the McInally length of the pitch one.
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I would class the likes of Luke and Steffan Moore as underachievers. Probably Vassell too unfortunately. Shame I really liked those three and wanted them to do well.
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Maybe my memory is worse than I thought, but my recollection of Atkinson would never be of him under-achieving. Very entertaining player. That goal against Wimbledon in the rain was probably one of the most memorable goals I've ever seen us score, along with the McInally length of the pitch one.
He was top quality. Him and Deano were the ideal partnership.
Sociedad sold him to us because they were fed up with his behaviour. He left us in 1995, aged 27, what should have been the peak years of his career. After that he only played another 34 games, had 6 different clubs in 5 countries, never played for his country.
I seem to remember a story about Brian Little saying to him that he hadn't scored for a while and asking what was up, to which he replied 'yeah but did you see my goal in the cup final' (that is a vague memory so I stand to be corrected!).
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
Yes, they did. And which of them do you think had as good a career as they could have (which was the point I made)?
Milosvic went on and did well in Spain for. Few years, Curcic was a complete basket case, Collymores head came off, Baros flattered to deceive and had and like refuelling, Atkinson was exceptional at times and lost his way, Ireland was our best player for a period but obviously has issues. Nzogbia is a complete and total waste of space.
So, as I said, none of them went on to fulfill their potential. I don't quite understand what you're arguing with.
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For the remainder of his contract i'd tell him to stay away from Villa Park and Bodymoor Heath. Don't pay him off early though.
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I thought he rejected being paid off, preferring to stink out Bodymoor Heath.
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
Yes, they did. And which of them do you think had as good a career as they could have (which was the point I made)?
Milosvic went on and did well in Spain for. Few years, Curcic was a complete basket case, Collymores head came off, Baros flattered to deceive and had and like refuelling, Atkinson was exceptional at times and lost his way, Ireland was our best player for a period but obviously has issues. Nzogbia is a complete and total waste of space.
So, as I said, none of them went on to fulfill their potential. I don't quite understand what you're arguing with.
I'm not sure that I'd agree with Milosevic. Nearly 250 goals across a 15 year career, over a hundred caps for his country and top scorer at an international tournament.
I think when we had him as a 22 year old he'd have considered that a solid career.
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Can we pretend he's a new signing?
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When you think about the amount of 'never lived up to their huge potential because of attitude' players we've had over the years, we've really had our share haven't we? Milosevic, Curcic, Collymore, Baros, Atkinson, Ireland, N'Zogbia... have I missed anyone?
2 of those scored goals in LC Finals that we won. One of them Won a Derby.
Yes, they did. And which of them do you think had as good a career as they could have (which was the point I made)?
Milosvic went on and did well in Spain for. Few years, Curcic was a complete basket case, Collymores head came off, Baros flattered to deceive and had and like refuelling, Atkinson was exceptional at times and lost his way, Ireland was our best player for a period but obviously has issues. Nzogbia is a complete and total waste of space.
So, as I said, none of them went on to fulfill their potential. I don't quite understand what you're arguing with.
I'm not sure that I'd agree with Milosevic. Nearly 250 goals across a 15 year career, over a hundred caps for his country and top scorer at an international tournament.
I think when we had him as a 22 year old he'd have considered that a solid career.
Yeah, you might be right on that one.
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Reckon you can definitely have all the others though.
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bunch of fucking wasters
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Rumours on Twitter that he might be off to Sunderland!
Hoping it's true, but will be just our luck that he turns into the Wigan N'Zogbia.
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Rumours on Twitter that he might be off to Sunderland!
Hoping it's true, but will be just our luck that he turns into the Wigan N'Zogbia.
But we'll be free of the ******
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Good news this. Surely the least productive 4.5 years in football history, must go in the Guinness book of records 'epic failures' section.
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Rumours on Twitter that he might be off to Sunderland!
Hoping it's true, but will be just our luck that he turns into the Wigan N'Zogbia.
Have Sunderland got someone from villa out of bed to see to this?
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SSN just announced these rumours, which got my attention, only for them to cut to a reporter at the Stadium of Light who promptly scotched any notion of such a deal happening today.
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Go out in this weather. Charles laughs in your face.
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You fuckers SSN, the thought of getting some return on Richards and N'Zog from Blunderland was the one bit of good news we might have had - it's like they're emotionally toying with us.
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He'll go to Sunderland on a free next season.
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He'll go to Sunderland on a free next season.
Considering how Martinez used him at Wigan, I'm assuming he'll pitch up at Everton.
If Martinez hasn't been fired by then.
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I definitely dislike him more than Delph. I think Delph is an utter snake for what he did, but at least he contributed for us. N'Zogbia seems to revel in being a lazy shit.
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N'Zogbia seems to revel in being a rich, lazy shit.
Fixed.
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Toygraph (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/aston-villa/12141136/Aston-Villa-flop-Charles-NZogbia-to-cost-struggling-club-another-1.3m-before-contract-ends.html)
Aston Villa flop Charles N'Zogbia to cost struggling club another £1.3m before contract ends
Midfielder rejected a loan move to AEK Athens last month and will see out lucrative contract until the summer
By John Percy
10:30PM GMT 04 Feb 2016
Aston Villa will have to pay Charles N’Zogbia an extra £1.3million after failing to offload him in January.
N’Zogbia rejected a loan move to AEK Athens last month and will stay at Villa until his five-year contract finally expires this summer.
The France international has no future under Remi Garde and is training with Villa’s under-21s, but will still cost the Premier League strugglers over £1million before he leaves as a free agent.
He is one of the club’s highest earners on £63,000 a week yet his Villa career has been a colossal disappointment since a £9.5million move from Wigan Athletic.
Villa did lower their wage bill in January by moving out a number of fringe players, including Joe Cole and Philippe Senderos, and are determined to make further cuts in the summer.
Sir Mervyn King, the former Bank of England governor, joined the board of directors on Thursday in what seems a clear plan to map out financial plans for the future.
King has been approached by Randy Lerner before but has agreed to help new chairman Steve Hollis, with Villa seemingly on course for the Championship.
He said: “I watched my first match at Villa Park more than 55 years ago, and have experienced the highs and the lows since then. I shall do my best to help the rebuilding of Aston Villa as together we return it to its position as one of the top clubs in the world.”
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An aquaintence who moved in dubious circles reckoned a hit man would cost less than a re heeling of his ill considered shoes.
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Even at Athens he'd still be getting his full wages, mostly subsidised by us. You'd wonder is there not an older brother or dad to give him a kick up the arse and tell him to play as much professional football while he can. He's training every day, has tweeted that he wants to play, so just bugger off and do it.
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Even at Athens he'd still be getting his full wages, mostly subsidised by us. You'd wonder is there not an older brother or dad to give him a kick up the arse and tell him to play as much professional football while he can. He's training every day, has tweeted that he wants to play, so just bugger off and do it.
He doesn't want to play. Aidan Mcgeady dropped down a division because he wanted to play. Nzog is more than happy to do the bare minimum.
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Just watching the Citeh Leicester game. The commentator reminded us that Mahrez cost £400k from the French 2nd division. I think Charles cost us a bit more?
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I'm praying one of these mega rich Chinese clubs comes in for him before there window shuts.
On his day I think he is decent enough and has a decent free kick on him too, it's just that he is never on his game as he is a lazy can't be arsed twat.
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I'm praying one of these mega rich Chinese clubs comes in for him before there window shuts.
.
I was praying our local Chinese would come in for him - they need a driver...
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I think he would scare the shit out of the customers when he turns up in one of his flowerpot suits!
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I'm praying one of these mega rich Chinese clubs comes in for him before there window shuts.
.
I was praying our local Chinese would come in for him - they need a driver...
He'd be no good. He'd keep driving down dead ends or crashing into lampposts.
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I'm tired of N'Zog. Can't we just ignore him until he fucks off in the summer?
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I'm tired of N'Zog. Can't we just ignore him until he fucks off in the summer?
Just think he will have been paid another million quid by then
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I'm tired of N'Zog. Can't we just ignore him until he fucks off in the summer?
Just think he will have been paid another million quid by then
Thanks John, Now I feel depressed
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Seems Charlie Boys has had a bust up with Shaun Teale on Twitter. Basically asked him who he was..
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Seems Charlie Boys has had a bust up with Shaun Teale on Twitter. Basically asked him who he was..
I saw that this morning - Shaun put him straight. Does anyone know when his contract expires? we should organise some sort of party. For me this guy has to be the worst person to ever pull on a Villa shirt, not in terms of ability because I'm sure he has talent or did have but in terms of his mercenary attitude and his complete lack of respect for the club, supporters and now it seems our former players.
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What a fucking loathsome specimen.
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Seems Charlie Boys has had a bust up with Shaun Teale on Twitter. Basically asked him who he was..
I saw that this morning - Shaun put him straight. Does anyone know when his contract expires? we should organise some sort of party. For me this guy has to be the worst person to ever pull on a Villa shirt, not in terms of ability because I'm sure he has talent or did have but in terms of his mercenary attitude and his complete lack of respect for the club, supporters and now it seems our former players.
Contract expires this summer, boy that's been 5 long years!
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£9.5 million transfer fee, lord knows how much in wages, 80 games and 4 goals in 5 years - what an absolute steaming pile of poop...
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£9.5 million transfer fee, lord knows how much in wages, 80 games and 4 goals in 5 years - what an absolute steaming pile of poop...
I don't think anyone or anything quite sums up the previous 5 years as much as Mr C. N'Zogbia.
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N'Zogbia is a twat, but in some fairness to him it seems Teale had a pop at him first.
(http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261826.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/zoggy2.jpg)
(http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261825.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/zog3.jpg)
(http://i2.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261824.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/ZOG1.jpg)
(http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261972.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/zoggy4.jpg)
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I think I would outright describe him as the worst signing in the clubs history. Can anyone think of a worse one? I mean, it's not like he's actually been any good in those games he has played.
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Balaban and Collymore are probably the only other two. Both were a tidy fee and hefty wages for when they signed. Balaban still wins for me, contributed nothing. Zog has been utter gash but at least we got 80 appearances, 4 goals and a few assists. Balaban didn't even manage 10 games for us and looked completely out of his depth. I swear they sent us a ringer as he was decent before and after us.
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How many full 90 minutes has he played? I imagine in the last 3 yrs not many that I can recall.
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N'Zogbia is a twat, but in some fairness to him it seems Teale had a pop at him first.
(http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261826.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/zoggy2.jpg)
(http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261825.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/zog3.jpg)
(http://i2.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261824.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/ZOG1.jpg)
(http://i1.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/article11261972.ece/ALTERNATES/s615b/zoggy4.jpg)
Yep N'Zogbia is clearly a twat, but I'm not sure what Teale expected when he did start having a go first.
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N'Zogbia over Balaban and Collymore all day for me, for the simple fact that he doesn't really give a shit. Telling someone to 'polish my cars' tells you what he cares most about.
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Balaban and Collymore are probably the only other two. Both were a tidy fee and hefty wages for when they signed. Balaban still wins for me, contributed nothing. Zog has been utter gash but at least we got 80 appearances, 4 goals and a few assists. Balaban didn't even manage 10 games for us and looked completely out of his depth. I swear they sent us a ringer as he was decent before and after us.
Balaban wasn't along any where near as long though, and there wasn't as much expectation with him either. Balaban was the poorer player of the two though.
Collymore did at least get the 2 goals against the scouse and the 1 against the Olbiyun where he celebrated in front of their fans. He also gave the impression he cared more than NZogbia, albeit not a huge amount more.
Still NZog for me.
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Main reason Balaban was only a Villa player for two and a half years is after we sent him on loan for a year we just ditched him for nothing during his contract. 15 years ago we signed him, £6m and a supposed £20K a week, and then whatever we paid to ditch him, that was big money back then.
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I'm pretty sure that I'll be on my own here but, having given up on Charles a long time ago, I find his insouciant, up-front, couldn't care less tweets a little bit funny. The others (Lescott, Richards et al) still pretend that they care when they clearly don't and that's infuriating. But there's something cheeky about N'Zogbia that I kind of like.
Apologies in advance!
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I think I would outright describe him as the worst signing in the clubs history. Can anyone think of a worse one? I mean, it's not like he's actually been any good in those games he has played.
The only 2 that come close in waste of money terms, taking into account inflation over the passage of time are Balaban and Curcic, but I don't recall having the same feeling of them being utter c***s who were just hanging around taking the piss.
Of all the things to be pissed off with/about McLeish for, signing this human peacock is the one that riles me the most.
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I'd pay to see Shaune Teale V Charles N'zogbia
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I think I would outright describe him as the worst signing in the clubs history. Can anyone think of a worse one? I mean, it's not like he's actually been any good in those games he has played.
The only 2 that come close in waste of money terms, taking into account inflation over the passage of time are Balaban and Curcic, but I don't recall having the same feeling of them being utter c***s who were just hanging around taking the piss.
Off all the things to be pissed off with/about McLeish for, signing this human peacock is the one that riles me the most.
And yet most* on here were happy with the signing. Remember the panic when we did the Sunderland joke?
*Most, not all.
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I think I would outright describe him as the worst signing in the clubs history. Can anyone think of a worse one? I mean, it's not like he's actually been any good in those games he has played.
The only 2 that come close in waste of money terms, taking into account inflation over the passage of time are Balaban and Curcic, but I don't recall having the same feeling of them being utter c***s who were just hanging around taking the piss.
Off all the things to be pissed off with/about McLeish for, signing this human peacock is the one that riles me the most.
And yet most* on here were happy with the signing. Remember the panic when we did the Sunderland joke?
*Most, not all.
There were also plenty worried that it was all on the back of a good 6 months for Wigan and a load of Charles Insomnia performances.
I can't remember where I was sat on this one, probably ignorant bliss or total ambivalence.
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Most (not all) are usually happy with any signing and will always be optimistic rather than pessimistic. Witness the scenes of untrammelled joy on here last summer. What was that thread, well done to Lerner, Sherwood, Almstadt, Reilly etc.
Anyway back on topic, N'Zogbia is a bone idle waste of space who I wish we hadn't signed. And to think he was the replacement for Young AND Downing.
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Here's his signing thread, I had a quick scan from when he signed and didn't notice any negative comments about him.
http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=44200.0
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The emergence of Albrighton was also meant to mitigate for the Young and Downing losses. Look how that worked out, he's probably at Tamworth now or something.
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And in the value for money signings list, mentions must go to Beye and Callaghan.
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I'll freely admit that I was delighted with the signing of NZogbia, he'd been quite brilliant at times for Wigan, and I was a little surprised we got him. I think that's what makes it all the worse. He's picture with the shirt didn't inspire much confidence, it looked like there was someone off camera pointing a gun at him.
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I often like to give people the benefit of the doubt, but this guy has been an utter disgrace.
He has under performed for several managers, so nothing to do with playing style or lack of opportunity. He could have had a football career but chose to sit back doing fuck all counting his money. I can forgive average players who give it their all, but talented guys like this who just can't be arsed? The worst possible type of leech. Kids all round the world would give anything to have the ability and opportunity he had and he just chooses to waste it.
The lazy, money grabbing, utterly useless ******. I can't think of a player I hate more.
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N'Zogbia is a twat, but in some fairness to him it seems Teale had a pop at him first.
Agree, he goaded him and got the reply he was probably fishing for.
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N'Zogbia is a twat, but in some fairness to him it seems Teale had a pop at him first.
Agree, he goaded him and got the reply he was probably fishing for.
To be honest, as good as he was for the club, Teale quite often comes across as quite unpleasant through social media.
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Here's his signing thread, I had a quick scan from when he signed and didn't notice any negative comments about him.
http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=44200.0
Gregnash wasn't keen
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*Facepalm*
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I was quite pleased when we signed him, I think i've expressed my utter contempt for him ever since
Saying that he is a contributor to this downfall but not featured this year so you can't blame him entirely. He still could have left though the orrible ******
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Here's his signing thread, I had a quick scan from when he signed and didn't notice any negative comments about him.
http://www.heroesandvillains.info/forumv3/index.php?topic=44200.0
Mazrim RIP
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I still remember the coordinated GM windup of the lower classes, convincing them he was going to go to Sunderland. If only he had...
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I still remember the coordinated GM windup of the lower classes, convincing them he was going to go to Sunderland. If only he had...
Turned out that Steve Bruce did play it beautifully.
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When they look back in 20 years time and ask why crowds at English football matches have dropped to highland league levels they'll point to players like N'Zogbia as the reason.
Could you ever imagine someone like Tony Morley spouting crap about his #lifestyle and suggesting to Peter McParland who dared to criticise his commitment that his goals and FA Cup medal mean nothing and that he polishes his cars instead? What a piece of shit.
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Main reason Balaban was only a Villa player for two and a half years is after we sent him on loan for a year we just ditched him for nothing during his contract. 15 years ago we signed him, £6m and a supposed £20K a week, and then whatever we paid to ditch him, that was big money back then.
Nobody in our history has ever been a bigger waste of a lot of money than Balaban.
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I wish this thread about this utter waste of skin hadn't come up. It's put me in a bad mood all afternoon.
For the avoidance of doubt I think he is an absolute, shirking wanker who has wasted his god given natural talent just to be a lazy sponging bastard. I hope you read this thread Charles you absolute spunk trumpet.
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Villa needs to sign someone completely mental so that when/if the likes of this ******, Flabby, Lescott et al ever face Villa in the future - the mentalist can break their fucking legs
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I wish this thread about this utter waste of skin hadn't come up. It's put me in a bad mood all afternoon.
For the avoidance of doubt I think he is an absolute, shirking wanker who has wasted his god given natural talent just to be a lazy sponging bastard. I hope you read this thread Charles you absolute spunk trumpet.
But you have brightened my afternoon by the use of the term "spunk trumpet" which has made me laugh four times while replying - many thanks chrisw1
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I also quite like the term 'spunk trumpet ' made me grin
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Villa needs to sign someone completely mental so that when/if the likes of this c***, Flabby, Lescott et al ever face Villa in the future - the mentalist can break their fucking legs
Nice
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This was our team on N'Zog's debut against Fulham just 5 short years ago:
I'm guessing we'll set up as follows:
---------------------------------------GIVEN-----------------------------------------
-----YOUNG-----------COLLINS--------------DUNNE---------WARNOCK--------
---------------------PETROV---------------------DELPH-----------------------
-----------------------------------N'ZOGBIA----------------------------------
-----------GABBY---------------------------------------------HESKEY---------
------------------------------------BENT--------------------------------------
And he was OK, at least until the 29th minute :)
Heskey again with a half chance. N'Zogbia is going to be a big asset for us this season. His crossing is already a step up from Ash.
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This was our team on N'Zog's debut against Fulham just 5 short years ago:
I'm guessing we'll set up as follows:
---------------------------------------GIVEN-----------------------------------------
-----YOUNG-----------COLLINS--------------DUNNE---------WARNOCK--------
---------------------PETROV---------------------DELPH-----------------------
-----------------------------------N'ZOGBIA----------------------------------
-----------GABBY---------------------------------------------HESKEY---------
------------------------------------BENT--------------------------------------
And he was OK, at least until the 29th minute :)
Heskey again with a half chance. N'Zogbia is going to be a big asset for us this season. His crossing is already a step up from Ash.
There was a lot of people who thought he was going to be very useful, not just me.
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That wasn't aimed at you. As you say, many thought this was a good deal.
More shocking to me is that team, just a short few years back.
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I'll hold my hand up and say I thought he'd be a good signing. What no one could predict with him, and that includes the club, is that he'd turn out to be a total wanker and the epitome of what is wrong with the game. Happier to do nothing and pocket massive wages rather than make the most of his more than decent talent. He'll be 29 in a month and should be at the peak of his career, instead he'll leave to the relief of us and the club. He'll go down as just another player that became obscenely rich while pissing his career away on the pitch.
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I'll hold my hand up and say I thought he'd be a good signing. What no one could predict with him, and that includes the club, is that he'd turn out to be a total wanker and the epitome of what is wrong with the game. Happier to do nothing and pocket massive wages rather than make the most of his more than decent talent. He'll be 29 in a month and should be at the peak of his career, instead he'll leave to the relief of us and the club. He'll go down as just another player that became obscenely rich while pissing his career away on the pitch.
I was the same. I'm staggered by just how bad his attitude is.
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I couldn't decide about charlie when we signed him, He'd had a truly superb spell the year before which was what many people were hoping for when he arrived but, like Ireland the summer before, my biggest concern was that that spell stood in isolation in a career of being bang average. I don't think I posted anything about nzog early on because I wanted to give him a chance and so many people seemed happy that I thought I might be concerned about nothing but within 2 months I'd decided he was exactly what I was worried we might be getting.
I'm glad he's not going to be around for much longer but in truth it's 4 years longer than he should have been with us. Lambert got lots of things wrong but trying to get rid of charlie pretty much every window wasn't one of those.
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I can't remember what my reaction was at the time. I hadn't seen that much of him so it may have been along the lines of that. I just wish another club had beat us to his signature, he's been utterly shite.
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He was always going to blow hot and cold, as he had for Newcastle, but he'd just come form a pretty consistent stint for Wigan. In that Fulham game he was very lively and direct (even if his end product was a bit iffy). For where we were head at that time he was a decent gamble.
As has been said, NOT getting rid as soon as he was rumbled as not giving a toss was the major error.
Schoolboy error edit
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Villa needs to sign someone completely mental so that when/if the likes of this c***, Flabby, Lescott et al ever face Villa in the future - the mentalist can break their fucking legs
Love it.
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Mail reporting that nzogbia is asking players to donate wages to employees up for redundancy. Too little too late!!!!! The penny has finally dropped that he will be without a club soon. He can't sell himself on the pitch, so he's trying to publicise himself as having the right attitude. Only the most gullible of clubs would believe this. He's a total waster, with a stinking attitude and is a blight on the great name of Aston Villa. The sooner this tool is gone the better! Take your cash stained hands nzogbstrd and shove them where the sun don't shine!!!
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I'm surprised he hasn't asked the one's made redundant to polish his car.
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I was never keen on him. I always have very serious misgivings about players with silent consonants and apostrophes in their names.
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Unless they are Samuel Eto'o.
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I was never keen on him. I always have very serious misgivings about players with silent consonants and apostrophes in their names.
But Oo Ar Paul McGrath would never scan phonetically.
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I was never keen on him. I always have very serious misgivings about players with silent consonants and apostrophes in their names.
But Oo Ar Paul McGrath would never scan phonetically were in not for those silent consonants .
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I guarantee he will fix himself up with another club in no time, not on the same rediculous salary but still large
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Charles N'Zogbia - A few stats to digest.
93 league & cup appearances (63 starts, 30 as sub).
Of the 63 starts, substituted 44 times = played the full game 19 times.
Season breakdown of 90 minutes played:
2015-16 – 0 from 0 Starts
2014-15 – 1 from 22 Starts
2013-14 – 0 (injured pre-season)
2012-13 - 6 from 16 Starts
2011-12 – 12 from 25 Starts
Most Substituted Villa player:
90 from 243 Starts - Hendrie
69 from 333 Starts - Agbonlahor
66 from 158 Starts - Angel
51 from 91 Starts - Weimann
51 from 103 Starts - Carew
51 from 124 Starts – Vassell
47 from 422 Starts - Barry
44 from 63 Starts - N'Zogbia
44 from 247 Starts - Yorke
43 from 335 Starts - Staunton
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I guarantee he will fix himself up with another club in no time, not on the same rediculous salary but still large
Of course he will, because teams will forget the last five years and focus on the Wigan performances.
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Martinez will sign him at his next club (not Everton).
Steve Bruce has always seemed to like him aswell.
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He was quite good in our decent run towards the back end of last season and the semi final against Liverpool.
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It will be an MLS team, last pay day awaits.
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I had a conversation on twitter a few weeks back (17/4) and I suggested skill was nothing without effort and mentioned Leicester. His response was support Leicester then.
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He's such a knob that he'll end up dead after an argument with a gangsta bling merchant after some beeyotch smears the polish on one of his cars.
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Is he actually refusing to play/train or something? Because if he can't get near the matchday 18 in the worst team in Villa history, how bad must he be?
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Charles N'Zogbia - A few stats to digest.
93 league & cup appearances (63 starts, 30 as sub).
Of the 63 starts, substituted 44 times = played the full game 19 times.
Season breakdown of 90 minutes played:
2015-16 – 0 from 0 Starts
2014-15 – 1 from 22 Starts
2013-14 – 0 (injured pre-season)
2012-13 - 6 from 16 Starts
2011-12 – 12 from 25 Starts
Most Substituted Villa player:
90 from 243 Starts - Hendrie
69 from 333 Starts - Agbonlahor
66 from 158 Starts - Angel
51 from 91 Starts - Weimann
51 from 103 Starts - Carew
51 from 124 Starts – Vassell
47 from 422 Starts - Barry
44 from 63 Starts - N'Zogbia
44 from 247 Starts - Yorke
43 from 335 Starts - Staunton
The stat to look at there is the number of games played. He might not have had the highest number of substitutions, but in terms of substitution to games played ratio, he is way out in front. His attitude is even worse than Agbonlahor's, which speaks volumes really.
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
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I've said several times before: NZog was TSM's vanity purchase. He'd tried to sign him at the Sty and the Board vetoed the costs; when TSM joined us it was 'unfinished business' for him, and we were foolish enough to to buy him. His career consists of one half-season at Wigan and a few random performances at the Barcodes. Other than at: nothing, nada, zilch.
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
I wouldn't mind some more 2nd division rated players with a 1 in 2 goal ratio then.
When Bent had the correct service around him he scored goals, he wasn't the greatest of players but a player, before his injury you could build a team around.
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I wish I could have so much luck I scored over 100 top flight goals!
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
I wouldn't mind some more 2nd division rated players with a 1 in 2 goal ratio then.
When Bent had the correct service around him he scored goals, he wasn't the greatest of players but a player, before his injury you could build a team around.
Bent is an example and a victim of the lack of joined up thinking the club has suffered from. Massive investment by the club with a manager who knew what to do with him. But then as we lunge from one style and manager to another he becomes the wrong type of player and then gets viewed by some as an expensive mistake.
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
Sorry that's just nonsense. You might not of liked his all round play, but he was a very good goalscorer.
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
I wouldn't mind some more 2nd division rated players with a 1 in 2 goal ratio then.
When Bent had the correct service around him he scored goals, he wasn't the greatest of players but a player, before his injury you could build a team around.
If I remember rightly back then, nobody else wanted him and we paid a ridiculously high fee for him. That much for "not the greatest player" ?? I would, however, swap him now for Gestede
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Bent was a shoe-in for Brazil 2014.
Then Paul Lambert came along and decided he couldn't play in a way to accomadate a striker like Bent.
From that moment on his career plummeted. A better manager / coach would have seen plenty of goals and he would have played a part for England too. Could Bent and Benteke play together?
We never got the chance to find out.
Zog - leech. He will soon be gone.
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I don't think you can blame Lambert for Bent getting injured before he was Villa manager. Bent was never the same after that injury at Wigan.
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I don't think you can blame Lambert for Bent getting injured before he was Villa manager. Bent was never the same after that injury at Wigan.
Yep. The injuries really took a toll on him and he never looked the same player after, as his sharpness had gone. He was very good in the remainder of the season after arriving in January.
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Bent was quite frankly a magnificent striker. His injury finished him - typically for Villa.
Yes this was absolute shit wasn't it.
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Bent should have been bought when we got Heskey. Instead he went to Sunderland. IMO, Bent in that team, at that time with Young and co would have got us top 4.
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
My very best wishes to you defending that position. It might be easier for you to become a defence lawyer for a bloke caught red handed by the cops taking money from a bank vault swearing he wasn't there.
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I think everyone associated with Aston Villa will agree N'Zogbia has been a disaster...
He's a leech and good for nothing, pity the dumb club that employs next...
Just glad he will be gone at the end of the season, usually I welcome past managers and players back to Villa Park but not N'Zogbia, he's took the piss out of the club and fans since the day he arrived...
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
My very best wishes to you defending that position. It might be easier for you to become a defence lawyer for a bloke caught red handed by the cops taking money from a bank vault swearing he wasn't there.
We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife x
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
Correct. I didn't rate him and think he was way over-priced. For me, Bent was a Championship player who got lucky
My very best wishes to you defending that position. It might be easier for you to become a defence lawyer for a bloke caught red handed by the cops taking money from a bank vault swearing he wasn't there.
We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife x
Right, because we totally didn't spend bucketloads of cash on bang-average players all the way through the MON era.
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Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.
He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.
Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.
He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.
To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.
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Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.
He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.
Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.
He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.
To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.
I wasn't comparing Bent to Harry but his wife which was ever so tongue in cheek. The bang average players in the MON era weren't doing to badly or did I imagine those top 10 finishes?? Would love to swap that team for this one right now. "Roughly 1 in 2" is also very generous
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Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.
He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.''
Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.
He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.
To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.
I wasn't comparing Bent to Harry but his wife which was ever so tongue in cheek. The bang average players in the MON era weren't doing to badly or did I imagine those top 10 finishes?? Would love to swap that team for this one right now. "Roughly 1 in 2" is also very generous
You said We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife
I never made any reference to the spineless one, someone else raised him as the epitome of paying over the odds for bang average players, but that is generally how accepted as being how we started off down this path.
The bit in bold is the bit I'm contesting.
Roughly 1 in 2 is after checking 9 in 22 in the league before his injury under McLeish after 9 in 16 under Houllier, so overall 18 in 38 or 1 in 1 in 2.11111111 games.
My mistake on the timings, the injury cost him his place in Euro 2012 in Ukraine and Poland.
Anyone that credence to anything that self serving, disingenuous gobshite Redknapp, comes out with is a bigger twonk than the guy who accepted a paw print as a signature on a bank account application form.
And for reference, the brainless egotistical peacock I was talking about was Charlie boy, but I can see why you could be confused.
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Bent was £18 million because of where we were and what it would do to Sunderland.
He was so bang ordinary, we ended staying up comfortably and Sunderland only just survived having been comfortably mid-table, largely on the back of the goals he scored for us and didn't score for them.''
Even under McLeish he scored at roughly 1 in 2. We went into a nose dive when Bent got injured. Prior to that we'd been around mid-table and looked comfortable without looking great.
He'd been playing regularly for England scoring at a reasonable rate. Go back to the players in and around the squad before his injury and say who'd have gone instead.
To compare Bent to that brainless, egotistical peacock is frankly offensive.
I wasn't comparing Bent to Harry but his wife which was ever so tongue in cheek. The bang average players in the MON era weren't doing to badly or did I imagine those top 10 finishes?? Would love to swap that team for this one right now. "Roughly 1 in 2" is also very generous
You said We all agree about Charles good ridence to him. My opinion will never change about Bent. We paid 18 million plus for a bang average player and that brings me back to my original point that that is when the rot started. And if he was a "shoe in" for Brazil 14 then so was Harry Redknapp's wife
I never made any reference to the spineless one, someone else raised him as the epitome of paying over the odds for bang average players, but that is generally how accepted as being how we started off down this path.
The bit in bold is the bit I'm contesting.
Roughly 1 in 2 is after checking 9 in 22 in the league before his injury under McLeish after 9 in 16 under Houllier, so overall 18 in 38 or 1 in 1 in 2.11111111 games.
My mistake on the timings, the injury cost him his place in Euro 2012 in Ukraine and Poland.
Anyone that credence to anything that self serving, disingenuous gobshite Redknapp, comes out with is a bigger twonk than the guy who accepted a paw print as a signature on a bank account application form.
And for reference, the brainless egotistical peacock I was talking about was Charlie boy, but I can see why you could be confused.
ONCE AGAIN the reference to Harry's wife was light hearted and very tongue in cheek. I do however respect your opinions without resorting to calling you a "twonk" I'll stick to my opinion on Bent. Look at all our inward transfers after Bent. Benteke was arguably the only success at a mere 7 million and a scoring return of 1 in 2 playing in the worst Villa team ever. Bent played in arguably our best team in years with a return of 1 in 3 but I'm open to correction. Don't forget the massive transfer fee we received for Bent, what was it?? NIL. Again my opinion but a massive loss. Finally, why are you trying to change history with the MON years. Give me those days now rather than the state we are in today
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I'm not trying to change history with the spineless one's record.
He came in, spent a fortune, assembled a team with a glass ceiling of 6th, for money that really should have had us challenging for top 3, not fading away to nothing 3 years on the trot. Due to his own strengths he'd assembled a team that would run through brick walls for him. Unfortunately due to his own failings it could only run through brick walls, never any thought of how to go over or around and it was a team that was perennially dead on it's feet by March because he wouldn't trust any of the identikit, like of like spare parts he'd bought at great expense to do a job for a couple of weeks here and there.
If you don't listen to Redknapp and it was a light hearted quip, then you're not a twonk. I merely described where someone who listens to Redknapp is on my common sense to utter bollocks scale.
If you're not capable of recognising Bent's record is drastically different pre and post ankle injury, I assume you'll be serving other players who've suffered similar career altering injuries the same discourtesy. I'm not comparing Bent to Little or Shaw in ability, but would you hold their attempts to recover from injury in the same light as when firing on all cylinders? If you showed his wiki page to someone who didn't know Bent's history, just said this guy's a player who relied on agility and acceleration to get his goals, when did he injure his ankle, I'd guess the vast majority would pick somewhere in 2012, based on that table of goals and appearances.
The lack of a fee back for Bent is just a s big an indication of the shocking way we've been run off the pitch as anything. Our squad management has been awful in general. Add in the bomb squad fiasco and it's no wonder that people we either queuing up to take players on loan or waiting to pick them up for free. Add in the injury that's already been discussed and there's no way we were ever going to see much back. If McLeish had wanted to cash in during the January window we'd have got a decent chunk back. After that injury it was always a case of diminishing returns, especially after Lambert's Bomb Squad brain wave.
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I'm not trying to change history with the spineless one's record.
He came in, spent a fortune, assembled a team with a glass ceiling of 6th, for money that really should have had us challenging for top 3, not fading away to nothing 3 years on the trot. Due to his own strengths he'd assembled a team that would run through brick walls for him. Unfortunately due to his own failings it could only run through brick walls, never any thought of how to go over or around and it was a team that was perennially dead on it's feet by March because he wouldn't trust any of the identikit, like of like spare parts he'd bought at great expense to do a job for a couple of weeks here and there.
If you don't listen to Redknapp and it was a light hearted quip, then you're not a twonk. I merely described where someone who listens to Redknapp is on my common sense to utter bollocks scale.
If you're not capable of recognising Bent's record is drastically different pre and post ankle injury, I assume you'll be serving other players who've suffered similar career altering injuries the same discourtesy. I'm not comparing Bent to Little or Shaw in ability, but would you hold their attempts to recover from injury in the same light as when firing on all cylinders? If you showed his wiki page to someone who didn't know Bent's history, just said this guy's a player who relied on agility and acceleration to get his goals, when did he injure his ankle, I'd guess the vast majority would pick somewhere in 2012, based on that table of goals and appearances.
The lack of a fee back for Bent is just a s big an indication of the shocking way we've been run off the pitch as anything. Our squad management has been awful in general. Add in the bomb squad fiasco and it's no wonder that people we either queuing up to take players on loan or waiting to pick them up for free. Add in the injury that's already been discussed and there's no way we were ever going to see much back. If McLeish had wanted to cash in during the January window we'd have got a decent chunk back. After that injury it was always a case of diminishing returns, especially after Lambert's Bomb Squad brain wave.
I stated on my original post that I didn't rate Bent when we signed him. Neither would I wish injury on any player at any club and as you say his performance deteriorated after his sadly. But again, in my opinion, it was 18 million plus that could have been better spent. Hence my original post about the rot starting there. Finally, and I am aware that this is breaking into other threads, MON assembled a squad that saw us challenging for honours consistently. It was his job to build that squad to get to the "glass ceiling" of 6th. I would love to be at that "glass ceiling" right now.
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I'm not trying to change history with the spineless one's record.
He came in, spent a fortune, assembled a team with a glass ceiling of 6th, for money that really should have had us challenging for top 3, not fading away to nothing 3 years on the trot. Due to his own strengths he'd assembled a team that would run through brick walls for him. Unfortunately due to his own failings it could only run through brick walls, never any thought of how to go over or around and it was a team that was perennially dead on it's feet by March because he wouldn't trust any of the identikit, like of like spare parts he'd bought at great expense to do a job for a couple of weeks here and there.
If you don't listen to Redknapp and it was a light hearted quip, then you're not a twonk. I merely described where someone who listens to Redknapp is on my common sense to utter bollocks scale.
If you're not capable of recognising Bent's record is drastically different pre and post ankle injury, I assume you'll be serving other players who've suffered similar career altering injuries the same discourtesy. I'm not comparing Bent to Little or Shaw in ability, but would you hold their attempts to recover from injury in the same light as when firing on all cylinders? If you showed his wiki page to someone who didn't know Bent's history, just said this guy's a player who relied on agility and acceleration to get his goals, when did he injure his ankle, I'd guess the vast majority would pick somewhere in 2012, based on that table of goals and appearances.
The lack of a fee back for Bent is just a s big an indication of the shocking way we've been run off the pitch as anything. Our squad management has been awful in general. Add in the bomb squad fiasco and it's no wonder that people we either queuing up to take players on loan or waiting to pick them up for free. Add in the injury that's already been discussed and there's no way we were ever going to see much back. If McLeish had wanted to cash in during the January window we'd have got a decent chunk back. After that injury it was always a case of diminishing returns, especially after Lambert's Bomb Squad brain wave.
I stated on my original post that I didn't rate Bent when we signed him. Neither would I wish injury on any player at any club and as you say his performance deteriorated after his sadly. But again, in my opinion, it was 18 million plus that could have been better spent. Hence my original post about the rot starting there. Finally, and I am aware that this is breaking into other threads, MON assembled a squad that saw us challenging for honours consistently. It was his job to build that squad to get to the "glass ceiling" of 6th. I would love to be at that "glass ceiling" right now.
Better spent on what? From what I remember, at the time we bought him, we desperately needed a striker to finish off the chances that Young, Downing and Albrighton were creating because the ones we had were completely useless (in the sense that I vividly remember checking to see how many league goals Gabby, Heskey and Carew had combined for at the time the transfer was made, and being horrified - it was something in the vicinity of three or four goals). It's not like we didn't cover other holes during that window either - Kyle Walker came in on loan to shore up the back four, and then we brought in Makoun (and, I suppose, Michael Bradley) to give us another midfield option alongside Stan and NRC (also, Bannan, Pires and Delph coming back from injury.) In fact, Makoun's probably a far more compelling embodiment of these past five years: a cultured midfield player who we completely mismanaged, and eventually moved on for a massive loss.
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Bent signing enabled us to stay up. The £18m was a drop in the ocean to the millions relegation would have cost us. Fast forward to now to the cost of no longer having a proven goalscorer.
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I woke up from a nightmare last night which involved nzog scoring a pen for Wigan to beat us in next years play off final
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Bent signing enabled us to stay up. The £18m was a drop in the ocean to the millions relegation would have cost us. Fast forward to now to the cost of no longer having a proven goalscorer.
Although that assumes that we couldn't have bought anyone else for £18 million who would've scored as many goals as Bent. That seems unlikely in hindsight.
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For what it is worth in these times when so many of our players are thorougoing shits, Darren Bent is a really sound man. He gave a very substantial voluntary donation to Ely Cathedral because his wedding was held in the Lady Chapel there and he sent a personal condolences card to the funeral of my brother whom he had never met but knew me from his days at Ipswich.
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Bent signing enabled us to stay up. The £18m was a drop in the ocean to the millions relegation would have cost us. Fast forward to now to the cost of no longer having a proven goalscorer.
Although that assumes that we couldn't have bought anyone else for £18 million who would've scored as many goals as Bent. That seems unlikely in hindsight.
I really don't think we could have - most of the proven goalscorers in the EPL would have been at the top clubs and thus unwilling to come over; and if we had gone the foreign route, we would have assumed the risk that whoever we bought would need time to settle into English football, which was a risk we couldn't really afford to take. I mean, just look at Suarez, who went to Liverpool in that window for a few million more: he scored 4 in 13 after making the move; while Dzeko scored 2 in 15. They both ended up showing their worth (to vastly different degrees, of course), but that wouldn't have helped a team in the situation we were in.
Meanwhile, of Bent's 9 goals that he scored, 7 of them ended up getting us 9 points, which proved to be the gap between us and 18th place:
City x1 (+2)
Everton x2 (+1)
Arsenal x2 (+3)
Stoke x1 (+1)
West Ham x1 (+2)
I suppose his replacement might have earned points with goals of his own, but happy we didn't have to find that out.
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I woke up from a nightmare last night which involved nzog scoring a pen for Wigan to beat us in next years play off final
They cant afford him
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... Look at all our inward transfers after Bent. Benteke was arguably the only success at a mere 7 million and a scoring return of 1 in 2 playing in the worst Villa team ever. Bent played in arguably our best team in years with a return of 1 in 3 but I'm open to correction. Don't forget the massive transfer fee we received for Bent, what was it?? NIL. Again my opinion but a massive loss. Finally, why are you trying to change history with the MON years. Give me those days now rather than the state we are in today
Allan, I can't let go the comment in bold!
I understand you're getting excited about the Bent debate but Benteke was not in the worst Villa team ever: he isn't playing for us this season!! THIS season's friggin' team ranks much worse than last, and in my 50 years of watching it is probably the worst.
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Completely missing the point with the Bent v Benteke value for money thing.
We paid top whack for Bent to buy guaranteed goals to keep up us, which he did. In the 2 half seasons he was fit he won us enough games to keep us safe 2 seasons running. Worth every penny of the £18M And whatever Allan C says, he was scoring at not much over 1 in 2 up to the point he was injured. That his overall record ended up closer to 1 ion 3 just shows how much that injury f¤¤ked him.
We paid a hefty fee for Benteke in what was either a one of piece of scouting brilliance from Lamber and the brains trust, or we got lucky. £7M for a relatively unknown youngster from a minor European league was a huge gamble. It didn't even pan out the way Lambert thought it would. Go back and listen to some of the interviews when he's getting it in the neck about not playing Bent.
He'd bought Benteke to be the target man / foil for Bent. He was Heskey's replacement, not Bent's, but it was soon obvious, even in the ca, 200 minutes they played together that that wasn't going to work, but that Benteke could do the lot on his own and open up for a different approach all together. At that point Bent was consigned to keeping Hutton company and any chance of getting a fee disappeared to a pipe dream.
And yes Mr E. Anyone who thinks Lambert's first 2 years were the worst Villa team ever should maybe have a look around. There's one thing in bending the facts, or taking an obtuse view of statistics to support an argument. Completely ignoring the biggest steaming pile of shit to fall on B6 in 30 years to score a point is something else.
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... Look at all our inward transfers after Bent. Benteke was arguably the only success at a mere 7 million and a scoring return of 1 in 2 playing in the worst Villa team ever. Bent played in arguably our best team in years with a return of 1 in 3 but I'm open to correction. Don't forget the massive transfer fee we received for Bent, what was it?? NIL. Again my opinion but a massive loss. Finally, why are you trying to change history with the MON years. Give me those days now rather than the state we are in today
Allan, I can't let go the comment in bold!
I understand you're getting excited about the Bent debate but Benteke was not in the worst Villa team ever: he isn't playing for us this season!! THIS season's friggin' team ranks much worse than last, and in my 50 years of watching it is probably the worst.
That's a fair point Mister E. I totally agree. This team is definitely the worst I've seen since my dad took me down for my first game in 1969
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McCleish and Lambert's teams were poles apart from this seasons shambles. However all are part of what we are today, Randy and his sidekicks included.
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IMO, N'Zogbia together with Bent was the start of the decline. I didn't rate either of them and the policy of buying worse then your selling began there. I can't believe he's still here, a complete and utter waste of money
You didn't rate a player who kept us up, scored a goal every other game and was better than anyone we'd had in his position for over a decade?
this whole debate started here, Alan didn't rate Bent, and so it begins
I don't dispute his goal record, I admit he scored the goals to keep us up, and I don't have any bad feelings for him at all and have always wished him well
But I never rated him before and still don't, although stats are important and many can have there say on how great he was by producing them
I just saw a limited footballer who we payed a lot of money for and sold for nothing
I know he scored us a few goals which I cheered and enjoyed every one,
But I still don't rate him very highly and that's the top and bottom of it,
you can keep showing me his goal record but it won't change my mind I know what I saw and don't think he was that good as a top level striker
Everyone to there own I suppose
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Completely missing the point with the Bent v Benteke value for money thing.
We paid top whack for Bent to buy guaranteed goals to keep up us, which he did. In the 2 half seasons he was fit he won us enough games to keep us safe 2 seasons running. Worth every penny of the £18M And whatever Allan C says, he was scoring at not much over 1 in 2 up to the point he was injured. That his overall record ended up closer to 1 ion 3 just shows how much that injury f¤¤ked him.
We paid a hefty fee for Benteke in what was either a one of piece of scouting brilliance from Lamber and the brains trust, or we got lucky. £7M for a relatively unknown youngster from a minor European league was a huge gamble. It didn't even pan out the way Lambert thought it would. Go back and listen to some of the interviews when he's getting it in the neck about not playing Bent.
He'd bought Benteke to be the target man / foil for Bent. He was Heskey's replacement, not Bent's, but it was soon obvious, even in the ca, 200 minutes they played together that that wasn't going to work, but that Benteke could do the lot on his own and open up for a different approach all together. At that point Bent was consigned to keeping Hutton company and any chance of getting a fee disappeared to a pipe dream.
And yes Mr E. Anyone who thinks Lambert's first 2 years were the worst Villa team ever should maybe have a look around. There's one thing in bending the facts, or taking an obtuse view of statistics to support an argument. Completely ignoring the biggest steaming pile of shit to fall on B6 in 30 years to score a point is something else.
Villa in Denmark, a simple question, given the choice, would you choose Bent or Benteke?? All other managers since Bent' s transfer have suffered because of it IMO. The 18 million plus should have been spent better IMO
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Completely missing the point with the Bent v Benteke value for money thing.
We paid top whack for Bent to buy guaranteed goals to keep up us, which he did. In the 2 half seasons he was fit he won us enough games to keep us safe 2 seasons running. Worth every penny of the £18M And whatever Allan C says, he was scoring at not much over 1 in 2 up to the point he was injured. That his overall record ended up closer to 1 ion 3 just shows how much that injury f¤¤ked him.
We paid a hefty fee for Benteke in what was either a one of piece of scouting brilliance from Lamber and the brains trust, or we got lucky. £7M for a relatively unknown youngster from a minor European league was a huge gamble. It didn't even pan out the way Lambert thought it would. Go back and listen to some of the interviews when he's getting it in the neck about not playing Bent.
He'd bought Benteke to be the target man / foil for Bent. He was Heskey's replacement, not Bent's, but it was soon obvious, even in the ca, 200 minutes they played together that that wasn't going to work, but that Benteke could do the lot on his own and open up for a different approach all together. At that point Bent was consigned to keeping Hutton company and any chance of getting a fee disappeared to a pipe dream.
And yes Mr E. Anyone who thinks Lambert's first 2 years were the worst Villa team ever should maybe have a look around. There's one thing in bending the facts, or taking an obtuse view of statistics to support an argument. Completely ignoring the biggest steaming pile of shit to fall on B6 in 30 years to score a point is something else.
Villa in Denmark, a simple question, given the choice, would you choose Bent or Benteke?? All other managers since Bent' s transfer have suffered because of it IMO. The 18 million plus should have been spent better IMO
Who else was available that was guaranteed to score goals. We needed someone to get the goals and had to pay that amount. £18m was ok but I thought the rising to £25m was a bit over the top. If he had not had that injury, we could have got the bext part of what we paid for him at the end of McLeish's season.
Bent was never a top class international but he was effective in a team creating chances.
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Completely missing the point with the Bent v Benteke value for money thing.
We paid top whack for Bent to buy guaranteed goals to keep up us, which he did. In the 2 half seasons he was fit he won us enough games to keep us safe 2 seasons running. Worth every penny of the £18M And whatever Allan C says, he was scoring at not much over 1 in 2 up to the point he was injured. That his overall record ended up closer to 1 ion 3 just shows how much that injury f¤¤ked him.
We paid a hefty fee for Benteke in what was either a one of piece of scouting brilliance from Lamber and the brains trust, or we got lucky. £7M for a relatively unknown youngster from a minor European league was a huge gamble. It didn't even pan out the way Lambert thought it would. Go back and listen to some of the interviews when he's getting it in the neck about not playing Bent.
He'd bought Benteke to be the target man / foil for Bent. He was Heskey's replacement, not Bent's, but it was soon obvious, even in the ca, 200 minutes they played together that that wasn't going to work, but that Benteke could do the lot on his own and open up for a different approach all together. At that point Bent was consigned to keeping Hutton company and any chance of getting a fee disappeared to a pipe dream.
And yes Mr E. Anyone who thinks Lambert's first 2 years were the worst Villa team ever should maybe have a look around. There's one thing in bending the facts, or taking an obtuse view of statistics to support an argument. Completely ignoring the biggest steaming pile of shit to fall on B6 in 30 years to score a point is something else.
Villa in Denmark, a simple question, given the choice, would you choose Bent or Benteke?? All other managers since Bent' s transfer have suffered because of it IMO. The 18 million plus should have been spent better IMO
That argument isn't apples to apples in the slightest. Benteke was a relatively unknown player coming from one of Europe's smaller leagues bought in the summer. Darren Bent was an established player, with international caps, who had been transferred previously for many millions of pounds at PL level, and scored at that time close to 100 goals as a PL player. We bought him in the January window from a rival team in the division and one that was in a similar position to us. We paid a premium but Darren Bent paid for himself many times over.
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Completely missing the point with the Bent v Benteke value for money thing.
We paid top whack for Bent to buy guaranteed goals to keep up us, which he did. In the 2 half seasons he was fit he won us enough games to keep us safe 2 seasons running. Worth every penny of the £18M And whatever Allan C says, he was scoring at not much over 1 in 2 up to the point he was injured. That his overall record ended up closer to 1 ion 3 just shows how much that injury f¤¤ked him.
We paid a hefty fee for Benteke in what was either a one of piece of scouting brilliance from Lamber and the brains trust, or we got lucky. £7M for a relatively unknown youngster from a minor European league was a huge gamble. It didn't even pan out the way Lambert thought it would. Go back and listen to some of the interviews when he's getting it in the neck about not playing Bent.
He'd bought Benteke to be the target man / foil for Bent. He was Heskey's replacement, not Bent's, but it was soon obvious, even in the ca, 200 minutes they played together that that wasn't going to work, but that Benteke could do the lot on his own and open up for a different approach all together. At that point Bent was consigned to keeping Hutton company and any chance of getting a fee disappeared to a pipe dream.
And yes Mr E. Anyone who thinks Lambert's first 2 years were the worst Villa team ever should maybe have a look around. There's one thing in bending the facts, or taking an obtuse view of statistics to support an argument. Completely ignoring the biggest steaming pile of shit to fall on B6 in 30 years to score a point is something else.
Villa in Denmark, a simple question, given the choice, would you choose Bent or Benteke?? All other managers since Bent' s transfer have suffered because of it IMO. The 18 million plus should have been spent better IMO
That's really not fair, they're totally different players who were bought at different times and even then the latter was a lucky gamble, I thought he looked good in the videos we saw but I didn't expect him to be pushing on a goal every other game. Bent was what we needed when we signed him and it's incredibly unlucky that we only got 1 season of value from him before he picked up a career defining injury, for all the limitations to his game I did fully expect a goal every other game from him, and that's pretty much what we got for 12 months. His sell on value is irrelevant because at the time we weren't buying him to sell on, we were buying him to get us back into the top half of the league.
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Bent scored goals because he was fed by width. TSM1 & TSM2 believed fullbacks should provide width.
Take creative players, Young, Albrighton, Downing, Milner to supply Bent.
Then replace them with Hutton, Bennett, Luna, Baccuna, Cissokko, & Lowton.
That is why we are where we are and ironically where Albrighton is. Negative, negative TSM managers.
Food for thought. Benteke would score 30 + per season when Young and Downing were supplying width.
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The justification for buying Bent was that he enabled us to avoid relegation. Through no fault of his own he has now become a waste of money - we eventually got relegated anyways.
You could argue that we would have been better off getting relegated during Houllier's season. It's not got any easier to get promoted to the PL and hopefully we'd have been back up by now.
In the last 5 years we have spent a shedload of money, seen maybe half a dozen really good games and have stunk the PL out with increasing degrees of pungency. Does it really make any difference how good Darren Bent was ?
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The justification for buying Bent was that he enabled us to avoid relegation. Through no fault of his own he has now become a waste of money - we eventually got relegated anyways.
You could argue that we would have been better off getting relegated during Houllier's season. It's not got any easier to get promoted to the PL and hopefully we'd have been back up by now.
In the last 5 years we have spent a shedload of money, seen maybe half a dozen really good games and have stunk the PL out with increasing degrees of pungency. Does it really make any difference how good Darren Bent was ?
Well when you're debating how good a player he was it does.
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Benteke was so good he could score from hoofball. He was his own provider.
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I like what Darren Bent did for us, and the fact that Blunderland were so pissed off when he left supports the view that he was a match winner (look at Defoe now for a similar effect).
Benteke is a far better player, despite what is currently happening for him.
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The justification for buying Bent was that he enabled us to avoid relegation. Through no fault of his own he has now become a waste of money - we eventually got relegated anyways.
You could argue that we would have been better off getting relegated during Houllier's season. It's not got any easier to get promoted to the PL and hopefully we'd have been back up by now.
In the last 5 years we have spent a shedload of money, seen maybe half a dozen really good games and have stunk the PL out with increasing degrees of pungency. Does it really make any difference how good Darren Bent was ?
Well when you're debating how good a player he was it does.
Fair enough. Bent was fkin useless. Is that any better?
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Just because Benteke was better than Bent doesn't mean Bent was shit. That's like saying Mellberg was shit because McGrath was better. Bent was a great goalscorer, but not a great footballer. It's that simple to me.
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Just because Benteke was better than Bent doesn't mean Bent was shit. That's like saying Mellberg was shit because McGrath was better. Bent was a great goalscorer, but not a great footballer. It's that simple to me.
Bent was one of the best players I've ever seen at beating the offside - he had an uncanny ability to move at just the right time.
He wasn't a great footballer, but like you say, he was a great goalscorer.
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If there has been a striker we've had in the Premier League who you wanted in a one on one situation, it was Darren Bent.
As a forward, Benteke had it all. One of my favourite moments was his goal against Chelsea (when he got sent off for a challenge with Terry). I was in the Holte upper, and he waltzed past three defenders like they weren't there.
But yeah, back on point, Bent was a lethal finisher. What might have been in that 2008-9 side.
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Completely missing the point with the Bent v Benteke value for money thing.
We paid top whack for Bent to buy guaranteed goals to keep up us, which he did. In the 2 half seasons he was fit he won us enough games to keep us safe 2 seasons running. Worth every penny of the £18M And whatever Allan C says, he was scoring at not much over 1 in 2 up to the point he was injured. That his overall record ended up closer to 1 ion 3 just shows how much that injury f¤¤ked him.
We paid a hefty fee for Benteke in what was either a one of piece of scouting brilliance from Lamber and the brains trust, or we got lucky. £7M for a relatively unknown youngster from a minor European league was a huge gamble. It didn't even pan out the way Lambert thought it would. Go back and listen to some of the interviews when he's getting it in the neck about not playing Bent.
He'd bought Benteke to be the target man / foil for Bent. He was Heskey's replacement, not Bent's, but it was soon obvious, even in the ca, 200 minutes they played together that that wasn't going to work, but that Benteke could do the lot on his own and open up for a different approach all together. At that point Bent was consigned to keeping Hutton company and any chance of getting a fee disappeared to a pipe dream.
And yes Mr E. Anyone who thinks Lambert's first 2 years were the worst Villa team ever should maybe have a look around. There's one thing in bending the facts, or taking an obtuse view of statistics to support an argument. Completely ignoring the biggest steaming pile of shit to fall on B6 in 30 years to score a point is something else.
Villa in Denmark, a simple question, given the choice, would you choose Bent or Benteke?? All other managers since Bent' s transfer have suffered because of it IMO. The 18 million plus should have been spent better IMO
Christ, this is like root canal treatment without anaesthetic.
There isn't a choice to be made between Bent and Benteke. You couldn't have signed Benteke for £7M in January 2011 and expected the same results we got from signing Bent.
The more pertinent question, if you're so against the signing of Bent, how would you have used the £25M plus that was spent in January 2011 to keep us up.
Clean sheet. No need to spend loan fees on Walker and Bradley, no need to spend the £7M on Makoun if I remember rightly and free reign to bring in any striker you like from around the world. Take the squad we'd got on 31st December 2010 and spend the money on it in a way that us staying up was credible and not involving Darren Bent, but you'll have to use his fee as the benchmark. As I've already said, that fee was inflated, as is usual in January, by the position we were in (desperate) and the position Sunderland were in (don't want or need to sell, but reliant on his goals.). We'd have got screwed wherever we went shopping.
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Signing Darren Bent was the last time we acted like the big club we are.
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I'd take the anaesthetic VID and not bother waking up for a bit.
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Out of contract 30.6.16
About 50 days.
Like Ben Arfa, he's sure to resurrect his career elsewhere.
Flowerpot man.
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Out of contract 30.6.16
About 50 days.
Like Ben Arfa, he's sure to resurrect his career elsewhere.
Flowerpot man.
During which time he'll have received another £420,000!
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Nice birthday present that'll be. I'll assign a pint to it in celebration.
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Out of contract 30.6.16
About 50 days.
Like Ben Arfa, he's sure to resurrect his career elsewhere.
Flowerpot man.
During which time he'll have received another £420,000!
Wanker! We've been trying to juggle cash tonight to pay off my mechanic and boiler man.
Different world isn't it.
When my folfs left the Midlands in 83 for a new job, better house etc, we had Wolves players on our little estate in Bushbury. Can you imagine these players today having to live in Wimpy style houses.
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I would not be surprised that in the mad world of premiership footballers contracts, if NZogbia was not entitled to a loyalty bonus at the end of his 5 year contract with us!
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Is whom exactly??......
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I would not be surprised that in the mad world of premiership footballers contracts, if NZogbia was not entitled to a loyalty bonus at the end of his 5 year contract with us!
In fairness he had been loyal
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The justification for buying Bent was that he enabled us to avoid relegation. Through no fault of his own he has now become a waste of money - we eventually got relegated anyways.
You could argue that we would have been better off getting relegated during Houllier's season. It's not got any easier to get promoted to the PL and hopefully we'd have been back up by now.
In the last 5 years we have spent a shedload of money, seen maybe half a dozen really good games and have stunk the PL out with increasing degrees of pungency. Does it really make any difference how good Darren Bent was ?
The justification for buying Bent was that he enabled us to avoid relegation. Through no fault of his own he has now become a waste of money - we eventually got relegated anyways.
You could argue that we would have been better off getting relegated during Houllier's season. It's not got any easier to get promoted to the PL and hopefully we'd have been back up by now.
In the last 5 years we have spent a shedload of money, seen maybe half a dozen really good games and have stunk the PL out with increasing degrees of pungency. Does it really make any difference how good Darren Bent was ?
The irony of that is that Bent should've been purchased for far more than a relegation battle...he should've been that prolific scorer to take us into the top 4. Can never understand why O'Neill never made a move in his 4 years for him, he would've suited the style of play well.
Short term Bent was good but long term selling Young and Downing within weeks was the beginning of the end of his effectiveness here and he just became another expensive player we couldn't shift and eventually let go for nothing. Much like N'zogbia.
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Signing Darren Bent was the last time we acted like the big club we are.
Pretty much. I was buzzing the night we signed him, we were having a poor season and Lerner was justifiably getting stick for the botched managerial search after MON walked out but that signing lead me to wrongly think he hadn't given up, it was just a poor few months and we'd be back fighting for top 6 soon enough. What he then did the following summer shattered that vision.
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Short term Bent was good but long term selling Young and Downing within weeks was the beginning of the end of his effectiveness here and he just became another expensive player we couldn't shift and eventually let go for nothing. Much like N'zogbia.
I don't think that's true. He was doing fine under McLeish it was the injury in the January that was the beginning of the end for him as a footballer in general, he just never looked right after that.
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He and his wardrobe have gone.
At last.
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I will never view floral decoration in the same way again. Anyone who out-tools Ireland is indeed, the king of tools.
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Lazy, self-centered, money grabbing wanker. 63k a week for the last five years. Truly shocking return. Almost a Steve Hodge for me. Boooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!
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a moments silence
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For me our worst ever signing
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For me our worst ever signing
Certainly not the worst player, but I kind of agree. We needed to replace with quality that summer. We got him.
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And a Booooooooooooooo from me.
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Happy No N'Zogbia Day everybody.
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I'll enjoy reading about his bankruptcy in ten years time
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Was never convinced by his signing. Think he has tended to do better at smaller clubs where the pressure was off and he could stand more and impact on the team. Think he did work best when McLeish was in charge, because they we were playing so deep that he proved a natural outlet. But he just wasn't up to the fight long term and did almost nothing going forward. A big waste money and a poor attitude to boot.
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His cup final spot will annoy me for the rest of my days
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Good riddance...hopefully his exit is followed a few more in the can't give a shit bracket.
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Go forth and don't multiply, you fraud
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He embodied everything that had gone wrong at the club. He will never be missed. His apathy, misery, his body language, his couldn't give a shitness was Aston Villa for every year of his contract. And like Aston Villa he gave us a rare good performance once in a while only for it to be vanquished just as quickly.
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Another facet of TSM's legacy of misery
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Good riddance, but I cant help feeling he may come back to haunt us sometime soon, fucking wanker of the first order.
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Good riddance, but I cant help feeling he may come back to haunt us sometime soon, fucking wanker of the first order.
I doubt we'll ever play a team from the Dubai third division which is about where he belongs.
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Where is he going to end up, I do wonder, but don't care, just curious?
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Don't understand why we couldn't have cancelled his contract 12 months ago to be honest.
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Don't understand why we couldn't have cancelled his contract 12 months ago to be honest.
Unfortunately players hols all the cards.
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Don't understand why we couldn't have cancelled his contract 12 months ago to be honest.
He turned down the offer.
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This is at least second hand but... I've heard he had the chance to join Sunderland in January but the club vetoed it as they didn't want to sell to a relegation rival.
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This is at least second hand but... I've heard he had the chance to join Sunderland in January but the club vetoed it as they didn't want to sell to a relegation rival.
Fucking idiots.
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This is at least second hand but... I've heard he had the chance to join Sunderland in January but the club vetoed it as they didn't want to sell to a relegation rival.
Fucking idiots.
On the bright side, that could have easily been the difference between Newcastle staying up or not.
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This is at least second hand but... I've heard he had the chance to join Sunderland in January but the club vetoed it as they didn't want to sell to a relegation rival.
I think Allardyce denied that rumour.
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There's no reality, whether actual, alternate, imagined or parallel, past, present or future, where Sam Allardyce thought that the answer to Sunderland's woes was Charles fucking N'zogbia.
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Don't understand why we couldn't have cancelled his contract 12 months ago to be honest.
He turned down the offer.
If they can't cancel Flabby's contract, who has been disciplined by the club and has been openly taking the piss even during fatty school boot camp, what chance of jettisoning Zog whose only crime is that he does not like to be at all concerned with the opposition unless the ball has been delivered to his feet in the correct fashion?
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Absolute ******.
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This f**ker will land on his feet on another big contract, trust me...they always do. Parasite.
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Will end up in Greece or turkey or the UAE at a guess, probably on £30k plus a week, besiktas/olympiakos etc team who play in Europe probably.
Good riddance, absolute parasite and yet another who proves the disease that has spread through the club in recent years.
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Such a relief he's gone.
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I thought they had to kill a Tic before they can remove it from a Dogs skin (that is my Seagulls/Trawer moment).
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who??
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I would just like to register a formal "Fuck off!" and "Good riddance N'Zogbia!" on the eponymous thread. Ta!
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Will end up in Greece or turkey or the UAE at a guess, probably on £30k plus a week, besiktas/olympiakos etc team who play in Europe probably.
Good riddance, absolute parasite and yet another who proves the disease that has spread through the club in recent years.
don't they play football in Syria?
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Don't think they do.......so he would fit in perfectly
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He deserves a chance in Russia
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I would just like to register a formal "Fuck off!" and "Good riddance N'Zogbia!" on the eponymous thread. Ta!
Can't you say it in French so there's no room for misunderstanding?
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Said he was wank from the first time he failed to lift his head with the ball, make a decent run into space, basically day one.
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Signing for Sunderland apparently. How will we ever cope without him?
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when he was getting loads of stick on twitter, n'zogbia said he was on the the verge of going to sunderland in january (nb: the adam johnson trial was starting in feb), but tom fox blocked it because they were a 'relegation rival'.
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when he was getting loads of stick on twitter, n'zogbia said he was on the the verge of going to sunderland in january (nb: the adam johnson trial was starting in feb), but tom fox blocked it because they were a 'relegation rival'.
Like he would've helped them stay up :o
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I would just like to register a formal "Fuck off!" and "Good riddance N'Zogbia!" on the eponymous thread. Ta!
Can't you say it in French so there's no room for misunderstanding?
I think << Ho ! Charles ! Casse-toi connard ! Allez ! Du balai ! Bon débarras ! Espèce de branleur ! Je te pisse à la raie. >> is over-translating it but quite satisfying to type.
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when he was getting loads of stick on twitter, n'zogbia said he was on the the verge of going to sunderland in january (nb: the adam johnson trial was starting in feb), but tom fox blocked it because they were a 'relegation rival'.
Like he would've helped them stay up :o
Him going to Sunderland might have helped us stay up mind.
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Charlie's signature floral sartorial statement won't cut the mustard up north.
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What a waste of oxygen this guy is.