Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: Ivo Stas on August 28, 2014, 05:04:00 PM
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Where would this lot finish in the league..?
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/retiring-chief-bryan-jones-aston-7683586 (http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/retiring-chief-bryan-jones-aston-7683586)
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Bryan's academy dream team (4-3-2-1): Boaz Myhill, Chris Herd, Gary Cahill, Jlloyd Samuel, Peter Whittingham; Steven Davis, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Gareth Barry; Barry Bannan; Gabby Agbonlahor, Darius Vassell.
Substitutes: Jack Grealish, Marc Albrighton, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Craig Gardner, Andreas Weimann
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Bryan's academy dream team (4-3-2-1): Boaz Myhill, Chris Herd, Gary Cahill, Jlloyd Samuel, Peter Whittingham; Steven Davis, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Gareth Barry; Barry Bannan; Gabby Agbonlahor, Darius Vassell.
Substitutes: Jack Grealish, Marc Albrighton, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Craig Gardner, Andreas Weimann
Interesting - no Gary Gardner.
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I'm a bit dubious about claiming Hitz, Samuel and Barry as youth team products as we nicked them from other clubs and they were in the first team within about a year of signing for us.
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Bryan coached 'em, he can pick who he likes.
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Bit of a reality check when you think about it. Our much vaunted Academy has on the whole produced, in 15 or more years, a team of Championship and Premier League standard squad players. Compare that with the team that, for example, Southampton has produced in half the time.
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Is our academy really that vaunted any more anyway? I'd have thought the lack of success in the young and hungry era has put paid to a lot of that?
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The Villa academy has produced more players who have made a career out of football than most clubs academy.
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Is our academy really that vaunted any more anyway? I'd have thought the lack of success in the young and hungry era has put paid to a lot of that?
'eh?!
It was independently rated as the best academy in Europe only about a year ago.
As for that team, it's a bit damning on Clark and Baker that Jones rates Samuel at centre-half ahead of them...
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Our Academy is the dogs bollocks. As opposed to the first team which is just bo......
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The Villa academy has produced more players who have made a career out of football than most clubs academy.
I've no reason to doubt that statistic, but many of those make it in the lower leagues, or become squad players in Premier League teams. It would surely be better to produce a Bale/Rooney like superstar every 20 years rather than a Bannan/Albrighton/Davis ever year for 20 years.
Of that list only Cahill and Barry can be said to be great players with a record of achievement, and even then Barry isn't really our product.
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Bryan's academy dream team (4-3-2-1): Boaz Myhill, Chris Herd, Gary Cahill, Jlloyd Samuel, Peter Whittingham; Steven Davis, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Gareth Barry; Barry Bannan; Gabby Agbonlahor, Darius Vassell.
Substitutes: Jack Grealish, Marc Albrighton, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Craig Gardner, Andreas Weimann
To answer the question of where they'd finish in the League - they're not better than our current squad. And many of them did play together in the O'Leary/early O'Neill years and didn't really distinguish themselves.
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Bryan's academy dream team (4-3-2-1): Boaz Myhill, Chris Herd, Gary Cahill, Jlloyd Samuel, Peter Whittingham; Steven Davis, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Gareth Barry; Barry Bannan; Gabby Agbonlahor, Darius Vassell.
Substitutes: Jack Grealish, Marc Albrighton, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Craig Gardner, Andreas Weimann
Interesting - no Gary Gardner.
No Craig Gardner either. And I definitely think he's better than Hogg.
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Bryan's academy dream team (4-3-2-1): Boaz Myhill, Chris Herd, Gary Cahill, Jlloyd Samuel, Peter Whittingham; Steven Davis, Thomas Hitzlsperger, Gareth Barry; Barry Bannan; Gabby Agbonlahor, Darius Vassell.
Substitutes: Jack Grealish, Marc Albrighton, Jonathan Hogg, Ciaran Clark, Nathan Baker, Craig Gardner, Andreas Weimann
Interesting - no Gary Gardner.
No Craig Gardner either. And I definitely think he's better than Hogg.
On the bench.
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Or the Moore brothers....
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Of that list only Cahill and Barry can be said to be great players with a record of achievement, and even then Barry isn't really our product.
I reckon Tommy Hitz's Bundesliga winners medal, half century of caps for Germany and starting the European Championship final for his country is a career he can be proud of.
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Our Academy is the dogs bollocks. As opposed to the first team which is just bo......
But isn't that a contradiction? If our Academy really was the Dogs Bollocks, then either the first team would be half decent, or we'd least have a load of cash in the bank, a la Southampton?
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I did think of mentioning him too - he probably does warrant a mention on the achievement front, though his caps were won during a downturn in German national football.
I didn't see any of his domestic career in Germany, so can only assume he turned into a much better player than he was at Villa.
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Our Academy is the dogs bollocks. As opposed to the first team which is just bo......
But isn't that a contradiction? If our Academy really was the Dogs Bollocks, then either the first team would be half decent, or we'd least have a load of cash in the bank, a la Southampton?
Have they won the European Cup, the European cup, the European Cup?
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We have brought good young players through, but not everyone of them turns into a success. I think one of the problems is that we've thrown a few of them straight into the first team, rather than going on loan to lesser clubs to gain experience.
This fixation we had with buying young and hungry players and clearing off the old heads didn't help.
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I did think of mentioning him too - he probably does warrant a mention on the achievement front, though his caps were won during a downturn in German national football.
Not much of a downturn though - it still coincided with him playing for third place at a World Cup and in the European Championship final.
And it wouldn't be unfair to say that Cahill's England caps have definitely come during a downturn in English national football.