Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine

Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: ozzjim on April 24, 2012, 10:59:36 PM

Title: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: ozzjim on April 24, 2012, 10:59:36 PM
Ok, so we are now 3 points above the dreaded line, with 1 of those sides below having a game in hand and all of them in much better form.

So, rather than doom and gloom, lets start to embrace our new found trips to Brighton, and er.... some other sides in the Championship.

Who do we think will stay, go and what do we need to come in to bounce straight back.

Going would be NZogbia, Dunne, Warnock, Given, Cuellar, Heskey unless he took a massive wage drop to 15k a week, Gabby, Bent and Makoun.

I will kick off with saying I would have the core side of the kids and get Guzan on a new deal.

I would be tempted to keep Collins if possible, as he would be useful in the Championship. I think Hutton would stay due to  lack of buyers! All in I reckon we would have a budget of about 20 million to get people in to bolster the kids. We have the nucleus with the kids, but what would we need to help them out. I would be after Rhodes from Huddersfield, a couple of wingers, maybe even Whittingham from Cardiff if they don't come up.

Guzan
Lichaj, Hutton
Stevens
Collins, Clark, Baker

Herd, Delph, Gardner, Bannan

Albrighton, Carruthers

Weimann, Fonz

So, who could we get, with a bit of Championship knowledge that would help us get back up, and who do we get in as manager to do it?
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Des Little on April 24, 2012, 11:01:24 PM
It really doesn't bear thinking about.  If the best we could get last year was McLeish, god only knows who Randy's gt up his sleeve for next year.  Marlon King probably.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: ChrissyPrice on April 24, 2012, 11:04:27 PM
Who is the 2012 equivalent of Sir GT?
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Toronto Villa on April 24, 2012, 11:04:43 PM
Clear the decks of every piece of crap left at the club, bring in a younger manager who is hungry and will relish the challenge of making us great again. Someone like a Poyet that with a 4 year contract will be able to shape the club and have enough about him, given the resources to play the right way and bring us up immediately. It can be done.

But I agree, it really doesn't bear thinking about.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: PaulWinch again on April 24, 2012, 11:06:26 PM
Clear the decks of every piece of crap left at the club, bring in a younger manager who is hungry and will relish the challenge of making us great again. Someone like a Poyet that with a 4 year contract will be able to shape the club and have enough about him, given the resources to play the right way and bring us up immediately. It can be done.

But I agree, it really doesn't bear thinking about.

Agree, but it needs to be done whatever league we're in.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: curiousorange on April 24, 2012, 11:20:06 PM
Andre Villas-Boas.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: SoccerHQ on April 24, 2012, 11:20:06 PM
The youth need to be kept at all costs imo. O.k maybe Clark will be pursued by higher clubs but we really need to keep the others, play them in the CORRECT postions and start the revival with them as our heartbeat.

Make Gardner captain in central midfield with Herd alongside him. Weimann would score goals in that league without a doubt.

I'm sure the likes of Lichaj and Baker would be o.k at the back.

The senior players can feck off for all I care although no doubt we'd be left with some behind as Newcastle were when they went down. Probably Hutton and Warnock are two we'd find difficult to shift imo.

Of course you need a mix at that level. A Kevin Nolan type who can contribute 15 goals from midfield and be the experience help to the younger players in that area.

I've given it some thought and I would take the ignominy of the championship for a year if there was a cast iron guarantee a) the club would properly sort itself from top to bottom like Newcastle have done and b) we came straight back up.

Can anyone really see those two things happening though if the worst happened?
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: myf on April 24, 2012, 11:23:14 PM
After recent performances i don't think the kids are ready for the championship. i reckon randy would stick with am as well given that he took blues back up.

Its a fucking nightmare
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Cuz on April 24, 2012, 11:24:51 PM
How depressing is this
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Steve67 on April 24, 2012, 11:25:04 PM
Doesn't the fact that we cannot win a game prove that most of the kids are not good enough?  Clark, Baker, Herd maybe are going to be good enough, along with Gardner.  The rest of the squad can go.  We'd also need to keep Bent, Collins, again, the rest can go.  We may also need to appoint a Manager like Neil Warnock for the Championship.  It doesn't bare thinking about.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Legion on April 24, 2012, 11:25:19 PM
If we stay up, what do we need?
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: curiousorange on April 24, 2012, 11:26:07 PM
I wouldn't take going down if it guaranteed we sorted ourselves out. It's obvious that needs to happen and I can't believe it won't, so I'd rather do it without the stigma of being relegated first.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: pauliewalnuts on April 24, 2012, 11:26:26 PM
If we drop, the very first thing we need to do is sack Faulkner and appoint someone who understands the football business.

Anything else and we'd just be papering over the cracks.

Some of the players are shit, the manager is fucking useless, but the chairman is clueless. We can't get rid of him, so we have to hope he gets rid of the hopeless amateurs running this club beneath him, and replaces them with people who have the first idea what they are doing.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: The Man With A Stick on April 24, 2012, 11:26:56 PM
I've given it some thought and I would take the ignominy of the championship for a year if there was a cast iron guarantee a) the club would properly sort itself from top to bottom like Newcastle have done and b) we came straight back up.

Can anyone really see those two things happening though if the worst happened?

Possibly.  Under the correct manager, don't ask me who, I think we'd walk it.  We'd have to keep players like Gabby and Bent though, no matter what kind of bids came in for them.  Lerner got us into this mess so he can fund our way out of it.

Not sure the board are capable of finding the right man though.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: OCD on April 24, 2012, 11:27:10 PM
Under the assumption that we would have been staying up, Brendan Rodgers was my preferred choice for manager. Now that assumption appears to be misplaced, we're obviously not going to be able to get a proven manager who is on the way up. I think we would need someone who is Villa through and through...Martin Laursen comes to mind. I would have said Dean Saunders but the last manager we got who had been relegated didn't work out too well for us.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Fergal on April 24, 2012, 11:27:10 PM
If we stay up, what do we need?
A manager who knows what the fuck he is doing and an owner who actually turns up to games.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: curiousorange on April 24, 2012, 11:31:20 PM
If we stay up, what do we need?

First of all, a new manager who has a decent scouting network and trusts his backroom team. Second, a competent backroom team. Third, an owner who employs people who know about football and not just spreadsheets. Fourth, an owner who has the bollocks to realise his current policy is suicidal and listens to good advice. Five, a clearout of overpaid and inert first-teamers. Six, experience bought in at a non-extortionate price. Seven, an extended run for the young lads who have made good strides during this dark period. Eight, the big screen put up again between the North Stand and Witton Lane. Nine, a decent set of kit by Macron that everybody likes and ten, and the most important: a clean slate.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Steve67 on April 24, 2012, 11:33:51 PM
Apparently Randy Lerner was at the game today.  He too, will have sat through yet another shit second half performance where, other than the goal, we failed to have a single shot on goal. He will have heard the Holte End asking for a different Manager.  Will he act?  Will he feck.  This is HIS fault and he needs to get it right.  The conspiracy theorists about being able to start again with the salaries if we go down will be rife.  He certainly picked the right man to take us there. Tosser.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: ozzjim on April 24, 2012, 11:36:37 PM
Manager wise I would be straight to Brighton for Poyet. Think he could be the type that could grow with the job and get us back up, and then into a decent position in the premier league. I genuinely would not want to come straight back if it meant another season in the premier league under McLeish. The guy is so divisive and damned ignorant that it would be pointless, and completely disheartening. I wonder if they would suddenly drop some season ticket prices if we did drop.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: tomd2103 on April 24, 2012, 11:39:20 PM
After recent performances i don't think the kids are ready for the championship. i reckon randy would stick with am as well given that he took blues back up.

Its a fucking nightmare

Having seen that tonight I wouldn't fancy the team we had out against any of the Premiership teams and I think we would struggle against quite a few Championship sides as well.  I'm sorry, but the myth about how good the "kids" are has been exposed this season and the majority of them hardly made a great impact when they were on loan at Championship clubs.  The Championship is going to be even stronger next season with Charlton and probably the two Sheffield clubs in there as well, and if we are relying on the "kids" I can't see us coming back up at the first opportunity. 
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: SoccerHQ on April 24, 2012, 11:54:17 PM
There is no way Darren Bent would stay and play in the championship for us. He'd be off like a shot and in fairness he's the one player you'd know we could get 10m + for.

Poyet is a good shout. I could see them going for the instant quick fix though like Mick McCarthy or Steve Bruce, promotion specialists but what happens then if we get back in the prem?
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: SoccerHQ on April 24, 2012, 11:59:44 PM
After recent performances i don't think the kids are ready for the championship. i reckon randy would stick with am as well given that he took blues back up.

Its a fucking nightmare

Having seen that tonight I wouldn't fancy the team we had out against any of the Premiership teams and I think we would struggle against quite a few Championship sides as well.  I'm sorry, but the myth about how good the "kids" are has been exposed this season and the majority of them hardly made a great impact when they were on loan at Championship clubs.  The Championship is going to be even stronger next season with Charlton and probably the two Sheffield clubs in there as well, and if we are relying on the "kids" I can't see us coming back up at the first opportunity. 

Lichaj and Herd have been our best players lately though. Lichaj did fine on loan at Leeds last season.

I didn't say a team full of kids, we'd need an experienced championship centre half alongside Baker or someone else (Mark Hudson from Cardiff?)

Midfield, Whittingham's a good shout aswell as an experience sitter to dictate play.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Irish villain on April 25, 2012, 12:02:52 AM
This is dreadful.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: curiousorange on April 25, 2012, 12:06:18 AM
I hope our owners realise that the short-term fix as far as a new manager is concerned is misguided. You spend a year in the lower divisions, that means you sweep away everything that didn't work before. That means new creed, new philosophy, new strategy, new squad. Simply pretending you're a massive club and appointing an ex-PL manager won't cut it. I think the Championship will be a lot easier to absorb for us fans if we can see progress being made. If we see the likes of Allardyce and Curbishley being given the chequebook, we may as well shut two of the stands at Villa Park as the ground will be half-empty.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: ozzjim on April 25, 2012, 12:08:31 AM
After recent performances i don't think the kids are ready for the championship. i reckon randy would stick with am as well given that he took blues back up.

Its a fucking nightmare

Having seen that tonight I wouldn't fancy the team we had out against any of the Premiership teams and I think we would struggle against quite a few Championship sides as well.  I'm sorry, but the myth about how good the "kids" are has been exposed this season and the majority of them hardly made a great impact when they were on loan at Championship clubs.  The Championship is going to be even stronger next season with Charlton and probably the two Sheffield clubs in there as well, and if we are relying on the "kids" I can't see us coming back up at the first opportunity. 

Lichaj and Herd have been our best players lately though. Lichaj did fine on loan at Leeds last season.

I didn't say a team full of kids, we'd need an experienced championship centre half alongside Baker or someone else (Mark Hudson from Cardiff?)

Midfield, Whittingham's a good shout aswell as an experience sitter to dictate play.


I think Delph and Herd together would be pretty impressive though at that level, with Garnder as backup. I would be sorely tempted to just stick Bannan behind a striker like Rhodes.

The one player I have not considered at all is Ireland, who I reckon might well be one of the ones who stays, and could have the class to take the Championship apart with the right manager.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Terry Jones on April 25, 2012, 12:45:55 AM
Well we know now the stark truth the gob shit of a manager Mc Moron is taking us down going to break all records two clubs two seasons.What we need is a complete change of ownership or is that other moron Lerner going to give him a medal like to and pin it on his arse with a size ten boot.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Phil from the upper holte on April 25, 2012, 07:12:01 AM
This thread actually makes me feel sick
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: charlie on April 25, 2012, 08:16:31 AM
It is mooted in some quarters that Di Canio might do a decent job, and introduce a rare notion...... attacking football.......
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Andy_Lochhead_in_the_air on April 25, 2012, 09:16:06 AM
As the ownership of the club is in the hands of one man - a man who has proved consistently inept in his decisions when the going got tough - I fear a continual decline. I fell for the Lerner line when he arrived - but frankly if you had the money and came into a club where O'Niell had just been appointed - any of us as a semi absent owner could have managed what happened in the first 3/4 years. He has not done one single thing right when it really mattered.
 
I genuinly fear that if we go down it will be more like 1967 than 1987 and we may not return for a number of years without a change to the club ownership. We are now operating with structures and attitudes in the club which out of date with how other clubs are operating.  The only difference  between Randy Lerner and the old duffers pre 1968 is that he is about 20 years younger.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Ron Manager on April 25, 2012, 09:20:25 AM
As the ownership of the club is in the hands of one man - a man who has proved consistently inept in his decisions when the going got tough - I fear a continual decline. I fell for the Lerner line when he arrived - but frankly if you had the money and came into a club where O'Niell had just been appointed - any of us as a semi absent owner could have managed what happened in the first 3/4 years. He has not done one single thing right when it really mattered.
 
I genuinly fear that if we go down it will be more like 1967 than 1987 and we may not return for a number of years without a change to the club ownership. We are now operating with structures and attitudes in the club which out of date with how other clubs are operating.  The only difference  between Randy Lerner and the old duffers pre 1968 is that he is about 20 years younger.

I second that emotion!
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: NeilH on April 25, 2012, 09:24:14 AM
It is mooted in some quarters that Di Canio might do a decent job, and introduce a rare notion...... attacking football.......

Are you insane. I would not care if he is the new Mourinho we cannot have a man with fascist tendencies running our club, the Villa boys that thumbed their noses up at the Nazis to stand up for freedom would turn in their graves.

Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: WA Villan on April 25, 2012, 09:50:59 AM
It is mooted in some quarters that Di Canio might do a decent job, and introduce a rare notion...... attacking football.......

Are you insane. I would not care if he is the new Mourinho we cannot have a man with fascist tendencies running our club, the Villa boys that thumbed their noses up at the Nazis to stand up for freedom would turn in their graves.



Don't knock it till you've tried it. A bit of right wing might knock us into shape. PS smiley
Title: If we go down
Post by: richardhubbard on April 29, 2012, 10:29:02 AM
If we go down is there enough in the likes of our youngsters to get us back up

Who would you keep from them.

Personally I would build the team around Guzan if he want to stay

Lichaj at right back
Baker and Clark at centre backs
Albrighton at right back
Gardner and Herd in the middlle
Delph on the left
Weinmann in the middle .

Left other youngsters grow like Carruthers and put McDonald in charge and sign a couple of youngsters in the championship to fill the gaps a go for it with youth

And just get rid of any legacy over paid players from the last 3 managers.


But probably we will go down and sign players like Marlon King
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: ozzjim on April 29, 2012, 10:34:25 AM
Who merged before I could? Was mid way through and the topic disappeared? Booo....

But Rich, Albrighton at right back mate? Are you serious?
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Dave on April 29, 2012, 10:36:44 AM
I'm guessing he means right-midfield - as Lichaj is already at right-back.

Although we seemed to play both Warnock and Lichaj at left-back yesterday, so you never know...
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: Mazrim on April 29, 2012, 10:38:00 AM
Hubbs has been at the Domestos again I think.  ;)
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: richardhubbard on April 29, 2012, 11:23:33 AM
Meant right wing, maz it's aldi own brand
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: James on April 29, 2012, 12:59:56 PM
Who merged before I could? Was mid way through and the topic disappeared? Booo....
But Rich, Albrighton at right back mate? Are you serious?

Fucking annoying isn't it?  ;)
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: richard moore on April 29, 2012, 01:10:30 PM
Good number of games that I can get to - Brighton, Palace, Reading (oh no, hang on), Southampton (oh no, also hang on), Bristol City and all hopefully for far less than the £45 or whatever that I refuse to pay to go the likes of Stamford Bridge. Would bring back memories of 87 when I was working in Derbyshire and got to Barnsley, Sheffield Utd, Leeds, Bradford and the like
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: ozzjim on April 29, 2012, 01:15:27 PM
Who merged before I could? Was mid way through and the topic disappeared? Booo....
But Rich, Albrighton at right back mate? Are you serious?

Fucking annoying isn't it?  ;)

I was trying to merge them at the same time, in fairness we have to merge stuff at the moment as it is all a bit crazy in here.
Title: Re: If we drop what do we need?
Post by: danlanza on April 29, 2012, 03:30:40 PM
"If we drop what do we need?" Fucking with a big stick is my constructive answer!
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