Something I don't understand

[Brian Taylor]

If the club and players are a reflection of the fans who post here then God help us. We were in a state four months ago and it was only going to get better.
Someone has to take control and be leader of the pack..ferking Houllier out now is madness..then that is where we are presently. Someone must keep their head..

[Percy McCarthy]

MON was very good at this, I know he had his faults but he always (well nearly) got 100% out of the players.

Yeah, apart from Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Shaun Maloney, and Nigel Reo-Coker.

Perhaps part of the motivation lay in how he treated the unmotivated. A bit like the 'bitch' in the McKenzie Crook episode of 'Accused'.

[pauliewalnuts]

MON was very good at this, I know he had his faults but he always (well nearly) got 100% out of the players.

Yeah, apart from Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Shaun Maloney, and Nigel Reo-Coker.

Perhaps part of the motivation lay in how he treated the unmotivated. A bit like the 'bitch' in the McKenzie Crook episode of 'Accused'.

Maybe you're right.

It still doesn't mean he got anything like 100 percent motivation from all the players as originally suggested, mind.

[littlevillain]

I personally feel they have (at the Villa now) forgotten how to win. They have no belief. This negativity in their mind rubs through to their body language and to us it just looks like they don't give a shit.
I really believe the management can and should be doing their utmost to change this, sadly I don't thing GH and co can.
MON was very good at this, I know he had his faults but he always (well nearly) got 100% out of the players.

they won a few games ago??

[ez]

I don't know how players who were pushing for champions league for the the last 3 seasons have become so bad. Mons leaving and the injuries upset the continuity but to enough to make us relegation material??

[Greg N'Ash]

simple answer. they know they haven't got a future with the current boss. they know they won't get the same wages elsewhere so they don't particulary want to move. they'd rather get a shot with a new boss who like the current one will have limited room to manouvre. Managers get sacked, not players

[Percy McCarthy]

MON was very good at this, I know he had his faults but he always (well nearly) got 100% out of the players.

Yeah, apart from Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Shaun Maloney, and Nigel Reo-Coker.

Perhaps part of the motivation lay in how he treated the unmotivated. A bit like the 'bitch' in the McKenzie Crook episode of 'Accused'.

Maybe you're right.

It still doesn't mean he got anything like 100 percent motivation from all the players as originally suggested, mind.

Fair point. I was hoping (and optimistic) that Houllier would keep MON's favourites onside, and re-motivate the others. Never mind.

[DeKuip]

We want players who have hunger. Hungry to win every game, ambitious to win trophies, and to get the best out of their careers.
Then when their inbuilt desire for success leads them to move on in search of better things we slate them for being a greedy bastard, assuming the only possible reason they could want to leave the Villa is for the money.

[Pat McMahon]

MON was very good at this, I know he had his faults but he always (well nearly) got 100% out of the players.

Yeah, apart from Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Shaun Maloney, and Nigel Reo-Coker.

I think you're wrong Paulie, when they were in the team he did get the best out of them. The real issue was whether their best was good enough.

[eamonn]

To go back to the original point, why do players who have spent their entire lives being self-motivated and single-minded to the point of obsession suddenly lose this desire? Is it all just about money?

Maybe rather than losing desire, it's the loss of confidence and how frail it can become when under pressure to perform at the highest level that has a big effect. Playing to 10 men and a dog with no media spotlight for years doesn't prepare you for everything. Obviously they are amply rewarded for whatever perceived disadvantages they encounter as top-flight players but I imagine self-doubt can affect most minds. 

[Ian.]

MON was very good at this, I know he had his faults but he always (well nearly) got 100% out of the players.

Yeah, apart from Luke Young, Nicky Shorey, Habib Beye, Steve Sidwell, Curtis Davies, Marlon Harewood, Shaun Maloney, and Nigel Reo-Coker.

I think you're wrong Paulie, when they were in the team he did get the best out of them. The real issue was whether their best was good enough.

I said always (nearly) got 100% out of his team. Ok always was a bit strong and we was not always the best but what I'm trying to say is now we have lost or way. We don't know how to win, we have no spirit at all.
With MON we quite often clawed our way back, there was a spirit in the team.
I'm not for one minute saying he is the messiah but we really need someone here to give us that belief, spirit and organisation back. We look so defeated.

Going back to Dave's original point I still stand by this, that when your confidence is shot it shows in your body language it looks like you don't care. I don't think the money issue helps but the real problem is self belief, not only individually but as a whole team.

[Phil from the upper holte]

In this instance I don't think money comes into it.

I just don't think they want to play for houllier, Player power is coming into force I think in order to make the chairman react

[brian green]

I see the point you are making Dave but I think it is the socio-sporting equivalent of Darwinism namely the laws of natural selection.

Picture one of those huge tall palm trees in California.   They soar up to the sky but only have a small number of palm leaves at the very top.   When that palm began growing it was a huge great ground level mass of foliage which shrank as the tree grew.

So it is with football players at our level.   There is a man in the village where I live working as a yard man in a builders merchants.   He once wore the number 9 shirt of Newcastle United and still holds the goal scoring record in a season for Wrexham.   They reach a level where they cannot hack it and fall away.

There are at least six players in the current Villa squad who do not have the mental strength and self discipline to take it to the next level.   The pull of the night clubs the titty bars the pie shops and the knocking shops outweighs their ambition to play the game at the very highest level of their talents.   Players like Ryan Giggs have the mental and physical strength to achieve the football and economic summit.   Richard Dunne looks at his bank statement and sees a golden future of pie eating.

What I am saying is that right up to being in the squad of a club which finishes sixth in the hardest league in the world the elimination process continues.   There is always Scotland or Turkey or the middle east for drop outs to run to we we know and they know it is all downhill for them from there.

[ROBBO]

I secret is very simple, you get some big ugly terrifying bastard who doesn't neccessarily have to be a great player but is willing to die for the cause and make him Captain. We are a team of gentlemen on the pitch and a bunch of whinging noncies off. They need the said Captain to get them alone and explain the meaning of trial and retribution.

[brian green]

Patrick Vieira would do that job perfectly