The Gabby Appreciation Thread - Update: 4 year deal

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Love Gabby but 15 goals ? would be happy with ten. Though i do think his assist count will be very high. He is becoming effective coming in from the left and wish he would work on a couple of tricks to be less predictable ........

[Dave]

I'm not that fussed about his predictability. Antonio Valencia doesn't really know how to do anything apart from boot the ball past the fullback, chase after it and cross it. But when it works nearly every time then you might as well carry on.

If he's going to carry on in his current position, I think he needs to work on his aerial crossing. Seems a bit of a waste to have an enormous bloke in the middle if our wide players are always going to play a hard, low cross.

[gabbythelegend]

Just to clarify: 15+ goals including cup competitions. I'll stick by that.

[berneboy]

There's an article in the Times which contrasts starkly with Benteke's reported comments.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/premierleague/article3601615.ece

" Gabriel Agbonlahor says that he would never follow in the footsteps of Gareth Barry and James Milner and trade his lifelong allegiance to Aston Villa for Manchester City’s millions.

The in-form Villa striker does not claim to be playing for nothing, nor that he will become Roberto Mancini’s primary transfer target by January. But as he prepares to return to the ground where he stunned the Barclays Premier League champions by scoring twice in a 4-2 Capital One Cup victory in September, Agbonlahor continues to place love over gold.

He does not begrudge Barry, his mentor from his early days at Villa Park, or Milner the salaries or the silverware they opted to chase by leaving Villa for City but, even as he starts to rediscover the form that made him one of Villa’s headline acts during Martin O’Neill’s reign, he says that such a move would not be for him.

There is something almost Corinthian about Agbonlahor’s attitude. Some would say that his career has stalled over the past couple of years as Villa have struggled to maintain the heights they reached when Barry, Milner, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing were playing to a level that earned them eight-figure moves to bigger clubs in the North West, but his sights are set differently. "

[Mister E]

There's an article in the Times which contrasts starkly with Benteke's reported comments.
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/sport/football/premierleague/article3601615.ece

" ... but his sights are set differently. "

What, lower?
And "in-form"?

I'm a bit of a Gabby fan and think that his attributes fit perfectly into a PL team: hard-working, quick and able to score  when presented. His cross for Weimann on Saturday was great and I hope his revival continues. But his role has changed to one of decoy and grafter, with others scoring the goals in the main ... and that's fine as long as others continue to find the back of the net.

[berneboy]

Here's the full article. It may be subscription only.




Gabriel Agbonlahor says that he would never follow in the footsteps of Gareth Barry and James Milner and trade his lifelong allegiance to Aston Villa for Manchester City’s millions.

The in-form Villa striker does not claim to be playing for nothing, nor that he will become Roberto Mancini’s primary transfer target by January. But as he prepares to return to the ground where he stunned the Barclays Premier League champions by scoring twice in a 4-2 Capital One Cup victory in September, Agbonlahor continues to place love over gold.

He does not begrudge Barry, his mentor from his early days at Villa Park, or Milner the salaries or the silverware they opted to chase by leaving Villa for City but, even as he starts to rediscover the form that made him one of Villa’s headline acts during Martin O’Neill’s reign, he says that such a move would not be for him.

There is something almost Corinthian about Agbonlahor’s attitude. Some would say that his career has stalled over the past couple of years as Villa have struggled to maintain the heights they reached when Barry, Milner, Ashley Young and Stewart Downing were playing to a level that earned them eight-figure moves to bigger clubs in the North West, but his sights are set differently.

Certainly he would love another England call-up. Going one step farther and winning the Capital One Cup is still a possibility, with Norwich City waiting in the quarter-finals on December 11, and he is among Villa’s highest earners. But in a team with an average age under 24, he likes the idea of helping to bring through the next generation of Villa stars as the club attempt to progress by growing their own.

His home is in Birmingham, so are his family. He is satisfied, but not without appetite. Those who accuse the 26-year-old of lacking hunger need only to have watched his performance against Manchester United on Saturday, when he contributed gamely as Villa raced into a two-goal lead only to lose in time-honoured gallant fashion; or away to Manchester City in September, when he scorched back into the reckoning with his latest new manager at Villa.

Paul Lambert reminds him of O’Neill, and the Scot may be starting to get similar returns from the striker. “There’s a lot of similarities and that’s not surprising because he used to play under Martin [at Celtic], so he’s going to have learnt a lot from him,” Agbonlahor said this week at an event to support Show Racism the Red Card. “The gaffer wants players who are going to run around for him, players that are going to fight for each other.”

The furore over Darren Bent’s exclusion before he suffered a recurrence of ankle trouble, as Agbonlahor returned from injury to play off Christian Benteke, Lambert’s £7 million target man, suggested a sense of returning crisis at a club who, after two seasons hurtling downwards from the top six, are only one place above the relegation zone.

“If people look at the league table, they could be forgiven for doubting us,” Agbonlahor said. “But if you look at the ins and outs, everyone here at the club knew it was going to be a period of gradual progression, that it was going to take time with a young squad like this, with new players looking to gel together.

“I think we’re doing that. Look at the Man U game: I know they had their chances, but if you look at the whole game, we gave them a good go, we didn’t roll over. It’s good for me at this age to be helping those younger players that are coming through, to try to help them in the way that people like Gareth Barry helped me when I was coming through early in my career.”

Agbonlahor keeps in text touch with his former captain, who became a mainstay of the England midfield with his form at Villa Park before a £12 million switch to the Etihad Stadium in 2009. Twelve months later, for double the fee, Milner followed suit and Villa’s slide was triggered as O’Neill left five days before the season in the light of the club’s imminent downscaling.

As Villa floundered under Gérard Houllier and Alex McLeish, Milner and Barry won the FA Cup and the Barclays Premier League title, as injury and personnel changes afflicted Agbonlahor. But when he is performing as he is, facing goal so that he maximises his pace, Agbonlahor can expect to be playing regularly, whereas Milner looks disaffected with rotation under Mancini. Agbonlahor might be earning half as much as Milner, but he is playing twice as much.

“Some people might want to go to a club where you’re not playing as much, but especially for someone like James, who wants to play every minute of every match, it must be disappointing for him not to be getting the right amount of time, so you look at that,” Agbonlahor said.

“But, on the other hand, he’s involved in the Champions League, involved with the champions of England, so it’s a hard one to call.

“For me, what he did for Villa was really good and all the players that have moved on, what they did for this club was immense. But it’s different for me. My family’s here, my friends are here and while you can’t read the future, if you say you want to be a one-club man, as long as Villa want me, I’ll stay.”

Villa play away to City again tomorrow hopeful of repeating their cup performance. “I don’t think you can say [City treat the Capital One Cup differently],” Agbonlahor says. “I don’t think they will have wanted to lose that game and they put out a strong enough team [including Barry, Milner, Carlos Tévez and Mario Balotelli] that they thought could beat us. We fought hard for each other in that game, everyone wanted the ball and that showed in the game and in the result.

“For me, coming back from [a knee] injury, I’d had to wait a few games to get back into the team, but I got my chance that night and wanted to make an impression. For the team, we had a lot of possession, played a formation [that gave us a solid base] and Andi Weimann also came into the side and did well, and has played ever since.

“Much as the squad is thin, if you look at the bench there’s still a lot of competition for places and that’s had an effect on the team with the feel-good performances in recent weeks.”

Not even a striker such as Bent, signed for a fee that could rise to £24 million, is guaranteed a place at Villa. “That just goes to show that it doesn’t matter who you are, the gaffer’s going to pick a team that he thinks is going to win a particular game. It doesn’t matter whether you’re earning this much, or you cost that much, it’s going to be about who the gaffer thinks is going to win the game.” Do the business, though, and you tend to stay in.

Making his name . . .

March 2006 Academy product scores on his Aston Villa debut, aged 19, in a 4-1 defeat away to Everton at the end of David O’Leary’s reign.

April 2008 Having scored the Second City derby winner at St Andrew’s earlier in the season, strikes final goal in a 5-1 victory over Birmingham City to ensure rivals’ relegation.

August 2008 Scores a perfect hat-trick against Manchester City (goals with head and right and left feet) inside seven minutes, the second-fastest treble in the Premier League.

November 2008 Nigerian father, Scottish mother, born in Birmingham, Agbonlahor makes England debut in 2-1 win away to Germany, the first of three caps after playing 16 times for under-21s.

December 2009 Strikes the only goal of the game away to Manchester United in Villa’s sole Premier League win at Old Trafford. Is top scorer with 16 goals in all competitions in Martin O’Neill’s last season at club, Villa reaching Wembley twice and finishing sixth for third successive season.

[Risso]

Nice interview from Gabby.  Good to see one of our strikers hasn't completely lost the plot.

[PaulWinch again]

It's a nice interview from Gabby, and it's good to see his form has picked up a bit. He needs some goals now, ideally a hattrick tomorrow.

[ktvillan]

Nice sentiments from Gabby but it's a bit of a moot point to say he wouldn't follow in the footsteps of Milner and Barry.  He's not good enough for the kind of clubs that would pay that kind of money, and unless he's a late developer, he's not likely to end up anywhere better than Villa.

[Mister E]

Nice sentiments from Gabby but it's a bit of a moot point to say he wouldn't follow in the footsteps of Milner and Barry.  He's not good enough for the kind of clubs that would pay that kind of money, and unless he's a late developer, he's not likely to end up anywhere better than Villa.

True, I suspect, and I reckon additionally he doesn't particularly endear himself to people around the game nor go chasing attention from others.
I think - as I said above - that at the moment his role as decoy and grafter is probably what the team needs; as long as others are banging in the goals.

[pedro25]

15 goals is a touch ambitious as he'll play wide a lot, we are (like it or not) a struggling team at present, and he missed a lot of pre-season and the first few games. 11 to go.

Without doing the maths surely 15 would be about bang on track given that he has 4 already and we are less than a third of the way through the campaign?  Even more so that we struggled for the first quarter of the season, given the last few performances I dont see us struggling so badly for the rest of the campaign.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

Nice interview from Gabby.  Good to see one of our strikers hasn't completely lost the plot.

Indeed. What a level headed, intelligent lad he is.

As for goals this season, I don't think 15 should be out of the question. I'd say it's a realistic target to expect, he just needs to make sure he gets himself in the box and not left in no man's land out wide when the ball comes over from the right. Can he do it? You bet he can.

[Mister E]

Nice interview from Gabby.  Good to see one of our strikers hasn't completely lost the plot.

Indeed. What a level headed, intelligent lad he is.

I hope that the second adjective there is used ironically: it's his lack of intelligence that lets his play down. That doesn't ignore his continuing usefulness to us but he's hardly the sharpest tool in the toolbox.

[bill]

He's still with us because nobody actually rates or wants him.

[Stu]

He's still with us because nobody actually rates or wants him.

That's the spirit.