The Gabby Appreciation Thread - Update: 4 year deal

[supertom]

Can't remember that Tom, but i'm not disputing it. I thought he played his best football in his 30s to be fair to him but as a Man United bit part player he managed all 59 ( bar one maybe?) England caps. Quite a staggering statistic I think.

He was always, even at Utd, totally average as a left back. I thought he turned into a pretty solid holding player for Everton for a few years. A solid 7/10 every week.
But yeah, that Man Utd love in was a bit ridiculous really. Same with Liverpool and Arsenal, no matter the form of some players, that just won't go away for England.
For a player at Villa, I think you have to maintain form, work twice as hard, and eventually you should finally get noticed. It takes a lot of time though as we're not a fashionable club. It's not like Andros Townsend as an example. A couple of good games for Spurs and he gets in.
Delphy has been consistent for two seasons under Lambert, and in the last 18 months in particular, fantastic. It's been a long time coming.

Gabby as an example again though. If he was playing for Arsenal and started this season strongly in the first couple of months, he'd make the next round of squads. However for us, I reckon he needs to keep this form up for the whole season, and he might, if he's lucky, make a summer friendly. It's been like that for a while for us and our players though. It's rare it goes the other way. Curtis Davies I can think of got in the England squad pretty soon after joining us, having not played that many games, but had to withdraw through injury. Steve Mac was slightly less biased in who he picked, but he also picked just about any body. Sven to some extent too (Ricketts ha ha).

[Ozzjim]

A legend? If Gabby is a legend, we have pretty low legend standards.

[Toronto Villa]

Depends on the definition of legend. Is he a modern day legend of the past 6 or 7 years? Possibly. He's certainly done things at the club that people talk about a lot, and provided some tremendous moments. Is he an all time legend on par with a number of the Villa greats? For me, not quite, and needs to elevate his game and remain consistent for the next 2-3 years to get there.

[dave.woodhall]

Can we settle for cult hero?

[Smirker]

Depends on the definition of legend. Is he a modern day legend of the past 6 or 7 years? Possibly. He's certainly done things at the club that people talk about a lot, and provided some tremendous moments. Is he an all time legend on par with a number of the Villa greats? For me, not quite, and needs to elevate his game and remain consistent for the next 2-3 years to get there.

A trophy win wouldn't hurt either.

[ADVILLAFAN]

Can we settle for cult hero?

Yes, definitely a cult hero, more than a legend. If he's goals take us to a Champion's League place or FA Cup win, then I may revise that though.

[Dave]

A legend? If Gabby is a legend, we have pretty low legend standards.

Or, different people have different frames of reference. If somebody is fifteen years old then they're likely to consider Gabby a 'legend'. Somebody who was growing up in the late seventies/early eighties probably wouldn't (apart from Percy, obv.)

Should the fifteen year old be told that they shouldn't be using that terminology just because somebody thirty years older was fortunate enough to see better players and bigger achivements?

[Smoke]

A legend? If Gabby is a legend, we have pretty low legend standards.

Or, different people have different frames of reference. If somebody is fifteen years old then they're likely to consider Gabby a 'legend'. Somebody who was growing up in the late seventies/early eighties probably wouldn't (apart from Percy, obv.)

Should the fifteen year old be told that they shouldn't be using that terminology just because somebody thirty years older was fortunate enough to see better players and bigger achivements?

Very good point, Dave = Legend.

[N'ZMAV]

Gabby should have scored way more goals than he has. He's been a good player for us. Not reached the levels we generally expected.

[dekko]

Dunno about being a Legend, but can we at least all agree that he'll deserve a testimonial when he goes?

[N'ZMAV]

he will deserve one.

[GordonCowansisthegreatest]

As long as he donates it all to charity. He's earned good money so that shouldn't be the reason for a testimonial.

[Chipsticks]

A legend? If Gabby is a legend, we have pretty low legend standards.

Or, different people have different frames of reference. If somebody is fifteen years old then they're likely to consider Gabby a 'legend'. Somebody who was growing up in the late seventies/early eighties probably wouldn't (apart from Percy, obv.)

Should the fifteen year old be told that they shouldn't be using that terminology just because somebody thirty years older was fortunate enough to see better players and bigger achivements?

Honestly this pretty much applies to me. I started getting into football in 2005 when I was 10 and in almost 10 years the only people of any significance who aren't remembered with a sour aftertaste are Petrov, Carew, Laursen, Mellberg, Gabby, Angel, and possibly Milner.

Of those I'd say Gabby is the closest thing to being a 'legend', though Mellberg runs pretty close for me.

[richardhubbard]

Club

Season

League

Cup

League Cup

Europe

Total


Division

Apps

Goals

Apps

Goals

Apps

Goals

Apps

Goals

Apps

Goals

Aston Villa 2005–06 Premier League 9 1 0 0 0 0 – 9 1
2006–07 Premier League 38 9 1 0 3 1 – 42 10
2007–08 Premier League 37 11 1 0 2 0 – 40 11
2008–09 Premier League 36 12 2 0 1 0 9 1 48 13
2009–10 Premier League 36 13 2 1 6 2 2 0 46 16
2010–11 Premier League 26 3 3 0 2 1 1 1 32 5
2011–12 Premier League 33 5 2 1 1 0 – 36 6
2012–13 Premier League 28 9 1 0 4 3 – 33 12
2013–14 Premier League 30 4 0 0 1 0 – 31 4
2014–15 Premier League 4 2 0 0 0 0 – 3 1

Gabby scoring record since 2010 has been shocking , 23 goals in 117 games , no way that legend status!!!

His a villa lad and a big fan of the club but he been very average for 5 years and I being kind calling him average

Hopefully he picks up and early signs are promising

[Ads]

Gabby has played only a handful of games up front in the past 4 years.