Jordan Bowery

[pauliewalnuts]

Okay.  You guys win.  Play Bowery every game from now until the end of the season and we'll be fine.  As I said, how low our expectations have fallen.

Spectacular missing of the point.

People are just suggesting that he's had a couple of run outs, one out of position, and that is hardly evidence of either his brilliance or his shitness, and says nothing about how low our expectations have fallen.

I really don't understand why, in a season with so many obviously shit things we can spend time moaning about, some people aren't satisfied and have to find yet more shitness.

Spectacular missing of a little bit of irony.

No, I entirely get the point you were making with your ironic comment, I've read the previous comments on the thread.

I just don't see why a 500k player making his earliest appearances for the club is really deserving of a slating or writing off, or why the fact he's been played says anything about the way the club is going.

Give him a chance. We've seen how our other young players have had their confidence absolutely blown to pieces over the last few weeks, I imagine even those with plenty of appearances under their belts have been scared to death of late. Look at Guzan's reaction to the final whistle, for starters.

Then think about what it must have been like for Bowery when he found out he was starting yesterday.

[dave.woodhall]

I wonder if keeping Bent was more of a political move than anything else. After getting rid of so many big names so quickly, offloading the only real star we had (at the time anyway) wouldn't have gone down well with supporters and would have reinforced the 'selling club' accusation.

[peter w]

 Good post. (paulie)

[PeterWithesShin]

Good article Dave.

[Pete3206]

I thought he did OK. I'm mystified at the criticism to be honest.

[pestria]

That's not the point.  We have a multi-million pound proven international goal scorer sat on the bench, while we play a £500,000 recruit out of position ahead of him. It makes no sense whatsoever.

So, you'd want to see Bent playing wide right? Really? Because that's the position that Lambert wanted filling. Plus, Bowery gave us height in the box at their set-pieces. Kind of worked too.

Seems to be some (deliberate?) confusion on this thread regarding Bowery and Bent.

I think most posters would agree that Bowery was asked to 'do a job' on the wide right.  Opinions on how he did vary.  Some say he worked hard and did as well as you could expect from a lower league player trying to make a massive step up.  Others (me included) thought he looked like he'd never seen a football before.  But eh, it's all about opinions and I try to respect what other say.

Then we come to Bent.  The fact that he's getting splinters up his arse while we're in real danger of getting relegated makes you think something is not quite right.   

We should either alter the formation to accommodate him or ask him to use his experience and adapt to the requirements of the team (eg like Gabby) or we should have moved him on and bought in adequate replacements.

Either way I think it is an indictment of Lambert's management that we have Bent on the bench and the likes of Bowery in the team.

[rob_bridge]

I'm convinced had this forum existed 20 years ago that there would be some people writing on here that Fenton was poor and didn't get into enough forward positions and Bozzie shoudn't have let that one under his body during the League Cup win in 1994.

[Chrisupnorth]

Okay.  You guys win.  Play Bowery every game from now until the end of the season and we'll be fine.  As I said, how low our expectations have fallen.

Spectacular missing of the point.

People are just suggesting that he's had a couple of run outs, one out of position, and that is hardly evidence of either his brilliance or his shitness, and says nothing about how low our expectations have fallen.

I really don't understand why, in a season with so many obviously shit things we can spend time moaning about, some people aren't satisfied and have to find yet more shitness.

Spectacular missing of a little bit of irony.

No, I entirely get the point you were making with your ironic comment, I've read the previous comments on the thread.

I just don't see why a 500k player making his earliest appearances for the club is really deserving of a slating or writing off, or why the fact he's been played says anything about the way the club is going.

Give him a chance. We've seen how our other young players have had their confidence absolutely blown to pieces over the last few weeks, I imagine even those with plenty of appearances under their belts have been scared to death of late. Look at Guzan's reaction to the final whistle, for starters.

Then think about what it must have been like for Bowery when he found out he was starting yesterday.

There's no question that you're right about our young players and this isn't a crusade against Bowery. Good luck to the lad. He's just the embodiment of the state the club has got itself into. He's clearly not of Premier League standard and you know he wouldn't get a look in at any other Premier League club. That's my opinion on a forum I hope is all about the diversity of opinions.

[Pete3206]

I remember Dwight Yorke's debut for Villa. He looked like Bambi on an ice rink.

How about giving the bloke a chance.

[dave.woodhall]

By that standard Ron Saunders wouldn't have signed players such as Terry Bullivant and Gary Shelton, Sir Graham wouldn't have bothered with most of his team and Mark Delaney would have stayed with Cardiff.         

[Matt Collins]

The Bowery / Bent issue is nonsense. Bent presumably can't / won't play wide.

I've not given up on Bowery. I just wouldn't play him (at the moment)

[Dante Lavelli]

I thought he did OK. I'm mystified at the criticism to be honest.

I thought there were occasions when the ball came to him where he looked frightened to death.  He seemed happier when his play was more instinctive and he did have time to think.  This suggests he was (understandably) very nervous.  Hard to know how where he's got the skill to step up once he become more familiar with the occasion.

[Dave]

I wonder if keeping Bent was more of a political move than anything else. After getting rid of so many big names so quickly, offloading the only real star we had (at the time anyway) wouldn't have gone down well with supporters and would have reinforced the 'selling club' accusation.

Do we not also need an buyer though?

For all the talk about QPR and Stoke, there didn't really seem to be many reports of solid interest from anyone, let alone an actual bid.

And although what you say makes sense I'm pretty sure that if Stoke had stuck say, £12m under our noses then no amount of public perception issues would have stopped us from accepting it.

[pestria]

Okay.  You guys win.  Play Bowery every game from now until the end of the season and we'll be fine.  As I said, how low our expectations have fallen.

Spectacular missing of the point.

People are just suggesting that he's had a couple of run outs, one out of position, and that is hardly evidence of either his brilliance or his shitness, and says nothing about how low our expectations have fallen.

I really don't understand why, in a season with so many obviously shit things we can spend time moaning about, some people aren't satisfied and have to find yet more shitness.

Spectacular missing of a little bit of irony.

No, I entirely get the point you were making with your ironic comment, I've read the previous comments on the thread.

I just don't see why a 500k player making his earliest appearances for the club is really deserving of a slating or writing off, or why the fact he's been played says anything about the way the club is going.

Give him a chance. We've seen how our other young players have had their confidence absolutely blown to pieces over the last few weeks, I imagine even those with plenty of appearances under their belts have been scared to death of late. Look at Guzan's reaction to the final whistle, for starters.

Then think about what it must have been like for Bowery when he found out he was starting yesterday.

Paulie - I understand the sentiments in your post and agree with supporting young players as they try to do their best for the team.

But it's about time Villa (as a whole - Lerner, Faulker, Lambert, the fans) woke up and smelled the coffee (as hinted at in Dave Woodhalls article) - this is the rough and tough end to the season and harsh realities have to be faced.

No one wants to ruin a young lad's career, but had a shocker.  Maybe that was Lamberts fault for throwing him in at the deep end.  Hopefully the lad will improve.

At this point in time, I don't give two hoots as to where our players come from.  I'm more worried about where they're going. 

It's time to face the harsh realities.  Asking inexperienced and unproven players like Bowery to do a job against the some of the best teams in the world in simply asking to get relegated.

[Dave Cooper please]

Most people on here are looking for any positives they can in a season most of us would rather forget already.

Really? A lot of people on here seem to be looking for every negative as far as I can see.