Delph

[Mister E]

To bring it back on topic, if we're aiming to be a top 10 club again I don't think Delph is good enough.  Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

Well, he was good enough for Citeh to be v pissed off when he came to Villa rather than to them.
I think he'd look rather good in a good side! - one wheere he wasn't having to struggle along with the rest of the team.

[neo_Villan]

To bring it back on topic, if we're aiming to be a top 10 club again I don't think Delph is good enough.  Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

Well, he was good enough for Citeh to be v pissed off when he came to Villa rather than to them.
I think he'd look rather good in a good side! - one wheere he wasn't having to struggle along with the rest of the team.

That's not really answering the question. The answer is that he wouldn't get into the midfield of the half-decent clubs in the division. I doubt even Westwood would be a regular in any of them. Saying he would look better in a good team is a mute point because we are not currently a good team.

[Ad@m]

To bring it back on topic, if we're aiming to be a top 10 club again I don't think Delph is good enough.  Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

Well, he was good enough for Citeh to be v pissed off when he came to Villa rather than to them.
I think he'd look rather good in a good side! - one wheere he wasn't having to struggle along with the rest of the team.

Do you honestly think he'd get anywhere near Man City's side?!  He's not good enough to polish the boots of any of their midfielders.

He reminds me a lot of NRC.  At best, an average Premier League player.  Although at the moment I think Delph has the potential to be at best, an average Premier League player, rather than him actually being one.  If we're looking to get away from the bottom Delph shouldn't play a part in that.

[eastie]

To bring it back on topic, if we're aiming to be a top 10 club again I don't think Delph is good enough.  Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

Well, he was good enough for Citeh to be v pissed off when he came to Villa rather than to them.
I think he'd look rather good in a good side! - one wheere he wasn't having to struggle along with the rest of the team.

Do you honestly think he'd get anywhere near Man City's side?!  He's not good enough to polish the boots of any of their midfielders.

He reminds me a lot of NRC.  At best, an average Premier League player.  Although at the moment I think Delph has the potential to be at best, an average Premier League player, rather than him actually being one.  If we're looking to get away from the bottom Delph shouldn't play a part in that.

Delph has looked much improved since getting a decent run in the side , long may it continue- i find it somewhat strange that you are criticising him when he's showing his best form in 3 years.
If he carries on in his current form then he fully deserves his place in the side.

[Ad@m]

To bring it back on topic, if we're aiming to be a top 10 club again I don't think Delph is good enough.  Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

Well, he was good enough for Citeh to be v pissed off when he came to Villa rather than to them.
I think he'd look rather good in a good side! - one wheere he wasn't having to struggle along with the rest of the team.

Do you honestly think he'd get anywhere near Man City's side?!  He's not good enough to polish the boots of any of their midfielders.

He reminds me a lot of NRC.  At best, an average Premier League player.  Although at the moment I think Delph has the potential to be at best, an average Premier League player, rather than him actually being one.  If we're looking to get away from the bottom Delph shouldn't play a part in that.

Delph has looked much improved since getting a decent run in the side , long may it continue- i find it somewhat strange that you are criticising him when he's showing his best form in 3 years.
If he carries on in his current form then he fully deserves his place in the side.

I'm not criticising him I'm just saying let's not get carried away.  He looks ok in a side that's just dragged itself out of the relegation zone.  I don't want to see Villa in a relegation battle every year and when we get to that point I just don't think Delph will be good enough.

[paul_e]

To bring it back on topic, if we're aiming to be a top 10 club again I don't think Delph is good enough.  Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

Well, he was good enough for Citeh to be v pissed off when he came to Villa rather than to them.
I think he'd look rather good in a good side! - one wheere he wasn't having to struggle along with the rest of the team.

Do you honestly think he'd get anywhere near Man City's side?!  He's not good enough to polish the boots of any of their midfielders.

He reminds me a lot of NRC.  At best, an average Premier League player.  Although at the moment I think Delph has the potential to be at best, an average Premier League player, rather than him actually being one.  If we're looking to get away from the bottom Delph shouldn't play a part in that.

Delph has looked much improved since getting a decent run in the side , long may it continue- i find it somewhat strange that you are criticising him when he's showing his best form in 3 years.
If he carries on in his current form then he fully deserves his place in the side.

I'm not criticising him I'm just saying let's not get carried away.  He looks ok in a side that's just dragged itself out of the relegation zone.  I don't want to see Villa in a relegation battle every year and when we get to that point I just don't think Delph will be good enough.

Do you think selling 10-11 players and having to buy replacements who will need to settle into the squad will be better than making 4-5 changes and keeping most of the squad together?  If you think the former then maybe Delph and a lot of others are options to be sold but no club has ever been successful doing that (except maybe the odd time where someone was playing with monopoly money).

[SoccerHQ]

Our midfield is very weak though.

You can get away with having a leaky defence if the rest of your team is up to scratch, Norwich did it last season, Keegan's newcastle were challenging for the title despite conceding every week are two examples.

We've won 3 out of 4 league games recently despite last keeping a clean sheet in the ice age. A reason? Our front three have been top class recently. Imagine they'd be even better if we had a more creativity and solid midfield giving them the ball.

We conceded a lot of goals in 07/08 but were top 6 due to the midfield of Young-Barry- Petrov-NRC having a nice balance to it which was strengthed with Milner coming in.

You really can't compare it to the options we have now....

Bannan- Poor
Ireland- lol
Delph- playing well, let's see him do that for half a season injury free though.
Westwood- good player.
Sylla- Looks o.k, could be a decent squad player in time.
Petrov- sadly missed
Holman and KEA- Looked decent in the opening few games but both have been insignificant since Xmas.
Gardner- see what shape he's in from the latest injury.

I'd ship out Holman, KEA and Bannan close season and try to find two quality central midfielders from here and abroad to add some quality, someone like Diego at Wolfsburg who's had good spells at Atletico Madrid and Werder Bremen would be a good pickup I reckon, probably on less wages than Ireland.

[ozzjim]

That Fer chap who failed his Everton medical would be decent in our setup. Overall though I think we need a tricky attacking option and an experienced strong midfield player, coupled with a centre half and full back competition. We would have conceded less if the forwards had been more clinical too this season I reckon. Also Dunne being fully fit would have been a big plus.

[paul_e]

I somewhat agree, ship out  Ireland for sure, then we probably need to move on 1-2 more as well, with holman, nzogbia, bannan and kea being the 4 to choose from.

Defensively we'll have lost Warnock, Hutton, Dunne and Lichaj

Up front a lot depends on Bent's future, if he's happy to be part of the squad behind Benteke then keep him, if not we'll need to see if we can find a home for him and get a replacement there too.

From that you'd be looking at 6-7 players either gone or going most of whom need to be replaced, that's already a massive amount of work in finding the right quality and attitude.  We shouldn't add to that by selling off players like Delph, Clark, Baker, etc who have shown a lot of promise this season, at times.

[tomd2103]

I somewhat agree, ship out  Ireland for sure, then we probably need to move on 1-2 more as well, with holman, nzogbia, bannan and kea being the 4 to choose from.

Defensively we'll have lost Warnock, Hutton, Dunne and Lichaj

Up front a lot depends on Bent's future, if he's happy to be part of the squad behind Benteke then keep him, if not we'll need to see if we can find a home for him and get a replacement there too.

From that you'd be looking at 6-7 players either gone or going most of whom need to be replaced, that's already a massive amount of work in finding the right quality and attitude.  We shouldn't add to that by selling off players like Delph, Clark, Baker, etc who have shown a lot of promise this season, at times.

Would agree with that post Paul, but I do think if we stay up we will need to add a few quality players in the summer if we are to move on.  A quality centre half and a creative attacking midfielder are musts in my opinion and then we could also do with another option at left back and a wide player. 

Given, Hutton, Dunne Ireland and Bent are the ones who really need to be moved on.     

[paul_e]

I think a right back should be high on the list.

My shopping list would be:
Right back (can be experienced or potential, just need another option)
Centre back (experienced - Lescott or Douglas are the 2 obvious options)
Central midfielder/attacking midfielder (one who can add some goals to the side - I'd love us to go for someone a bit special here)
Striker (who can play wide or central - Bony would be excellent)

Once we've got those spots filled we can review the quality and add 1-2 others but we need squad options in those spots.

[WALTERS WARRIORS]

Delph should be a squad player. He has improved but he is not a first team starter. We have to get a MF player who can pick passes for the likes of Benteke and Weimann also who can tackle without looking like he is going to get sent off every game .....

[peter w]

'Restructuring' maybe was too strong a word. Many players from the current squad need culling though. Given, Hutton, Lichaj, Clark, Stevens, Bannan, KEA, Holman, Albrighton, Ireland (won't happen as nobody will have him), Bent all need to be shipped out. I'm not even convinced the likes of Baker, Bennett, Delph, Sylla should remain anything other then squad players.

With the slight tweak for Clark (who I think will be good enough) I agree 100%.  This squad will not improve enough over the summer to not be involved in another relegation battle. Yes the players have promise but the squad looks like one of a newly promoted side.

Whilst I don't think major reconstruction is needed what we do need is some genuine quality in centre midfield and central defence.

over the course of the season we've not been good enough to not be in a relegation battle.  Since the start of the year we're comfortably mid-table.  So with minor tweaks we'd likely carry that on and be mid-table.  get those tweaks right and we can push for the top half.

You seem to be missing the fact that we've got a team full of kids who had their confidence trampled all over for a month and yet we're only 6 points away from 10th, bit more steel against a few sides where we gave away 2 goal leads and we'd be well up there.

That 'steel' is wishful thinking with the defence we currently have. Its exactly why we are where we are.

[Dave]

Look at it this way, do you think Delph would get anywhere near the first 11 of any of the teams in the top half of the table?

I'd play him over Sidwell. There's one for a start.

[ozzjim]

I think he would start more often than not, on current form in all of the sides from 6th to 10th. Westwood and he are good enough footballers and are growing in stature. They need support to do that, and IMO someone like Barry would be a great signing to sit in with them now.