Birmingham Mail and Villa coverage

[dave.woodhall]

Agree with this Mail article. How can the police cope with us, Blues, Albion. Wolves and Walsall all playing at home on the same night, yet have to move the United game to Friday night due to a couple of hundred EDL members marching.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/police-confident-handling-big-match-9893639

First of all, the combined attendances on Tuesday won't be many more than ours last Friday, and the main flashpoint, namely New Street station, won't be very busy so you'll have less police on duty for the five games combined than we would have had on our own. The big problem for last week was that 500 EDL were expected and a lot of them were due to be going past Villa Park on the train. 

[PeterWithe]

The Mail's Palace article is also a blatant rip off of a blog piece from a Villa fan linked to on here in the last week

[KevinGage]

serious question, does anyone on here ever have a dialogue with them about this perception of how they treat Villa?  Surely they would be embarrassed if they saw this thread?

Me, Mac and Damon had an interaction with Steve Wollaston about it a while back on twitter. There was another with Mat Kendrick a few weeks back.

To be fair to him, he offered to give me a call in the week if i wanted to talk about it, an offer which I didn't take up, which he didn't need to do.

I do think that the standard of the Villa coverage improved significantly when they dropped Bill Howell and Mat K got the gig, only to absolutely plummet when Gregg Evans took over.

It isn't the job of the local media to automatically support everything the club do, or to act as some form of semi official cheerleaders, but you'd think that the largest local newspaper in the area would at least show once in a while that they want the club to do well.

Instead, they seem too busy churning out shit designed to appeal more to those who don't want us to do well.

Why on earth is Mat Kendrick reduced to tweeting intelligence-insulting "spot yourself in the crowd" style drivel while the Villa gig goes - yet again - to someone who quite clearly has a downer on us?

In a perverse way, I wouldn't might so much if Evans did have a downer on us if he was entertaining to read.

But he's just shit.

[ozzjim]

Can't abide the way Evans writes about the Villa. He is like a petulant child with an axe to grind in almost every article. I am suprised he is not co-hosting the Franks Villa Bash on the radio each night while having a collective worship of all things dog and throstle related.

Why on earth Matt Kendrick can't go back to doing it is beyond me, he actually wrote articles about the Villa, not ones about other teams trying to score points from the Villa. And the click argument goes down the pan that as soon as I see Evans wrote it on their tweet, I don't click on it knowing it will be the reading equivalent of drinking anti-freeze.

[Edvard Remberg]

serious question, does anyone on here ever have a dialogue with them about this perception of how they treat Villa?  Surely they would be embarrassed if they saw this thread?

Me, Mac and Damon had an interaction with Steve Wollaston about it a while back on twitter. There was another with Mat Kendrick a few weeks back.

To be fair to him, he offered to give me a call in the week if i wanted to talk about it, an offer which I didn't take up, which he didn't need to do.

I do think that the standard of the Villa coverage improved significantly when they dropped Bill Howell and Mat K got the gig, only to absolutely plummet when Gregg Evans took over.

It isn't the job of the local media to automatically support everything the club do, or to act as some form of semi official cheerleaders, but you'd think that the largest local newspaper in the area would at least show once in a while that they want the club to do well.

Instead, they seem too busy churning out shit designed to appeal more to those who don't want us to do well.

Why on earth is Mat Kendrick reduced to tweeting intelligence-insulting "spot yourself in the crowd" style drivel while the Villa gig goes - yet again - to someone who quite clearly has a downer on us?

Mat has to defend that crap - but as you say, why can't they give him the job? If they think more people will click if they offend us, that might be right for the first few articles. In long run it is a stupid strategy

[Leicester_Villian]

Not quite Villa related but sums up the Mail perfectly ........ Mail Online is telling everyone that Small Health play Burnley tonite ... they even have live updates

Only issue I can see is the away team are Derbu .....but shows exactly what the Mail know

[dcdavecollett]

I wondered if there was a positive aspect to this; does slagging us off boost the numbers of Bitters/Blues fans who read this on social media to get their weekly anti-Villa fix, thereby binding them closer to the rag?

[pauliewalnuts]

Another subtle one this morning from a barely legible piece about out transfer business.

Please don’t go
Jack Grealish is Villa’s remaining stand-out star.

And if he leaves anytime soon then we all might as well give it up and start watching bowls or some other fascinating sport.

Villa are now used to losing their top players following a summer of more high-profile exits.

Good of the Mail to be the first people to even broach the subject of him leaving.

They also finished with this. You could make your own mind up about what message they're sending here.

Money no object
Sergio Aguero. Imagine Grealish and Gil threading balls into him all game!

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/how-aston-villa-done-far-9932849

[KRS]

Another poorly written bitter article courtesy of Mr Evans. I have no idea why Evans feels the need to mention Aguero at the end of the article...obviously money is an object to bring a player like that to Villa Park so the insinuation is that Man City could take Grealish and Gil off our hands. This is the full article so you don't have to go on their site to read the poisonous click bait:

How have Aston Villa done so far in this transfer window?
19:00, 27 AUGUST 2015 BY GREGG EVANS

Gregg Evans looks at Villa's business over the summer and what could yet happen at Villa Park before the deadline.

Aston Villa have splashed the cash this summer in a bid to end their four-year battle against relegation.

Owner Randy Lerner has sanctioned deals to bring in ten new players this summer costing around £55m in fees to clubs, agents and the new arrivals themselves.

Of course, the high-profile departures of Christian Benteke and Fabian Delph will see Villa receive £40m back, but only half of Benteke’s £32.5m transfer fee has been paid up front by Liverpool.

As the wage restrictions have been relaxed and new deals with improved terms have been signed, Villa have spent more than many imagined this summer.

But how have the new signing’s settled in? Are Villa a better team than last season? And will 2015/16 finally see the back of a battle against finishing in the bottom three?

Our man at Villa, Gregg Evans examines.

Success story so far
There’s no doubt that Adama Traore’s arrival has created the biggest stir this summer.

When Villa were first linked with the ex-Barcelona youngster, fans licked their lips with excitement even though most of them had never even heard of the 19-year-old.

Boss Tim Sherwood had tracked him for years, though.

At Tottenham he wanted to sign the rising star but had to be patient before finally landing his man here in the Midlands.

In his two appearances so far, Adama has showed explosive pace and power and most importantly he has scored and set up another goal.

Sherwood has been keen to remind us all that the talented teen is still ‘only a development player’ but already he looks like he is destined for a bright future.

Please don’t go
Jack Grealish is Villa’s remaining stand-out star.

And if he leaves anytime soon then we all might as well give it up and start watching bowls or some other fascinating sport.

Villa are now used to losing their top players following a summer of more high-profile exits.

Benteke left with their blessing - he acted professionally, almost single-handedly kept the club in the Premier League and deserved his high-profile move.

The Delph situation was obviously a stark contrast given the show of loyalty that he falsely pledged.

Villa seem to be learning from mistakes of the past by nailing down their important first-team players to long-term contracts which means that any unwanted exits should not be forthcoming.

Biggest shock
Idrissa Gana Gueye’s arrival was met with great surprise purely because of the transfer fee.

His £9million arrival was the club’s biggest deal for four years and that started a fresh wave of spending.

Of course, Delph’s double U-turn was the most insane move of the summer, though.

First he was going to Manchester City, then he decided to stay and ‘lead out this great club’, then he changed his mind again and moved to the Etihad. Crazy.

Wanted
A striker and an experienced centre-half would top up Villa’s team nicely.

The arrivals of Gana, Adama, Jordan Amavi and Micah Richards look like good business but there are still areas that need improving.

Joleon Lescott is a player who Sherwood is keen on and he would help bring extra competition to the backline.

Up front they are still short and could really do with a proven Premier League goalscorer.

Emmanuel Adebayor was tracked and could still be revived if Villa get desperate before the transfer window closes.

Time’s up
Charles N’Zogbia heads the list as he enters his fifth season at the club.

It’s thought the Frenchman has earned around £13m in wages since his move from Wigan in 2011 plus a signing-on fee that would have been agreed when he joined.

The 29-year-old has been given the chance to impress under every manager he’s worked for in the Midlands but each time he has failed to disappoint.

Sherwood has moved on the likes of Andreas Weimann, Darren Bent, Matt Lowton, Yacouba Sylla, Antonio Luna, Nicklas Helenius and Aly Cissokho, but N’Zogbia must be next,

Aleksandar Tonev was also proving to be a complete waste of space, before the club confirmed his permanent departure to Serie A club Frosinone Calcio this morning.

The Bulgarian wasn’t even handed a squad number.

Money no object
Sergio Aguero. Imagine Grealish and Gil threading balls into him all game!

[Clampy]

Has that piece been written by a 16 year old blogger? It's woeful.

[KRS]

I thing Gregg even managed to confuse himself with this one...not that its a hard thing to do:

The 29-year-old has been given the chance to impress under every manager he’s worked for in the Midlands but each time he has failed to disappoint.

Idiot.

[warleyboy]

It's a simple one for me, stopped buying the shite rag about a year ago.
I can't even muster a quick glimpse when I'm at the local Chinese takeaway.
For the same reason I stopped listening to WM, idiots attacking the biggest club in the Midlands, it's pathetic.
They should get lambert on there payroll, mumbling bumbling twat who always likes to have a pop.

[Clampy]

I've been reading his twitter page and he's involved with an argument with one chap. Apparently Gregg gave lower marks for Villa players because they were not playing a premier league side. Where do you start with logic like that?

[frankmosswasmyuncle]

If he had handed that in to me for GCSE English I'd have given it back to him to write with some sense of context(s), organisation, sentence variety and control, and a higher level of vocabulary to be worth more than a D.
Unless he was intending to mimic the style of a really poor, local, hack journo, in which case: A.

[Jimbo]

"But how have the new signing’s settled in?"

Oh dear.