Birmingham Mail and Villa coverage

[Toronto Villa]

Did it really get a WHOLE LOT HARDER you wank stain Gregg?

Aston Villa's Championship campaign just got a whole lot harder
21:00, 27 MAY 2016 UPDATED 21:00, 27 MAY 2016
BY GREGG EVANS

Villa will face a difficult season with strong competition next term and one of those teams will be Nigel Pearson's Derby County
 

Nigel Pearson, managing Leicester CityFormer Leicester boss Nigel Pearson has been appointed by Derby County


Aston Villa will now be direct competitors for Nigel Pearson - the man who was initially the favourite to take the hotseat at Villa Park.

Pearson was today named Derby County manager and that should worry the claret and blues.

Already the Rams have a fine squad capable of challenging for automatic promotion and now it seems they have a manager who could finally get them back into the big-time.

In recent years they’ve just not had the staying power to see them through but that could change next term.

Villa already have Newcastle to deal with next season and with Pearson in charge, Derby will be a force to be reckoned with.


Roberto Di MatteoRoberto Di Matteo looks set to take over at Villa Park

Roberto Di Matteo is expected to be named as the new Villa boss in the coming days and it will be interesting to see who comes out on top.

Departing chairman Steve Hollis is thought to have favoured Pearson as did former advisor Adrian Bevington who was tasked with drawing up the shortlist.

With the changing of hands and Tony Xia closing in on a takeover of the club, different options were explored and now Di Matteo leads the way.

Like Pearson, the Italian has the experience of getting a club out of the second tier and into the top-flight.

Di Matteo did it with Albion and will use his experience from that 2009/2010 campaign if, as expected, he takes over at Villa.

Suddenly, though, with today’s announcement, the Championship just got a whole lot tougher for Villa next season as they look for an immediate return to the Premier League.

[dave.woodhall]

Even by the Mail's standards the comments under that article are laughable. Does no-one ever moderate them?

[Leicester_Villian]

In this case I see nothing wrong with the Mail ...... I think they are spot on !

Derby WILL finish above us ............

Who can provide a justification that will not happen?

[Clampy]

In this case I see nothing wrong with the Mail ...... I think they are spot on !

Derby WILL finish above us ............

Who can provide a justification that will not happen?

Because it might not happen.

[PGW]

I had a bit of Twitter tennis with Steve Wollaston yesterday...they are really deluded...he believes mail do a fine job and can't
see the negativity they write. I told him to look on here but he declined and responded to the negativity question:
Paul, you can't please everyone but i have enough contact with Villa fans to know that's not the majority.
Then another
If it was,nobody would be reading the stories.As it is,more people are than ever before.

In part that must be so many links to mail being posted on here boosting figures

He went on to say : ''As i say more reading our Villa content than there ever  has been in our history.

After another spat: '' If you don't wish to read what we publish i guess you have that choice. Thankfully other do''

I couldn't be arsed to reply...deluded..or they are all living in a bubble.

[Clampy]

For me it's not so much the lack of positive stories, because let's face it, we've hardly given them positive stuff to write about lately. It's those fucking stupid video's they post up. What other local newspaper would post a video of a man breaking a picture of a ground with his truck? That's the point I was trying to make when I had my spat with Mat Kendrick and he re-tweets the bloody things. He just didn't get it.

[dave.woodhall]

I had a bit of Twitter tennis with Steve Wollaston yesterday...they are really deluded...he believes mail do a fine job and can't
see the negativity they write. I told him to look on here but he declined and responded to the negativity question:
Paul, you can't please everyone but i have enough contact with Villa fans to know that's not the majority.
Then another
If it was,nobody would be reading the stories.As it is,more people are than ever before.

In part that must be so many links to mail being posted on here boosting figures

He went on to say : ''As i say more reading our Villa content than there ever  has been in our history.

After another spat: '' If you don't wish to read what we publish i guess you have that choice. Thankfully other do''

I couldn't be arsed to reply...deluded..or they are all living in a bubble.

Of course they're getting their highest readership ever - the internet and social media didn't exist until comparatively recently so they have the world as their target audience now instead of a thirty mile radius of Birmingham.

[Clampy]

I had a bit of Twitter tennis with Steve Wollaston yesterday...they are really deluded...he believes mail do a fine job and can't
see the negativity they write. I told him to look on here but he declined and responded to the negativity question:
Paul, you can't please everyone but i have enough contact with Villa fans to know that's not the majority.
Then another
If it was,nobody would be reading the stories.As it is,more people are than ever before.

In part that must be so many links to mail being posted on here boosting figures

He went on to say : ''As i say more reading our Villa content than there ever  has been in our history.

After another spat: '' If you don't wish to read what we publish i guess you have that choice. Thankfully other do''

I couldn't be arsed to reply...deluded..or they are all living in a bubble.

I think we can guess which other club's fans help boost the Villa reading figures.

[Villa in Denmark]

For me it's not so much the lack of positive stories, because let's face it, we've hardly given them positive stuff to write about lately. It's those fucking stupid video's they post up. What other local newspaper would post a video of a man breaking a picture of a ground with his truck? That's the point I was trying to make when I had my spat with Mat Kendrick and he re-tweets the bloody things. He just didn't get it.

For me it's more the barely concealed glee with every chance to twist the knife instead of actually challenging the running of the club at the points when it's plainly obvious there's serious questions to be asked.

There's more investigative journalism on here than over there and that includes the Jokes and "Annoying" threads.

[cdbearsfan]

Derby WILL finish above us ............

You're right. We don't know who our manager or any of our players will be yet but Derby will definitely finish above us having appointed the genius that masterminded the League Champions' fourteenth place finish.

Newcastle will finish above us too. They've cunningly managed to hold on to the manager that took them down and couldn't beat the worst Villa team ever.

Norwich are certainties to leave us in their wake as well. We can't compete with a side that is often regarded as the best in the whole of Norfolk.

I also think Forest, Small Heath, Rotherham, Wolves, Burton and Wigan will finish above us, as will both of Barnsley and Millwall, even though only one of them will be in our division.

I've already given up hope of us finishing in the top twenty-three. Every day I yearn for the sweet embrace of death.

We're doomed.

[kippaxvilla2]

They're staying really positive.

Aston Villa players don't know when to turn up for pre-season training

The Sunday People's Neil Moxley writes today that the claret and blues are a club entirely in limbo...

Aston Villa’s players have not been given a date to return for pre-season training.

The crisis-hit Birmingham club, who slipped into the Championship, have not told the first-team squad when to turn up ahead of the new campaign.

Villa are currently awaiting clearance from the Premier League and Football League that their new officials have passed the fit and proper person test ahead of a change of ownership.

And until they receive that clearance, the club have been left in limbo.

A source close to a player said: “The squad have been told to expect communication from the club in due course.

“As to when that will be is anyone’s guess.”

Following the defeat to Arsenal on the final day of the season, Villa’s players were told to await instructions.

With appointment of Remi Garde’s successor in the pipeline - irrespective of whether former owner Randy Lerner had sold up - there was little point in interim boss Eric Black putting together any schedule as a new boss would have had his own ideas.

Aston Villa acting boss Eric Black during the defeat at Arsenal
Aston Villa acting boss Eric Black during the defeat at Arsenal
So, the first-team squad have left with individual fitness plans, but no ongoing programme in place.

It is anticipated that once Chinese businessman Dr Tony Xia is confirmed as the new owner that Roberto Di Matteo will be installed as manager.

It appears scare stories about the financial clout of Xia are just that and nothing more.

Villa origninally released a statement saying Xia owned five listed companies - he is, in fact, in control of just one.

[Toronto Villa]

Like it's even a fucking story. Players are either preparing for international duty or on a beach somewhere not giving one tenth of a fuck about pre-season. You'd think they were all frantically texting each other anxious to know when to report back to the club. The Birmingham Mail and the Mirror are both a complete load of bollocks.

[Ads]

In this case I see nothing wrong with the Mail ...... I think they are spot on !

Derby WILL finish above us ............

Who can provide a justification that will not happen?

Mila Kunis WILL nosh me off.

[saunders_heroes]

The new manager will sort out new schedules so what's the big problem with that? It's just your usual shit stirring stuff from the press.

[CJ]

That Sunday People article wins star prize for using a lot of words to say absolutely nothing. "A source" close to "A player" who says we don't have a return date yet but we will have one soon. Thanks for sharing that breathtaking revelation with us Moxley