Happy birthday Big John

[Risso]

He scored with such fantastic regularity in the 08/09 season.  Never more than two games for us without finding the net.  That's what makes the difference between a great scorer and somebody like Gabby.

He scored 11 league goals that season. It was hardly a Herculean effort beyond Gabby or any other top flight striker.

I didn't mention the total of his goals, just the regularity with which he scored them.  But since you mention it, 11 goals in the 27 Premier League games he played (of which he only started 17) is pretty good going by any standards.  I can't be bothered to check, but I seriously doubt Gabby has ever had a record as good as that.

Gabby scored 12 that season and 13 the season after in the league although he played a few more full games in fairness.

He played a LOT more.  He started the season quite well, but in the second half the season scored two goals.  Typical Gabby.

[kippaxvilla2]

Gabby also benefited hugely from Carews presence and hold up play.  Carew always seemed to play a part in vital goals as well.  Eg Gabbys winner against Sha at their place when Carew had been bought on minutes earlier with the scores at 0-0.

[SoccerHQ]

It was funny with them. Individually they never really linked up like say Yorke and Savo back in the day but in their own space doing their own thing they created so much havoc to back 4s. The only one we really struggled to make much of an impact against in the MON years was Pompey who always seemed to match up well against us.

Still exciting times back then.

[N'ZMAV]

Typical Gabby.

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT!! GABBY LOVES THE VILLA!

[Percy McCarthy]

Typical Gabby.

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT!! GABBY LOVES THE VILLA!

Can't you? How the fuck does he manage to be the most criticised Villa player on here then?

[Dave Cooper please]

Typical Gabby.

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT!! GABBY LOVES THE VILLA!

Can't you? How the fuck does he manage to be the most criticised Villa player on here then?

Possibly because we really all want him to be good, he's one of us, he came through our yoofs. We want him to be great.
Unfortunately he isn't and he has now gone from being virtually untouchable in regards of criticism (I remember getting a right going over on here for daring to suggest that he wasn't that good a few years back) to being maybe a bit of a scapegoat for our pisspoor forward options without Benteke.
He is average, always has been. On his day he can be excellent, but that can be said of many an average striker down the years.

[Percy McCarthy]

Typical Gabby.

YOU CAN'T SAY THAT!! GABBY LOVES THE VILLA!

Can't you? How the fuck does he manage to be the most criticised Villa player on here then?

Possibly because we really all want him to be good, he's one of us, he came through our yoofs. We want him to be great.
Unfortunately he isn't and he has now gone from being virtually untouchable in regards of criticism (I remember getting a right going over on here for daring to suggest that he wasn't that good a few years back) to being maybe a bit of a scapegoat for our pisspoor forward options without Benteke.
He is average, always has been. On his day he can be excellent, but that can be said of many an average striker down the years.

My point was about the rather tiresome 'you can't say that' line trotted out ad nauseum on a variety of subjects. It's nearly always bollocks.