New Contracts?

[Goldie.7]

I'm predicting now Gabby will score 6 goals or less this season.

I will take that bet. He will score more than 6. A £20?

A fiver will do me?

[BoskoDjembaSalifou]

Great news that Gabby has signed a long term deal.

I watched the one on one chance that Westwood created for Bent in the Leyton Orient game and thought, Gabby would be a 20 goal a season man if he was put through like that once a game. As it happens I saw almost all our games last season and don't think he got more than a couple of chances like that.

We've completely wasted him for the last few seasons.

Please tell me you're taking the piss.

[nick harper]

Delighted that gabby has signed and agree with everything Percy has said. Yes, he doesn't always play well, but who hase over the last 4 years. The soul was ripped out of a good team and only gabby remains. He now has to play a lot of the time on the wing and is usually up front as a lone striker when asked to play there. No John Carew to work off and no Ash Young to stick crosses on the nut for him. No Barry or Petrov feeding him, and no Milner working to get the ball back for him.

I'm not saying he has been our stand out player but if over the last 4 years there has been one player who has summed us up it is Gabby. Good, bad, and indifferent. But pops up when needed in big games and was brilliant in helping to keep us up two seasons ago. build a team that works for him and not one that he is just put in to run up and down the wing, or is expected to just hold up the ball, and he'll score a lot more. I think this is a good signing (contractual) and reckon he'll be in double figures for goals this season.

be nice if he could break the 100 goals barrier before his contract expires

It will be pretty poor if he doesn't to be honest as he'll have been part of the first team for 13 years by then.

[Diablo]

Good news! A player who is loyal, wants to play for us, scores important goals and on his day can win a match on his own (here's to some more of those "on his day" matches).

[supertom]

If we have a good season, Gabby will have a good season. Tis written in Villa law. Generally when we're in good form, so is he. When we've done well under Lambert, which is pretty much just 3-4 months in his first season, Gabby played very well.
I'm hoping with the signings we've made, and re-instating a bit more experience in the side, we'll have a reasonable season and we'll see more frequent appearences from the on form Gabby. In which case he'll go some way to earning his new deal. I'd still like to see him shift half a stone and regain another yard of pace. He's not quite the greased lightening he was a few years back.

[Percy McCarthy]

Delighted that gabby has signed and agree with everything Percy has said. Yes, he doesn't always play well, but who hase over the last 4 years. The soul was ripped out of a good team and only gabby remains. He now has to play a lot of the time on the wing and is usually up front as a lone striker when asked to play there. No John Carew to work off and no Ash Young to stick crosses on the nut for him. No Barry or Petrov feeding him, and no Milner working to get the ball back for him.

I'm not saying he has been our stand out player but if over the last 4 years there has been one player who has summed us up it is Gabby. Good, bad, and indifferent. But pops up when needed in big games and was brilliant in helping to keep us up two seasons ago. build a team that works for him and not one that he is just put in to run up and down the wing, or is expected to just hold up the ball, and he'll score a lot more. I think this is a good signing (contractual) and reckon he'll be in double figures for goals this season.

be nice if he could break the 100 goals barrier before his contract expires

It will be pretty poor if he doesn't to be honest as he'll have been part of the first team for 13 years by then.

Yeah, fancy breaking into the first team at 19, when most of our 'promising youngsters' have the good grace to be ready at 23.

[Gregorys Boy]

Gabby signing a new deal doesn't fill me with joy, but then it doesn't fill me with dread either.   As long as he is used more as a squad player from now, and we have better options then it shouldn't be that much of a negative.

[silhillvilla]

He will score +14 goals this season.

[django]

Great news that Gabby has signed a long term deal.

I watched the one on one chance that Westwood created for Bent in the Leyton Orient game and thought, Gabby would be a 20 goal a season man if he was put through like that once a game. As it happens I saw almost all our games last season and don't think he got more than a couple of chances like that.

We've completely wasted him for the last few seasons.

Please tell me you're taking the piss.

No. I'm deadly serious.

I see Gabby as a poor mans Anelka. Less technically proficient (and thankfully less of a dickhead) but a similar type of player. When he was played in a similar position or even wide in a decent team, he was scoring 10-16 goals a season. Once O'Neil left and we have entered the doldrums he has struggled for goals and his form has been less consistent.

You can criticise his movement like the poster above, and fair enough I'm not saying he's perfect, but that spell has coincided with the worst midfield that I can remember.

Since he's broken into the team he's been one of the more consistent forwards in the premier league outside the top teams. If you take out the top players, he's as good as players of his era like Carrol, Yakubu, Dempsey, Defoe, Crouch etc.

And he's one of ours who's come up through the youth team and looks like he might spend his entire career with us.

[Gregorys Boy]

He will score +14 goals this season.

He was the best he has been in awhile against Hull, besides that we will have to wait and see.

[silhillvilla]

Gabby takes a lot of unfair shit on here. People forget he stuck around when all the other mavericks sniffed money elsewhere, Gareth, James, Stewart, Ashley, I'm looking at you.

[Gregorys Boy]

Gabby takes a lot of unfair shit on here. People forget he stuck around when all the other mavericks sniffed money elsewhere, Gareth, James, Stewart, Ashley, I'm looking at you.

Maybe, in reality Gabby has never been in line for those moves.  But I do respect his loyality.  It is mostly his performances which have been critized I think.   I do see him becoming like Gerrard for Liverpool, a one club man which is rare in this era.

[curiousorange]

Gabby takes a lot of unfair shit on here. People forget he stuck around when all the other mavericks sniffed money elsewhere, Gareth, James, Stewart, Ashley, I'm looking at you.

Maybe, in reality Gabby has never been in line for those moves.  But I do respect his loyality.  It is mostly his performances which have been critized I think.   I do see him becoming like Gerrard for Liverpool, a one club man which is rare in this era.

I seem to remember around 2008 there were rumours of Arsenal's interest. I have no idea whether that had any basis in fact, but he probably wouldn't have looked out of place in a side like that.

[exigo]

He'll do a job for the next couple of years. After that, he could change games stepping up from the bench after 60-70 minutes.
As long as we're not paying him silly money, it seems like a good deal. Maybe he'll even do his coaching badges for the longer term.

[N'ZMAV]

Gabby takes a lot of unfair shit on here. People forget he stuck around when all the other mavericks sniffed money elsewhere, Gareth, James, Stewart, Ashley, I'm looking at you.

Maybe, in reality Gabby has never been in line for those moves.  But I do respect his loyality.  It is mostly his performances which have been critized I think.   I do see him becoming like Gerrard for Liverpool, a one club man which is rare in this era.

I seem to remember around 2008 there were rumours of Arsenal's interest. I have no idea whether that had any basis in fact, but he probably wouldn't have looked out of place in a side like that.

I doubt any bigger club has even come in for Gabby.