Micah Richards - Released

[ChicagoLion]

I don't really buy into this thing about players being deliberately shit, spineless and not caring etc.  A lot of that gets said about various players on here, but I'm sure each and every one of them wanted to win matches and not go through the sort of season we endured last year.  You don't get to play anywhere near this level without a decent attitude and heart.

With that said, there is no doubt that Micah and Gabby (and several others) were very, very poor last year.  They lost form & confidence and it was a downwards spiral.  I think Gabby is a busted flush for Villa.  I'm not sure if the fans will accept Micah back, but deep down I think he could probably do a very decent job for us a right back at this level.

For the amount that they get paid, fans expect the players to give the appearance of caring and making the effort.
In my long years in people-development, the loss of motivation and active disengagement is almost-always the result of crap management and / or a toxic culture.
In the case of these players, Matteo & Clarke either need to find the motivational 'key' to them or accept that they need to be moved on. My guess is that we 're close to finding out which way it'll swing: come August 31 and the closing window they'll either be sent out on loan, sold or kept. If kept, it'll be because the management feel they can extract value out of them.

or that no one else will take them.

[Chico Hamilton III]

You don't get to play anywhere near this level without a decent attitude and heart.

But Richards didn't play anywhere near prem level last season. His attitude and heart last year would have seen us relegated from whichever league we were playing in.   

[Ad@m]

You don't get to play anywhere near this level without a decent attitude and heart.

But Richards didn't play anywhere near prem level last season. His attitude and heart last year would have seen us relegated from whichever league we were playing in.   

Plus, as with any attribute, being successful at the top of a profession requires more than 'decent'.  Compare and contrast the interview with McCormack yesterday where he talked about not settling for a draw in any game, versus Lescott's utter bollocks last season about relegation being a weight off the shoulders.

The sooner that ilk are out of our club the better.

[chrisw1]

You don't get to play anywhere near this level without a decent attitude and heart.

But Richards didn't play anywhere near prem level last season. His attitude and heart last year would have seen us relegated from whichever league we were playing in.   

No, I agree with that, he was awful.  The point I was making is that I think there is more to it than being 'spineless' or not caring etc.  There are many reasons for losing form, but having got to the level of becoming a professional footballer, I really doubt it it through not giving a shit etc.

[brian green]

Perhaps it was because they had made it as a professional footballer they now had free rein to enjoy not having to work so hard.  That's the hard bit done, now which way to the Mercedes showroom/pie shop/knocking shop?

[kippaxvilla2]

He strikes me as the sort of Billy Big Bollocks who had been there and done that in one good season at Citeh.  Then thought all he had to do was turn up for us grateful people each week to automatically qualify as captain and our adulation would know no bounds.

When it transpired that a lack of quality players making him look much better than he ever was found him out and much worse found his overall appetite for hard work out. The very epitome of our awfulness.

[Pat McMahon]

I have no doubt he's a fine athlete of sorts.

A central defender for a professional football team - never!
One of the worst I've seen at VP in over 50 years.

For the life of me I have no idea why anybody saw anything in his playing career to suggest he would be a good centre half.

[VILLA MOLE]

Perhaps it was because they had made it as a professional footballer they now had free rein to enjoy not having to work so hard.  That's the hard bit done, now which way to the Mercedes showroom/pie shop/knocking shop?

is there a one stop shop for all that ??

[chrisw1]

He strikes me as the sort of Billy Big Bollocks who had been there and done that in one good season at Citeh.  Then thought all he had to do was turn up for us grateful people each week to automatically qualify as captain and our adulation would know no bounds.

When it transpired that a lack of quality players making him look much better than he ever was found him out and much worse found his overall appetite for hard work out. The very epitome of our awfulness.

See, threads on here are full of this sort of rhetoric, repeated so often it is treated as fact.  'Spineless, cowards, thieves, gutless, lazy etc etc.'  The perceived wisdom is they all pretty much wanted to be shit and did it on purpose.  I just don't buy this.  I strongly suspect they wanted to be successful, but for various reasons were woefully short of confidence and form.  Don't get me wrong I absolutely agree that the majority of them were very poor last year and I totally understand the anger against them - I have it myself.  I just don't think they were deliberately shit or cowards etc as many people seem to infer. 

[Mister E]

I don't really buy into this thing about players being deliberately shit, spineless and not caring etc.  A lot of that gets said about various players on here, but I'm sure each and every one of them wanted to win matches and not go through the sort of season we endured last year.  You don't get to play anywhere near this level without a decent attitude and heart.

With that said, there is no doubt that Micah and Gabby (and several others) were very, very poor last year.  They lost form & confidence and it was a downwards spiral.  I think Gabby is a busted flush for Villa.  I'm not sure if the fans will accept Micah back, but deep down I think he could probably do a very decent job for us a right back at this level.

For the amount that they get paid, fans expect the players to give the appearance of caring and making the effort.
In my long years in people-development, the loss of motivation and active disengagement is almost-always the result of crap management and / or a toxic culture.
In the case of these players, Matteo & Clarke either need to find the motivational 'key' to them or accept that they need to be moved on. My guess is that we 're close to finding out which way it'll swing: come August 31 and the closing window they'll either be sent out on loan, sold or kept. If kept, it'll be because the management feel they can extract value out of them.

or that no one else will take them.

someone will take them, even if we're picking up 95% of the wages.

[Fasth56]

He strikes me as the sort of Billy Big Bollocks who had been there and done that in one good season at Citeh.  Then thought all he had to do was turn up for us grateful people each week to automatically qualify as captain and our adulation would know no bounds.

When it transpired that a lack of quality players making him look much better than he ever was found him out and much worse found his overall appetite for hard work out. The very epitome of our awfulness.

See, threads on here are full of this sort of rhetoric, repeated so often it is treated as fact.  'Spineless, cowards, thieves, gutless, lazy etc etc.'  The perceived wisdom is they all pretty much wanted to be shit and did it on purpose.  I just don't buy this.  I strongly suspect they wanted to be successful, but for various reasons were woefully short of confidence and form.  Don't get me wrong I absolutely agree that the majority of them were very poor last year and I totally understand the anger against them - I have it myself.  I just don't think they were deliberately shit or cowards etc as many people seem to infer. 

I'm finding it very difficult to understand how you attempt to defend the indefensible. Being Captain it is his responsibility to go out onto the pitch and lead by example, he did that and was sh*t, so were the team. As Captain it was his responsibility to bring together all the players regardless of nationality, he failed miserably even setting up a clique with the French players exempt. Working with a number of other players whose names were reported at the time as Guzan, Agbonlahor, Lescott, Clark to break the system Garde was trying to implement. Gutless and spineless is just what he was, I feel that he went out on the pitch and coasted through the games and tried to give an impression of trying when in fact he couldn't give a f*ck.

[chrisw1]

He strikes me as the sort of Billy Big Bollocks who had been there and done that in one good season at Citeh.  Then thought all he had to do was turn up for us grateful people each week to automatically qualify as captain and our adulation would know no bounds.

When it transpired that a lack of quality players making him look much better than he ever was found him out and much worse found his overall appetite for hard work out. The very epitome of our awfulness.

See, threads on here are full of this sort of rhetoric, repeated so often it is treated as fact.  'Spineless, cowards, thieves, gutless, lazy etc etc.'  The perceived wisdom is they all pretty much wanted to be shit and did it on purpose.  I just don't buy this.  I strongly suspect they wanted to be successful, but for various reasons were woefully short of confidence and form.  Don't get me wrong I absolutely agree that the majority of them were very poor last year and I totally understand the anger against them - I have it myself.  I just don't think they were deliberately shit or cowards etc as many people seem to infer. 

I'm finding it very difficult to understand how you attempt to defend the indefensible. Being Captain it is his responsibility to go out onto the pitch and lead by example, he did that and was sh*t, so were the team. As Captain it was his responsibility to bring together all the players regardless of nationality, he failed miserably even setting up a clique with the French players exempt. Working with a number of other players whose names were reported at the time as Guzan, Agbonlahor, Lescott, Clark to break the system Garde was trying to implement. Gutless and spineless is just what he was, I feel that he went out on the pitch and coasted through the games and tried to give an impression of trying when in fact he couldn't give a f*ck.

I'm not defending the way he played - I have said it was awful.  But everything you wrote in bold is pure conjecture and hyperbole.  He and several others had a terrible season.  I simply don't accept he wanted to be shit, which is pretty much your inference.

[dave shelley]

You may be right Chrisw1 in that he never set out to be shit.  It's just that he didn't seem to care that he was.

[Villa in Denmark]

You may be right Chrisw1 in that he never set out to be shit.  It's just that he didn't seem to care that he was.

Nail on head Dave.

The common factor between Richards and Agbonlahor is sum of fucks given = 0.

There was obviously a split dressing room. Richards himself admitted it just before Nice but Tim got the bullet. And our 2 captain's contribution to rectifying that and integrating the foreign recruits?
Briefing against Garde in the press and holding anyone who'd come in from France up to ridicule for all of Villa Park to see in that awful Secret Santa video.

It may not have been deliberate and malicious, but in that case it must be because they're so fucking thick, it's a miracle they don't forget to breathe.

Either way, we've purged the upper reaches of the club of those culpable for last season. Those two goons are next on the priority and culpability list. Trouble is I think we're stuck. In which case they can do something useful like clean the Holte End steps with a toothbrush. Bigger contribution than letting them anywhere near the pitch on match day.

[brontebilly]

He strikes me as the sort of Billy Big Bollocks who had been there and done that in one good season at Citeh.  Then thought all he had to do was turn up for us grateful people each week to automatically qualify as captain and our adulation would know no bounds.

When it transpired that a lack of quality players making him look much better than he ever was found him out and much worse found his overall appetite for hard work out. The very epitome of our awfulness.

See, threads on here are full of this sort of rhetoric, repeated so often it is treated as fact.  'Spineless, cowards, thieves, gutless, lazy etc etc.'  The perceived wisdom is they all pretty much wanted to be shit and did it on purpose.  I just don't buy this.  I strongly suspect they wanted to be successful, but for various reasons were woefully short of confidence and form.  Don't get me wrong I absolutely agree that the majority of them were very poor last year and I totally understand the anger against them - I have it myself.  I just don't think they were deliberately shit or cowards etc as many people seem to infer.

I completely disagree, in tough times last season very few of our players showed the necessary character to do basics like play to the final whistle, track runners, encourage team mates, run hard, the very basic essentials of a professional footballer at any level. There was a decent core of players that threw in the towel in basically and they should never be forgiven for it. We had a mix of charlatans who though they were above a relegation fight, lads who used the club as a retirement home and the rest of decidedly average pr*cks and our three managers could fit in those categories too.

For a squad with our budget to finish with 17 points was an absolute disgrace. Deliberately shit, no, cowards and a disgrace to AVFC and their profession generally, absolutely.

Micah Richards was the biggest disgrace of all, diabolical signing giving that clown a four year contract on huge money, playing him in a position he had failed in years before, a player who was in semi retirement already and making him captain. Cheers Tim. There were games particularly when at right back near the end where he did not try a leg. I absolutely despise him.