Jordan Amavi - gone again

[LeeB]

I just don't want any of them back. All 3 just remind of the last season or two and all links to that time have to be cut.

So sell Gardner, Grealish, Gestede, Amavi and Ayew as well?

Yes, no, Yes, No, and yes.

A good effort but you got the last one wrong.

[Dave]

I just don't want any of them back. All 3 just remind of the last season or two and all links to that time have to be cut.

So sell Gardner, Grealish, Gestede, Amavi and Ayew as well?

Yes, no, Yes, No, and yes.

A good effort but you got the last one wrong.

And whichever way you cut it, it's not really "cutting all links to the last season or two".

[peter w]

Rome wasn't built in a day.

The ones that have gone should stay gone. the ones that we have should look to move on. Home grown players aside as they were already here. Amavi looks good and was injured last season so wasn't tainted by association.

As for Ayew? Meh.

[PeterWithesShin]

8 of the 14 that played Saturday were here last season.

[Dante Lavelli]

Ideally we would get one of Vertout or Sanchez back in the winter - if the loan clubs are not going to meet the terms - because I think either would improve us considerably.
Also having them in the team whilst (generally) winning might change their perception of the club a bit.

[andyh]

I don't think any of them would recognise the place if they came back.

[peter w]

8 of the 14 that played Saturday were here last season.

And as I said Rome wasn't built in a day.

most of last season's team, especially those bought last season and that played a big part in the season, need to be moved on.

of that 8 how many do you still want at the club next season?

[LeeB]

8 of the 14 that played Saturday were here last season.

And as I said Rome wasn't built in a day.

most of last season's team, especially those bought last season and that played a big part in the season, need to be moved on.

of that 8 how many do you still want at the club next season?

I'm pretty open minded about it now we appear to be getting our all round shit together.

It's really difficult to judge how good/bad certain players are when the club was an absolute shambles from top to bottom.

[Old Kodjia]

8 of the 14 that played Saturday were here last season.

And as I said Rome wasn't built in a day.

most of last season's team, especially those bought last season and that played a big part in the season, need to be moved on.

of that 8 how many do you still want at the club next season?

I'm pretty open minded about it now we appear to be getting our all round shit together.

It's really difficult to judge how good/bad certain players are when the club was an absolute shambles from top to bottom.

This is exactly where I am right now.  During the summer, I was the biggest advocate of "if he was here last season, get rid" (that is my polite, internet friendly translation of how I felt).  It seems quite a way back now and I think the Bruce appointment has been a turning point in more ways than one.  I'm happy to go with and also support anyone who Bruce picks, be it a Bruce player an RDM player or a player from last season.

I personally wouldn't be picking Gabby, for footballing reasons alone, not because of any links to last season.  Maybe that is why Bruce is a highly well paid, top manager and I am not?

Attitudes were my biggest gripe last season and some of the players did not cover themselves in glory.  I'm happy to draw a line under  it all now and work towards our common goal of getting back to our rightful place.  If a player on our books will help and support this cause then he should play.

[Theo]

Hi guys, I don't know if you heard but Amavi's done a good interview for a french football magazine called "So Foot",

Here's the link : http://www.sofoot.com/jordan-amavi-il-y-a-plus-grave-qu-une-rupture-des-croises-435525.html

I translated the article in english for villa fans on facebook and thought you'd be interested as well, there might be typos or small mistakes :

" Jordan Amavi "There are worse things than a ruptured cruciate ligament "

He had finished 2015 with a broken knee which stopped his momentum in the Premier League. Now coming back, Jordan Amavi wishes to bring back Aston Villa inside the elite of British football and thinks with hindsight about the first serious injury of his career, because he understood there are worse things in life.


Question : You came back to competition with Aston Villa after being out for 9 months, how is your knee ?

Answer : It’s doing fine, great actually, it holds on. I am at 100 % of my physical capacities, no problem with that. I had fears and concerns before coming back to play, I was wondering if it would hold on or not. But as soon as I had set foot on the playing field, I went in the thick of it, I played as I usually do.

Q : For you first game after coming back from injury, how did the fans welcome you back ?

A : It was the last pre-season game, the gaffer ( Di matteo at the time ) brought me on as a sub for a few minutes at the end of the game and the fans applauded me. The football culture of the english fans is different, in the stadium they are 100 % behind their team, always behind the players. Real fans, even in Championship, so many of them travel away, in every stadia they fill the stands, it’s magnificent. They sing, they cheer us up. They have plenty of songs depending on the situation or the player.

Q : Is there a Jordan Amavi song ?

A : (laughing) Yeah, they did one, a bit on the principle of the « Will Grigg’s on fire » song, they placed my name in an other well know song.

Q : Coming back to your knee injury ( ruptured cruciate ligament in november 2015  during a game with the french under 21s ) we had the impression that you put your injury into perspective really quickly, even though you’re only 22 years old…

A : That’s true, when I learnt that my season was over, that it was the cruciate ligaments, it was tough to take at that moment. You say to yourself ‘‘why me ? Why now ?’’ But looking back on it, it brought me closer to my family, my friends, I came back to France. I thought it was better if it happened now rather than later in my career. I am young, the injury is behind me, I’m coming back to my best level. All of this is behind me. And when I went to the St Raphael reeducation center I met people whose injuries were much worse than mine. I saw a guy, roughly my age, coming in with trousers, later when I saw him in shorts he was missing a leg. He explained to me that he had a problem since he was very young and that he asked to have his leg amputated himself. He was smiling everyday, we joked together everyday even though his leg was missing. Other people had problems way beyond mine. It made me think ‘‘oh yeah, you just ruptured your crucial ligament, people your age have it harder than you...’’. This made me think and go forward.

Q : Paradoxically, this will help you both in your career and personal life.

A : Exactly. But I won’t lie though, I was affraid of picking up an injury and putting my career in jeopardy because of that. I had changed clubs, I was only a few months in my spell at Aston Villa and I broke my leg. This is not any injury. But by bonding with certain people it helped me to go forward and to be stronger. Now I know there are worse things in life than breaking your leg.

Q : What was the worse, physically hurting yourself to come back quickly in the squad, or to watch Aston Villa sink without being able to help ?

A : A bit of both, When I had my surgery I thought ‘‘Alright, it’s done’’. But at first you can’t move at all, you can only watch games and see that your team is having trouble. But I didn’t go crazy because of that, my dad raised me to be strong mentally, and at the Nice youth academy they also prepared me to be strong. But it’s true that it hurts to live through a situation like that, but I had my family around me and I met some people who enabled me to put things into perspective. This year we’re in the championship, well, we will fight together to come back up.

Q : The days must be very long when you have such an injury ?

A : When I started physiotherapy and reeducation, I didn’t have any time to get bored. A cab took me every morning in Nice, I had a 9am appointment to do some treatments, in the afternoon I did some physical preparation to keep my upper body fit, everyday I left home at 8am and came back at 6 or 7pm, and I had the week ends to get some rest. In pre-season, you work to prepare for the season and after that you maintain what you worked for. In my situation, I worked on my upper body, because I couldn’t do anything with my legs. But afterwards I almost worked twice as hard to get back to the level I was before I got injured, if not a better level. There was a lot of work to do, but in the end it was for the better.

Q : Aston Villa must have followed very closely your progress during your recovery…

A : When I heard about my injury, they asked what I wanted to do, and I explained that wanted to go back to France, to be with my friends and family. They told me ‘‘No problem, that’s normal’’. So I came back to France and did what I had to do. On the day of my surgery, someone from the villa medical staff came to attend to it. I had my doctor who personnaly came when I had to go to see the surgeon in Lyon. Sometimes, he got off the plane, attended to the discussion with the surgen with me for an hour, and he took the plane back immediatly.

Q : Before you picked up this injury, you were the most promising signing of Aston Villa, the British press even saw in you one of the best signings of the summer in the Premier League. Have you got any regrets about what this injury might have ruined for you, like a first call up with the French national team or a transfer to a big English club ?

A : To be honest no. I came to Aston Villa because they were in the Premier League, because they are a big club, with history. This is serious business. I arrived with a dominating mindset in a new club, a new league. I did not think ‘‘I’m going to play a great season and then I’ll leave’’. Even if I did not get injured, I would’ve probably stayed despite relegation. We’ll never know what might have happened.

Q : But with your agent ( Christophe Mongai ), did you talk about an eventual decision about yourself for the 2016 transfer market ?

A : I personnaly feel good at Aston Villa, the atmosphere and mood is great within the group, the infrastructures are amazing, the city is beautiful too. Even though we’re in the Championship I feel good at Villa. During the transfer period I told my agent I wanted to stay, the directors asked me what I wanted as well. If other clubs had placed a bid for me, I don’t know if villa would’ve let me go. But I already had decided to stay. Today, I am playing, and I’m trying to go back to my best level.

Q : What do you recall of these three months you spent in the Premier League ?

A : The atmosphere around games. The intensity of games. It’s different from France, in England you can conceid a goal at the 90th or 92nd minute, a game is never over. There are four or five games we stupidly lost by conceiding a goal in the final minutes of the game in the Championship. It is when we played Leicester last year that I understood what the Premier League was about, we were 2-0 ahead with only 20 minutes to go, and we conceided a goal around the 75th minute, another one at the 80th and a last one at the 90th and we lost 3-2.

Q : Are there any player you were impressed by ?

A : I had the chance to play against Ryad Mahrez, Jesus Navas as well whom I had to mark. Their game is very fast. I had the opportunity to play against great teams, everybody plays to win and to score, and as long as the ref doesn’t blow the whistle, you play 100 %.

Q : So far this year, Aston villa is 16th ( not anymore ), Roberto Di Matteo has been replaced by Steve Bruce in october, and the team is doing better since ( villa is unbeaten since the start of october ). How do you explain this new beggining ?

A : I don’t know. Roberto Di Matteo was a good gaffer as well. We’ve had a good reaction since Steve Bruce has been in charge. Is it a sort of psychological change or chock ? Well I already had 4 different managers in a year… I hope we’ll carry on with the momentum we have. Steve Bruce is very authoritarian, he tightens the screws of the team… With him you have to walk the line, but he’s also a guy who loves a good laugh during training, but not on match day, if things are not right, he’ll shout.

Q : Have you got any very good mates in the dressing room ?

A : Outside of the dressing room, not really, they’re all older than me, they’ve got a wife and kids, but we sometimes hang out together, for example Jordan Ayew sometimes comes round to my house to play some Playstation, We’ve got a good connection with the french speaking guys, but in the dressing room we’re all together joking and laughing, with the english guys as well.

Q : You’ve been called back in the u21s French side for their last game, you must have felt really good about it…

A : At first, I wasn’t supposed to be called, but Benjamin Mendy ( Monaco ) injured himself and the manager, Mankowski, called me up and made me play, It feels good because it means he was thinking about me, he trusted me. This was surely a good indication concerning the work I had done to come back to my best level. He rewarded this work by picking me in the team.

Q : The French first team, do you think about it or is it still too far ?

A : My first concern is to get Aston Villa back in the Premier League. I ain’t the French manager, I am now old enough not to play with the under 21s, so my focus is on my club. The french national team may come eventually, right now we have to go back up.

Q : Your name has been mentionned concerning a possible move to l’OM ( Marseille ) in january, would you consider it ?

A : I am currently at Aston Villa, they count on me. I’ll do anything that’s possible to go back up with them. The future, we’ll think about it later. I don’t think I’ll go to Marseille, I am at Aston Villa and I don’t think I’ll be on the move soon. "

UTV from France !

[PeterWithesShin]

Apart from Gabby, i'm not fussed who stays if they are playing well now.

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Something I'll never get is grown men going round to friends houses to play computer games.

Still, Amavi is starting to look a good player again. It's amazing what happens when you give a full-back some help with a player playing in front of them. Even Hutton looks a decent player!

[LeeB]

Hi guys, I don't know if you heard but Amavi's done a good interview for a french football magazine called "So Foot",

Here's the link : http://www.sofoot.com/jordan-amavi-il-y-a-plus-grave-qu-une-rupture-des-croises-435525.html

I translated the article in english for villa fans on facebook and thought you'd be interested as well, there might be typos or small mistakes :

" Jordan Amavi "There are worse things than a ruptured cruciate ligament "

He had finished 2015 with a broken knee which stopped his momentum in the Premier League. Now coming back, Jordan Amavi wishes to bring back Aston Villa inside the elite of British football and thinks with hindsight about the first serious injury of his career, because he understood there are worse things in life.


Question : You came back to competition with Aston Villa after being out for 9 months, how is your knee ?

Answer : It’s doing fine, great actually, it holds on. I am at 100 % of my physical capacities, no problem with that. I had fears and concerns before coming back to play, I was wondering if it would hold on or not. But as soon as I had set foot on the playing field, I went in the thick of it, I played as I usually do.

Q : For you first game after coming back from injury, how did the fans welcome you back ?

A : It was the last pre-season game, the gaffer ( Di matteo at the time ) brought me on as a sub for a few minutes at the end of the game and the fans applauded me. The football culture of the english fans is different, in the stadium they are 100 % behind their team, always behind the players. Real fans, even in Championship, so many of them travel away, in every stadia they fill the stands, it’s magnificent. They sing, they cheer us up. They have plenty of songs depending on the situation or the player.

Q : Is there a Jordan Amavi song ?

A : (laughing) Yeah, they did one, a bit on the principle of the « Will Grigg’s on fire » song, they placed my name in an other well know song.

Q : Coming back to your knee injury ( ruptured cruciate ligament in november 2015  during a game with the french under 21s ) we had the impression that you put your injury into perspective really quickly, even though you’re only 22 years old…

A : That’s true, when I learnt that my season was over, that it was the cruciate ligaments, it was tough to take at that moment. You say to yourself ‘‘why me ? Why now ?’’ But looking back on it, it brought me closer to my family, my friends, I came back to France. I thought it was better if it happened now rather than later in my career. I am young, the injury is behind me, I’m coming back to my best level. All of this is behind me. And when I went to the St Raphael reeducation center I met people whose injuries were much worse than mine. I saw a guy, roughly my age, coming in with trousers, later when I saw him in shorts he was missing a leg. He explained to me that he had a problem since he was very young and that he asked to have his leg amputated himself. He was smiling everyday, we joked together everyday even though his leg was missing. Other people had problems way beyond mine. It made me think ‘‘oh yeah, you just ruptured your crucial ligament, people your age have it harder than you...’’. This made me think and go forward.

Q : Paradoxically, this will help you both in your career and personal life.

A : Exactly. But I won’t lie though, I was affraid of picking up an injury and putting my career in jeopardy because of that. I had changed clubs, I was only a few months in my spell at Aston Villa and I broke my leg. This is not any injury. But by bonding with certain people it helped me to go forward and to be stronger. Now I know there are worse things in life than breaking your leg.

Q : What was the worse, physically hurting yourself to come back quickly in the squad, or to watch Aston Villa sink without being able to help ?

A : A bit of both, When I had my surgery I thought ‘‘Alright, it’s done’’. But at first you can’t move at all, you can only watch games and see that your team is having trouble. But I didn’t go crazy because of that, my dad raised me to be strong mentally, and at the Nice youth academy they also prepared me to be strong. But it’s true that it hurts to live through a situation like that, but I had my family around me and I met some people who enabled me to put things into perspective. This year we’re in the championship, well, we will fight together to come back up.

Q : The days must be very long when you have such an injury ?

A : When I started physiotherapy and reeducation, I didn’t have any time to get bored. A cab took me every morning in Nice, I had a 9am appointment to do some treatments, in the afternoon I did some physical preparation to keep my upper body fit, everyday I left home at 8am and came back at 6 or 7pm, and I had the week ends to get some rest. In pre-season, you work to prepare for the season and after that you maintain what you worked for. In my situation, I worked on my upper body, because I couldn’t do anything with my legs. But afterwards I almost worked twice as hard to get back to the level I was before I got injured, if not a better level. There was a lot of work to do, but in the end it was for the better.

Q : Aston Villa must have followed very closely your progress during your recovery…

A : When I heard about my injury, they asked what I wanted to do, and I explained that wanted to go back to France, to be with my friends and family. They told me ‘‘No problem, that’s normal’’. So I came back to France and did what I had to do. On the day of my surgery, someone from the villa medical staff came to attend to it. I had my doctor who personnaly came when I had to go to see the surgeon in Lyon. Sometimes, he got off the plane, attended to the discussion with the surgen with me for an hour, and he took the plane back immediatly.

Q : Before you picked up this injury, you were the most promising signing of Aston Villa, the British press even saw in you one of the best signings of the summer in the Premier League. Have you got any regrets about what this injury might have ruined for you, like a first call up with the French national team or a transfer to a big English club ?

A : To be honest no. I came to Aston Villa because they were in the Premier League, because they are a big club, with history. This is serious business. I arrived with a dominating mindset in a new club, a new league. I did not think ‘‘I’m going to play a great season and then I’ll leave’’. Even if I did not get injured, I would’ve probably stayed despite relegation. We’ll never know what might have happened.

Q : But with your agent ( Christophe Mongai ), did you talk about an eventual decision about yourself for the 2016 transfer market ?

A : I personnaly feel good at Aston Villa, the atmosphere and mood is great within the group, the infrastructures are amazing, the city is beautiful too. Even though we’re in the Championship I feel good at Villa. During the transfer period I told my agent I wanted to stay, the directors asked me what I wanted as well. If other clubs had placed a bid for me, I don’t know if villa would’ve let me go. But I already had decided to stay. Today, I am playing, and I’m trying to go back to my best level.

Q : What do you recall of these three months you spent in the Premier League ?

A : The atmosphere around games. The intensity of games. It’s different from France, in England you can conceid a goal at the 90th or 92nd minute, a game is never over. There are four or five games we stupidly lost by conceiding a goal in the final minutes of the game in the Championship. It is when we played Leicester last year that I understood what the Premier League was about, we were 2-0 ahead with only 20 minutes to go, and we conceided a goal around the 75th minute, another one at the 80th and a last one at the 90th and we lost 3-2.

Q : Are there any player you were impressed by ?

A : I had the chance to play against Ryad Mahrez, Jesus Navas as well whom I had to mark. Their game is very fast. I had the opportunity to play against great teams, everybody plays to win and to score, and as long as the ref doesn’t blow the whistle, you play 100 %.

Q : So far this year, Aston villa is 16th ( not anymore ), Roberto Di Matteo has been replaced by Steve Bruce in october, and the team is doing better since ( villa is unbeaten since the start of october ). How do you explain this new beggining ?

A : I don’t know. Roberto Di Matteo was a good gaffer as well. We’ve had a good reaction since Steve Bruce has been in charge. Is it a sort of psychological change or chock ? Well I already had 4 different managers in a year… I hope we’ll carry on with the momentum we have. Steve Bruce is very authoritarian, he tightens the screws of the team… With him you have to walk the line, but he’s also a guy who loves a good laugh during training, but not on match day, if things are not right, he’ll shout.

Q : Have you got any very good mates in the dressing room ?

A : Outside of the dressing room, not really, they’re all older than me, they’ve got a wife and kids, but we sometimes hang out together, for example Jordan Ayew sometimes comes round to my house to play some Playstation, We’ve got a good connection with the french speaking guys, but in the dressing room we’re all together joking and laughing, with the english guys as well.

Q : You’ve been called back in the u21s French side for their last game, you must have felt really good about it…

A : At first, I wasn’t supposed to be called, but Benjamin Mendy ( Monaco ) injured himself and the manager, Mankowski, called me up and made me play, It feels good because it means he was thinking about me, he trusted me. This was surely a good indication concerning the work I had done to come back to my best level. He rewarded this work by picking me in the team.

Q : The French first team, do you think about it or is it still too far ?

A : My first concern is to get Aston Villa back in the Premier League. I ain’t the French manager, I am now old enough not to play with the under 21s, so my focus is on my club. The french national team may come eventually, right now we have to go back up.

Q : Your name has been mentionned concerning a possible move to l’OM ( Marseille ) in january, would you consider it ?

A : I am currently at Aston Villa, they count on me. I’ll do anything that’s possible to go back up with them. The future, we’ll think about it later. I don’t think I’ll go to Marseille, I am at Aston Villa and I don’t think I’ll be on the move soon. "

UTV from France !

Lovely stuff, thanks for sharing.

He's a good one is Avami.

[cdbearsfan]

Something I'll never get is grown men going round to friends houses to play computer games.

Good luck to them. Twenty or thirty years ago they'd have been going to the pub.

[Dave]

Something I'll never get is grown men going round to friends houses to play computer games.

Is it any different to grown men going round to friends' houses to play say, a poker tournament or do anything else social?

Cracking interview from Amavi. He's still going to be great, and hopefully it will be with us.