Ramón Rodríguez Verdejo (AKA Monchi)

[pauliewalnuts]

You're right, though, that Dragusin is fucking shocking. Excellent.

[aj2k77]

I didn't say 'don't be silly', I just said calm down. Let's just see how things pan out.

That’s the attitude - from those at the Club not you - that has got us in this mess!

Mess? Really? When I say 'calm down', this is exactly the thing I mean.

You can't question Monchi because he's a professional and it's his job he knows more than any of us. Idiot.

[Brazilian Villain]

*Checks to see the regular roster of posters who turn up with disparaging remarks whenever we lose*

[rooboy316]

*Checks to see the regular roster of posters who turn up with disparaging remarks whenever we lose*

Monchi’s fault too. Ever since his arrival, the HnV squad has lost a bunch of important contributors, replaced with hyperbole and negativity. Not to mention the state of spelling and grammar - we need a replacement with BE’s skillset too. Shambolic!

[tomd2103]

OK Genuine question
Have the signings we have made since Emery was appointed improved the squad overall
I am not pointing the finger at Emery as it's not his desicion in isolation
Rogers - good investment
Pau -improved playing style going forward defensively gets bullied too often
Duran - great ROI

Struggling to see where any other player has helped in "taking us to the next level" ?

Squad seems weaker now than when the scouse idiot was in charge

To be fair, there is a key ingredient missing from that question though which is just how much PSR has limited us?

For all we know, we may have been working within very tight financial restrictions and it would therefore be very difficult to criticise. 

[aj2k77]

He's spent £200m+ on players. Net spend is difficult but how many of his signings are in the team?

[Scott Nielsen]

This isn’t me defending Monchi but isn’t blaming him without including Emery a bit like blaming Heck without blaming Nas and Wes? They are all in this together as they make decisions. And Monchi was someone Emery wanted. It’s impossible to judge him properly given the FFP and PSR rules we’ve had to contend with. But no doubt things aren’t exactly looking great. But as it relates to the defence, the disaster of injuries we’ve had aside, that falls all on Emery and his staff. It’s dreadful right now.

Quite right. It is well-established that UE is in complete control of the football side at Villa. They are all his people, including Monchi and Vidagany. Not a single transfer is decided or executed without UE's say so.

UE rightly gets all the plaudits for the many positive footballing developments under his tenure. But that also must mean he is accountable for anything that has gone less well.

As Dave has repeatedly pointed out, Monchi hasn't done well in this role for a decade or so. But he is appointed by UE. If Monchi is asked to go, we can conclude he has underperformed. If not, then UE approves of his performance.

[ChicagoLion]

Yes there are very few signs of the transfer genius.
In fact you could argue his dealings are a shambles.

[Percy McCarthy]

I do find it a little amusing that the seasoned, experienced, knowledgeable, influential and powerful people running our club, are really just donkeys, wasters, unprofessional and naive.

It makes you wonder how they ever managed to scrape a living together in the football world.

The football world is full of charlatans, Steven Gerrard was in charge of a PL club for 18 months for example.

*11.

Oops lol.

“He was only on the pitch for 10 minutes.”

*25..

[Percy McCarthy]

I would imagine the problem is we have to let players move before we can bring in replacements for FFP.

Noone is it yet but I would imagine we are being ambitious with the players we want - and probably have some insurance deals that we will do if we cant get our main targets. 

For example, Gallagher was our first choice midfielder, Onanna our second etc.  But ultimately, Im sure we would have rather have not sold Dougie.  Likewise with Diaby.  I think hes trying to opperate with both hands tied behind his back most of the time.

Thats all well and good but it really doesnt explain the mess at centre back. The club have been trying to dump Carlos for ages so surely had any number of replacements scouted. This Bade dude turns us down and we seem to have no plan B. This is with Torres already out with a long term injury and definitely doubts about Mings ability to play two games a week.

ITK. More ITK than Emery even.

[Percy McCarthy]

Well I do think our hideously ponderous play of late does show the importance of Pau. That’s not to say he doesn’t make errors, but he passes like, and has the vision of, a quality midfielder. It makes a big difference to the stodgy play we see, because his range is so good.

Yeah but because he's not Terry Butcher, lots of people don't get that.

Torres is vitally important to how we play. Just as important as Kamara.

When he is playing well...for me he hasn't done so consistently since before his injury after Xmas last season. You can't simply ignore his poor form before this injury, as often happens players when they are out for a while. He was struggling in possession too, not to the level of Konsa and Mings but not great either.

None of our centre backs have performed this season and Martinez standards have dropped too. Thankfully we have just invested in forwards who can really help defending from the front....

Torres is great on the ball and is instrumental with us playing out of defence, his ball-carrying is vital, he moves us up the pitch.

The fucking state of Konsa for a long while now, though, he's reverted to Gerrard era Konsa.

Indeed. The maddest thing about not getting Bade was this idea that he wouldn’t get game time in front of Konsa*. IMO he should have been told he definitely would.

*If true of course, I don’t claim to be ITK on Unai’s inner thoughts like some.

[aj2k77]

Roma fans apparently hate this guy as his dealings were terrible for them.

[Demitri_C]

The next two bog window's are big  for me as if he doesnt get it right we might have to look at replacing him as i feel he did a terrible job in the summer with his recruitment

[Clampy]

The next two bog window's are big  for me as if he doesnt get it right we might have to look at replacing him as i feel he did a terrible job in the summer with his recruitment

You're posts are going down the pan.

[Demitri_C]

The next two bog window's are big  for me as if he doesnt get it right we might have to look at replacing him as i feel he did a terrible job in the summer with his recruitment

You're posts are going down the pan.

Bog standard  for sure