Aston Villa Thread

debaser wrote:it was great. went to toronto then montreal for the jazz fest (manu chao = ), then new york, boston, chicago with a couple of little bits in between. lots of fun. kind of broke now though

Cool! You saw Keith Jarrett?

i did not, sadly. was on a fairly limited budget and stuck mainly to the free shows, plus i was only there for part of it - not sure if i was there the right time for jarrett. would have liked to see him. van morrison, wayne shorter and dylan too, but it was not to be. anyway, still saw some great stuff while i was there. and i saw buddy guy in chicago, so i ain't complaining.

debaser wrote:it's all good. i'm just being over-defensive

squad is 20 players at the minute, including some youngsters like osbourne & o'halloran, so i agree we need a little more depth. maybe a gk, cb and rb this week and we'll be about ready

Looks like Delaney is retiring so we could really do with buying 2 RBs!! Heard that we're after Rosenior, wouldn't mind him. The depth will come but don't be surprised if he saves a little for January

hadn't heard that about delaney. last i knew he was on the mend. has his knee gone again?

debaser wrote:hadn't heard that about delaney. last i knew he was on the mend. has his knee gone again?

Heard a few things around Villa Park on Saturday, looks like his knee will never fully recover. If true, its a shame, was a very good RB when fit.

What's your expected team for saturday?

Luis wrote:What's your expected team for saturday?

If we don't sign anyone, i can see the team being:

Taylor

Cahill
Mellberg
Laursen
Bouma

Young
Petrov
Reo-Coker
Barry

Carew
Agbonlahor

aye. although carew might be carrying an injury, so it could be gabby and moore up front.

Hope Carew is fit, Gabby and Moore together didn't really impress me as such, Moore didn't have much of an impact on Saturday. Would be tempted with Harewood and Gabby if Carew is still injured.

Carew did an interview to some norwegian newspaper today, saying "there are limitations about how pro I'm bothering to be".

Continuing saying he'd be the best, or at least top three if he had Solskjærs mentality, and bothered being a football player 24/7. He says young boys should try being footballers 24 h a day, but saying if he had tried being he would have retired 1-2 years ago.

Strange comments...

He wouldn't be one of the world's best players if he had Solskjaer's mentality, he'd be a top class player though.

That first half season he had at Valencia he looked incredible

He always starts out good, before not bothering to work that hard anymore.

He also said he prefer living out 80% of his potential with the life he has now, than using his potential 100% and not have experienced and seen what he have.

I'm not meaning to swear but, what a shithole

Riviera wrote:He always starts out good, before not bothering to work that hard anymore.

He also said he prefer living out 80% of his potential with the life he has now, than using his potential 100% and not have experienced and seen what he have.

I'm not meaning to swear but, what a shithole

I think that's a fair thing to say. If I was his manager I would be absolutely fuming. What a terrible attitude to have, particular at the start of the season when he should be raring to go.

True. Even our national team coach have said stuff like if he did bother 100% he could be world class.

MON’s reticence in the market is baffling.

He got away with being slow in the transfer marker in the SPL but I doubt he will in the SPL.

Also, he consistently buys mediocre players.

The Thumping Trumpet wrote:MON’s reticence in the market is baffling.

He got away with being slow in the transfer marker in the SPL but I doubt he will in the SPL.

Also, he consistently buys mediocre players.

we are definitely lacking squad depth at the minute. it is frustrating when you see how man city, etc. have managed to bring in exciting players quickly and o'neill seems to be taking forever, despite having financial backing. still, we will get 2 or 3 more in eventually. my prediction is we'll be the biggest spenders on deadline day...

Yeah, maybe. I think if we don't spend now and get a rb, lb, cb and another midfielder (not mediocre please martin) then we may be in the scrap at the bottom come the end of the season. oh and a gk.

I think we have a first team that can challenge for europe, but half of them will get injured and then we're screwed, especially our defence which is non existant if you scratch the first team.

What was with Bouma showing petulance towards O'Neill after being subbed?

Apparently he told him to 'eff off, I'm sick of this'?

O'Neill seems to tolerate strops, though. I remember Neil Lennon told him to 'eff off' once and O'Neill didn't react to it.

Villa's success under MON - considering the standard of players at your club - is probably contingent upon MON instilling confidence amongst the players and getting a run of form. This won't help.

Reo-Coker's been awesome so far. have to admit i had some doubts: i thought he was overpriced & was worried that he'd had a pretty poor season last time out, but he's certainly started well. hope he keeps it up. also kudos to zat on a fine debut.

only black mark so far this season has been petrov who's not really contributed much - the way we played vs chelsea without him suggests he may struggle to get back in, considering we also have berger & gardner competing for his place.

just hope yesterday's performance is backed up by subsequent ones. if we go and lose the next two, it gets completely undone.

Reo-Coker has always been a good player. His partnership with Barry works well as Barry has the craft and skill and Reo-Coker has the pace and drive to get forward and support.

Luke Moore and Ashley Young really impressed me yesterday as well.

Ashley Young was fantastic

What's great about him is his versatility. If Jo Cole ever gets injured, he should play on the left for England

Give it a couple of years and I can see Ashley Young maybe in front of Joe Cole.

yeah barry/coker looks good. they complement each other well, as you say - and not just in playing but also in their attitude and leadership - barry's the captain, but a fairly quiet lead-by-example type, while reocoker is constantly shouting and encouraging players on. i think that makes a difference, particularly in games like yesterday when we were defending onslaughts at times.

young's growing in stature with every game and it was great to see moore starting - makes me glad we didn't go out and spend £10m+ on bent or defoe when moore can go on to be as good as either if he's given the chance. i'd like to think he could get 10+ goals this season.

When Carew was on the pitch he didn't do much except keep Alex and Terry busy with the headers (which he was probably asked to do). When he went off I thought you may lose out there as you needed that focal point but Moore did brilliantly.

Like you say he'll only get better with games.

interview with randy lerner. he sure talks the talk well.

Randy Ready To Spend

Randy Lerner is ready to back Martin O'Neill in the January transfer window, but insists talk has not yet turned to potential targets.

The Villa chairman believes his boss is the opposite of a 'chequebook manager' and knows O'Neill is building something to last.

Lerner showed a willingness to back his manager's judgement last January and through the summer. Now he is ready to spend again in January - but not just for the sake of spending.

He said: "I assume we'll be looking for players in January. We've not spoken about specific players and we haven't set a budget.

"But Martin and I didn't discuss a budget going into the summer or the previous window (last January). That doesn't seem to be the nature of our dialogue.

"It's much more about the kind of players he's looking for, where they are and who they are. It the process of figuring out how to get to them and bring them in.

"I don't think that Martin is a kind of 'open chequebook' type manager. Obviously, like any manager, Martin needs the ability to be aggressive in the transfer market."

He continued: "I think that Martin's background and his sense of how you're supposed to manage - how winning somehow becomes the by-product of a variety of disciplines - isn't stimply a money game.

"It's about bringing young players along, using older players and experienced players where appropriate and creating something among the players which is kind of special.

"That's something that can be done through time and continuity. He and I have discussed this and I don't see it as simply purchase players and win. I see it as something more detailed and less pefrect, but it's probably something more emotional. I think that makes it more sustainable.

"I can't deny that you have to spend to compete with the top-four. But I guess I remain focussed on what I consider to be almost a more important value system.

"These players live with each other thorughout the year. They live in the locker room, they trust each other, they communicate and therefore there's a kind of collective rapport.

"With experience and leadership, you suddenly develop a set of intangibles around which something special can happen. I don't know that buying players and throwing them into the mix is necessarily a direct indicator of future success.

"I think you need a group of playerrs that have played together over a period of time and probably what you'd like to be able to do is add in a tactical way very specific talent, over time to strengthen waht it is you're building.

"You absolutely need to spend to compete and you need to spend more to compete in a higher level. But while you're doing that, you also need to be doing other things very effectively."

Villa claim monthly award double

Aston Villa have earned a double honour with manager Martin O'Neill and forward Gabriel Agbonlahor both winning Premier League awards for November.

O'Neill has been named manager of the month after Villa grabbed four straight wins and scored 11 goals last month.

He has now won the award five times - twice as Villa boss.

Striker Agbonlahor took the player award in a successful month which saw him score the winner in the derby win over Birmingham.

"We're particularly pleased, obviously delighted with Gabby because he's playing out of his skin at the moment," O'Neill told BBC Radio West Midlands.

"And if we can just keep a bit of consistency going, I think that's really important for us, especially over this crucial period of Christmas and New Year.

"It's been a really good month for us, November. I was naturally very concerned about it beforehand, when we had three away games on the trot.

"So for us to come out of that having won all the games in November was obviously particularly pleasing."


good month, if we stay top 6/8 over xmas and pick up a couple of quality players in jan, i've high hopes of staying there till the end of the season

back to back victories? a "feel good" feeling around the ground? a united team playing for one and other? exciting football?

am i fuckin dreaming??? lovin the villa at the moment

Jago wrote:back to back victories? a "feel good" feeling around the ground? a united team playing for one and other? exciting football?

am i fuckin dreaming??? lovin the villa at the moment

not to mention victories away from home. right there with you

off to watch the pompey game soon. a big one to win, as they're one of the teams in the same sort of position as us..

Luke Moore > Carew

Agooner wrote:Luke Moore > Carew

Not in agreement with that. After the man put you out of the cl twice before, you should know what a problem he is, Moore would not compliment agbonlahor and young.