The Aston Villa "lets not out stay our welcome and return to the premiership asap" thread.

by westisbest Wed 11 May 2016, 9:11 pm

First topic message reminder :

Ok, so writing this a little early, but in fairness we have been down for months.
Been an absolute shocking season to say the least.

With poitive talks of a new owner on the way, managers being touted about.
Pearson would be my choice, although hearing Di Matteo is now favourite.
Hopefully some good news comes out of this.

Players i hope leave in summer:-

Guzan, Lescott, Cissokho, Bacuna, Richardson, Sinclair, Gabby, Sanchez, Kozak, N'Zogbia, Westwood.

Thats alot of players to get rid of.

Players who have been out on loan.

Baker, can stay at Bristol City.
Bennett, back up to Amavi(if he stays).
Steer, can go.
Gardner, definatly keep, will be like a new signing.

Players in.
off the top of my head.

David Marshall, for me best keeper in champioship.
Cyrus Christie, every time i have seen him play for Derby and Ireland he has looked good. Need a new rb.
Alan Judge, had a great season with Brentford, would be a good addition.
Ross McCormack, his name has been touted around with us, could be a decent signing.
Wessi for the experience.
Will Grigg, scored a load for Wigan, i know its a step up in leagues, but he could do well.

Just a few names there, again just off the top of my head.

Will be difficult, but we really need to keep hold of Ayew and Amavi.

Youngsters.
Andre Green, Rushian Hepburn-Murphy, Kevin Toner, Jordan Lyden.
These 4 our the main ones for the future. Had a taste of first team action. Hopefully continue to get some first team action next season.

I would take Petrov back, moreso as experience for the team, especially the youngsters. Maybe in a coaching role. I know he wants to play, dont think he would get much first team action.

So the squad would look something like:-

Marshall, Bunn
Christie, Hutton, Okore, Clarke, Toner, Amavi, Bennett, Richards.
Judge, Wessi, Gana, Veretout, Traore, Gardner, Gil, Lyden, Green, Grealish
Ayew, Gestede, Hepburn-Murphy, McCormack, Grigg.

Again, this is just off the top of my head, re signings/squad, am sure we may sign 'better players' whoever they may be.

I know the championship will be tough. Games come thick and fast.
Really hope Pearson is the next manager. He knows the league, wont take any sh1t and will get the players performing.

Its a sad goodbye to the premiership and hello champioship.

Here's to a short stay and boune straight back up(whatever the squad is) Ale

by Duty281 Sat 27 Oct 2018, 12:13 am

Saw Villa this evening. They lacked pace, creativity and a striker who could finish. No point having all that possession if you do nowt with it. No wonder they're struggling - mind you, they deserved a draw, as QPR did bugger all too. Apart from Eze, up front, he looks a talent.

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Sat 27 Oct 2018, 10:26 am

I watch Grealish and I really fail to see how people and seemingly Spurs rate him so highly. He does nothing to effect the game in the final third - a few fancy flicks and winning a few free kicks thirty yards from goal is no jse

by westisbest Sat 27 Oct 2018, 3:56 pm

In fairness olly, he’s not been great for a while.
To much of our play revolves around him at times.
He tries to do to much also at times.
A few times I’m shouting for him to pass instead of taking a player on and losing the ball.

Overall he is a good player.

Abraham and Bolasie are good additions. Hopefully the latter can start more games.

by westisbest Fri 02 Nov 2018, 9:45 pm

A good win, but very frustrating we didn’t win by a bigger margin.
Good to see young jack get his first goal.

Bolasie looked quality when he came in, the sooner he gets fully fit the better.

Christ Nyland is beyond woeful. I hope Smith has a decent keeper lined up in January.

Anyway a win is what we needed and a good performance to.
Very tough game away to Derby next Saturday.

by westisbest Sun 25 Nov 2018, 7:45 pm

Great win today. We were pretty poor first half hour.
Lucky not to go 2-0 down. Totally different story if that happend.

Thought we got lucky with the penalty.

Still looked shakey at the back. Chester didn’t have a great game.
Great to see Jack score against the blues.
We’re looking good going forward. Abraham is quality and Bolasie makes an impact off the bench.

Was glad when Landsbury came on as I’m a fan of his.
Jeez he was hardly on till he went off injured.

Hutton. Fair play to the bloke. Wasn’t wanted by the club. Loaned out.
always stood by the club. Good servant, who isn’t afraid to get stuck in.
Great run and goal by the Scottish Cafu Very Happy

Hopefully can keep going. Tough game at home to Forest on
Wednesday.

The city is ours, the city is ours, fk off small heath, the city is ours.
UTV

by westisbest Wed 28 Nov 2018, 9:50 pm

Some game if you were a neutral watching.
Very bad start from us. Did well to come back after we kept going behind.

Then when Forest went down to 10 men and we went 5-4 up, we should have killed it off. Fair play to Forest though.

Despite being 2-0 down early on, it feels like a defeat.
Hopefully the players can pick themselves up for Boro on Saturday

by **Galted** Thu 29 Nov 2018, 9:16 am

Did well to come back from 0-2, the hangover after a derby win always seems difficult to overcome.

by GSC Thu 29 Nov 2018, 2:14 pm

Well that happened

by **Galted** Sat 01 Dec 2018, 7:36 pm

Involved in 19 league goals in a week, I wonder if that’s a record.

by westisbest Sun 02 Dec 2018, 12:13 am

Great win again. Also good to keep a clean sheet after Wednesday.
Bolasie and El Ghazi looked good today.
Even a rare Glenn Whelan goal.

From these 4 games(including Boro), 8 points would be decent.
3 from 3, we beat Baggies Friday night, we go 6th, if that’s the case,
Hopefully we can push on further.

Read that we’ve given James Collins a short term contract.
Not a bad move, giving us experience at the back.

Knows the club to.

by westisbest Sat 08 Dec 2018, 11:06 am

Threw away 2 points last night.
Don’t know how Abraham didn’t score.

Nyland should maybe have tried to punch the ball away at the end.
Yes it was handball, an error from him. What the hell was Bruce thinking in signing this guy. We would be in the top 4 at least if it wasn’t for him. Hope Smith brings in a new keeper.

On a positive, El Ghazi is looking good.
Onto another tough game at home to Stoke Saturday.

by westisbest Thu 20 Dec 2018, 9:18 pm

Looks like we’ve signed Lovre Kalinic from Gent.

Croatia no1, had a good World Cup.

Don’t want to judge, but hoping the Tom Heaton rumours were true, or another British or Irish keeper.

Hoping he does well, surely can’t be any worse than Nyland

by westisbest Sun 30 Dec 2018, 7:18 pm

As much as I’ve criticised Nyland this season, feel sorry for the bloke with his injury.

With Kalinic and a recall for steer, the goalkeeper position is stronger.
Shame also with Axel’s injury, but good to see Elphick back.
Hopefully he can recapture his form when he signed with us.

Could still do with another cb and a lb defiantly.
Hopefully start 2019 with a good win like we did at the start of this year.

by **Galted** Sat 05 Jan 2019, 6:46 pm

Home defeat in the cup after doing the double over them in the league. Frustrating to say the least.

by westisbest Sun 06 Jan 2019, 10:30 pm

Especially by that score line.
Gonna be tough for us to even make the play offs way it’s going.

Really hoping, although unlikely that Abraham stays, on course to score 30+ goals at this rate.

If he does go, that’s another position we need to look at.
Another centre and left back is needed.

by **Galted** Sun 06 Jan 2019, 11:11 pm

Thought a move to Wolves was a certainty, though if it’s a loan as is rumoured would be adding insult to injury.

by westisbest Thu 31 Jan 2019, 2:24 pm

So far today.

Hogan out, Mings in. Let’s hope he stays injury free and does well.

Loan, with option to buy is decent. If he doesn’t do well, can send him back to Bournmouth.
If he looks decent and does well, helps the team out can buy in summer.

Can cover centre back or left back.
Hopefully plays left back, can’t be any worse than Taylor.

Have read that Smith wants to play him as a left sided centre back.

by westisbest Fri 08 Feb 2019, 9:50 pm

Strange game. Didn’t really deserve anything from the game. In the end should of won it. Their second goal shouldn’t have stood and we should of had a penalty.

Great character to come back and get a point.
Should of started better and tested their keeper, looked poor.

Play offs still in reach. Need to better though.

Brentford away Wednesday.

by westisbest Sun 10 Mar 2019, 2:57 pm

Another good win against a team above us and more sweet being the blues.

After what happend to Jack in the first half, fitting he scored the winner.

Forest away on Wednesday. Will be tough. A win will be massive for our push for play offs.

UTV

by **Galted** Sun 10 Mar 2019, 7:21 pm

A bit poor how much more quickly the stewards reacted to Grealish jumping into the Villa fans to celebrate than to that fat c*nt invading the pitch to clump him.

by westisbest Wed 13 Mar 2019, 9:47 pm

Another good win tonight.

Next two games are home to Boro and Blackburn.
Got to be getting 6 points. Really in the mix now.

by dyrewolfe Sat 30 Mar 2019, 5:08 pm

Well thats our season over.

Derby dumping us out of the play-offs after thumping Rotherham and we have to play Norwich this evening - don't expect Boro to get anything from that, even at home.

Can even see Bristol & Forest overtaking us the way we're going.

Someday we'll get a manager & players that can do better than the odd good result, interspersed with a load of mediocrity. Probably not any time soon though. Sad

by **Galted** Sat 30 Mar 2019, 7:07 pm

dyrewolfe wrote:Well thats our season over.

Derby dumping us out of the play-offs after thumping Rotherham and we have to play Norwich this evening - don't expect Boro to get anything from that, even at home.

Can even see Bristol & Forest overtaking us the way we're going.

Someday we'll get a manager & players that can do better than the odd good result, interspersed with a load of mediocrity. Probably not any time soon though.

Sympathies, it’s the most frustrating time of the season to go on a bad run. Just takes one result to change momentum though.

by **Dolphin Ziggler** Sun 31 Mar 2019, 8:49 am

You're one point outside the playoffs, Dyre! In 7, 8 and even 9 games for some, form can be sparked.

The side I'd want to be in there right now is West Brom. Ease off a little, rest up, then have a charge at the playoffs. Sheffield United might well have run themselves out by then, as could be said for the two other teams who make it in, who will likely be fighting till the last day.

It would be the least 'Championship' thing ever for the two teams in 5th and 6th now to stay there.

by dyrewolfe Mon 01 Apr 2019, 11:08 am

Galted wrote:
dyrewolfe wrote:Well thats our season over.

Derby dumping us out of the play-offs after thumping Rotherham and we have to play Norwich this evening - don't expect Boro to get anything from that, even at home.

Can even see Bristol & Forest overtaking us the way we're going.

Someday we'll get a manager & players that can do better than the odd good result, interspersed with a load of mediocrity. Probably not any time soon though.

Sympathies, it’s the most frustrating time of the season to go on a bad run. Just takes one result to change momentum though.

Thanks, but after losing 4 in a row - including a couple against teams we really should be beating (at home), its hard to see us going on any kind of run. Boro have been inconsistent for most of the season, after getting off to a great start for the first 15-18 games. It seems to be a coin toss as to whether we play well or not and get a result.

Dolphin Ziggler wrote:
You're one point outside the playoffs, Dyre! In 7, 8 and even 9 games for some, form can be sparked.

The side I'd want to be in there right now is West Brom. Ease off a little, rest up, then have a charge at the playoffs. Sheffield United might well have run themselves out by then, as could be said for the two other teams who make it in, who will likely be fighting till the last day.

It would be the least 'Championship' thing ever for the two teams in 5th and 6th now to stay there.

Okay, in our last 5 games we have:

Drawn away at Wigan...lost at home to Brentford...lost at home to Preston...been thrashed away at Villa...and lost at home to Norwich (not unexpected).

Our next game is at home to Bristol, which will not be easy. Our remaining fixtures look like this:

Game	Prediction
Bristol (H)	Draw
Swansea (A)	Draw
Bolton (A)	Win
Hull (H)	Win
Stoke (H)	Draw
N. Forest (A)	Lose
Reading (H)	Win
Rotherham (A)	Win

[p] [/p]

So thats 4 wins, 3 draws and 1 defeat...being fairly optimistic. Another 15 points would put us on 73 points, which might get us in the play-offs, depending on how the teams around us perform.

by westisbest Mon 01 Apr 2019, 12:43 pm

With Villa, we need keep this run going.
No game is easy. Sheffield Wednesday away Saturday, don’t think they have lost under Bruce.

Rotherham a, Bristol City h, Bolton a, Millwall h
Leeds a, Norwich h.

Tricky run in, with teams needing to stay up, Bristol City will think they can still make the play offs. Leeds away will be tough, they may need to win the last couple of games to take second.

Will see what happens.
One game at a time.

by **Galted** Mon 01 Apr 2019, 3:09 pm

westisbest wrote:With Villa, we need keep this run going.
No game is easy. Sheffield Wednesday away Saturday, don’t think they have lost under Bruce.

Rotherham a, Bristol City h, Bolton a, Millwall h
Leeds a, Norwich h.

Tricky run in, with teams needing to stay up, Bristol City will think they can still make the play offs. Leeds away will be tough, they may need to win the last couple of games to take second.

Will see what happens.
One game at a time.

Hopefully the automatic promotion places have been sorted by then, might make the last two games a bit easier if our opponents have nothing to play for. Ideally I’d like Norwich to have qualified and Leeds to be resting players for the play-offs.

by dyrewolfe Sat 06 Apr 2019, 12:57 pm

Unlucky with that loss to Bristol...a goal ruled out for offside, 2 goal line clearances and 2 shots that hit the woodwork. Think we deserved at least a draw.

But it just shows that even when we play fairly well, we're just not getting the breaks. Thats 5 straight defeats now...joint worst form in the league with Birmingham right now. Sad

And we have to travel to Swansea today...who thrashed Brentford 3-0 on Tuesday...

At this point a top 10 finish is looking like a decent season.

by GSC Sat 06 Apr 2019, 3:01 pm

If you could pick a team in this league to pulisball itd be Swandea

by westisbest Sat 06 Apr 2019, 9:11 pm

Another great win today.

Another tough game on Wednesday.

Couple more wins and could well cement our play off spot.
Great feeling around the club.

by **Galted** Sat 06 Apr 2019, 11:32 pm

The play-off position is on merit as well now, not just because some teams have played fewer games. Just hope they can keep the momentum going.
Strange being nearly 20 ahead of Birmingham having been behind a couple of months back.

by dyrewolfe Sun 07 Apr 2019, 11:13 am

GSC wrote:If you could pick a team in this league to pulisball itd be Swandea

You were saying...? Laugh

At this point I'm beyond caring. Pulis has lost the plot and the players don't care any more. Season is over as far as I'm concerned.

Read an article today in which Pulis says Boro can still make the play-offs (mathematically true). He says its not a fitness issue, but a mental one...they just have to believe. Well they obviously don't.

All I can say is he'd better not be our manager next season...and he can take a bunch of those frauds pretending to be football players with him. mad

After around 18 games Boro were looking at automatic promotion. Now we'll be lucky to finish top 10. Something, somewhere has gone drastically wrong.

by **Galted** Wed 10 Apr 2019, 9:56 pm

Great result from 0-1 down at halftime with 10 men, having missed a penalty into the bargain. Ashamed to say I thought the bubble had burst.

by westisbest Wed 10 Apr 2019, 10:23 pm

Great win indeed. Abraham was poor tonight. Kodjia was good when he came on.
McGinn outstanding. Easily one of the best players in the league. Fantastic player.

Shame Mings got sent off. Will be a big loss.

Going up to VP Saturday. Can’t wait . Massive game.

by **Galted** Sat 13 Apr 2019, 5:45 pm

8 in a row now, can’t remember when last I’d expect a win and it would actually happen. Probably under O’Neill.

Hope they can keep it going.

by dyrewolfe Sat 20 Apr 2019, 9:48 am

Hmm. Boro back into the play-offs, following 3 wins in a row. Beat Bolton (hardly a surprise) and scrappy, less-than-convincing home wins against Hull & Stoke.

Away at Forest next, which I still expect us to lose...we have a tragic record there. Reading ought to be a home win, though a draw wouldn't surprise me. Finish the season on a positive note with a win at Rotherham.

Both Derby & Bristol can still overtake us if they win their games in hand.

Since Pulis hasn't done badly enough to be sacked, I can only hope he's given the funds to overhaul the squad for next season (and does a better job with his player selection).

by westisbest Sat 20 Apr 2019, 8:28 pm

Boro hitting form at the right time.
Great end to the season.

Beat Millwall on Monday and definitely cements our play off spot.
Hopefully Tammy isn’t out for the last few games.

Derby have Bristol city to play. Be a massive game.

by westisbest Sun 28 Apr 2019, 2:31 pm

Some game at Elland Road.

Disappointing with the scenes that happend.
Up to Leeds to kick it out. But bad spotletsman ship.

As for Bamford. Fckng shocking. Can’t atand it when footballers do that. He should have for a red for that carry on. Terrible.

Pretty sure El Ghazi will get the red overturned.

Fair play to the Leeds manager for letting us score a goal. Seemed it was the only way we were going to score.

Winning streak is over, wasn’t a defeat at least.
Draw was the right result I think.

by westisbest Sat 11 May 2019, 7:18 am

Heading up to villa park shortly.
Quietly confident about today’s result.

If we can go to the Hawthorns wilth a lead, preferably a 2 even 3 goal lead we will have done well.

Will be a tough tie, didn’t beat them in the regular season.
Here’s to hoping that it’s third time lucky going up.

UTV

by westisbest Wed 15 May 2019, 12:52 am

YEA BABY
CMON THE VILLA

by **Good Golly I'm Olly** Wed 15 May 2019, 7:51 am

Jed Steer #madeinNorfolk

by westisbest Wed 15 May 2019, 8:33 am

Some quality saves in the shootout. Made up for some silly mistakes in the 90.

Johnstone had a decent game. Thought he was going to come back and haunt us in the shootout.

by **Galted** Wed 15 May 2019, 10:39 pm

Didn’t expect the final to be against Derby, just hope the form against them from earlier in the season continues.

by westisbest Thu 16 May 2019, 1:18 pm

Going for be very tough against them. Going to Leeds and winning, scoring 4 goals is a great achievment.

We have to start strong. Hopefully find our form that helped us in that winning streak.

As long as no injuries in training, should have a full strength squad.

by dyrewolfe Tue 28 May 2019, 1:03 pm

Congrats Villa - back in the Premier League! thumbsup

Now just don't be a 1-season wonder. Wink

by westisbest Tue 28 May 2019, 1:17 pm

Great win yesterday. Fantastic atmosphere, great day all round.
Struggling today at work.

Hopefully get the signings we want and make a real go of it next season.

Will enjoy the summer knowing we are back in the prem and look forward to next season.

UTV
Only downside about Mondays win, was hearing about some villa fans throwing bottles at a derby coach. Unacceptable.

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