What a difference a new manager makes ay. Sherwood has been in charge for 10 games and out of those 10 games, we have won 5, drawn 1 and lost 4 with a total of 16 goals being scored 8 of which belong to Christian Benteke. In this same time frame, we have gradually pulled away from the relegation zone (albeit not safe yet) and have cemented a place at the FA cup final with a well deserved victory against Liverpool.
I’m an excited fan, I can’t help it. To me, Sherwood is the start of something special at the Villa and I can’t contain this feeling. The mentality of the club has changed completely under this man, for one, we can’t stop scoring! And it was this very season that we set the record for most games without a goal, lowest goals in Europe and many other tragic records that feel like a long time ago.
The rumors are going wild and it doesn’t seem too unrealistic to see Sherwood retaining Cleverly, Sinclair and the surprise player Vlaar. All season I have been adamant that he would leave come the summer but he has made a shock u-turn by suggesting that Sherwood is giving he reason to rethink his decision.
Things have changed for me in the past few months since (Tim) Sherwood took over
Then you have the likes of the up and coming who have surged under Tim cough*Grealish* cough. We all thought he was going to be something special and it really seems that he is embracing that role, I just want to see him get a goal under his belt and join the England squad (not asking for much?!). Jack is only one of the younger players, we still have out on loan Gardner who has showed match after match how good he is and much further he can develop. Notts want him, but Sherwood will not let this happen, I thoroughly expect him to return in the summer and play a major part in the upcoming campaign.
To summarize, Sherwood has turned a team that lacked everything into a team that can compete and defeat any on it’s day but come the summer, there is a long list of things to do. We need to reassess our defense because it has become one prone to injuries and reoccurring ones at that. We also need a permanent left back for the future as I neither trust Richardson or Cissokho with that role and believe that Lowton may not be the player we wanted him to be. We also have to bulk out our strike force. That is a lot, but I look at our squad and I look at Sherwood and think that this is going to be something special. I’m 100% backing him, he is what we always wanted in a manager. Style, passion and desire.
It’s premature but we will be pushing for a top 10 finish next season.
Cough cough where was the England interest in him for the last few years? He could been persuaded to declare or line out for enland at any age? Now he comes good after playing for Ireland since he was 14, the England camp are all over him!
I do realize he is a brummie born and bred. And I can’t fault him I suppose for playing for England, but I don’t see an iron clad claim on him to play for England
I hope he sticks with Ireland. But only if his heart is 100% green on that front. Do t want a player always wondering what could have been.
Agree typical england. If he was a Utd player he would of played for eng years ago because he’s a villa player they won’t play him regularly but won’t wang anyone else having him either
I do agree with both of you. Club reputation far exceeds the individual players especially when it comes to the international front. Regardless, I do want to see Grealish in an England Kit.
Time will tell. But at the end of the day, so long as he wears our crest, he can play for whatever international team he likes.
i hope he stays with the roi . less chance he will get tapped up while playing for the republic than England . simple as that . i know some would rather he played for England but i honestly believe if he does, he will feel like he has to leave us to keep playing for England. so i’m just hoping he stays with us for a few years and gives himself time to mature as a player rather than take the route some players take and join a bigger club and sit on there bench for the next few years rather than play first team football with us. ( iv had a few drinky poos tonight and hope this makes sense .
I agree with that it’s not like he’d ever be first choice anyway. He would just play in friendlets and meaningless qualifiers then when the big games come he will be replaced by the overrated dross of the sky 4
Mr_Cheese great post. It is brilliant to see such positivity and the change of style and play on the pitch. However, I wouldnt start thinking about next season or even the FA Cup final until we are safe- very dangerous ground!! I hope I’m wrong but think we are still very much in relegation battle with other teams picking up points etc.
Grealish can choose who he likes and I said on the previous thread that he ought to choose Ireland as they brought him through and he’ll have a much better chance of playing for them.
That said, he’s Brum born and bred, so that ought to be the priority, imo.
As for the rest of the poat, I reckon you’re echoing what most of us think Mr C, in that we won’t be relegation strugglers next year.
If Sherwood can maintain his superb start, that is.
And more importantly, imo, if the club shows some signs of ambition.
The lack of that has been nothing short of scandalous.
A lot depends on whether Lerner sells and to whom. Chinese would be totally wrong for us unless we get a new owner with huge ambition and money to back it up then mid table and the odd decent cup run is all we will ever look fwd to
Blimey, sing another song mate for god’s sake.
Delph got into the England squad even though we were struggling big time.
If Grealish proves good enough, he’ll get in, simple.
But delph will not play in the main games only qualifiers against virtual non league teams or friendlys that don’t matter
The teams scoring well bentekes started scoring the players seem to be enjoying their footy bar Gil.we’re beating teams that would of been unthinkable a couple of months ago & what’s really nice I can actually understand the managers post match comments unlike that mumbling twat oh yes what a difference.
I did not know what to expect from TS but I see a manager with the passion for the club and the game, the thing for him is that the Villa faithful have also taken to him so which helps when you are new to a club, it was the same with MON , however I ask one question to Mr C would you have posted this if we had lost to the Pool???
I to believe and I said on previous threads before Sunday I do not think we will lose another game this season except one.
We will see a new eara next season, two reasons one will be new owners two will be TS has something to prove to everyone who doughted him…..Problem will be if his head is turned by a big club………Arsenal will be the one.
That is a very good question and my answer is yes. Before the Liverpool game it was evident how much emotion TS had for the club and team. There have been moments when ive watched him celebrate and thought he must be a Villian deep down.
When the whistle blew and we won the semi TS walked right down the pitch for the fans and to the fans with a reaction that refleted our own.
I must admit that I agree with you regarding the Arsenal comment, but we do have a good few years before such a thing would happen, Wengers time is far from over.
Thing is, he’d have respect for Villa, so the next step up to ‘becoming one of us’ should become easy. We’re an historic club. We’re held in high esteem by those that truly know the game. Get that man a tattoo…on the other hand, don’t. Remember the last buffoon who got his ankle tattooed!!!
I think if we win FA cup it will change a lot of players thinking as they will be with a team in Europe who have won something. Makes a difference
Any chance we can stay up, win the FA Cup and NOT enter the Europa League????
Best thing to do is play the kids and get knocked out as soon as you can
Fergie said ‘being placed in the Europa cup felt like a punishment’.
Can’t argue with playing Thu and Sun is pathetic and totally devalues it. Be honest how many Europa league games have you watched this season? I havnt watched o e not even when English clubs are involved I’m just not interested in it and couldn’t even tell you who’s in it.
Oh come of it the guys done well for 10 games and won nothing yet. We still don’t even know if he will keep us up yet. When Lambert had a decent run in first season some fans saying he could manage a bigger club and look how that turned out. Arsenal would never sign the likes of Sherwood they will go for a top foreign manager like guadioola or klopp etc. Let’s not get carried away with Sherwood most new managers do well for the first dozen or so games it means nothing. Let’s see if he can do it over a whole season iv a feeling he can’t but hope I’m proved wrong.
Oohah, start to think back, it was Tom Fox that started the ball rolling with the dismissal of Lambert, all our problems have been with a Yank knowing nothing about the game and being sent down the river without a paddle, Now my lad we have a manager with better know how, and getting the trust that Lambert couldn’t, When Lambert came we had posts saying give it time, people was sticking with the man what ever, I said after 6-8 games he was rubbish and was right, you and Terry came in slaging players off,it wasn’t players it was Lambert. Now your throwing a spanner in the works with Sherwood, he has give us hope you keep digging at him, Vlaar, Lowton, Baker, Clarke, god knows who, get behind our team Oohah for what ever happens, this ever moans will make you ill.
We shall see Bill let’s see if you still rate him come Xmas
We always felt we had the makings of a good side but TS has brought them to life.
Have to say that the team was solid throughout so whatever tactics he used last Sunday I just hope he sticks with it.
As its the only televised match before the FA Final I’m going to watch Saturdays game against City and I’m almost expecting something from the game. Hope he plays young Jack again, the play between him Delph and Benteke last Sunday was Barcelona standard.
UTV
Depends what man city and what villa turn up. If they play their A game they should easily win if not we might have a chance
Interesting article. I wonder what other effects the TV money deal will bring? Can anyone really see Wet Spam selling this place out? http://m.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/32399291
Logic tells me all this cash will only accelerate the demise of the game. Money has never been the biggest motivator in sport.
On a brighter note, did anyone see we beat Liverpool the weekend?!?!?!?! LOL!!! 🙂
Think I’ll agree with ooh ah here, Tim has done brilliantly since he came here transforming the team from a boring clueless bunch of players with no ideas or creativity into a team that plays all out and has no problem creating chances, but he still needs to prove himself over the coarse of a season and it’s harder to motivate players over a long period then a short. Then we have transfers, how much input will tim hav and how much money to spend are big questions and I feel if tim has a lot of input he might go for a lot of overpriced English players (sound familiar?) He seems to like big strong players and the treatment of gil is proof of this, also looks like he will try sign cleverly and sinclair which I think is a waste as we could get better players for same value IMO gil being better than sinclair is 1. So all in all very happy with Tim but still a lot to prove and a lot of questions to be answered.
Well said Kerry unlike you to agree with me though lol. I think we can def get better than cleverly not sure about Sinclair would need to see more of him.
I agree with that too.
Shocker.
Cleverley is out of contract and free? Who can we get cheaper?
You mean who can we get who’s better. Answer anybody
To be fair to Cleverly I thought he played really well against Pool. I read a stat that said he made more tackles than anyone else on the field. He also got in the box a bit, so he was playing with a bit more attacking intent. As a free transfer he is well worth having. New owner or not, we need to add a couple of quality signings and we will be pretty competitive next year.
I think Gil will get his chance. I think given how we are in an FA cup final, and sitting much healthier in the league Sherwood has been right to drop Gil. Give him a summer of training and building relationships and next year Gil will be a top player for us I have no doubt.
The Man City game is massive! if we can get a point or even 3 there it would be huge and id feel confident of going unbeaten for the rest of the season, however a demoralizing defeat and we could be looking at a completely different end to the season. Having said that I do feel Tim has that motivational trait that would pick the players up for each game, but still huge game this weekend.
One thing I cant help but dream is being back in Europe next year! and having that real possibility of Champions league footy without having to finish in the top 4.
Champions league lol can u see that flying pig. A we won’t beat arsenal though we will give them decent game and B if we did we wouldn’t have a hope in hell of winning it.
I actually think we have a far better chance of beating Arsenal in the final than any of the other top 4.
I was confident that we could beat Liverpool, and I am sure we can beat Arsenal, providing we take the game to them as much as possible. I agree that they are the top 4 side we have most chance of beating (though I think we will get a result at City next up).
If we keep winning the CL, then we can play in that competition every year without touching the top four!!! 😉
Fuck your defeatist attitude…..most of you said we couldnt beat Liverpool….we beat them at a canter….and dont give me the crap that they were poor on the day. We made them look ordinary, thats what happened!
No matter what we do or how well we play someone on here puts the dampener on it! We are playing now like we should have been all season. We are without doubt a top 10 team. All thats been missing is someone who can lift a team, play to their strengths and always be convinced that we are better than the opposition whoever they are. There are too many Lambertesk posters on here. FFS, get some of Tim’s positivity. Positivity in the stands spreads to the players who in turn start to believe in their invincibility.
We fear NOBODY, absolutely NOBODY
Well said MATE.
Hear hear both, we got to agree things have got better after Lambert.
Woah hold on that’s because we’ve been Liverpool Chelsea and City in recent years then we lose for ten games after. You can’t blame people for being in cautious. The best we ever player under Lamberk was when we beat them 3.1 at anfield and played some great football and scored great goals. Look what happened after that,! Posters were saying how great Lamberk was after that win ffs. I’m not saying Sunday wasn’t a great performance it was but that didn’t mean we will stay up and win cup.
Amen Langford!
While it was right imo, to be hand wringing when Lambert was in his death throes, there’s simply no need for it now.
If you can’t feel confident at the moment, I feel sorry for you, as this is about as good as it gets if you haven’t spent £250 mill!
Totally agree with you mate, I fear NOBODY at the moment.
Because we can score.
Oh, I’m now seeing neutrals predicting we will beat Arse, fwiw.
Easy to say when your on outside looking in
Depending on which Arse turns up I suppose. If its the one who turned up for the quarters we’ll win it at a canter. However if we can play like we did against Liverpool then it doesn’t matter which Arse turn up we can still beat them.
Anyway they never exactly ran away with it last year did they? 3-2 in extra time to Hull.
I mean Hulll ffs!!!
And Blues beat them too. I think they were complacent v hull and blues but can’t see them being like that against us. Will be reasonably close for an hour or so but really can’t see us winning this one unless Arsenal play really really poorly
Some of the bloggers on here can be a bit bi-polar. It is all doom and gloom or we’re world beaters for them, depending on the latest result.
Oohah is right to still be cautious about TS. What we know of him is he has marvellous powers of motivation, which as much as anything comes from his straight-forward honesty. That is a real talent. We also know that he has been a trifle fortunate when he has had a choice of starting player, and following injury the player Tim would have dropped has come in and done well.
it is a matter of opinion of course but IMO TS dropped Ocore for Baker – a bad call; he dropped Lowton for Richardson, which looks a lot better after Sunday than before; he dropped Westwood or Gil for N’Zogbia – still a bad call and finally he persists with Guzan for league games when Given has a 5 game winning streak. Ocore, Westwood and Given did play and performed really well.
Agree OLL he’s like a poor mans MON imo which isn’t saying much as the real MON wasn’t much more than a decent motivator either. Okore is a decent player IMO yes he cocked up for goal but he’d inky been in a couple of mins and was simply caught cold. After that he did really well. Anybody can be good in the short term let’s see what TS record is like at Xmas. To me the only thing that has made us better since Lamberk left is that Brnteke has suddenly decided to play and Lamberk never benefitted from this. For all those that will say he never got the service that’s rubbish too he still missed plenty of decent chances when he did get them.
Sherwood is hardly a poor mans MON.
For a start, Sherwood likes to play attacking football instead of the counter attacking dross served up by MON.
And as for Benteke, he is getting far better service now, as we are attacking from both wings instead of lumping it forward time after time.
To be a poor man’s “whoever”, you have to be similar to them. Sherwood’s not similar to O’Neill. He speaks his mind, his style’s completely different. Yes they both have motivation in common but then so do most manager’s. (Notice I said most, not all, like you’re going to claim I said anyways). You’re claiming lets see what his record is by Christmas, but yet you’ve written him off already with nothing as per usual to back it up.
Andrew you’ll never understand Oohah thinking he’s become a grumpy old man before his time, if it was Ferguson at the rains he would have doubt about his abilities, a few weeks ago he was intimating he has seen the light, I’m now like Langford, and Badger, we fear no one.
OLL….dont make me laugh. If all those you mentioned were ‘all bad calls’ then long they may continue. TS has a 50% PL win rate, a cup final to look forward to and the confidence and positivity around VP is better than at anytime during the last 4 years. I just dont know what people expect!!! I am really not a ‘stats man’, preferring to concentrate on the ‘substance’. The substance being, far better to watch, scoring goals and players wanting to play for us again. Your banging on about Zoggy and Baker being selected. Baker was outstanding at Spurs and kept Liverpool at bay until he went off injured. Liverpool scored minutes later, mainly because of Okore! Westwood was NOT dropped but out injured and Gil, although a talent is not suited for a relegation dog fight! As for Zoggy, he as had a poor time at Villa overall……but you dont see what he does off the ball. He still takes 2 players to contain him and thats one of the reasons that Benteke is firing again. You DONT necessarily have to be good on the ball to play well. You can play well without barely touching the ball by creating space for others……you clearly dont understand that concept! Or do you simply ignore it so it fits with your own agenda?
I love Tims ‘bad calls’
Bring back Lambert/Mcleish
Can’t agree with you Langford, especially about N’Zog. Playing well without touching the ball? Yeah Yeah – but better players do touch the ball and do something with it. One reason N’zog may not touch the ball often is that he is the last person on the field his mates want to pass to.
Baker? have you still got the Arsenal games on video? Take a look at Baker’s top speed chasing an Arsenal player who is running with the ball but leaving Baker behind. He is a decent stopper against a big forward without much speed but he is in real trouble against anyone quick.
I haven’t got an agenda, I am just an old guy who has been watching playing managing and reffing the game every week since 1957, and I am now an FA councillor so I’m an old fart in a blazer as well.
Given for Guzan isn’t going to change much at all.
Baker over Okore was a great call, Baker CAME ON FOR Clark and did very well next to Vlaar and when Baker went off injured against Pool, Okore came on and was 100% the reason Pool scored. Baker’s more than a good enough CB, Okore’s overrated by Villa fans, either that or they underrate Baker. Either way, we have 4 very good CB’s.
Dropping Westwood or Gil for Zoggy I’d agree with. Zoggy’s still done nothing to impress me whatsoever. Would prefer Gil every day of the week as he also takes 2 players to contain, and he can take on and beat any defender in the league. Bar Terry.
Okore got caught out in that poor 5 min spell we had as he only just come on. After that he settled really and marked sterling out the game as he has pace to burn too. Remind me again how many mistakes does Vlaar make in a season?
Didn’t say Okore was bad, but was pointing out picking Baker over him wasn’t a bad choice. Baker came on for Clark when he got injured and was immense. He then went on to have a good game until he got injured and Okore came on and cost us the goal. Okore got better as the game went on, clearly, but Okore getting better as the game went on doesn’t mean Baker was the wrong choice to bring on first.
Valerie doesn’t make that many mistakes. He hardly ever plays!
That’s true as well
You can all talk all you like but only the manager sees whats happening day in, day out in training, and he hasn’t done too bad has he?
You can argue until the cows come home about this player or that player but we’re scoring goals and winning games which was a totally unknown concept not that long ago. Changing the culture in any organisation has been compared to turning an oil tanker around, well I think TS has just done a neat 3 point turn!
UTV
Just wanted to say I reckon our four league games in May are all winnable. Also, I think we could nick something against Citeh! Winning the FA cup would be a nice bit of icing on the cake!
Its incredible really how we long we had to endure Lambert for! I have started liking football again since Sherwood came in. Will be interesting to see what he can do before next season.
I hope he gives Gil a chance at some point, as I think he could be a star. Im not sure on Cleverley or Sinclair, but both have seemed to thrive in recent weeks-Cleverley looks a completely different player. I am loving watching Grealish play though, players like that, who the balls seems to just stick to are hard to come by.
Just heard on the box fatty Faulkner has taken a post at the brum chamber of commerce LOL.
Pat 57, spot on He’s the man to say, after all trains them, gets to know their attitudes, then finally picks, the way some fans see it he’s stupid, don’t know what he did that for, and because he’s only got 5 game with results he’s crap. ffs can some of you not see the difference he has brought to the club up till now, Hey where is BWS he would argue that point home, Mr Cheese to your post, yes he’s made a difference to me and long may it continue.