The end of the season is approaching and it maybe too soon to discuss, but which players need to step up in the last 7 games or will be at risk of being sold? It appears as though there will be a lot of transfer activity at Villa Park this summer with Paul Lambert set to be given a bigger transfer kitty, at least that’s what the papers have been talking about.
Benjamin Siegrist:
There’s been so much hype over the young goal keeper. I thought he’d definitely be Aston Villa’s future number 1 but things just haven’t been going his way. Especially since Jed Steer has arrived at Aston Villa. If there will be a massive clear out, I’m certain he’ll leave. He’s currently playing in the 5th league for Cambridge United.
Chris Herd:
He did well two seasons ago and usually offered back up over a variety of positions. But injuries and person reasons has seen Herd play very little this season. He’s certainly going to be sold and I fancy him to follow the foot steps of Heskey and move to Australia.
Joe Bennett:
A left-back will certainly be sold this summer, especially if Ryan Bertrand is signed permanently. Bertrand has played well, but I don’t think he’s played well enough to win a spot back in the Chelsea team. As a result either Luna or Bennett will be sold. On current form, Bennett will stay but I don’t think he’s played nearly enough (good) football to convince me he deserves a third season at Villa.
Alan Hutton:
He’s got to go, hasn’t played a game for Villa since his first season at Aston Villa 2011-12. Expensive on the wage bill and Lambert wants him to go. The biggest challenge will be finding someone that will actually be interested in Hutton.
Enda Stevens:
I don’t think that Stevens has done that bad for Villa. He had a few good games, well he’s only really made 7 appearances. Clearly not wanted by Lambert I don’t think he’s much worse that Luna and Bennett. Still, if a bid comes in, he’s out.
Yacouba Sylla:
It just hasn’t been his season, no other midfielder has played fewer minutes than Sylla this season. I thought he’d have a future after his good form at the end of last season. But now he’s been useless. Doesn’t off much going forward and he’s not much better in defence. You could argue that he’s been an interesting experiment but unfortunately for him I reckon that’ll be the end of his Villa career.
Darren Bent:
I feel so bad for him. He saved the club twice from relegation and unfortunately doesn’t fit into Lambert’s system. I still think he’s our second best striker we have and deserves a chance. Still, he hasn’t done much better at Fulham has he? As a result I reckon it’ll be difficult to sell a 29 year old striker on very high wages.
Jordan Bowery:
Not much hope or excitement for Bowery when he first arrived and hasn’t done much to change supporters opinions. Another failed Lambert experiment, failing to score a single goal.
Nathan Delfouenso:
The future Gabriel Agbonlahor! Unfortunately a youth product that has failed to produce the goods. He was given a small chance by Lambert last season but he didn’t quite take it. He’s a total failure of a striker, in his entire career he’s only scored 13 goals, from 130 appearances!
As you can see there are quite a few poor players in our squad that need to be sold. I’m sure that a player or two might be added to that list by the end of the season but as we learned from the last, selling is very difficult. If Villa successfully sell at least 80% of these players, that would be a success.
You forgot AGBONLAHOR, Baker and Clark all are awful not prem standard. Of all AGBONLAHOR needs to go for the clubs sake lazy no touch can go past people awful.
Disagree Ted, play him right and he can can be devastating but he’s not, never was or will be a left winger.
Agbonlahor can be devastating but unfortunately 2 or 3 times a season isn’t good enough.
Can’t go past people
Lambert
We can’t sell the shit we have been trying for 2 years, now Lambert has just added to the list with more shit just cheaper……. You just couldn’t make it up…. The list of players we will try to sell just gets bigger and bigger, just with player even harder to off load.
A lot of transfer activity my Arse , it’s a bollocks to get us to renew , do not get sucked in by it , I’ve been hearing the same shit for the previous two seasons and its the same as ‘we nearly signed a 10m attacking midfielder in January ‘ well fuck you Lerner !
All of em can go lol
Stand the question on its head for a moment, imagine you are in charge of Everton or Southampton, teams whose record this year Villa should aspire to. Which Villa players would you choose to buy to strengthen your squad?
All those you didn’t pick can go. Now was that everybody or did any escape?
Ecks record better than Lamberts
This will be the first transfer window where I wouldn’t be upset about any player leaving. As far as I’m concerned none of them are good enough.
I’m more interested who we buy.If we do not buy any quality I probably won’t go down and will by my shirt from camp retro instead of the new kit
We are all wishing, it ain’t going to happen, I’ve given in with the whole idea Villa will sell, Villa will buy, Villa will get rid of Faulkner, Lambert, and Lerner, the coaching staff, the rotten lot I want my club back.
It’s already easy to see the consensus here and I very much doubt there will be any that argue;
Apart from Benteke, Guzan, maybe Delph and Albrighton and errm, I’m struggling, the whole lot can go.
A challenging club would only be interested in the first two names, imo.
That’s an incredible indictment of our squad and shows how the project has failed massively, imo.
Albrighton really? In 2 years time he will be a mid table championship player at best! Which probably means he will still be with us. But seriously I don’t get why people rate him so highly.
I like the kid and feel he’s the only one who gives us an option in this current squad.
He’s by far the best crosser we have at the club and even though AM nearly ruined him, I feel he could still be decent in a much better squad.
I appreciate he’s Marmite though.
I fully agree in our current squad he maybe is one of the better players! But that’s not saying much. I just feel if we have aspirations of becoming a top half team again then the likes of Albrighton I’m afraid won’t be good enough.
Tbf he’s not that bad. In last few games he’s always looked more dangerous than the rest if the team put together. He is certainly better than players lamberk has signed like tonev etc. The only downside with MA is he dosnt track back enough and not good defensively. But he has definitely improved a bit in this area.
So true badger and Benteke is injury probe which will put some people of. Maybe okore could be added when fit though depends if he recovers ok without losing his pace.
Albrighton also does have the best creating a chance to minutes ratio, despite rarely ever playing being the reason.
Guzan, I’d keep Vlaar and I still like Baker next to a leader. KEA simply for how important he’s proven to be, Benteke and Kozak are the only players I’d be sad seeing gone this summer.
Albrighton has got to earn himself a new contract so he is going to be trying harder! As soon as the ink has dried on the paper he will go back to his old ways im sure.
I personally don’t rate him either, but I can see why some do, as he is our best creator, which shows how poor we have been.
Totally agree with you, someone made me laugh last week and argued that he was the best winger England had produced in years? He really does devide fans opinion big time.
I see the villa os is offering a sale tomorrow of merchandise at under £5. Hope that includes the players!!
Shouldn’t be dividing them that much, he’s no where even close to that.
But then when we signed N’Zogbia, even on here people were claiming he was better than Young and Downing put together… so yeah, doesn’t surprise me.
I think the best thing we can say about MA is he’s the best of a bad bunch of midfielders and can at least create stuff.
Indeed, but like when he first made his debut, he was very good, but drifted off incredibly quickly because he’s so one dimensional and predictable, like Antonio Valencia but not nearly as good. He’s best as a sub for me and I wouldn’t mind him staying if that’s all he was, as it would at least mean we wouldn’t have to sign 20 more players, just 19. 😉
Totally agree, he is one of our better players but it doesn’t excite me for a promising future of our club.
I don’t think he’s really one of our better players, but he’s one of the “less” tired players. Could be using our young wingers that went out on loan who are better than him already.
I think I meant better performers not players.
That’s what worries me can see the same happening with vlaar who’s starting to struggle a bit again
He is, but then our midfield looks weak again. Mainly because KEA is out. We’ve lost 9 out of 10 games without him and all 9 we looked pitiful and Vlaar’s suffered. I still think he’s Premier League worthy/good enough and hopefully with this summer we’ll sign a midfielder or two to add any protection.
KEA is another player dividing opinion! our record with him starting is better than without him but people say his one of the worst signings under Lamberk? For me is a player that does his job but you never notice it, bit like Petrov in a way.
Think he is our new Petrov. Works hard, doesn’t have the passing skill set so he keeps it short and easy, strong, works hard, makes some good runs forward even though he’s not quick enough to do it, neither of our other two midfielders even try to get behind the defenders. Has a lot more ability than given credit for. Far more than just a hard worker.
Gabby, Luna, Bennett, Weimann, Tonev, Hutton (no brainier), El Almahdi, Baker, Given (clearly), Bent, Fonz, N’Zogbia (sick note), Culverhouse and the most obvious Lambert all need to go, so that does not leave us with much
Maybe we also need a new mega rich chairman (hint at takeover) to fund the purchase of 11 players and a new manager (Michel of Olympiakos maybe)
Also add Albrighton, Herd, Sylla, Stevens and Bowery to that list and even Westwood is considered close to the chopping board, just don’t rate him.
Hopefully Lambert, closely followed by Lerner.
Personally, I feel that most of our players now have potential, but I’m not sure that Lambert and his coaching team (oh, hang on – isn’t that just him and his assistant anyway?) are the best people to bring this potential out. It’s particularly worrying that certain players not only seem to be not improving, but actually getting worse. Look at Baker! I thought he looked like one of our most promising defenders last season. This season I don’t know what’s happened!
I’d probably say that only Delph, KEA and Vlaar have shown any signs of improvement from last season. Oh, and Bennett when he made his cameo appearance.
“Asked about whether he has earned a new deal, Lambert replied: “That will take care of itself, I’ve more pressing priorities.
“Honestly, I think there’s more things to get on with. I think that’s the least of people’s worries.
“I’m not one to look after my own back, that’s not the way I am as person. The team, the club is more important than me.”
in arguably the most candid comments of his 22-month reign, Lambert cast his trademark positivity aside to finally confront a bleaker picture.
“There’s a lot of stuff that people don’t see,” said Lambert.
“Am I happy where we are? No. Did I come to Aston Villa to do this? No.
“This club should be higher, there’s no two ways about it. It’s got a great tradition and a great pedigree.”
His recent comments in an article from Kendrick. It amazes me that he claims we shouldn’t be where we are right now, because we have great tradition and pedigree as a club, but that’s it, nothing about we shouldn’t be where we are because we have a better side than arguably 10-11 teams, we shouldn’t be where we are because if tactics were correct we’d have been safe for 2 months now. We shouldn’t be where we are because the team can perform so much better than they have. It’s not about what Villa used to be, Villa aren’t that same team anymore, but Villa shouldn’t be where we are because the team is better than 90% of the performances this season. And that’s ALL down to Lambert and his terrible tactics. But it’s okay, he’s not happy and he believes we’re a great club so that’s all that matters I guess.
“I knew the first few years here would be really hard because of what we had to do. I knew that myself.
“But we have to get this club up there. I’m certainly not sitting here thinking this is good. No, we need to progress.
“There is definitely progress being made. There is a good nucleus of younger players there. That’s definitely an area of major progress.
“But, ultimately, you need to win games.”
More comments. So there’s definite progress, yet he has a worse record than McLeish, we’re not winning games, but the teams younger so clear progress is made… Fascinating.
“This is a long, long term project,” said Lambert.
“I always think you earn the right to be where you are. What you’ve got here is a club that’s traditionally a European Cup winner, a club who have won the title before, albeit all those years ago.
“So the history and expectancy levels are there but there’s got to be that realism of ‘right, this is where we are at this minute.’
“You respect the past and embrace it because that’s what it is. We have got to do everything we can to get this club up the ladder. We’ve got to.”
These comments about our tradition honestly bores me, we’ve won the European Cup once… We had a great early 80’s and that’s about it. Yes we’re traditionally a solid Premier League club, but that’s been it after the first couple seasons since the Premier League started. We as fans are realistic, we’re not expecting a CL title at all, or even the league, but safety should’ve been well sealed months ago.