No doubt most of you have already read what Tony Xia had to say in his presser and it sounds good doesn’t it?
He’s promised serious investment and even states that his aim is to be in the Champions League in five years and he actually aims to win it in ten years.
This is the stuff of dreams and while I’d personally be looking to keep my eye more on nearer targets, such as getting out of the very difficult league we’re actually in at the moment, there’s no doubt it’s music to any Villa fan’s ears.
If the half a billion quid really is Xia’s personal money, there can’t be much doubt that he’s the go-getter type, so you never know, he might actually achieve it, but what pleased me more I think was the fact that he talks about that ten years. It at least seems like the commitment is there for now anyway.
It’s all good stuff.
Next we have news that Bournemouth have accepted a £3 million bid for their captain and defender Tommy Elphick and the deal could be wrapped up by the nd of the week.
This appears to me to be a solid sort of signing, as although I can’t say I know anything about him, it seems that he was very much a mainstay of the Bournemouth side. He knows the script when it comes to getting out of the Championship and most importantly is a good captain who leads by example.
This is an excellent piece of work on Di Matteo’s part, as this position is probably going to prove the most important of any signing, a 20 goal a season striker apart perhaps.
His job will involve getting any despondent players “up” for it and hopefully slapping any surly types down, as we have to face it that we probably won’t get all the rubbish out in one go.
Which all makes me wonder why he’d be willing to drop down a division, to be honest.
A quick wiki search indicates that he signed for Bournemouth in August 2012. So doesn’t that mean he’s probably due to be out of contract and we should be able to get him on a free transfer?
Perhaps I’ve missed something.
I’ve read an article where Leeds are trying to muscle in on the move, but you’d have to suspect that they won’t be able to match the money we could offer him.
I just hope he doesn’t turn out to be another one who’s just coming for a final payday, like a certain few we’ve seen lately.
That’s cynical, I know, but it’s what the Villa have turned me into lately and I would hope that RDM has done some very good research on the player and knows 100% what he’s getting.
And then there’s Riley.
The Evening Mail have run a story where Xia comments about our stat-man and he certainly doesn’t seem to beat about the bush;
When asked what Riley’s future holds, Xia replied: “Honestly, everyone should agree with me, that he didn’t do too well.
So people should understand what he has to do, what responsibility he has to take.
But everybody should take full responsibility for what happened no matter what the situation.”
Well, I know what I think he should do and that is resign.
But I’m not convinced that’s what Xia means, although the article suggests that he’ll be relieved of his duties.
You’d expect that Xia has already had a chat with Riley, where perhaps he’s asked him to resign and Riley has refused in the hope that he’ll get paid off?
The “honestly” opening part of Xia’s comment is the part that confuses me. It’s almost as though he’s trying to convince us.
Perhaps it’s something to do with the language translation thing.
Whatever, while I can understand that some of the players he chose might actually have been amongst the better performers last season, the fact is that he apparently had the biggest say in signing the majority of new players in a side that finally relegated us.
I for one won’t be sorry to see him go.
I think many of my comments might come across as cynical lately.
They’re not meant to be and I am actually very upbeat.
It’s just that I’m also very cautious.
It’s probably the nagging thought that “Nothing can possibly go right for the Villa as we’ve been such a disaster over the last few years”.
That’s the legacy Lerner has left, I feel.
Badger, Elphick is 29 and has a year to run on his contract so not really in the ‘final pay day’ category. Like you, I know nothing about him other than he has suffered a few injury problems over the last few years and was out for most of last season. One report suggested he was perfect material for the Championshio but maybe doesn’t quite cut it at PL level – we shall see – if he joins that is!
Not that I know anything about the player himself, but I think your point is a very valid one in general: we’ve seen it over the years at different clubs that there are some players who are absolutely superb in the Championship – in promotion chasing teams – but who then find the PL a step too far for them.
It can cut both ways, of course – apparently ‘good’ PL players struggle to adapt to the more physical lower leagues, especially with the increased number of games in the season.
I’m sure there’s some translation issues, but it does seem he’s asking him to quit. Did Lerner/Fox put him on some kind of long term contract that makes firing him challenging? Why else would Tony Xia comment publicly on him being incompetent, but not just fire him and move on?
Don’t know much about Elphick, I think it was OLL commenting on the previous thread that he’s a leader and an organiser, that’s good enough for me. Exactly what we need. With Steve Clarke being one of the very best defensive coaches in the business, he needs a sergeant major on the pitch to help keep us focused and organised.
Think that Elphick is a good, no nonsense solid signing for the Championship. We need a proper captain, so Elphick for first team captain and Stan for club captain.
Good shout Pat
I’ll go with that Pat, same with me dont know much about him, but trust your trust in him.
I see from the B’ham Mail that RDM is already talking about an ‘exodus’ of players in the next few weeks – apparently ‘the squad is too big’.
Getting those P45’s ready…
Shouldn’t it be ‘ the squads too big headed ‘??
I don’t know if its me but loading the Bham mail you cannot read for bloody advertising.
Bill – it’s a terrible overcrowded web site that continually crashes and has to be reloaded. Badger said as much when posting a Brum Mail link – apparently it causes problems for this web site
Agree – I use an ‘adblocker’ which usually helps, although occasionally it gets recognised by the site and I see a message telling me to switch it off because they need the ad revenue – and won’t let me load the page.
Ads are ruining the Web & hopefully something will be done about it,even with my local rag it takes ages to load due to the large amount of ads loading some are even live ads that you can’t erase.fucking pain
Agreed Bill – B’ham mail site is shocking. They repeat the location of some articles and I always struggle to figure out what’s new, what’s readable…
Me too their site is all over the place
RDM said he has players in mind but it might be after the Euros before anybody comes in due to players on holidays. Anybody coming in , we will have to trust our manger and not judge before they kick a ball. UTV.
Robson kanu anyone???
As long as we never get Rooney, what a plonker.
Agreed bill is despise the wanker
Whenever vardy is on the field you’ll get a goal do you get it now hodgson????
Giddy, good call mate, he’s no chicken gets stuck in and creative player.but would he come?.
Freebie to add
Up yours nobby savage get in there
England and Northen Ireland in the finals, There all ways be an England, God save our Queen..
Apparently we’re after José Naranjo, 21 year old Gimnastic striker, 16 in 36 in the Segunda Division of Spain. Not surprised, goal getter and young, basically who we’re going to be linked too all season. Looks like Newcastle could activate his buyout clause first which having Benitez isn’t surprising.
So this new era bollox means that the like of Lescott, Richards etc will still be with us. Bye bye villa see u in div 1!! http://m.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/sport/football/premier-league/roberto-di-matteo-issues-warning-to-new-aston-villa-players-34808948.html
You may be right OohAh that some of the ‘bad’ boys will still be here come August – on the other hand you may be jumping to conclusions.
It’s clear that something was fundamentally wrong at Villa; in business this often stems from poor leadership but manifests itself at the work face which is what we have been seeing for a number of years st Villa escalating into the near anarchic situation we witnessed last season.
For now I’m supporting whatever DM and the new management team at Villa decide is best for the club and I’ll get behind anyone that wears the shirt.
It’s a new start for everyone including the fans.
The likes of Lescott, Richards, Agbonlahor, etc., have zero resale value. So the club can either write each of them a big cheque to see them off, or dump them into the bomb squad and let them rot there until they decide to go for themselves.
I don’t know whether the latter option will ‘quarantine’ them sufficiently to stop them infecting the rest of the squad, but unless the new Board decide to bite the bullet and have the first few £million cheques that they write out go to people who have already done the club a lot of damage, it could be that we still have them around somewhere…
Then write them a cheque and get rid thet will cost us more long term if we don’t pay them off
OohAh – I actually agree with you, but not sure how many owners would agree to simply write-off several £m’s doing it.
Of course it’s possible that RDM’s talk about his first training camp ‘hard’ and about putting in place a rigorous new ‘professional ‘ and ‘disciplinary’ code may mean that they’ll set some very high fitness [etc] standards from the start, and anyone failing them could be booted-out for simply not meeting them… in other words, making sure that there are suitable grounds for firing them, rather than paying them off?
Fair point Ardent but some of our players are a lost cause. Bear in mind also that players like Guzan gabby and Lescott have a toxic relationship with fans now. Unless they start of playing brill and keep it up for at least 10 games fans will crucify them.
Fair enough Hichens 60. The only exercise I do these days is jumping to conclusions, running a bath and skipping a meal lol
Nice one Ooha 😀
Lol
Everyone believes that Oohah, even me my mate.lol
Ha ha
Ooha it’s a bit premature your comments as our new manager has been at the helm for barely a week.let’s see what happens first you may be surprised
Championship is very strong next year we will be lucky to finish top 10
When Preston can finish 10th with that squad and not a single good striker in the team, finishing top 10 shouldn’t be hard. The only decent sides are Derby, Newcastle, Norwich, Brighton and Wednesday…
OohAh, I agree with the first part of your statement but I would hope with the new set up at Villa we won’t need any luck to be in the top 10!
Hope your right Hichens
Lerner abandoning ship didn’t do Villa any favour, as you’ve just said Hitch that won’t be the end of Di Matteo input, he will find out for himself who is who at Villa.how many clubs would come in for what we have he will get them into the shop window to sell, that will be his ploy and get money for better players.
it was obvious that new manager would have little time to assess the players and research all the possible replacements in the time available to him and his new backroom staff. i believe he will trim down the squad with a few bad apples leaving. but there is noway we will manage to dump the all. plus finding replacements.
What we’ve got here is failure to communicate. Some men you just can’t reach. So you get what we had here last week, which is the way he wants it. Well, he gets it. I don’t like it any more than you men.
A bit of Guns n Roses nath.
was of the film cool hand luke and off civil war song lmao thought it suited our situation especially last season
i can respect the fans like oooohahaha claiming we might struggle to get top 10 in championship. really he knows we will be promoted, but he doesn’t want to tempt faith. setting himself up for a fall, should we balls it up.
i believe we are too strong as we currently stand for championship, RDM will improve the squad and release the players he doesn’t wants. which will improve us. as bad as we were last season, this season we will tear up the championship and reclaim our rightful place in the premiership. slap a few readies on promotion 7/2
Clark getting crucified by pundits and Ireland supporters…
I watched the game, sorry to say Clark is not a player you want in your team, he panics to often. we need new blood not chancers that blunders at balls, no we need to start again.
Yes normally these competitions you can make a name for yourself but as for Clarke he’s done himself no favours whatsoever, he looks utterly SHITE.
We’ve known how shire he’s been for ages. Get rid of him don’t want him, Lescott or Guzan anywhere near our team next season
His first game bar the own goal he was excellent. Good thing he won’t be playing Lukaku and De Bruyne in the Championship…
Agree even MON can’t do anything with him so can’t blame managers
MON can’t do anything with anyone…
Thanks Stubs.
Thanks for what Billy Boy?
Just thought I’d thank you Stubs, feeling generous that’s all.
Oh right, well thanks for thanking me, thanks.
Belgiums last goal was pathetic defending from Clarke a proper defender woukd of took the ball and man out in the touch line
totally agree. a real defender would taken a red if needed for the team. cos he wasn’t last man, he would av only got a yellow. was a massive blunder not smashing the attacker out. but i think he should av just retreated, i don’t think he was quick enough to take ball and man out
but clark is a good defender, yeah he makes errors, but if he learns to cut them out and improve on decision making during game. he will be a asset to villa. championship isn’t euros, he will look like a top player next year, when he dominates a lesser quality attackers