Who are the "bad apples" and can they redeem themselves>

A lot of people have been moaning that all the "bad apples" haven't been sold/let go yet I just wanted to create a thread to see exactly who these bad apples are and see whether they can get the fans back on side/be an asset moving forward.

From My understanding

Richards, Lescott, Agbonlahor, Bacuna and Guzan are the main culprits since Richardson and Zoggy have now left? Lets look at them in isolation.

Richards= poor captain and imo playing him at the heart of the defence played a huge role in our demise. BUT, if we play him at right-back and his fitness is up to par wouldn't he actually be an asset to us in the championship?

Lescott= His antics on twitter and his stupid post match comment after relegation was confirmed was simply incredible to see. Now if we can sell him then fair enough. But I'd also like to say that he did score three goals and his partnership with Okore for a spell of around eleven games really did give us a glimmer of hope at one stage. Then the Liverpool beating happened followed by defeat at Stoke and we never saw Okore and Lescott together again. Joleon was forced to partner up with Richards and Clark who Imo are amongst the worst centre-backs I've ever seen at Villa. If Lescott stays he wouldn't be playing week in, week out anyway due to his age but his experience could be an asset though.

Bacuna= Can't stand him since the famous "smiling" picture of him after we were relegated. He's garbage in midfield, he's garbage on the wing. The only place he's half decent is at right-back imo but if it were up to me I'd sell him right now.

Guzan= Simply a liability between those sticks and I see no redeeming qualities. Mistake after mistake cost us and now the new Italian lad is hopefully coming in I see no future for Brad here

Agbonlahor= On one hand I see a lad way past his best, consumed by money and women with football being an after thought. And he's simply content with staying in his lucrative comfort zone that is AVFC. But then on the other hand if Jerome Cameron, Ross Mccormack, Daryl Murphy etc can score bucket loads in the championship then surely a more focused Gabby could get a few goals too?

I know the worry is about their impact on the other lads in the dressing room but I think last season's situation was more complex than simply having a few "bad apples". The fact is we had people incharge of picking the team at various stages of the season who simply wasn't good enough, coupled with the fact that individuals in key areas of the pitch simply weren't up to par. The owner waving the white flag In January when all of our rivals were spending was also a big moment as we were still in the fight at that point.

So to round it off I don't think all the "bad apples" are as useless as some believe them to be. Infact I think Hutton, Clark, Westwood, Sanchez and Sinclair are just as much to blame for our demise as the others I listed above were.

The problem is simple. We've signed a lot of turds. Line them up together and you get one big shit.

Start signing quality players and maybe a few of them won't stink out the place.

It's attitudes as much as it is ability.

You have a group made up of players with decent attitudes but lacking abilities (Guzan, Gestede, Hutton, Clark) who could conceivably be kept around because whil you'd prefer to see better players in their positions you know that if needed they can be relied upon to at least put a shift in.

Then you have players with whom the issue is more attitude - Lescott is clearly a bit of a cnut, Richards has a questionable attitude not in the same line as Lescott but he clearly downed tools in the final 1/3 of the season, Gabby is a lazy prick who has let himself get out of shape and doesn't look interested in addressing this.

Then you have Bacuna who has managed to position is fat arse across both groups!

I'd happily see us keep the 1st group of players and use them, as long as they weren't Plan A. But the 2nd group (and Bacuna) I want drummed out of the club like rats

I think your assessment is pretty much spot on ( but I think Clark and Sinclair would be assets in the championship), but its the toxic atmosphere they create in the changing room that tells me get rid of them so the rest of us can move forward.

For me it's more a question of what was going on at the very top added to poor man management and on the pitch leadership than anything else.

It all originated from the top... Randy Lerner!! This made the managers position untenable and thus undermined his authority. Couple this with having no respected leader on the field of play and it was a right royal mess resulting in the shambolic train wreck of a season we all witnessed.

Basically everyone gave up when the guy at the top showed he didn't give a stuff and the clowns just beneath him, Fox et al, clearly were out of their depth, had no actual football knowledge and did not know what to do.

It reminded me of going into a work place when the boss was away and the stand in was weak, lacked respect and everyone knew they could get away with taking the p***. Sadly the "bad apples" simply came to the fore and because it all started to fall apart it basically fractured the dressing room.

The new players were likely bemused at it all and thus their performance levels were all over the shop and basically everyone with any decent level of professionalism was i imagine pretty disgusted and decided they just wanted out at the seasons end (Okore, Veretout, Ayew, etc etc) whilst the Party animals like Gabby and Grealish had a field day.

All of this would never have happened, in my opinion, had the manager been respected, the owner not AWOL and with a strong leader or captain on the pitch.

So, based on all that i can clearly see why RDM's first signing was Elphick.

We also potentially have Stan Petrov back in the fold.

Two leaders!

In the main though the rot for me was right at the top and had spread down to team level, however it's now been cut out and removed!!!

So i'm all for RDM having a good look to see if any of the fruit can be salvaged as there are some very good players in there somewhere, certainly good enough for the Championship.

Looking at the above there is good and bad for all of them to varying degrees, what we don't want is the fanbase wasting effort booing etc this bunch, so in my opinion we get rid as soon as, if theres no sign of improvement from last year, that will get everyone focussed on the job in hand which is getting out of the division asap.

Good assessment thriller.

I think RDM is in a unique situation of having many mediocre losers who he may possibly want to offload once he has assessed what they are about and the ridiculous contracts they are on.

However, we have to function as a business too and the hit for one player would be bad, but 5 is massive. I'm guessing that he will be tasked with trying to get some of them to click to avoid such financial chaos.

I'm guessing by todays signing that the guzan decision has been made. As said above, if played correctly Richards could work, but, he must try twice as hard as Hutton to get in.

Gabby, I can see him trying and if he gets back to fitness, he could be effective till promotion (I doubt it).

Under no circumstances should bacuna and lescott even be allowed near the 1st team. I think we can afford that hit. Alas though, I think we probably have another 2 Zog's here that will fuck us for every penny they can.

I want all 5 out, but its hardly realistic to think that they would appear as attractive propositions to the type of clubs that could match their wages.