Team for the Championship??

I hope we manage to keep Ayew and bring in another striker can see him scoring plenty in the Championship.

Yeah. I'd consider it a minor miracle if we can keep hold of Ayew though. I've always liked him. With a season of experience under his belt, I think he will get even better next season.

Keep hold of him and I can see him getting 25 league goals or similar. Quality PL striker, undoubtedly the best striker in the championship if he gets there. IMO anyway.

I'd for love us to spend a bit of cash and keep Ayew. For instance Ayew and Bamford up top. Iorfa, Grealish, Green ++ coming in support.

Feck it. I'm actually looking forward to this seasons matches.

Regarding the shitsquad, I wish I had thought of this last year because I will now support whichever team RDM puts out, however, If any out of bacuna Richards gabby lescott and guzan stay and start and are shit again, I will encourage the Holte End to use this..................

Dunno if true, but heard that Zog, Richardson and Crespo (who, oh yeah) have all officially left us as of today. The fantastic 5 out next please Roberto.

4BetLite wrote:Dunno if true, but heard that Zog, Richardson and Crespo (who, oh yeah) have all officially left us as of today. The fantastic 5 out next please Roberto.

Yes, Zog and Richardson's contracts ended on the 30th June officially!

Imagine if we could lure Benteke back

Joppe84 wrote:Imagine if we could lure Benteke back

... and pigs fly (but we can always dream)!

Callum Robinson has chosen Preston North End over a new contract at the Villa.

Anyone got any idea why?

Anthony Tshibola from Reading on his way.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-closing-second-signing-11565222

One of the other sites spotted Ayew's number is now 10 instead of the 19 he had last season. I'm very much in the 'for' camp when it comes to Stan, even if he's not able to play the full 90 minutes every game.

NARLA24 wrote:Anthony Tshibola from Reading on his way.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-closing-second-signing-11565222

Anyone know anything about this kid?

Villa_Dan wrote:

NARLA24 wrote:Anthony Tshibola from Reading on his way.
http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/sport/football/transfer-news/aston-villa-closing-second-signing-11565222

Anyone know anything about this kid?

From: http://footballleagueworld.co.uk/aaron-tshibola-in-profile-who-is-the-coveted-reading-fc-youngster/

But who is he? Reading fan Charlie Firth gives an outline of who Aaron Tshibola is……

Background

Aaron Tshibola is a 21-year-old midfielder who, obviously, plays for Reading, and has been there since the age of 13, originally from London. He once had a trial at Manchester United during his time in the Royals academy.

His first taste of first team action came at Hartlepool United, where he joined on an initial one month loan, later extended until the end of the season. He played a pivitol part in their great escape from League Two relegation in 2015.

He impressed scouts at Reading, as well as manager Steve Clarke, enough to win a spot in the first team squad before extending his contract until 2019 amid interest from then Premier League sides Newcastle United and Aston Villa.

His debut came against Nottingham Forest from the bench, and went on to make 13 appearances before two sizeable injuries kept him on the bench for most of the season.

So, what kind of midfielder is he?

It’s hard to say really, he can play a number of roles in the centre of the park. He’s very good at breaking up play and setting off attacks, a particular highlight was his staggering performance in a 5-1 win over Ipswich (you’ll like that one, Norwich fans).

He can play as a box to box as well, and can suit a playmaking role as well. He has a vicious long range strike on him as well, despite the fact he’s never actually scored for Reading.

‘How do you know he’s got a vicious long range strike then?’ I hear you cry.

Well, technically he has scored, scoring a rocket from miles out off the bar on the opening day of last season against Birmingham, only for it to be ruled out as the referee thought it didn’t cross the line (which it did). We’ve also seen numerous other audacious strikes from the youngster.

That’s all well and good, but is he actually any good?

Yes. Oh yes. In thirteen appearances Tshibola has managed to cast a spell over the Royals faithful, leading us all to believe that if we are to be involved in any success next season, he would be at the centre of it.

When we did have our little run towards the beginning of the season, he was at the centre of it, and when he got injured, our form crumbled – a testament to just how import he is.

As I’ve said above, his play breaking skills could allow him to be dubbed as a midfield bomber/destroyer, two of my favourite position names. I have little doubt that a fit Aaron Tshibola could’ve been our player of the year, and lead us to a far higher finish than 17th.

Personally, I think he has outstanding potential to go on and become a top, top midfielder in the future, and to lose him would be a significant blow to the club.

Are Reading gonna sell him then?

Well, let’s hope not, but frankly with the lack of communication over the long term plan for the club, those of us at Reading have little idea whether the Thai owners are willing to sell off the clubs brightest stars.

We do know that there’s an underlining emphasis on bringing youngsters into the first team from the academy, but little is known on transfer policy concerning them.

What I can say is that offering £1 million for a 21-year-old of his calibre is nothing short of outrageous, and I’d be pretty angry if it were anything under £7 million. That’s the market we’re playing in with this guy.

Should Reading fans be concerned?

Yeah. Definitely. We have a history of flogging our biggest stars, and though history tells us we generally demand pretty sizeable fees for them, we’ve just lost the man responsible for them in Nicky Hammond.

I'd like that signing

Aston Villa have signed Hellas Verona goalkeeper Pierluigi Gollini, according to reports in Italy.

Corriere di Verona claim the 21-year-old, who came through the youth ranks at Manchester United, has been drafted in by manager Roberto di Matteo in a deal believed to worth €5m (£4.2m).

Villa, who were relegated to the Sky Bet Championship last season, are yet to confirm the transfer. Source SSN

So here we are on the eve of the first game proper.

More questions than answers for me at this point and i actually don't think we are ready at all for the big KO.

The team is surely a work in progress that's just started isn't it? It doesn't appear as though RDM knows his preferred nor best line up at this point. We yet again have had major disruption in the engine room with this time Gana doing the dirty and going back on his word about staying. I fear this has really put the cat amongst the pigeons and it's no coincidence that we suddenly conceded 3 goals and lost our first game of pre-season on Saturday against Boro'. The last thing we needed after last season was another snake poisoning us on the eve of KO with little time to find an adequate solution. It does appear Gana was earmarked for a key role this year by RDM.

Up front i have remained highly concerned about the strike power we possess, or rather lack of. Ayew does some fabulous things for sure and has quality but i simply do not see a 20 goal striker in there as he often makes the wrong decision and his finishing is a bit scatter-gun for my liking. He misses too many golden opportunities in my eyes to be the mainstay and i see him as the guy to play off the main striker rather than be that main man.

As for the creative side i think this is another conundrum. We have Hepburn-Murphy and Andre Green breaking through but it would be unfair to expect too much just yet from them. We have also lost Gil (Creative mid) and appear likely to lose Sinclair (Wing) and Veretout looks like he'll be loaned out too most likely (our biggest creator of chances last season). So where is the creativity going to come from? That leaves
Grealish (Jury's out, seems to lack end product)
Amavi (from LB)
Green (Unknown quantity)
Hepburn-Murphy (Unknown quantity)
Adama Traore (Unknown quantity)

I cannot see where anymore creativity can come from.
Hutton & Cissokho (not a chance)
Westwood & Tshibola? surely not.
Gestede? lol!

So it all looks a bit risky to me and i cannot see, unless a couple from the list above surprise us all, how we are going to score anywhere near enough goals for a promotion push.

HOWEVER!!

The window is open for another month yet and surely business has not been concluded yet..but that brings me back to my original point...More questions than answers at this point in time!!

I would be delighted with a draw against Sheff Weds!

As it stands on this Monday morning with Sheffield Wednesday away at the weekend, I'd send the following starting 11 out;

......................................Gollini...............................
Lyden..............Elphick.....................Baker..............Bennett
............................Tshibola............Sanchez......................
............Green.................Grealish....................Sinclair.......
......................................Ayew.......................................

I just don't see the point in sending out the likes of Hutton, Westwood, Bacuna etc. I'd much prefer to see something that nobody is really expecting, it might even get us some advantage against Wednesday if it's something unexpected, young, and vibrant. Ayew seems to be the most likely for goals so I'd play him and hope that his movement can be found by the 3 behind him, or at least his movement creates space for those 3 to expose. Bennett has earned his chance for this game imo, I'd still rather see Okore in there as CB but he RDM certainly seems to be leaning toward Elphick/Baker partnership. No doubt that a striker, RB, and CM are required sooner rather than later.

I think we may find all the names we don't want to see on the team sheet for our first game, its pretty obvious we were never going to shift most of them and its seems Tony has unsurprisingly settled on spending the low end of his many suggested budgets due to this.

Leeds & Liverpool proved years ago you only need to win every game 1-0, we should be capable of scoring one goal but you need to strong and compact in defending to make it work, something we just haven't got at the moment.

Synopsis wrote:I think we may find all the names we don't want to see on the team sheet for our first game, its pretty obvious we were never going to shift most of them and its seems Tony has unsurprisingly settled on spending the low end of his many suggested budgets due to this.  

I won't bite, but this is a dumb post and very negative.



damn i bit!

So as it stands surely this is the current starting 11?

.....................................Gollini (Bunn)

Hutton (Richards)....Elphick (Okore)....Baker (Lescott)....Amavi (Cissokho)

Bacuna (Green)..Westwood (Sanchez)..Tshibola..Grealish..(Hepburn-Murphy)

.....................Ayew (Gestede)..........McCormack (Gabby)


Very light in central midfield now though

The Utterer wrote:So as it stands surely this is the current starting 11?

.....................................Gollini (Bunn)

Hutton (Richards)....Elphick (Okore)....Baker (Lescott)....Amavi (Cissokho)

Bacuna (Green)..Westwood (Sanchez)..Tshibola..Grealish..(Hepburn-Murphy)

.....................Ayew (Gestede)..........McCormack (Gabby)


Very light in central midfield now though

In that line up I would swap Westwood for Gardner and have Sanchez as cover for Tshibola and you've forgotten Traore?

I think we will replace Gueye and Clark as well?

Hopefully Westwood X the next one out, and not the first one on the team sheet...

Gardner or Sanchez for me in that midfield to replace him.

DelboyVilla wrote:

The Utterer wrote:So as it stands surely this is the current starting 11?

.....................................Gollini (Bunn)

Hutton (Richards)....Elphick (Okore)....Baker (Lescott)....Amavi (Cissokho)

Bacuna (Green)..Westwood (Sanchez)..Tshibola..Grealish..(Hepburn-Murphy)

.....................Ayew (Gestede)..........McCormack (Gabby)


Very light in central midfield now though

In that line up I would swap Westwood for Gardner and have Sanchez as cover for Tshibola and you've forgotten Traore?

I think we will replace Gueye and Clark as well?

yes i like the Sanchez as cover for Tshibola idea, As for Traore though i thought he was STILL injured? Hence not including him but ideally yes him over Bacuna with maybe Bacuna coming on to protect a lead at some point?

I think we will see more midfield recruits though i agree as we are lacking in there creatively and defensive cover wise.

The Utterer wrote:So as it stands surely this is the current starting 11?

.....................................Gollini (Bunn)

Hutton (Richards)....Elphick (Okore)....Baker (Lescott)....Amavi (Cissokho)

Bacuna (Green)..Westwood (Sanchez)..Tshibola..Grealish..(Hepburn-Murphy)

.....................Ayew (Gestede)..........McCormack (Gabby)


Very light in central midfield now though

I'm going to tweak my initial thoughts on a starting 11 for the Owls game, I'm going to suggest a line up that I think will suit what will be available on Sunday given fitness and personnel;

..........................................Gollini.....................................
...Hutton.................Elphick..................Baker.................Bennett
.......................Tshibola..........................Westwood................
..............Green............................................Grealish...........
...............................McCormack...............Ayew.....................

Subs; Steer, Amavi, Gestede, Bacuna, Okore, Gardner, Sanchez

Think I would play (assuming RDM wants 4231):

Gollini
Hutton Elphick Okore Amavi
Tshibola Gardner
Ayew Grealish Green
Murphy (see McCormack has signed, so him in for Murphy)