Team for the Championship??

Welcome Josh!

So Okore seems to want to stay put. This news I like very much. I think he's going to be a beast in the Championship and one of the core we need in the team to take us onwards and upwards.

Just looking at his stats for last season, he played 14 matches, of which 12 were Premier League. Of those, two were wins, five were draws and five were losses (to Arsenal, West Ham, Liverpool, Stoke and Spurs - all finished in the top 10).

To put that into context, we won three, drew eight and lost 27. So despite appearing in exactly a third of our matches, he played in two thirds of our wins, five eighths of our draws and less than a fifth of our losses.

What went on with Black we won't know for a while but it sounds like we're unanimous here on our opinion of him.

There's been no news on Ayew and nothing firm yet on Gueye, Amavi or Veretout. I think if we can keep our best players (Grealish I think can still be one of those, plus Traore could improve too, and players like Gestede and Hutton can also do a good job for us) it's a sign of intent from the new owner and management. Plus of course it suggests these players will still get a decent wage and perhaps a sizeable promotion bonus.

Grealish will be our best player ,Amavi  is the only one i would like to keep,, but if we could sigh brady from Norwich he can go too, we need a core of British players to get out of that league imo

Something along the lines of: New gk, Hutton, Elphick, Okore, Brady, Westwood, Gana, Gardner, Robson Kanu, McCormack, Gestede

the 30 million or so that we have must be spent on the spine a decent gk and a vlaar Delph and benteke we have a very good squad that will thrive wit 4 leaders hopefully elphick is our vlaar

Okore, No he refused to play, Westwood because he terrible,been at villa 5yrs done nothing

villajk wrote:Okore, No he refused to play, Westwood because he terrible,been at villa 5yrs done nothing

He didn't refuse play though did he? Black just clearly didn't like him which was odd as he was our best defender and everybody could see.

mefromhere wrote:

villajk wrote:Okore, No he refused to play, Westwood because he terrible,been at villa 5yrs done nothing

He didn't refuse play though did he? Black just clearly didn't like him which was odd as he was our best defender and everybody could see.

Spot on. Clearly the best defender at the club and the stats when he played back that up. Just hope the club can get him tied down to a new contract so he doesn't go on a free next season.

Okore and Clark played well together, so lets hope Okore stays. Black couldn't manage a pixx up in a brewery and alienated half of the squad, so glad he has gone.

mefromhere wrote:

villajk wrote:Okore, No he refused to play, Westwood because he terrible,been at villa 5yrs done nothing

He didn't refuse play though did he? Black just clearly didn't like him which was odd as he was our best defender and everybody could see.

Incorrect. It was well known atm. that Okore was pissed off and threw a tantrum.

http://www.bbc.com/sport/football/36115814

Now, the only alternative here is that Black is lying. I don't think he would have, and if he had Okore would have gone out against it. He didn't.

Personally I'm a place where I seriously dislike Okore and on the other hand I have to admit his one of the best defenders we got. So either forgive him or replace him. I'm personally at forgiving him as we have to get back to the EPL before we can get all high and mighty again. Which surprises me as a few months ago I wanted him gone, but it goes with the territory of being pragmatic I guess.

Okore is a beast of a defender and a great guy. During last preseason, when he was injured, he watched the games from the stands with the fans. He wasn't the reason we were relegated last season. Also, so what if he told Eric Black to do one? We all wanted to do that ourselves, so big deal. His "want away" comments were poorly translated from a Norwegian interview to drum up more bad press about the Villa by the rags. I take all interviews with a grain of salt. He wasn't caught partying out in London after we were officially relegated, like our Club Captain. I'm more than willing to give him another chance this season.

Chris Gunter linked, I'll take him along with Robson-Kanu, Brady, Hendrick, McCormack and David Button.

Out go cvnt1, cvnt2, cvnt3, cvnt4 and guzan(I like him but sadly not good enough).

Button

Gunter - Okore - Elphick - Amavi

Hendrick - Gana - Brady

Grealish

McCormack - Ayew

Supersubs

Steer, Clark/Baker, Hutton, Veretout, Traore, R-Kanu, Gestede.

Job done, we're up.

Sorry cant work out how to upload photo from phone but has anyone seen burnleys kit launch? They have gone with 'prepared' as their motto lol

Don't get this fascination with McCormack. He is old, expensive and quite frankly you can get similar quality much cheaper. If we're spunking £11-12 million we might as well get Bamford

Joppe84 wrote:Don't get this fascination with McCormack. He is old, expensive and quite frankly you can get similar quality much cheaper. If we're spunking £11-12 million we might as well get Bamford

Bamford good too, and a better bet financially but RM is very consistent, both will do if Ayew goes.

Bamford and Ayew for me. Keep Ayew and sign Bamford and I think we will get promoted.

I find it strange we aren't buying Iorfa though. Looks PL quality and is already living in Brum. AND we need a right back.

Gabby's getting fit on the way back! lol

avfc85 wrote:

Gabby's getting fit on the way back! lol

Thick fucker actually has his socks on the wrong feet lol.
I've got those socks and the swoosh should be on the outside.....oh dear.

De Kuip wrote:

avfc85 wrote:

Gabby's getting fit on the way back! lol

Thick fucker actually has his socks on the wrong feet lol.
I've got those socks and the swoosh should be on the outside.....oh dear.

never mind having them on the wrong foot, im surprised he isnt wearing them as gloves - twat

Boldfinger wrote:

De Kuip wrote:

avfc85 wrote:

Gabby's getting fit on the way back! lol

Thick fucker actually has his socks on the wrong feet lol.
I've got those socks and the swoosh should be on the outside.....oh dear.

never mind having them on the wrong foot, im surprised he isnt wearing them as gloves - twat

Wearing a fake Timex too, LOSER!

I am in the middle here as I actually think that he 'could' be a valuable asset in the championship but I am struggling to come to terms with how he treated OUR club last season!

achilles wrote:I am in the middle here as I actually think that he 'could' be a valuable asset in the championship but I am struggling to come to terms with how he treated OUR club last season!

go back 5 years and i would agree but he is a spent force. get him out asap.

Get rid.

Even if he becomes the slimmest, fittest, quickest footballer on earth, get rid.

Mainly because he is an utter shite footballer. We can replace him very easily.

Joppe84 wrote:Get rid.

Even if he becomes the slimmest, fittest, quickest footballer on earth, get rid.

Mainly because he is an utter shite footballer. We can replace him very easily.

Exactly this. Why waste one space in our 25-player squad and hope by including him in a starting 11 he'll actually bother? If he really gave a shit about the Villa he'd have worked his arse off, like Petrov has. In fact I'd rather have 11 Stans starting matches than Gabby on the pitch.