LIST OF PLAYERS LEFT ON THE SQUAD

Keepers

Steer
Sarkic


Central Defenders

Chester
Elphick
Suliman
Richards
Bedeau


Full-backs

Elmo
Taylor
Bree
Clark
De-laet


Central Midfielders

Grealish
Lansbury
Hourihane
Thor
Jedinak
Whelan
Tshibola
Gardner
Doyle-Hayes
O'Hare
Lyden


Wingers

Adomah
Green
Blackett-Taylor


Strikers

Kodjia
Hogan
Davis
Mccormack
Hepburn-Murphy
Mckirdy


IF we can keep most of this squad and add a few pieces here and there, then we should be able to mount another serious challenge under a more progressive manager. Because let's be honest, no-one is gonna have a better collection of strikers and midfielders if Jack and Hourihane stay. Elphick and Chester also showed that they can form a decent partnership last season as well. Kodjia having the summer to get himself right should easily replace Grabban but the key area that would need addressing would be the right wing. Replacing Snodgrass's production would be vital to moving forward. The keeper situation would need a serious look at too. Probably another loan I guess.

But all in all IF this clubs has any smarts about it we could easily be a force again next season because right now we've got some very good pieces in place. Great leader at the back in Chester, goalscoring midfielder in Hourihane, creative spark in Jack and a goalscorer in Kodjia. Adomah is a goal getter as well. Just need the right man to come in, get them playing a more progressive style and we should be just fine.

Ruben Lameiraa at £500,00 anyone ?

Steer's a good goalie, I wouldn't object to him playing the season.

Blackett-Taylor on right wing.

If we could keep the likes of Chester, Hourihane, Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia and Hogan, and have Green and Hepburn-Murphy stay fit, then I'd have little doubt that we'd be challenging for promotion with a competent manger who likes to play attacking football, even Snodgrass has apparently said he wants come back, it's just a question of who we can and can't keep, today's stories don't look promising at all, but all we can do now is wait and see how the club respond.

If Adomah stays, I think he'd be on the right with Green on the left, also with Snodgrass gone, that's probably a position where we'd look to bring in someone on loan. Blackett-Taylor everytime I've seen him he looks pretty decent, and links up well with Davis, and RHM, but whatever reason never seems to get anywhere near the first team. Another youngster to look out for is Colin Odutayo, I've only seen him a few times for the u18s on youtube, but each time he's looked exceptional and a class above everyone else, very highly rated.

deadbuzzardalive wrote:If we could keep the likes of Chester, Hourihane, Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia and Hogan, and have Green and Hepburn-Murphy stay fit, then I'd have little doubt that we'd be challenging for promotion with a competent manger who likes to play attacking football, even Snodgrass has apparently said he wants come back, it's just a question of who we can and can't keep, today's stories don't look promising at all, but all we can do now is wait and see how the club respond.

If Adomah stays, I think he'd be on the right with Green on the left, also with Snodgrass gone, that's probably a position where we'd look to bring in someone on loan. Blackett-Taylor everytime I've seen him he looks pretty decent, and links up well with Davis, and RHM, but whatever reason never seems to get anywhere near the first team. Another youngster to look out for is Colin Odutayo, I've only seen him a few times for the u18s on youtube, but each time he's looked exceptional and a class above everyone else, very highly rated.

Isn't he only 16/17? And yes, I've seen him play a few times, Dutch lad isn't he? And boy does he look special. If he was at Fulham he'd be playing by now I suspect.

AstonThriller wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:If we could keep the likes of Chester, Hourihane, Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia and Hogan, and have Green and Hepburn-Murphy stay fit, then I'd have little doubt that we'd be challenging for promotion with a competent manger who likes to play attacking football, even Snodgrass has apparently said he wants come back, it's just a question of who we can and can't keep, today's stories don't look promising at all, but all we can do now is wait and see how the club respond.

If Adomah stays, I think he'd be on the right with Green on the left, also with Snodgrass gone, that's probably a position where we'd look to bring in someone on loan. Blackett-Taylor everytime I've seen him he looks pretty decent, and links up well with Davis, and RHM, but whatever reason never seems to get anywhere near the first team. Another youngster to look out for is Colin Odutayo, I've only seen him a few times for the u18s on youtube, but each time he's looked exceptional and a class above everyone else, very highly rated.

Isn't he only 16/17? And yes, I've seen him play a few times, Dutch lad isn't he? And boy does he look special. If he was at Fulham he'd be playing by now I suspect.

Yes but this is Aston Villa and we need manly men playing for us.

Yes he's only 17, but he's already played a number of times for the u23s. Not expecting him to make a big breakthrough next season, but if he impresses for the u23s as he has done for the u18s, then he might play himself into whoever's in charge of the first teams thoughts, Dmitri Sea is another one, meant to be rough around the edges, but a very exciting player to watch.

bruka wrote:

AstonThriller wrote:

deadbuzzardalive wrote:If we could keep the likes of Chester, Hourihane, Grealish, Adomah, Kodjia and Hogan, and have Green and Hepburn-Murphy stay fit, then I'd have little doubt that we'd be challenging for promotion with a competent manger who likes to play attacking football, even Snodgrass has apparently said he wants come back, it's just a question of who we can and can't keep, today's stories don't look promising at all, but all we can do now is wait and see how the club respond.

If Adomah stays, I think he'd be on the right with Green on the left, also with Snodgrass gone, that's probably a position where we'd look to bring in someone on loan. Blackett-Taylor everytime I've seen him he looks pretty decent, and links up well with Davis, and RHM, but whatever reason never seems to get anywhere near the first team. Another youngster to look out for is Colin Odutayo, I've only seen him a few times for the u18s on youtube, but each time he's looked exceptional and a class above everyone else, very highly rated.

Isn't he only 16/17? And yes, I've seen him play a few times, Dutch lad isn't he? And boy does he look special. If he was at Fulham he'd be playing by now I suspect.

Yes but this is Aston Villa and we need manly men playing for us.

Yes, manly men who can stand up. He probably can't.

Is Bjarnason not staying? If he is, I would have him as defensive midfield and bin Jedinak and Whelan if we can. We would save a bundle and have better stamina and mobility. He impressed me whenever he played that role and managed to chip in a couple of goals from open play.

Reading set to sign Elphick, as they have an option on the loan deal. That will leave Chester as the only first team defender.

big ming wrote:Is Bjarnason not staying? If he is, I would have him as defensive midfield and bin Jedinak and Whelan if we can. We would save a bundle and have better stamina and mobility. He impressed me whenever he played that role and managed to chip in a couple of goals from open play.

Hell yes. When he played he mobilised the two midfielders in front of him. When Whelan held that position for so long it completely scuppered Hourihane who wasn't able to get forward so well. I'd like to keep hold of Hourihane even though he seems to go missing so often (or is that just because he scores as a poacher while Jack gets all the attention for creating the moves in the first place?) but if he goes and helps ease the financial burden I want Lansbury playing ahead of Thor. That is assuming we play a similar formation.

We should still have enough decent players left to have a strong team, people say that Bruce couldn't get last season's squad promoted, so how will he manage this time around? But it doesn't always work like that, him being forced to work with more younger players might turn out to be a blessing in disguise, maybe we'll thrive on the adversity, and play better with less pressure on us... In a strange way so many are writing us off, I think we could actually be the surprise package next season, and made a challenge for the play-offs... Really hope we prove those laughing at us now wrong next season, can't give up before we've even begun.

Bjarnason, Chester, Grealish, Adomah, Kodija, Hourahane and Taylor are our only saleable assets? The others are worths peanuts and according to reports we could need 75m next year to balance the books? We haven't got that value in our squad? We will be left with a bunch of kids on low pay and a group of old farts/oxygen bandits on high wages? Add a manager whose idea of tactics is to play everyone behind the ball and occasionally hoof it forward we are well and truly screwed!

As clubs know we are desperate we will get the following up front for the saleable players:-

Bjarnason ..... 2m
Chester ........... 5m
Grealish ......... 15m
Adomah ........ 5m
Kodija ............ 8m
Hourihane.......... 3m
Taylor ............. 3m
Total ........... 41m

That is woefully short of what the skint Doctor needs? Looking for a paddle whilst we hurtle down the rapids of shit creek? What a joke!

Bjarnason is an Iceland international who didn't do himself any harm playing the way he did against Messi, Far more than £2m value. Chester for £5m? Double it. Hourihane scored over 10 goals from midfield and is a ROI international for £3m? Again, I would double it at least.

People know we need the cash why would they pay over the odds? I read somewhere that Levy was offering 10m for Grealish ATM! That is the position we are selling on our future income to survive today! Every club will take advantage!

Alright lads. Took a break from all things Villa as it was just getting ridiculous. But now the pre-season has kicked off my Villa juices are flowing again . Anyway, though recent events have painted an utter horror story around our club, And though things seem so bloody bleak, I honestly believe that we should STILL be in a position to challenge even if we lose Grealish, Kodjia and Chester. The core of the squad would still have experience lads like Elphick, Hourihane, Adomah and Hogan in the spine of the team and this is very important. Add a few loan signings and we should be in very decent shape to go again. I mean look at the Cardiff team from last season or the Huddersfield team from the year before? Hardly world beaters were they? So we've got to keep the faith lads.

AstonThriller wrote:Alright lads. Took a break from all things Villa as it was just getting ridiculous. But now the pre-season has kicked off my Villa juices are flowing again . Anyway, though recent events have painted an utter horror story around our club, And though things seem so bloody bleak, I honestly believe that we should STILL be in a position to challenge even if we lose Grealish, Kodjia and Chester. The core of the squad would still have experience lads like Elphick, Hourihane, Adomah and Hogan in the spine of the team and this is very important. Add a few loan signings and we should be in very decent shape to go again. I mean look at the Cardiff team from last season or the Huddersfield team from the year before? Hardly world beaters were they? So we've got to keep the faith lads.

Yes but Cardiff and Huddersfield didn't have Bruce, did they? I'd rather have a manager who can make a team that works from a bunch of players who aren't setting the world alight than a manager with all the best players, cherrypicked from all the other teams, who doesn't have a clue what to do with them.

What happened to Tish? He looked ok when he played a handful of times but wasn't really given a proper run and now he's in Bruce's own Bomb Squad. I know the loans weren't successful but it sounds like the talent was there.

FoxyAV wrote:What happened to Tish? He looked ok when he played a handful of times but wasn't really given a proper run and now he's in Bruce's own Bomb Squad. I know the loans weren't successful but it sounds like the talent was there.

I was kinda happy when we signed him. I was hearing good reports at the time and thought he would grow into the role here.

Me too and from his promising appearances for us I wondered if attitude was why he didn't play any more and was sent off on loan.

Billy big boots and couldn't cope with coming to a big club and being on bigger wages I suspect. Non-Bruce signing and I suspect we have had a loan offer for him. Shame really as he is a unit and I think we need a unit for the middle of our midfield, arguably a better footballing unit that Tshibola but a unit nonetheless.

Seems like it's all about his attitude maybe from the bits i've seen.
Shame.

He doesn't come across as having a bad attitude to me, and when he has had a chance I think he's looked okay and showed promise, certainly no worse than the likes of Lansbury and Gardner... I think it's a case of once you've fallen out with Bruce you're done for, see also McCormack and Elphick.

Yes, I agree about McCormack and Elphick (not that I disagree about the rest of it, if you see what I mean, and I used to go to watch Reading every once in a while and everyone was raving about Tish).

I know Bruce has a history of using pre-season friendlies for playing everyone all over the place rather than to fine tune his starting 11 but seeing Jedi in defence instead of Elphick and Whelan at DM instead of Thor fills me with dread. It's as if he hasn't learnt from his mistakes of last season and is going to carry on hindering the team until either he gets sacked of his players get injured. 'Real Men' seems to still be the mantra, not that I expected that to change.