Aston Villa: Unai Enemy

[Biggus]

I used to have a lot of time for Aston Villa, but I dunno, your away fans that sang about Eduardos leg (it was literally a week after it happened?!) while I was sitting right next to them...

That was unfortunate. i do think it was blown out of proportion a bit, but I definitely don't condone the chanting. but it was only a handful of fans, some of which I would like to think got caught up in the moment and had they actually thought about it wouldn't have sung it.

But please don;t judge all our fans on that one incident as I think we have one of the better set of away fans in the league.

Yeah no worries Stevo, as you see from the booing of Eboue, we have plenty of wankers who support us too.

I said in the PL thread that the way Villa play now remind me of the great Nottm forest team of Brian Clough in 1978 that O Neill played in.

 

[banduan]

Villa have been good for a while, but have had the usual problem with youths.

Their difference with us is that they kept their squad intact.

 

[Arai]

They had European Cup trophy in their cabinet.Hope we will have it in our trophy cabinet soon .IMO, they are most improved squad for this season and we feel the heat on their current performance.

 

[TomasCR]

Firstly, let my say I´m glad you have been promoted Stevo, you have always appeared to be a good guy and it´s also good to have a rival (literally) fan in the main forum.

I have always wanted some team outside of the big four to fight through but who whould say it will be to the prejudice of us. The season is long though, you´re at the top of your powers at the moment and can only get worse. Arsenal will buy a few players in January and we can get only better. The gap will not be that huge at the end of the season but I do believe you will end up on 5th.

By the way I´m from the Czech Republic and I was at the Slavia - Villa game, you don´t even know how much I was pissed off after the game. You come to Prague and ruin the poor Slavia side any chance of ending up on 3th place and going throught the main group and then, you come to this forum and want to do the same with Arsenal, who the hell do you think you´re? Just kidding of course...

You´re going to have a hard time if you win next week, take it easy if some of us is rude of something, it´s normal here. Fingers crosssed.

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Firstly, let my say I´m glad you have been promoted Stevo, you have always appeared to be a good guy and it´s also good to have a rival (literally) fan in the main forum.

I have always wanted some team outside of the big four to fight through but who whould say it will be to the prejudice of us. The season is long though, you´re at the top of your powers at the moment and can only get worse. Arsenal will buy a few players in January and we can get only better. The gap will not be that huge at the end of the season but I do believe you will end up on 5th.

By the way I´m from the Czech Republic and I was at the Slavia - Villa game, you don´t even know how much I was pissed off after the game. You come to Prague and ruin the poor Slavia side any chance of ending up on 3th place and going throught the main group and then, you come to this forum and want to do the same with Arsenal, who the hell do you think you´re? Just kidding of course...

You´re going to have a hard time if you win next week, take it easy if some of us is rude of something, it´s normal here. Fingers crosssed.

I have to disagree with the bit in bold, Tomas. We've been picking up the results, but lately we've actually been playing fairly poor. Since we lost to Boro I;d say our only really good performance has been against you. We played well against United but not great. This is partly down to not having Carew or anyone to replace him. Ok we came backto form a bit agianst Bolton on Saturday but its not like we've been on fire.

I do think we won't finish ahead of you, but we can get better.

By the way, we're gonna get taught a lesson by Hamburg tonight. We've made 8 changes, we're playing 4 CMs and Zat Knight and Marlon Harewood are playing. I'm not looking forward to it!

 

[TomasCR]

Well, true is that I´ve seen just a few of your games, actually only 3-4 of them so I´m hardly the right person to judge if you can get better/worse or not. It´s just that I can´t believe you´re actually ahead of us and as I don´t want this season to end up in this way, I´m trying to find possible crannies, you know. I have failed so far though, how about your defence?

Yeah and

We brought Laursen back from a career threatening knee injury at a time when he himself said he'd never be able to play a full season again and look at him now. He hasn't been injured in 18 months.

Tomas Rosicky, have you heard of him? I think he needs help so if you could help him...

 

[Stevo the Villan]

Send him our way, we'll help him out! Although part of the deal is that he has to play for us for a season or two


P.s. Hamburg game is painful

 

[Stevo the Villan]

You´re going to have a hard time if you win next week, take it easy if some of us is rude of something, it´s normal here. Fingers crosssed.

Whichever way it goes, I'm thinking of staying away for a while

 

[TomasCR]

Nah, have just seen your result before a minute. Don´t worry, you will not have to go, more to come!

 

[alboots101]

fooking bosting stevo....y`know them villans where not me fav. brummies....its a MON thing baby....see you in your local...lol.

 

[Stevo the Villan]

CSKA Moscow. Second leg away.

Bad times.

 

[number_0]

Great team you guys have, you reckon you could keep Ashley and gabby for a while? or how much do you reckon you could fetch for each?

 

[Stevo the Villan]

I think we have a good chance of keeping them for the next season or 2. By then I would like to think we will have broken the top 4, at which point they'd have no real reason to leave, but obviously you can't rule out if someone like United came in for them.

It will help that Gabby is a Villa fan born and bred, and also that both players love playing for the club.

If we were to sell Young I would want nothing less than £30 million for him. But money isn't an issue for us, if someone bid 30 million for him I'd rather MON turned it down.

As for Gabby, I dunno how much we'd want for him. Maybe around 20m because he wil only improve.

 

[Galahad]

P.s. Hamburg game is painful

Nah far from it ^^ HSV being my second favourite team, the only painful thing is that I think Arsenal is the better team (and still more consistant then Hamburg) yet Hamburg won 3-0 over you while Arsenal lost 2-0...

Anyways Villa has been in the mix for a while now, getting stronger every season. I like Villa way more then most of the other teams in the prem and think you really do have a strong squad and a very good manager. The only frustrating thing about you (apart from good games against us) is that you ALWAYS roll over for ManU, letting them win by 4 goals or the like...Im positive you will get at least UEFA action next year and in the long run, Im quite confident you will sneak into the CL one day. Maybe this season too...

I dislike Barry in your squad...after having been with Villa for some years and watching them grow stronger every season, he seems to be a greedy cnut with his Liverpool dreams...

I like Laursen more and more and I also think you made a brilliant move by signing Friedel, who is one of the best keepers in the prem in my book...Id certainly much rather have him then Almunia...

 

[Stevo the Villan]

It's not just us rolling over for United, they always seem to step up their game against us as well. it is very frustrating though. Now nearly 14 years since we beat them in the league! At least we got a draw this season.

Barry is a pain, however he's still bloody good. I'm happy we kept him and one of the bonuses IF we got 4th place this season, is that he would stay.

 

[Stevo the Villan]

I wouldn't normally post articles about Villa, but thought this was very interesting, especially the bit about how Gabby used to be useless basically but just really fast.

There are schoolboys blessed with such talent that it is a matter of when, not if, they will become Premier League stars. And then there is someone like Gabriel Agbonlahor.

"The one thing that attracted us to him was his pace," said Bryan Jones, Aston ­Villa's academy director. "He had absolutely nothing else. He ran in straight lines. His touch would probably take him to Newcastle. He couldn't really head a ball. But we saw the raw pace and thought, 'Let's go with it'."

It is probably the best decision Villa's academy staff have ever made. Eight years on from that brutally honest assessment, Agbonlahor's flowering from football's equivalent of Forrest Gump to the leading English goalscorer in the Premier League is complete. His performances have helped to lift Villa to third in the table and there is a widespread belief that he will be a key figure for Fabio Capello at the 2010 World Cup finals.

It is a remarkable turnaround and one that Jones reflects on with a mixture of relief and satisfaction when he ­remembers how close Villa came to rejecting the 14-year-old Great Barr Falcons striker who ran like the wind but had local wildlife ­diving for cover whenever he got close to the penalty area.

"Six or seven of the staff were sitting around the table and we were discussing players and whether they should be offered a schoolboy contract or not," said Jones. "Obviously Gabby's name came up ­eventually and, I have to say, the ­majority of the staff didn't think that there was much there that would make a player within the Premier League.

"I can always remember Steve Burns [Villa's assistant academy director] and myself saying, 'He's got this raw pace, let's just be patient, a two-year contract as a schoolboy is not going to cost you anything and let's see what happens.' The rest, really, is history."

So it is, although that makes Agbon­lahor's story sound straightforward. Anyone who has witnessed his development since he made his first-team debut under David O'Leary a little over three years ago knows that the reality is very ­different. While speed remains his main asset, Agbonlahor has worked assiduously to polish other aspects of his game, including his hold-up play, his first touch, his ­movement and his finishing.

With that in mind, Martin O'Neill claims that the player, rather than any of the Villa coaching staff, deserves praise for the results.

"I've known Gabby for two and a half years now and he's really been exceptional," said Villa's manager. "I still have the DVD of his first game, at the Emirates Stadium, when he played wide right. And if you see Gabby from that day to what he is now, I would say he should take the credit. He's done all the hard work."

From his first England cap, in Berlin last month, to the £180,000 white Lamborghini parked on his drive and a lucrative four-year contract signed at the start of the season, the personal rewards are there to see. Villa's benefits have also been considerable, with ­Agbonlahor's ­growing maturity meaning that John Carew's absence through injury has almost gone unnoticed in a run of three straight wins ahead of Arsenal's arrival on Boxing Day.

"The kid's full of confidence at the moment," said Steve Walford, Villa's first-team coach. "He's been playing regularly over the last three years and he can see his progress during that time and then he gets capped by England, so he believes he can be a player. There is much more to his game now. He gets hold of it and brings other players into the game. He works the channels really well and does his shift for the team. It's not just about pace."

Capello and his back-room team appear to have reached the same conclusion, even if statistics that recently revealed Agbonlahor as the quickest player in the Premier League cannot be ignored. That speed might have gone to waste at times when Agbonlahor was a youth player —"Gabby scored 42 and missed about 87 one season," joked Jones — but there is an assurance about his finishing now that means defences are generally punished if he scampers clear.

That was never more evident than ­during the recent home game against ­Bolton, when Agbonlahor scored twice and set up another goal as he tormented Gary Megson's side.

"We persevered with him and he's turned out to be what he is now," said Jones. "I don't know what it is but ­certainly in the last three or four months he seems to have come on another stage again. Who knows where he is going to end up?"

South Africa in 2010 would be a good bet.

 

[outlaw_member]

My football coach played alongside Ashley Cole and Ledley King, back when they used to play for youth teams. He said that Ashley was the least talented player he had ever come across. He was extremely fast, and could stick with you all day, but was devoid of ability in every other area. Looks like Agbonlahor was no different.

Another example is Bondz Ngala who I played with some years back. He is currently the West Ham Reserve captain. He was just big and strong, but had very little talent at all. I was completely shocked to see him leading out the Reserves.

The only really talented player I have ever played with was Jay Emmanuele Thomas. He had incredible close control and he could literally dribble through a horde of players. I am certainly interested to see how far he goes with Arsenal.

Unfortunately, I was too young to have played with Lomana Lua Lua but if I had, he would definitely have been the best. There were plenty of great stories my coach said about him. He used to turn up late for a game, put on a kit, score a couple of goals, and go back home.

 

[entropy13]

My football coach played alongside Ashley Cole and Ledley King, back when they used to play for youth teams. He said that Ashley was the least talented player he had ever come across. He was extremely fast, and could stick with you all day, but was devoid of ability in every other area. Looks like Agbonlahor was no different.

Another example is Bondz Ngala who I played with some years back. He is currently the West Ham Reserve captain. He was just big and strong, but had very little talent at all. I was completely shocked to see him leading out the Reserves.

The only really talented player I have ever played with was Jay Emmanuele Thomas. He had incredible close control and he could literally dribble through a horde of players. I am certainly interested to see how far he goes with Arsenal.

Unfortunately, I was too young to have played with Lomana Lua Lua but if I had, he would definitely have been the best. There were plenty of great stories my coach said about him. He used to turn up late for a game, put on a kit, score a couple of goals, and go back home.

That's what he did lately towards the end of his career at Pompey, score crucial goals and then do some outrageous celebrations (one of which injured himself).

 

[outlaw_member]

He used to do back flicks over the school gate, although back than they weren't that tall.

 

[Alfonso]

Its not so much to do with talent, but a lot to do with attitude and application. Peter Crouch used to go to my school and he was good, but nothing that would make you stop your packed lunch to admire at in the playground. There were at least 5 more talented players, some had trials at local clubs like QPR, but never made it because they werent professional enough. I guess Crouch had a competitive advantage in being taller than his peers, this did make him stand out. But his attitude was spot on. He has definitely overachieved in his career in relation to his talent but fair play to him.