Author: Guest Post
It was an uplifting, comforting, entertaining and oddly satisfying result against the league leaders in our last game and that should have given Garde’s side some rare confidence going into the international break. The performance was undoubtedly the best of the season and the speed with which Garde got his players to play such attractive football might allow one to make assumptions regarding Garde’s social skills; he appears to be a very good tactician and communicator. Garde’s tactics go further than that. Those who studied the game carefully will have noticed that the Villans played 1-2 touch football when in possession against…
After another poor result at home, yesterday’s 1-2 defeat to Fulham, I was left reflecting on our performance and our season before this reflection led me to think about our future. This season is now the third consecutive season in which we have been involved in a relegation battle and the third one in which the manager been given insufficient funds to compete for European places. Three seasons on, our future looks no clearer than the day Gerrard Houllier left Bodymoor Heath with his trusted assistants in tow. It is a depressing thought that, after all the false dawns and…
With a huge game coming up this afternoon against Fulham, I have been on the Friends of Fulham forum to see Fulham fans’ opinions about what I still think is a big relegation clash. How has the season gone for Fulham fans? How many levels of woeful are there? We’ve seen it all – from inept tactics, monumental defensive capitulations to having no shots at all at St Mary’s and then the Sheffield United debacle, although they ultimately deserved it. Al Fayed committed himself to Jol when Hughes marched out but it was clear he should have gone last summer.…
This season has been mooted by the media and the club as one of progression. Apparently, we have an inconsistent team but it is one that is progressing nevertheless. I have my reservations about this. Progression is the process of developing gradually towards a more advanced state. In terms of points on the board and goal difference, progression is being achieved. Slowly but surely, Lambert is turning his players into a more solid team: there has been no repeat of our 8-0 hammering, for instance, and the players’ success in shutting Chelsea out for ninety minutes is not to be…
This Saturday see’s the return of the Premier league and the first game up for us Villa fans is an away trip to Stoke City. I have asked Stoke fans on Oatcakefanzine what they think about our upcoming fixture 1) How do you feel the summer transfer market has gone for you so far? An excellent summer so far. We need another right sided winger and then it is just a case of getting rid of the fringe players. Very pleased with who Hughes has brought in and how much he spent to do it. 2) Many believe that the…
On the 15th February, the Villans could have been lining up for the fifth round of the FA Cup had it not been for a defeat at the hands of League One’s Sheffield United at the start of January. At the time, fans were ripping up their tickets and throwing them at Lambert as they left the stands, something that was spurred on by his comments before the game which sparked national debate about how important cup football is to managers in the modern game. Of course, a 4-0 third round defeat by Tottenham meant that the Capital One Cup…
Earlier this week, in his article for Avillafan, Ashley Hardy asked whether loan signings are the right ones. This article focused on the process of loans and considered whether short-term contracts are the right way forward for a club like Villa, especially as we’ve been stung before when players like Kyle Walker play their socks off for Villa and immediately get recalled by their parent clubs. However, I would like to ask a different question about our loanees Grant Holt and Ryan Betrand. Very simply, how did they do? As a team, the Villans were excellent last weekend but how…
A couple of months ago, we were all a bit nervous heading towards derby day. West Brom still had Steve Clarke at the helm and things seemed to be going well for our neighbours as they sat one place above us in the table after a run that saw only one loss in nine games. The Baggies were playing on home turf so we visited the other side of the city on a cold November evening. When it came to the game itself, our fears proved to be well-founded within the first eleven minutes as Lambert’s Lions found themselves 2-0…
Paul Lambert has finalised his second deal of the window by bringing in left full-back Ryan Bertrand on loan until the end of the season. The Chelsea defender is 24 years old and has represented England at every level from U17 through to the senior side. He has represented Chelsea 56 times, including starting at the Allianz Area for Chelsea’s Champions League victory in 2012. Villa will become Bertrand’s sixth loan side in his career after spending time with Bouremouth, Oldham Athletic, Norwich City, Reading and Nottingham Forest since 2006.. Paul Lambert had this to say on the signing: “Ryan…
I was reminded recently of an old superstition that I had, which never failed to help Villa win… Actually, I had several Villa-related superstitions. If they somehow failed to work in any given week, I simply concluded that I must have been doing something wrong. At the height of my ridiculously superstitious spell, I was aged around thirteen. I used to have to hide a whisker each Saturday morning; if anyone found it, Villa would be defeated. With the benefit of hindsight, I realise that this was an utterly nonsensical thing to do but I can honestly say that I…