What is your ideal scenario for next season? | Vital Football

What is your ideal scenario for next season?

DeanoVilla

One Bloody Number
Just a bit of fun. What would be your ideal scenario in terms of owner, chairman, manager, team etc? (Realistically)

For me, I can take or leave Xia. It seems whoever is running the club the financial restrictions will remain, so I don't see this as a massive issue whether he stays or goes.......

...... as long as whoever remains keeps Steve Bruce and manages to put a finance package in place that enables us to keep Jack Grealish.

With all that in mind I think the following team / squad would be more than good enough (under Bruce) to mount another top 6 challenge next season.

Steer
Elmo
Chester
Loan Signing (Tzuanbe?)
Bree

Green
Bjarnasson
Hourihane
Grealish
Adomah

Kodjia

Subs -

Sarkic
Taylor
Clark
Doyle-Hayes
Lansbury
O'Hare
RHM

To balance the books I'd sell/release Hutton (as much as I love him), Jedi, Whelan, Hogan, Lyden, De Laet, Richards, Samba, Bunn, Elphick, Gil.

That along with Terry, Gabby and all the loanees going back, will help balance the books a little.

Oh and don't forget we are due money from Amavi and Westwood sales.

I reckon that squad is no worse than Derby's or Boro's who finished 5th and 6th this season.

I don't subscribe to the total doom and gloom or negativity. Keys are keeping Bruce and Grealish and we'll be just fine.
 
That defence looks pretty weak compared with what we've had this season. I'd keep Hutton, and Elphick if we can't get better. Also Jedi and Whelan. Also Bunn; Steer appears injury prone. Up front add Davis.

Re the owner, hope he stays, and remains committed long term to the club; I think he's genuine. Plus Bruce.
 
Ideally I'd like to keep Hutton, Jedi and Whelan too, but I'm just thinking money wise, if it means we can keep Grealish I'd be prepared to sacrifice them all.
 
I agree with you Deano about most things, however, Bruce should remove his own mental shackles and those he imposes on the players and copy the attitude of the managers who have gained automatic promotion from the championship in the last few years with a team plan at the start of the season to attack the league going into games with the intention to first attempt to win the game while we have Bruces whose sole intentions are not to lose at any cost....regardless.

Will he ever change?
 
Last edited:
I'm not sure I see the mental shackles you talk of to be honest.

We were 3rd highest scorers last season, that despite a slow start to the campaign.

I saw games where the players looked tired, lazy and on occasion devoid of ideas, but on those rare occurences I thought it was the players at fault.

I certainly don't see Bruce sending us out not to go and do damage, and most of the time we did do damage as the goals scored column proves.
 
That's one of the great things about football in that it promotes such divided opinions!

I also "don't subscribe to the total doom and gloom or negativity" and at the moment, I hate the way we are being described and talked about in the press etc.

I hope ALL the management turn that around to our advantage and use it against the doom-mongers.
 
I'd like to see an owner who is willing to put in five years hard graft to shape this club fully and then another five or more to get us where we used to be, the top end of the Premiership.

What Spurs have done has taken time, they are the most likely now to compete.
 
I saw games where the players looked tired, lazy and on occasion devoid of ideas, but on those rare occurences I thought it was the players at fault.

I don't think they were that rare to be honest. Sometimes full games, sometimes half of a match but there were plenty where we were pedestrian, or not chomping at the bit, or sitting back. We had some during our really good winning streak, when winning you don't mind so much I guess! The goals from midfield were our saviour last season.
 
Would the midfielders have scored so many if Bruce was telling them to be defensively minded though?
 
Yes I thinks it's easy to fit into the stereotype of Bruce being a dinosaur and therefore a defensive manager.

Certainly there were times last season when we sat too deep , but was that instructions from Bruce ? Not always if his after match comments were to be believed.

Having said that I think we were too negative in the play off final , but as Deano said looking at the goals scored column it was the exception rather than the rule.
 
I admire your optimism Deano, but I'm not sure betting the farm on Jack Grealish is the answer. Another long term injury (and let's face it, it's quite conceivable when he's getting the shit kicked out of him twice a week) and we'd be back to square one.

He needs a full season playing at his recent levels to justify the hype. I don't see him leaving unless it's for one of the top four - going to Leicester or West Ham (as rumoured) would be a massive waste of time imho and he'd not improve himself by going to such places.

I'd take a top six finish next season, but I honestly think we might struggle to achieve that based on who is going and who we might be able to bring in.
 
1. Win at least 50 million on the lottery.

2. Dont turn up for work and dont even tell them i aint coming back

3. Villa win the league with a nuvleus of U23 players with Alan Hutton as captain and scoring the winner in the FA Cup Final at the Villa end

4. Xia then announces money is no object. Villa Park will be 100k capacity and all season tickets are free to reward the fans for the last 10 years and we buy Neymar Bale Kane De Bruyne and De Gea. Messi pleads with us to buy him but we tell him he is now over the hill.

5. Alan Hutton becomes manager and leads us to the League, Champs League , FA cup and League Cup quadruple and Al is confirmed as Sir Scottish Cafu.

All very achievable and realistic I reckon.......................


(Promotion)
 
Would the midfielders have scored so many if Bruce was telling them to be defensively minded though?

And he didn't miss the three chances Jack had and missed at Wembley.

So, as you know, I agree with the flipside.

Fact does remain, whoever is at fault (and the likes of JT I thought would show more leadership, sacrilege to say so to some fans I know) when we had the no shows. He was as bad as anyone else 1st half at Wembley, it was him and the other old heads I thought would carry us through!
 
Yes I thinks it's easy to fit into the stereotype of Bruce being a dinosaur and therefore a defensive manager.

Certainly there were times last season when we sat too deep , but was that instructions from Bruce ? Not always if his after match comments were to be believed.


.

So the devils advocate. If they weren't his instructions, as it happened so often (he admitted several times after games he was baffled by it) why wasn't something done about it?
 
No idea.

I do think there may have been some truth in the comments that we were a pretty slow and aging team. Maybe the players were incapable of keeping up a high tempo for the whole game. Maybe Bruce was deflecting the criticism
 
Whoever's in charge ( coming round to the pragmatic idea that Bruce knows the players we have and should have 1 more season). Don't like the idea of switching managers mid season so stick with who we start with barring complete disaster.

Eradicate the no shows and sitting too deep. To this end sign a more mobile centre back (possibly Tuanzebe on loan) and a midfielder comfortable in possesion who can spot a pass, maybe ginger from Brentford.

Keep Grealish but don't rely upon him to provide the only threat and develop an understudy to play his role when suspended or injured. He will get the shit kicked out of him inevitably.

Develop an alternative plan B to playing the ball wide all the time, particularly when chasing games, possibly using Davis's hold up play and physical presence to bring in the central midfield players. Davis and RHM need game time, from the bench if needs be. No more throw on three strikers and hope.

Set out to dominate the opposition and possesion wherever possible. Get the crowd going.

Release the players Deano suggested but keep either Samba or Elphick as cover. Elphick although limited is a leader and positive around the young players by all accounts, probably wants to play regularly though so may leave.

Fight till we drop every game. As fans, keep the positivity generated this season when times are tough. :punch::utv::utv:
 
To balance the books I'd sell/release Hutton (as much as I love him), Jedi, Whelan, Hogan, Lyden, De Laet, Richards, Samba, Bunn, Elphick, Gil.

.

Whilst I agree those players (with exception of Hutton) probably could leave without affecting us, nobody is going to pay money to take Richards off our hands, Hogan is on massive wages so isnt going anywhere, jedi and whelan will also be on similar.

There seems to be no way all the players you mention can stay with us into next year, I'd say our only realistically sellable players (for any sort of decent fee) are De Laet, Kodjia, Chester, Grealish, Hourihane, Admoah, Bjarnason, Bree.

The rest are either unproven, past it, or on stupid contracts (hello McCormack)
 
It seems to be the Villa way in the last decade to be lumbered with a load of dross on huge wages that no one else wants. From Habib Beye on 45k a week and Dunne pretending to be injured for the last year of his 60k a week contract all the way through to Richards and Mccormack bring too crap to play yet on too much money to move on. The state of this clubs transfer business over the last 10 years or so has been nothing less than a disgrace.
 
To answer your original question, I'd keep Bruce. Cant see anyone better coming in without any cash to spend, and at least a lot of the players hanging around are ones he will have bought, so a matchday squad of:

Steer
Bunn
Bree
Elmo
Taylor
Chester
Elphick
Tuanzebe
Jedi
Lansbury
Bjarnason
Hourihanne
Green
Grealish
O'Hare
Hepburn Murphy
Hogan
Davis

Sold - Kodjia (I like him but he at least has value), Adomah (same), De Laet. We might get £15-20 million for those three, which depending what you actually read, could be enough

Still robbing a living - Richards, McCormack,
 
It seems to be the Villa way in the last decade to be lumbered with a load of dross on huge wages that no one else wants. From Habib Beye on 45k a week and Dunne pretending to be injured for the last year of his 60k a week contract all the way through to Richards and Mccormack bring too crap to play yet on too much money to move on. The state of this clubs transfer business over the last 10 years or so has been nothing less than a disgrace.
I think all clubs make duff signings but we seem to just keep doing it. It is clear there is no overriding plan it’s just a case of lurching from one thing to the next... prime example is RDM buying McCormack, Gollini, Tshibola for combined £20m, next transfer window Bruce is in charge and loans them all out