What's Your Most Controversial Villa Opinion? | Vital Football

What's Your Most Controversial Villa Opinion?

BodyButter

BodyButter

Vital Football Legend
Simple enough, do you have an opinion about Villa that most people probably wouldn't go along with?

I have a few but I'll start with this one; if we'd signed Juninho, we would have won the league.
 
I should probably justify that one.

We were going great guns that season but we all knew it couldn't last. What we needed was a real shot in the arm, a statement to say that this is who we are now. It wasn't so much about Juninho himself, it was about maintaining the momentum. Doug cheaped out (as usual) and we signed Merson (who was excellent). Signing Merson felt second choice. We were the same cheap old Villa who could never sit at the top of the table.
 
I think all my geese are swans , when it comes to Villa related stuff , but the half time "entertainment"/chat could be far far better.
 
Trekker said:
Angel had 1 decent season. I like him, but by no means a world beater.
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Agree, he wasn’t actually that good a player - but he was a cult hero, I had his name on the back of my shirt, we all loved him. But he was a bit overrated in truth.
 
DeanoVilla said:
Jacob Ramsey is nothing special.
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That is a controversial one and I will bite there my friend, statistically you are probably right and he’ll be lucky if he ends up at Preston North End. The part that isn’t backing up that statement though is why he’s nothing special?

The part I don’t get... we have a talented 19 year old who’s one of our own, he is technically a sound player from my personal observations on the old box after performing well in pre season and some games where he’s made cameos, and a quick look at wiki tells me he scored 3 goals in 7 games in league 1 when he was 18 years old.

But we have to knock him already?
 
danvilla2 said:
Agree, he wasn’t actually that good a player - but he was a cult hero, I had his name on the back of my shirt, we all loved him. But he was a bit overrated in truth.
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He was good when the team was good. Like most strikers he scored when chances were created and in his time we were pretty mediocre/crap most of the time. I will still maintain that we'd have been better off keeping him instead of signing Harewood or Heskey.
 
Ready.

I find it increasingly cringeworthy now when anyone bangs on about 1966 and all that. Getting the same about 1981/82. But to be fair in a slightly different way.

What i mean is when there are comparisons of what we did then to what we do or should do now i.e we only used 14 players then, Sir Ron would have done this, done that, this player would have done this , done that.
Different times, different game in so many ways. Football in the early 80’s really is different to in 2021.

It is what it is, magnificent history made by great people who should never be forgotten . History though being the point. Shouldn’t really be in the conversation as to what we are doing now. Leave it to the glorious past and don’t use it for the above or to justify why we should be this or that. Its based on something that happened 40 years ago and it lets other fans accuse of us of living in the past.
 
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danvilla2 said:
That is a controversial one and I will bite there my friend, statistically you are probably right and he’ll be lucky if he ends up at Preston North End. The part that isn’t backing up that statement though is why he’s nothing special?

The part I don’t get... we have a talented 19 year old who’s one of our own, he is technically a sound player from my personal observations on the old box after performing well in pre season and some games where he’s made cameos, and a quick look at wiki tells me he scored 3 goals in 7 games in league 1 when he was 18 years old.

But we have to knock him already?
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It's just a feeling. Looking at the boy he doesn't seem to have that cockiness. He always looks like a rabbit in the headlights to me, reminds me a lot of Andre Green.

Some of these kids look great in training and youth games but I think you need a lot more to make it at the top level.

Would love to be proved wrong obviously but if anyone's expecting another Jack.... We get one of those once every 40 years.
 
DeanoVilla said:
It's just a feeling. Looking at the boy he doesn't seem to have that cockiness. He always looks like a rabbit in the headlights to me, reminds me a lot of Andre Green.

Some of these kids look great in training and youth games but I think you need a lot more to make it at the top level.

Would love to be proved wrong obviously but if anyone's expecting another Jack.... We get one of those once every 40 years.
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Technically, I think he looks great for a 19 year old. His technique is very good, his movement, his brain. The two things he is lacking, are experience - which will come with time - but the one that needs to be developed is just his strength and presence. Difficult one as when a player bulks up, they lose their pace on their toes which seems to be his attribute, I love the way he’s always making little half a yard movement to find himself in space. That’s all very well and good coming off the bench, doing that for 90 mins is much harder which is where a bit more of the grittiness is needed.

If Barry Bannan and Steve Davis could make it at the top, then so can Ramsey if things go his way. As someone who thought Andre Green would do big things for us, I’m not bigging him up too much but fingers he finds his feet and proves to be a star.

Hopefully the controversial statement ends up becoming “Aaron Ramsey is not as good as his brother” :LOL:
 
Melon Donkey said:
Ready.

I find it increasingly cringeworthy now when anyone bangs on about 1966 and all that. Getting the same about 1981/82. But to be fair in a slightly different way.

What i mean is when there are comparisons of what we did then to what we do or should do now i.e we only used 14 players then, Sir Ron would have done this, done that, this player would have done this , done that.
Different times, different game in so many ways. Football in the early 80’s really is different to in 2021.

It is what it is, magnificent history made by great people who should never be forgotten . History though being the point. Shouldn’t really be in the conversation as to what we are doing now. Leave it to the glorious past and don’t use it for the above or to justify why we should be this or that, based on something that happened 40 years ago and let other fans accuse of us of living in the past.
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‘82 is interesting. I was born in ‘87 so I didn’t live and will never live to see Villa be champions of Europe. I am hugely jealous of that that have seen big successes such as ‘66 and ‘82, as I’ll never see either. It seems to me the competitions are both much greater in terms of attention, hype and everything else due to TV, social media and of course, the money involved.

I’m hugely proud of the European cup, it’s great for WhatsApp group banter with fans of other clubs for starters. I grew up as a Villa fan in the here and now in the early 90’s, lots of success and great players. I’ll never forget when my dad told me Villa had won the European cup once, I was in shock. It reinforced what a great and historic club we are, and a unique selling point that even our bigger local rivals such as Wolves can never, and will never, match.
 
danvilla2 said:
‘82 is interesting. I was born in ‘87 so I didn’t live and will never live to see Villa be champions of Europe. I am hugely jealous of that that have seen big successes such as ‘66 and ‘82, as I’ll never see either. It seems to me the competitions are both much greater in terms of attention, hype and everything else due to TV, social media and of course, the money involved.

I’m hugely proud of the European cup, it’s great for WhatsApp group banter with fans of other clubs for starters. I grew up as a Villa fan in the here and now in the early 90’s, lots of success and great players. I’ll never forget when my dad told me Villa had won the European cup once, I was in shock. It reinforced what a great and historic club we are, and a unique selling point that even our bigger local rivals such as Wolves can never, and will never, match.
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Absolutely mate. I am hugely proud and it can never ever be taken away. It’s as I said though sometimes used in the wrong way and I think thats why other fans (not that I care really but just saying) might accuse us of living in the past.

What we need to do is make our own history like 81/82 right now !. Here’s hoping.
 
Mine is that MON should have been sacked after his 3rd season. He'd taken us as far as he was ever going to and was yesterdays man even then. We could have given him 500m and he'd still have signed a load of workhorses whose sole job was to get the ball to Ashley Young.

I also believe that the signing of Emile Heskey is the moment that our slide started. From that moment we blew our champions league chance, stagnated in the league the next year and from then on got progressively work. Perhaps that's being harsh on poor Emile but as far as I'm concerned he's cursed and should be wiped from Villas history.
 
BodyButter said:
I fully agree. He was only good until he got a new contract and then went full Gareth Bale.
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I thought he was good in 2001/02 and very good in 2003/04 but he basically had 6 and a half seasons here so agree that on that basis he really isn't anywhere near as good as some make out.
 
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