Rebuilding Aston Villa

November

A much tougher month with lots of away games and some huge matches against Chelsea and City. hopefully if we can get a strong month we can really get a head start on the traditional top teams whilst they are all busy with the league cups and continental competition.

Wigan 0-1 Aston Villa
Cassani
Ciaran Clark

A solid if unspectacular match especially after the madness of the Norwich game. a nice clean sheet and a top performance from young Ciaran who has really grown in the recent months and is now the first name on the team sheet with Bent.

Newcastle 0-1 Aston Villa
Bent
Ron Vlaar

Another good performance and solid away win. ron vlaar has really impressed this season, him and Clark look set to form a great partnership.

Chelsea 0-0 Aston Villa
Ciaran Clark

Great away performance against a truly top team a very encouraging month thus far.

Aston Villa 2-0 WBA
Bent(2)
Darren Bent

a strong home game with a pleasing brace from a really in form player. remarkably we are keeping pace with the top sides and getting away from the likes of arsenal and liverpool whilst its still early, european qualification of some sort is looking possible.

Aston Villa 5-0 Manchester City
Bent(4),Benteke
Darren Bent

This month has been great and the city result was perfect 13 points out of 15 is great and considering the number of away fixtures and tough sides it was even better. the player of the month was tricky clark and vlaar where both on great form putting in top performances but 7 goals and the best performance possible from bent against city edged it for mr bent. Congratulations.

December

As the weather turns so does traditionally the form of the struggling teams in the division.
the fixture list is an odd one this month not least because of the congestion some of the teams we are playing are red hot in terms of form whilst others are stopping the rot. the objective of this month is to keep the pace and not throw away the brilliant work the team achieved last month.

Everton 3-1 Aston Villa
Clark
Stephan Ireland

Well nothing like a good thrashing to bring things back into focus. and i am just not sure how it happened. poor finishing vs clinical is the tag line for this set back.

Aston Villa 1-3 Tottenham
Bent

Aston Villa 2-1 Southampton
Anderson, Bent
Clark


really disappointing and its all Bales fault no matter how well we dominated possession and chances but his pace and power proved too much.

Reading 2-2 Aston Villa
Cassani, Benteke
Benteke

infuriating we dominated and 2-0 against 10 men with 20 minutes to go should be safe. the bookies would pay out. a stupid game to draw and to be honest feels more like a loss



Swansea 0-0 Aston Villa
Richard Dunne

nothing happened in this game. I mean diddly squat.

Aston Villa 3-1 Q.P.R
Ireland(2), Ahmadi
Ireland

Good to be back to winning ways. 8/18 points for the month is not good enough especially as the performances merited more this month could of been a great follow up to november it turned out more like godfather 3. in short annoying. no clear man of the month but i suppose clarke edges it by a nose.

Mid season review

the half season point finds us in the hunt for champions league qualification having been sat in 3rd and 4th for most of the season the team has performed well with special mention deserved for ciaran clark, a player whose incredible improvement and impressive performances have a astounded me. so far this season he has the highest performance rating in the league and is a good bet for either player of the season or golden boy. in addition to ciaran, darren bent has been magnificent and is leading not only the club scoring charts but also the league and could well earn himself the golden boot if he keeps it up.

Whilst the player performances and league standing are a positive, the clubs underachievement in the Capital one cup is disappointing and this as been relayed to the squad.

Transfers

a quite window in all with just 2 in and 2 out in regards the first team squad

Outgoing

Brett Holman 2.5 Million to Leicester
Charles N'zogbia loan to liverpool 110k p/m

Incoming

Bressan Free Transfer


A good player low wages and versatile, whilst he is intended as a squad player he will be going into the first team straight away due to long term injuries to Stephen Ireland and Jermaine Jenas and yet another 2 week lay off to anderson

Mohamed Sissoko Loan till the end of the season


yet another psg player on loan, he will provide a valuable bit of quality in the holding role, whilst yussuf has done a good job in this role Sissoko is just a lot better and i decided to seize this opportunity.

Kevin Gameiro has had is loan cancelled by mutual consent due to a lack of first team opportunities.

Seasons Expectations

Whilst i targeted a top half finish at the start of the season with our form and performances i feel this would now be under achieving and i have chosen to up the expectations to euro cup qualifications.

paulo de cegilie and anderson are players i seem to end up signing on most saves and on older versions of the game they always perform for me and are available for a fraction of their value which is always nice. gameiro whilst looks a good player, the form of bent meant he never got a chance so i had to let him go.


yeah when i first saw the squad they looked good down the spine but needed a more experienced set of fullbacks and a bit more in midfield and unfortunately their needed to be some wheeling and dealing to get it together. thankfully i feel i now have a balanced squad which provides a good platform to build from

January

A good November followed by a solid if not outstanding December has left us in a great position for European qualification but with arsenal, tottenham, liverpool and everton close by, we look an outside bet for the champions league.

Sunderland 2-5 Aston villa
Benteke(3), Anderson, Mensh
Benteke

Our games against Sunderland are starting to look like a good bet for goals galore. a great performance all told with anderson bossing the game. benteke has surpassed my expectations this season, on his day terrifying any centre half.

Cambridge 0-4 Aston Villa
Lowton, Benteke, Yussuf hoarau
Benteke

fair bit of rotation and a solid performance. no complaints benteke gave another top performance.

Aston Villa 3-1 Fulham
Anderson, Bent, Jenas
Anderson

yet another good performance, the month is shaping up well we are slowly building a gap on 5th (now up to 7 points, however tottenham have too games in hand) Anderson, when he gets an injury free run, is running the show and looking top class.

Manchester 0-0 Aston Villa
Richard dunne

United where flying at this stage so to grab a point was great. A really resilient performance and richard dunne reintroduced into the squad gave a top notch performance.

Aston Villa 0-0 Liverpool
Richard dunne

Another goalless draw which on the face of it but frankly it was a poor performance from the villians and it took a fine defensive display to maintain parity between the two sides

Doncaster Rovers 1-0 Aston Villa

Blooming shoddy, the strikers spurned chance after chance to win this tie and that added to a momentary lapse of concentration in defence cost us dearly. Yet another defeat away to far inferior opposition is disappointing. in the future we need really improve our performances in these ties or we will never win a thing

Stoke 1-2 Aston Villa
Darren Bent (2)
Darren Bent

we where really second best in this game, stoke dominated like no tomorrow and it took a darren magnificent darren Bent performance to clinch the 3 points. nice to get back to winning after a hugely disappointing midweek fixture.


Not a bad set of results, the cup was a mess but we beat expectations as far as im concerned grabbing points against united and liverpool showed a lot of resilience and this was epitomised by richard dunne so he gets the nod as the man of the month.

You're doing an awesome job ,man!Keep it up

February

We are on a current run of 10 unbeaten games and in those games we have held off some top sides.
hopefully going into February we can add to this and add to our chances of European qualification.


Arsenal 0-1 Aston Villa
Darren Bent
Ciaran Clark

Solid at the back clinical at the front all in all a pretty solid away performance against a team that was trying to close us down in the leauge. this could prove to be a huge result in the final reckoning.

West Ham 2-1 Aston Villa
Darren Bent

the unbeaten run ends at 11 against an over performing west ham side. we where perhaps unlucky to concede late into added time but i suppose they where the better side so it is what it is

Aston Villa 1-0 Wigan
Stephan Ireland

by far the better team so not to score more was disappointing but we where in 0 danger of loosing as Wigan didn't get a shot away. Really all that can be said about this game. 3pts

Not a bad month we played well, the west ham result was a disappointment but the arsenal result was pleasing , quite literally you win some you loose some. on the man of the month front there really was no clear favourite but i feel that Ciaran Clark just edged it.

March

Tottenham are looming behind us, ominously 2 games in hand and catching us up week by week we will need a strong push to the finish line if we want champions league football. Furthermore now that only chelsea and arsenal are competing for honours outside of the league everybody else is really stepping their performances.

Aston Villa 0-0 Newcastle

disappointing when i saw the number chances we created an spurned and how strongly we dominated this game. we need to do better in these game we need to be more clinical.

Norwich 1-1 Aston Villa
Bressan

Another disappointment. Chances, domination of possession and then a foolish late mistake in added time allowed grant holt to grab a late equaliser. we must cut this out its becoming problematic.

West Brom 0-0 Aston Villa

an even game with posession and chances split equally, an annoying performance because of what preceded it rather than the game itself. 3 draws is a poor return considering it could quite of easily been between 6 or 9 and in light of that a return of a mere 3 is always dissappointing

the player of the month? im not sure it is a month that deserves one. its been poor really and our offensive line has let us down at a push i have given it do ron vlaar but im really not sure

April

well this is on of the toughest months im likely to sees for a while and regrettably i do not arrive at them in good form

Aston Villa 1-2 Chelsea
Bressan
Sissoko

well it was going to be tough so it isnt the biggest disappointment there ever was the growing streak without a win however is.

Manchester City 0-0 Aston Villa
Richard Dunne

Surprising result really we played well and the draw was pleasing, although not quite to the same extent as the 5-0 earlier in the season still no win but im sure its comming

Aston Villa 1-1 Everton
Benteke
Sissoko

well this was poor. everton where on a bad run and we'd beaten the odds and it was a chance to get back to winning ways. A chance we missed. Our strikers just aren't firing on all cylinders and this must change

tottenham 6-3 Aston Villa
Benteke(2), Vlaar

ouch. not sure how we scored 3 we where awful just awful a 4 versus 5 should not yield a 6-3 just shoddy

a poor month really. tough results but i had expected 3 or for points rather than the 2 we got .

Man of the month is the loanee from psg sissoko

May

well our 7 match run without a win leaves us well and truly out of the race for champions league and our position in 5th is under threat from arsenal. we need to get some results in our last 3 games, fortunately they are winnable games...

Southampton 0-6 Aston Villa
Bent, Benteke(3), El Ahamadi(2)
Benteke

well finally it comes together, the goals flow and with 2 games to go it looks like the premier league will go to a nail biting finish. im delighted by this performance it was as well timed as it was emphatic.

Aston Villa 2-1 Reading
Benteke, Bent
Sissoko

Another win and a great performance from sissoko, its pleasing to see bent and benteke back in the goals after being a little underwhelming before this month. the league goes to the final game with united and chelsea trying to claim the title. and whilst the champions league places are now taken we have grabbed 5th place with this win, getting some super prize money and europa league. the final game is for all intents and purposes a dead rubber.

Aston Villa 0-1 Swansea
Ciaran Clark

a very even game and our strikers missed bags of chances. A disappointing loss but it honestly didn't matter. We achieved what i hoped for this season and exceeded what most expected of the club.

Man of the month? well it seems unfair to give one looking back at such a tremendous season because of this my man of the month is...

Premier league review






A great season, our performances in the league where excellent and give us a good platform moving forward. the performance against city was especially memorable, 5-0! it was magical and after the negativity of the 11/12 season this has been amazing. ciaran clark was hard done by in both player of the year and young player of the year. he had higher ratings than the other nominees and received joint second in terms of man of the match awards. on the goals front Darren bent was joint top scorer on 23 goals with Dzeko and steve morison.

The Players

Bressan, Clark and Benteke improved this season as footballers and their exposure to first team football has played a role in this. the squad at the end of this season is heading in the right direction. we have a solid platform.

Moving forward

our centre back pairing is good and improving although both of their futures at the club depends on us being able tie down their contracts for the long run.
paulo de cegilie looks like he has the left back spot nailed for a season or two. with cassani leaving i am looking for a new right back but the free agent market may fill this void. the club desperately needs a holding midfield on a more permanent holding midfielder and another centre mid. Whilst bressan and ireland are doing well in the attacking midfield role but a move for isco or coutinho may prove too tempting. up front is a tricky situation bent and benteke have been awesome at times but there have been months when they have gone missing so perhaps i will look for some alternative striking options.

Finances

Making a £16.25million transfer profit and an £18.25million profit overall the clubs finances are in tip top shape. hopefully we can utilise this and bring in some big names in the summer transfer window ... rumours of isco and marc andre ter-stegen abound around the club.