Aston Villa's Rise from the Ashes

krinpit

David O'Leary has finally got Aston Villa playing as a team that Villa fans can be proud of. With the way that the table currently lies, it's probably the best time to be hitting form. Roll on January 10th when we beat and overtake Liverpool with a double hat-trick from JP Angel!

Helix

ive been a villa fan all my life, and love the club to bits, but ill be amazed if we finish in the top half

mike65

Originally posted by krinpit
Roll on January 10th when we beat and overtake Liverpool with a double hat-trick from JP Angel!

Just as well you remembered the sonny!

Angel is finally coming good it seems...

Mike.

wynters

Lifelong Villa fan here too... I was born a few hundred yards from Villa Park. All my oul'lads side of the family are from that part of the world......

It's great to see the team doing well. O'Leary gets a lot of stick from certain sections of the media - Brian Woolnough from the Sun in particular - but he's a great manager. As a defensive coach I think he's the best in the Premiership. If you look at the Leeds back 4 while he was in charge - Mills, Ferdinand, Woodgate & Harte, not one of those players has played to the same level since they stopped working with O'Leary. Ferdinand was bought for £18million as a defender who could play a bit, and was turned into the the most expensive centre half in world football.... has he looked like a £30 million player since joing United!? No way.

O'Leary has even turned 2 very average looking full backs into completely different players. Neither Delaney or Samuel looked up to it at Premiership level until recently. Delaney jumped into tackles far too hastily, and was brutal going forward. Samuel was the opposite - good going forward, poor on the back foot.... The improvement in both has been immeasurable. They've been our best players in recent weeks, along with Angel.

I was just checking the odds for the F.A. Cup there. Villa are 50/1 coz we've drawn United. We're the hghest priced Premiership team. That's crazy considering we've reached the last 4 of the League Cup, we're the home side on Sundays game AND we're an in form team. Well worth a tenner.

Juan Pablo Angel!
Juan Pablo AHN-gel
There's only Juan Pablo Angel.....

smiaras

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The Muppet

When Angel plays well, Villa always do well!

True but unfortunately for Villa for most of his time there he has under performed and that is the danger in relying too heavily on one player.

O Leary is getting good performance from him so he there must have been problems with o Leary's predecessors

smiaras

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Villain

Originally posted by The Muppet
True but unfortunately for Villa for most of his time there he has under performed and that is the danger in relying too heavily on one player.

O Leary is getting good performance from him so he there must have been problems with o Leary's predecessors

Angel had a lot of personal problems in his first season I've spoke about them in other threads, then Taylor wouldn't give him a look in. First spell of regular football without problems and he's flying.

The Muppet

First spell of regular football without problems and he's flying.

He certainly is at the moment. I did read your earlier comment on him. heres hoping is good form continues after the weekend.

mike65

Wolves will beat them in the return game...they've got a proper striker -
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/football/teams/w/wolverhampton_wanderers/3356939.stm

Mike.

AngelofFire

David o`leary should be given credit for our revival. he has put steel in the team, he has ended divisions in the dressing room and has gotten the best out of the likes of samuel, whittingham and Angel. He made wise spending choices in the pre season window, Sorensen and Mccann have been solid so far this season. i was at the fulham match on sunday and there is definately a different buzz in the air at villa park.

AmenToThat

O Leary is one of those guys who at times I like and at other times I hate!

However if he can maitain this revival I think he should then rightly be aknowledged as a very good manager as when he got to the Champions League semi final with Leeds people put it down to the amount of money he spent!

mr_angry

people put it down to the amount of money he spent!

In fairness, you'd be hard pushed to find a manager that would turn down a sh*tload of money. O'Leary was offered it, and he spent it fairly wisely. It was Risdale that f*cked up on the wages front. £65,000 a week to Viduka (that's £££s, not €€€s)? £37,000 to Seth Johnson? The man obviously knew nothing about football, and even less about financial management!

Villa's revival is only 4 games old though. I'd wait a bit longer before talking about "Champions League semi-finals" again. Good luck to him, though - I'd like to see Villa doing well again. The only trouble is Angel playing TOO well, and getting snapped up by a bigger club!

wynters

Villa could go up to 6th place in the league if they beat Portsmouth at home tommorrow night. Then there's a 2 legged League cup semi-final against Bolton (who are minus Jay Jay Okocha who's at the African Nations). IF Villa win that they'll more than likely meet Arsenal in the final, which means they won't even have to win it to qualify for the UEFA Cup (due to Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League)

That wouldn't be bad at all considering the start Villa had and the players O'Leary has had to make do with........

jesus_thats_gre

Villa fans are even more optimistic than Liverpool fans it seems

eirebhoy

Originally posted by wynters
IF Villa win that they'll more than likely meet Arsenal in the final, which means they won't even have to win it to qualify for the UEFA Cup (due to Arsenal qualifying for the Champions League)

That only applies in the FA cup. You have to win the League cup to qualify.

krinpit

Originally posted by jesus_thats_gre
Villa fans are even more optimistic than Liverpool fans it seems

Well ideally we'd like to beat portsmouth tonight and beat liverpool on saturday, so that we can go ahead of them in the league. that would be a nice sense of achievement

jesus_thats_gre

Originally posted by krinpit
Well ideally we'd like to beat portsmouth tonight and beat liverpool on saturday, so that we can go ahead of them in the league. that would be a nice sense of achievement

Stress... This season is wayyyy too close! Wont happen though.

Villain

Originally posted by krinpit
Well ideally we'd like to beat portsmouth tonight and beat liverpool on saturday, so that we can go ahead of them in the league. that would be a nice sense of achievement

If that happens I'm going on a serious bender, oh god that would be heaven.

Come on the Villa.

Oh Allback is back in training too so Vassell better keep scoring or Allback could be partnering Angel.

The Muppet

Fair Play to O Leary, he is getting the most out of the players available to him and puting paid to the myth that his success at leeds was solely due to excessive spending.

Villain

Angel and Vassell send pompey home without anything.

Now we'r fuc.king moving.

Oh please god just let us beat the Pool on saturday.

GO ON THE VILLA

smiaras

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eirebhoy

OMG. 6th already although they have played 1 or 2 more than the rest. If they keep this up they are heading to the Champions League!

[B]Team	      Pld	Pts[/B]		
		Man Utd	        19	46		
		
		Arsenal	        19	45		
		
		Chelsea	        19	42		
		
		Charlton	19	30		
		
		Fulham	        19	28		
		
		[B]Aston Villa	20	27[/B]		
		
		Liverpool	18	26		
		
		Newcastle	19	26		
		
		Southampton	19	26		
		
		Birmingham	18	26		
		
		Everton	        19	23		
		
		Bolton	        19	23		
		
		Man City	19	21		
		
		Blackburn	19	21		
		
		M'brough	18	21		
		
		Portsmouth	20	19		
		
		Leicester	19	18		
		
		Tottenham	19	18		
		
		Leeds	        19	17		
		
		Wolves	        18	14

The Muppet

Yeah nosebleed territory for Villa;)

A win at the weekend will really see them sitting pretty. who would have though a few weeks ago. Well done O Leary.

mike65

Steady on chaps! They've played 20 games so are not really sixth at all...could be 11th by Sunday evening.

Mike.

G

Good game tonight. Scalping the pool would be some result though.

paddyduff

Here's to a good scalping of the pool! Up the Villa!!!

In your Liverpool slums,
You look in the dustbin for something to eat,
You find a dead rat and you think it's a treat,
In your Liverpool slums!!!

mike65

Originally posted by paddyduff
Here's to a good scalping of the pool! Up the Villa!!!

In your Liverpool slums,
You look in the dustbin for something to eat,
You find a dead rat and you think it's a treat,
In your Liverpool slums!!!

Have you even been to the darker corners of Aston?

Mike.

AngelofFire

we were lucky to get the winner. but it has been a long time since we won a match by fluke so it was a deserved one.hopefully we can keep this run up i believe that finishing in our current position is a realistic target provided we dont loose too many players through injury.

All the lads performed very well tonight, a few looked a bit shaky but thats not suprising considering our gruelling holiday scheduele.

individual ratings: Sorensen 7, Delaney 6, Mellberg 8, Dublin 6, Samuel 7, Hendrie 8, McCann 6, Whittingham 5, Barry 8, Angel 7, Vassel 7. Hitzlesperger:8 Crouch 7 Moore.S 6

paddyduff

Dublin looked a bit shakey back there tonight.. when is johnsen back?

Helix

can see us dropping quite a bit in the next week or so, next matches are pool away and arsenal at home

Villain

Originally posted by mike65
Steady on chaps! They've played 20 games so are not really sixth at all...could be 11th by Sunday evening.

Mike.

Games in hand are easy come by but points are not, 13 points from 15 is outstanding, only UTD have better recent form!!

I don't expect us to get anything from Arsenal so we really need to beat the pool.

eirebhoy

If Villa can finish in the top 6 this season IMHO it is safe to say that O'Leary is one of the best managers in the WORLD. He got Leeds to the semi's of the Champions League and nearly every signing with Leeds was a success (it wasn't his fault he was given all that money). He had very little money to spend at Villa and he made two very good signings in Sorenson and McCann. He has also got Angel playing at his best and Vassell back scoring. Dion Dublin is playing very well at the back and he has brought the best out of Delandy and Samuel. I'd say he will get a little bit more to spend this month and slowly but surely bring Villa back into a force that they used to be. He said at the start of the season that he would get Villa back challenging for a champions league place in a few seasons, fair play to him.

smiaras

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wynters

True. Lofty 6th place is as high as I can imagine us finishing - being realistic. We've a few very tough fixtures coming up in quick succession - 7 games in 24 days - so with a squad as small as ours, I'd expect us to move down a few places. Who knows though....!??

O'Leary really is doing a magnificent job. I can't really belive we're in 6th with the squad he inheirited. Aswell as transforming several players - Angel, Delaney & Samuel (aka Roberto Carlos) being the most noticable, he wasted no time in getting rid of the dead wood. Since he took over.....

Enckleman
Balaban
Alpay
Gudjonssen
Leonhardsen
Ian Taylor
Alan Wright
Staunton
Kachloul

.... and a few reserve team players have gone. O'Learys got us up to 6th, AND he's saving us at least £150,000 a week on wages. With Kinsella, De La Cruz and Hadji definately going at the end of the season if not sooner, the overall saving on wages will easily exceed £200,000.

O'Leary should be given a few quid to spend NOW!!!

Come on Doug you old fart... Get the wallet out!

Sundy

yeah fantastic win by villa instead of conceding a scrappy last minute goal we went and scored one it was nice to have luck on our side for a change. And im not really too concerned where we finnish once its in the at least 15 points above relegation.

The fact of the matter is that only man u, chelsea and the arse are safe from relegation at the moment, a spell of bad form could have any of the other teams in the danger area!!

Villain

SOLANO has been linked with a move to Villa and Robson said he's open to offers!!!!!

That wouldn't be a bad signing if we got him at half decent money.

What ya think?

paddyduff

Solano would be a very astute signing. He could definitely offer something on the right for villa. The one thing i like about solano... good delivery into the box, from open play and set pieces.

wynters

If we can get him for £2million or less then it's a good deal. We're in dire need of a right sided midfielder. Lee Hendrie just ain't up to the job.... The only thing about Solano is that he's 29. He'd have little or no sell on value so I'd be wary of us spending any more than £2mill on him. We do need someone who can arrive in the box from midfield to take chances. O'Learys preferred system of play does rely on attacking midfielders joining the strikers i.e. Bowyer & Kewell at Leeds. We don't have that at the moment...