Tottenham Hotspur V Aston Villa : Monday 2nd November at 8PM

Back to league action and another chance to pickup three points toward safety.

Our opponents are in 6th place and have lost only one league game this season, way back on the opening day of the season (so long ago it was the last time we won a league game!) so no doubt they will be a tough opponent. We on the other hand are still defensively frail and not taking our goalscoring opportunities though last night's game was obviously with a not quite first choice lineup. We also have the managerial situation hanging over our heads. The intention was to have a new manager in in time for this game but some reports suggesting this will now not be the case.

So I ask the usual questions. Will we win? What score do you expect? Who should play? Will we have a new manager in place? Over to you folks.

My prediction is for a 2-2 draw. A new manager will have been appointed but will watch from the stands as we shock and go 2-0 up before a Kane double pegs us back. Grealish and Gestede to score our goals.

I don't think the club want Garde to be in situ until after the Man C game because of the likelihood of a thrashing or two. So I'm going for a comfortable win .... for Spurs, with KMac and our old guard huffing and puffing.

We could probably take a hiding from Everton too.

The next three games are against decent sides, I agree, but I think it would be foolish for the club to think that. None of them are infallible, just much less fallible than we are. We are bottom and four points from safety so cannot afford to write anything off. Even if results don't go our way these games could also give a new manager some decent tests to assess the players and possible game plans ahead of the 'winnable' games. If Garde is our man (and I'm thinking that is a when rather than an if) then we must appoint him as soon as everything is tied up for him.

IF the board are deliberately waiting until after City, they need to be sacked or resign. We need change and we need it now. Even if we lose all of them, a lot will be learned by the new man in that time, ready for an assault at more winnable fixtures. Sadly this losing mentality has spread throughout the whole club and it's fanbase. It's severely catching. I maintain, with a PROPER manager and proper coaches with a REAL work ethic, a lot can be achieved in a short space of time.

I see a draw with a new man in place, be it in the stands (maybe, depending on when he's appointed)

GadgetMan wrote:ISadly this losing mentality has spread throughout the whole club and it's fanbase. It's severely catching.

This. I think the past five or six seasons have beaten us all down. We now look at certain games as 'winnable' and write off the other ones. The problem with that is that we haven't been winning those games this season. We've lost to Stoke, Swansea and drawn with Sunderland. We're getting to the point that we (particularly the players and manager) need to go into every game nurturing some kind of hope of getting something unless we want our 'winnable games' to be against the likes of Brentford and Huddersfield.

GadgetMan wrote:IF the board are deliberately waiting until after City, they need to be sacked or resign. We need change and we need it now. Even if we lose all of them, a lot will be learned by the new man in that time, ready for an assault at more winnable fixtures. Sadly this losing mentality has spread throughout the whole club and it's fanbase. It's severely catching. I maintain, with a PROPER manager and proper coaches with a REAL work ethic, a lot can be achieved in a short space of time.

I see a draw with a new man in place, be it in the stands (maybe, depending on when he's appointed)

I am suspicious about Fox/Almstadt's motives. I have a feeling that they now look at things from a "how does it make us look angle". I believe that they persuaded Lerner to hang on to AVFC so they could run the current moneyball set up, and as they are both probably overpaid for their collective experience in football, they have a considerable vested interest in A) employing a head coach like Remi Garde, and B) giving him the best chance of a successful start in order to keep their own jobs intact.

villabromsgrove wrote:

GadgetMan wrote:IF the board are deliberately waiting until after City, they need to be sacked or resign. We need change and we need it now. Even if we lose all of them, a lot will be learned by the new man in that time, ready for an assault at more winnable fixtures. Sadly this losing mentality has spread throughout the whole club and it's fanbase. It's severely catching. I maintain, with a PROPER manager and proper coaches with a REAL work ethic, a lot can be achieved in a short space of time.

I see a draw with a new man in place, be it in the stands (maybe, depending on when he's appointed)

I am suspicious about Fox/Almstadt's motives. I have a feeling that they now look at things from a "how does it make us look angle". I believe that they persuaded Lerner to hang on to AVFC so they could run the current moneyball set up, and as they are both probably overpaid for their collective experience in football, they have a considerable vested interest in A) employing a head coach like Remi Garde, and B) giving him the best chance of a successful start in order to keep their own jobs intact.

Well waiting until after City, makes them look ill equipped, under prepared and foolish....

GadgetMan wrote:

villabromsgrove wrote:

GadgetMan wrote:IF the board are deliberately waiting until after City, they need to be sacked or resign. We need change and we need it now. Even if we lose all of them, a lot will be learned by the new man in that time, ready for an assault at more winnable fixtures. Sadly this losing mentality has spread throughout the whole club and it's fanbase. It's severely catching. I maintain, with a PROPER manager and proper coaches with a REAL work ethic, a lot can be achieved in a short space of time.

I see a draw with a new man in place, be it in the stands (maybe, depending on when he's appointed)

I am suspicious about Fox/Almstadt's motives. I have a feeling that they now look at things from a "how does it make us look angle". I believe that they persuaded Lerner to hang on to AVFC so they could run the current moneyball set up, and as they are both probably overpaid for their collective experience in football, they have a considerable vested interest in A) employing a head coach like Remi Garde, and B) giving him the best chance of a successful start in order to keep their own jobs intact.

Well waiting until after City, makes them look ill equipped, under prepared and foolish....

KMac get's a call Sunday morning and is asked to run the first team .... since then neither Almstadt or Fox have even spoken to him.

That sounds under prepared and foolish to me!

When Lambert got the bullet Sherwood was brought in after three days. I imagine there had been discussions undergoing for weeks before Lambert's dismissal. I also imagine there has been a similar situation with Garde this time round. The appointment would probably be finalised by now were it not for the hiccup getting the rest of his staff released, IMO. That doesn't sound under-prepared to me, though I might suggest that the process ending in the appointment of Sherwood was somewhat foolish.

I share VB's skepticism about Fox, Almstadt and Reilly's motives. Their highly paid positions at our football club are under threat if the project they have pushed and implemented fails. A less kind person that I would suggest that it's pretty much a case study in path dependency. They'll be doing everything in their power to make their project works as I've no doubt they'll be amongst the first to be pushed out the door if this season ends in relegation. I don't think they would go as far as delaying an appointment for that reason. That just lacks common sense (admittedly a commodity lacking in our higher ups).

Richards has accepted the misconduct charge, one game ban.

if K Mac picks the same team as Wednesday we will be hammered.

Okore should be about ready to come back in? Not sure what to make of Crespo as a centre half.

What has happened to ilori?

He's in a hidden room at the training ground, down an impossible to locate corridor, playing bridge with Kozak and Senderos who are also trapped there. Moustapha Salifou is snoring loudly behind them in his sleeping bag on a dusty claret couch, having never actually left Villa.

Sandie wrote:He's in a hidden room at the training ground, down an impossible to locate corridor, playing bridge with Kozak and Senderos who are also trapped there. Moustapha Salifou is snoring loudly behind them in his sleeping bag on a dusty claret couch, having never actually left Villa.

That will be the Ivo Stas room