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Greavsy

Respect to Russell Martin.

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Got to villa Park as the team bus arrived, and went for a watch.

Only Russell acknowledged, and came over to the fans, so whilst he''s had his critics for on the field performances, full respect for that, Saturday.

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My mate met him in Glasgow on the int. break, apparently he was just walking down the street in full kit.

My buddy was too star struck apparently to say very much other than "I support Norwich". According to him Russ shook his hand, smiled and said "Good man". And that was that. Nice guy.

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Full kit?

I''ve a vision of him in shorts, shin pads and the like walking down the high street, doing his shopping!

He does always come across as a nice bloke, just a shame his footballing ability is starting (?) to show decline.

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I think the reality is we''ve got far more problems in our squad that need addressing before we worry about RM.

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I once ended up in the lift in Chapelfield with Russell Martin & his family, although i didn''t speak to him as I thought that it is probably one of the most annoying things to be stopped & hassled when out with your family

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hogesar wrote the following post at 03/04/2017 10:55 AM:

I think the reality is we''ve got far more problems in our squad that need addressing before we worry about RM.

Whose said anything about worrying about RM Hogesar?

The post was merely a nod to the fact he was the only one prior to the game who came over to the fans when disembarking from the coach.

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No I know Greavsy, I was simply making a point because RM gets a lot of criticism on here yet for me he''s someone I wouldn''t mind staying as a positive influence.

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@ Greavsy

The post was merely a nod to the fact he was the only one prior to the game who came over to the fans when disembarking from the coach.

Scary, but you must have been stood very close to me on Saturday Greavsy, if you saw Russ Martin come over to the fans, you may have seen him have his picture taken with a poster my other half did, for Charlie Rounds, the little boy who died last week, my Mrs made a bundle up and got as many people as she could to have pics taken with them and tweeted them to show support to the lads family. You are correct Russ was the only City player to come over and do it. Kodija did it, signed his poster and posed for a pic. After the game we gave them to a Villa family and they were delighted with the signed posters. Top human being is our Russ, average defender!

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fully agree that off the field RM is a credit to our club.

however that only counts after their ability to perform their match day tasks to the level required - RM isnt alone in not meeting that level this year, but nor should he stay purely because he is a top bloke or a top influence (based on this seasons results under his captaincy "top" might be stretching the definition in relation to influence but hey ho)

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There appears to be no doubts he is genuinely a nice guy and one of the few who actually cares about the club and its fans.

Having said all that ....Id swap him for a surly centre back who doesn''t engage with the fans but can actually defend and lead the team!!

I like him but, as posted by others, the fact that he remains our first choice centre back shows at least partly where we have gone wrong over last couple of years.

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I wonder how much his Crohn''s disease affects him?

It''ll be a shame when he gives up, but it''s obvious he is in decline. it would be nice to think he could be kept on in some - meaningful - capacity (or perhaps return in a coaching role after some experience).

Whatever, he''s always embodied the essential decency of the club for me.

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@lessingham

We walked around as the bus came through into the car park, and stood and watched players get off. My lad and his mate were nearer the front, but myself and a couple of others stood a bit further back.

Didn''t see what they signed as wasn''t close enough but that''s a nice touch from Mrs Lessingham.

Only saw two villa players who i thought initially were youth players, turns out they were Rushian Hepburn-murphy and Aly Cissokho.

Is it just me or at the players getting younger these days???

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Russ is as several people said a really decent guy who will always stop & talk to fans where ever he is. We had him to a fans forum and he stayed around after it had finished to chat to people & have his picture taken, nothing was too much trouble for him
He gets a lot of criticism, but no-one can doubt that he cares about our club in bucketfuls.
 

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@Greavsy

Only saw two villa players who i thought initially were youth players, turns out they were Rushian Hepburn-murphy and Aly Cissokho.

Is it just me or at the players getting younger these days???

Yes both those youngsters each signed posters (we didnt know who they were!) but put them out on twitter, as well as stewards, city fans etc, We have kept pictures of them all, was an interesting venture!

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Surprised nobody has started a Respect to Tom Smith thread as he is a nice young man who loves meeting and talking to fans. [:D]

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It seems he is humble and comes across as a genuine guy. However, year after year he has proven he isn''t reliable as a defender. Hopefully, a new coach will cut the sentimentality and realise he isn''t the quality we need going forward...

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When I saw this thread title I started to get excited hoping it was about him announcing his retirement. He may be a most wonderful human being but he''s still past his best by date as a footballer.

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He is a nice bloke and I''d be happy to see him remain at the club in some form of coaching capacity but being captain is also about leading by example and that''s difficult to do when you can''t mark your man and are consistently beaten to headers.

Too many of our fans are placated by players or board members being nice and prepared to chat to them from time to time rather than actually taking into account whether the person does their job properly.

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[quote user="rock bus"]There appears to be no doubts he is genuinely a nice guy and one of the few who actually cares about the club and its fans.

Having said all that ....Id swap him for a surly centre back who doesn''t engage with the fans but can actually defend and lead the team!!

I like him but, as posted by others, the fact that he remains our first choice centre back shows at least partly where we have gone wrong over last couple of years.[/quote]

Agreed. It would be better if the centre-back and captain was a really nasty piece of work and we were top of the league because he led by example and took no prisoners.

It is no coincidence that RM is a very nice person and he has a contract which states he must be selected every game if fit. RM is the kind of person Delia adores and that is why he gets such preferential treatment and is captain. It doesn''t matter if it undermines confidence and morale in the squad because according to the Delia way we all have to be very nice to one another. The new sporting director and head coach will have to adopt this culture as their own and so the new structure is doomed to fail.

There are certain fundamentals in football that should never be tampered with:

1. The captain should always be your best player and thereby lead by example.

2. The head coach/manager should always have the final say on players in and out.

But we are unfortunately lumbered with a board that is continuously clueless and whose members have been sitting there for more than 20 years and learnt precisely nothing about the industry they are in and have to now take the extraordinary step of importing an ex-13 year old to come and tell them how to run the club (that is how old the boy Webber was when Delia and Wynnie took over).

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It is no coincidence that RM is a very nice person and he has a contract which states he must be selected every game if fit.Of course Big Vince you can back up that ridiculous statement with some evidence naturally ?

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[quote user="TIL 1010"]It is no coincidence that RM is a very nice person and he has a contract which states he must be selected every game if fit.Of course Big Vince you can back up that ridiculous statement with some evidence naturally ?[/quote]

You would be surprised how much of the ridiculous is actually normal at Carrow Road. I need only cite the Galway Roast farce.............

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[quote user="FenwayFrank"]What about the times he was fit and not selected? How do you explain that ?[/quote]Obviously he was unfit when he has sat on the bench for nine games so far this season Frank however i am sure Big Vince will explain that fact away. [:P]

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