Emi, Delia, Webber and whatever else you blame

[Overrated, over paid 22]

I am so bored of hearing fans cite the Emi sale all these months later. Emi actually wasn't that great the last season we were in the Premier League. Cantwell and Pukki were far more impactful that year. Emi really hasn't been that great for Villa this season with 1 goal and 2 assists in a far better side that we were ever likely to be. Selling Emi, a player who requested to leave 12 months before was pretty good business and has zero bearing on where we are today. Delia has been a good enough owner to oversee some of the best football City have played in the recent era and we have enjoyed much on field success. Webber has transformed this club, we will only appreciate the rewards the off field planning and development will bring in the years to come. Youth development has been superb and the only criticism I have of the club comes down to player recruitment. On balance we have had too many gambles and with financial restraints we were never fishing in the same pond as 80% of the Premier League teams. But we should have done better. FFP rules would make it almost impossible for a club of our current stature to compete even if we did attract some Billionaire who wanted to burn cash. That's the conundrum, under current rules, how do you grow a club that is unlikely to win silverware to a big enough size to begin to compete? Answer? It takes years, and years, and years, some good fortune and a few more years. That is what we are doing. Stuart Webber knows far more about this than you or I. So, get realistic and enjoy the ride 👍

[CDMullins 436]

6 minutes ago, Overrated, over paid said:

I am so bored of hearing fans cite the Emi sale all these months later. Emi actually wasn't that great the last season we were in the Premier League. Cantwell and Pukki were far more impactful that year. Emi really hasn't been that great for Villa this season with 1 goal and 2 assists in a far better side that we were ever likely to be. Selling Emi, a player who requested to leave 12 months before was pretty good business and has zero bearing on where we are today. Delia has been a good enough owner to oversee some of the best football City have played in the recent era and we have enjoyed much on field success. Webber has transformed this club, we will only appreciate the rewards the off field planning and development will bring in the years to come. Youth development has been superb and the only criticism I have of the club comes down to player recruitment. On balance we have had too many gambles and with financial restraints we were never fishing in the same pond as 80% of the Premier League teams. But we should have done better. FFP rules would make it almost impossible for a club of our current stature to compete even if we did attract some Billionaire who wanted to burn cash. That's the conundrum, under current rules, how do you grow a club that is unlikely to win silverware to a big enough size to begin to compete? Answer? It takes years, and years, and years, some good fortune and a few more years. That is what we are doing. Stuart Webber knows far more about this than you or I. So, get realistic and enjoy the ride 👍

Stopped reading here.

Only behind KdB and Grealish on key passes.

[Mengo 820]

7 minutes ago, Overrated, over paid said:

I am so bored of hearing fans cite the Emi sale all these months later. Emi actually wasn't that great the last season we were in the Premier League. Cantwell and Pukki were far more impactful that year. Emi really hasn't been that great for Villa this season with 1 goal and 2 assists in a far better side that we were ever likely to be. Selling Emi, a player who requested to leave 12 months before was pretty good business and has zero bearing on where we are today. Delia has been a good enough owner to oversee some of the best football City have played in the recent era and we have enjoyed much on field success. Webber has transformed this club, we will only appreciate the rewards the off field planning and development will bring in the years to come. Youth development has been superb and the only criticism I have of the club comes down to player recruitment. On balance we have had too many gambles and with financial restraints we were never fishing in the same pond as 80% of the Premier League teams. But we should have done better. FFP rules would make it almost impossible for a club of our current stature to compete even if we did attract some Billionaire who wanted to burn cash. That's the conundrum, under current rules, how do you grow a club that is unlikely to win silverware to a big enough size to begin to compete? Answer? It takes years, and years, and years, some good fortune and a few more years. That is what we are doing. Stuart Webber knows far more about this than you or I. So, get realistic and enjoy the ride 👍

Is that you Stuart 🤣 overrated and overpaid.

[The Bunny 305]

Fans who don’t rate Emi clearly have no clue about football. Why do you even bother watching?

[Sooty57 403]

Apportioning blame was much simpler when my great gran was alive.......

..... everything was the fault of the Rolling Stones 😂😂😂

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

52 minutes ago, Overrated, over paid said:

Emi actually wasn't that great the last season we were in the Premier League. Cantwell and Pukki were far more impactful that year. 

What on earth are you talking about.

7 assists last time in this league.

This season our entire team only has 8 goals, and we're halfway through the season.

 

[Wilson 62]

Two points.

We hardly won when Emi wasn’t playing.

The only thing you’d criticise is recruitment…. ie the thing that holds the whole self sustaining plan together. Basically pi$$ing £50m up the wall.

Pretty much like saying the only thing I’d criticise Dracula for is biting folk.

Webber said two seasons ago we were paying for the sins of the past. Next year we’ll be paying for his sins of the past.

Edited December 30, 2021 by Wilson
Missed word

[Midlands Yellow 3,920]

3 minutes ago, Wilson said:

Two points.

We hardly won when Emi was playing.

The only thing you’d criticise is recruitment…. ie the thing that holds the whole self sustaining plan together. Basically pi$$ing £50m up the wall.

Pretty much like saying the only thing I’d criticise Dracula for is biting folk.

Webber said two seasons ago we were paying for the sins of the past. Next year we’ll be paying for his sins of the past.

We’re paying for the model, it just doesn’t work. 

[Danke bitte 965]

23 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said:

We’re paying for the model, it just doesn’t work. 

This. Fans pay to see quality on the pitch, or at least trying. They’re not. So right now fair play to those moaning and disgruntled. And is the model working when you don’t develop intrinsic players in the Championship starting 11 then wonder why they can’t fill the gaps when promoted?

[Overrated, over paid 22]

2 hours ago, CDMullins said:

Stopped reading here.

Only behind KdB and Grealish on key passes.

Emi was given the ball by every city player, just like Grealish. His stats are bound to be high, if not misleading. 1 goal and 2 assists so far this season. A very good player yes, jesus, no! And where is Emi now? Hmmmmmm

[Overrated, over paid 22]

1 hour ago, Danke bitte said:

This. Fans pay to see quality on the pitch, or at least trying. They’re not. So right now fair play to those moaning and disgruntled. And is the model working when you don’t develop intrinsic players in the Championship starting 11 then wonder why they can’t fill the gaps when promoted?

And there you have it. It is not a gap between the top of the Championship and mid table premier league. It's a gulf! Look at the average squad values and wage bills and tell me we can compete? Then tell me 10 Championship teams that could compete. You;d struggle to find 1.

[Overrated, over paid 22]

1 hour ago, Wilson said:

Two points.

We hardly won when Emi was playing.

The only thing you’d criticise is recruitment…. ie the thing that holds the whole self sustaining plan together. Basically pi$$ing £50m up the wall.

Pretty much like saying the only thing I’d criticise Dracula for is biting folk.

Webber said two seasons ago we were paying for the sins of the past. Next year we’ll be paying for his sins of the past.

Given the 100's of variables at play, the odds of a human being being purchased, put into a new team and performing week in, week out without any deviation are highly unlikely. If it were that simple you'd be running the club. 

[CDMullins 436]

5 hours ago, Overrated, over paid said:

Emi was given the ball by every city player, just like Grealish. His stats are bound to be high, if not misleading. 1 goal and 2 assists so far this season. A very good player yes, jesus, no! And where is Emi now? Hmmmmmm

Not if he's not very good!

Sargent wouldn't have the same numbers, with the same amount of ball Emi had.

Take data out of it, if you can't see what Emi brought to us, footballs not for you.

How he's doing at Villa is no concern or care of mine.

[Dean Coneys boots 1,398]

This is a ridiculous post that suggests we shouldn’t dare question the board and should just accept the terrible football being served up. The attitude of we are little old Norwich and shouldn’t expect more…

Nevermind that we squander so many opportunities to establish ourselves. Never mind that other teams who were our equal (place, wolves, Soton) have changed ownership and progressed. Never mind that we seem to ignore that 9 years of premiership money hasn’t filtered into a better starting XI 

[hertfordyellow 460]

9 hours ago, Overrated, over paid said:

I am so bored of hearing fans cite the Emi sale all these months later. Emi actually wasn't that great the last season we were in the Premier League. Cantwell and Pukki were far more impactful that year. Emi really hasn't been that great for Villa this season with 1 goal and 2 assists in a far better side that we were ever likely to be. Selling Emi, a player who requested to leave 12 months before was pretty good business and has zero bearing on where we are today. Delia has been a good enough owner to oversee some of the best football City have played in the recent era and we have enjoyed much on field success. Webber has transformed this club, we will only appreciate the rewards the off field planning and development will bring in the years to come. Youth development has been superb and the only criticism I have of the club comes down to player recruitment. On balance we have had too many gambles and with financial restraints we were never fishing in the same pond as 80% of the Premier League teams. But we should have done better. FFP rules would make it almost impossible for a club of our current stature to compete even if we did attract some Billionaire who wanted to burn cash. That's the conundrum, under current rules, how do you grow a club that is unlikely to win silverware to a big enough size to begin to compete? Answer? It takes years, and years, and years, some good fortune and a few more years. That is what we are doing. Stuart Webber knows far more about this than you or I. So, get realistic and enjoy the ride 👍

I agree with some of what you say but Buendia was our best player by far and the team was largely built around him and Pukki’s relationship.

Losing him and Skipp tore a hole in the promotion side, which we found impossible to fill. You are right that we hoped Cantwell would kick on and fill the gap left, but for whatever reason he isn’t interested anymore.

[GodlyOtsemobor 2,225]

"Enjoy the ride" 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[canarybubbles 1,915]

I agree we need to get over Emi and to stop living in the past, but rewriting history to suggest that he really wasn't anything special is not the way to do it. As others have said, our record when he played versus our record when he didn't play is proof enough of how reliant we were on him. When we played Emi, players like McLean were good enough at what they did: keep the ball and get it to him. Without him, they look what they are: adequate water-carriers but totally lacking in vision and execution. 

[Walcombe canary 69]

We do miss Emi. Replacing him was always going to be difficult. Impossible. If you cannot find that replacement, then you have to change your formation, to supply Teemu or another. But Emi did not walk straight into our then, Championship team when he arrived. It took a while. Now we are asking inexperienced players to walk straight into Premier League Football . We needed experienced solid players. I just hope Mr Webber listens to Dean Smith. Not sure who will want to join us though, with the predicament that we are in.

[hogesar 9,611]

I think Emi was a bigger deal in the way Farke played rather than now. With a full squad our chance creation under Smith has been decent. For some of Farke's latter games (Brentford aside) the concern was we weren't even fashioning a single good chance.

[ÅlandicCanary 38]

Emi was an interesting player. Funny though how memories grow sweeter with time...

He was very much a moody on/off player who could be absolutely sublime at times, then in the next game he'd be completely anonymous. I remember those games vividly, how he was clearly agitated and annoyed when things weren't going his way. Sitting, lying down, shouting, waving with his hands... he'd be all IDFC at times. He wasn't always a starter either last time we were in the Premier League, and that wasn't because of injuries or suspensions. He'd be benched a few times as his performances could be so uneven. But now, all people think about when his name is mentioned is those times when he excelled. 

Don't get me wrong, he was definitely a good player, and a great asset to us. He made Cantwell and Pukki look really good... when he was in the mood. To be fair, those three made each other look excellent. This season for large parts only Pukki's been on, and that really hasn't worked out at all.

Edited December 30, 2021 by ÅlandicCanary

[sgncfc 1,221]

I think we expected Gilmour to become that playmaker, but that hasn't happened. So we don't have one. No flair players or creators at all having got rid of Vrancic as well.

The plan was also to move away from relying on one player to a system where we created throughout the side, rather than moving through the lines to Pukki, moving the ball wide and releasing runners. That hasn't worked because PL teams are wise to it and simply close down the channels, pressing us into an area where we inevitably make mistakes. Palace did it again on Tuesday because we have no one who can pick the ball off the defence and move us forward without losing the ball or misplacing the pass. Leitner, Vrancic, Buendia all did this in the Champs. Gilmour and Maclean aren't good enough to play that game.

We need a Marvellous Nakamba type player - he cost Villa £10m in 2019. Within our orbit. They are out there.

[Mayos Noun 1]

I agree. Norwich fans need a scapegoat and instead of backing the team, are more hellbent on abusing the players. It will be really difficult for Norwich to work with clubs like Chelsea again.