18 Mar 2025 21:25:07
I'm sorry to read that Kellyman has had a recurrence of his hamstring issues and will now be out for the remainder of the season.
I was told by my only Villa supporting mate that he is a bit of a gem.
I think he was supposed to go out on loan next season but whatever happens I wish the lad well and better luck for next season.
19 Mar 2025 08:02:53
Not sure how your Villa mate would know if he is a gem Tom, he is always injured.
Do our SD's look for people to populate our medical department for the duration of the season.
That being said, it's not his fault and I feel sorry for the lad, same with Lavia, Badashiele and Fofana.
19 Mar 2025 11:07:04
And much of the rime Reece James can be dded to that sad list Bill and can only hope he doesn't get injured again any time soon but can one day get back to his best. He has been some way off it for a while still getting a couple of goals.
Kellyman seemed yet another youth gamble to me when we needed some experience as back up and/ or not to loan out relatively proven Chucky.
19 Mar 2025 15:07:38
Bill, my mate is a follower of Villa at all levels (bonkers) so will have seen Kellyman several times, I may well be wrong but I seem to remember him saying he saw him play some mins for the first team.
He was, if I remember correctly injured when we signed so it was always unlikely we could loan him out for this season.
19 Mar 2025 16:07:03
That sums up our recruitment pay £19 million for an injured player who is now out for the rest of the season.
19 Mar 2025 16:53:07
More sorry for the lad than apportioning any blame.
19 Mar 2025 17:30:33
Quite right Tom to feel sorry for any young player blighted by injury and I certainly wish Kellyman all the very best in overcoming his after months of frustration and hard rehbilitation efforts.
But Jimbo also right to point out about the risk in signing injured players especially on the back of Fofana and Lavia battles in this respect. Tghen to compound problem by loaning out/ selling fit ones and leaving our squad looking very thin in terms of options off the bench.
19 Mar 2025 18:15:39
JBS, I would only be guessing but I assume in cases/ signings like Kellyman he would only be signed after a very thorough medical.
If there were any flags about ongoing or potential injury issues it then becomes about risk.
When these things happen I personally find it hard to apportion blame.
19 Mar 2025 21:22:40
The injury issues could be down to bad luck. We have had a lot of bad luck recently. We were unlucky to have had a disastrous transfer window last summer. We were unlucky to have signed a number of keepers, none of which is good enough to cement the No 1 spot in the PL. We were unlucky not to have FOS sponsorship this season. The only thing I can think of is that we have offended the Gods of Football and the curse can only be lifted by human sacrifice- any suggestions.
19 Mar 2025 21:44:19
I’m not a fan good luck or bad but on the other hand I will almost certainly wish most but not all people good luck.
As far as keepers are concerned I’m still not sure I could right three of them off as not being good enough just yet.
My guess is no bad luck involved in the decision for a FIS sponsor. Time will tell if it was a reasonable commercial decision.
A proper curse is when you don’t win a major trophy for 70 years or the premiership for 50 years.
20 Mar 2025 08:28:59
Tom the goalkeeper situation is indicative of the problems at the club: buy young players and hope for the best. Having a settled No 1 keeper is a given for top clubs. Liverpool have already done their succession planning for Alison. All of the posters were crying out for a top class keeper in the summer: we all knew it was the starting block to building a team that could compete.
20 Mar 2025 12:08:50
I don't see how not having a front of shirt sponsor can be seen as anything other than a failure. If we get a long term sponsor next season, it won't be 'oh look it worked out we got a long tern shirt sponsor' it will be why did we not get a sponsor dor a season. We've not made a dime off a front of shirt sponsor this year, we were better off listing a charity on the front.
20 Mar 2025 12:46:14
Jimbo, i would have preferred us to go down a different route when buying goalkeepers.
I repeat I have no idea if three of our keepers wi prove to be top keepers and therefore astute buys.
Standard, I have put forward a guess that could mathematically prove that not having a FOS for a five year period while not in the Champions League could be a reasonable commercial decision. Obviously when I put that case forward it was with the caveat that we achieve CL football this season. If we sing then in my opinion in becomes a poor commercial decision.
I agree about having a charity sponsor deal for this season and sent an email to the club when it was said we wouldn’t have a deal for this season. The reply I got at the time was something like “conversation/ negotiations are still ongoing along with sponsorship for the WCC.
20 Mar 2025 17:32:00
Tom, exactly I have no idea if the goalkeepers will be top class or any of the other young players. That’s the issue we no longer sign top class players. The new sponsorship deal better be good to make up for a season and a half’s lost revenue.
20 Mar 2025 19:55:33
I think we just to except that the SD’s have been asked to invest the owners money it players that are considered “prospects. ”
I decided some time ago just to look at the players the way I think our owners and some other clubs owners view players and that is as commodities.
It’s much easier to reconcile and you don’t become attached to any player or players!
21 Mar 2025 08:36:09
Tom, you are probably right but most prospects disappear into the ether. This club now would never have brought in Ballack, Ashley Cole, Kante or Makaleke: this is why we have lost our winning mentality apart from the useless coaches we have appointed.
21 Mar 2025 09:30:10
Jimbo, I keep on saying the same thing. These owners have a different business model.
It’s perfectly reasonable that we moan about not signing recognised, ready made players but it ain’t going to happen for a while and then only if they are under 25 years of age.
The big tests of this so called plan have to a certain extent happened and will no continue to happen for the next few years. It will only take the sale of a “few” players who turn out to be superstars for the fans to really get upset. Having said that RA sold both KDB and Salah and nothing happened but I guess we were winning things, so all is forgiven!
21 Mar 2025 15:57:46
I have no idea what the owners business model is. I would hope it would be to make Chelsea successful again. Most top European clubs look to bring in young talent but they don’t neglect the needs of the current squad and pay silly money for young unproven players. If you need to fill a gap or strengthen in certain areas you need proven players. If we carry on like this we will remain to be the mid table mediocre team we have been over the last 3 seasons.
21 Mar 2025 21:54:39
Jimbo, I’m sorry mate but you could have counted on the fingers of one hand the amount of premiership signings of players over 25 years of age in the last two windows by the majority of premiership clubs. As I’ve mentioned before I see it as a worrying trend.
I can’t be sure but if you look at some clubs with mature ish players it’s because they were at there club for three years or more before the recent clamour by a lot of clubs to sign younger talent.
It will be interesting to see how Liverpool potentially act if they lose three proven players on free transfers this summer. Will they go for so called “proven talent” or young prospects.
It’s probably me but the so called in contract and end of contract value is more pronounced than I can remember.
I would also add for for balance it also appears that what is good for the balance sheet is almost as important as winning trophies. It would be to cruel (perhaps) to mention, are spurs more successful for winning zero for twenty years than CFC? For me NO but then I want to look at the trophy cabinet.