The Doc's alternative Aston Villa season review
Tuesday, 08 May 07, 06:04 AM · Comments (10)
Well, the season ended up being a bit like my mum's sponge cake. It collapsed in the middle. But it won't be long before those maddening home draws with Middlesbrough and Fulham are merely misty memories.
Should Villa finish the term by avoiding defeat at the Reebok, we'll have both started and finished the season with nine games unbeaten, having effectively shown Champions League form in the first and last quarters and relegation form in the middle two.
With a deeper and more talented squad and one or two big name arrivals, nobody should expect Villa to struggle between Christmas and Easter again.
So was it a good season? We're still mid table and we couldn't manage a run in either cup. We took four points out of a possible twenty-four against the big boys. We scored more than two goals only once (unless we bang three or four in against simple Sammy's Bolton).
Doesn't sound like we should be decking out our houses in claret-and-blue bunting, does it? Never mind twirling our yankee scarves over our heads.
So in terms of reviewing the season slightly differently, I'm going to list my Top 3 (Alternative) Reasons to Be Cheerful, my Top 3 Moments of the Season and make my Alternative Player of the Year Award.
Top Three Reasons to Be Cheerful (in reverse order)
3. Milan Baros has gone
2. A win at Bolton will mean a nine point improvement over last season. Improve by nine points again next season, and we'll be in the UEFA Cup. Another nine the following season, and it's the Champions League
1. The moaning b*****d who sits behind me, and who presumably hates Villa anyway, isn't going to renew his season ticket
Top Three Moments of the Season (in reverse order)
3. O'Neill mugging Houllier in the Carew-Baros swap
2. JPA slicing his penalty against Spurs wide, then running as fast as he could (no comment) to the Holte End to head a near-post corner past Sorensen. Oh, and I don't think there was a Spurs player in the box
1. The moaning b*****d who sits behind me making the decision not to renew his season ticket
And now for the real deal. Yes, Player of the Year: Barry and Young Player of the Year: Agbonlahor. Obvious. But I'm going to base my Doc's Alternative Player of the Year awards on two criteria: performance compared to last season, and performance compared to expectations. That rather sinks Barry, doesn't it? Anyway, here goes.
The Doc's Alternative Player of the Year Awards
Third: Craig Gardner
We saw a bit of Gardner last season and, well, he ran around a lot. I'm sure nobody except O'Neill, Robertson and Walford expected him to eclipse and be preferred to the ever-popular Steven Davis. And quite where this intelligent, mobile, dangerous box-to-box midfielder has come from, God only knows. Good on the lad, and congratulations on third place.
Second: Patrik Berger
He started the season the second best Czech at the club, fell out with the new boss, sulked at Stoke for a month and couldn't even break into the Potters first team. Would anyone have had any cash on Berger then coming back to be the architect of Villa's late season revival?
The bookies would have seen you coming...but they would have been laughing on the other side of their faces as Paddy provided skill, vision and penetration to Villa's midfield and brought the best out of Carew, Young and Gabby. His fantastic goal on Saturday said it all. Congratulations to Paddy on second place.
The Doc's Alternative Player of the Year: FREDDIE BOUMA
You have to say, the 05-06 Freddie was a useless, pie-munching oaf. But one of the reasons JLloyd Samuel is sulking so much and will clearly be off in the summer is this bizarre and wondrous metamorphosis of Bouma into a robust, speedy, incisive and intelligent left back.
I can't remember a poor performance from Freddie all season, but I can remember plenty of very good ones, some of them worthy of my much-coveted "man of the match" award. Bouma was one of the only players who kept his form as Villa lost their way collectively in mid-season, and I've even started to see people wearing "Bouma" shirts.
Last season, that would have been like wearing a shirt with "Twat" on the back. I hope he gets the number 3 shirt for next season and, if he does, I'll get it printed on my new Nike shirt.
Well done to Freddie for claiming the only award that really matters.
Well, we should have had three points against Bolton at Villa Park, so it's up to the boys to make sure we take them back at The Reebok on Saturday. My money's on a fourth straight away win to round off the season, and a respectable 52 points.
Next season - my tip is sixth. Bring it on.
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10 Comments · Add yours
i think MON knew that the flying start to the season would not last. after all he kept reminding us that a blip would come, and it did. with the squad still small and the run over xmas approaching those early points came in very handy. i always trusted that MON would buy well in jan, but the Carew/Baros swap was just genius. Bardsley was a stop gap till the summer, and he'd seen enough of Young to pay big money for the lad. its taken a while but he seems to be settling in. Maloney seems like a very shrewd buy indeed. The new signings came good (which we never doubted)and the threat of a relegation battle was soon forgotten. I reckon 4 big signings in the summer and a full pre season training under they're belt with the god that is MON and we'll be flying.
Sidwell, Richards, Distin, Bellamy. All maybe's
But it wouldn't surprise me if MON buys relatively unknowns and gets some bargains alongside some big names. he knows what he wants and he probably has some sewn up already. Keeper, Right back, Top class midfielder, One more striker, maybe a centre back.
Anyone got any tips?
Up the Villa. 6th next season.
our season overall has been inconsistant, as soon as we improve on this then we will definately finish in a european spot next season. i'm sure that mon will bring in some quality players. the villa youngters in the team have played exceptional for us this season. the future is bright the future is claret and blue!
not a bad season but i can see us improving a lot in time for next term
Great finish, and much needed to keep the faith. Plenty of positives, I'd just like to see more midield cohesion, and confident reliable defence and more goals (where we really fell down). A few decent signings and continued belief and form might surprise a few at the top next season - fingers crossed.
Biggest high of the season - finishing comfortably above Newcastle FC! - shame we couldnt include Spurs as well.
Roll on August......
Definetly an improvement from last season, but that isn't much to boast about.
We knew MO'N would take time to transform us into Aston Celtic and, after a heavy blip in form, we seem to be gelling as a team and showing real potential.
Summers USofA tour should give us a good chance to warm-up, unfortunate that Gabby, Young and Cahill will be busy in the U21 championships and will have to come back cream-crackered. 'Keeper, right back, right-winger and a quality striker should be all that's needed.
A list of what should be our problem-fixers;
'Keepers: Boruc(celtic), Foster(Man Utd), Gordan(Hearts)
RBs: Vanden-Borre, Diange-Faye(Bolton), Whittaker(Hibs), Simons(PSV) Richards(Man city)
RWs: Barnetta(Leverkusen), SWP(Chelsea), Farfan(PSV)
Strikers: Bisewar(Feyernood), D. Bent(Charlton), Keogh (Scunthorpe), Sharp (Scunthorpe)
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You have to say, the 05-06 Freddie was a useless, pie-munching oaf.
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Brought a tear to my eye!
He started playing so well I even stuck him in my fantasy footy team! He certainly deserves some recognition and if J Lloyd does go, good luck to him.
i think a keeper and a right back are musts
1. foster
2. Neil/richards
3. a top class centre mid - sumone like hargreaves
Foster
Richards Mellberg Laursen Bouma
Young Hargreaves Petrov Barry[c]
Agbonlahor Carew
subs- Taylor, Cahill , Maloney, Gardner/Davis, L.Moore. :D
happy dayz!!!!
up the villa!!!!!!!!
The reason why we failed to have a cup run is all our cup ties were away and the other is we were drawn against Man U and Chelsea.I'm glad MON is in charge of bringing in new signings and not you as i dont fancy your much,although i do agree with the positions you have targeted.what we really need is a real quality goal scorer,Gabby & Carew are both quality players but i dont think either will bag enough to sustain a real push for honours
Commments on signings are a reply to jonny
O'Neill was realistic from the start. He forecast the slump when injuries came and if we still had O'Leary in charge we could well have been looking forward to a season in the championship.
Thankfully we have someone who knows how to use the transfer market and the rest of the season was very encouraging.
We need a midfield ballwinner to replace the ageing McCann and a top quality right back who can get forward. Up the Villa!