Championship 2018-19

[DE.]

Boro haven't even been that good. Been pretty shaky themselves at the back, and misplaced a number of passes going forward. They've just been gifted two ridiculous early goals.

[DE.]

Villa go from being 2-0 up against Preston to 2-2, at home. Can't see Bruce surviving much longer. Regardless of what you think of him as a manager their performances are nowhere near good enough with the players they have available.

[DE.]

OK, now 3-2 Preston

[DE.]

Ended 3-3... can't fault the Championship for entertainment. If we get our act together defensively (ideally stop giving away penalties) there's no reason we can't have a shot at top six. There's a lot less to fear in this league than I thought at the start of the season.

[Tom]

Funny result - both Preston and villa will be gutted with that one 

[Oldgregg86]

Bloody villa just cost me 450 quid ?

[Tom]

With all the clamour around Bruce I didn’t realise they were above us and only 2 points from the Play offs 

[West Yorks Rover]

To be fair to Steve Bruce and Villa, they were 2-0 up and cruising until their best defender James Chester was sent-off on 54 mins.

[DE.]

Just now, Tom said:

With all the clamour around Bruce I didn’t realise they were above us and only 2 points from the Play offs 

Would be below us if not for that bloody 94th minute free kick. They started the season fairly well but have hit a poor patch of form. 1 win in their last 5, drawing far too many games. Similar to us except they have a much, much bigger budget.

[chaddyrovers]

I can see Bruce going after the weekend. Villa target was playoffs at least this season surely. 

Someone threw a cabbage at Bruce. 

Villa fans have turned on him. 

Boro deserved to win at Ipswich today. Jackson and Nolan look poor tonight. Surprise to see Edwards on bench after what I seen of him. Some poor defending tonight them. Boro should have been 5 or 6 tonight. 

Good win for Rowett and Stoke. Nothing to fear from Bolton. 

On what Ive seen all season no reason why we cant make top 6 this season

[roversfan99]

1 hour ago, DE. said:

Would be below us if not for that bloody 94th minute free kick. They started the season fairly well but have hit a poor patch of form. 1 win in their last 5, drawing far too many games. Similar to us except they have a much, much bigger budget.

Wages perhaps but didnt they spend less than us, only buying Nyland and McGinn, or am I missing someone?

Obviously I know they have spent loads on wages for Abraham, Bolasie etc.

[chaddyrovers]

Just now, roversfan99 said:

Wages perhaps but didnt they spend less than us, only buying Nyland and McGinn, or am I missing someone?

Obviously I know they have spent loads on wages for Abraham, Bolasie etc.

I think he meant in terms of huge wages they are all on. Some I think are on 25 to 40k a week. Higher than us. 

[roversfan99]

25 minutes ago, chaddyrovers said:

I think he meant in terms of huge wages they are all on. Some I think are on 25 to 40k a week. Higher than us. 

Aye I know but theyve lost Snodgrass, Terry and Grabban and their summer was a mess what with them seemingly only being able to bring anyone in at the end.

Very much on a different level in terms of wages though, thats for sure. We are in the middle id say in that we have certainly spent more than a lot of teams in the League but arent on the same level as Stoke, Villa, Forest and a few others.

[Fraserkirky]

I really wish we had spent half the Brereton money on John McGinn.

Anyway, we can move into the playoff spots with a win tomorrow night and a tasty derby to look forward to at the weekend.

Enjoying this season so far!!

Edited October 3, 2018 by Fraserkirky

[philipl]

7 hours ago, Fraserkirky said:

I really wish we had spent half the Brereton money on John McGinn.

Anyway, we can move into the playoff spots with a win tomorrow night and a tasty derby to look forward to at the weekend.

Enjoying this season so far!!

I understand the player had his heart set on a big city club and immediate promotion.

[K-Hod]

9 hours ago, chaddyrovers said:

I can see Bruce going after the weekend. Villa target was playoffs at least this season surely. 

Someone threw a cabbage at Bruce. 

Villa fans have turned on him. 

Boro deserved to win at Ipswich today. Jackson and Nolan look poor tonight. Surprise to see Edwards on bench after what I seen of him. Some poor defending tonight them. Boro should have been 5 or 6 tonight. 

Good win for Rowett and Stoke. Nothing to fear from Bolton. 

On what Ive seen all season no reason why we cant make top 6 this season

What kind of whopper takes a cabbage to the footy? 

[chaddyrovers]

8 hours ago, roversfan99 said:

Aye I know but theyve lost Snodgrass, Terry and Grabban and their summer was a mess what with them seemingly only being able to bring anyone in at the end.

Very much on a different level in terms of wages though, thats for sure. We are in the middle id say in that we have certainly spent more than a lot of teams in the League but arent on the same level as Stoke, Villa, Forest and a few others.

Arabham's wages will be high. Plus still have Lansbury on 40k a week I believe. 

Villa transfer business was a mess and very disjoined. 

After Bruce's comments on talksport this morning he sounded very fed up and close to walking out on them. I think he needs a break from football and then come back next summer. 

15 minutes ago, K-Hod said:

What kind of whopper takes a cabbage to the footy? 

True. 

Threw at Bruce before the game

[DE.]

I was primarily talking about wage budget when comparing ourselves and Villa, but if you look at the cost of building each club's starting eleven from our match a few weeks ago:

Rovers

Raya - £0

Nyambe - £0
Lenihan - £0
Mulgrew - £0
Bell - £250k

Smallwood - £0
Evans - £800k
Bennett - Unsure but unlikely to be more than a few hundred thousand
Dack - £750k

Graham - £0

Villa

Nyland - undisclosed, transfermarkt has it down about £2.5m. 

Hutton - £4m
Tuanzebe -  Loan
Chester -   £8.4m
Taylor - £0 (swap deal)

El Mohamady - £1m
Jedinak - £4.1m
McGinn - £2.8m
Adomah - £3.1m
Grealish - £0

Abraham -  Loan

And keep in mind Villa's first team there doesn't include Scott Hogan (£9.5m), Henri Lansbury (£3m), Connor Hourihane (£3.1m), Bjarnason (£2m), Kodjia (£11.8m). Add in the wages for the likes of Hutton, Tuanzebe, Chester, Abraham, and Yannick Bolasie and it's clear Villa are operating on a completely different financial level to us. A suicidal one, but even if they have been more prudent this season their overall squad is built on financial levels we haven't ever seen under Venky's. 

[roversfan99]

19 minutes ago, DE. said:

I was primarily talking about wage budget when comparing ourselves and Villa, but if you look at the cost of building each club's starting eleven from our match a few weeks ago:

Rovers

Raya - £0

Nyambe - £0
Lenihan - £0
Mulgrew - £0
Bell - £250k

Smallwood - £0
Evans - £800k
Bennett - Unsure but unlikely to be more than a few hundred thousand
Dack - £750k

Graham - £0

Villa

Nyland - undisclosed, transfermarkt has it down about £2.5m. 

Hutton - £4m
Tuanzebe -  Loan
Chester -   £8.4m
Taylor - £0 (swap deal)

El Mohamady - £1m
Jedinak - £4.1m
McGinn - £2.8m
Adomah - £3.1m
Grealish - £0

Abraham -  Loan

And keep in mind Villa's first team there doesn't include Scott Hogan (£9.5m), Henri Lansbury (£3m), Connor Hourihane (£3.1m), Bjarnason (£2m), Kodjia (£11.8m). Add in the wages for the likes of Hutton, Tuanzebe, Chester, Abraham, and Yannick Bolasie and it's clear Villa are operating on a completely different financial level to us. A suicidal one, but even if they have been more prudent this season their overall squad is built on financial levels we haven't ever seen under Venky's. 

For sure. That said, its a bit deceptive in that we had Brereton on the bench and Armstrong who you missed who cost at least 8m between them. The summer has removed us from being one of the teams struggling to scrape 2 pennies together. That said, there is quite a few academy players in there which is good.

As you say its the wages that are the main difference. With the likes of Mulgrew, Evans, Bennett, Graham etc and the new deals dotted out in the summer id guess we were again mid range in Championship terms but miles away from Villa and co.

[perthblue02]

1 hour ago, K-Hod said:

What kind of whopper takes a cabbage to the footy? 

Maybe they are concerned about his health/weight and subtly suggesting the cabbage soup diet

[K-Hod]

Just now, perthblue02 said:

Maybe they are concerned about his health/weight and subtly suggesting the cabbage soup diet

There were some funny comments on the Villa message board in relation to him being a salad dodger and that  they should have thrown processed meats at him instead!

I'm not sure if it usurps a live chicken being smuggled into Ewood, as to be fair, there is a Tesco very close to Villa Park.....

[DE.]

16 minutes ago, roversfan99 said:

For sure. That said, its a bit deceptive in that we had Brereton on the bench and Armstrong who you missed who cost at least 8m between them. The summer has removed us from being one of the teams struggling to scrape 2 pennies together. That said, there is quite a few academy players in there which is good.

As you say its the wages that are the main difference. With the likes of Mulgrew, Evans, Bennett, Graham etc and the new deals dotted out in the summer id guess we were again mid range in Championship terms but miles away from Villa and co.

We're certainly not down with the likes of Ipswich, Rotherham and Preston in the financial stakes, as you say we're somewhere in the middle. As such I'd say we're doing just fine. Villa fans on the other hand have a right to be disappointed imo. With the money they've spent they should have gone up last season, and I wouldn't bet on them going up this year either. A lot of money spent and wasted. To some degree we've been there in 2012/13, but Venky's swiftly started cutting their losses after that abject failure of a season. Villa have just kept ploughing money in at an unsustainable level, making huge losses and barely improving. From what I was reading in the summer it could be a pretty bleak scenario if they don't make it back to the PL this season.

[JHRover]

Bruce getting some real unfair stick but not really surprising given the club he's at and the people in the media who love to stir it up. I don't really like the bloke but he's right, it is disrespectful and a symptom of the modern day trigger happy twitter/FIFA/Championship manager world we live in.

Incredible stat mentioned last night - in Bruce's last 6 Championship seasons he's been promoted 4 times and reached the play-off final last year where they lost narrowly to Fulham.

Should Villa be getting promoted? Arguably, given the squad they have and money they've spent, but there are another 5 or 6 who have invested heavily too. Being a 'big club' is utterly irrelevant and its amazing how many people still cannot understand that having 30,000 a week turning up means nothing in terms of winning games.

They had a similar start last season and then ended up in promotion contention throughout and reached the play-off final.

[DE.]

The problem for Villa is that I doubt their ownership would get the next appointment right. Much like Ipswich they'd go from relative stability into the unknown, with decisions made by people who really don't have much of a clue. They apparently wanted to appoint Thierry Henry in the summer so we aren't talking sensible decisions here. 

[philipl]

I have never rated Steve Bruce except as a player.

Will be very happy to see him stay at Villa because I very much doubt if he would ever get them promoted.