You've still got problems left over from the PL. may be some players etc that can't be gotten rid of yet i.e. Bongo and there is def a lack of a leader in the team. Brucie isn't the most dynamic of managers either and it may be he's being found out sooner rather than later.
At least you live to fight another day in the Champo and have an opportunity next season for promo or playoffs whereas us...I have a terrible feeling about next week...

You've taken one of the best players in this league from us, and your buffoon of a manager can't coach him.
You bought him not because you needed him, but because you could afford to take him.

Killpage - Not sure either about PL problems or the players. Of those who started the match yesterday 5 were bought in January, 2 last summer, and 4 were already here.

Of the 4, Baker and Hutton have been some of the best players we've had, Bacuna isn't that good, and Gardner poor lad is way below what's good enough and I don't know why he was picked; we have better.

Good luck next week; we need our local battles!

snapski - puzzles us. Hourihane was bought because he appeared to provide something good in an area where we're weak, so not a bad reason. Bruce doesn't seem to think in terms of player strengths; most of the time he's either stuck on the wing or on the bench.

Where do you reckon Hourihane should play? I've assumed he's a deep-lying midfielder who's good at getting attacks going.

We have a long way to go mcp no way at present will we get out of this league next year

It may change over summer but there are too many teams which appear much better than we currently are.

The three that remain from the play-offs,Leeds Norwich Derby for starters.

Brentford Wolves Preston and Cardiff are at least as good and then you will have Sheffield United Sunderland etc etc..........

Lot of work to be done

UTV

We could go up with our current squad given a bit of luck and all the teams doing a huddersfield

But I wouldn't bet on it

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I feel the main problem is we just have far too many average players who wouldn't even stand out in league one !! Bacuna, Grealish, Gardner, Amavi, to name a few need offloading in the summer. Have to say though, Lansbury, Hourihane, and Hogan have been very disappointing since arriving but is this down to Bruce and his weak tactical approach to games ???

Have been looking at your results for this season: Overall August & September were bad, October, November, ok; December mixed; January bloody awful, February bad, March good, April poor.

So you have no consistency at all; but when you click you're on fire! Your best results have been a couple of 3-0s. But you also have one of the lowest "goals for" in the league (46 with 47 against - 1 GD)

From that it would seem you have defensive frailties and problems holding onto a lead. And in a way you're a bit like Sunderland - too reliant on one player to get you out of trouble. In Sunderland's case it's Defoe, in your case its Kodjia. If he isn't playing you're all at sea. And if he does decide to move on next season then you really are in some serious do-do!

The Championship is a tough league to get out of, as we all know; the likes of Sunderland and 'Boro will have a shedload of parachute money to fall back on to attract/keep the best players available, and they will probably do a Newcastle. But for the likes of Villa, it's going to take considerable time, money and effort to get yourselves back into the Premiership - and I just wonder if Bruce still has that magic to motivate teams getting there!

Good analysis. The bits where we've done well is when Bruce has gone back to basics, set up not to concede, and relied on Kodjia to nick a goal. In fact, we've become more reliant on Kodjia since Bruce arrived. It won't get us anywhere next season.

With the exception of Johnstone and Taylor, none of Bruce's January signings have been a success, so far.

This is all so depressing reading some of the comments on here

We should be where Everton are at the very least. Instead we might not be even playing in the PL for a long time.

Safe to see Villa are very much a small club these days if Brentford, Preston and Cardiff are on a par with us. Can't see Xia's 10 year plan to get us as good as Real Madrid or Bayern coming to fruition!

Also strange to see so many people want Amavi and Grealish gone. Weren't these supposed to be two of our brightest talents with the potential to go far?

Grealish is our second highest scorer and the most likely to get a goal if Kodjia isn't playing. No I don't want him gone. He's still learning, and learning in a misfiring team, but he's no worse than most of the others and I still reckon has great potential. Put him in a good team and he'll be a good player.

People forget how young Amavi is. He has skills but he's looking iffy in defence, and he's coming back from a having a year out with injury. Think he might be better abroad for a bit, but he's by no means a write off.

Another consideration is that up until about mid
February you were hovering just over the relegation zone! Had it not been for a good turn around of fortunes from about mid Feb to first week in April (21 points from a possible 24), you could have been battling with us trying to avoid the drop!

I think that your best period of form, but then it all went pear-shaped again for the rest of April (other than for beating us of course, lol).

So you're definitely not immune from dropping into the abyss that is L1 - look at the likes of Wigan and Blackburn! In the Prem not so long ago, and now look at them (and then of course there's Coventry!)

Difficult to imagine that not so long ago you were challenging for European places (between 95-01 no lower than 8th) But since 2011, well best not check the stats really!

I know Blues have always been a pretty average club at best; and so I can accept Championship footie is probably our level. But as for Villa - something really has gone drastically wrong and it's been coming for a few years now. Question is, when will it stop?

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Paddy - do you think we'll score another goal?

Both Monaco and Juve were in the second tier a few years back, Monaco actually stayed there for two seasons and finished midtable the first year much like us.

Now they're both in the semi-finals of the CL.

That has to be the aim for us. It can be done, even if right now we're looking average in a poor league. We're still a bigger pull for players than Cardiff, Brentford etc and we'll have a far bigger budget than them.

Before Bruce came in Di Matteo had won one game. Since Bruce came in we have won 15 of 35 league games. He's also lost a lot, but his win rate is decent and the best we've had since Houllier/O'Neill era. With a proper pre-season and some more quality added (we need more of the Neil Taylor/Mile Jedinak/James Chester signings, not Hogan/Lansbury/Hourihane - though I suppose they could come good next year) then Bruce should get us up. And once we're back up there we have to aim high, invest wisely, & compete with teams higher up the league. We cannot get into relegation battles again.