This Saturday’s enthralling trip to Goodison Park sees our squad looking to consolidate from their promising performance against the league leaders a week ago, but having to do so without long term internationals casualty, Jordan Amavi. The tragedies occurring in Amavi’s home country at the weekend however certainly put his serious injury into perspective. Everton will have cause to mark Friday evening’s appalling events in Paris with news that the administrator of one of their French supporters’ groups sadly lost his life in the attacks.

Matches against Everton have a special significance for Villa as for several seasons in our recent history they were our benchmark club. During Martin O’Neill’s tenure when Villa achieved three 6th placed finishes in succession the Toffees in the corresponding period finished 5th twice and 8th.

The last four seasons have seen Everton maintain a similar level of consistency (7th, 6th, 5th, and 11th) whilst we have slipped into our annual struggle against relegation with finishes of 16th, 15th, 15th and 17th respectively. Now as we approach the fixture propping up the Barclays Premier League, Everton are still sitting in a comfortable 9th place.

So what has been the difference in the approach of our Merseyside rivals?

There area three key differences that distinguish Everton from ourselves: they have a publicly engaged Chairman at the helm who is a life long supporter of the club; they have made shrewd managerial appointments in Moyes and Martinez that has meant they have retained a consistency of personnel and finally they have shown a continued willingness to make marque signings in the transfer market (a reported £28m paid for Romelu Lukaku last season).

In order to recover our position and replicate or even better the likes of Everton’s model of consistency it seems we have started again. Our restructuring on the footballing side in the summer and beyond now means we have a squad fashioned around up and coming international players, led by a promising internationally experienced coach. This Saturday’s match could therefore be seen as an early contest of the radical, newly emerged strategy, against one that is more seasoned, tried and tested.

The international break has been a time to take stock and recognise that the global nature of modern football is now firmly rooted in the methods of our club. Beyond survival this season we have to dream that it’s the direction that will make us great again.

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Comments 79

  2. steamer

    “The more people talk about the lack of money, there’s a negative thing on it because people can use that as an excuse,” Lambert added. “The main thing for ourselves is to start winning games. Lack of money won’t necessarily make you lose games. But, if you use it as an excuse, it’s always going to happen.”

    ‘Scuse me, what was he saying about his time at Villa a few weeks ago ?

    “When you’re a manager, you always have tunnel vision at certain times. Stepping back from it was probably the best thing that happened to myself.

    You didn’t “step back’ you were BOOTED for being crepe at your job, knob.

  3. Trinity

    Thanks for the leader, Matt.
    Dreams are free, aren’t they? Nice if the direction the club is taking is the right one. I guess, it partly is. Sooner or later, though, the club’s going to have to bring in better players than it currently has if it’s to climb the ladder.

  4. Mark King

    Thanks matt, Everton have always been their with us since the league cup replays in 1977. If I get to watch it this Saturday I will be surrounded by Evertonians not so bad last season when we beat them under Sherwood. If it wasn’t for relatives visiting at the same time as me it would of been at the match. I have no idea how the match will turn out but I am hopeful and I don’t think it will be an embarrassment. We should see how Garde is going to approach these games against the top half, we may see another solid display or hopefully something a little more adventurous.

    Match wise Sanchez v Barkley will be interesting as will Gardes choice of left-back. Will Kosak appear with gestede struggling? Will Nzogbia get a place from the start? Gardner, Gabby, Westwood and Okore are available too, should be interesting.

    Grealish has to impress Garde before Roy Hodgson full stop, whether he could of played for Ireland is irrelevant if he’s not at his best. The players getting a call are playing well for their clubs although Albrighton can consider himself unlucky. Grealish could be a major player for England he just needs to step up, it won’t be given to him.

  7. Mark King

    St75- I agree but he’s been under 21 , I don’t agree with his inclusion above Saha (Playing for U21 at the moment)or Albrighton, Grealish to be fair could of got in on the back of the Liverpool semi.

  9. steamers75

    to be honest Mark A or B , l couldnt tell the difference , as steamer says , Grealish needs to go to the spuds , dont think he will be popping in scanlons for a while

  12. runtings

    Nice leader Matt

    we are venturing into the unknown with Garde – we know we are currently shhh but could be a new team under garde — a few weeks of drills with most of the team should hopefully see us getting stronger as a unit and hopefully some guidance in how to attack teams
    Re Jack – i think he is destined to play for England but don’t think he has done enough at club level yet — he needs to add goals , assists and a ruthlessness to effect game – once thats in place he will be some player

    did anyone see Ronaldinho in the beckham match – the guy is a joy

  13. DarrenO

    Still delirious over last night, roll on end of day so I can sleep, COYBIG, good luck to Grealish if and when he gets into the England team, I’d agree he needs to toughen up and add goals to be a viable alternative to other options in his position. Wish I could have more moments like this supporting Villa
    I see the trolls were out reminding Grealish we’ll be at the EUROs too, some funny feckers we have 🙂
    Thank god we are back this weekend though, looking forward to seeing how Garde adapts to Everton as well as imposing our game on them, i’ll take a draw away from home and knock seven shades of shhh out of Watford and Villa reject Deeney.

  14. John Lerwill

    Compliments to you for your leader, Matt. Pretty well on the ball I think. 😉

    To go off topic once more, this morning I read that just last year (2014), over 32,000persons had been killed by terrorist activity. Multiply that by a factor of 2 for those who survived but were seriously hurt, then we have a total of around 100,000 very serious casualties … women, children as well as men. The survivors and the families of the dead will be mentally scarred as well.

    But many (most?) of those so damaged will have been Muslims.

    In my view, it’s a time for sharing the core values of our faith (whatever faith it might be) with Muslims everywhere, and decry any attack against them just because they are Muslims.

  17. steamer

    Another example of what a knob Chubby is –
    Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the Greater Birmingham Chamber of Commerce, said: “This a hugely significant step in the evolution of the West Midlands and one in which the business community is ready to throw its full weight in support.”

    So much for a democratic vote.

  19. steamers75

    Runtins
    good description there ,cold Jamaica it is laid back over there and it was funny how you fall in with it ,mind that could have been because you were drinking proper guinness . quite a few of our lot were over there yesterday . a couple used to work on the turnstiles over there , how the fuck they managed that l dont know , my best best moment was seeing an old fashioned horse and cart and the bloke took me for a ride round the block , l said at the time l could live there but it was the building boom and the prices were rocketing every week , and l always kick myself as never going over to jamaica when l was 16 , spanish Town , l only wanted to go to hit the reggae record shops ,
    well it seems bookings ect for the Euros are being talked about now ,got to be honest lm going with the Irish lot , only last night l was telling Jenny about the Irish clubs l used to go too , The Talk of the town , jigsaw club , Gary Owen , the Ringway (that was strange 1971 Irish club downstairs ,Gay club upstairs ) and the Harp club . l think my Foxy is still swinging from a lamp-post in Dublin by the looks of his Facebook page , wonder what Brasil is doing or if he knows where he is even ))

  22. steamer

    Just been reading about Trevor Birch who has been given the job of selling Bolton Wanderers, he’s been CEO at several top clubs and sold Chelsea to Abramovich, an ex pro too. Surely this is the type of administrator Villa should have gone for before appointing Fox who is clueless at his job, knows bugger all about football or Birmingham and has no empathy with our support. Apart from being American i don’t really know how he got the job.

  24. runtings

    st75 hiya

    gotta love the Irish , they remind me so much of the yardies – laid back , great sense of humour – don’t take themselves to seriously , not to be messed with and went through the same struggles as Jamaicans during the 60’s when many were invited over to work in health , transport ect — love um

  25. steamer

    Trin,
    You can’t believe that Jonah Lomu has died at 40, he seemed indestructable, sympathies with everyone in NZ that such an icon has died so young.

    Runtingz,
    Loads of the old boys follow Ireland h&a and they have a great time.

  26. steamer

    There seems to be a problem with Brigata 74 standing at games. The stewards have been told to sling them out, so why doesn’t the club instruct them to throw out the away fans who stand ? Double standards and another example of punishing our own fans and the low regard in which they are held.

  28. runtings

    Steamer – i always think the irish ,scots and brazil fans add a real party atmosphere to major championship finals

    also seen a lot lately re the Brigata 74 — and i agree it seems crazy having our our fans booted out of games for standing — banned banners ect — the people running the club are puzzling to put it nicely

  29. Jenny Truman

    Challenging for Remi / one of his star players out for the season but remains grounded and talks common sense – like the link Mark has put up – back to basics and repetition – sounds good – keep it simple , don’t over complicate in the early stages .

    Yes St75 – I never made the Gary Owen but had some crazy happy times at the Irish Centre in Digbeth on a Saturday night as my best friend was Irish so we went on the Irish trail . Also some hotel I think in Selly Oak where the bar never closed .

    Like your sentiment John – one God – but sadly will never happen . What’s most important at the moment IMO is to stand solid and embrace the Muslim people – who are being manipulated by ISIS – it’s for all religions to stick together and fight the evil of ISIS which has nothing to do with Islam at all .

    The worst thing ever would be to wage war and alienate Muslims – that is what ISIS want so they can recruit more .
    Sorry for the politics – love and peace to everyone . X

  30. Jenny Truman

    I remember when the Brigada were invited in and I think it was in Gerard Houlliers time – to get the atmosphere back at VP. They certainly make some noise and it’s great to have them . I’m not sure what this is about Steamer as they were defo invited by the club . I have spoken to a few and the ones I have spoken to are genuinely good lads and are a bonus .

  31. Mark King

    Jen – yes good old religion, unfortunately to open to manipulation and taken literally by the masses. As JL’s fond of telling me you have to do your own digging and come to your own conclusions, more a journey than a set of orders, people seem to like labels though.

    On brigada about time we had standing only lower Holte or upper surely? People are less erm boisterous than they used to be in my time so I don’t think it would promote trouble.

  33. steamer

    On the news …. ISIS have just bombed St Andrews…. done 10m pounds of improvements.

    I see the Tooting Poplar Front have been busy. ( for old ‘uns ).

  38. Paul Pears

    Glad to see Gil is at last happy working with garde. Maybe now we will see an improvement in our attack and mid-field.

    Looking forward to Saturday’s game…..Power to our away fans…..Citizen Steamer…..and the Tooting and Small Heath popular Front….

  39. John Lerwill


    Jenny: “Like your sentiment John – one God – but sadly will never happen . ”

    Ah … but the point is it *has* happened but we can’t yet see it. 🙂 Yours is a pretty dismissive statement, Jenny, but I know a great majority see it the way you appear to do.

    There’s a lot going on that we don’t realise, Jenny, and now is the time to look deeply into the matter. There can only ever been one Creator, therefore there *is* one God … we just have to find him/her. As everyone will – one day.

  40. John Lerwill

    Jenny: “What’s most important at the moment IMO is to stand solid and embrace the Muslim people – who are being manipulated by ISIS – it’s for all religions to stick together and fight the evil of ISIS which has nothing to do with Islam at all .”

    Well, I certainly agree with the sentiment behind that … but there has to be some mutual understanding to make that fully possible.

    In fact there’s more to it than meets the eye, as it’s not just ISIS that’s misleading Muslims. I could write a book on the subject.

    In fact *all* religions have been mis-led.

  43. Jenny Truman

    I didn’t mean to be dismissive John – sorry if it came across that way . It’s just a huge subject . One God or not , the application of the teaching is so varied as to be IMO unworkable . Take the role of women in Islam compared to say the role of women in the catholic faith .

    I came across this by chance as my friend did the web site . What a captivating and inspiring video on the home page – I defy anyone to watch it with a dry eye – simply children affected by war time violence being sponsored to have a day out at the seaside – and this is how they looked . Haunting music too .

    https://www.childrenofpeace.org.uk/

  46. John Lerwill

    Jenny,

    With respect, what you refer to is the attitude towards women in *Sunni* Islam which (I must admit) is the biggest sect of Islam, and itself contains 4 major branches.

    But … did you know that the Prophet’s first wife was older than he and was a business woman in her own right? And respected accordingly. That the prophet’s own daughter (Fatima) is revered in the Shia sect of Islam?

    Did you know that the first university in the world outside of India was founded in Fez, Morooco in the 9th century by a Muslim woman? That uni still exists.

    Have you heard of Rabbia, the mystic saint?

    In fact there are many other examples of women in Islam achieving great things but in recent centuries (not in the early days) woman have been put down in Sunni Islam – a cultural thing, *not* religious.

    In the Sufi (mystic) paths of Islam, women still have a great standing.

  48. John Lerwill

    Jenny: ” It’s just a huge subject . One God or not , the application of the teaching is so varied as to be IMO unworkable”

    Yes, it *is* a huge subject and I’ve spent 40 years living through study and experience in trying to grapple with it.

    But you may not realise that certain things have been happening in the last 100 years plus that are creating the path for a huge change – in the *very* near future. Unfortunately, unless your heart wants to know about it, it could pass you (us) by.

    Do you realise that Muslims, Christians, Hindus and Buddhists are already aware and are sharing the commonality already?

    Only last night I was looking at a video of what’s happening at an ashram in Georgia, USA…

    There’s plenty of Good News to be told…

  49. Jenny Truman

    John – I don’t know any where near as much as you do on this subject – I appreciate that . I speak only what my Muslim girl friends have told me – who have viewed the treatment of women ie themselves as oppressive and unwanted .

  50. John Lerwill

    Jenny,

    You may have never heard of the Ismaili Muslims … They are resident in the UK and the world over (about 20 million) and are led by the Aga Khan. Their standing in their religion is completely equal with men.

  51. John Lerwill

    Jenny,

    It could be you only speak to Sunni women – who are by far the most in Britain, I admit.

    Find Ismaili women and you’ll hear a completely different story. But the Sunni branch won’t accept the Ismailis as Muslims.

  52. Mark King

    JL- This is where organised religion shoots itself in the foot, the insistence that only they can go to heaven, bring us to god etc, they can’t all be right. There is almost an Element of snobbery too, I’ve personally known quite a few that I have found to be not very complementary about others they see as inferior outside their Sphere. Its a shame as the originators were trying to achieve something quite different, their real message gets lost in all this infighting.

  53. Mark King

    I have just watched Remis pre-match chat and although he was complementary about the singing the French Anthem at Wembley I thought he looked uncomfortable with all the constant references to the Paris shootings and so was I. Again our media go over the top almost willing remi to praise the British people. As for playing the French anthem at all prem matches? isn’t that just highlighting what the terrorists have done? we need a little more humility I feel like our manager has.

  54. Mark King

    Nice to see what Martinez makes of our new Manager, very unlike the British counterparts.

    “The Toffees boss said he had been impressed with bottom-club Villa’s performance as they secured a 0-0 draw against table-topping Manchester City before the international break in Remi Garde’s first game in charge.

    Martinez praised Garde’s immediate impact on the players.

    He told his press conference this morning: “I think the new manager has come in with a very, very clear idea of the way he wants to see Villa playing.

    “He has got really good experience of the British game from his time as a player and I think if you follow a little bit his teams in France – or the success he has had with Lyon – you are going to see a team that is based on attacking football.

    “He prepares the games really, really well from that point of view, but I think the togetherness, the fighting spirit that they had against Manchester City is a really good starting point of this new chapter in his career.”

  55. steamers75

    until l answer the door to god l wont be following any religion , in the cul-de-sac l live in l have jehovah’s , 7-day adventists and methodist’s and l have had them all at my door trying to convince me to follow their religion, after explaining l wont they have left me alone although the jehovah will have a little tap every now and then , l look at whats been going for years and think to myself if there was a god he would have done something to the human race by now , l remember watching that star trek film where we sent a probe years ago and it came back waiting to hear a whale song or it would destroy earth and we had none , if you saw it you know the story , and it was quite a good idea in my eyes , anyway although l dont believe , l wont have a go at anyone who has a faith , l just hate the thought of someone trying to ram something down my throat l dont believe in ,

  56. runtings

    heavy stuff this religion milarky
    it actually means way of life so everbody has one , but if you way of life leads you to hurt another then you go against everything that is good –

    john lennon summed it up perfectly for me

  57. John Lerwill

    Runtings,

    What you’ve said is a common sense view of a humanist, and a guru who I greatly respect has said that the major part of religion *is* common sense!

    In fact “religion” is not supposed to be something about a label – as common sense dictates, it’s about what is within each of us in relation to our Maker.

    Mind you, I have had some great chats with Jehovahs , 7-day Adventists and Mormons … they usually go away looking either very puzzled or frustrated. I don’t like them to be “frustrated” – perhaps I’ll find how to speak to them in a better way.

  58. John Lerwill

    S75: “l look at whats been going for years and think to myself if there was a god he would have done something to the human race by now”

    Perhaps the idea is for us to use *our* brains and heart to find the solution? If we keep waiting for God we’re probably going to get disappointed – he/she might be on a plane to Siberia!

  60. Trinity

    Mark
    Interesting article about the boy. Over the years, I’ve known autistic kids and others to have amazing abilities in maths etc.
    Regarding religion, I consider myself to be Christian. However, I’d hate to live in a society where people were looked down upon for having different beliefs. As long as they’re not hurting anybody, it’s their business.
    That’s why seperation of state and church is so important, and it’s something western democracies got right. Unfortunately, there are those in the world who think church and state should be one. They think if you’re not in the church, you are inherently something less and more-or-less an enemy of the state.
    So I say, Vive La France, God save the Queen and God bless America…

  61. Mark King

    Trinity- your right it is a war of rights of how you choose to live your life but we shouldn’t forget people don’t like being bombed. Bit of a bugger when wearing a bikini gets you stoned I’ll have to stop

  62. Trinity

    Mark
    “Bit of a bugger when wearing a bikini gets you stoned I’ll have to stop”
    That highlights just how mental things are. You’d be stoned to death for being first a cross dresser and second for just wearing a bikini in the first place. If it wasn’t true, it’d be hilarious.
    Don’t think you’d suit a bikini. Matter of taste, I suppose:)
    Looking forward to some football this weekend.

  63. Mark King

    Trininty- yes mate will bring some sanity to my world, Shame garde has had 7 of the team he played against city on international duty though. I can’t guess the line-up at the moment but probably pretty similar unless someone’s impressed I suppose.

  66. Jenny Truman

    Thanks Mark for putting the point I was struggling to make diplomatically “bit of a bugger when wearing a bikini gets you stoned I’ll have to stop” 🙂

    Interesting

    “Chelsea believe a lack of English players in the squad is a problem”

    Problem because of why exactly ? Is it dressing room or team spirit ? Commitment?

    So Remi says non to Round . Good he’s making the decisions.

    Can’t wait for the football Saturday , match day warm up on the radio , Autumn sunshine hopefully , team news , 90 mins of agony and getting the results coming in and hoping the closest by us have lost – can’t beat it 🙂

  69. John Lerwill

    Jenny: ‘Thanks Mark for putting the point I was struggling to make diplomatically “bit of a bugger when wearing a bikini gets you stoned I’ll have to stop” ‘

    Mmmmm…. You would only get stoned in those places where those **cultural** laws are enforced, so what *is* the point, Jenny?

    The fact is that western women (and men) go out to far flung places and behave as though they were on the beaches at Blackpool. They are (sorry to say) bound to disturb the locals and get some kind of local response.

    Even in places such as India (say Kerala) and Malaysia western people do it – without any respect for the local culture. That behaviour hurts the local people quite a lot – and in such places the locals are very often *not* Muslims.

    Sorry, Jenny, we’re so inured to many things that takes place here that we tend to think it’s OK everywhere … even when it’s not. And understandably not if we were to try to understand the mindset of eastern people

    Important: It’s not probably realised very well that some of our culture actually feeds the terrorist propaganda, as they say this is behaviour against God. In fact, it’s probably more to do with lack of self-esteem, but the terrorist brain doesn’t allow for that. However, many of those that go from Europe to fight with ISIS (Daesh) because they are so religiously imbued they cannot tolerate western life and think that ISIS is standing up for that view. They are (of course) blinded to the cold-blooded brutality of ISIS (Daesh) and have hitherto not realised the reality until they’ve got there.

    Sorry to pursue this theme, but I hope I’m helping to put some light on this matter.

  70. Heroes-and-Villans

    Well if we want to get out of trouble we need to at least use new manager syndrome and simply start winning games. Interested to see if illori, adama get on the bench, prob same team as city game.
    Always like the villa v everton fixture….i start to feel nostalgic allready and wonder when we will play at goodison next!?

  74. steamer

    It goes without saying that tomorrow is a difficult game for us, we’re not scoring many and usually concede so i think the best we can hope for is a draw, probably 0-0, if we’re lucky though it could be snowed off.

  77. steamer

    Now that Rudi’s a doubt and Agbonlahor is out, will Kozak will come into the equation ? if he doesn’t then i think it possibly confirms some contractual problem which in our position should be ironed out, we have too much to lose.
    Ayews goal was superb for Ghana if you haven’t seen it.

  78. runtings

    first time in a long time that i am more looking forward to a game than dreading it
    2 weeks of drills with a sensible manager should see us improve even further than the citeh game

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