2025/26 David Moyes

[riddick]

That's the biggest "club needs to put out a puff piece" article I've read in years.

 

[dannyboy]

Of course, new players would be needed but put Emery in charge of this squad and you would see a huge difference. He wouldn't get CL but we would look and be miles better off. Some of the players you think are [Poor language removed] would actually look like footballers.

Nothing is more important at the club than the head coach, and sadly ours is very limited, dinosaur in football terms. He's no better than he was 25 years ago. He wasn't even that good back then, and the game has passed him by massively. He's never learned or got better. Too much ego for that.

I'm sorry but we are just deluding ourselves if we think any of those players I've called out are at the level we need. Whoever is in charge can't change how bad those full backs are with the ball at their feet and how much it stifles the team.

We simply can't get rid of Moyes and be complacent enough to think this group of players will go up the league.

 

[Lanolin]

I stand by it. They had a good team that was underperforming in the league and the manager quickly sorted it out.

My main point is not even about how good Villa were. It's how poor our squad is now. The level of Mykolenko, O'Brien (at RB), Tarkowski, Keane and McNeil is relegation battles. We're also having a 36 year old start every game he's fit together with two centre forwards that are nowhere near good enough to lead the line.

We then have Dibling, Alcaraz, Armstrong, Rohl and Iroegbunam who it's impossible to say are good enough due to a lack of football. Right now, if you had to guess, you'd say they'd have a tough time starting regularly for a team trying to get into the top 10. The sad thing is their stock is probably quite high amongst supporters due to the fact we haven't seen them on the pitch much.

That leaves us with Pickford, an injury prone Brainthwaite, KDH, Ndiaye and Garner as our standout players.

I just don't see it as a squad a manager comes into and has an easy time improving. It needs so much work, especially in the full back areas where the drop off in quality has to be the worst in the entire division.

But the villa point is pertinent, the whole point is that I don’t believe it was obvious at the time that some of their players would reach the levels they have and so you can’t say the same doesn’t apply to us. I just searched Konsa on here and there were 2 villa fans who evidently used to post here who made numerous posts about how bad he (and John McGinn) were. I doubt they’re saying that now.

For me, a few years ago I’d have put the likes of McGinn, Mings, cash, Konsa etc in very much the same bracket as a number of our players and I have no issue admitting it. I still don’t think a fair few of their squad are particularly brilliant individually but they’re obviously decent enough and it comes together as a team.

As you say, we don’t know how good some of our players are, it’s perfectly possible (I’m not saying highly likely, just possible) that in 4 years time there’ll be people saying ‘well obviously he took over a side with O’Brien, branthwaite, aznou, dibling, Armstrong, Ndiaye , garner, Iroegbunam etc, he could hardly fail’. Clearly we need to have a few good transfer windows for us to really push on but I just can’t accept that the 5 point gap to 7th is insurmountable without spending £250m and that’s basically what we’re talking about here for starters.

 

[DannyUFCFan]

I'm sorry but we are just deluding ourselves if we think any of those players I've called out are at the level we need. Whoever is in charge can't change how bad those full backs are with the ball at their feet and how much it stifles the team.

We simply can't get rid of Moyes and be complacent enough to think this group of players will go up the league.

Again, they are obv not the squad to be getting to the CL, we would need a genius for that rather than just a great coach.

But tactically, we could do so much better that Moyes. There is such a huge range for improvement there.

And even if the results aren't there, at a bare minimum I want better football. Just make it fun to watch, at least. Have a go at liverpool and other top teams and under no circumstances do what this fella has been doing for 25 years.

I used to think he was a coward for doing it , but I came to conclusion that he's not a coward, he just doesn't know any better and has not got the skill set to coach another way. He's painfully limited, and outside of a regulation battle has no place in a PL team in the year 2026.

 

[Toffeepot]

Waffle

 

[Jebus_lives]

That's the biggest "club needs to put out a puff piece" article I've read in years.

I got to the bit where he suggests Ancelotti had a better squad than Moyes and stopped reading.

 

[windymiller]

The echo just love keeping us in our place, don't they.

 

[riddick]

I got to the bit where he suggests Ancelotti had a better squad than Moyes and stopped reading.

He did get one part right where he said the football was absolutely awful under Ancelotti. It really really really was. But that's what happens when you get players for negative managers for half a decade. I still have no fn idea why ANYONE thought Glyfi fn Sigurdsson was worth even half of what they paid for him.

 

[Drico]

I'm sorry but we are just deluding ourselves if we think any of those players I've called out are at the level we need. Whoever is in charge can't change how bad those full backs are with the ball at their feet and how much it stifles the team.

We simply can't get rid of Moyes and be complacent enough to think this group of players will go up the league.

Of course not. We need rid of Moyes and a new coach who can improve players and attract new ones.

 

[Drico]

The echo just love keeping us in our place, don't they.

Almost as much as some of our fans...

 

[Drico]

I got to the bit where he suggests Ancelotti had a better squad than Moyes and stopped reading.

Look at the contempt for Ancelotti...

"If he’d been anyone other than the ‘great’ Carlo Ancelotti..."

Note the word great in quotation marks. This fella is actually challenging the reverence for a man who has won more European Cups than anyone in history and then referring to the Moyesiah as "David William Moyes."

I blushed for him.

 

[Jebus_lives]

He did get one part right where he said the football was absolutely awful under Ancelotti. It really really really was. But that's what happens when you get players for negative managers for half a decade. I still have no fn idea why ANYONE thought Glyfi fn Sigurdsson was worth even half of what they paid for him.

Pragmatic I thought. He knew the limitations of that squad and played to minimise them.

There was a bit of magic every now and again from Rodriguez, Richarlison, Digne and Sigurdsson. But we also had Holgate, Delph, Davies, Gomes, Tosun.

 

[Drico]

Pragmatic I thought. He knew the limitations of that squad and played to minimise them.

There was a bit of magic every now and again from Rodriguez, Richarlison, Digne and Sigurdsson. But we also had Holgate, Delph, Davies, Gomes, Tosun.

He had us second at Christmas. Then the reality that the Moshiri regime was built on sand hit hard and we ended up mid-table and Carlo headed off to win two more Champions Leagues at a "proper big club".

Carlo was a sign we were serious - but we weren't. We were screwed. A Carlo at a well-run, well-funded club could have been great fun. But we're not allowed nice things, so we get Lampard, Dyche, and the Moyesiah, fellas who are more suited to straitened times and circumstances (well, maybe not Frank, who's really only suited to the Championship).

 

[Jebus_lives]

The concern for me is that last summer the CEO admitted some of our struggles were as a result of players thinking we weren't high enough profile, but those we did get were convinced because of the project the club were selling - progression, opportunity for younger players, new stadium, investment.

We will need to be very careful about who we pursue this summer if we want our business done quickly. The appeal of progression, opportunity and momentum is harder to sell after an underwhelming season with a manager that doesn't give opportunity freely.