Rewind to January 1st..

[MACCA75]

It’s January 1st 2022. Benitez is still manager with a game coming up v Brighton.

The transfer window is open. What would you do? Manager? Players?

We had a chance to fix the car but only managed to cut the brakes. What should we have done differently?

(For me, sack Benitez after Brighton. Keep Digne. Appoint Nuno on a short contract. Loan an experienced CB and CM)

 

[EFCccc]

Not got Lampard.

 

[Liam-EFC]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

 

[Nymzee]

Shocked you didn’t say stick with Benitez tbh.

 

[BlueToff]

It’s January 1st 2022. Benitez is still manager with a game coming up v Brighton.

The transfer window is open. What would you do? Manager? Players?

We had a chance to fix the car but only managed to cut the brakes. What should we have done differently?

(For me, sack Benitez after Brighton. Keep Digne. Appoint Nuno on a short contract. Loan an experienced CB and CM)

We should have sacked Benitez way before Brighton

I'm really not sure what Nuno has done recently to suggest that would have been a smart move to get him in

He was the one who cocked up his interview so Benitez got the job!

 

[BlueToff]

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Well tbh mate this isn't hindsight

Plenty of people were rightly calling for the Pig Man to be punted from November. He should have been sacked after the Brentford game or, at the very, very latest, the derby.

Instead the DoF (who doesn't get off lightly) left, Benitez was allowed to dismantle the whole club top to bottom, punt one of our better players and then got sacked because actually, it turned out we were right all along and he was absolutely awful.

 

[Leylo]

Digne was getting legged every game, sold him anyway.

 

[4737carlin]

Digne was getting legged every game, sold him anyway.

Villa fans doing nothing but moan about him, awful player now, punting him for Myko was the highlight of the window

 

[BlueToff]

It’s January 1st 2022. Benitez is still manager with a game coming up v Brighton.

The transfer window is open. What would you do? Manager? Players?

We had a chance to fix the car but only managed to cut the brakes. What should we have done differently?

(For me, sack Benitez after Brighton. Keep Digne. Appoint Nuno on a short contract. Loan an experienced CB and CM)

If we're just going back to Brighton, then sack Benitez there and then yes. We already had Myko and Patterson in the door but keep Digne if possible.

Hire Favre, not Nuno, and ask him to steady the ship on a short-term deal. I suggested this at the time.

Ultimately though, I don't think by the time we did sack Benitez, on the 16th, that Favre would have been interested. We left it way too late and the rot had truly set in.

Which is why January was too late regardless, never mind the end of January.

People blaming Lampard is really mental tbh when you look how he's set us up in recent games - bar Leicester - and it's stupid mistakes from thick players that have cost us.

 

[BlueToff]

Villa fans doing nothing but moan about him, awful player now, punting him for Myko was the highlight of the window

I mean I actually know some Villa fans - not just check forums - and the actual consensus from them on their podcasts etc is Digne has been mostly decent but has had a lot of injury troubles and some rash moments defensively, which is what he is.

Myko is playing well right now but we knew he was going to need a lot of time to get into the team and settle (and that's not including what happened in Ukraine obviously, which nobody could have known). Which is why we ended up playing without a LB for 2 months.

 

[MACCA75]

We should have sacked Benitez way before Brighton

I'm really not sure what Nuno has done recently to suggest that would have been a smart move to get him in

He was the one who cocked up his interview so Benitez got the job!

With Nuno, I just think he knows how to set up a team that isn’t going to lose every away game. Functional is all we needed.

Who knows what goes on in an Everton interview.

 

[BlueToff]

With Nuno, I just think he knows how to set up a team that isn’t going to lose every away game. Functional is all we needed.

Who knows what goes on in an Everton interview.

Well do think a big thing with Nuno - and it was for Palace - was that he insisted on bringing in something like 21 members of staff.

His Spurs team didn't look very functional though.

I rated him a few years ago but, like Dyche, he needs to go away and have a reset. All managers do at some stage.

And honestly I think even if we'd have given Lampard a month longer then we wouldn't be in this mess.

Look at Newcastle. Howe won 1 of his first 10 league games, lost 7 or 8 of them. Yet they managed to get games postponed in December due to COVID, managed to spend their dirty money on good players that were ready for the situation in January and in the meantime they got to work on the training ground.

 

[Shibbywiggles]

I’d have sacked Benitez already (never hired in first place obviously) but I think I’d still get Lampard. I like what he’s doing here and the performances are getting much better.
I think he’s unfortunate that there’s no time for performances to get better it has to be results NOW whereas if he’d have joined 1st Jan rather than 31st Jan I think we’d have picked up a lot more points and have a nice system in place and looking forward to moving up the league next season.

 

[4737carlin]

Well do think a big thing with Nuno - and it was for Palace - was that he insisted on bringing in something like 21 members of staff.

We couldn't afford him because of the mess Moshiti has made, Nuno was too demanding, it's why we ended up with the last resort.

 

[BlueToff]

We couldn't afford him because of the mess Moshiti has made, Nuno was too demanding, it's why we ended up with the last resort.

Nuno is also crap