Making Heroes Out Of Villains

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Bullardinho

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After a rocky 18 month period of poor results and lacklustre team performances, Aston Villa’s discontent for the hierarchy has finally reached boiling point. In a last ditch attempt to rescue the club from their sharp decline, Club Owner Randy Lerner has decided to throw one last roll of the dice before admitting defeat and selling up the West Midlands club.

American businessman and sports franchise tycoon Lerner has become a hated figure by the Villa faithful in recent times and has admitted his time at the club might be coming to an end. In one last audacious attempt to revitalise the club and bring glory back to the West Midlands, he has announced the clubs decision to hire the inexperienced Matt Bullard as the man to lead the teams revival.

Fans have already made their opinions heard on social media, with many condemning the clubs decision. One fan stating Lerner was 'making a mockery of the club' and new appointment Bullard has 'neither the credentials nor the experience to revive this sinking ship'.

Despite the many protests surrounding the clubs recent announcement, there are a minority that believe this could be what the club needs to rejuvenate a stagnating and dejected team, including ex-player Dwight Yorke, ‘It’s crazy. I have no idea who he (Bullard) is but I want to hear what he has to say first before I make a judgement. Then we shall see if can deliver’.
 
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Matt Bullard Statement

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First of all I would like to start by saying that it is an unbelievable honour to be given the opportunity to manage such an illustrious football club. I understand many people have reservations about my ability to manage at this level and the general consensus is that I do not have what it takes to succeed at Villa Park, to those people I say give me a chance. I am not a miracle worker, neither am I some kind of tactical guru, but one thing I can assure you is that I will give my heart and soul to this football club and I am determined to bring success back to Aston Villa.

I've had extremely positive meetings with both the owner, Randy Lerner, and chief executive, Tom Fox. They have ambitious plans for the club and I'm excited they've turned to me to help realise them. Obviously we have a difficult task in front of us but I'm looking forward to the challenge.

With the support of the board, the back-room staff, the squad and each and every fan who loves Aston Villa football club, I employ you to get on board with my appointment, not just for myself but for the team. I have a footballing philosophy and this will be visible from the outset. I firmly believe that if the whole club can unite as one, we will improve and we will succeed.


 
Meet The Manager...

Matt Bullard
Manager Profile

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Attributes

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Personal Info

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Goals

I don't have any set goals, first and foremost my aim is survival, going forward the aim is to improve each season. Any trophies will be a bonus.

I would however like to stick to the below philosophies:

Improve youth facilities to the highest quality
Improve youth coaching/coaches
Focus on youth development
Promote youth players to first team

To add a little more realism to the save I have disabled transfers in the first window.




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Staff Additions

Jonathan Hill

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Jonathan comes in as our new Director of Football, bringing with him a wealth of experience in several backroom staff roles including youth coaching at both Manchester United and Man City and more recently a similar DoF role at Sheffield Wednesday. I am hopeful his appointment will help stabilise the club and more importantly assist me with the daily running of the club.


Phil Cannon

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Not only has Phil worked with some of the best Youth teams in the country, his attributes are outstanding. He has a fantastic eye for young talent and his is reputation with young footballers is second to none. I am very happy with this addition to our club, I believe it is a real signal of our intent.



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Jack Grealish

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Most people are already aware of Jack and what he can be capable of, however his career has stalled somewhat over recent times due to injury. I will be looking to get him back to his best and I am very excited to see his development.


Rushian Hepburn-Murphy

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At just 16 years old, Rushian looks like he could have a very exciting future ahead of him. He already has some sound attributes for someone so young and most importantly he is determined, something I am going to look for in each and every one of my players.


Andre Green

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Similar to Rushian, Andre Green is a very exciting 16 year old prospect and one who's development I will be keeping a very close eye on. Also once again he is an extremely determined individual.


Best of the Rest

Khalid Abdo

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Easah Suliman

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Both Khalid and Easah are also on my radar for possible call ups to the first team. I will keeping a very close eye on both of their performances for the Under-21's and should I feel they are ready, a possible call up could be on the cards.



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Pre-Season

Friendly Results

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I am a firm believer that it is important to gain a decent run of results throughout the preseason friendlies so I am delighted that we made it through undefeated, even if our opposition were not of the highest standard.
There were some good performances from several players including Rudy Gestede, Ashley Westwood and surprisingly Charles N'Zgobia, with none of our youth players making much of an impact at all.
We made it through without any further serious injuries, although we are still short in the centre of defence with both Richards and Okore out long term, I just hope that Lescott can improve on his performances so far come the beginning of the season.


Coming Up..
Opening Game..

Manchester United Vs Aston Villa

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Manchester United Vs Aston Villa

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It is difficult to take too many positives from my first professional game in charge other than we managed to hold our lead for the best part of 46 minutes before eventually succumbing to United's dominance. Again Gestede performed well up top and his partnership with Ayew seemed to be pretty effective at times. I am disappointed with our collapse but in the end it was inevitable, our defence was poor and our midfield had no control over the tempo of the game.


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Losing your first game is unfortuante but hope the next few games will be better
 
Thats a great start to the story, interesting concept as well. Keep it up.
 
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Aston Villa Vs Arsenal


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Another difficult game following the defeat to Man Utd in our first league game. Once again we made the first move and took the lead midway through the first half, another tidy finish from Rudy who has continued his decent scoring for from the pre-season. Unfortunately our opposition was again too strong for us and we could not withstand the pressure any longer. One positive we take away from this match was that we didn't allow Arsenal to completely dominate possession and we put together a few decent moves in the first half.


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Crystal Palace Vs Aston Villa


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I am bitterly disappointed with our result away to Palace. Not only did we have slightly more of the ball but we also put together some really nice moves, unfortunately we just lacked any cutting edge. I expected Palace to counter and that they did with good effect. Two sloppy goals, one a header from and unmarked Puncheon in the box and the other a sloppy error from Richards allowing Adebayor to score the easiest goal of his career. Serious work is needed to improve our fortunes!



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Aston Villa Vs Wigan


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Finally my first win, albeit in the Capital One Cup to Championship side Wigan. This was still a tight affair and to be fair the 1-0 was about right on the balance of things. A professional display all in all which see us progress in the cup but most of all helps build our morale back up after the poor start. Next up... Liverpool in the League.

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Liverpool Vs Aston Villa


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Whilst I am want to keep telling myself that we are on a difficult run against the best teams in the league, there is only so far that excuse can fly. This wasn't just a loss, this was an appalling performance and were it not for the heroics of Brad Guzan it would have been a lot worse. Our decision making is awful and our attacking play was mediocre at best. Several players performances have been so poor and should I make it to January, I will be looking at a huge squad overhaul.


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August League Table

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No surprise to see we are sitting firmly at the foot of the table with zero points. It is still early doors and there is plenty of football left to play but we need to start picking up points sooner rather than later.

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