- Aug 31, 2012
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Totally agree. He's done better than expected at Villa when he's played but I did not agree with Villa as a loan destination particularly with Bruce as manager. We should have sent him to a team lower in the league with a smaller less talented squad. Your Brentford's, Barnsley's, Burton, Preston etc. I also wonder if he'd get games at Bournemouth, they're struggling at the moment and they look like they might be in need of some creativity. I think Howe would give him a fair shot.Bits and pieces I had seen of him at Villa in the first few games I feared the loan would be a bit of a waste of time, but at least he'd be getting minutes every week, having caught up with a friend who is a Villa fan during the week it sounds even worse and the club should be looking at pulling him out of there as things stand really.
Villa started the season with a few injuries, and SB was throwing in a few of the younger players, but they weren't playing well, were playing a different formation every game, and SB was under real pressure. Despite this, Onomah was doing a pretty decent job. Then a few weeks ago the injured players came back, plus they signed Snodgrass, and they went back to the experienced players in a classic 'two solid centre mids, two wide players' 4-4-2 and have put some wins together and kept it like that.
So Onomah finds himself benched and getting sub appearances in a variety of roles again. My mate says that he's been unlucky because he was arguably the best player in the opening weeks and it's not ability that has kept him out of the team, but he doesn't care that much because they're winning games with this set-up, at least playing a bit better, and because "at the end of the day he's not our player and why should we prioritise developing him for Spurs?"
And that is the danger with loans in my opinion. Send him to a team with a big squad, and a manager without a clear vision and who chops and changes constantly and 'not being their player' can go against you on marginal calls, especially later on in the season when they start looking to the future as you see with many loan deals. I think maybe we need to start doing a Chelsea, and setting up loan deals where the financial details are related to how much they play.
On the plus side we all know he's got the talent and can produce under pressure now. I think come January if things don't change we should bring him back if possible and find another destination for him. Either that or bring him into the first team fold more, particularly if we don't manage to sign Barkley.