Leaderboard

Roy deflated Zaha overrated Benteke infuriated Villa not yet relegated

I was explaining to someone not too long ago why I, as an American with no connection to Birmingham, support Villa and I realized what I was describing was Stockholm Syndrome.

Mate if you can't support black lives matter then you shouldn't get to watch football. I'm a Conservative, but it is clear that black people are not treated to the same standard as white people. The same goes for any ethnic minority for that matter. White people are 3.5 times less likely to get arrested for committing the same crimes as black people even though they offend at roughly the same rate. Racism has no place in football and if you want to express hate in place for joy then I'm sure I'm not alone in saying, we'd rather not have you. Go support Chelsea I'm sure you'd have a lot in common with the fans. Also what do you think are far left? Anything left of the nazis? Or just centrists?

Dem pointing out spelling mistakes is something I never thought I’d live to see

Don't disparage my people like that

Sheffield United had one shot on target. Circumstances or not, that's a vast improvement.

I thought I'd missed watching Villa. Turns out I just missed the idea of watching Villa.

That’s the second time on here that you’ve accused me of not liking this player because he isn’t English. It’s absolute total bollocks and I’d appreciate you taking back your accusations of casual racism. He is shit. It has nothing to do with his nationality. Some of my favourite Villa players of all time are Irish, Australian, Colombian, Trinidadian etc. I like Elmohamady who is the same nationality as Trezeguet. My problem with Trezeguet isn’t his nationality. It’s his complete lack of top level footballing ability. He’s shit

They've cleared up the goal line issue. There was no error. Apparently due to Covid-19 restrictions no goal is awarded unless it's at least 2 metres over the line.

Please also no more Hause. We look better without him imo. Having Elmo at RB looked a much better balance.

This thread is ridiculous As if we don't have a heap of stuff to legitimately complain about. The guy was at the centre of most of the few positive moments we had in the game, what do people want him to do exactly? Skin an entire Premier League team on his own and stick it in the top corner? He's a playmaker for a side whose attacking options today included El Ghazi, Trezeguet, and a subpar centre back stuck out at right back trying to overlap. Any time we go through a shite run of performances that doesn't include him winning us points by himself you see people saying he doesn't care/was always overrated. Even happened last season. Really weird behaviour. I'd make the most of him being here while we can because if not for him we'd probably already be relegated by now.

I don't want to get relegated and I'm not embracing it but this and previously are night and day. Last time I felt like it was the end of the club, this time I know that if it happens next year will be very enjoyable as a fan and we genuinely have a chance at winning the title.

Decent result against a better team. Created chances. Didn't bottle it. Progress. You know this behind-closed-doors thing might help our lot.

SO PROUD OF THE BOYS! Bossed that game. Should have won that. We were organized, energetic and a threat going forward, until Keinan went off. Play like that and we can beat Chelsea. I firmly believe that.

Does this mean I'm no longer the bad guy?

Can we please stop with the false narrative that Smith has been an absolute disaster for Villa. We are struggling but when he took over we were struggling in the Championship for a 3rd season. He is far from the failures like Bruce, Tim, Lambert etc

I guess this is proof that masks don't work.

Dean Smith and his coaching staff failed on every level, training, substitutions, fitness, game management and never had a plan b. If smith stays you are saying its okay to fail and produce a season that never reached any potential at all, we could not even score in the last few games and that will win you nothing. We scraped into this division and we are going out without landing a glove on our opponents, one of the poorest seasons in recent times, you stick with smith and all you get is more off the same and a slow painful decline. Leadership has not been shown anywhere from top to bottom and we ended up where we belong.

Guys, I think we did a Fulham

Props to my youngest granddaughter for providing me with this most usable VT reaction pic:

So we should turn on him? You don't like how the papers portray a possible move and you don't feel he's played very well over the last 4 games so we should turn on him. That's the spirt. Barring 10 games last season and the play off final pretty much the ONLY enjoyable thing about watching Villa for 4 years has been Jack Grealish who incidentally dragged us into this league last year and has single-handedly ensured we are not dead and buried already. If there is one single person at this club over the last 4 years who deserves our unwavering support it is Jack. And if he does go and we are relegated his passing gift will be enough money to rebuild the rest of the squad without needing to risk the club going bust again. Maybe David O'Leary had a point because it's certainly looking that way.

Ok so I went to Youtube to check out what Morgan Freeman, Charles Barkley and Denzel Washington have to say about BLM at the moment. I can find some footage of Barkley saying it is stressful being a black man right now. In other articles he states that he does not support defunding the police. Regards Freeman and Washington, I can find videos trending but they are from 3 or 4 years ago and totally out of context for the situation now. If you have something that actually backs up what you are saying please feel free to link it here because I don't think it even exists. It seems that you have had to dive into the archives to find some opinions that allow you to put a motive on the BLM protests that are not true. You know what, I do want to know what intelligent black people have to say about BLM at the moment. Even better than that I have been listening intently over the last few weeks. If it is celebrities that carry weight with you, I can give you Jamie Foxx, Michael B Jordan, John Boyega, Beyonce, Oprah. I've linked one, the others are easy to find. Actually it is quite the trick these days to find a prominent black celebrity / politician / religious leader who has not offered their opinion in the last few weeks. You know what none of them are saying? None of them are saying the things that you are attributing to the movement. Even better than this I can link you to the BLM website that states nice and clearly what the objectives are of the movement. No one there asking for any handouts, just equality. BLM BTW do you know who has been spreading the videos of Morgan Freeman and Denzel from years back? Far right and racist groups looking to discredit the BLM movement today. Can't think why they are the opinions that ended up in your feed. The Second World War was indeed a fight for freedom. Why not join the fight for those that have less?

Anyone who says he is a complete disaster is way way off the mark. But similarly, anyone saying he’s doing a good job at the moment is also way off the mark. As usual the reality is somewhere in between the two VillaTalk extremes.

I am both surprised and not surprised at all about how many people seem to have lost faith in Smith. The situation we are in is difficult to take, and I do understand the frustrations. One of the more commonly used argument as to why Smith deserves the sack, is the vast amount of money wasted, therefore, for fun I directly compared our strating XI with other teams starting XI, just so we can get a better picture VS Newcastle. On average, each player in the starting XI cost 3.5m more than Villa’s. This is without Danny Rose, who according to transfermarket, is worth 16m. . This also doesn't give a picture of how much more established their team is, compared to ours. People were upset about our lacklustre performance against Chelsea. On average, each player in their starting XI cost 16m more than ours. This is excluding homegrown players such as Christensen, Loftus-Cheek and Mount. And not counting the 64m they used on subs Pulisic and the 17m on Barkley. On average, Sheffield United starting XI was just 3m cheaper, this is excluding Basham, Stevens who were free transfers and their best player, Dean Henderson. Sheffield United have simply just exceeded expectations. Sheffield United have also been building this team for many years now. I think people underestimate how little 100m is when building a nearly entire starting XI today. When comparing our starting XI, and our extreme lack of depth with other teams around us, I can not understand why people expect us to do better than we currently are. I believe if given the option, most of us would take and start majority of the starting XI available for West Ham, Bournemouth and Watford. With only a few of our players good enough to start for them. People also underestimate in what mess we were in before the season started, we had no wingers, one striker, nearly no defenders. The rebuilt has been immense. If we are relegated this season, we are in a much better position than we were in last time, as we will be keeping the majority of players, as they are works in progress. Another figure people underestimate is the hidden figure of wages, and I am willing to bet that our league position is not far off from what we pay in wages compared to others. I am as unhappy as the next person about our depressing position, though I cannot say I’m surprised and am having a difficult time blaming Smith for it. We have been a shitty run team for years, and it will take years of good management to get us out of it, there is no short term fix.

You mean Mohammaed Trezeguet, born in Kafr El Sheikh where temperatures are regularly above 30 degrees and started his career in Cairo where temperatures are mid to high 30s? I think he'll manage

'The point's been made' My word.

Oh and that was the probably the best I've seen Douglas Luiz in a Villa shirt. Thought he was excellent in the midfield, composed and for once not a single error. Even have to give praise to Hourihane, thought them two played well.

Arseholes.

Peak 2020

Watford have 34 points and an 8-goal better goal difference than we have. Their remaining games are West Ham (a), Manchester City (h) & Arsenal (a). It is not unlikely, that they will not pick up another point from those games. Should that happen and we win tomorrow, we would need a further 5 points from our remaining 3 games (Everton (a), Arsenal (h) & West Ham (a)), unless they lost their games so heavily, that their current goal difference advantage evaporated, then 4 would be enough for us. There is therefore a chance, but we would need to pull off an escape, that would have Harry Houdini applauding. Even if they got 2 points from their games, which is the very maximum that I could see them getting, then 3 wins and a draw from our last 4 games, would see us finish above them. If not, West Ham could lose or draw at home to Watford, lose at Manchester United and at home to us on the last day, which would leave us needing 5 or 6 points from our other 3 games to finish above them. Failing the other two happening, Brighton could get nothing, or no more than 2 points, from their remaining games (Southampton (a), Newcastle (h) & Burnley (a)), leaving us needing 10 or 12 points to get above them. Bournemouth face Leicester (h), Manchester City (a), Southampton (h) & Everton (a), so I've written them off, like we've been written off! The great escape is on then. All we need to do is to find the ability to slip into top four form overnight. Make it so Villa!

Even the fixture list is laughing at us

A 6-4 aggregate win.

Sideways

Hahaha. HAHAHA. Just when last night's West Ham offside looked like VAR could do not more to destroy football it goes and cancels a Spuds goal when the striker is pushed over from behind (not given) the ball is then blasted at his arm from point blank range as he tries to stop his face from ploughing a furrow in the pitch and the goal from the rebound is disallowed. What is the point of this technology other than to cross off good goals? It doesn't appear to do anything else? Assault with a chainsaw? Didn't see it. Ref missed a terrible foul? Didn't see it. Definite Penalty? Didn't see it 1mm of Heel offside? NO GOAL Forehead offside when lying on the floor? NO GOAL Ball smashed against arm from 1mm away NO GOAL The smallest tiniest infraction which no one even complained about NO GOAL. AFTER 10 MINUTES OF REPLAY. Defender wraps arms around striker in the box and hauls him back but the ref didn't give it. Didn't see it. The worst implementation of any technology in any field ever.

I think Liverpool will be fatigued from their game with Man city on Thursday night plus the hangover from the celebration after that game for winning the league....Plus they have nothing to play for. This is HUGE plus for Villa!! With all that i mind I am only going for a 5-0 win for Liverpool

Don't mind the fans being happy. What's annoying me is the amount of fans on social media spouting on about how hard they've had it since they last won the league. Stuff like "we always ask why we do this to ourselves and here's the reason" "We've been through so much!" "All the hard times in the past 30 years have been worth it" Those poor fans. What a tough 30 years. Everpresents in the top flight, 3 FA Cups, 4 league cups, 3 Charity Shields, 2 Champions Leagues, 1 UEFA Cup, 3 UEFA Super Cups, 1 FIFA World Club Cup and a cup treble. They've had it so tough. Don't know how they've managed to come through it. Thoughts and Prayers

The reason they look good on the training ground is because they are up against Aston Villa players.

Not sure what some people were expecting, we'd lost our last 5 games prior this break and were on our knees (and not for BLM) devoid of all confidence and looked destined for the drop. First game back, in strange circumstances we have come away with a point, a little fortuitously, however on balance of play / chances probably could have nicked this one. The clean sheet will be a confidence boost as will the low amount of chances that the blades created. They are a well drilled established side that all know their jobs man for man, we competed well for the whole though we do have a soft underbelly that makes it difficult to watch at times and you get the impression one mistake is coming and it will cost us. We know our players aren't worldbeaters but they seem (in the words of Messrs OLeary) a honest decent bunch of lads. Can't fault any of them for effort today even if the quality was a bit lacking. I saw more positives than negatives today.

Widely shared story about Sir Roger Moore at the time of his passing.

The fact that a footballer has to provide meals to vulnerable people is a **** embarrassment to be honest.

MotM Douglas Luiz, again. Comfortably our best player since the restart. Honourable mention for Taylor. I'd written him off before he stepped foot on the pitch, but he did well, I'm pleasantly surprised. Everyone else was a bit shit, weren't they? Allegedly we had two strikers on, I couldn't really tell. We had one shot on target which was a tame, long range effort from Grealish. More comedy from Nyland. Jack did more harm than good today and on a few occasions just blunted our counter attacks by slowing everything to a snail's pace. I think every team is happy to just let Hause win headers, considering how many chances he gets, his accuracy is a joke. It's a Championship squad, ultimately. We're pretty much where we deserve to be in the table. It's not over yet, Everton, Palace, and West Ham are winnable games, but I'll be surprised f we get another 4 points this season, we're **** shit.

I am actually St.Mirren fan, who has adopted Villa as my English team due to John McGinn, who was loved when he was with us. Saw this tweet today and it sums SJM. Really hope you guys pull away from bottom 3. Looking forward to the first match back after the break. Good luck.