mikeyjavfc

6 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

I think whether it's lowered or not, the turf itself is going to get relaid regularly during a life. The fact we dug a bit more of the soil under the turf away at any point in the past is moot.

The ground, includes the stadium and the pitch, but there is no ground in the world that has never relaid its pitch, so I think that aspect gets made irrelevant.

To the stadium, there's not a great deal between what Wembley did and what Spurs did.. but one gets considered the same stadium and the other one not? Seems weird to me.

The spurs stadium moved a few 100 metres so the end stand could be started whilst WHL was still functional. I believe Wembley was demo’d and rebuilt on more or less the same spot but I could be wrong.

WHL:

I agree it’s basically semantics though, both are new stadiums in my opinion. There is just something more final about razing a stadium to the ground prior to rebuilding, compared to gradual redevelopment of the stands, which preserves the soul. I guess it is because by the time you redevelop another stand the other ‘new’ stands are now ‘old’ and excepted as part of the clubs heritage. A new stadium wipes everything away in one go, leaving no history. They really should have preserved  the Wembley Twin Towers as originally proposed, what a loss that was.
 

If he plays like this all season and Maguire goes to the Euros ahead of him I will weep. What an injustice.

New club, new league etc. Definitely still extra levels to come from Pau after he fully settles in. But as long as he has solid gold Konsa stood next to him whilst he’s spraying balls around we should be okay.

1 hour ago, Jareth said:

 

Chucked his phone in the North Sea?

Seems very strange indeed. What’s the benefit of playing online poker or blackjack on an illegal site rather than one of the hundreds of legal sites? I suppose if you just get sent a link by a mate you may not know or care that it is illegal. Hopefully this is the case with Z. 

On 13/10/2023 at 09:28, MrBlack said:

I'd take that.

It's a bit surreal having the concern that your manager might be poached.

Honestly can't recall what this feels like, or if I've ever even felt it.  Didn't strike me as a fear during the relatively "successful" MO'N years.  Nor before that with Gregory, Little or Atkinson.

 I think he's with us until he feels he's achieved all he can, so not really a concern, and it's definitely better than wanting the manager sacked!

I see you’ve already blocked out the bizarre “Gerrard is using Villa as a stepping stone to get the Liverpool job after Klopp” chat.

If I were Castore, I would simply manufacture the shirt using similar materials to the literal thousands of football shirts released the world over every year that do not look like a sweaty, greasy mess. 

Honestly the current star is extremely unobtrusive and I would wager most opposition fans have no idea it is even on our badge (bitter local rivals apart). Compared to the stars on Nottingham Forest’s badge it is restrained in the extreme! As long as it remains fairly unobtrusive in the new badge then I am happy to keep it. It’s part of our modern history and it’s fine to remember and celebrate that. A reminder that we reached the pinnacle and we want to get back there.

He’s no real loss to the club at this point as he had already been moved into a marginal role to make way for Monchi. Based on the timing presumably he has been looking for a new role since Monchi arrived and replaced him. Good luck to him.

Good or even average seasons are so rare for Birmingham; what on earth are thinking rocking the boat when they are sat in 6th, which is absolute nose bleed territory for them! They have surely already reached the full potential of their limited squad, so look forward to seeing them reversing down the league once the Eustace magic wears off.

Does anyone have the stats for his number of touches in the first half? I swear our players we actively avoiding passing to him because they know it will just slow the play down and not lead to anything progressive. Not a problem when he is needed to break up play in the middle but Wasn’t the game to play him in midfield in my opinion, since we knew we would have all the ball. Time and a place for the Donk!

He had the triple threat of poor touch, poor passing and poor decision making for much of last night. Can’t believe how rusty he seems to look all the time. Against a better opposition I think he mistakes might have cost us dearly. Hope he finds some form as the season goes on, maybe it’s lack of game time to play himself into form?

7 minutes ago, duke313 said:

I would imagine Emery has been told by NSWE what to prioritise this season.  The PL is top priority, that goes without saying, there is a strong possibility we can challenge for 5th. Next by guess would be the Europa Conference, then FA Cup, then League Cup.

Definitely. The owners will choose the priorities for the team. That is their luxury for stumping up the money. Emery is seeing it through and we will suffer in the cups until we have a full squad of Emery players.

I was pissed off last night about crashing out of another cup, but today I just accept we are a work in progress and it is going to take more time (maybe much more time) until we can compete on several fronts and all cups etc. Emery still hasn’t been in position for 12 months and look at the progress already. Monchi has only had half a transfer window to impact the squad but we are stronger than we were (injuries not withstanding). Based on where we play our strongest team Emery clearly prioritises the league and you cannot criticise our league performances - this is a taste of things to come once Emery has overhauled the entire squad. This feels like a Liverpool with Klopp or Arsenal with Arteta type project so we have to be ready to allow a few seasons for all the pieces to fall into place.

Dreadful cup form from Emery so far across 2 seasons. Disappointing to say the least from a cup expert. Thankfully our league form is fantastic to make up for it but we need to see some better cup performance too. Not too fussed about league cup to be honest but hope we go full strength in Europa league from now on.

Expect we’ll see the firm who led the Heck rebrand of the Philadelphia 76ers be appointed to take the lead on this. 

Seems to be a one man bomb squad. I guess he will play with the U23s if he is fit, but can’t see him making a senior squad if Emery had put 2 goalkeepers on the bench over him so far. Shame he has not gone on loan because he is more than capable to be a starting CB in championship.

So we made 3 choice signings and 2 injury cover signings in the end. If I’m honest I would have liked 1 more choice signing; another attacking option with Traore / Couts leaving the building but I’m happy with the squad as it stands and we will definitely go again if January if something is missing or if we can strengthen from a position of strength. Bit worried about player fatigue with all the games but at least Emery isn’t afraid to rotate and use the subs.

Wonder why they embargoed the Revan and JPB news till after the window.

JPB will be like a new signing at this rate. 

Just now, AshVilla said:

Cant we just agree a deal subject to him passing a medical in the coming days or something?

No, because you have to register your signings with the premier league before midnight, so no conditional offers. They are either signed or not.

JPB is interesting. Can’t understand why that one hasn’t been done yet, it seems to have been close for over a week now. Wonder if he is being kept for more depth. I wouldn’t mind that to be honest given it’s only £5m reported benefit on the line.

Duran, Diaby and Zaniolo are fine cover for Watkins through a short term injury, potentially with a tweak to the system. If theres a long term injury then we will be badly impacted but we would no doubt line up the replacement for Jan 1st. Our sales and restraint in the summer gives us the flexibility to go big in January if there’s a good reason.

33 minutes ago, tonyh29 said:

if you saw Sky asking Poch about  Palmer signing fotr Chelsea the other day , unless he was having a really shit day , it looked quite  clear he has zero to no say in transfers and looked quite pissed about the whole thing 

Hopefully our approach will play dividends in the long run 

This is definitely the case. During last Jan transfer window you could visible see Potter stressed out in press conferences about yet another new transfer to try and bed in. He was more or less saying: please no more, let me work with what I have.