abdulaziz1

I rated him and think he would’ve been better than Wes or Samatta in our first season. He could’ve done a job after that as well. I think his injuries prevented him from improving to the next level and right now our needs are totally different. I really wish him the best and good career. 

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

Going to be an interesting battle for CL, a lot of teams in with a shout.

But all the talk of the likes of Chelsea and Liverpool having one bad year last season and they will be back; they both look extremely average so far, United as well.

I don't think we will be that far behind these teams.  

Chelsea could click on, my fear is mainly because of Poch. Hope they don’t. 
Liverpool have couple of days to sort DM, they could get Phillips, I guess getting him would get their balance right and thry’d be better than last season. If Salah left then not sure who they might get instead of him. Man Utd will depend on their movement in the next couple of days. To be honest I think the 5-1 is in our hands, teams will think we over achieved last seadon, we’re already working on improvements, Newcastle didn’t panic and go buy more good players. If it was the other way round we might think we’re already there and they’ll try and sort themselves quickly. 

Some good results,

Newcastle, Utd and Chelsea all losing. Well the Newcastle one is tricky as it was against City, Utd lost a 6 pointer but still a loss is a loss. We’ve got our goal difference back to zero so that’s important. The good feeling factor is back as well. Now we have to restore our away form back. We’ve lost 3 of our last 4 and drew one at Anfield. Hopefully Arsenal fail to win today as well. 

This guy is strange, he clearly isn’t a good finisher, but his workrate is unbelievable. He has some good attributes as holding play and pace. His decision making is improving. With all his bad parts, I wouldn’t like to replace him quickly as he’s important to our way of playing, and most of striker signings fails rather success. Add to that with our way of playing, I don’t think it’s easy to find the right replacement let alone if its a success or not. 
I think next summer we’ll have to try and upgrade, wether he’ll improve more or not, wether he’ll sign a new contract or not, all will affect, but he’ll be the sellable asset we have. Hopefully Duran can step up so atleast we have someone to cover atleast incase our next signing won’t be perfect. 
Anyway we still have a long season, if for example we qualified to the Champions League, then again we won’t try and disrupt the squad. Really looking forward for the season. 

3 minutes ago, villa89 said:

Or traore 

I don’t think they can afford him. With injuries we have I guess we have to keep Traore if he isn’t going permanently, atleast until January.

I like the moves for the kids and generating money. I would have liked it to be after they appear in the conference league, but if we could give the chances for Young and Kellyman I’ll still be happy as well. 
I don’t think Archer and Bidace would’ve been a long term success here but would’ve been nice to have a season of them participating here, but Ramsey might’ve been a long term success. 

Kudus, Felix, Torres, all we could be able to get and will help our team. 

We’d have to figure a way playing away and at home. Last season we did more high line at home but we were cautious, especially away games. To keep it simple, just play Diaby in Bailey place, while Zaniolo the other side (Ramsey place for now). While he could excel in Baileys place against Newcastle but that was an unthinkable nightmare. We have to get back to what helped us last season. Then by the time we can integrate new ideas. Getting Felix would help a lot, but that would make us play Diaby at Ramsey place. Probably the best thing is to add players that can change the attack from left to right if needed. 

Sell him and play Revan on Sunday, I remember a game full of kids against the champions Man Utd at VP which they had a late 2-2 draw. 

2 hours ago, The_Steve said:

Again and again. He’s not the top earner. There’s simply no evidence for it so why must you persist? I’ve also said that if a good deal came in we should cash in. I maintain that Digne is a good squad player for us but not irreplaceable. 

Again, for certain positions we can’t just pay high wages for squad players. A LB isn’t as CM for example, although Emery showed he’d rotate regularly.

If we could sell Dinge, Coutinho and Bailey, we could upgrade with cheaper options. Well could be higher salaries but ok loan such as Felix.

3 hours ago, PeterSw said:

Hopefully the deal doesn't go through before the weekend as we could end up with no recognised left backs available for the Everton game

Just play Revan if needed, don’t think he’d do that bad. 

47 minutes ago, lexicon said:

We need an experienced marshall in to cover Mings for the season. He's not that. 

I don’t think we need an experienced one, we already have couple. We need depth and possibly pacey defender. If we can get a good young one then we’d have done very well. 

1 hour ago, MWARLEY2 said:

Yep. I have a feeling that we havent seen the last of him this season.  Some players just take huge junps at his age  . He is the same age as Carney now when he came on the scene. 

He should be in the bench Saturday. I think he will then feature in UECL and cups. Hopefully he start showing good cameos and progress sooner than later.

I think this is a shrewd piece of business. I just hope he’s fit enough. Otherwise could be one of the signings of the season.

9 hours ago, MrBlack said:

Or more likely (given the top 4 will probably win the FA and League cups):

Top 5 - Champions League

6th place - Europa League

7th place - Europa League

8th place - ECL

 

If West Ham had won the ECL and also finished 5th this year....would there have been an extra place for the Europa League for England?

No, They would've taken Brighton spot. So them and Liverpool for Europa while Brighton to ECL. But what if they got 7th? Would 8th play ECL or not? Most probably yes.

27 minutes ago, I Make Pies said:

Once Brighton sign Kudus we will be the lowest spenders out of last season's top 8.

Which is impressing rather than the other way round. 
To start improving and bridging the gaps while spending less, that gives us more space to check our needs to upgrade even more next summer. 

Best case scenario is to continue in the UECL, and go to the LC final before the new year (with hopefully easier opponent. Then take FA Cup seriously. If we can win the league cup then we confirm Europe before the season end. Then see what to do in the other 3 competitions. Would be great bonuses to get the other two cups. 
 

I think we really need a cup, FA cup or UECL above CL, but I’m not sure LC or CL. I’m more towards the trophies to be honest. Spurs kept going to CL but now probably going in the wrong direction with winning nothing. 

30 minutes ago, robby b said:

One of the most amazing goals I've seen! Reminiscent of Maradona v England or Hutton vs Birmingham except that they started their runs from near the halfway line whereas Konsa started from near his penalty box, wow! If only it had been in a PL game (or the winning goal in the FA Cup final).

Not only that, the finishing is not what you’d expect from a defender.

It’s either keep both, or selling Bailey while getting Doku or a player of his caliber. 

4 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

Selling Watkins would be absolute madness. Give him a new contract and he will, if he stays fit, undoubtedly break most recent goal scoring records that we have this season.

Hopefully that will mean we win a cup or finish in champions league next season. That will then be the time to see if we can upgrade but it will cost north of 50m and we should still keep Ollie regardless as he would be the perfect squad option for the forward positions. 

Exactly, more time to figure who we need, but if we do so, we should sell him, you can’t keep a 50m asset on the bench, especially as a lone striker. We need to be dynamic on selling and buying. Once you bench Watkins his value will decrease. We can’t afford that. 

The most signing that would make sense is this, yet for me I want Doku (although him starting would not be that helpful for our approach, unless he can do Ramsey’s job), but I don’t want to miss the opportunity of getting a potentially world class.

Felix or Torres make more sense, Torres would be the easier to get. I’d be very happy with him as he’ll add something not in the squad currently. 
Him or Felix on loan, Doku and Pubill permenant, then we’ve done unbelievable job. 
Some friends are saying you guys are doing good job what are you planning? I keep telling them Man City head lol. 
It’s refreshing to say these things as half joke (rather than full jokes).

5 hours ago, Villan_of_oz said:

It's mental how much weight some put on these friendlies.... Winning isn't even a priority! although it doesn't mean it isn't nice to win.

I usually try and refrain from too much preseason VT engagement. I'm getting bored though and the season has started yet

As much as I like to see Villa winning (gutted a bit with the draw losing the meaning cup lol), but still I liked the mistakes we’ve done against Newcastle, I’ve liked the fact we drew to Brentford with trying new tactic. You don’t want teams to figure you out early on. Shipping all these goals makes it easier for Unai to explain to the team, last team we shipped 11 goals in 3 games for our players to start and realize the new approach. Also it gives him more idea on our needs. I liked the fact that Bidace kept starting, wanted to see Kellyman yesterday but hopefully he can have some minutes during the season as well. 

For me, I’d sell him if a very good offer comes. I think next summer we’ll have to upgrade anyway. But I have two concerns, first one is that I would like to see our main players stays so we don’t think our setback (if we had) is because of a player left. Last time under DS I knew that it was all over because Smith success was basically Grealish. This time we don’t really depend on individual (well apart from Emi possibly). I’d like us to try Archer and Duran for some games and see what Watkins really mean for us? 
The second thing is striker signings usually fail than success, so I’d like to see if Duran and Archer can make a big step in their development so that when we get the new striker, we can have a good backup. We can’t risk that right now, and we can’t bench Watkins and take his value off. 
 

With Emery, we should know who’s not a first choice plan before the season ends and before other teams know he isn’t wanted. 
Watkins, Cash, Bailey and Buendia are the most sellable assets we have that we should look to upgrade on them soon. For Bailey and Buendia they’re already part of the squad. 
Emi, Kamara, Luiz, Ramsey, Konsa, Moreno, potentially Diaby and Torres should be part of our plans. McGinn, Tieliemans, Mings, Carlos and so on are great options to have for the squad and currently can’t get us money for their values. 

His issue is his confidence and distribution. He’s not the worst in terms goal keeping itself. Wether his confidence can grow and his presence especially when we need to build up play, that’s a question. But who’s good and will come to be second keeper?

It’s not that we need him, it’s that we if we don’t buy him now then that opportunity will be gone, he could be a world class. If we’re looking to this season only, it makes sense to get Torres or Joao, but if we’re looking at the potential then it’s totally different. 
I’d sell Bailey if it means we can get Doku and I rate Bailey. 

1 minute ago, Jas10 said:

Dunno but links aren’t always extracted or copied directly from tweets, sometimes it’s from website articles, interviews, audio, video etc.

A few different sources have claimed we have an interest in Doku.

Can’t really say how real the link is or what the intent is regarding signing him, whether an offer has even been made or turned down. Apparently, we’re willing to pay so much but not quite meeting Renne’s demands.

Maybe the interest died down after we signed Diaby… the initial link or report of our interest claimed that Doku was an alternative or backup target to Moussa, pretty sure that was from Romano.

 

It’s really hard to tell what the actual facts are regarding transfers tbh… until a player has actually signed

The odd link or rumour from not an obviously fake or bad source just gives us reason to have fun speculating and thinking of where a player fits in and whether we think they’d be a good signing or not…

I think Romano said that we’re interested getting Doku wether or not we got Diaby. (Not quite sure if it was Romano or someone else.

1 hour ago, The_Rev said:

Isn’t it entirely likely that a couple of teams on the unseeded side will become seeded  before the draw is finally made?  Anybody with an asterisk by their name still has at least one more round to play, some of them have two. As I understand it if any on the seeded side lose in Q2 or Q3 then Fiorentina will come over.  

Q3 is irrelevant, the draw would be before they play that. So two non seeded teams could play each other. The seeding will be finalized after Q2. 
But they will mostly do groups and the draw games by it. I doubt they’ll put Fiorentina or even Osasuna with Villa. That’s if they weren’t all seeded this week.