MessiWillSignForVilla

The Belgian press is something I definitely don't miss from Benteke being here, for whatever reason whenever Belgian players go on international duty they end up giving these types of interviews that's as if they don't realise they'll be picked up outside of Belgium, but it's just something you have to get used to when you sign Belgians. And to be fair, it's not even that bad by Belgian international interveiw standards

I can, we're genuinely cursed at St James', one win there this century and that required 3 red cards and a penalty

5 subs used, time to test the theory of whether Olsen is better than nothing

"I accept I made mistakes" and "I was cleared of all charges" in his statement. Hmm, I think lying about being cleared suggests you've not accepted shit you scumbag.

That post is making it out like they are some of Europe's biggest names, but are they really that huge? As good as Emery is and as excited as I am for Torres and Monchi, it's not like we've shocked Europe by getting them. If you look at these signings objectively (even a tad pessimistically) they don't seem that outlandish; - Emery has had two bites at the apple at the "top" level, and has arguably failed both times. The fact his most successful spells have come at Valencia, Sevilla and Villarreal would suggest a club like Villa is exactly where his level should be. - Monchi spent his entire playing career and, with the exception of a 3-year period between 2016 and 2019 when he left for Roma, got fired after 10 months then spent two years unemployed, his entire post-playing career with Sevilla - 11 years as a player, 20 as a DoF. There are serious doubts over whether he can be successful outside of Sevilla, which is probably why he went back there after his Roma spell as no-one esle seemed interested. Him coming here is a big risk for us and him. - Torres is highly rated yes, but has spent his entire career at Villarreal (who by the way are tiny. Half of Villarreal could fit inside their stadium and the club is the definition of punching above their weight). At 26 having not played at a higher level raises doubts over his ability to reach a higher level. Yes he was linked with some of the biggest names in Europe, but if he was so good, why wasn't he snapped up a couple of years ago? And it's not like we beat any of those clubs to get him, by all accounts we only got him because Bayern passed on him. He's played in Europe, but just one season in the Champions League which Villarreal were in "only" because they won the Europa League - performance wise they're basically Villa from the 90s/00s if they took Europe more seriously. I'm not trying to suggest these guys are shit or anything, as I said, I'm excited for them and what this season holds, but it's not like we snagged Zidane and Militao (plus the DoF equivalent). I wonder if he felt the same way when Ancelotti and James went to Everton? That was way "worse" than us getting these three. If Alemany had joined I could see the argument with him, it would be absurd for us to poach a DoF from Barcelona even with their financial situation.

The easiest article ever, probably been in the drafts since Gerrard first got linked to a Saudi team

Reckon Starc had that under control there

Looks to me like it's just been printed far too high up, when I look at shirts I have in the wardrobe the names are about 5 inches from the neck, that looks about 2 inches at best, whoever gets that shirt will have the name on their shoulders rather than their back

It's BK8's brand colour

According to Gregg Evans we were interested too hence Olof being at the Brighton game

Translates to: "Pau Torres has two official offer on the table. One is Villa, the other is not Juventus. The decision will be made during the vacation months" I presume that just means off-season.

Clearest sign that he's a true Villa fan, about to qualify for Europe and still finds something to moan about!

I think that's on unfortunately

I knew the Royal Family was German but didn't realise they'd won so many Bundesliga titles

And was immediately under pressure, not like he received it to feet in acres of space.

What a **** cross by Moreno!!!

Shame Buendia doesn't get an assist for that, the dummy was a thing of beauty

Investigation is into cheating between 2009-2018, can't help but feel extremely bitter that this started with them completely kneecapping us and triggering our shit decade that followed.

I'll preface this by saying that JPA is probably my favourite ever Villa player, I was obsessed with him as a kid, but I assume Bobzy is referring to the fact that he was quite hot and cold during his time here and even back then got a bit of stick at times. He had two very good seasons hitting double figures in 01-02 and 03-04, but other seasons he really struggled and started off very slowly considering he was our record signing. I imagine if we made a similar signing these days, especially with goalscoring being even more improtant in player discussions now, they would be written off fairly quickly, at least by a loud minority. For example, Watkins' two season so far have been far better than all but JPA's best two seasons, with Watkins' best matching JPA's second best, and I imagine not many people would tolerate Watkins having a season similar to JPA's other 4.5 seasons here.

Distribution of Flamingos?

Bridgen embarrassing his constituency again, must be lunchtime. God I can't wait until that word removed is no longer my MP.

New FIFA rules mean that players can switch allegiance once if they have played no more than 3 competitive games (and 0 tournament games) for their nation prior to the age of 21. The rule is designed to stop bigger international teams from giving young players with dual nationalities caps just to lock down their future elligibility, i.e. El Ghazi with the Netherlands, Zaha with England.

A roll of tape that has the word Balenciaga on it repeated over and over being cut off and reading as "Ba-" "-alenciaga" seems like something that could easily happen by coincidence. Not to mention the sacrificing kids to Baal thing comes from a Roman source discussing the Carthaginians, it'd be like someone digging up WW1 propaganda in 2000 years and coming to the conclusion that Germans were a huge ape-like creature.