M_Afro

Give this man whatever he wants. How he’s turned the Gerrard mess into an effective, coherent team is anyone’s guess! Best Villa manager in the modern era.

You can see that he has all of the necessary attributes to be effective and he is absolutely massive! He could easily be our main man in a few years. He’s only just turned 19!

Good assist and showed some flashes. I think we are a better balanced team when he plays. Not sure how he missed that chance in the first half though. It looked easier to score.

Emi is our best player by quite some distance. He has been really good again this season for Villa whilst, just for good measure, become the first current Villa player to win the World Cup and becoming fifa Gk of the year. Quite remarkable. He wins us so many points. Our POTY and probably always will be whilst he remains at the club.

Yep but I’m not sure how many he would have started had we had other options to pick from for all games. Unai may love him. We just don’t know. Time will tell but in my view he’s always been most effective as an impact sub. He rarely dominates games. He does some good things and some bad things but his consistency is patchy. I think Unai will want better. I think the regular starters most at risk are Konsa, Young/Cash, JJ, Buendia and Bailey.

I know it’s been a couple of disappointing weeks but if we beat Spurs on Saturday, this race is very much still on. Liverpool are very beatable at home and Brighton will be on their last legs come the last day of the season. We can still do this. For perspective, people were still talking about us potentially getting relegated as recently as mid Feb. We have three games to go and a reasonable shot at Europe. We’d all have taken that after we lost to Arsenal in Feb. Villa Park will be rocking on Saturday and I think we’ll get the three points.

We’re just going to have to wait and see mate. In my view, Emi will become a useful squad player. Unai is an absolute perfectionist. Some of Emi’s traits as a player will really get on his nerves. I think he will be ruthless and if you’re not playing exactly to his plan, then you’ll be out.

It’s not though is it? What other options do we have? Coutinho has been injured. As has Bailey and Boubs. He obviously does think he’s worthy of playing under the circumstances but these circumstances are not of his making. Let’s see what happens when Unai is picking from his own squad. I just don’t think that Emi will be a regular starter then.

Nope. He’s a regular in someone else’s team that is currently managed by Unai. It’s going to take a few transfer windows to turn us into a real Unai team. Buendia will need to be much better if he wants to still be starting in 12 months.

Maybe. A bit certainly but he really needs to cut down on the sloppiness and the petulance. Until he does he will never become a regular in an Unai team.

This argument only stacks up if it’s only the difficult passes that are dragging your percentage down. The annoying thing about Buendia is the amount of times he misplaces a simple pass or gets easily dispossessed, often through lack of awareness. You rarely see KDB falling foul of those things. He really divides opinion Buendia which normally means his real value falls somewhere in the middle of the extremity views. I think that he will be a squad player next season. He is a useful option to have around but he has rarely been consistent enough to continue as a guaranteed starter.

He’s never really shown that he’s good enough to start for us and at £40m I think he probably was overpriced but he has always looked pretty lively from the bench. I suspect he will still be around next season and having a positive influence from the bench, when we need a spark. Ironically, we could have done with someone like him, to bring off the bench, in each of the last two games. That’s where his value lies.

Ha. Up to you mate. I might wait.

He’s going to score today and it will be epic. Everyone will be talking about him tomorrow.

I watch all of Unai’s press conferences. His command of English is so impressive. He speaks and understands everything so well but has anybody else noticed that virtually every week, whenever Tom Ross asks a question, he has to refer to the interpreter for assistance? It’s always Tom and never anyone else. It’s like he’s saying sorry mate but I just don’t speak Bluenose! Always cracks me up. Just another reason to love the man.

Also. Whatever happens we are going to finish in the top half for the first time in a gazillion years! It’s all good Villans.

As it stands, I’ve got Liverpool finishing on 67 with Spurs, Brighton and Villa all ending the season on 61. It’s all still to play for. Even a defeat tomorrow isn’t terminal, although it’s obviously not ideal. If we win the two home games, then we are in with a shout still.

It’s all down to us. If we win our next two matches then we will still be in the mix for sixth when we go to Anfield. Who knows what will happen then? Things can change very quickly. We just need to focus on lifting our own performance and getting those three point’s tomorrow. We then focus on Spurs. It’s all to play for.

Would

Agreed. He would probably want too much money as well. It’s nice to be in a position where we can at least have these conversations now. It’s only a few years that people were getting excited about the imminent arrival of Ross McCormack!

I wonder how the Alemany news will be greeted by the players? It could give them a little extra boost as they approach the last few matches. They’ve looked a little flat the last couple of matches and we need to rediscover our hunger against the Wolves. Hopefully this helps.

We were linked with Christensen a few days ago. That link makes a lot more sense and actually seems possible now! I would absolutely love Raphinha too. Both are top players.

The problem is, his value will be quite high at the end of the season. If he stays with us next season and doesn’t play much, then it will likely reduce. If we loan him to a PL club and it doesn’t go well then his value is also likely to reduce. At the moment there is a lot of value in the unknown potential of being able to do what he has done in the Championship, in the PL. With this in mind, a sale with an agreed buy back is easily the best option. If he is successful, then we can execute the option but if he flops then we have maximised his sale price. All of the risk sits with the buying party. I think we would get at least £20m on this basis which will help us out with our more pressing needs this summer.

Today changes nothing. Brentford were always likely to beat Forest, plus they’re highly unlikely to catch us anyway. Brighton were also likely to beat Wolves. Their bigger challenges are to come. A defeat tomorrow is also unlikely to make that much difference in what is arguably our toughest game remaining. We do have a chance of winning though and that would really be a blow to the other teams around us and thus I only see tomorrow as a massive opportunity. Whatever happens it’s ace being a Villa fan at the moment. Enjoy it Villans,

It won’t be clear and obvious!