romavillan

5 hours ago, villa4europe said:

I don't think he's in a position to get away with it anymore, if he does it he will be called out on it by the media and fans on social media 

Fortunately the 26 man squad means it shouldn't happen, unfortunately it doesn't mean Ollie will actually see the pitch 

Edit - my cock on the block prediction would be that England look pedestrian in the group but finish top, win the 2nd round, lose the QF - Ollie and Bowen don't get a kick and questions are asked as to why not 

Sounds about right, nothing spectacular against sides much weaker, fail against first decent side we face. Extra points if we huff and puff a lot and hit the post or something to make it a heroic defeat. 

27 minutes ago, GarethRDR said:

Whole process has been penny-pinched wherever possible.  It's not a rebrand, it's a de-brand.

Yeah it doesn't look like they've put much budget in to doing it. 

7 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

It's only really the colour scheme that bothers me about the crest, there are other parts I would possibly change if it was up to me, but none of them are deal breakers.

Personally, I quite like the font choices and pairing, I think they go together fine. As with any font choice, it depends on what you are picking the fonts for, just because Medula One didn't fit with things you were working on doesn't mean it doesn't work for us. Personally, I think it is okay maybe a little too much going on, but certainly, they could have chosen much worse, it's all opinion at the end of the day. Roboto is very widely used and for good reason, it's clean and legible and perfect for body text and not too bad for headings either, very much an all-rounder. Alverata I can't say I've used/seen before but I think it works for us, it seems quite elegant and refined, works well in different weights.

It would have been nice to have custom ones made just for us, I've never made one myself, but I know they take a long time to get right and can get quite expensive, so it may simply be we didn't have the time/budget to go the custom route.

The yellow on blue is just mental, does not work and the drop shadow is some sort of desperate attempt to fix it that I doubt the designer himself would have picked as our crest.

Yeah Roboto you can't really say anything about in terms of practicality, it's not winning any beauty contests but it's fine. Medula is in my opinion not very easy to read and isn't practical in my opinion, the only reason they might work as a pair is because Roboto would go with thousands of typefaces. 

Alverata isn't bad, but surely you'd pick a headline font that compliments it seeing as it's the core typeface of your new brand. If anything was going to be a custom font (IMO they all should be but hey) it should be the badge. Then maybe you use the source or "inspiration" of your badge font for the headlines. Anyway, I'd be going with something like the NYTs headline font to compliment Alverata, not Medula. Woudl work fine with Roboto too if they've picked that for it's practicality.

Would take a long time to make a family that would work well in print and on screen across diff media and devices but for the badge no. You don't even need the whole alphabet. I'd be amazed if there weren't some incredibly talented graphic designers in Birmingham that would have done some amazing work given the chance. 

All subjective I suppose but there are some rules to decent typography...

21 minutes ago, Teale's 'tache said:

The website has had a facelift with parts of the new brand worked in. New crest and new fonts in use:

https://www.avfc.co.uk/

For font aficionados, the curly font family is not custom-made for us, it's a free-to-use font called Medula One available on Google Fonts here:

https://fonts.google.com/specimen/Medula+One?preview.text=Up the Villa

The font family used in the crest does appear to be custom as far as I can tell, and the font used for standard body text is Roboto by the looks.

 

Really do not like the badge still, on all my trawls through free google fonts for headlines I've never though Medula One looked any good. Roboto is a decent readable screen font but I don't like the pairing much, I mean if you're going on a bog standard readable display font for your body copy it must be for practical readability reasons. There are no practical readability reasons for choosing Medula One and neither are particularly complimentary to the Alverata Black used in the logo, no relation that I can see.

Maybe I'm getting old but I'm not that impressed with it, especially the badge, the drop shadow is a criminal act if you ask me. Looks maybe that the designer did it out of desperation when being forced to use the yellow lion on the light blue background. Hopefully the savings on this sort of stuff mean we get a big signing this summer...

On 26/05/2024 at 01:18, juanpablosaliceband said:

Couldn’t agree with this any more. We qualify for the champions league and the first reaction of our fans is to clamour to sell Douglas Luiz as fast as humanly possible. And replace him with some unknown, imaginary midfielder who is just as good at half the price. Good luck with that! It’s utterly bizarre to me. I think people just copy what they hear other people saying. If we need to raise money that badly, sell the deadwood first. If that’s not enough, sell one or more of Cash, Digne, Moreno, Carlos, Diaby or Duran. Under no circumstances should we be selling our best players going into a champions league season, and Luiz is undoubtedly one of our best players in spite of some bad form. Martinez, Konsa, Kamara, Luiz and Watkins is our spine. I wouldn’t dream of selling any of them. And I highly doubt Emery and Monchi would entertain the idea of selling Luiz. We need to keep our quality players. I really can’t understand all of this. 

His 'bad form' is a result of the Kamara injury and having to play more as a DM as well. Ludicrous to suggest selling him, he is absolutely key. Like Emi, Watkins etc.

43 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Dunno I made a very tidy sum on Houllier becoming our manager thanks to thetrees ! 

but how many chairs did you buy with the money?

1 hour ago, allani said:

I really hope that Barkley hasn't been signed to deputise for Kamara.  I think he's here to rotate with Luiz - although I can also see there being times when you might want to play Luiz and Barkley.  I think we need someone whose great at winning the ball back / tackling and yet still good / very good on the ball too - rather than someone else who is great on the ball and can make a good tackle.  Ideally I'd want someone who is great at both (but that starts becoming very expensive!).

I think it's more likely he'll be a 6 and not an 8/10. Especially seeing as he's got a 3 year contract, I think we'll see younger and more athletic players to do the high pressing as a 10 or 8, not Barkley. He's just got signed off the back of playing as a 6 for Luton and having a great season:

"A regista, or deep-lying playmaker, is regarded as a creative 6 sitting between defense and controlling the game’s tempo as well as recycling possession, exactly the type of midfield player that Barkley has morphed into under Edwards. Perhaps an early indication of his role change was when he was given the #6 shirt at his unveiling."

https://breakingthelines.com/player-analysis/the-renaissance-of-ross-barkley-at-luton-town/

Creative 6 is exactly what we need with Kamara out.

Good signing IMO, especially if the costs are low which they may well be if his wage at Luton was as reported. I don't imagine he will play as a 10 or as an attacking midfielder for us, he'll be asked to play in the Kamara role and will eventually be backup/competition for that role. 

By all accounts was great there in a poor Luton side, with the Emery magic and much better players around him he should be a good addition.

Potentially a 10 in Emery's system?

I can't be the only one who has bob Mortimer's McLaren voice in their head every time I see McLaren talking to a player...

Absolutely no way we should sell him. He dropped off in form when asked to play a different role after Kamara got injured. With Kamara or Barkley or a new signing in the Kamara role we will get the best Doug back. 

Just look at the stats in the post above this FFS. It's like last summer when loads on here wanted to sell Watkins and a few of us were saying don't be daft in an Emery team he's a 20 goal a season striker... He might have just missed out on 20 but he got a **** of assists and has been amazing.

Would be a tragedy if Doug got sold.

5 hours ago, duke313 said:

I think they'll likely be stripped apart.  Bologna have already lost Motta to Juve, i'm sure some players will follow him out the door.  Dortmund are after Stuttgart's Guirassy, who remarkably only has a £17m release clause.  We are lucky that we're in PL and have rich owners, so can probably now fend off the vultures.

Yeah both Atalanta dn Bologna will sell, Atalanta have been at it for the best part of 20 years and they are amazing at identifying new talent. Bologna ar newer to it and might be destabilised a bit more. They are more than the sum of their parts though through great coaching (a bit like ourselves).

53 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Do they not pick up the "Atalanta" Europa League win CL place?  I don't know how it all works

I don't watch much Italian football these days, but are Bologna really that good?  Gut feel says I'd rather play them that a revitalised Stuttgart and possibly an away trip to Galatasaray, but maybe that's unfair.  In any case, you can pull Girona/Bologna and also face Celtic and Young Boys.

These are all good teams, but some definitely much less daunting and home/away ties play a much bigger part in the CL now - which I actually think is good.

Bologna are a really nice footballing team yeah, I spose i was just marvelling about how unbalanced the various pots are. If you're unlucky you get great sides in every pot, hopefully it all balances out for us.

On La Magica, Roma only get in if Atalanta finish 5th. They'll probs finish fourth...

3 minutes ago, ender4 said:

 

Barcelona fallen into Pot 2 now. Milan in Pot 3.

We could get Bayern, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Milan, Feyenoord, Galatasary, and Monaco if we wanted all the glamour ties! 

 

 

Don't think Roma will be there unfortunately. They would be a good one to get in pot one though given the strength of the others. Looking at it, the pots vary in strength enormously, some sides are going to have a much much easier run to the playoffs/last 16. Bologna have been incredible for example, arguably a better side than all the other Italian teams bar Inter. You'd fancy your chances against Benfica, Brugge or Shaktar much more than the others in pot two right? If we get Girona and Bologna out of pot 4 that's extremely hard...

28 minutes ago, cb_82 said:

Exactly how I feel mate, everyone is entitled to their opinion etc but we just continue to be so short sighted on these things and throw out all sorts of suggested names

Couple of things for me....

 

1. Lets see how the whole of the business ens up looking at the end of the window before we judge, Barkley may be a squad enabler to get someone else at a higher price in a more vital position or even another more high profile CM

2. Go and look at the team that got Villareal to Europa league win and Champions league semi - Some on here would have a heart attack looking at the names on it if they were suggested at Villa, it shows though its the key chemistry and components of the team rather than the individual

 

Yeah, look who just got a hat-trick for Atalanta to win the EL man. Someone who didn't impress in the Premier League. Quite often a big expensive name won't work, it's about the group and the interaction between the roles in Emery's system.

Barkley as cover for Kamara that doesn't break the bank is good business.

Just now, Tom13 said:

Still plenty of room for improvement though. When games are tight (in terms of space), he has been prone to go missing. Then other games which suit his style, he's excellent.

If he can get a couple of full seasons under his belt who knows, his peak is still four or five years away. He's already influenced games in the past, scored match winners, potentially could become a key player for a CL team (us).

9 hours ago, duke313 said:

It's easy to forget he's only 22 but has over 100 PL games, he's only 2 years older than Tim 

There is no reason to sell him, unless we are at risk of a points deduction due to PSR.

If we can keep him injury free his best years are ahead of him and he's already shown that he's a **** baller who can play at the top level.

1 hour ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Here's my other thing.

Based on the combination of his role change, responsibility , maturity, performance levels, AND the Manager we now have, there is a higher chance of him doing better, than worse.

We've got some players with arguably less natural ability who have looked electric at times for us under Unai

 

I reckon Unai could turn him into an exceptional ball playing DM. We need someone to play the kamara role so we get our best Doug back.

11 minutes ago, paul514 said:

We could make them an offer they can't refuse 

You're looking in good health, it would be a shame if that didn't last. Good health is so important.

What could have been! 

Just now, BG_Villa_Fan said:

True, but he's been the dog's bollocks when it comes to new commercial deals , to be fair. 

Yeah, he's been good for the balance sheet if you want to look at it like that. Although, he's done it at the same time as we've qualified for the conference league and then qualified for the Champions League. You could argue that someone who wasn't a pathological liar could also have ridden that wave of success to signing some big deals...

Well if we wanted a devious liar to generate more money for the club we've made a great appointment.

Drop shadow still looks bollocks, he talks bollocks, there's a theme...

11 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Something very fishy about it

Eel be quite the catch if we can net him

Wtf? Where are the links to this player?!