StanBalaban

10 minutes ago, Captain_Townsend said:

The Luke kit wasn't a villa kit!

Like, we play in claret and blue. This should be a given. Also the below quote should be in the minds of the club when it comes to things like the stadium, the kit and sponsors:

 

"Finance is important, but we should never forget that we are not talking about a mere business. This is the Aston Villa football club, and it deserves nothing short of the best." Attributed to Frederick Rinder

Finances are the turn of the 20th century are quite different to football today in fairness. I agree with that statement for when it comes to the BK8 sponsorship, but give Unai a more financial powerful team over one that (subjectively) plays in a slightly nicer T-shirt all day long. 

edit: also the "Villa kit" of claret body and blue sleeves wasn't a Villa kit when it first came out.

26 minutes ago, CarryOnVilla said:

I don’t believe Villa as a club should be represented by random patterns. we’re a classic club and the patterns we use should be traditional established patterns. Give the bus seat patterns to clubs like spurs or wolves 

This is a bizarre comment. I understand that bus patterns aren't necessarily a good aesthetic choice, but what does being a  'classic club' have to do with a third kit (which, to my mind, should be a little bit 'out there'). Also, whilst I don't like either team, surely Spurs and Wolves are both 'classic clubs' too?

Take that attitude and apply it to the Man U v Wolves game, and you can see why an injury time penalty isn't given at Old Trafford, which would have had consequences to the overall result.

It's corrupt, but maybe not in the match-fixing kinda way. It's corrupt as it's there to protect the ref from additional heat from the managers of the big teams. 

Also, where's this audio that we're supposed to be able to hear after the game anyway?

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Awful third kit. It’s like they took the Wolves third shirt and picked a different gradient. 
 

Ditch Castore and Fanatics 

Unfortunately, until we become a team that plays regular European football, no top-tier brand is going to pay us the money that Castore have. 

6 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

The set is complete! 3 shit kits.  Well done to the design team - great job

Honestly three horrific kits. The away kit being the worst 

Whilst it may not be a belter, it's pretty inoffensive to my eyes. Definitely not stirring up strong emotions either way.

16 minutes ago, PaulC said:

Times have changed but it will still rankle if Archer scores 15/20 goals this season for Sheffield United and Watkins gets injured and Duran isn't cutting it.  I understand we have a buyback clause but yet to see how that will pan out. 

 

I wouldn't be surprised to see Cam doing well at Sheffield United, but I think it would be harsh on JD to compare the two. At Sheffield, Cam will be one of their main men, with a team geared up to play to his strengths. Duran won't be our main man yet, so is really providing relief (KW.gif) to Ollie.

Hopefully both do well, except when Cam is playing against us.

Oh Ollie

6 hours ago, Mr_Dogg said:

Market is crazy but at least Webster had experience. Lewis Hall has a handful of appearances, never even been on loan.

It's not always about what they've done, but the potential they have. Lewis Hall is supposed to be an exceptional talent, and had already broken into the Chelsea first team. Same age as Rico Lewis, who would now be worth a fortune.

It's like AJ going for 14m, yet Keinan only going for 1m despite having more experience.

I think it's easier to say you'd walk away from the club when the situation is hypothetical. PIF has significant holdings in Uber, Starbucks and EA: 3 companies where withdrawing your custom would make a difference, beyond just a comparative handful of Geordies.

It's hard to judge another person's 'price' when it comes to taking a moral standpoint. I didn't see too many walking away from our club when we had sketchy, opaque Chinese ownership - the biggest concern was the fear of getting money out of China. 

9 minutes ago, Xela said:

Must be the last of the Coutinho money, surely? 

Apparently after Kalvin Phillips, so they'll have to eek it out a little bit further.

Crafty little savers.

22 minutes ago, beachboys1 said:

some one said he was obviously wrong im very sorry only going on what was said

 

Yeah he's clearly amongst one of the first players to go and congratulate Duran.

20 minutes ago, beachboys1 said:

i heard he didnt  look at duran wehn he scored

Where did you hear this?

Have you thought to watch the footage, which is all over all the social channels as well as being repeated on TV?

2 hours ago, Steero113 said:

FIVE? Christ almighty I would be raging if we let him go for £5m. 

Not singling you out here Steero, but I think money loses all sense of value when you're looking upwards in the Premier League given the crazy fees banded around.

JPB is 21, has played nearly 50 games for Cardiff and Stoke scoring 5 goals. If he was there on loan from another PL team, would we be looking to bring him in here? I doubt it, but if we were, do you think we'd be looking to pay much more than £5m for him? Maybe a little if there was no buyback from the selling club (as the buying club would need an incentive to agree to the buyback terms), but not a huge amount more.

If he does well we can trigger the clause, but like so many before him, I doubt that we will (FWIW I hope I'm wrong). Meanwhile £5m in profit allows us to add another 4 or 5 times multiple of that to our shopping budget, and JPB gets to play regular football. Win / win.

10 hours ago, Philosopher said:

Disappointed with us selling him. For me it sends the wrong message.

You're looking at this from the perspective of a fan, but footballers want to play football first and foremost. Whether that's at the Villa or somewhere else, players want to play.

No talented kids would want to join an academy of a club that isn't open to finding routes to regular football when they're in their early twenties. 

37 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

I honestly dont get it

It's the effect of FFP. Selling academy players represents pure profit on the balance sheet. 

Also. AJ, Archer and JPB are good enough to play every week somewhere right now, so they would be all for making a move to the right club. Probably a nice payrise too.

If we sold all 3 and it provides Unai with the funds to get a Chiesa (as an example), I don't think many would complain.

20 minutes ago, calcifer said:

What are we doing? The rate we are losing players, would rather keep Jaden, would defo get conference league minutes! 

What are we doing??!!

The reality of becoming a successful team is that some of our academy graduates will be good enough to regularly start matches somewhere, but unlikely to get that opportunity here right now. 

On the flip side, we're not like Brighton where we'll find a 15m South American talent and flip them after a year or two. Our academy is excellent, but the likelyhood of many of them being good enough for where we aspire to be is slim. 

This is how we'll generate revenue to bring in more elite first-team regulars.

Chelsea and Man City do this all the time, having sold Trafford and Hall for millions. City might even let Cole Palmer go.

DCL starts for them.

Unai will have worked all week with these players - hopefully a well-drilled gameplan and an opportunity to repay the faith shown in them.

Hopefully VP gets behind each and every one of them.

10 minutes ago, bannedfromHandV said:

We’ll all be coming on his thread if he does well

6 minutes ago, ender4 said:

Say that again?

£22.5m plus 15.5m add-ins to buy, plus the £6.35m loan fee.  So £44m if we buy and he does well?

I think of the 22.5m, 15.5m is depending on certain targets being hit. So it's the loan fee, plus 7m + 15.5m add-ins which I imagine won't be hard to hit assuming he stays fit.