Jenko#4

I went there on a stag do earlier this year, and I'd recommend a Union Berlin game. For a second division team, the atmosphere was brilliant and the fans are crazy. It is nearly all terraced, and the stadium is built in the middle of a forest. They have pop-up pubs/barbecues on the roads around the ground that you can go to beforehand. The Olympic stadium where Hertha play is good, however to me it was just the German Emirates/Etihad and is quite sterile. Drinks wise, I can't remember too many of the place names, but I didn't have a bad beer whilst I was there......

You pay for what you take surely? be that 1p, 5p, or 10p over. If you haven't got the man skills required to control a petrol pump to the penny, then you deserve to have to be searching the dark recesses of your glovebox for any loose change 

Champions

League,

Here 

We

Come!

Gil and Grealish are both different players.

 

Both really need to push on this season in my opinion as i'm sure with the signings we have made the club will certainly look to push forward.

I agree, I think he needs to start delivering an end product as soon as he is back in the first team. I think the kid is an absolute talent and love him as a player, but if he doesn't deliver straight away then there are now multiple options waiting to replace him who will, whereas there wasn't really that option at the back end of last season. He runs the risk of having his development being stifled (similar to Januzaj) if he doesn't deliver.

WHERE ARE WE GOING TO PLAY THEM ALL?????!!!!!!!.........

                   Guzan

Richards Okore Clark Amavi

         Sanchez Guaye

       Gil Vertout Grealish

                 Kozak

I think we need to protect the back 4 with two holding midfielders for a least the first couple of weeks of the season, at least until we have some consistency there. Plus, it will give Amavi and Richards license to bomb forward and send some bombs in from wide for big Libor.

It is because of the shape of maltesers. You couldn't have maltesers in a pack like rolos or munchies as 1) you'd hardly get any in there, and 2) they couldn't be wrapped properly as they are spherical.  Maltesers have to be in a bag, the others don't.

Also, by packaging rolos, fruit pastilles etc as they are they can get more in a smaller packet, more packets in a box, more boxes on a pallet, more pallets in a lorry etc - keeping costs down.

Was it Lee Nelson who threw the money at him? I think he is an unfunny word removed, however on this occasion I would shake his hand. Takes some balls to do that at a FIFA conference.

Will 33 be Amavi's squad number?

I doubt it. When you look a few of the photos from training sessions, a lot of the players are wearing random numbers. We didn't have a 3 last year so that will probably be Amavi's, however he was 19 at Nice.

I reckon Gueye might have 8, but he was 5 at Lille so he would have to fight Okore if he wanted it. That's a 50:50 fight I think........

 

Massive culling of the wage budget at the moment:

 

85k - Bent

55k - Benteke

50k - Given

50k - Cleverley

35k - Vlaar

35k - Weimann

25k - Lowton

15k - Helenius

10k - Luna

10k - Sylla

===

370k per week.

 

60k - Richards

35k - Gueye

===

95k

 

wow, that is a lot of players leaving this summer.

 

Who are we still trying to get rid of who hasn't left yet - i can only think of Tonev?

 

 Senderos and Bennett maybe.

The best all-round striker I've ever seen at Villa. Pace, power, skill and technique and no obvious weak points (ironically apart from his achilles heel!) He comes across as a very humble and likeable person as well. His goals have kept us up 3 years in a row, and he will go on to bigger and better things with my blessing- just hopefully not at Liverpool. Good luck Beast!

 

 

Might be controversial but I don't like Fox. I didn't like him from the beginning.

Any particular reason or just instinct - have you met him in person or just watched interviews?

He's definitely got the American politician style smarmy-ness about him, but, ultimately that doesn't mean he can't get the job done.

 

Re: Delph's contract - it should never have been allowed to be run down so it only had 1 year left. Surely the blame for that goes to Lamberk + Falkner (and of course Lerner for being an absentee landlord.)

 

Purely instinct.  Met him once.  I just got a bad feeling that he wasn't genuine.

 

There is something about him that makes him unlikable but I can put my finger on it, however everything he has done so far appears to be hugely positive for Villa. People like TF don't get to where they are in business with being a bit of a word removed sometimes. I would much rather someone with a bit of backbone than a yes-man like Faulkner.

I don't think our new captain is currently at the club. I reckon that someone may come in and be given the armband e.g. Darren Fletcher at West Brom. (not ITK at all but just have a feeling Sherwood knows that he needs a good captain, and there isn't one at the club at the moment)

Just a quick q ....as I have no one to ask and googling is giving various answers .....is a 5k of 24:53 a decent time for a lad to have done after two months of "jogging" , mid 30s quite bulky on a non even terrain 

Yes- I'm mid 30's, chunky, a jogger rather than a runner, and mainly run on uneven canal tow paths and I struggle to break 30 minutes. If i could get anywhere near that i'd be well happy!

Mendieta- Valencia to Lazio

Kaka- Milan to Madrid

Beckham- Real Madrid to LA Galaxy??

I imagine some of you will be having a flutter on The Open this week. 

 

My bets: Casey, Grace, Dubuisson, Fleetwood, Palmer.

 

Preview here http://weeklygolfselections.com/2015/07/14/the-open-championship-betting-tips/

I've had Casey and Dubuission. Have also gone with Matsuyama e/w as I think he is due a good tournament

If you were thrown into a game of Premier League forward, and you had the goal of seeing how long you could go before people found out you were quite obviously not good enough to be playing at that level, what position would you choose to play?

I've had a long think about this, and it would have to be as a striker.

Goalkeeper- I think most people would struggle to get a goal kick off the floor in front of 30000, let alone clear the half way line, and that would be the giveaway

Defender- losing out physically to 5 foot nothing strikers when the ball is in the air, and being put on your a**e at every change of direction- giveaway

Midfield- Most touches of the ball, giving it away under pressure, and struggling to find a team mate  with a 5 yard ball- giveaway

Striker- See Emile Heskey, Marlon Harewood, Bosko Balaban, Nathan Delfouneso, Jordan Bowery for proof it can be done.......

Sterling to City has become the 12th most expensive transfer of all time. This is a player who has won no major honours, no personal honours, a goal every 5 and a half appearances for a player that he sees himself as a striker (23 in 129 apps), and 1 goal in 16 appearances for his country. If this transfer is just for a tick in the homegrown box, we could have sold them Weimann for a twentieth of that price! (28 goals in 148 apps and none in 13 for his country)

Liverpool have well and truly pulled City's pants down here- a ridiculous fee for a slightly better than average player. As someone mentioned earlier it is SWP all over again.

The move to Stoke has been officially announced on the OS. 2yr deal.

Can anyone remember if Leeds had a sell on clause? That £8m might not actually be £8m.......

A poster on r/avfc is claiming that there are strong rumors that the new owner is Phil Knight and the announcement will be made tomorrow. Anyone can post in that thread so could be a troll but let me just say it would be incredible if he was the buyer. He's the co-founder of Nike and worth over $20 billion.

He stepped down as Nike Chairman a couple of weeks ago, and is transferring $13 billion of his stock into a new LLC he has set up called 'Swoosh'. The Swoosh board consists of him, a Nike CEO, a FedEx CFO, and an E-bay CEO which makes a very interesting group.......

Sausage, Egg, Chips and Beans followed by Butterscotch Angel Delight

 

 

Chelsea would have some players we could loan... Romeu was highly rated at one point, maybe worth a gamble on?

 

hope we dont go down that route. You cant build for the future by signing loan players. 

 

 

I disagree.

 

Firstly, loan players often end up permanently joining the club. Taking Lukaku as an example, I don't think he would have joined Everton straight from Chelsea on a permanent deal. In summary, potentially better quality joining as a result of a loan.

 

Secondly, if the loan player(s) can contribute to finishing higher in the league we are more likely to be able to attract better permanent signings due to our league position.

 

Lastly, financially speaking, loan deals aren't as risky. If it doesn't work out, send them packing. If it does, try to sign them. For a club to build, we need as few "flops" as possible. Loan routes can highlight in advance if they will be a flop or not. Yes, we might miss out on the permanent signing but if we do that means we have had at least one good season from that player.

 

I agree with your first and second points on here, and they do make going into the loan market an attractive proposition, however they can still be risky financially (especially if we are still trying to balance the books). For us to get a 'big-name' loan signing (Salah, Cuadrado etc)in for a season we will typically have to pay an upfront fee and cover a large percentage of the wages. If after 2-3 games it doesn't look like it is working out, you can't just send them back as they are registered to you until at least January and you will still have to cover these costs. Also, if the rumours around the Cleverley deal are to be believed, then the parent club can request that the player starts if fit- even if he is garbage. The problem is that if these sort of players become available and we don't agree to these terms, then one of our rivals will and we could end up worse off.

This probably should go in the book thread, but I definitely recommend reading 'Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Super Athletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen' by Christopher McDougall. It is based around a tribe of Mexicans with the ability to run ultra distances, but it also goes into detail about how the human body has actually evolved to be primed for running long distances, and that a majority of the population are not utilizing it to its full capacity. It also has a good section on how current running shoes are actually bad for running, and that injuries such as plantar fascitis and achilles tendonitis have actually increased in occurrence since the launch of cushioned shoes, as they over-correct everything that you do and stop you from running in the natural way that your body has evolved to. Even execs at top sports manufacturers have acknowledged that their cushioned shoes do this, but do not shout about it due to the money they make from these shoes. There is also no recognized research available to prove that their shoes prevent injuries either. (I read this part about 5 days after spending stupid money on a new pair of trainers!  )

I guarantee that if you read it, then the first thing you will want to do is go for a long run!

He can drink all of the vodka in Russia for all I care, as long as he helps us get up to mid-table next season.

Exactly this, however I can guarantee that if we do finish mid-table there will still be certain fans and media saying that we should have finished in the Europa League if Jack wasn't pished all the time!!