skarroki

3 hours ago, Monkeypuzzle said:

Apart from Reece James and Sterling, since Lukaku and Ziyech will never play for them again, who in Chelsea's squad makes our starting eleven, or even our bench? They will be lucky to get eighth this season.

I think this is massively discrediting Chelsea and their players, scouting, manager and coaching staff due to an absolute write off of a season last time out. Half that team, the coaches and manager knew they weren't going to be there in a few months. Lampard has been open about finding it impossible to motivate the players. It was a similar rerun of Rangnick the season before. When the people in charge and the people on the pitch have no skin in the game and don't have to face the consequences of how the season pans out, you're going to lose a lot at an elite level. 

The difference between us and them is that a lot of their squad are unknown quantities still now. On their day though, some of those players could be absolute stars and so it's how quickly Poch can get them ticking over, if they're spluttering for too long at the start of the season confidence could drain and that young squad could find it difficult to keep a clear frame of mind. 

I'd say to answer this I have no idea who could get in our team because I don't know any of their qualities enough. Nice boring response. 

I could definitely make a long list of players they have that I'd like / have liked us to sign though, given the opportunity and budget.  

Don't know if it's been discussed before but feel like if Brighton can get Kudus but can't agree personal terms, we should be all over a hijack of that move. Weakens them and gives us a great player without having to negotiate with the club, just offer what Brighton offered. 

6 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

 

he hasnt been in their last 2 match day squads (groin strain), so this is the third match missing.

injury record......yikes.

Unless his groin strain is actually a "groin strain"...

56 minutes ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

I'll take a wild guess and say he will be given the number 12 shirt with us.

Since 2018 he's only worn 17 and 22 and both are free so that promising if he's picky about squad numbers. 

Unless there's a genuine reason Duran wants 24 I felt like that was a clear indication of him signing this morning. Once the manager name checks a player in a conference you have to feel they're sure it'll be going ahead 

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

He was given 39.

 

https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2023/august/11/aston-villa-squad-numbers-for-2022-23/

Number 39 is free and he might be listed as that in the squad list section, I'm not sure. But in the official announcement, he's left out. 

Edit: I know the link says 2022/23 but that's the official sites mistake, not mine. The link takes you to the new squad numbers announced today 

Iroegbunam and Archer given their squad numbers, so for now look to be in the plans of the manager. Philogene-Bidace has his double-barreled surname on the official squad list again. 

Can't see anyone else obvious excluded unless they're such a forgotten player for Villa I didn't even know they were still here. 

Davis not given squad number, we freezing him out or is an announcement of a move away imminent 

1 hour ago, Jas10 said:

I mainly just detest their fans now, the arrogance and entitlement. And the faux rivalry they have created. We don’t give a shit about them but they are so obsessed with us…

Funnily enough, I live in Wolverhampton and am the sole Villa fan in my family not all of whom are big football fans or all that passionate though…

They’ve been very mediocre for a very long time but the change in attitude has been annoying… very fickle too. Dodgy dealing to get them where they got, adored then stabbed their beloved manager in the back…

They think they are much better than they actually are…

Maybe you missed the recent talk that they believe none of our players, bar maybe Watkins, would get into their side…

High time they were humbled…

This probably goes without saying so sorry for stating the obvious, but all the Wolves fans I know say that none of their side would get in our strongest XI now and they'd even say Dendonker would walk back into the team if he was still there and he's way down our pecking order. 

Even Tim on The Athletic says he's very worried about Wolves and that's shared by the guys I know. HITC Sevens did a video on them a few days ago and there's very little arrogance in the comments from their fans. 

The thing is there's always a glimmer of eternal hope in football and their starting XI is better than at least 3 other teams, O'Neil has just kept up a worse side in the league and their form in pre-season was good. But I think the optimism only goes as far as "we might not finish below 17th" in my experience. 

Just playing devil's advocate really because I've been seeing a lot of hate for Wolves fans and their arrogance recently, not from you personally or saying that what you're saying is wrong, just that every club has their idiots who have blind optimism and hate on others for no reason. 

Maybe it's due to where you live because I'm in Leeds and find them insufferable and their irrational hatred of us 

4 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Exactly, plus who is the absolute master of taking players who were better in the past and returning them to their best. Unai Emery improves players. Some players need the elite coaching and system to thrive. We are signing another player with European experience too

Very limited pool of players available who have already won the Europa Conference League as well, if he signs with us he'll be the only person to have won it twice. Take that, Rice. 

19 hours ago, thabucks said:

Why a new contract ? He signed one last season until 2027 … 

Ignore me then I thought it was up in 2025, didn't want him coming back with 12 months left 

7 minutes ago, villan95 said:

 

 

They have no money or strikers really so a new contract signed followed by a loan out in the Prem for the season would be the best scenario imo. 

3 hours ago, Rolta said:

This is nonsense. He's consistently played well for us. He's not a superstar, but he's a battler with quality—he's been mostly effective for us and has had plenty of moments in a Villa shirt he can be proud of.

I do not think it's nonsense and stand by it despite how many people seem to agree with you.

This is recency bias and "injured player is good" logic in my opinion. The entire time Buendia has been here he's fallen short of expectations, especially considering what he showed at Norwich and his price tag. 

The fact is he needed to up his game if he wasn't going to be a bench player this year and as one of our most expensive players that's not good enough. He's fallen behind a £3mil championship signing and an academy graduate in the pecking order. 

I really like him and his style but I still don't think he's done enough ever and he's now at a do or die stage in his career, he's definitely no prospect now, if he's got to come back from being out for a year too on top of it I don't expect him to continue his career here post injury.

I know this is very harsh but just how I see it. Love to be proven wrong. 

This news but for Watkins or Martinez, I'd be beside myself. 

Realistically people were saying we needed to lose one of our attacking options from midfield in this window and I don't think many had Buendia in their ideal starting XI, yes it's a team game now but he was an expensive player who never lived up to the hype until a few glimmers in this pre-season. 

I still think there was a good player in their but I think he was a bench option that could easily have gone the way of Coutinho. 

It weakens us slightly but we've got time to readjust to this during the window. 

Overall I'm not bothered by this from a cold, supporting Villa perspective but obviously feel for the lad himself as he must be devastated, and also feel for whoever caused the injury in training as they must be reeling right now. 

On 29/07/2023 at 07:46, Rich192 said:

Maybe the reason there’s been no rumours about a new number two is that Emi will be number one for all competitions this season. Which personally, I would want anyway. I’m not on board with this modern fascination of having cup keepers. Emi has also specifically stated that he can’t wait to play for us in Europe, which hopefully means he won’t be sat on the bench for them. 
 

David De Gea played 58 times for Man Utd last season, and was only not chosen for the early rounds of the League Cup. So there is precedence for this. And I hope this is our plan for the coming seasons. And if that is the case, I have no issue with us not replacing Olsen. I’d still rather we did, but if Emi is number one for all competitions, it’s certainly less of a risk. 

I'd only want a cup keeper if we had a young keeper in the squad who we wanted as backup and also wanted to give experience and game time. 

If Marschall for example was seen as good enough already for the championship but we wanted him on the bench, I'd be happy with him as cup keeper. I don't see the need to play Olsen though, we don't owe him anything and don't need to develop him. The only other argument would be keeping him as fresh as possible for a potential need to step up following an injury 

This should be my thread and therefore I hope we don't sign him.

No but if we were signing this guy 2/3 years ago my jaw would have hit the floor. Same could be said of Tielemans. If we can get them close to their best we have some squad. 

1 minute ago, Delphinho123 said:

YES SIR. 

2 hours ago, MrBlack said:

But if we replace him with someone that wasn't at the club for 3 years before 21, then we lose a man from our ECL squad.

Bring back Ciaran Clark or Delfouneso? Both available on a free transfer

Or one of Bannan? Albrighton? Weimann? Hogg? Get the old boys back for one last pop at Europe. 

cheeky bid for Grealish?

I'm being ridiculous I'm just trying to understand how this rule works. I'm assuming those players qualify for the squad despite coming through the academy what feels like 30 years ago. 

24 minutes ago, useless said:

If he has a good season at Burnley I wouldn't be surprised if we bought him back as soon as next summer, we've got a number of attacking players who could be heading into their last season with us for various reasons, so next summer it might not just be about improving the starting eleven, but adding a few second choices as well. This whole deal could end up being a glorified loan.

That sounds like a verbatim quote my friends who support Man City said to me when we got Dougie. 

48 minutes ago, thabucks said:

Think his France days are behind him … Lets see if the Saudis do indeed come in and bid  can they afford his wages let alone a pay rise … 

His France days surely aren't behind him! He's only a few months older than me and I'm still working on my fitness for the World Cup 2026.

That's a wrap folks

regarding the Archer speculation, too many murmurs for him to be sticking around I think, must be something in it. I would say after looking at squad registration, the fact his birthday is in december has massively hampered him. If he was born Jan 2022 instead he wouldn't be taking a spot in the squad and that might have been enough for Emery to give him a season to impress.

forgive me if this has been done a few times already but I was bored and made a quick spreadsheet to wrap my head around squad restrictions this season in the Prem and how our current squad fits into them.

My main takeaways were the fact we currently have an exact 25 man squad, with main team and under 21s combined. 

In that 25 are a few I'd expect us to move on instead of register, the main two being Davis and Hause.

I then think you could put question marks against all of Olsen, Chambers, Coutinho, Traore, Archer and Bailey.

All of them leaving though would obviously cause a lot of upheaval so I'm half expecting us now to just sit tight with a few in the squad and give them another year under Emery to see how they fair / whether they feature. I definitely think a defender needs to go so I imagine it'll be Hause. I think an attacking player needs go and I'm not sure on this one, but would prefer Coutinho or Traore over anyone else. Then Davis to go too would be my assumption from the strikers.

My other takeaway was how impressed I was by the volume of players we don't need to register in the squad in order to play, that could actually pick up a lot of minutes. Duran, Philogene, Iroegbunam, Revan, Feeney, Young, Kellyman, Marschall, Chrisene, Bogarde to name ones I think could get game time. A lot of these could do with loans out but in the case of Duran and Philogene in particular, I'd feel comfortable with a 23 man squad knowing these guys are ready to step up, and we've got space in Jan if they don't step up and we hit an injury crisis. Not included Aaron Ramsey for obvious reasons but if he stayed he'd be right up there for me. The issue being we are already bloated in his position and even then Duran and Philogene would be ahead of him in the youth ranks for game time. 

Current 25 man squad:

2 GK: Olsen, Martínez

9 DF: Hause, Chambers, Digne, Moreno, Carlos, Mings, Cash, Konsa, Torres

4 DM: Dendoncker, Tielemans, Kamara, Luiz

7 AM: Coutinho, Traoré, McGinn, Buendía, Bailey, Ramsey, Diaby

3 ST: Davis, Archer, Watkin