skarroki

1 hour ago, DCJonah said:

Callum Wilson is very good and scored a good amount of goals. The other 2 are bit part players not their main senior striker. 

Although I agree Wilson is good, he's also made of glass and I feel like there is a ticking timebomb on his current abilities, any injury could be the one that he never comes back from. 

Watkins on the other hand is made of something different, he's immune from injury and illness. 

Watkins I think struggles the most psychologically out of all the strikers I've watched at Villa. It looks like the air weighs a metric tonne around him whenever he's not scored in 3 or 4 games. He would hang his head low and be shaking his head at himself. The first season he must have had 5 goals disallowed by VAR and every time you could see, he was blaming himself for the VAR decision and had a look of "well that was my only chance of scoring".

On that goalscoring run last season, he looked like a different man. That miss against Chelsea was a classic example, in other seasons I'd point to that and think "he won't be scoring for 5 games now". But in that match, when he went through on goal minutes later and tried that audacious chip, you could tell - this is a guy that knows how good he is and knows if he misses, he just needs to go again and something will happen. 

I'm excited to see what he produces next season. 

8 hours ago, useless said:

Barry, Sinisalo, and Kesler all starting final pre-season games before season starts next weekend, Exeter game against Coventry is live on youtube

Posted in the Barry thread but he was one of a few to get a full 90, I was thoroughly whelmed by him. Slight flashes, nothing great. Nothing that made you think "this guy is too good for league 2" 

It's only one game though and a friendly at that though 

A front 3 of Bertie, Philogene-Bidace and A.Ramsey would be fun. None of them would know what the other two were gonna do or what they are gonna do themselves. Good luck to the defender trying to set themselves 

Had a decent game today but nothing special, he had a habit of running down a couple cul de sacs, I think it looked like he was keen to impress the new team. Stockport ended up winning 2-0 and they missed a pen so was a good result for them, their squad looks very strong. 

I'm worried about where he'll play as he seemed to drift all over, it looks like they tend to play 5-3-2 and so he might end up fighting for the 2 striker spots with the current forwards who are good for the level and now Powell who they signed from Stoke, who really has no business being in the 4th tier. 

He played the full 90 so might be worrying for nothing but I do think if he doesn't hit the ground running there's a few good seniors there that will happily take his place in the team. 

I did think he'd benefit from a season out in a Spanish speaking country or something before reading this comment. 

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Could be as simple as he's still a 19 year old kid from Colombia who moved to Chicago at 18 then moved to Birmingham

Rather than send him out on loan to say Portugal or Spain or even the championship and say Preston with their conveyor belt of loan strikers or boro following archers successful loan there how about we just let the kid settle down and look after him, time is on his side, a loan can come in even 2 years time, let him get his feet under the table at villa before we try and upheave him again

He's had a lot to deal with for a young guy, best to maybe just let him settle and find himself a bit England first. If he's desperate to play more football and we're out of Europe and the Carabao then maybe in January we can reassess. 

I just can't work out how he fits in with Watkins and Archer and anyone else we bring in before the window shuts, so that's what I'm curious to find out as the season goes on. It's jarring to go from Watkins is the only striker and he'll play almost every minute, to fighting on four fronts and who's getting game time where. 

Rapid Wien for the banter please and thanks 

1 hour ago, Monkeypuzzle said:

So to repeat a question that I asked this time last year, I think, who is currently considered better between Seb Revan and Ben Chrisene? Last year it was Chrisene, but after his injury, have things changed?

I think Chrisene had a decent loan in Scotland in their premiership so he might be considered higher up, but Revan wasn't on loan at all and around the first team training. So in those terms, Emery probably sees Revan as higher in the pecking order purely based on how his training has gone and getting used to what he wants. 

As luck would have it I'm off to Stockport's pre-season match against Preston tomorrow, so I'll now be hoping for a chance to see him in his new colours for the first time. 

I do think there's a chance he'll still make it but I also think he'll definitely be a professional footballer with value so if he won't make it, we've helped develop one of our own and make money out of it too, no shame in that. 

I would imagine Stockport will go up this season so my hope would be that they get Promotion and he plays a decent role in that, then goes back there for a fee next year. Either that or he absolutely tears it up for a season and then someone like Coventry comes calling 12 months later 

Think Emery likes him. Hope he gets a lot of game time, exciting player to have on the pitch. I'm sure he'll get the crowd off their feet at Villa Park and then that'll give him confidence back. 

6 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

If I was CEO of WH Smith and moved to be an admin assistant at Amazon, would that be a promotion?

That is a decent analogy of what's happened here

And to add to that, if he was a Villa fan and this was a dream it would be like going from the CEO of your own company to working to someone else with less responsibility. For some people, like Carl Anka, he's gone from Southampton reporter to a Man Utd reporter and it's understandable if he is a Man Utd fan that they'd move him to that club. 

Gregg Evans gets on my wick like no other person in journalism. He has the energy of a sloth on pain medication and the warmth of liquid nitrogen. 

I'm so annoyed that he's still doing the 1874 podcast and I don't know why he's not been booted. 

"Promoted" to a position to talk about Liverpool? You kidding me. Some people dream about getting his opportunity and the closet WBA can't wipe a rare smile from his face when discussing the fact that he doesn't have to talk about Villa anymore. 

16 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Is it pronounced ear-rogue-bun-am with the accent on the second syllable, and is the a sound in "am" like bath or trap?

Iroegbunam

 

Dad joke answer: it's pronounced "Tim"

Pedantic answer: I don't pronounce bath and trap in the same way 

FWIW I found the video of Gerrard's post-match interview where he is asked how to pronounce it and he says it's taken a few months to learn it. However I still can't get over my irrational hatred of the man so I would say that I don't trust his pronunciation of it either. 

https://www.skysports.com/watch/video/sports/football/12602892/steven-gerrard-theres-a-pathway-for-youth-players-at-villa

Judging by that I think it's pronounced ee-rhoo-byoo-num

ee as in tree, rhoo as in Kanga, byoo as in blue without the "l" and num as in the popular linkin park song. The "G" is silent. 

1 hour ago, KMitch said:

Needs another season on loan in the Championship.  Not good enough for the first team yet and was the worst of our Championship loanees last season, including KKH.  I want him to succeed at Villa, but the amount of unwarranted praise he gets from Villa supporters is kind of ridiculous right now.  On the other hand, Aaron Ramsey played very well for TWO Championship clubs last season and I rarely see him get hyped up.  

KKH was third choice RB within a month behind an injured old midfielder and a lad from the Hudds academy who was both younger than KKH and also not a RB. 

Aaron Ramsey was disliked by the majority of the Norwich fanbase.

I think QPR fans were fairly glowing in their assessment of Iroegbunam on the whole. 

Is there a reason you think his season at QPR was a huge failure?

Ideal scenario is throw him into the top flight somewhere else if we were going to loan him out. I think the general feeling is the championship is done and dusted for him now.

If he can get a season under his belt in France, Portugal or the Netherlands for example I feel that would really show he's ready, as he can handle a new environment and culture and still perform. 

As much as it would be good to get him into a different Prem team on loan, I do worry about the idea of that. If he does well then the liklihood is that they'll be able to convince him to stay with the loan club, as they've already proven they'll give him a chance at this level and help him perform. If he does badly, then you've got a player worth £10mil - £15mil currently and sent him somewhere for his price to tank and his confidence to take a kicking. At least a club in Europe means he's out of the eye of the British media unless he's doing well. 

I'm sure everyone here can name a bunch of British players that have done well in Europe recently, but you'd struggle to name any British players who are doing badly. 

I'd like to see what he can do staying at the club though. 

Would prefer he went to Lille if he goes on loan as their squad is ridiculously small so he's guaranteed to play. 

Mings has made some lovely passes into midfield to be fair to him 

Buendia and Philogene the highlights for me this half, but I'm a sucker for twinkly feet and a nice little dinked ball

Just now, MaVilla said:

I guess one of the things with Japanese or Korean players that are top level, even if they may not be quite good enough for a starting 11 slot, you would still take them due to the huge image rights and fan base.

However, if he wants a huge chunk of that too, maybe a player you are 59/50 about, now becomes much less enticing.

I just think we should bite the bullet and go for it whilst we're in the mood for "omg Villa managed to get him?" Transfers 

1 minute ago, The_Steve said:

Instagram is already updated! He's that excited to be here and we are all excited you're here too Moussa! 

I doubt he knows the password to that account but still it's nice to know whoever he's paying is on the ball. 

4 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

Someone on here, can't remember who, said he wants huge wages, as well as a huge chunk of his image rights etc, as he really has a huge image rights income thing going on.

Apparently the whole package is huge factoring all he wants in.

That sounds like someone who's on there way to the MLS or Saudi Arabia then I guess. If it's entirely money driven move. 

1 hour ago, Demitri_C said:

Is it ? Thats good news then at least. Hopefully a good sell on clause

 

I don't think Luton will ever sell for profit, he's not on a big contract and will be 30 by the next transfer window and his career highlight in England is doing a good job in midfield for a small Championship team for 6 months, unless you count sporadically playing for Villa over 3 years as a better achievement. 

On 21/07/2023 at 19:17, useless said:

Kamada is free, is still only 26, is versatile, nine goals and seven assists last season in Bundesliga, would be our first ever Japanse player on the mens team. He seems to fit the profile to a tee to what we're looking for in a player.

I feel like I've mentioned him a few times now and also in general football forums but get very little reaction. Is there something about him I don't know about? Why is no-one signing him and why did Frankfurt let him go?

Plymouth got Bali Mumba back for £1mil. He'll be ending up in the Prem I'm sure, hoping we're keeping tracks on him as an option if/when Digne goes. Would be an idea player for the tactics we played last season. 

Announce Kamada