skarroki

Overall for his first season I feel very mixed on him. A big part of the issue is we've spent £13mil and first-team wages on a player who I would rather never started a game for us. He was brought in at a time when we had Chambers as a capable DM/CB option too, although much less physically imposing. My biggest gripe is that he is a player in our squad who may potentially be a road-block to someone like Iroegbunam. I can't decide personally if I'd rather have never signed Dendonker and then never loaned out Iroegbunam if that was the hypothetical. A season of games in the Championship will have been good experience but would they be better than a season in first team training and around 10 appearances for Villa, whilst also saving £13mil + wages on a player who will never be good enough to play for us and will never increase in value? I don't want to knock him too much as he's been good and solid and dependable on the whole and it's obviously not his fault we had an awful manager and a damaging, meltdown window in the summer. He's done everything asked of him and offers something different so he's been a good option and helped us this season when called upon, so he's done everything required of him and been a part of this brilliant season - just means ignoring financial and youth promotion aspects. I'm very curious to see what happens with him when all the youth prospects are back, if Kamara and Luiz are fit and healthy in pre-season. Emery will have a big decision to make on a lot of people, including him if the decision isn't already made up in his mind.

The guy has done an amazing job in getting all the players on board. Think what happened at Arsenal and the way he was treated has massively helped us - he has absolutely nothing to prove considering his brilliant career so far, but because of the Arsenal job it feels like he does for some reason and part of me feels like that's a percentage of where his drive is coming from.

Been very steadily rising the overall rank since the world cup, was awful beforehand and almost gave up on it like always. Gone with this in this gameweek. I know a lot of people will captain Haaland so I have nothing to gain from doing that, I'm hoping Watkins will score or assist so I've got something to show from the captain and then hopefully Pep will go peak Pep and not start Haaland. Slowly trying to get 3 Brighton players into the team for their mad run-in. Still got my bench boost and triple captain so trying to pad out the whole team with a group of people who will all play.

If I feel terrible at work and take some flexi back to get myself home, the go-to polite response is get well soon. I don't think it's an ominous message from them that means they know more about the illness I've got and I don't think anyone expects me to be away for a while, still anticipate seeing me the following morning. Think there's too much weight put into the social media posts of clubs, as if the temp with the login details to our insta has got a direct line to Emery and the Medical team

I was now years old when I found out our assistant managers name which is always a good sign that you've got a good manager.

Definite recency bias saying Watkins is better than Benteke. The lad was absolutely unplayable on his day. I remember thinking for about 6 months straight that we were gonna be taking bids from the likes of Munich, Barca and Madrid, and that if he was staying in England he could essentially pick any team and walk into their attack. I remember thinking he might not be the same after his injury and then he scored an absolute worldie overhead kick for Liverpool in pre-season and just wondering how many he'd hit on his way to the golden boot. Watkins is not in that bracket, you're looking at a striker that a lot of Villa fans and friends I have who support other teams often comment when watching Villa that he's a hard worker but couldn't finish a sentence. There was a section of fans saying Watkins was the worse of the two strikers as Ings left for £15mil. There were quite a lot of calls for Archer to be given the starting striker role ahead of Watkins up to the point he went to Middlesbrough 3 months ago. All this to say, anyone doing an "I told you so" about Watkins is full of it. Nobody hear thought he was better than Benteke until we started going on this run. Heck, I'd say there's a majority of fans who would have swapped him for Abraham for the vast majority of Watkins time here. The important thing is that he's really found his feet and his confidence now, he's a real confidence player so we need him fit and healthy and happy every week. I'm really glad he's come good and I'm looking forward to more of it.

Definitely reading too much into a random photo but I think it bodes well that he's not on the end of the group looking like JT trying to get in a cup winning photo. Doesn't look at all happy haha but he does look part of the group, not just the young lad that was given a go.

Not to be that guy, but there's lot of good players in a lot of teams all across Europe. If Benfica hadn't gone on this run in the champions league people might say the same thing about Grimaldo. They're similar ages, haven't played for Spain and are both very good. If you look through the list of Spanish left backs over the last 10 years there's so many names that stand out and most would recognise, Moreno would need to overtake them and then there was Alba, one of the best left backs in the world. I think Moreno is good but I also think he suits our system perfectly and is in good form. There's a reason Emery picked him specifically and it's a good marriage that suits everyone well. I just take issue with the idea of him being anonymous when that is likely more to do with not being an avid watcher of La Liga. You don't make nearly 150 appearances in La Liga for a Europa League team without having ability of course.

Conceivably

Interesting idea in concept but I hope it never happens. We've got more pressing areas of the pitch to improve on than Ramsey so unless anyone leaves I wouldn't be buying for that area of the pitch and then shoe-horning him into RB. The way our team is set-up the team would start to look very Gerrard-esque if we put Ramsey in at RB and asked both full backs to charge down the line at all times. Emery is a man with a plan and if he had even the slightest long-term aim of turning Ramsey into a defender there would have been a mention of that happening on the training pitch in interviews.

For me now with the link established and Duran being fluent in Portuguese it just seems like an obvious step to send him over to Vitoria, get a season of football under his belt in a top flight and in a European competition. See what he can do there, he's still young and lots to learn. Archer for me needs to be given a go. We can re-assess in January if it's going wrong, recall Duran and send Archer out again or sell. He can't do anything else now to prove he needs a chance here, this is more than enough proof.

Sorry Limpid if what I said came across like it was solely about FM, I just meant my plan to play the game got me thinking of the real life links between our club and Vitoria and the real life possibilities of our players moving out on loan. I'll not mention the game again though.

Is there another thread for this club or is it just immediately dormant? Thinking of starting an FM23 save with Victoria SC and using the editor to make Villa a senior affiliate. Which got me thinking: Which players currently on our books do you think would benefit from moving to Vitoria? For me, the obvious choice and the one I hope happens is Jhon Duran. Speaks a version of Portuguese which will help settling, definitely ready for first team football as he's been doing it years already, just maybe not in the Prem. Other than him, my left-field pick would be Philogene or Kesler-Hayden, think both would flourish in the Portuguese league, but their loans haven't gone so well this season and it would be bad to leave them in a different country where they can't speak the language, struggling to get game time. Iroegbunam maybe too if they need something in that position? Maybe it'll depend more on where they're missing a first choice player that we can guarantee some game time to.

Yeah think he's been finished for a while now. He can do a job at Championship level, he's clearly keen to get out and play games with the amount of loans we've sent him on over the seasons. But there aren't any professional clubs around who would take on a sick note as their first choice unless their ability is far above any alternative they could hire, which would push him down into league 1/2. Your first choice needs to be ready to play week-in week-out and your second choice needs to be dependable and safe imo. He's neither unfortunately. Nothing against the guy, he's still had a good career and written his name into our history.

Can someone describe the goal to me whether disallowed or not

Absolutely essential he's kept on and I can't imagine Emery feels any differently

If we do sneak into Europe I think Mount would be an excellent signing and could definitely see it happening. Would love to see things come full circle when Mount starts the season for us on fire whilst Grealish is on the bench for City and Villa fans absolutely slate Southgate for going with Grealish ahead of Mount. We truly would be in the multiverse

Honestly hold my hands up and say I'd have rather had Potter when Emery came in, now I would be absolutely devastated if Chelsea came in for Emery and we only had Potter to replace him as best option.

I do think he's happy to be here and happy that's he's starting to re-write the British narrative about him as being boring and defensive and only good in the cups. Plenty of evidence against this but as it's not been shown in highlights on MOTD in the last 6 months the wider footballing fanbase I think just remembers he came in at Arsenal, didn't win anything or get top 4 and got sacked, rather than adding any context. So in short I think he's happy he's starting to change people's mind on him but I don't think he'll feel his work is done for a while yet which benefits us. The bad thing I think is he's done well everywhere and so most fans like him at their clubs. I worry that he won't feel any more attachment to us than he would to Sevilla or Villarreal and he left them fairly promptly when an offer to step up again in his career came about. That's a future problem and a big "if" though so I'll shut up

Pedro and Lukaku linked on the last 2 pages. Thought Gerrard could attract big names yet here we are being linked to players way beyond what I expected. Part of me wants to go for a couple Chelsea players as I think the club seems to be so poorly run in terms of financially sound deals, I think we could pick up a couple of players for way less than market value and even if they're not a huge success, as long as we're not handing out 5 year deals to 31+ players we should cope. I imagine Mount will end up at Newcastle but I'd like to see us go for him and still a big fan of Gallagher. If there's even a remote chance of picking up someone like Lukaku then I don't see why we can't ask the question about Sterling either.

Definitely needs a season-long loan

I was thinking last night how it just dawned on me then that Ramsey and McGinn both had really good games. I don't think I was in the minority of fans insisting that they were too similar and should absolutely not play together in the same midfield. 6 months later with some good coaching and they both played well together and performed completely different roles to a high standard. Obviously a massive well done all round for the players taking on the instructions and turning form around but also without Emery it wouldn't have been possible.

Gonna be a "hate to say I told you so" moment from myself but there were a loud section of people on here saying that the squad simply wasn't good enough for this level and we needed a root and branch complete overhaul when Gerrard was on his way out. I think Emery is doing absolutely fantastic but I don't think it should go unnoticed that we do have some really good quality players in this squad that's been put together. There's been maybe as many misses as hits in the transfer windows but the hits are players that could keep growing with us as high as we get. Watkins, Buendia, Cash, Moreno and Digne all look very good in a system that suits and then there's the likes of Luiz, Kamara and Martinez that could potentially play for any side in Europe if you ask me. Luiz could be close to winning the league this season with Arsenal right now. Those 3 in particular I think Emery will want to build around and our smallish squad will be bolstered by some real good talent returning with people like Archer surely ready to step up now. I really hope the recruitment in the summer goes well because Emery has done everything to prove he should be backed to the hilt and nothing held back from giving him exactly what he thinks he needs to push on. The same goes for player sales, if Emery wants them gone and we're not getting any offers, I hope the club (FFP allowing) go with him and take the loss with our annual loan out to a Turkish team

Is it doors from the upper holte that open up, so you're kind of stood outside on a balcony before, after and half time for games? I think it could really look the part especially if tastefully incorporated into that stand. Those pictures need an artist rendition for me though, feel like I'm looking at a spreadsheet.

I really want Bailey to work out, it should have, he was so good in the Bundesliga, but honestly I'm getting a bit fed up with him now not showing enough of his talent. Traore however can't seem to contain his talent.