skarroki

One thing in the back of my mind in all this is that I hope we do the double against Man City. If we don't challenge for the title I at least want to see anyone other than Man City win it. Our amazing season so far also highlights how a lot of other contenders have completely pooped the bed over Christmas when there was a chance to put a buffer between the top 3 and Man City. 

However I can't tolerate a lot of Liverpool and Arsenal fans either with the way they cry after every bad decision and anything other than a win. Several Liverpool fans I saw last night saying they'd opened a 5 point gap now at the top because "Villa don't count" is infuriating. 

So I guess we're just going to have to win it ourselves. 

30 minutes ago, rodders0223 said:

Woooosh

On 11/12/2023 at 17:14, wishywashy said:

Was happy they did this because they covered the Villa Man City game by bringing in two City fans and a Spanish expert to analyse Pep and Rodri. Barely touched on Villa. Beating Arsenal forced their hand I guess.

For an establishment at pains to say they don't just cover the big clubs they're very good at having none of their daily shows cover any of the bottom ten other than Everton, when comparing them to City and Chelsea charges or Burnley when they can talk about Kompany and where he'll be next.

Brighton finally got a podcast about them where the Brighton writer wasn't involved and they spent most of it trying to decide which club De Zerbi would do best at when he leaves.

Wolves and Brighton both get insanely bad VAR decisions against them and they are barely looked at, but Liverpool get that awful offside call and we get almost a running series spread across different podcasts to discuss for a week how we could allow this to happen to poor old long-suffering Liverpool. It was like a marvel tie-in event with people showing up everywhere, talksport, BBC, you have to follow everywhere the athletic sent it's writers to discuss the awful injustice and get the full picture of their narrative. 

I'm here yet again to moan about The Athletic. I was loving them when I first signed up years ago. I recommended them to a bunch of friends, family, former work colleagues. I cancelled my subscription last year and it's only still ticking over because I clearly didn't whine about their drop in standards enough to my Dad who paid for an annual subscription as a present. Finally be off that in a few weeks now. 

How they can justify the constant advertising of their other podcasts, alongside the sponsorship deals they now have on podcasts that are "ad-free on the app to all subscribers" - what do they consider as ad-free? A two minute conversation where the features of the new Google pixel phone are described followed by "I'm from the Liverpool podcast" is advertising. 

Alongside this just straight up intrusive ads on their app now! I'm paying to read these articles and I have to close the app because I can't scroll past a moving image about Omega tablets?! 

Is there any insight into why their standards have dropped so dramatically. 

On 28/12/2023 at 08:54, tinker said:

Emery chopped the Salford fan down in one sentence when asked what has gone wrong, he just said "39 points?" There was a fair bit of stuttering from the interviewer. 

Think someone who is that prepared in every other aspect will know who he is about to face in interveiws too now, especially as the media can be so ridiculous in both Spain and England. If he knew the guy was from Salford and had allegiances, and came in first question with such a closed, negative question, he's trying to put Emery on the defensive.

I felt like Emery just flips the narrative completely by firing that really awkward response back at him which leaves Emery with all the power in the interview and the journalist flailing a bit, which leaves him to ask an open question to get Emery talking and gives him a chance to actually analyse the game as a whole and not "can you explain all the bad things". 

10 minutes ago, Tayls said:

One plan… 

Is there an example where we were being completely out played, changed our game plan, and then gone on to win? I’m not referring to games where we have looked like the better side, gone behind, but then gone on to win… I want examples of us doing what Man U did yesterday… 

As far as I am concerned others that have done it to us are, Liverpool, Newcastle and Nottingham Forest. We failed to change during the game. 

Palace at home? Duran slapping that thunderbolt in when it looked like the winning run was coming to an end 

Cash is gonna score can see it coming. He's the RB equivalent of El Ghazi 

Hopefully somebody in yellow turns up to play football second half and we can watch something vaguely entertaining cos this has just been 45 minutes of how to get away with leaving something in on the opposition 

On 19/12/2023 at 12:28, Taxahunter said:

So You are telling me that, if it had been Bailey, Tielemans, Traore, Zainiolo, Dendoncker who missed that chance, then nobody would have mentioned it...

The rate this is going you'll have mentioned it so much nobody else needs to 

8 hours ago, Powehi said:

Getting rid of the huge chip on our shoulder about our perception in the media would be a good start.

Whilst I agree with this, I do think there's a weird self-fulfilling loop with this stuff. I am definitely a fan with a chip on their shoulder. 

I think a big problem is that we don't seem to be discussed as much as some other teams, which I think you just have to accept as it's always been that way, for example when Leicester were running towards the title the best coverage of it before it looked like it was genuinely happening was from fan outlets imo. But of course even then you've got a massive TV personality within football of Linekar drawing attention to it. When Newcastle got all the money you've got the likes of Shearer and Jenas all over it. It feels like most ex-villa players avoid mentioning that they played for the club. I think Dublin would say he's ex Coventry before he'd also talk of his time at Villa, Crouch covers our European games with Joe Cole but when they're not on that sofa talking specifically about our game you'd be forgiven as a casual fan for having no idea either of them played for us. The biggest ex Villa players in media are probably Merson and Agbonlahor who are both widely looked on as morons which doesn't help. 

I do like seeing Martin ONeill talk about us though so I'm hoping the more he's involved with media, the more they get his take on the club.

TIFO football have only done three videos of us in over a year. One was basically explaining we have bad underlying numbers and we'll stop winning soon, that was back in like February. The next was an actual Villa fan saying that players like Diaby and Torres could make the team worse. Then they finally do one where they generally agree we might not have enough to get into the champions league, and also we'll have to give up on the league or the cup in March if we're doing well in both. Proper MON throw the towel in tissue scar there. 

The Athletic seem to be at pains to avoid talking about Villa even after amazing wins. They had a dedicated podcast to the Man City loss (not us winning) and even had a Spanish football expert on ahead of anyone remotely linked to Villa so that they could talk about Rodri being absent and how Guardiola reacts to losing. 

You think Villa fans would be used to it by now but it's infuriating if you follow English football generally across a range of football podcasts and radio shows and TV and finally we're the big talking point but no-one is talking much about us. 

So yeah thats roughly the size of the chip I have and that's very condensed, it's a wonder I can lift myself out of bed in the morning. 

Marschall

Cash Carlos Lenglet Moreno

Tielemans Iroegbunam Luiz Ramsey

Zaniolo Duran

Happy to give Dendonker a run out or Chambers but think realistically it's best to give Kamara, Watkins, Martinez, Konsa and Torres a rest. Luiz suspended for Brentford so gets his rest at the weekend.

Good chance to put Iroegbunam back in the shop window if we want to loan him out, if he can't get near the side for these kind of games we probably need to cut our losses and sell. 

Be good to give Diaby a start too but not sure if he's nursing something seeing as he's struggling so badly for form. 

I think Olsen is out based on the weekend bench but happy for him to play if he's not injured. 

I'm delirious 

6 minutes ago, useless said:

Philogene didn't struggle at Cardiff last season, he was one of their best players and their fans were desperate to sign him on a permanent, he was also their young player of the year.

As for Kesler-Hayden I've no idea if he's good enough for us, but I wouldn't judge him on whoscored ratings as they don't always give an accurate reflection on how a player has played.

It's going to be hard for him to get in our squad, as I think Emery wants upgrade on Cash, which if happens there's only likey to be room for Kesler-Hayden if Cash leaves.

I think there's a probably a good chance we will sell him with a buyback in the summer and if he does well we can eventually bring him back.

Struggled was a bit harsh from me. I meant it as in he wasn't doing well for a spell, I know he kicked on towards the end of the season. 

He started 8 of Cardiff's first 21 games last season and he was subbed off every time he started and managed 2 goals and no assists in that spell. He's started 13 of 14 games for Hull and played the full 90 for 11 of them. 

4 goals and 1 assist all season for Cardiff in 2,238 minutes. 6 goals 5 assists in 1,140 minutes this season. So coming into December he's already played half the amount of time he did at Cardiff and has contributed masses more. 

I just could easily see someone like KKH turning a corner like that soon and it would be nice to still have academy players throughout the squad. If Man City can still maintain that to a degree we should be able to as well rather than just having Ramsey as a link to the academy. 

Feel the critisicm is a bit harsh. He's playing for a Plymouth side that are just looking to survive and he's learning new facets of the position. The manager and coaches are all young and tactically astute so he'll be learning all the time. I don't want to write him off at all yet. 

Think it's easy to forget this guy is only 8 months older than Louie Barry and he's already torn up league two and league one. Philogene struggled in the championship for Cardiff last season but came back a new player and was sensational in pre-season, now he's a key player for Hull pushing for the playoffs. He's 6 months older than KKH himself. 

He's not the answer at right back but he's not a write off either. Just requires patience I think. Unless a club comes in with a 10mil+ bid next summer. As long as he's playing weekly in the championship that's enough. 

Great ball in by KKH there but and the finish was fantastic. Every time I come into this thread I think that I want to buy a Plymouth shirt, they look so good. 

Well I have to say this seemed hugely inevitable. If Liverpool lose too though it's not terrible. The next two games are still massive and still at home. If we can sneak a point here and get something from the next two, after getting out the knockouts, it's not been a bad couple of weeks. 

6 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

It’s a very poorly worded question. It should be:

Would you rather win one trophy and then watch your best players and potentially even your manager leave for the biggest clubs in Europe and maybe wait another 15/20 years for a trophy or would you rather trade that for the opportunity to keep all of your players and manager with the ability to add even better players in the summer and hopefully then win numerous trophies over the next 5 years?

And if you still select winning a cup you need to go and see a doctor. 

1 hour ago, DakotaVilla said:

One of the main reasons why the country is in such a mess is because we gave people the option of making a decision without articulating the true benefits and costs of those decisions.

It’s not a loaded question. It’s a very clear articulation of the actual choice in front of you. 

Are you alright? You think what you wrote is a clear articulation of the certain future? If we finish top 4 we're guaranteed to keep hold of all our players and manager and also bring in better players and then win lots of trophies? If we win a cup instead it'll doom the club into a spiral?

This is supposed to be a bit of fun, you don't need to suggest that people who want to win a cup this year are mentally unwell. People are allowed to think different things. 

4 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

It’s not a loaded question if it’s an accurate representation of what’s going to happen if we don’t make champions league. 
 

Yes it is haha. 

Sounded like it was an injury. If it was I'd leave him out against Bournemouth too. I'd rather have him for the double header of City and Arsenal. 

People saying we need champions league as if they haven't been watching football recently. Chelsea spend a billion pounds with no champions league revenue. Leicester win the league and still have money problems and end up relegated after a little go in the champions league. Portsmouth, Bolton, Blackburn examples of EUFA cup to bust. Everton most recent example I think other than Leicester or Newcastle in champions league. It's almost impossible to break in, noone does anything groundbreaking when they do and in order to try maintain that it usually ruins a club. 

We can be better than that. It might not turn out that way. But if you're saying top 4 cos it means we'll continue to grow then I'm afraid there's no evidence of that in the past and a lot of evidence of the opposite. Unless you count Man City but they've broken rules so many times they gave up counting and they are owned by a country. 

Very simply, we could lose our best players or our manager regardless. We could bring in the best player the clubs ever seen also. We could get relegated next year. Luiz or Martinez could get a career ending injury within the next hour. 

All I know is I love being a Villa fan now more than at any other point in my life, this is my favourite team and favourite manager and if I have the choice of 4th place, or watching them win something at Wembley and lift that trophy, I'm picking the second option all day long. 

However, if this was a weird wish-granting reality I think I would let the season play out. We're riding such a wave at the moment I feel like anything is possible. I wouldn't rule out both a trophy and top 5 finish the way things are going. 

4 minutes ago, DakotaVilla said:

It’s a very poorly worded question. It should be:

Would you rather win one trophy and then watch your best players and potentially even your manager leave for the biggest clubs in Europe and maybe wait another 15/20 years for a trophy or would you rather trade that for the opportunity to keep all of your players and manager with the ability to add even better players in the summer and hopefully then win numerous trophies over the next 5 years?

And if you still select winning a cup you need to go and see a doctor. 

I dunno your question seems a lot more loaded. It makes it sound like you only want people to pick top 4/5. 

4 hours ago, CVByrne said:

You say this as if it's totally out choice. Players have contracts with end dates. The only reason we would discuss selling a player we see as key is because said contract has 2 years left. As this is the last point you can get maximum market value for the player. When the player has one year left you sell at a discount from the previous year or you keep the player for the season and let them go for free. 

Now if we make an assumption Luiz would only sign a contract extension after we qualify for CL then the club have a decision to make this summer and then next summer. This is why it "makes sense" to the club. They will know Luiz' position.

I think the fact he only signed a 3 year extension and not a 4 or 5 year one is a bit telling to me. Martinez, Watkins etc.. all signed 5 year deals which is fully committed. The 3 year deal was a wait and see contract. 

I think looking at 3 years with our current knowledge looks wait and see. I don't think that was his thought process in the way this insinuates. It looked like he'd have more of a role at a club performing much better than we were and we refused to let him leave and then also didn't play him. Anyone in that scenario would be mad to double down and fully commit to the project. 

I'm not entirely sure I could speculate what his thinking was, but 3 year extension at a club near the bottom of the league with a clueless manager who isn't playing you - that is a hell of a commitment. Especially after a situation where others in the professional could have stank the place out and gone to that Arsenal team flying at the top of the league instead. 

My assumption would be that the Arsenal contract was all drawn out between his agent and Edu, then we refused to sell, he's threatening to kick up a stink when he's not been sold and not playing. Then we agree to match the deal Arsenal offered him if he extends, but his agent knocks a couple years off the deal to make it more favourable for him. Even if there were no assurances given by anyone I'm sure they both were well aware Gerrard was a bad result from leaving and the club would be going all out for a dramatic improvement. 

Still got a sneaky feeling Wan Bissaka will be a villa player by the end of 2024