skarroki

We are but mortals. I'm not sure I want to be exposed to the raw magnificence of Unai's mind. It could be dangerous. I think he pretends he still struggles with English slightly in order to protect the mind of journalist he's speaking with. It's why when he talks to Jonathan Pierce he speaks as though he just had a flick through English for Dummies a couple years back.

This is maybe a stretch but after reading the Unai Emery article one of the quotes that I wanted to look into, was that he met someone who played under him at Valencia a short while ago, and that guy said he'd been watching Watkins. Now initially I went to look at the squad thinking it might be an iconic striker like Morientes who is a fan of Watkins and that would be cool. But the fact he said player, not striker made me look further. Then I realised that Bruno was a Valencia player. That was significant for me because it might mean he's just had a look at Watkins in pre-match preparation, or he might have gone to watch Watkins with an eye on making a bid in January with how light they are up top. It's one position everyone is saying Chelsea need and they're happy to throw cash around. The thing is that Bruno got sacked after we beat them at the end of September, so if he was a target Bruno liked in particular, it might mean their interest lessens.

I did think this the other day, in a fever dream. What if this is the bounce, what does normal look like? Even though it's been a year I cannot admit to myself that this is sustained and normal for this team.

I don't want to credit this season entirely on the fact Gregg Evans no longer writes whatever negative, cliché article he can get away with submitting whilst still keeping his job. But it is nice to be having a good season and our The Athletic writer actually acknowledging that in a way that comes across as though he's genuinely enjoying it. I almost felt sorry for Gregg when we were winning as he had to admit we were a good side with good players and a good manager.

Incredible!! Couldn't hit a barn door with a banjo for 20 minutes then McGinn suddenly looks like he could drop a 40 yard ball on a drawpin

Villa players look like they've been promised a warm blanket and a hot choccy at the end of the game. West Ham look like they've been told they're getting airdropped into Siberia unless they score again.

Like what I've seen of Cash this half defensively. If he could hit a pass within 10yards of the teammate he's aiming for he'd be having some game.

Luiz very far forward. Looks in hattrick mode.

Possible handball? Someone fallen asleep on the "VAR check" button in London?

Poor pass by Zaniolo but probably still has double vision. Incredible he's still conscious.

Thank god Zaniolo has come away from that with his skull intact.

Thank you. This was the point I was trying to make a few pages back which seemed to end up backfiring and get comments about me thinking I'm holier than thou. I get that she's going to get comments about her social media and I know that, as an example, Grealish has had comments thrown on here about his off-field antics throughout his time at the club. However, people like Grealish do get the old "he needs to do his talking on the pitch now" cliché thrown about, has a couple decent games and no-ones talking about him drink driving, breaking COVID rules a few times, passing out drunk in the street, cheating on whoever he's with at the time every time, etc etc etc. Lehmann gets her social media discussed and then a few weeks or even months go by without anyone even mentioning the appaearances, goals, assists she's getting for our side during a fantastic season. It's just about wow lots of followers, good presence online, good she's in the villa kit in her videos. People talk about her being popular on Tiktok like she's a sales rep for a night club in magaluf. Shortened version is, if I see Watkins not in the side I immediately come on Villatalk to see what's going on, if theres gossip, if he's injured and how long for and how people are feeling about it. If Lehmann is on the bench I come here and the thread is dead and there's nothing online to find. I never come here say when Dali and Pacheco weren't in the side because there's no point, the few people wanting to talk about it are shouting into void. Plus Dali and Pacheco don't even have their own threads despite being really good professionals, Dali a France international

They definitely won't end up with a plodder, they want someone to please the fans so it'll be someone with a good style of play.

Will hopefully be on TV on Friday for the game against Ipswich

Slightly confused, is the washed up, flop Jack Grealish being discussed in this thread the same as the one we sold to Man City, who was one of the best players last season for one of the best teams in the history of British Football? Who won a historic treble? I guess 8 games is enough to unequivocally say "I told you so" after 2 years of success. He was brilliant for us and so fun to watch. He's definitely gone on and improved as a footballer since, he's obviously not doing what he did for us, but that's because he's not a treble winning player in a championship standard team that he loves, he doesn't need to single-handedly drag his team up the pitch and into the box because they'll slowly get there and he's following the tactics and teachings of a brilliant manager. I don't think him sticking around would have meant we'd have seen a better player. I don't know if we'd have done that much better, if we'd eventually sacked Smith and brought in Gerrard and my lasting memory was not Grealish helping us beat Liverpool 7-2, or scoring that goal against West Ham, but playing under Gerrard before forcing a move to Chelsea or somewhere, that would have been an awful end in comparison. Both him and the club have gone on to far bigger and better things which is great. I'd have him back in a heartbeat and I have no doubts he'll play for us again before retirement.

I listen to the NTT20 pod, What the EFL pod and the Square Ball that is Leeds main fan podcast. They've all recently discussed Millwall and Rowett and the consensus seemed to be he'd completely lost the fanbase who were sick of the bad football despite the decent results on paper over the course of his time there. Seemed to be the thought that the players at his disposal would do better with a different style of play but he was being too one dimensional and sticking to his standard way of playing. I personally didn't know Rowett was a Villa fan and I'm a bit disappointed. Found his comments pretty unsavoury on a few occasions, gave a cold take on players taking the knee and other times that I can't remember off the top of my head.

Salmon blows my mind. Feels like she was making an impression through the academy ages ago, just checked and it was the 17-18 season, and she's still only 22! Her goalscoring record is pretty impressive for such a young player, I bet getting to work every day with someone like Daly now must be a dream. I assume she's not truly "one of our own"? Her Dad sounds about as Brummie as is possible but she talked about "the club" and other distant terms when referring to Villa in her signing video, wasn't talking like she was a fan growing up.

Poor attempt at a joke from me, just that we seemed to spend a couple seasons asking if any potential signing or even new member of the backroom could play left back. In Rachel's case, yes she actually can.

Feels like we're the equivalent of Forest in the late 80's, outside the top 2, great team but still miles off investment wise from matching those top teams, top manager too. The teams below have ambitions and will start to test us and make every week a difficult game.

Credit to @useless after seeing his post and agreeing to the sentiment. Here's a short video of an interview after winning PFA players POTY award: Seems to be enjoying life here and talks about coming back to England to be closer to family, which maybe helps to ease fears from the rumours of her returning to the US that rumbled along in the summer. If you'd asked me who her idol was, even knowing she's a Yorkshire lass it would have taken me weeks to guess Mark Viduka.

Rachel Daly of Aston Villa, a fantastic footballer, golden boot winner, PFA Players' player of the year award winner, England international, the answer to the quiz question "can they play left back" Not seen a topic of a footballer started recently after they've signed so here's a video of 20+ goals to prove she's signing for us.

@useless do you think Carla will stay long term? I can't see us getting rid of her even if results aren't going well because I don't think there's anyone better out there and this feels long-term what we're building, she's partly the face of it all I feel like. I read recently that we have one of the smallest budgets in the WSL? Is this true and has the club given a reason why they're not investing properly in the team? It's a fear I have since hearing it that Carla will think she's gone above and beyond what's acheivable at the club if they're not going to increase funding to align with the increase in stature, good cup runs and high league position finishes.

Never thought it was true anyway

He's had a long interview on the " Not the Top 20" podcast today, he comes across very well, you can tell he's media trained. Sounds like he's enjoying his loan and talks about things that he wanted to work on during this loan spell. Gets directly asked if he'll stay at Stockport all season because he's moved clubs in January last two seasons and just does a politician style duck and roll out of it so that debate can continue for another few months.