skarroki

Lots of good points. Also to add to your point about him playing well at Salford, that's apparently what got him the move to Stockport, they liked his link up play with the Salford left back who had moved to Stockport earlier in the window. I was one of the people saying he should stay at Stockport but to clarify my argument was that he's moved around so much that some stability might be good for him off the pitch, as much or more than on it. If he can go up with Stockport and stay with them again and just work with the same people in the same facilities, that might work better. Otherwise it's loan club number 6 in 3 seasons.

The English Heung-Min

Thank god, saw this at the top suddenly and was worried he was part of an under 17 betting ring.

Can't help but wonder if way more people aren't involved in this. The fact these players have completed big money moves away from Italy recently before the allegations come up whiffs. Have to wonder whether Newcastle got Tonali completed so early and easily in the window, because AC Milan were desperate to tie everything up ASAP.

Was going to say everyone comparing this to Toney and Paqueta need to look at how quickly the Italians deal with corruption these days. Juventus were accused, looked into, charged, appealed and charged again in the space of time it took Toney to complain about not getting picked for England

Had one of them moments tonight when you hear a new song for the first time and it just scratches an itch you didn't even know you had, love that feeling. The new Bring Me The Horizon song - Darkside. It will definitely not be everyones cup of tea, think it's very kind of Linkin Park vibes, heavy pop.

This is where schools of thought clash. Most important thing in an attacking player for me, is skill and flair. If I watch a game on the weekend I want to see the skill and flair and things that make you edge forward on your seat. Of course the best have both, I would say Grealish was on the level of doing both those things, but they're extremely rare players and extremely expensive. Some of the flair that Zaniolo has is unteachable. The bits that he needs to improve on, we've got one of the best coaching staff and manager in world football to make that happen. The guy is very young and has missed a lot of development time due to injury. Considering the time out injured, he's played a lot, and at a very high level so far in his career, he's not long 24 and has been a big part of winning teams. Mourinho is well documented as rarely giving youth a chance but Zaniolo is playing and scoring the winning goal in the conference final for him at 22. Overall, he's come back from injury in a new league with a new squad and doesn't know the country or any of the squad or coaches. He's played 470 minutes and has nearly scored two absolute worldies. We've won the 3 games he's started in the league, Chelsea and Brighton two of those which aren't exactly guaranteed points. Warsaw is the only outlier but that was bad defending that cost us, we created enough to win. I think he's finding his feet and looking good and he's not costing the team with anything he does. I also think Emery likes him and trusts him and that is 90% of the battle won when evaluating a player these days in my opinion. If Emery is on board I am too.

I know Hutton is a cult hero and feel bad lumping him in, as I know he was frozen out reportedly due to his wages instead of attitude, but he was frozen out several times and is regularly mentioned in a list of "good lads" alongside a bunch of players at the time it was suggested were leeches on the club and were bad eggs in the dressing room. Ross McCormark even said they weren't bad eggs which I guess he would if he was part of the group. All in all I hold nothing against Hutton, it was more a general point that the players who in retirement talk about that certain group of players tend to be people who disappointed, had high wages, had their commitment / fitness / training / performances questioned regularly. If you're Lansbury and you're talking about how good Gabby and Bunn were instead of, say, Terry, Chester, Hourihane, Kodjia - then Whelan, Snodgrass etc etc during those first 18 months then it rings alarm bells in my head. Fair enough if you disagree with that though I might be reading too much into it and or being unreasonable.

He wasn't retiring though he was moving on to another club to continue earning money, he's already rich and he's got 2/3 businesses going in the background, one of which he cites as the reason for retiring early, because of how well the business is going and he wants to put more time into it. Footballers don't retire at 31 and then sit at home staring at a wall for 60 years with smashed knees waiting for their money to run out.

I think you could tell immediately how differently Lansbury and Hourihane took their careers. Lansbury started under Wenger and ended up retiring at 31 to push on with a lawn business after floating about injured in the championship for years. Hourihane came up from league 2 to the Prem and is still playing now whilst coaching the youth teams in his spare time and doing his badges. Both very talented, one unlucky with injuries and not in love with football. The other football mad and unbreakable.

Also he turned up to Grealish's holiday unannounced and uninvited?! The lad is not all there is he?

Surprised and disappointed if so. We have a great squad and manager, why are we not investing more in the women's team? Can't push top 4 if we have a relegation budget. Eventually others will catch up, overtake and sign up our best talent.

If I'm currently not wanted where I'm working and I'm doing a dream job, I'm due to earn £500,000 that year and I'm offered 1. £125,000 2. help with finding my next company where I will continue to earn money. 3. A chance to make Johan Lange give me a big smile I'm taking that all day long. Why rot in the reserves and make finding your next job harder to find. Basically comes across like he was bitter, going in on the young players to show them how real football works when he'd barely strung 3 professional matches together in the last decade. Ramsey has probably doubled Lansbury's top flight appearances now at least. Any former player that goes on about the clique of Bunn, Hutton, Richards, Agbonlahor et al and what a "good bunch of lads" they were when other former players, staff and managers have alluded to their lack of professionalism, is someone I have reservations on. The fact they'd all gone and Lansbury was still there and we were trying to pay him off to get rid and keeping him away from the dressing room speaks volumes imo.

Guy nearly scored a worldie against Warsaw and followed that up with an overhead kick from 20 yards that pulled a good save out the keeper against Zrinjski. He's going to make the wrong decisions sometimes before he gets the numbers because I think he's trying too hard. I also think he can do things with a football nobody else at the club is capable of doing. Normally someone like that, a Coutinho, you wonder if you can carry them but this time it's a hard working brick outhouse that has that in his locker, he's not detracting from the side having him out there. Emery knows what's up and he's giving him a lot of game time. Confident he'll be man of the match any week now and have people sitting up taking notice.

With Neto's inconsistency and injury record I'd rather let someone else risk £50mil on him thank you. He looks like a world beater but so did Ben Arfa whenever Newcastle showed up at VP

He has his moments but few and far between in my opinion. He's very attack minded and posted very similar stats last season to Cash, they're only 4 months apart in age. If he came in I think Cash would go and I'd still feel we'd need to upgrade. Personally I think Cash is improving this season and I'd rather have him than try again with a similar player. We need a really good, solid dependable right back that almost plays like he's in a flat back 4, like a Ben Davies but on the opposite side or a much better version of Chambers in my opinion.

I think your 3rd point cancels out your second. With Burkina Faso qualifying for AFCON as group winners and Traore being the star of the team, he'll be off to the tournament before 13th January. So unless he's got a move lined up before the tournament starts, or he's happy to let his agent organise everything for him, I can't see him wanting to do anything other than play well for his country and will probably have no interest in trying to move clubs ahead of the last 3 months of the season.

Just quoting this as I wrote it in the Watkins thread without seeing Lange on the front page. I do find it odd how murky the waters are at Villa with signings. There's a real case against Purslow and Lange for years now where a section of the fanbase think they do nothing right, every poor decision seems aimed their way (Gerrard hiring, anything corporate that's unpopular, some signings and club structure - Purslow) That first window, we'd only just survived in the league and had broadly a championship squad with championship players, plus Grealish head and shoulders above and Mings and McGinn clearly good enough for the level. Ramsey only just coming through and Konsa finding his feet. However, we had no striker and no goalkeeper, which for any team is a recipe for relegation despite what's going on elsewhere on the pitch. In that window we signed Watkins and Cash from the championship, Martinez essentially before going back to Arsenal's bench, and Traore, with Barkley coming in on loan. I think Lange suffers from a other clubs around us in the table also having great windows each season. The two teams above us when we survived were Brighton and West Ham, Brighton bought a load of youngsters including Caicedo, prompted Sanchez from the youth team and got Lallana and Welbeck. West Ham signed Coufal, Soucek, Benrahma, Dawson and Lingard on loan. All three clubs ready to move up the table with those windows and so we don't stand out as a club with our signings. With what he came into and where he leaves though, I think he's done a good job and if he goes good luck to him

I know this isn't the topic for today, I am massively relieved and happy he's signed, I've got nothing to add to the discussion that others haven't mentioned already. Just wanted to pick up on this though, with the benefit of hindsight, what a window that was. 4 major signings that summer in Cash, Martinez, Watkins and Traore that are all still part of the squad to this day and all have starting XI shirt numbers. I know Lange gets critisicm levelled at him but that's the kind of window I'd be buzzing about if I saw Monchi had brought those players in at a previous club. Crazy to think he's been here just over 3 years, feels part of the furniture already, can't believe there was a time we weren't playing him up top.

Despite his injury record there's a reason Emery recalled him, kept him this summer, allowed him the 9 shirt and trusts him to throw him on when we're searching for the points. He's got Europa Conference experience from last season on loan where Basaksehir smashed the group stages, they actually topped their group which had finalists Fiorentina in 2nd, he started 3 of the group games and scored from the bench against Fiorentina. Basaksehir only lost 3 games with him in the side, two of those were Fenerbache and Galatasery which is fair enough I think. In my mind we wouldn't be in Europe without him, I don't think I was the only one advocating for him to start games after that winner against Leicester. If he doesn't score that I think there's every chance the charge up the table ends, European places look out of reach and heads drop. That win really made me think "we can do this". All this to say that despite his injury troubles he's easily good enough to start matches for teams playing well domestically and in Europe. He's left to go on loan when he knows he's not in the picture under Gerrard so he must feel wanted under Emery and I personally think he's not only a joy to watch, he's unique to the squad and capable at this level which makes him a brilliant option. I hope he stays injury free for the rest of the season and we see much more of him in the remaining group games.

I hope Broggio is good enough to make it because that surname would be wasted in a normal job. If I turned to the guy on my right in the call centre and he said his name was Roberto Broggio I'd be floored.

Yeah nothing wrong with that lion imo, just remove everything else around it. Or do a lantern design. The gas lamp for me gives the scope for simple + modern that a lot of clubs look for, something easy to print, can scale to any screen, can be set on any colour. I think with the rumours of how seriously we're taking this we will end up with something similar in essence to the Juve badge. I hated it when revealed but now I would say it's instantly recognisable, I don't think there's anything in Europe you're getting that confused with and it's just two black lines. Genius.

Some very complimentary things said about the gaffer and the club here, thought this was good analysis to be fair. Nice to hear Robbie Earle just calmly mentioning things about our club he got from research prior to the match, half the time I wonder if the co commentator for a Villa game was aware of what game they were at prior to the kick off.

Brighton and Brentford could do it because they weren't in Europe when Saint Gillious and Midtjland were (both definitely spelled wrong). The ones you mention could do it because the other clubs they own weren't in Europe, or the same competition. Girona were a 2nd Division Spanish side, then there's Melbourne, Mumbai and New York that are all obviously outside Europe. The rules only apply to us and Brighton currently because we're the only clubs breaking them. I imagine the chance of either club getting into Europe was slim but both managed it and now they have to navigate round that. I don't think it will have done too much damage in the short term to plans. Hopefully with our purchase of an Egyptian Club we continue to look into those kind of regions where others haven't stepped up interest. I think maybe a Columbian, Uruguayan or Chilean team would make sense. Just go full on "where you do send FM scouts" mode.

Slightly related but a former girlfriend spoke about him in a "tell all" to the papers whilst he was at Arsenal, which ended up being basically that he was trying hard to learn English, he was really nice and polite and kind to her on their dates. Just basically a good bloke and nothing bad to say on him other than the fact he pronounces evening with a B. Really great to have one of the good guys in charge of the club with all the constant unsavoury mess you hear about at the moment with players and managers.