skarroki

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.

This and Newcastle last season are huge statement wins. I think if we can follow this up with a midweek win I'll be very happy. Currently I'm still a bit worried about how patchy we are as soon as 2 or 3 of our best players get 45 mins rest.

Tbf the guy is probably absolutely raging, it's one of the worst moments in his professional career and someone who inflicted that on him is yelling consolation in English with a heavy accent over a loud PA system and a roaring crowd. I think most managers the response would be "I can't hear you and I don't give a **** what you have to say right now" I'm sure they spoke after. Emery and De Zerbi are very complimentary of each other and I don't think that thumping involved any dirty tactics from either or anything that would make them dislike the other. At least he was more dismissive than outright confrontational or just a complete blank. He came over to shake hands.

Think Dali is in her kit sat in the stands?! Fair play for supporting the side when not in the squad

Van Domselaar is better than Olsen by a country mile.

Is Dali injured? And I was under the impression Pacheco was first choice left back. Nice to see the strength on the bench.

Lot to be said for stability now. He has been moved around every 6 months the last 2 years and he's commented on that. Was in 4 different youth set ups too. Just let this kid shine for a year at a good club flying top of the table and if they go up he can stay put for another season and tear up league one too.

Agree with this 100% Had some great games this season and been absolutely solid today. You don't get international teams looking into where your grandparents are from if you're not good enough for a certain level. He can do both and he's in my opinion the defensive version of Watkins. Works tirelessly, does the job the manager wants week in, week out. Not sure why so many people dislike him.

I've come to accept the general toxic atmosphere around this game. I do enjoy playing and building a squad on ultimate team now, especially with the women added this time round and the removal of positional change consumables. I'm hoping to create a Villa men's/ Women's hybrid to use most the time and accept I will be slapped every few games by people who spend more time or put money into the game. Although there's a lot of hatred for it I don't mind the squad battles either so can use that squad offline. Hopefully some good performances from our players gets a few nice special cards. It's road to the knockouts tomorrow at 6pm for Europe so there's every chance Villa will get a good card for that.

These women are dreading their shirts going see through and being publicly humiliated, got my front row seat to oggle at them! Hubba Hubba! Hahaha good joke.

There's talk that Arsenal women will be one of the first WSL teams to wear different shirts to the men's side this season. My hope is that if this is resolved, we follow suit. I think it's poor form regardless of the shirt quality, to keep putting out women's kits with white shorts. There's been enough reported on this for me to not go into detail, I just think there are other colours we can pick for the shorts and other materials for the shirts to make the women feel as comfortable and happy as possible in their kit on the day. The teams can be knitted together as closely as possible without forcing both teams to go out in the same kits. Bizarre it takes something as embarrassing as this to get a discussion going on it.

This is what I wanted to say but much better written haha. I had zero doubts about anything last year, the performances and off field theatrics are enough inconsequential issues to build up to something consequential. Honestly as crazy as it sounds I think Emery's number one wish currently will be that the shirts are replaced ASAP and the marketing team make a huge deal of it to push out the narrative that we are fixing issues.

Want to start this by saying I am behind Emery fully and would never entertain any idea of dissent on him, even if our record starts to tail off. However... Something is not quite right this season and has just not clicked. I've been trying to work it out and at the moment I think it is simply that Emery doesn't know who his starting XI is. It hit me when the teams were announced last night that I looked at Everton's side and thought they really want this, they're taking it seriously. I look at our team and I have no idea which players are reserves and which are starters for certain. I know this seems to be the idea. I know there was talk about us needing strength in depth, strong bench, long season, rotation etc. etc. etc. However, you do regularly get comments like Ten Hag recently where managers come out and say things like "I can't start our strongest XI" whether that's issues or injuries or whatever. I reckon Pep is the only successful manager currently in the league who doesn't have a definitely XI in his head for his side. I think we really need to work out who our best team is and get minutes in with them to get them to gel. If one of our best XI players is injured, fine, stick someone else in. The fact is that currently, we've lost to Everton, Liverpool and Newcastle and I didn't feel like we'd win those games from the first 10 minutes onwards. I thought the game was over at Palace and I don't think we won due to tactics or formation or a good plan, even Emery admitted that. Got lucky that they took a player out in the box for a soft pen and a moment of magic from Duran to start it off. Chelsea probably one of the best performances in recent weeks but I dunno if we'd have beaten a poor Chelsea with 10 men if the ball doesn't deflect back to Watkins so that he has no time to overthink the shot, and even then Sanchez could do much better and Martinez was on a different level all game. It's frustrating a team we absolutely decimated a few weeks ago is the same team we just can't muster the energy to try and beat a few weeks later. Maybe the best XI thing is a red herring I'm completely overthinking but I don't know what it is at all currently. I feel like we're either guaranteed to win as we're gonna blow the other team away, or look like we have no fight within 10 minutes of a game, every match this month. Just something that's a recent trend that I hope won't set in. For me, I'd be happy with Duran, Watkins, Zaniolo, Bailey, Diaby, McGinn and Ramsey starting in more advanced positions but max 4 will start and I don't know who the best 4 are or what combo works best. If we had a big cup game tomorrow I wouldn't know who I'd want on the pitch for the game, maybe Watkins with Diaby and then Ramsey and Zaniolo the 10s but can't really take McGinn out the side and Bailey adds extra pace that can hurt teams.