TheMelvillan

He actually has it on invisible strings, like a little football marionette. Actually explains quite a lot about how he does what he does with a football

Can't wait to be on here in 25 years time with people clamouring for our kit manufacturer to release a kit which commemorates our glorious league and cup double winning shirt of 2021/22

Yep I like it. As predicted it looks better on professional athletes than the the rest of us mere mortals. No meltdown necessary. To be honest if we have a great season then the power of association means that we will love it. Best bit of the whole thing is them slapping grealish front and centre of the campaign. That's a message sent there

Southgate should have been doing everything in his power to stop that thing being decided on penalties. By all means bring on rashford and Sancho, but do it to try to win the game outright, not to play rashford at right back Whilst I don't necessarily agree that penalties are the "lottery" that people say, they are wildly unpredictable. And just to parrott what people have said, his penalties taker choices were appalling. Penalties are about confidence. Saka had looked terrified and lost since he came on and he trusted two players who he hadn't entrusted with any game time of note up to that point. Hardly something to instill confidence

I'll be honest - I was bricking it at the idea of jack taking a peno. Kinda glad it didn't happen!

Am I right in saying we have limited "likes" per day but unlimited and unfettered access to GIFs? Kinda mad

After last night's semi final I want Lange to set his filters to search exclusively for Spanish and Italian players. The technically ability shown in that game was different gravy!

Dunno if true but read that Emi became a dad four days ago but hasn't get met his new daughter cos hes at the tournament

At least you'd know they'd be clean

Definitely Ashley young. You can tell because he's hanging around with kids the same age as him

Jack:

You know when you hear that the big players have a ridiculous semi serious £250m release clause in their contracts. Im starting to hope jack doesn't have one of those.

I may be totally naive but surely going to city to win games and win trophies is slightly hollow when the whole system is rigged towards that being the expectation. City already do all that so to join them and become part of it is just kinda sterile compared with doing something as truly unique, unexpected and special as winning a major trophy with villa. Anyhoo, my prediction is that jack will be subbed on with 5 minutes to go against Germany and miss the decisive spot kick in the inevitable penalty shoot out. Then, everyone in the country will hate him again, the natural order will be restored and we can all go on with our lives

I would also add this, and I hope it doesn't come back to bite me, but I don't think any of us, including journals, quite appreciate what villa mean to jack. While we all love villa because they are our football team, to Jack, Villa represents every job he's ever had, every manager he's ever worked for, every colleague he has ever had, father figures and mentors, and no doubt the majority of friends that he has made. He is the longest serving player there, meaning he will have known the background staff and support workers for the guts of 20 years. The work he has done with the community and local charities means he will have come into contact with thousands more. Every goal, ambition and dream he has realised is due to Aston villa, and will have been celebrated and shared with the villa family. And when times have been bad and the country hated him, it was Aston villa who had his back. To throw that away to play for some plastic team is bonkers and I think football as a whole in this country needs some sort of folk hero to tell the big teams to shove it when they come knocking. And make no mistake, if jack finishes his career here, there will probably be calls for that Doug Ellis stand of ours to be renamed after our jack. And I'd support that!

After all the bad times, relegations, crap managers, crap teammates, criminal and/or incompetent owners, thrown cabbages, cancelled goal of the month competitions, why would he leave now when his club are in the best shape that have ever been in? Makes no sense to me. He could have gotten a move any time he wanted before now. He has had to endure such rubbish since his career began with villa. He will now be excited to read the benefit of all that now

I'd still give him man of the match (And not just cos I stuck a tenner on it...)

Sterling just doesn't pass the ball. Like ever does he

Haha wtf. This video was made by EM Productions! Emi is really taking this agent Martinez stuff seriously

And some lovely salt sprinkled on top

Definitely prefer the idea of him filling in at left back than Hause

It's kinda like hooking up with an old flame you've found on Facebook. Sure you were gutted that she left you all those years ago and you definitely slagged her off to your mates but deep down, you knew, just knew that she could do a bit better than you once that richer, more handsome fella came along But now you have her back. There may be a few more miles on the clock and she may not quite have the stamina she used to. But somehow it just feels right, comfortable, familiar. Even if it's only a short term thing. And you have to pay her a lot of money...

It's a good way of looking at it. Replacing Neil taylor with Ashley young. A fantastic player, some would say world class on his day that could have played for anyone at his peak. A true legend of the game. And we are gonna replace him with Ashley young.

ooh John Carew at the back post this time.

If we get this over the line then next arsenal game I wanna hear "Emi, Emi, Emi, oi, oi, oi" for 90 minutes to celebrate our triple Emi shafting of arsenal