John

Plop in the semi's anyone? Just like we burst Stevie G's bubble, when everyone was looking forward to his last game being at Wembley in the FA Cup Final (least said about the final itself the better), wouldn't it be sad if we did the same to Jurgen? I know I'm getting way ahead of myself, but it is a lovely thought.  

Decent home draw. Fingers crossed we get there and that proves to be the case.  

By the way, I can't help but thinking, was Glen Johnson really the best former player that they could find to do the draw? Did they just walk out and ask the first former player that they spotted?

8 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

Oh yeh  

If Chelsea beat us whoever plays them has no excuses. 

Does anyone know when the replay is ?

Not known yet. I suppose the FA will ask Chelsea when they would like it played and we will be expected to fit in with their plans. 

I see Coral have us at 16/1 to win the cup, but Chelsea are 10/1! A nice easy home tie would encourage our team to prove the bookies wrong! We all know it will be Liverpool or one of the Manchester clubs away though....

4 hours ago, villan-scott said:

Hopefully home vs a team from a lesser league

I think they will get knocked out by Leicester. 

In the hat for the 5th Round draw then, is that Wembley that I can hear calling?

3 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

It’s ‘Rogers’

Kenny?  (Don't take your gloves to London town)....

5 hours ago, Leeroy said:

lol Brentford wouldn’t poach anyone from us, every player would choose us over them. 

Haven't they bought that Icelandic keeper that was reported to be on his way to sign for us? 

10 minutes ago, Villanbee said:

Can anyone give me a recent example where any player has been able to represent two teams in the same competition?

Being aware of cup tied players is one of the most basic fundamentals of team selection in cup games. Something every player and manager would be all over.

I can't imagine any situation at this level of the game whereby player and manager, when every professional instinct based on their knowledge of the game tells them the player must be cup tied, do not have sufficient doubt to strongly question the accuracy of being told the player is eligible to play.

I seem to recall a club being thrown out of the FA Cup quite recently for this. It was Barnsley in November. They said it was an administrative error and played the player in a 1st Round replay at Horsham, which they won.

2 hours ago, Follyfoot said:

But with all the spare money the  sky six have they should be nowhere near ffp limits, so would you expected more from them to reinforce their positions

They can soon change that and probably will. 

1 hour ago, DJBOB said:

Young ironically enough from a Championship team (I know Watford were in the prem that year but they were awful).

But much like Deano's successful winter window - the squad had clear issues that need to be addressed whereas our most pertinent issue currently is another rotational RB.

Young was obviously an outstanding talent back then though. As Bellingham also showed with the team that he started at, there are good players in poor teams occasionally, given we are now hampered on what we can spend, these are the players we will be needing to identify now. 

19 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

In that case he will know him very well and what he is capable of. I’d trust the judgment of Emery over Arteta any day. 

Agreed. If UE wants him, then I'm all for signing ESR (in UE we trust). I still doubt that they will sell or loan to us during this window though. We have also been stung once by his agent mentioning us, when his player wants something from Arsenal. Still, it's nice to have a potential transfer to think about...

1 hour ago, allani said:

Possible swap deal for Bowen?  

I think we would need to add an awful lot of money to tempt them into making that swap. 

I see Hakon Valdimarsson has reacted to being linked with us. “It’s big. They’re [Aston Villa] a top club in the Premier League and they play very well. It’s great to see that they are interested. It shows that I have played well last season.”

From: Sport Bladet (link below for our linguists) 

https://www.aftonbladet.se/sportbladet/fotboll/a/ab6j25/elfsborgs-hakon-valdimarsson-om-aston-villas-bud?utm_medium=SocialEchobox&utm_source=Twitter#Echobox=170569

To be fair they undervalue most keepers. Their most costly is 45m and they have Ederson & Alisson at 40m. Perhaps they still think keepers are worth far less than outfield players, as they were 40 years ago, as for Emi it's only Aston Villa aren't they still a selling club and wouldn't he be better off at a CL club?  They are not the only ones whose radar we are still flying below and he's not for sale at any price, so who cares what they price him at? 

On 19/01/2024 at 12:58, Villa_Vids said:

 

So that's ESR & Phillips they want on loan, who nest Januzaj? 

23 hours ago, Pinebro said:

If Mings and Buendia returned before schedule that would be like new signings 

Yes 100%, but it's not looking very likely either will be back any time soon, unless I've missed something. 

20 hours ago, thabucks said:

Birmingham is a massive shit hole and once second city is now no longer. Also Aston is an even bigger one … And brummies bless them so nothing but whine and moan. Give me LDN 9 times out 10 over Birmingham - yeah I said it ! The cultural hotspot of brum is a library which don’t many visit and the bull ring. 

I think it still is.

Given the the talk of Coventry, London, Glasgow and Dublin, I guess it's all quiet on the transfer front then.... 

15 hours ago, supermon said:

Finally something interesting....erm I know nothing about him lol

 

Edit. A forward that can play across the front three but predominantly as a 2nd striker from the left. Exactly what we need, he sure has the physique and from the 1 minute I've seen so far can strike a ball

Looked good against us in the Cup and decent against Chelsea. 

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Perhaps, but we are always a couple of injuries, suspensions and fixtures away from " 5th choice " becoming second or third choice.

Would you rather Dendonker or Gallagher coming on? Gallagher starting in the Conference, Cup, or Dendonker etc?

( I don't actually dislike Dendonker either, just as example ).

From the players perspective, it probably wouldn't make much sense though 

Agreed, he wouldn't join us unless he was a starter and he may well prefer to join another London club in any case. 

2 hours ago, Jas10 said:

 

As has been said, it's Total Villa, but I love the idea of a player turning them down for us. He obviously wants European football, to win things and to be part of UE's project. If that's the case, I hope he gets his wish. 

17 hours ago, duke313 said:

Let’s see him coach in league 2 see how good he is.

Have you heard the result of their investigation then?

Given the number of charges against them, that would not be unreasonable punishment, sadly by the time any decision is implemented Pep will probably in his 90s.  

12 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

SIGN HIM UP!

 

Sign the commentator too! 

14 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Ideally. But that’s assuming Mings returns to full fitness as he was prior to injury.

He's come back from serious injuries before and I for one, wouldn't want to bet against him doing the same again. We shouldn't always fear the very worst, losing him for most, if not all of the season is bad enough. 

13 hours ago, Tayls said:

As this will be the 39th transfer window where we do not sign Smith-Rowe, will people then accept that we just aren’t going to sign him? And quite frankly, rightly so. 

So are you telling me, we aren't going for JWP, Benrahma, Rashica or Tammy and Phillips either? 

11 hours ago, The_Steve said:

The bitterness about this alleged deal makes it even better

 

One for the future like Rory Wilson and Aiden Borland. In this case, the lad has had first team opportunities. Looks like clever business. 

I kept thinking that we would get the winner yesterday, but it wasn't to be and had it not been for Emi, we could have lost the game. It seems the referee has learnt nothing from his abysmal performance against Brentford and he was back to haunt us again yesterday. You could pick any referee from a parks pitch and he would do a better job than this idiot. 

We aren't going to win every game this season and we didn't win them all in 1980-81 either. The problem is that teams like Manchester City and Arsenal are capable of winning multiple games, that will pull them away from us, if we don't do much the same. A point was the very least that we deserved and Everton are a tough team to beat on their own patch, even without the assistance of VAR and an incompetent official, who gave Tarkowski a licence to injure. We now need to beat Newcastle and Sheffield United in our next two league games. We can finish in the top 5, anything better than that would be a bonus, but one that our season to date merits. 

12 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

Did he say this or based on VT posts?

Jas has kindly already posted some of the sources. As I understand it, there are two separate press conferences, one for the written press and one for TV/Radio. UE might possibly have said slightly different things in each case, hopefully things will not be as bad as we fear, come the next window.  

Hopefully we can make enough by qualifying for the CL to be able to keep the best of our players. It makes it so clear how vital qualification for the CL is, in comparison to winning one of the cups (although winning one would increase our status too). It also explains why the club are seeking some unpopular means of increasing our cash flow.

HDE would be loving this talk of income, at a time when we should be able to focus on what we need to do, in order to increase our chances of winning things. What should matter to us, is what is on the field playing in our shirts, but our balance sheet largely determines what happens to us as a football club now.