John

It's in our own hands now, if we can discount referees and VAR.

A little help from Luton today would be both welcome and unexpected though...

1 minute ago, imavillan said:

I don't think anyone can say they understand/know what is or isn't offside these days...

and that includes the officials!!!!

If it's Villa it is normally offside. Simples! 

2 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Ollie doesn't look comfortable?

Looks like he may be in pain 

Might be that Dop who trod on him.

20 minutes ago, VillanousOne said:

have to hope no one in that defence gets injured 

Changed for you: "Have to hope no one gets injured".

We can't afford any more, no matter where they play. We have had more than our fair share already! 

18 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

It was naughty by him. I got sucked in at first but then from a second look could see what he had done.  

Perhaps it was his use of the word "training", he did say "initial return to training", which in itself is near enough correct. We hadn't seen pictures of him back at BH before (or at least I hadn't), so what he said was probably fair enough, as was his hope that he would "be ready and 100% fit as soon as possible. I think we were all desperate for some good news and jumped at this as a result. As it is, it seems having Tyrone back in full training by May, is as good as we can hope for. 

5 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

A proper "misanthrope,".

Or just camera shy...

4 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

Is this a player that can get £300k a week from likes of Manure but people think we have chance of signing?

Depends if he wants to sign for a club in the CL with a chance of winning something, I guess or if he is just looking for money. 

3 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Mortimer even looks unhappy there. No wonder he stuck two fingers up to the Holte - End.

Doesn't seem to like the chap with the camera does he? 

7 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Surely Frankfurt have to be seen as  a potential winner? Won the Europa a few yrs back and are currently 6th in the Bundesliga. And Fiorentina as well, given they were runners-up last season.

Third and second favourites respectively at 8/1 and 11/2. 

Oh well, as anticipated with Tyrone, I had hoped that Buendia would have been available before the season end. Hopefully they will both be sitting on the bench in Athens and will be firing on all cylinders for next season. 

I see Legia are 100/1 to win the cup with Coral, with Slovan the rank outsiders @ 200/1. We remain the hot favourites @ 11/4, with Real Betis @ 14/1 the only Europa League team in the first 7 clubs in the betting. The bookies are always right!  

10 hours ago, MrBlack said:

But who were we signing for the 10m or so we had available that is better than Tim Iroegbunam?

We shall find out a bit about "Young Tim" in the coming weeks, it's a great opportunity for him, but there is a lot of pressure upon him too, hopefully he will thrive on it.  

1 hour ago, The Fun Factory said:

So out of all of the ties, how many of them are the europa league side ahead of the 2nd place conference teams? Just getting a gauge of the difference in quality between the two competitions.

4-1 to the Europa League, with 3 ending all square. 

15 hours ago, Galway Lion said:

Come on Molde ! Three up at halftime against Legia. Don’t want them scumbags in Brum.

No, we will probably meet them in Athens! 

9 minutes ago, AV82 said:

Hang on we can't play Chambers or KKH in these matches? That could bite us in the ass couldn't it..

Given we have Kamara in the squad, hopefully we would be able to add one of those to the squad.  

52 minutes ago, omariqy said:

Wont be back till early April I’d imagine. Still amazing 

Any point in April would be a real boost for me. It would be great to have Tyrone & Buendia back available for the last few games.

I guess that we will, as one of the eight group winners, be seeded in the round of 16? If so, we would be facing one of the above. It would be Ajax and Henderson wouldn't it? 

2 hours ago, StefanAVFC said:

I would say the chance of us finishing 7th or lower now is practically 0%.

It would require one of Newcastle/West Ham/Brighton to win like 11 out of their last 14 games.

I like your confidence, but Brighton and Newcastle won't share it. I hope you are proved right though. 

Coral have us @ 5/4 to win and the home team @ 2/1 on Saturday. They also have us @ 1/8 to finish in the top 6 and 7/4 to end up in the top 4 (Manchester United are 5/1). The bookies are still in our corner. 

On 10/02/2024 at 10:58, Tom13 said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/68256138

Christ I have no words any more tbh.

"The Football Association are keen for Gareth Southgate to remain as England boss beyond this summer's European Championships" - Unbelievable but it's the FA so what do we expect? Do they sound out Klopp? No, let's go for squeaky clean Southgate, no matter that he wouldn't win anything if he was managing Brazil in 1970.  

My target at the start of the season was 6th and the Conference League. My target became 5th and the Conference League or FA Cup when we had such a good first half to this season, anything more would have been a bonus.

We have now hit that bump in the road and have suffered injury after injury. My target remains 5th, although given what we have had to cope with, I think we would all accept Europa Cup qualification either through the PL or by winning the Conference League. That would be progress and the very least our team deserve, that said, they deserve CL qualification and I'm not going to back against them getting it. We beat the odds last season and UE will want to beat them again this season, if they do it will be some achievement. 

Who should/could we sign in the next window for the defensive midfield spots, assuming we will need to? Sangare, Palhinha or the new sensational deep lying Ross Barclay?

He is a player that has taken a lengthy period to familiarise himself with the PL and he's not alone in that. He didn't get the early goals that would have boosted his confidence and had that betting issue to worry about, so settling in has not been easy for him. I still think he will have games to play for us this season (we will need to be able to call on all of our fit players in the coming weeks) and he may yet prove himself. He's a current Italian international after all, so he has it in him to do so.  

Such bad news for the player and for us. We have had about 5 years worth of injuries in one season!