nick76

HR would like to see you now

Started off badly with using “soccer”, that’s officially classed as child abuse

I’m the opposite, I’m not that excited this year. Love the players coming in but yet to be convinced of the coaching to do something with it. I’m hopeful though but with reservations. Yep this is the part I’m excited about Assume Davis will be sold over the next month, and Archer may eventually go on loan before the window closes with Gerrard giving him a look over in preseason imo.

At some points last season I wondered if some of our players knew each other on the pitch given the play

I hope so if he stays and we dont get somebody else in. I worry he was a one season wonder and now defenders know how to play him or that he was only that good because of Jack or he's just gone off the boil. I hope it's the other way and last was just a blip and next season he can develop a lot further. My gut feel is that Gerrard is going to bring somebody in up front. I have no idea who or where from it's just my gut feel.

Now we are even praising Kim Jong UN cronies in this thread, wow ! Eh? dont get it!

Maybe it's then just more how it looks, that when he does miss it is poor but he still gets his fair share. I'm never confident of him scoring one on one or when he has time to think about it, in mind now I can remember some occasions when I remember him looking like a deer in headlights but the stats say overall he scores what he is expected to score. For me though he works hard and is all over the pitch but not always in the position to score and I dont think he fits Gerrard's system. I'm still worried he hit his ceiling and thus that and not imo not fitting Gerrard's system that if a big bid came in for him and Gerrard had somebody in mind to replace him then I would sell him

Maybe. I kind of like the idea that Levy's first bid got accepted whereas he thought it would cost him maybe £30m and now he's crying that he couldve potentially got Bissouma cheaper because given that Brighton accepted £25m they may have accepted less. We know how much Levy likes a good deal and low balls everything. Unfortunately the reality is more likely that Bissouma wanted CL, it was unlikely that Liverpool, Man City or Chelsea were truly after him despite some reports about Chelsea and so he jumped at the chance of Spurs so it was done quickly and negotiations between Levy and Brighton have been happening behind closed doors for a couple of weeks.

I wasnt going to renew, it's the first time other than for personal non-Villa related reasons I wasnt going to renew but I caved and did renew. I know loads of people that werent going to renew but most I've talked to since have renewed. I dont think it matters what the Villa do, they know they have a core set of fans that will turn up even if they didnt want to, like an addiction that you know is bad for you but you cant live without

It's such fine margins that for some reason 50 points would be so disappointing for next season. After this poor season to only achieve 5 more points next season just doesnt feel like an achievement does it? I know you said a minimum of 50 points and that would het us 11th this season but given we did bring in Gerrard to take us to the next level it just feels like we need to do so much more but then you look at the table and 52 points would've got us 8th, 56 points 6th if we had decent goal differences. I think we have to aim for 60 points, that means grinding out more results otherwise what was the point of bringing in Gerrard.

which he is going to do at Milan. Everything is agreed with them and he will take his medical when he returns from holiday next week.

I would assume it's more the Champions League factor than London as the main thing because I'm sure if Liverpool or Man City came calling, Spurs wouldnt have a chance and no London factor wouldve made a difference

oh i agree most journo's especially with the Villa dont have any real inside information. Maybe some have an issue with his Baggies background but I reckon there are just as many, if not more that dont care about that and maybe some dont know about that. As i said pointing to the other journalists I mention who I dont know if they have Villa ties or not. Yes, Evans get more grief than most because he does cover Villa predominately but he tries to come across as having inside knowledge whether to look good, to try and keep his job because some of his colleagues at The Athletic do have great connections at their clubs unlike him or for another reason. I think it's easy to say we give him stick because he's a baggies fan and that annoys us, he gets stick because he's just as right as he is wrong, he seems no more in the know that many of the people on here because he just uses publicly available information but then tries to add stuff occasionally that seems stabs in the dark, almost like clickbait stuff. cant disagree with anything you say but it doesnt mean he isnt rubbish. He's essentially a paid journalist doing exactly what 'Villareport' does for free, so fair play to him and he gets to follow Villa around the country on the company dime so would seem smarter than all of us

If so many people denigrate as you say, doesn’t that tell you something. It’s not like everybody is colluding. With so many people calling out Gregg, do you not think there is something to it especially when you are only one of a very small amount, if not the only one that defends him. Surely that tells you something! Is that your assumption? I couldn’t care less who he supports, I just care what he reports. I don’t know who Maher, Percy or Collomosse support but I’m guessing probably not all the Villa but I respect them. Then isn’t Preece a Villa fan but he’s rubbish. No, it’s more like if he’s found not to be credible historically, it’s hard to take anything new as credible. Until he gets a consistent run of things right then his credibility will be questioned.

Spurs will win because of CL football and Conte.

Are you friends or related to him, you are always very defensive towards him? Given he’s mocked or ignored by most on here because he doesn’t seem to be in the know you are just an outlier in being positive about him. Just curious?

or when we were to sign Dwight McNeill. Villa no longer interested in Bissouma isnt a surprise after what Purslow said as per my above comment. He's just as often wrong as he is right and not very credible given his history, he seems to know about as much as any of us.

I moved on from Bissouma after Purslow joked about Bissouma being in McGinn's pocket and more like £10m value. No way Purslow says that if we were still interested, he's too smart to pee off a player if we wanted to sign him and a CEO saying that wouldnt go down well.

Does this prove that Gregg knows something? Nope

Isn't Sanches off to Milan? Thought it was all but done

Thank god for that! New Season ticket holders enjoying the glory when the rest of us renewers have had to suffer to get to this point. We should just stop giving new season tickets out after those that have renewed and then relocated are finished. No new season ticket holders and then the thirty thousand of us get to vote on each new application for a season ticket. Each applicant should have to produced a five minute video of why they want a season tickets, they must sing a karaoke song and then must complete a difficult embarrassing initiation. Current season ticket holders then get to vote with a 95% threshold favourable vote to get included and be able to purchase a season ticket. This may feel a little harsh but will feel easier than contacting the ticket office and getting the ticket, which is the real challenge. Call this the warm up!

Agree with all this. World cup final on the 18th Dec. So will games start by 26th Dec back in the league? Some players are going to be knackered and some fresh as a daisy, plus most wont have played together for 5 or 6 weeks, I guess no week or so to get the club squads back together before games restart? Probably due to lack of spare time in the season and Xmas being the money season to show games on tv. 2nd half of the season is going to be messed up as some players fitness tail off and some players will be fresh having not being in the World Cup or not playing much. Could be good to play top six teams as much in the 2nd half of the season as possible because some of their best players will be knackered because the World Cup, heat etc and they’ll have European games packed in they won’t know what day it is most of the time.

Damn it, went to bed early last night because I had to get up early this morning so response time is 6 hours. Anything more than 5 minutes and I’m disappointed with myself, so you can imagine how unhappy I am this morning with this response time

You have provided a fair point, so I adjust my argument that over period like half a season a time I agree with you. Over periods where you win one, lose one over a smaller period of games compared to winnings three, losing four like this season, if the points are the same in total then I don’t think it matters. So I’m glad you have shown me something and I have adjusted my views

This what I never get about religion, how do they know it was the touch of god and not something else or a myriad of other possible explanations.