allani

As @OutByEaster? said - it's hard to believe that this is coincidental. It has the feel of something (big) happening. I don't think this is about rewarding people for their previous work by giving them a directorship of another company. It feels like they've been appointed to do something.

I'm sure it is going to be exciting. NSWE are showing that they are not here to make up the numbers. They seem to be ramping things up pretty rapidly.

Yeah - I should have said none of the new people (given that Atairos option makes sense as they've just become minority owners in VSports). The other names have come out of nowhere in terms of known official links to our club.

Yeah but none of those trusted people are sports / marketing people. They're all in infrastructure. It might be a huge coincidence - but it seems odd that their expertise is concentrated so much in one area...

There would be plenty of good reasons why they wouldn't admit to looking at potential venues for a new stadium. I am sure that the "cost" of sites capable of housing a PL stadium and all the services it requires would increase significantly if landowners in the area knew that Villa's billionaire owners were considering options. Much better to deny everything, put out some feelers from an apparently unconnected third party and try and get a full understanding of the actual value of each site prior to starting proper negotiations.

One big question mark over redeveloping Villa Park is how we can cope with 1, 2 (or more) stands being "out of commission" whilst the work is being done. It's hard (for me anyway) to think how we can maximise our match day revenue during redevelopment. If VP is redeveloped I think we have to be playing somewhere else in the meantime. But what other stadia in the area will support crowds of 40,000?

I think it is sometimes difficult to communicate as openly as we might like. There might have been all kinds of commercial, contractual or political reasons why the club weren't able to expand further on why the NS development was shelved. It might just have been **** poor communications. Or it might have been a **** decision. We will find out eventually. But I think this is another one of those - there are so many dots that can start to be connected that it seems hard to believe that it is just coincidence.

One thing that I noticed yesterday was that there were a couple of occassions when players made an error that put someone else under pressure - yet not once did that player berate his team-mate for losing possession or making a poor pass. The error was acknowledged, apologised for and then the team moved on. It's something that I think has been there most of the time (and is in direct contrast to what was happening under SG). I don't think I've seen a team as united/together for a long time. I mean I guess it is easy when things are going pretty well but it really does feel like most of the time we're playing as a team rather than 11 individuals. Mistakes happen. Sometimes we will concede as a result. But the way we play requires the opposition to press us in the hope of forcing a mistake and more often that not that allows us to spring an attack. It really feels like the team have really bought into that (even if not all the fans have yet) and so they are less worried about making a mistake and more focussed on trying to do something that will make the space eventually open up.

Was really impressive today. I think the 10 role suits him better than the left-sided midfielder. I get the feeling that he and Ollie could really click and link up brilliantly.

Rogers was superb today. Looking like an absolute steal of a signing.

I thought you hated our tactics........

Perfect performance. That second half was just insane. Played one of the best footballing teams in the league off the park. Could have won by 3 or 4.

Shame we will be lucky to finish 6th this season!!

I've knocked Carlos a few times. Anyone could have got man of the match today. But as a personal apology to him - he gets my vote.

What an incredible result. Absolutely smashed them second half without really getting out of third gear. What a season!!!

I'd still gladly take a point. For all Arsenal's possession we can probably say we're unfortunate not to be 1-0 up from Watkins shot. Massively unlucky with that.

I agree with almost all of what you say bar a slight exception to the part in bold (although mainly I am nit-picking on the term "team"). I do think that our first choice (starting) team does all / most of that - we've just not been able to play it very often this season. So, with the possible exception of RB (although I think that Konsa / Kosta will be our options next season), it's not necessarily about improving the team but about improving the options on the bench. Attacking wise I think we are getting close (although the impact of a major injury to Ollie is still worrying) especially if Buendia and JJ are fitting fit and on form next season. Another CM with good defensive and transitional stats gives us the cover for Kamara and Luiz (whilst allowing Tim time to grow into the first team squad) and gives us options to shut out games or to try and subdue a dangerous opponent. A CB who can dominate in both boxes aerially whilst being comfortable playing the ball out the way we want to would be a great addition too (as cover / eventual replacement for Mings). It feels like we are tinkering rather than overhauling. Which is a very nice position to be in.

Disagree on the second of those (and struggling to remember the first). With the second you absolutely want your main striker to be looking to fashion half a yard of space and get a shot away. If he'd got it on target it would have been difficult for the keeper to save cleanly (or even get to it at all) so you're then looking for your other attackers / midfielders to be getting on the end of any save / block / deflection and to bury the rebound.

This is why I think Atairos is the vehicle being used this time. Atairos aren't directly owned by Comcast (although it is pretty close). They've also bought VSports rather than Villa (even though VSports own 100% of Villa). My gut feel is that Atairos and VSports are effectively vehicles that allow this separation of ownership which seems to be a bigger thing in the UK / EU than it is in the USA. The Atairos deal has already been approved by the EU a few weeks ago - I suspect that had Sky or Comcast bought into Villa direct then it might not have been so straight forward. The PL won't care (as demonstrated by the failure of their Fit and Proper Owner test when the owners promise to spend enough money) but objections were more likely at government level. We've cleared that hurdle. Of course as @OutByEaster? has (correctly) already pointed out - I may be barking up the wrong tree here and Atairos might be acting on their own and might have been targetted by NSWE for their expertise in certain areas. Even if that is the case then I still think it is a significant development. NSWE wouldn't need to raise £100m (which in comparison to their overall wealth is a relatively small amount - not insignificant but at the same time not worth giving away 20% of the club just as we've started qualifying for Europe) and I don't think it being a Third Party has any different impact from a FFP perspective (the deal is also with VSports rather than Villa). So Atairos would have to be offering something that NSWE regarded as worth more than just signing a £100m contract (or a series of contracts). But there just seem (to me) to be too many dots and too many circumstantial links for it to be coincidental. Either way my instinct is we're either talking about a very good deal (if just Atairos) or potentially a transformational deal (if there really is something bigger happening behind the scenes). Both of which are exciting developments.

Yeah it was specifically the stadium side of things. They did some really interesting stuff there in terms of raising revenue that I am sure would have involved Heck (or at least would have brought them into contact). I am sure that even if there weren't direct connections there will be enough mutual connections that would have made dealing with Villa easier than most other teams - plus the added benefit of us leaping from nowhere to European football.

Comcast own the stadium in Phillie (but I don't think this is only about stadium so don't think we should get side-tracked by that) so will have definitely worked with Heck. I think Atairos are also based there?

Agreed. But Comcast's business history suggests that this isn't about getting a 10% / 20% return on a £100m investment. Clearly I have no inside information / proof either way - but I reckon they are looking at an absolute minimum of a 3, 4, 5 fold increase in "their" investment. The connections with Philadelphia make us an ideal option for them and I'm sure that they know Wes and Heck pretty well.

I missed the bit about from set pieces. Surely 20 of the 29 goals in those competitions aren't from set pieces?

Nah I am convinced that the Execuctive Team at Comcast will know the answer to that (and many other questions) too. And a quick look at Comcast's full portfolio of companies can give us a pretty good idea of what they bring to the table.

Exactly. Atairos are effectively a subsiduary of Comcast. Comcast are the owners of Sky (for those that hadn't connected the dots that you have). This is (I believe) all about Comcast increasing their PL presence. Maybe I am looking at 2 + 2 and making the answer 9 but I do think that this has the potential to be huge for us.