cyrusr

I know we've joked about Messi coming to Villa but if this is the mentality, let him go to PSG and earn stupid money. I am still of the view let the Super League happen and let those clubs disappear up their own backsides - football will be better for it.

The fact that Barca thinks it can try and persuade the league for them to break the rules just shows how broken the game is at the top. Horrendously mismanaged and their plan to sort it out is to throw more money on 1 player. Messi wants to stay. Well if he was that keen to stay why doesn't he take a bigger pay cut?

Seriously though I think we could push that given the squad bow but it remains untested at the moment, hence optimistic rather than very optimistic

It's been 17 hours since we announced Ings, come on Villa where's the next one?!

I've just looked at that article, I should have known better but what a complete waste of time. It is a mere suggestion that the Ings signing "may" pave the way for Watkins to join Liverpool. Utter tripe is an understatement. People actually get paid to write this stuff?

Well if you had just spilled the beans to VT instead of Ty... Seriously though, off topic is far saner, even with gravy loving mods. I'm just annoyed I've got sucked into it as well. With Japan not been myself but I would absolutely love to. To me it just seems an amazing country where in just a few hours you can move from one of the most modern and busy cities to somewhere completely historical and serene. Complete dichotomy of a country. Think it will be somewhere to travel to as part of a big trip.

Its weird, with Ings and Ashley Young, we have signed 2 players in positions where in the 1st team they are pretty solid choices in front of them (Watkins & Targett); however neither of them will be satisfied with simply warming the bench. We have massively improved the squad this summer and there are real options on the bench finally. It is also really logical for these signings to be made to allow the youth players a real chance to develop. This is definitely one of those signings that could be a complete masterstroke. And to think, the window is far from over...

So if we go 4-3-3 we potentially have as a squad (? Potentially leaving): Martinez/Steer/Sinsalo/(new signing?) Cash/Guilbert - Konsa/(new signing) - Mings/Hause - Targett/A Young McGinn/Sanson/Luiz/Nakamba/Ramsey/Chukwuemeka/(new signing)/Hourihane(?) Bailey/Traore/Philogene-Bidace - Watkins/Ings/Wesley(?)/Davis(?)/B Young - Buendia/El Ghazi(?)/Barry Thats easily a massive step up from last season already even without the new signings (although I would at least want 1 more CB as having 3 makes me uneasy. I know we have Swinkels and Bogarde in the youth team but I don’t think they are quite ready yet).

Sort of but they have their more "defined positions". For us Watkins will still remain the option at the top but we know he is very apt on either wing as well. It will give us that versatility.

I thought the Daily Heil was saying that it was to be completed today?

I suspect the reality will be that they will be interchangeable with Bailey/Buendia switching flanks and when Watkins grabs the ball out wide they will be running into the box. I really suspect they will be a front 3 a la Mane/Firmino/Salah at Liverpool. Our own BBW

I think the whole team will really benefit from having multiple options moving the ball in front of them. The team is definitely better than last season with or without Grealish so I suspect the push for Europe will be made. McGinn is defiantly going to be one of those that will hopefully step up after a couple of decent seasons.

Full interview is interesting. Confirms secret target for last season was to get into Europe. Seems excited by the prospect of the new signings too.

To be fair, I think if there was something concrete that he wasn't at training then yeah that is almost certainly a sign he is off rather than the official pieces. I think like others have said though, if he is off then its sad but we have already signed 2 massively creative players in Buendia and Bailey and able to buy a lot more with the FFP balance looking a lot healthier. So yes, it would be a shame to lose "Mr Aston Villa" but no player is ever bigger than the club. We move on to bigger and better things

I'm asking a genuine question - what evidence apart from the media who have been pushing the transfer story themselves anyway? Look at your sources, only Percy is the one with concrete reliability.

Apart from the press seemingly suggesting he is gone is there anything concrete yet? I know Percy is generally the most reliable but even he gets things wrong.

Cracking signing to make with or without Grealish. I suspect the “striker” comments are either to show he’s competition for the front 3/4 positions and/or to make sure people don’t make the assumption that he is Grealish’s replacement and therefore assume Grealish is off.

I see you agree as you have used Jim Carrey in your gif and he is not an Oasis fan knowing his musical tastes

suspect if he is off it will be a loan with a view to buy. Shame that injury has really scuppered him at Villa (as did Heaton's to be fair). We've now bought better and not probably going to get many chances. Still think there is a player there and it is definitely unfair to judge him on half a season.

I nkow what you mean, but I think he caught it in March 2020 in the first wave so not in the covid outbreak

It is actually a decent article for the S*n and worth a read. He also explains that he got long COVID last year and loss his sense of taste for 8 months. He just comes across as an absolute genuine guy. I think he did it the article because the paper came out quick and strong against the racist abuse which is fair enough. Just love him being a Villa player. Proud of him both on and off the pitch.

This. I decided the other day to use "Prime Day" to save on packaging as cardboard recycling keeps getting full. Did about 6/7 orders in total over the week. What did amazon do? put them all in separate packages, including putting items from the same order in separate packaging. Useless.

Yeah, genuinely he was not joking. Absolutely bonkers. What I don't get is why people try and either Make up rumours that have no actual basis or are easily disprovable; and Try and purposefully wind people up. Whilst I appreciate that these types people have always existed, it just feels that with social media this made them more visible or changed people to act in this way. It does feel that people go into absolute hyperbole about everything at the moment and I think this is very much the lack of education around how to actually interact with people. Just because you are typing/reading words instead of physically interacting it does not change the impact it has on people.

villalad21, is that you?