Marka Ragnos

Why on earth would any Villa supporter be surprised that Ollie might be going through a little micro-dip in confidence. Of course he is. He suddenly has really intense potential competition on the squad, and he's going to need some time to get used to the new Villa reality. I think he'll come out of this micro-dip, although I have to say, we're being a bit ridiculous in freaking out about Ollie. It's absurd. Bad day at the office, that's all. Watkins' at times fragile confidence has long been yoked to his feelings about his competition on the Villa squad. When Bailey first came to Villa and scored, I remember so distinctly how Ollie never looked remotely comfortable in celebration scrums with teammates. It was startling. He seemed awkward, like "get me outta here." Like he's trying to act pleased out of politeness but secretly feel like maybe he's not number one any more. No fault in that. No mark on his character. But Ollie's is a lot more competitive than I think many Villa supporters suspect. When it's not him scoring, he feels bad. Lots of great forwards are the same. I imagine Diaby in particular has him a little tensed up. But when you look at the big picture, he's a fantastic striker who has proven himself with Villa. I was an "Ollie sceptic" for a long time last year, but I saw what Emery was able to get out of him, and Emery will provide a supportive and ambitious atmosphere where Ollie and other players will come through their dips in form. I think we're crazy if we don't think that, from time to time, Nervous Ollie is going to appear. It's his nature, and it's part of what also make him great on other days.

All I can for sure is I’m glad I’m not not making these deals. It’s basically brain surgery-level delicate at this point.

I agree. Consider that Manchester United just spent 70 million on a forward who is young and good, but is absolutely not guaranteed to be any better or even as good as Ollie.

It’s also possible to value Watkins realistically, and also sometimes be frustrated by him.

Exactly. It’s never “just preseason” — and it never has been.

Well ... we loved it in the 1970s before the first video games became commercially available. It had its time. Not sure I can explain it, but the fun wasn't so much in the player pieces and gameplay (although that could be pretty enjoyable, I remember) as much as in the head and imagination. Very similar to D&D before concoctions like Warcraft came along. It was more about what you brought creatively to Subbuteo than what the technology offered? The fun was about interacting with other people in front of you imaginatively, at least when we played Subbuteo. The whole atmosphere of a football match came to life in your head. I'm guessing you might not rate marbles much either, but I don't want to assume you're younger than age 55 or so. We were playing marbles still avidly in the early to mid-1970s, past their peak era. A marble is so boring, really, if youn think about it. But it just felt much more fun when there weren't as many choices of toys that so astonishingly re-create reality as there are today. Tops that you whip were also fun, but only in the same way fidget spinners are. I can definitely understand how it looks pretty stupid today. But I saw my own kid play in a way similar to Subbuteo but with other things -- with toy trains, etc. Sometimes, it strikes me that it's sort developmentally important for children to find way to use their minds in these quieter ways, but I'm not expert on such matters. In a way, it's true, Subbuteo was shit, but we weren't because we just loved football and wanted to imagine all these football scenarios and dramas. So now you have a very serious response to an offhand post from two years ago lol.

At least we don't have the worst kit this year ... Everton away is a crime against anyone with eyes:

The thing about the badge mash-up is that the rampant lion is already a complicated/busy artistic object, so we're taking that and putting into a blender and out comes ... I just don't think it's very clever as an approach. The chevron designs are way more appealing and focused to me.

Kind of an old one but still ...

Why can't our kit designers grasp one very simple artistic principle?: Less is more. The new away is better than the home kit, but still way **** too busy. You practically have to decode these kits to understand what the hell they're trying to communicate, and it ends up taking away from the overall impression. Just because you can add another this or another that (piping, sounds waves (!), shoulder "straps," etc. etc etc) doesn't mean you should, right? They just don't know when to stop adding crap. The pale blue shorts sort of get washed out, too. I don't know. OK overall, but not inspiring.

Today my wife and her neighbour friend said they saw a man with a shopping cart full of bags of ashes rolling away down towards a walking path. The thing is, they saw it right next to a crematorium. WTF?

I feel you. I come to this thread mostly to thank our VTs with the intelligence and generosity of time to figure this Europa Conference shit out for me.

It's AI.

All the hyenas think they're coming out for our best players right now, too. It's so predictable and depressing, and I thank Emery and owners and all our previous managers who had the foresight to get some our players signed to long contracts. The arrogance in how these ridiculous stories are reported infuriates me, so I guess I do get baited by them -- "Spurs want Luiz," "Poch has decided he wants Martinez," "Manchester United will be adding so and so to their plans," etc etc etc. Drives me batty, and if you know me, you know I don't need additional fuel for the fire in that department heheh. This is one which I'm sure many of you saw today on Kamara is one I found especially irritating for some reason.

I know it sounds strange, but I wonder sometimes if Emery went back and studied Peak Villa. I actually do think there are some weirdly uncanny similarities between 76-77 Villa, the 1982 European championship Villa, and today's Emeryball at Villa. It comes down to the pace and directness of Emeryball, as well as some amazing long passes into the box. It's that approach along with expertly weighted balls through the midfield. Emery has forwards surging past defenses and getting goals -- instead of fussy tiki-taka "working the channels" and Man City-style cut-backs. It's odd, really, the correspondences. Go look at Andy Gray in 1976. Today, our Gray would be Diaby, Buendia or sometimes Watkins, all quick and trying constantly to get the ball forward into space. Don't know if we ever played a high line like this.

It sort of just wasn't his day. That's how I see it. He came close to scoring, he just by a whisker went offsides twice in great positions, he missed a pen shot the fulham keeper expertly stopped, etc. You hearing a theme here? Almost but not quite. I think he has earned more chances to prove himself despite a lack of results he himself was clearly frustrated by.

As was foretold several months ago by others on here. There's a logical explanation for the bollocks and its timing that you're witnessing. We are, after all, Aston Villa, one of the most important clubs of football history. Should be no surprise that a big club coming back to its rightful place at the top of table, with deep-pocketed owners, a brilliant manager, and a recently thin squad, would bring out the misinformation brigades, too, particularly with the not-to-be-underestimated shambles of lies that Elon Musk has engineered at "X" fulminating right at the start of the summer window, as it opens transfer season. It's been a perfect shitstorm for anyone seeking clear information. Everyone and his mother "wants some" from Villa right now. You know that when Manchester United fans are looking at our club with barely disguised envy, we've crossed some kind of rubicon. I honestly think we're one of the most electrifying projects in Europe right now. The downside is the madness you describe. Brighton had that last year, for a while. Less surprisingly, Arsenal did. Villarreal had it. Napoli, obviously. I just think the converging of various pressures has made for lots of confusion. There are some solid journalists of goodwill who are reasonably reliable, and I follow those. Transfer reporting is its own mess. I like Matt Maher. People can talk him down all they want, but Fabrizio has generally got things right this year with us. And John Townley is a straight shooter and hard worker, maybe not great for minute--to-minute transfer rumours, but I don't want that anyway. Anyway, that's my perspective.

This. Either/or/maybe depending on the value of any potential deals for forwards balanced with probably more urgent priorities. We shouldn’t take any possibilities off the table if the right deal comes along, but we shouldn’t play our hand rigidly either.

And oh how fun it was to witness. Joelinton is one of my least favorite characters in football. Lascelles did best him one on one, too, pretty emphatically.

It’s hard on social media not to become a fanboy advocate for or perennial critic of certain players. Archer and Bailey are two players where I feel like opinions sometimes can’t be easily disentangled from people’s hardened opinions. (I myself am an admitted Bailey proponent.) Cam would benefit from the same patience Ollie got, but Ollie was playing conference league on loan to Weston at Cameron’s age! I think Emery likes young players, but he has a ruthless side, too. Still, he’s going to keep Cameron in the mix this fall. Hasn’t he already said this? Done deal. I don’t believe another forward is coming in any case. He and Jhonny will be vying for second choice.

And selling Bailey before giving him a chance to play left with Diaby right would be irrational — and hopefully unthinkable— given their stellar past performances as a duo.

But we wouldn’t be relying on only Watkins and Diaby — yikes, of course not! Current system as it is evolving isn’t striker-dependent. It puts at least four players into scoring positions, which is why it’s so lethal. I imagine I feel more hopeful about Cam and Jhonny but I agree it’s risky to rely on them. I’m just not sure a traditional striker does much for us now. We need someone who runs fast and gets behind. Cam needs to tweak his timing a bit. They all need more time Together before we splurge when there are other more obvious needs.

Sorry, guys, but I'm not sure we need a new striker. I really don't. I wouldn't have said that before seeing Diaby last night. He's effectively able to cover part of the striker role and still float and weave outside on the right. It takes the load off Ollie, too. And with Jaden Philogene in the mix, we have at least three forwards who can score goals and a creative, canny midfield. I think Cam will come around, too. Indeed, we're almost overloaded with forwards. Could Jaden hack it against top PL opposition? It's perfectly obvious he can rise to the challenge. We drew fairly easily against Newcastle, and cruised past Fulham, who aren't shit (finished 10th, right?). A "wing-backy," Moreno-style right back and a stronger second keeper are all I think we need, provided there are no big injuries, but these, personally, seem vital to me. I'm way more of a fan of Mattie than many on VT, but we need options at RB. Maybe be beyond us now, but Jeremie Frimpong would be my first choice for Emeryball, hands down.

Carlos is a big intimidating presence. It’s so awesome.

I thought it was absolutely fascinating television. Watching all the different new players was loads of fun and just so interesting. Kellyman is a young kid and he was totally fearless. Carlos is like some Spartan warrior. Diaby and Jaden both seem so overloaded with skills on the ball, I often find myself having to hit replay so I can see what's happening at lightning speeds. As for weakness, awkwardness, the bad passes, the missed penalty --- all that stuff seemed incidental to the big, broader reality: We have a cracking good squad. Considering how deeply Emery tapped into Villa's roster, this match not only bodes well for the Villa, but -- for those of us still pinching ourselves that we're even in Europe -- nudged me across the line towards thinking we definitely need to be pushing for the CL. Why wouldn't be? Who's better than us when we playing well? Maybe Citeh, maybe. But with this group of talented players, we should fear no one. Main positives: Diaby, Martinez, Dougie, Tielemans, Konsa, Kellyman ... and erm, sort of, Olsen. Mings super impressive, too. Digne sometimes great. Diego growing in power and leadership. Skilled and scary. I feel a little concern about Archer he'll improve with more confidence. I think Torres is absolutely sure to gain in boldness. He's still getting his shipping tape off.