JoshVilla

Phwoarrr.

As a Washington Fan, I fully agree. The sooner a new stadium is built, the better.

What a guy. Its just a shame that we had him during what was a pretty shit period for the club. I have some brilliant memories of him as a player, but my god, that was a grim time to be a Villa fan. He was one of the very few bright sparks, and his goals 100% gave us a stay of execution when we really should have been going down. It was pretty telling that the wheels fell off when he (and probably Delph too) left. I think that his time at Liverpool and Palace has tainted the memories of most non-Villa fans. When he was at his best for us, he was absolutely one of the best strikers in the league. He was unplayable on his day.

I quite like this Summer Series. In past seasons, I've often thought that our preseason opponents were a bit too low level, and we'd look a bit shell-shocked in the first league game. They're still just friendlies, and the results don't matter, but I think they're giving us a much better workout and will hopefully get us up to speed much better come game 1.

Not sure if this has already been posted, but: I was having a look at this SkyBet "Fan Central" thing that keeps popping up on twitter. Essentially, they've polled 1400 PL fans for their thoughts on the upcoming season. One of the questions is where do they rank the other managers in the league from best the worst. According to the 1400 fans polled, Unai Emery is ranked, on average: The 13th best manager in the league. Seriously!? He's below the likes of Thomas Frank, Vincent Kompany, Roy Hodgson, Rob Edwards & Steve Cooper. I swear that there's a huge number of football fans that try to be controversial for the sake of it.

Why does the go-to place to store letters seem to be down the side of the microwave? I swear all of my local takeaway menus are now radioactive.

I went to Uni in Chester (lovely city) and subsequently stayed for another 2 years afterwards. I spent a lot of time going to and from Liverpool and Manchester for various things (I worked in Liverpool for 2 years). I actually don't mind Liverpool. There's some pretty nice parts, especially by the docks, and there's loads to do there. Made some good friends working up there (who were always quite complimentary about the Villa too, and this was around the time we got relegated...). Manchester, though, I just really didn't enjoy going there at all. I never felt safe walking around there, especially getting back to the train station after gigs. Not a fan at all. By comparison, Birmingham really does get a bad rep when it's absolutely no worse than any other of the big cities. I'd much rather walk through Birmingham at night than Manchester. I think that most of the preconceptions about Brum come from the fact that we're rather self-deprecating by nature, thus you don't often hear Brummies talking about the good things about the city. I'd take Birmingham over Manchester any day of the week.

Pisses me right off when I take a bite out of an onion ring and the whole piece of onion comes sliding out and I'm stuck with a hollow ring of batter.

!!!

Bring him home

The LHW belt is cursed

I'm sure that this same guy will have complained about the same teams competing at the top of the league year after year. He should be celebrating this. Miserable helmet

Shit music on that video. #PauOut

Am I missing out on anything by not visiting the sky islands? I think I've used recall thingy on maybe 2 or 3 of the stones that fell from the sky and there was literally nothing of any worth on any of those little islands. I've sunk quite a few hours into the game without really bothering with them.

Gary Neville's finest film.

No idea if this guy is legit, but a thread for anyone who (like me) has nothing better to do on a Monday night.

Wishing happy birthday to Everton players now. Odd.

The valuation for Declan Rice is utterly insane. Having watched him play a fair bit, I really don't understand what the fuss is about Similarly to Grealish though, his price is based on how valuable he is to the club, rather than purely his ability.

The latest MOMS podcast episode actually does make some very good points (this coming from someone who was in complete disbelief that we'd ballsed up the crest situation so badly). They made a good point regarding the stadium/surrounding area redevelopment. If that had been happening this summer, then we'd have no real choice but to go with the current badge as its going to be plastered all over the gaff. Heck has obviously come in and decided that (rightly or wrongly), the new badge just doesn't do it. If we're going to grow as a brand globally (which we need to do if we hope to compete with the big boys on a regular basis), we need something instantly recognizable, and something that might convince new fans overseas to start following us. A cool looking badge is a big factor in convincing potential fans that have no personal connection to any English clubs to choose us over City, United, Arsenal etc etc. The fact that we have a bit more time before the redevelopment work begins means that he can gather enough data to either be sure that the new crest is the right one, or gather enough feedback to help in creating something that's going to stand out for the foreseeable future. It's annoying, for me especially since I really do quite like this new badge and I don't really like this feeling of being in limbo, but the more I've thought about it, it does make very good business sense. We might be very glad that we've done it.

I've seen the kit quite a lot now, and now that I'm used to it, I kinda like it. Will definitely end up buying it, mainly because it could be the only shirt with that badge on it.

They've signed 2 players and now they're giving it the old billy big bollocks on social media with all this "blues are back" shite. What does "back" actually even mean for them? In 148 years, their achievements amount to 2 league cups and the knackered old van cup. (Unless the football league gives out a "most incestuous fanbase" trophy, then I stand corrected) Bless them, they're all very excited. They're frothing at the mouth at the thought of reaching the heady heights of 15th next season. Their poor sisters... Mate

For anybody that is worried about any quotes that they might see regarding Monchi and his love for Sevilla:

He's gonna get a right old heckling at VP now.

The crest situation has got me all pissed off. I need a signing to cheer me up. Announce Nico Williams, wearing both 22/23 and 23/24 shirts so he's in line with Villa's brand identity.