Risso

Well we'll be top if we see off Sheffield United as expected, and then a draw between Liverpool and Arsenal the day after will mean we spend Christmas top of the table. I haven't been as excited about the race to be Christmas number one since The Housemartins and Jackie Wilson in 1986. 

Nothing wrong with that backpass really, he had nowhere to go, and just didn't see that Martinez was as far off his line as he was. No harm done.

1 hour ago, HalfTimePost said:

This isn't true, he scored a bunch of goals at the start of the season and had some very good games. He's been poor a while now but to say it's been awful every time just isn't true

It worked in one game, Burnley away. Other than that, he's been poor when played out wide. He remains a very good right back though.

It was all needless though. We were 2-1 up against 10 men, and didn't need to descend to their level. McGinn's reaction to Bouba showed what he thought of it, ie that Kamara is a chuffing idiot. He didn't look best pleased at all.

All Emi needed to do was put his foot on the ball and let that snivelling little twunt Maupay waste more of Brentford's time.

He's a very good right back, he's a mostly useless wide midfielder. Don't know whay Emery keeps playing him there in away games.

Wordle 911 4/6*

 I know exactly how the German two-tier system works, I've worked with and audited lots of German companies. Supervisory Board members are subject to the same liability regime uder German law for directors as the Management Board are. In fact German legislation refers to 'members' for both boards, so if members of the management board are considered directors, so are the members of the supervisory board. You don't have to take day-to-day business decisions to be a director, although you could argue that a lot of the supervisory board decisions are important, such as appointing the management board in the first place. You're mistakenly comparing the German system to the more common unitary board, prevalent in most countries like the UK. Sawiris is on the board of Adidas, and has a liability for the decsions he makes whilst on it.

22 hours ago, stewiek2 said:

He owns 6% of Adidas, but isn't a director. He's an advisor to the board. He also owns 6.3% of Madison Square Gardens Corp, who own, amongst manage US sports franchises, the New York Knicks.

We are so blessed amongst football owners that both he and Wes have a strong background in owning and investing in sports outfits.

His family also are/were season ticket, shareholders and box holders at Arsenal. I suspect the move for Don Unai wasn't coincidental, I am sure Nas knew him from the Arsenal days and very much, I suspect, took advice from Wenger regards luring our wonderful Basque beauty of a manager to the club.

He owns 3.3% of Adidas, and he is a director. He's on the Supervisory Board which in German companies appoints and oversees the Management Board (ie the execs).

19 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

had a quick look and its a guy called michael angelakis, looks like a CFO doing very well for himself, google cant tell me his net worth though its all over the shop ranging from $750k to $2bn

they've got their fingers in a lot of pies, he's on the board of directors at 6 companies

edit - they also seem to have a lot of ties with comcast, who are NBC, who have the PL rights in the states dont they?

thats how id see it too but then the management structure of villa wouldnt necessarily mean someone from atarios has a position on our board or any real influence, own us without managing us, another thing that we'll probably never know

nas is the largest stakeholder in adidas, he has next to nothing to do with managing them though

Sawiris is a director of Adidas.

40 minutes ago, thabucks said:

So they’ve basically purchased a minority stake in V Sports for ??? £££ yet NSWE retain 100% of Aston Villa men’s & ladies teams … Brilliant deal with zero downsides then. 

Not really no. V Sports own 100% of Aston Villa. If Atairos now own say, 10% of V Sports, they indirectly own 10% of everything V Sports own, including Villa.

1 hour ago, Zero7 said:

Need a season long loan at a Championship club 

Agreed, he needs a run of playing full games. every week. He's not going to get that at Villa.

Wordle 907 4/6*

12 hours ago, avfc1982am said:

I think it's been a good idea to take him out the spotlight over the last week. Unai has done it with several players previously including McGinn and Bailey along with a few others when they've struggled. He's also continually brought certain players off on a regular basis until it's clicked for them.

I keep hearing we brought Zaniolo in as a body but I think that's nonsense tbh. Emery doesn't bring in numbers and has never done it anywhere he's been. He brings in profiles which he's stated time and time again and a lot of thought would have gone into the decision making process before bringing Zaniolo here. I'm sure Unai isn't as dismissive of him as some think or he'd never have arrived in the first place with an option to buy.

Over the years we've seen top players come into the PL and look shocking in the first season to then be brilliant once they settled. A few of our own are on that list too, never looking like a PL player that could improve us, until Unai arrived. Not saying Zaniolo will but I think we just have to trust the process, let this one play out and see where he is in May. 

Monchi has stated that the summer transfer window was difficult because he arrived late, so I don't think it's far fetched to think that not every signing would have been his first choice.

We're so much more of a complete team than Leicester were. They had Vardy, Mahrez and Kante who were the three best players in the league that season. Kante went on to be the best midfielder in the league for Chelsea for several years, and Mahrez was similarly impressive and even more successful at Man City. Other than though they were mainly decent but unspectacular players like Huth, Morgan and Simpson. Once Vardy and Kante had gone, it was a few years of mid table before Brenda got them up to 5th again.

We're not going to lose our best players, and even when we did through injury (eg Mings and Buendia) we'd already bought in big name additions like Torres and Diaby. We share the goals around and have quality in all departments.

I don't think it's downplaying the achievement Stevo, more taking exception with the inherent suggestion that we'll be a similar "flash in the pan."

Leicester did brilliantly, but it was mostly down to the brilliance of Vardy and Mahrez that year who got over 40 goals between them, plus Kante in midfield. Keep a tight defence and have your two best players score 40 goals and any team at all is going to pose a major threat. As soon as the big boys plundered them for their best players, that was pretty well it. Emery has achieved what we have so far with mostly other managers' players, and has consistently got 2 points a game. Plus I'd say there's zero chance of us losing all our best players next season, like Leicester did.

We're here to stay, people need to get used to it.

Fair play to him, came in and put in some decent tackles and helped us get over the line. The attempted 40 yard cross field balls in the 90th minute can get in the bin though!

I think Zaniolo was an emergency signing who Monchi got in because he hadn't had much time in the post and we needed bodies in, and he knew Zaniolo. I fully expect now Monchi's had chance to calmly assess what we need and work on it that we'll be seriously after one or two major players in January. When are you expecting there to be games where we can afford for Zaniolo to be given time to get up to speed?

9 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

They're all expecting villa to go in a bad period. Have we had a bad period since Emery has been in charge?

Not really, apart from the three games mentioned above, when we actually played quite well against Arsenal and Leicester. He's averaging over two points a game in his Villa career now, and I think I saw a stat at the weekend that said a mere 1.6 points a game for the rest of the season would see us with enough points to finish top 4 most years.

Two or three of my Leicester-supporting friends were telling me his legs had gone.

Newsflash, his legs haven't gone. Great player.

I'm not that bothered what the stats say, I've watched his performances, and they've mostly been very poor.

Wordle 905 3/6*

22 hours ago, Stevo985 said:

Callum Chambers says hi

Zat Knight says hold my beer.