DevonIsAPlaceOnEarth

A good man and did well by each other. A shame he didn’t see the construction works start. Purslow is not Gerrard, and it doesn’t define him in my eyes.

Fenerbahce. Great bunch of lads.

At a fraction of Digne’s wages. Happy.

Ellis, without doubt. Without him we would have won more and undoubtedly be a more rejoiced club globally.
Having a stand named after yourself whilst still at the club, and then having the audacity to claim that it was an unbeknown gift from the other directors is nothing short of pathetic. 

Player wise, I would go for Collymore. Because of the mammoth fee and low return. Not his fault he had mental health issues though. 

2 hours ago, Made In Aston said:

Coutinho was meant to be that man. 

Genuinely think this is right, but misjudged as most people saw Coutinho as washed up by then.

I feel we are at the calm before the storm, with all the ambitious targets on and off the pitch that have nearly come off, or are about to in the case of Monchi, I genuinely think we just need that Robinho type signing that Man City had to kick it all off.
Not in the sense of that individual, just a signing that everyone sits up and takes note of, and other players take note of when thinking of joining us.

For that reason I can see a Pau Torres type signing. A name and player rated highly across the whole continent.

26 minutes ago, VillaJ100 said:

Looking quite likely we'll be unseeded 

If Fenerbahce win the Turkish cup final we will be seeded, and that is quite a likely event. 11th of June that is.

The most likely result is that Fenerbahce will beat Basaksehir in the Turkish cup. Even if they don’t it would take an extremely unfortunate set of results for us not to be seeded.

In any scenario, the only team I would fear on that list is Juventus.

Half expecting the ‘Asensio signs new deal’ line tomorrow. The trouble with growing rapidly is that we’re going to be used as bait more often. Hope that’s not the case.

Glad he got the goodbye. His performances in the playoffs especially were outstanding.

Must have been the longest serving member of the first team too. 

3 hours ago, Pinebro said:

Zero sentimentality for me.

Players in the squad needs to be an asset on the pitch and carry their weight.

Ash to be fair to him has done that this season. But he'll be 38 in the summer and i'm not sure what sort of wages he is on.

It’s not sentimental for me, despite his age he’s been excellent even in recent weeks.
He’s more than capable of covering Cash and he’s a figurehead/experienced winner in a dressing room that otherwise doesn’t have much of that.

What an atmosphere that was, the whole day. 
I know we are biased, but the whole thing from welcoming the bus to the raucous atmosphere for nearly the whole match is something special.

Did I read that he broke another record yesterday too, 7 home wins in a row? 

Really pleased for McGinn and Mings particularly, because they’ve been there from the championship years.

28 minutes ago, Kiwivillan said:

Like what happened with Grealish we would sign 3 managers to replace the 1 sold. Potter, Rodgers, and if avaliable Lampard.

“We’ve replaced Unai in the aggregate”. I can hear Purslow saying it now 

Easily worth another year, even if he plays next to no minutes he’s a great influence on the training pitch.

3 minutes ago, srsmithusa said:

paranoia alert.   What if a 99 gajillion euro club offered unai 40 gajillion euro contract and villa 59 gajilion to release him ?

I reckon we could get a good replacement for £59gajillion.

61 points. What a season, more so when you consider the obvious factors.

We’ve all been on a journey this season, I’ve never known our fan base so United as it is. This has been my favourite season for longer than I can remember. 

Whatever happens from here, Unai Emery will go down as one of our greatest managers in recent times.

So glad they got to take some of the appreciation today. They’ve been superb for us.

10 minutes ago, Reivax_Villa said:

Love how Brighton are resting their players for Sunday  

Pretty bizarre though considering this is their last home game and they’ve already sealed 6th.

How tall is he?

1 hour ago, allani said:

Interesting that the Global recruitment team has been announced as "V-Sports and Aston Villa" - further support to the idea that core operations will be running globally and locally to try and spread the net as wide as possible.  Gives "us" (V-Sports rather than Villa) the opportunity to place prospects in the academy that will work best for the prospect and allows "us" Villa to recruit young Portuguese talent for example and rather than dragging them to the UK, allow them to stay in Portugal close to family / friends / etc and then see how they develop.  Allows us to have a much more widespread recruitment / scouting / academy network than we might otherwise be able to afford - the same applying to the other teams within the V-Sports network.  Plus there are going to be some great inter-academy training matches / tournament opportunities down the line.

I also thought that it’s interesting how they worded the statement to say V sports and Villa. 
could also be an FFP thing to spread operational costs away from the club maybe?

In many ways Brighton with nothing to play for might be a good thing for us. I can see Leeds getting a point vs Spurs, so avoiding defeat should be enough.

You have to say as football fans, Brighton have been fabulous this year

This team. What a bunch of fighters. Love them.