matteyp

That he was. Hopefully the potential suitors weren't watching.

Like Andy Townsend?

This guy is going to be good. I'm taking Tuesday off work.

Tony called it.

This game sounds boring.

The second half performance was truly shocking. For me, Jedinak looks a shell of a player and I was happy when Westwood came on, what does that say? Likewise Elphick. I thought Richards did okay but he can't be match fit and replacing him with Hutton was equally okay. Dead balls were awful, we have a lot of big dudes and we didn't cause a threat. Second half was as shocking as I've seen. Grealish was my MOM, he could be a player. Bruce has a lot of work to do, at the moment I consider that a point closer to safety, Wolves at home and I'm relieved to get a point. Just wow.

And Adam Johnson gets a mention in the Grealish thread?

My fave player as a kid. But that doesn't mean he is cut out for player development now, things have probably moved on. He doesn't seem to have the same out-going enthusiasm as Taylor and Hendrie so there probably wasn't a role for him. It's an over-used word but Sid is a true legend.

When is the second leg? I actually think I'd rather have stayed at work than skived off and watched that. Villa were very second best for the last 3/4 of the game. It looks like we need to play one less attacking player and one more defensive player and grind out some results. The Gardner/Tish midfield got played around. No point playing Gestede if we cannot get crosses in - and clearly we cannot. And Richards is a poor football player but a terrible centre back. Which makes me doubt RDM. I am really... a. depressed b. concerned c. not bothered any more I cannot decide. I feel like I'm experiencing Stockholm Syndrome.

We have way too many players.

I hope there aren't as many promotion threads as there were relegation threads.

So noon in Houston, need to get some beer sharpish!

What time is kick-off?

Watched the game with my American girlfriend and her comment was, "He's definitely average."

Xia owns the club. Samuelson runs the club. What's wrong with that?

Sounds like he wants to run a club, which he will do now. At least he's enthusiastic, I just hope he is good now he has the reins.

Please. No. Gabby was never the greatest but he had speed and occasionally could put in the good ball from out wide, He's done now, I just don't think anyone will take him. Lescott was actually okay, he'll get a move away if he wishes. Richards was a surprisingly bad footballer. Good athlete, Hopefully a PL team picks him up. I really want shut of Guzan, I just hate his distribution, I just think we can do better. Couldn't care less about Bacuna, he's here or not, whatever. Ideally I want all 5 out but the contracts might make it hard.

I was excited when Lerner took over 10 years ago with the promise of millions, then Man City got bought and, well, we won't dwell on how things deteriorated. I am now just genuinely excited that we've been bought by someone who has a plan and has immediately brought in a group of people who appear to know what they are doing. So Samuelson is shady, it seems that the good doctor needs someone who can move money around, it can't be easy running an Anglo-Chinese company, particularly one with such potential media scrutiny. I really just want to enjoy watching Villa again and the first few days seem promising to me, the new season can't come soon enough... except I won't be able to watch the games over here in the States.

I'm hoping he plays well because that way we'll get a good whack for him. The last few managers have all wanted rid of him and his distribution is woeful - perhaps that is less of an issue for international "soccer" but for English football it's a major problem.

This is a really interesting read.

So get the bad news out of the way first?

Double post.

Obviously didn't want to be here to start with so I give him credit for giving his all. Seems like a confidence player and could easily revert back to his early season form under a different manager. No guarantees Everton will get the Tom we've seen of late.

I watched all of the game and we gave up for the last 20 minutes. Even if you take out those two goals we'd still have lost. We looked decent in the first half, I think you're suffering from lowered expectations.

I used to get angry now I just accept it. I still don't think we'll go down but if one team below us gets hot, we're screwed. Anyway, time to get drunk.