nepal_villan

3 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Just something that's come to me....what would we need to achieve for NSWE to be viewed as massive success in 10 years time?

Being able to close the revenue gap with the top six clubs. That would essentially mean we are in a position to compete for trophies and Europe on a regular basis.

Except for Chukwuemeka, think most of our U18 stars need 1-2 years or  to be ready for the first team. That's why the Ashley Young signing is perfect to help bridge that time.

14 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Not beyond the realms of possibility that like other clubs, we too, will be watching the euros and Copa America etc to see if anything catches our eye.

Think those days are over.  Too much scouting and analytics these days. Euros just give the selling club an opportunity to increase the price a little if the player shines at the tournament.

11 minutes ago, TRO said:

Chinese owner probably can't get his money out of his bank. (at home)...let alone the country.

Won't be long before the Chinese owners are completely out of European football. Not good news for our WM rivals. 

Wes Edens has convinced arguably the best basketball player in the world to play professionally in Milwaukee, Wisconsin  for the past 8 seasons. Keeping Jack at Aston Villa will comparatively be a piece of cake.

26 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

Sidenote: it's pretty outrageous Leicester have gotten Daka with no Champions League football considering the Sky 6 after him. We had no chance. We're getting there slowly, but we need to realise that we are a way behind Leicester still. 

Their model is our model, we're making good strides and doing well to improve again... but they have this shit down pat. Beautifully run club. I hope we can still be improving in the way they have and are in 5 years time.

We are seeing a power shift from North London to the Midlands. 

8 hours ago, Pissflaps said:

Don't believe that for a second. Smith said the planning has been ongoing for a while. They won't rip those up to just suddenly decide to raise the level of finances available for players and mean replanning is needed.

Agree. I've never put much weight to anything written by Evans or Preece. Always speculative and with convenient outs to cover themselves.

Don't care about age as this is a short-term signing. As long as he is better than Elmo and Taylor I am OK with it. Presume the objective would be to fill in until the likes of Kesler and Revan are ready to step-up. We still have Guilbert, Konsa and Hause that can play the fullback positions if needed.

1 hour ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Really well balanced view on England/Grealish on the latest MOMS podcast. Puts things into perspective 

Completely agree with their take. 

I want Manchester United at home. Think we'll beat them.

Our number is from the Championship, but even if it is now closer to 20M, we are still miles away from the top clubs in terms of Matchday revenues. Commercial revenue is an even wider gap.

Not fan related, but I would like to know if the club feel there is a realistic path to close the revenue gap with the Greedy 6 or will we simply have to punch above our weight and play in consecutive UCLs for that gap to be closed.

Some here need to appreciate that Southgate is not going to just pick the 11 most in form players or 11 best players. If that were the  case then Konsa should have been selected to the squad over Mings. The idea is to put together a lineup that is balanced and gives the best chance to meet the team's objectives. Feel Southgate achieved that yesterday - as much as I would have loved to see Grealish start/play.

After Sterling scored, I don't feel Grealish was needed. England just had to close things out.

Just donated to a few of my favorite podcasters (MOMS, Price of Football, Football Today, Dan Carlin) on Patreon. Any plans to go down that route? Maybe can help fund some quality microphones for the boys.

10 hours ago, Mic09 said:

I think that 'the gap' in quality is not that big anymore. We beat Brighton and Burnley, don't concede 2 JWP freekicks, have a goal allowed vs West ham and we are up there. 
 

This goes both ways, no? We were fortunate to get wins versus Wolves and Southampton and the draw against WBA.

3 hours ago, Jas10 said:

 

Looks like Inter Milan is trying to tap him up

28 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Yeah we are better off bringing louie barry in than josh king

Feel Brad Young is more like for like to Watkins than Barry and of equal quality. 

I'm also fine with him leaving if we can get 30M +

1 hour ago, MotoMkali said:

Look at Leicester their best signings are pretty much exclusively based on one seasons worth of performances in Ligue 1. Fofana, Tielemans(2 seasons in ligue 1 but only one good season), Kante and Mahrez (1.5 seasons of ligue 2)

We talk about making similar signings but when we are rumoured with one we shoot it down. 

That's what a decade of shit signings will do to you. Only getting used to our new dynamic.

40 minutes ago, Supervillan78 said:

Yes, he has done fantastically well in his first season. However, there is absolutely no guarantee he will be able to sustain that form next season. Especially when you consider just how much more competitive/demanding the Premier League is compared to French League. Given the reported price tag/wages I’d rather look elsewhere. Sorry. 

This also came to my mind.  Based just on the dozen or so matches during Project Restart Douglas Luiz would be valued at 50M! I'd like to see a longer body of work before investing such high sums on a player. 

Have to presume this is our DCM option. Otherwise we are in ManCity and Chelsea territory of stockpiling players.

Grealish also has shown no signs of wanting to leave. Just look at that post trolling Bellingham. 

44 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

I think a lot of our recruitment has gone under the radar to some extent, in that it has largely been quietly going on at development level. We have bought around 30 young players in the last 12 months. Ok Barry attracted some publicity but on the whole it has gone unnoticed. We got a glimpse of it in the FA Cup Final victory and what we saw was impressive. Potentially millions will be saved and made over the next few years with this policy, the first crop is starting to find it’s way into the first team squad. The future is extremely bright. 

Yes. And that is why when people say we would be lucky  just to have 1 or 2 have the Academy players graduate to the first team, I disagree. It's not as though our academy is just a bunch of local lads. We've been recruiting the best young talent across the UK and Europe. I think we'll have quite a few of our academy players graduate to the first team.