villabromsgrove

The many mistakes he made tonight will be analysed and worked on. That is Emery's forte.

It's a symptom of their upsetting decline. I remember their golden days and it's very sad. La Liga has huge financial problems and the artistry of Spanish football is giving way to basic physicality as a result. There are only three top teams in La Liga and only two of those currently attempt to play attractive football.

Did you see the Valencia shirts after 90 minutes? Most of them appeared to be dry. By contrast ours were drenched and that had nothing to do with the colour. I was a good club athlete many many years ago, and I would have thrown this kind of rubbish in the bin back in the seventies and eighties.

Delphinho .... I'll put this post down to posting for effect. It's a load of rubbish and you're better than that.

Big question .... who the hell designed our kit? Valencia's shirts were dry after 90 minutes .... Ours looked like sopping wet dish rags after the first quarter of an hour. Bunch of amateurs in charge of a Villa kit yet again!

If this was a European conference game we would be happy with the way we're playing in an away fixture. We're frustrating the opposition and have a comfortable 1-0 lead against a team who are losing their discipline. This is practice for the season ahead.

I haven't got a clue as to what's actually happening with Aaron or Jaden, but whatever is going on behind the scenes seems to indicate that our Academy players are finally attracting the interest they deserve from out side of AVFC..

This is the frustrating thing about FFP regulations. NSWE definitely do not need the money from player sales to buy more top quality players, but FFP requires them to produce money from sales rather than just provide unlimited funds as they would be well able to do..

Cheers. I think it is going to take some of us time to come to terms with using the Academy as a vehicle to mitigate FFP, but we have to because our current position has put us squarely on the launch pad to target Champions League football. This is an unmissable chance that has been beyond our grasp previously because of the constraints of FFP. That becomes far less constraining if we follow the course that Monchi and Emery appear to have put us on. I feel for 'useless' because he's watched these young players develop for years and it must be tough to see the consequences of hard cash becoming so important to the club, but it has to happen if we're to fulfil our dreams. I have to declare a personal interest. I'm 74 years of age and I've supported Villa since the mid 1950's. I would dearly love to see us return to the halcyon days of 1982 when we briefly reached the top of European Football. Our current AVFC set up and clear positive plan is light years ahead of anything we had in 1982 (imo), so I'm fully supportive of Emery/Monchi taking hard decisions in the best interest of what is now an impressive Villa business. If we fall short of our ambitions Villa will still have my full support, but in the meantime we will have enjoyed an exciting ride.

useless, you're one of my favourite posters. I feel your pain.

I think that on this wet and miserable day we have had one of the most enlightening discussions about Villa's future direction. Posts on this thread and particularly on the "Aaron Ramsey" thread have highlighted the position that we are now in. It's five years since NSWE told us they intended to make Villa top six contenders and they've done it. Monchi has just confirmed that Emery and he will continue to strengthen our squad in order to carry out our owners plan. Up the Villa!

Good question, with only one answer.

That is a very good article. It confirms what we've been saying on here about the need for adding the right depth and abilities for a possible 55 game season. It also confirms the endless conversations between three people about Emery's identified requirements, and the huge available depth of data for Monchi and Damia to sift through in identifying the right targets to present to Unai.

I understand where you're coming from because you have a very real relationship with our young players from Academy to U21's, and we've all benefitted from your regular input on their respective highlights and rate of progress. It must be difficult seeing players that you've followed week in week out possibly parting ways with our club. I used to go to a lot of reserve games at the Bescot just for the joy of watching our youngsters develop and it was hugely satisfying. Sadly for deeply committed fans like you the days of a clear line of progression to the first team are ending. It's now the job of our highly regarded coach and our very able Director of Football to sign players who are totally ready to do the specific job that Emery requires them to do. That costs money and that money has to be generated from somewhere. Aaron Ramsey as we've said earlier is a victim of timing not lack of talent. If he moves to Burnley I'm sure we're all going to watch his progress carefully and support him all the way. (except when he plays against us, lol).

"Local fans" and loyalty to players who join as kids is not what elite clubs are about. Should we remain true to small club values rather than become a major football club rodders? Imo we can't do both, and standing still means possible relegation in this money driven league. Aaron Ramsey is unlucky in comparison to his older brother Jacob due to timing rather than ability. At the time Jacob made his break through our first team strength in depth was much weaker than it is today and space was available for him to play and improve. The diminishing opportunities for our young players remaining with our first team squad is the effect of shrewd financial progress, and there is no turning back the clock. However, that opens exciting opportunities for these good young players to go out to much better clubs than would have been possible a couple of seasons ago. That's got to be a positive result in terms of their career development possibilities.

Good post Stan, you've explained AR's situation very accurately in my opinion. I've found this discussion about Aaron Ramsey's future extremely interesting. It seems we've finally woken up to the fact that we're close to joining the PL elite and that means we have to start thinking and acting like an "elite" club. We have to leave the 'little Villa' mind set behind us and let go of the "he's one of our own" attachment. We are regularly buying some of the best prospects in UK youth football and adding them to our academy. We can no longer pretend that they have been bought to develop for our first team, and now have to see them as part of our FFP money machine (putting it crudely). I'm sure Heck will improve our financial income from exterior sources in the next few seasons, but we also need to use Monchi's expertise in developing an exponential growth in our income stream from the Academy in order to offset FFP.

I think that we have to start looking at the top teams way of 'using' our best young prospects as a means to make money. It doesn't make me feel good saying this, but how many of the "elite' clubs are developing players with the single idea of integrating them into their first team? Very occasionally there will we an absolutely outstanding star, but more often than not they go out on loan before eventually being sold at a very useful profit. Elite football is more of a business than a sport, and we are getting closer to joining the "elite".

As has been already said by others, being in the Champion's League raises sponsorship money, CL cup match income (which could be substantial) and makes us much more attractive to top tier player targets who want to play in the Champion's League. So that's the dream. Winning a Cup would be hugely exciting for a few weeks but in reality it would not necessarily take us further forward.

For me it has to be Champion's League qualification. We can then win the Cup that would return us to the top of European football the following season .... The Champion's League Cup!

Gouiri looks a decent player from his stats and as you say he's played on the left, but he's right footed the same as Johnson. Brennan is genuinely two footed with a very good left foot, and he has a season of Premier League football under his belt. Kudus also looks a very good player but I'm less confident about players from the Dutch league because of the absence of really strong opposition on a match by match basis. Chiesa's form since his injury has been concerning, but at his best he's superb.

I still expect us to sign another front man. Not necessarily an out and out striker, but a mobile front three player with an eye for goal. Archer is a dangerous 'penalty box player' but the rest of his game isn't sufficient to earn a first eleven place yet (imo). Duran is a prospect but he's no where ready for regular first eleven duties. Bailey or Diaby may be able to fit in up front if Watkins is injured, but it would change the dynamic of the team without Watkins 'off the ball' work rate. So we need another option. Ferran Torres has made it clear in the last few days that he will not leave Barcelona even if they try and force him to. Joao Felix has said very recently that he wants to go to Barcelona, and that he loved being at Chelsea for a few months because they were a "top club". With the greatest of respect to Villa I think that he wouldn't see us as a "top club" at this moment in time. I'm surprised Jonathan David hasn't had more of a transfer buzz about him, but the 65 mil that his club reportedly want for him may be a reason for that. Which leads me back to the player I keep banging on about Brennan Johnson. I think he could become a key part of our front three rotation very quickly and I'm sure we could get him. He might not be a popular choice on VT though judging by previous responses. Any more names to add to a speculative list?

Percy thinks that Villa are a genuine threat to the Premier League elite under Emery's leadership. That's good to hear from a journalist I respect. Sorry I'm useless at doing links but it's part of a very encouraging Telegraph article on Yahoo.

Your knowledge of him is greater than mine KMitch, so that makes your opinion more valuable. Thanks.

Adams is an aggressive dynamo of a player. Leeds could well have stayed up if he hadn't of been injured for their last few critical games. If he came in it would spell the end for Dendoncker.

I agree TRO. I think our problem with "selling" players is that we've been perceived as a very ordinary club over a large number of seasons. We have also marginalised certain unwanted players very obviously which makes buying an unwanted Villa player from an ordinary AVFC an unattractive proposition. What we are currently known for is loaning out good quality young players with real potential, and that's the area where other clubs are really keen to deal with us. I think it will take just one more successful season under Emery to change the perception of Villa 'fringe' players. If we do well this season then we should get far more interest in the players we are happy to sell for much higher fees.