jimmygreaves

19 minutes ago, Jonesy7211 said:

As much as Man City are breaking football, KDB is some player. How he's never been in consideration for a Ballon D'Or is beyond me, I don't think there's been a better midfielder in this country since Bobby Charlton hung up his boots. Incredible, and has been for years.

Pep is such a genius. All he's had to do is assemble a group of players each of which is arguably the best in their position in Europe. How does he keep doing it whilst at the the richest club in the country he's working in.

He's changed the game....

21 minutes ago, nick76 said:

I would be totally gutted if we sold Luiz for £100m and brought Phillips for £50m as an example.  Even selling Luiz for £120m and buying Phillips for £40m would still be gutting.  

Absolutely don't want this to happen but realistically who's got £120 million to spend without breaking FFP?

42 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

agree with that

but not in the ground, or replays on the big screen in the grounds

the problem with football is that its not black and white - they can show 50k people something, they explain a perfectly sound logic and explanation as to why something was given, they wont convince all 50k people that they are correct, the blindness from bias ensures that will never happen, instead all that will happen is flame fanning, which then changes the atmosphere leads to an increase in pressure, could lead to crowd trouble, would almost definitely IMO lead to an influence on the ref for the rest of the game as he tries to calm it down and win the crowd back

and that's where maybe the respect in ruby comes in, I'm not sure as i don't know die hard rugby fans in the same way that I know plenty of die hard football fans but I don't think the same aggression exists and I don't think the same bias exists, i've certainly never heard a worcester warriors fan claim there's a referee agenda against them keeping them down

There's way more nuance in lots of Rugby decisions than you seem to think, it's very similar to football in many regards.

The respect of refs in rugby comes from the fact they explain their decisions constantly. That fundamentally does not happen in football at all levels. This is where the frustration is born from and the lack of respect. Football refs don't ever need to justify their actions which is why it's so annoying when decisions are given against you. When you ask why a decision was made many times a player is simply waved away.... That's not respect. If refs want to be respected in football they need to earn it.

Unfortunately they are not required to.

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

crowd trouble

there's enough moaning and groaning with VAR already, can you imagine the outrage if that DCL red card was at goodison and they showed it on the big screen?

Maybe that would be motivation for the refs to get better. The protection they get is ridiculous. Never have to explain themselves, VAR mates covering for them.... bollocks the lot of them.

He's been the bit part player since he signed. Originally playing on the left side every now and then while Ramsey was out. Then on the right as an alternative option. Started occasionally but always doing a competent job. Recently he's scored a couple of very important goals. 

Don't understand the push back on him. If we do sign him permanently it'll cost relative peanuts at £22 million.

No issues.

Some gooners calling for Arteta to be sacked. Saying he's spent millions and has nothing to show for it.

Arsenal season over?

Arsenal really are a bunch of winging crying rocket polishers. Every one, to a man, screaming and throwing themselves to the ground at the slightest contact.

13 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

Deal agreed for Timo Werner. Think its a good signing for them. 

Nah.... Feels like standard "Spursy" signing. 

6 minutes ago, djdabush said:

Highlights what I think we all knew, that we struggle against low blocks and defensively disciplined teams. Not sure what the ultimate solution is but plenty of teams will be setting up in a similar way in the future.

All teams struggle against the low block. That's why it exists as a tactic. Borough parked the bus yet we still found a way. 

Ref is poor....

12 hours ago, maqroll said:

This Sunderland story is unbelievable. It beggars belief that it actually happened!

What story?

6 minutes ago, John said:

I think the amount quoted to buy him was around half of that and yes, I would pay that for him.  

27million euro.... So around 23 million quid.

Sheff Utd signed Archer for 18m

1 minute ago, HalfTimePost said:

Burnley, Luton, Everton, Sheffield United.

Those are who we target for selling Chambers and Dendoncker to. They have something to give. Or yeah, foreign clubs

Luton might need a defender after the Lockyer heart issues.

Any fine should be proportionate to the gains from their cheating.... Winning the Premier League, Champions League and coming close for several seasons...

Like 6 or 7 hundred million pounds.

1 minute ago, Zatman said:

He was sold off for FFP reasons

That's a roar deal.

2 hours ago, MWARLEY2 said:

Just like so many others who shine at a mid table club, get snapped up by a top 4 club and then struggle for game time and lose their love / edge for the game. He looks like he is loving being the main man and his performances are starting to be really good again. Rob Edwards has given him belief in himself again.

Nope, he was the laziest waste of space to pull on a villa shirt in years. He didn't shine much at all.

He was garbage in his time with us.

Fair play he's doing well for Luton but, Christ alive, he was shite for us.

On 17/12/2023 at 07:35, villa4europe said:

He's cover for mings and mings is still injured

From a Villa perspective nothing has changed so I don't see why we'd want to do anything 

Agree that for what he is we won't get better 

He's cover for Pau.

We missed him through injury at the back end of last season and we were still competitive.

It's not ideal but we can cope.

2 hours ago, Vancvillan said:

Agree with your sentiment but I'll buy you a balti pie the size of Jimmy Hill's chin if you can name one such player we could actually afford, and who would also be happy playing second fiddle to Ollie.

I think we'd like a lot of things, but market demand far outstrips supply unfortunately.

I'm gonna suggest Maupay.

Decent player. Works hard. Is a complete arse pocket for opponents. Wouldn't be too expensive.

?

Kimmich in Jan?

15 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

Just watched the incident back, and it's difficult to get a clear angle of it. But it didn't really look that bad to me. Was a shove yeah, but I think i'd appeal that based on the video i've seen. 

There was a headbut in a recent game (maybe Fulham, can't remember who they played tho) which was far worse and VAR did nothing with it.

There was an identical "throat grab" in the goal mouth scrap after Watkins goal. Ghodos??? on Konsa. 

Nothing given..... Annoying that we lose Kamara yet other similar or worse incidents get nothing.

Last 20 mins we totally lost the plot. Our MO is to be in control, stay in control, stay cool. All that ongoing bollox with Emi and Maupay nearly cost us points and has lost Kamara for 3 matches.

Chuffed we hung on to the points but fuming with the way we threw away the end of the game.

Don't think it's been all that bad. Controlled the first half for the most part. They scored from a loose ball and were quicker to react.

The left side has been good for me. Need to be better attacking down the right. Bailey coming on might address that. 

We're still well in this.