philthevillan

Thanks! That solves the ear worm issue! Think the loudness of the speakers has left it ringing in my head forever.

The atmosphere was great today v Brentford. Just one question; what is the walk on music the players now come out to for the second half?

£100m = £640k a week over three years. Simples.

He could always choose to stay, go on to become a legend at ‘his club’ in ‘his city’, build a lasting legacy and earn around £5m a year after tax. But I get why you couldn’t turn down City.

If it goes out to 14/1 I’m going for it. That’s what the odds were when I bet on Deano being our manager. Kerching!!!

Ffs does this mean I might have to delete all posts suggesting his love for Villa is tarnished?

This has been the most bizarre few days as a Villa fan… CJ Golson turning out to be fake and calling us c@nts! Fans of other clubs (apart from the pre-pubescent Arsenal contingent and City’s hardcore fanbase out in the Middle East) standing in solidarity with us. The school teacher with the insider coverage at the training camp. A training camp in a park with a soap opera will he/won’t he drama playing out in front of our very eyes (via the teacher’s grainy video footage) Late night Villa Twitter in overdrive. The unprecedented level of ITK BS. Whispers - is he ITK or is he a 12 year old boy Tweeting in a form of hypnotic English that will us into believing what he says is true? Sam Lee calling Villa fans a weird cult. Leon Bailey’s press conference! and Our hero and messiah turning out to be as plastic as the team he’s joining.

Agreed. We all wanted to believe that he planned to take Villa all the way back to the top but as I said before, he’s just a footballer. He’s not a messiah. Playing for the club he supported suited him, till a better offer came along. He is an athlete driven by success. That’s fine but in this case he’s chosen to turn down the chance of being a lifelong legend who would be written to our history books indefinitely. Instead, long term he’ll be remembered as a player who took us up from the second tier and kept us up in the top tier, got a few England caps then moved on. People will say how gifted he was but others heroes will come along in his place and do similar. Being a Villa legend came second to instant success for Jack. That’s fine and I wish him well but I expected something more and it hasn’t happened. I’m not angry, I’m disappointed. More than anything disappointed in wasting my time thinking he was the central figure in something unique that we may never see happen again. Now it’s time to revert to being a normal fan again, cheering on the players we have under contract before one day they move on too. Perhaps Louie Barry might be the true messiah or maybe he’ll be another Jack? Who knows. I’m just not sure I’ll ever get to see a true Villa legend in front of the Holte ever again, unless we become the next Man City that is.

All we need now is Deano to get sacked after a poor start to the season and we can permanently say goodbye to the fairytale dream. All I want as a fan is that glimmer of the old days, pre-oligarchs and Sky money. Today that Dream’s taking a hammer blow. I’m sure Jack will have regrets about leaving, even if he wins the quadruple for the next 10 years. He’s a Villa fan but that comes second to being just another typical footballer. All about the brand, personal success and money. To be fair I can’t blame him either.

I think it’s happening and that means he will never get the chance to have his picture on my downstairs toilet wall. Merse and Gary Shaw won’t miss him. Enjoy your two years with Pep at Plastic FC before FFP brings it all crashing down. I’m genuinely gutted that another football fairytale turns out to be a fable.

What’s convinced you he’s staying Nick? My optimism is waning today.

I’m totally confused today. Is he staying or going? The longer this drags on it seems to me he’s waiting for a deal to happen?

Let it all be true and we will know that the constant refreshing of Twitter for the past 4/5 days, the inaudible grunting instead of the audible grunting when responding to the wife, the lack of ability to do anything productive, the watching a whole Netflix series without registering what’s going on, and the addiction to snacking being at three times the usual rate due to nerves will all be worth it. Plus once again I can feel smug that all those so called ‘ITK’ football journalists will prove their inside knowledge is based on educated guesses and they know little more than you or I.

One of the better journos. He’s a Bluenose though!

Indeed he has. He’s staying! My heart usually gets things right more than my head so I’m sticking by this till the bitter end.

My money is on him being given this weekend to think about it and the club trying to persuade him to stay. Don’t give up hope yet guys.

Exactly. Don’t believe any transfer expert! They are all guessing based on tip-offs. I’ve not met one I didn’t think was the sporting version of an estate agent. They’re all full of it as it’s a cut-throat business based on who has the biggest balls. These guys are paid to get as many transfers right as they can so they have to take a punt. It boosts their reputation. Just like spreading rumours about interest from other clubs boosts the cut an agent is likely to make from a new contract! Hold your nerve guys. I just can’t see him leaving. That would only ever happen with the club’s blessing. I don’t think our owners will let him go, unless there is a release clause (which I doubt unless £100m plus). Of all the things that hints him staying, for me it’s the liking a club Insta post on the day your move to another club is supposed to be ‘happening’. Why do it? There’s no reason and he’ll know people are watching his every move. And as for the stuff I’ve read about him sulking over not moving to Spuds, Man U tapping him up, meeting with City months ago… what a load of cobblers. No-one would have that info unless they are very close to Jack and come on, it’s just a ‘fairy’ tale.

Just how reliable is he? On Twitter he’s being talked about as some sort of transfer oracle. Since when does any football journo actually know what’s going on with these deals? I’ve not worked with one who I would trust to get a scoop more than 24 hours before a transfer is announced. In my experience as a reporter you might find out first but only when it’s at the point it’s not going to fall through.

Head has been turned us BS. I don’t doubt his interest in playing for City just as I don’t doubt his interest in staying at Villa. He has to keep his options open to get the best out of his career. Otherwise we could keep him on a £500 a week youth contract until he retires. These reporters know nothing.

“Belief is he wants to move” means what? Someone has tipped this journo off that Grealish wants to join City. That is so woolly, is it from the player/the buying club/the agent? Really bored of all this ITK BS now. Just don’t believe any of it people. If it happens it will be despite all these so called reputable journalists. Trust me they all think they know what’s going on but they are just repeating what they’re getting told by people with vested interests. I’ve worked with enough to know none of them could bet their house on what they tell you. At best they might get a last minute tip-off which they are 90% confident of happening. Interestingly this all, somehow, leads to players getting better contracts!

Yep now people make up any old sh&te in order to boost their engagement!

Exactly. And I’m sure the bosses at the Athletic will be appreciating the attention he gets. As for getting transfers right, the only time I was certain about one was when I heard Brad Friedel say he was joining us. And still my employer at the time wouldn’t run the story until the club had confirmed it!

Hi all, long time no speak. I want to offer my two penneth on today’s events and hope it provides some insight. I worked in football journalism for a trusted broadcaster and would like to think I have some knowledge to share. 1. The Man City reporter in question may well have sources he trusts but I can’t believe he would have a source high up enough to say anything other than City are ‘confident’. Most sports journos get their rumours from other journos, educated guesses and insiders who most likely work in the press office or at a mediocre level in the training ground. Also if you were the head of comms at the league champions, for example, I’m sure you’d think your club has a good chance of signing a player from a club in the bottom half of the table. I cannot see how this guy would have a direct line with the people working on such deals. Most likely that he’s heard the word ‘confident’ from a press officer. The best in the knows don’t tend to give a running commentary on how the deal’s progressing either. What they say tends to be confirmed soon after. 2. Villa may well have a price for Grealish which City are aware of but they haven’t done a deal yet so how can anyone, journo or not, claim they’d be happy with the price? If, say, Villa said he’s not going anywhere for under £100m then City would think ‘let’s offer an amount less than that’ and Villa might well rethink if they offered close to the asking price. It’s called negotiations. There’s no way anyone would know how they are going to go before they come to a resolution. And they certainly don’t appear to have happened so there’s no need to worry about that for now. 3. Grealish’s agent might be banding around what he’d want to be paid but again that means nothing. The player and club he plays for can just say ‘no deal thanks’. 4. I really don’t get Sam Lee’s reaction today. He knows full well that his claims will provoke aggressive responses from some, it’s the madness of social media. I think he probably has a much thicker skin than you realise and the key motive of today is ‘engagement’! For the record I’m confident Jack is staying but that doesn’t mean I’m addicted to refreshing my Twitter feed until it’s confirmed. UTV!

If your source is someone who works in the press then I simply don't believe it. I work in the media, have spent time covering Villa as well as other clubs and if all reporters were being honest, they don't have a clue who's coming and going until the last minute. It might be a reporter gets a tip off but they wouldn't have the steer on a long running saga like this one. Most transfer speculation is just gossip within the industry. Perhaps Jack will go, perhaps he will stay? But the only people who really know what's going on are him, those close to him and the club or clubs involved.

Brendan Rodgers is not as great as some believe. Celtic are in a slight mess this season. Have continually been terrible in Europe, the only truly competitive games they play. Also he inherited a very good Swansea team and fair enough did well with them but didn’t build them from scratch by any means. At Livepool he did well at the start, almost won the league, but again they weren’t in great shape when he left. We need a manager who’s not tainted by bad spells at other club. A man who’s stock is rising and can bring in up to date ideas. The problem with the vastly experienced managers is a lot of them struggle to keep up with the latest tactics and coaching methods. And those that do are way above our level right now. Now every option is a risk because Lambert was meant to be a manager who was a rising star and he turned out to be out of his depth but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try and go for that type of manager, albeit one that’s a genuine talent, again. Someone like Wilder would be a good choice and there are plenty on the continent we could go for too. But I really want us to go for Dean Smith. Being a fan of the club means so much. Look at the impact that Big Ron, Little and Gregory had when they first came in. It would mean so much to him to turn it around. Added to that he might turn out to be a more talented coach than those guys too.