The Fun Factory

21 hours ago, Zatman said:

The 2019 Fulham Player of the Season at defensive midfielder. Watch a Hutton like renaissance and we give him a new 5 year deal 

Are you his agent? He is very much play only in the event of an emergency type player now. I expect we will pay off his contract in the summer as Emery doesn't rate him. He is probably on a good whack, so he is still here. Any move now will probably be a lower division and pay/

21 minutes ago, Bizzzle said:

I assume this goes to extra time and not straight to pens if it remains a draw? Could be a late night 

Yes and if you are planning to get home by train forget it.

It is quite sobering to think that our yearly wage bill is nearly double the original quoted cost of the new north stand.

CSKA/Stoke omnishambles. Please to the love of Mcgrath don't do this again Villa.

What really annoyed me was not just blowing 4th, but letting Everton overtake us for 5th when we were the better side the entire season. 

29 minutes ago, Pinebro said:

Atmosphere was the best 19/20 season

Before or after lock down?

Wasn't that good, we were largely shite. Everton and Watford were good. 

1 hour ago, gilbertoAVFC said:

There is absolutely no debate in my eyes that the tannoy is one of the biggest culprits for dimming the atmosphere.

You mean public address system. Tannoy is a brand name.

People referring to food as scran and not being northern. Just stop it.

It's all been downhill ever since the Bartons closed. The two are interlinked cosmically.

Maybe not overrated as such but Kompany has done a poor job this season. Or if you are being kind he hasn't been given enough advise and guidance.

They walked the championship last season and he hasn't really changed the system despite the massive jump up in quality. 

It was going to be a tough season for them but they gave failed miserably. Shef Utd have terrible owners but the set up at Burnley is decent.

Dyche gave them crap football but did make them a fairly solid lower table prem side for a good few years.

On 06/03/2024 at 19:00, Rugeley Villa said:

Very impressed with them . Basically bossing sporting on their own ground.

And they have rebuilt it too, which is fairly unusual in Italy as most stadiums are still stuck in the 1980/90s.

Cate is obviously in the same location as Elvis and Lord Lucan in the middle of the Bermuda triangle. Clearly.

Yes but how many amateur photographers have a whole media team on standby? All very odd.

2 minutes ago, Okonokos said:

Also Villa Park will be destroyed when the sun becomes a red giant and swallows the earth.

And that is why we haven't seem the Duchess of Cambridge for three months

11 hours ago, thabucks said:

Given the I ineptitude of the local council and our last 2-3 owners before NSWE we are stuck at an ageing stadium which won’t be fit for purpose over the next decade etc.  with little option left to move somewhere centrally. A brand new international class multi use stadia would’ve been the catalyst for major change and investment  but they’ve squandered this opportunity somewhat and got left behind  Manchester and will also start to fall behind other more progressive minded cities. No coherent master plan for the city with acres & acres of trading estates and shoddily built and designed apartments by greedy developers seem the go to rather than leading recreational and retail facilities. 

What has the council have to do with this? They have approved twice within the last 16th months of Villa redevelopment plans, and the club have canned it.

I looked again at Villa Park today and I fail to see how they can add capacity easily without a new stand given the constraints. It will either be very minimal or shoe-horned in to a poor standard. Or nothing at all.

4 hours ago, Farlz said:

The entrance music is so **** loud. Feels like a library after I've had that ringing in my ears. 

Yes that has been said elsewhere. Pre-match is so ear piercingly loud you can barely talk to the person sitting next to you, let alone try to start any chants etc. Could they maybe just turn it down a tad?

We still have the points on the board more than spurs. A long way to go yet. As Mr Saunders once said do you want to bet against us.

Saw the red mist as he was frustrated about the side's performance. He will be disappointed tonight going in with that sort of challenge.  I never really understand why fans clap a player who has just been sent off. McGinn has been brilliant for us but he has weakened the side now he is suspended.

Unless we had to ship off Dendocker for FFP reasons letting him go on loan was a big gamble. With McGinn now out we are down to the bare bones in the middle.

1 hour ago, KillieVillain said:

Missed the game today but was keeping an eye on the score, just seems like every time we have a big game we don’t turn up

Apart from the time we beat Man City and Arsenal back to back in a week? No?

A crappy day at Villa. Weather is still firmly in winter mode even though we are weeks away from the clocks going forward. I am not sure why Emery  changed  the set up, five at the back really didn't work as it weakened our midfield and just resulted in long balls up to Watkins. Perhaps this was down to Kamarra's injury, I don't know. We seemed to switch off yet again for Spurs first goal, as it came off after a lengthy injury and substitution break, we keep on doing this. Then in a space of about 10 minutes, the game was over with Konsa's mistake and a rush of blood from McGinn. Spurs were good value for the win and the last 2 goals means that they have a better goal difference than us. 

I don't buy the tiredness factor as Ajax was a low intensity game plus we rested a fair few.   Then getting out of the game was a nightmare as I wasn't thinking straight and went the wrong way so wasted half an hour in traffic.  Not a good day.

We are still in a really good position and have a winnable tie on Thursday to get to our first European quarter final for 26 years. The season is still positive but we need to bounce back from a very bad day at th office. Mcginn sending off is a bad one, I have no idea how Emery is to set up the midfield verus the spammers.

15 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

And yet, there are no existing plans to move, nor is there any hint from the club that our owners are thinking about it, in fact, they've publicly stated that they're not on a number of occasions.

We're currently undergoing a process, with architects, to improve what we have and we're very unlikely to be considering anything else over the next few years.

 

Just repeating what I have and many others have said, this is such a disappointing move. I shouldn't have been surprised,  Villa Park development has always been piecemeal and on the hoof ever since Rinder's first masterplan was never fully fulfilled.  You would have thought that the architects we hired about two years ago would have told the club the best and most effective development was a new north stand. Which is what Purslow purposed before he left. We have 3 stands with constraints and one dated stand with loads of space to rebuild. And for some reason we aren't doing the obvious option.  I can't see anything other than cosmetic changes and more GA+ bits squeezed into the existing structure. Such as missed opportunity. Since NWSE have taken over this is at least the third position on development- at first not interested, then to demolish villa village, then a new north stand with villa live, then a new north stand and now nothing.

56 minutes ago, bcarpet said:

Ah that's rubbish! Let's hope someone takes it on, it's far too nice a pub for it to be closed

Its is a unique building but basically, it is in the middle of nowhere and they can't just rely on match-day income alone. If they do re--open it they will have to work out a way of making it financially sustainable in a very challenging market.

To quote Lord Mandy Biden is a fighter not a quitter. Being in a tight election bid he is right in his element. Punchy address yesterday.

57 minutes ago, Ceemo said:

Results from last night:
Ajax 0-0 Aston Villa
Molde 2-1 Club Brugge
Olympiacos 1-4 Maccabi Tel Aviv
Sturm Graz 0-3 Lille
Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 PAOK
Maccabi Haifa 3-4 Fiorentina
Servette 0-0 Viktoria Plzen
Union Saint-Gilloise 0-3 Fenerbahce

Impressive result of the night was surely Fenerbahce. Got the early goal and as USG pushed to get an equaliser, they countered and have pretty much sealed the tie. Dangerous side in this competition as they have a very experienced side. Lots of ex-Premier League players with the likes of Soyuncu, Fred, Cengiz Under, Tadic, Batshuayi and Dzeko.
Lille were also very impressive. Could have won by more as well and they have some very talented attackers.
Maccabi Tel Aviv pulled off a shock win in Greece. Led by Robbie Keane, they were 2 up in 10 minutes as Olympiacos' frailties in defence showed up again in Europe.
Molde got a late, late winner to beat Club Brugge, but the Belgians will be confident of turning it around next week.
Fiorentina won a shoot-out in Hungary against Haifa. A late deflected shot by Barak found its way in and they will be there or thereabouts come the end of this competition.
Zagreb looked good against PAOK while Servette and Plzen played out a low-key draw.

If we managed to get past Ajax Fenerbache would be a tough draw, esp the away leg. Zagreb probably the same with their charming fans. And on paper Lille and Fiorentina should be fairly strong given the leagues they play in.  The winners of Servette-Plzen would be nice.

The short answer would be Luiz.

That is because he is still young, teams actually want him and he has recently signed a new contract so we would be in a strong position to ask for a huge fee. I don't want him to go but that's modern football for you. Watkins is fundamentally important to this side and he will be 29 this year so his selling window is very short. I would rather keep him. McGinn looks very settled at Villa and can't see him leaving now. Same with Martinez,

Selling Ramsey this summer would be stupid as he has had a poor season. Buy low, sell high.