The Fun Factory

On 26/04/2024 at 11:47, ender4 said:

Anyone else really excited about this game already?

Big time. Our first semi-final in any European competition since 1982, before I was born. It is time for new stories to add to our wonderful history.

It wasn't that long ago we were getting ready for Championship play off semi finals, it shows the journey that we have been on.

They will be fresher but we have Emery the don of European football. He won't accept anything other than a win from the players even if our squad is down to the bare bones.

15 hours ago, a-k said:

BBC headline is that Chelsea comeback to "dent" Villa's Top 4 hopes. Are we not 7 points clear of 5th? Would rather have the points than the games in hand...

It shouldn't annoy me but it did.  You couldn't judge the result until the north London derby,, in which they lost and we are  a further point ahead of them.

We have looked a top four side all season and Spurs aren't going to catch us now.  Scoreboard pressure.

Its three really poor sides this season. Southampton last season were a better side than all of them and they came 20th.

2 minutes ago, Dodgyknees said:

Got £5 on this ending in a draw, so we are safe.

Can we do a collective VT whip round to pay out to ensure this doesn't happen?

1 hour ago, Stratvillan said:

Not sure how the Upper North stand passes any type of fit for purpose test in close season. Was horrendous last night. I appreciate its not the lower grounds, but surely theres office space they could repurpose somewhere. 

Well at the moment they think its fine to host a major international tournament. God help those attending.

Seems to be either a beast or a carthorse. I can't work the guy out.

1 hour ago, spiezels said:

All safe standing stuff is 1 for 1. So you dont get any extra capacity. 

Yes. Traditionally the rule of thumb was 2 standing places for 1 seat. So when lots of grounds had to become all seater in the 90s they effectively lost capacity unless they built up or out.. Hence over time many clubs moving to new grounds. We are still about 6,000 down from pre Taylor capacity 30 odd years on.

54 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

In a complete rebuild of course - but in terms of the existing corners - you'd be looking at building something very similar on top of the corner flag restaurant but not much more - you can't have seats further back than that glass so there isn't the possibility to put a seating block in that corner - they wouldn't be able to see the pitch.

 

It is also going to look cheap and crap as a tacky stop gap option. But with Villa I have no idea now what their actual plans are.

Poor today but coming on with the back up goalkeeper and then moving to  5 in defence led to general confusion all round.

My general school of thought is when you have been the dominated team you take the point. Yes, we did have a 2 nil lead but not once did we dominate the game so in the end it could well be a bonus point. Especially as I think the disallowed goal was on the soft side. Our midfield really struggled without tielmans which worries me for Thursday. I thought olsen did fine and rogers struts around Villa Park like he owns the place. 

Spurs still have to go and get the points so all this talk of today denting our top 4 hopees is rubbish. We all expected Chelsea to respond from their dreadful mid week performance and they did. The real downside is the injuries I just hope they are not too bad.

I also thought the atmosphere was a bit odd. Not sure if it was the kick off time or people just felt on edge. It all kicked off in the Holte at the end with a few people arguing with each other, which left a slight sour test. 

It must be so frustrating as a player to miss an entire season of football. They have fairly short careers so it is a big chunk of  time lost.

1 hour ago, Pongo Waring said:

"something big is coming" - Heck 

Nothing bigger than a brand new Villa Bowl right 

More GA+ admission no doubt.

3 hours ago, AVFCDAN said:

Morrisons really is the best of no worlds imo.

Most things very expensive, range of foods not great, very heavily weighted on cakes/junk food, branded foods seem to cost more than other shops.

Their meat is fairly priced and they have a good craft beer selection and that’s about it. 
 

My weekly shop gets done in lidl mainly. 

But they do a cracking sausage roll.

I for one welcome our new gaming overlords.

13 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

They're getting there - next years final could be Man Utd against Valencia though - they really should be looking at 60k plus for all of their finals.

Perhaps they genuinely thought the higher placed sides in the weaker leagues would progress more to the final than so far Italian, , English and Dutch sides. Or they want to clearly distinguish it from the Europa by picking smaller venues. But as a minimum it should be 40-50 K, with maybe Europa at 50-60 and CL finals 70 plus.

Fair play to the club with the pricing, under 30 quid for  European semi final. I fully expect this sort of pricing when we play in the Champions League next season.....

1 hour ago, OutByEaster? said:

i think that's a UEFA thinking problem. I think they invented this competition to give smaller teams a chance of success in Europe and picked the stadiums for finals to match that idea - the problem is that beyond the 'giants' of the Champions league there are a large number of really good clubs with massive histories that have been slightly marginalised because of Champions league and TV money - those teams don't have 10,000 fans who want to go to a final, they have 80,000 - and I think once UEFA realise the actual nature of the competition they created, they'll start looking at the same quality of stadium they use for their other finals.

 

Haven't they already done that, in next year's final is in a 40k stadium? The first one was in Tirana with a ridiculous capacity of twenty odd thousand when they ended up with Roma and Feyenoord playing.

It looks almost the same as the current one with one minor improvement we actually have our name again on our most important bit of branding. Other than that deeply meh after 2 years of fannying around, and does not solve the issue of too much blue when in fact our main colour is claret.  I have seen loas of fan mock ups which have looked far more interesting. And now bad is our comms, again?

Wow looks a great buy. I have to be honest I didn't think he looked amazing when we played Boro in the cup but that is why I am a fan and not a scout. Oozes class, seems to always have time on the ball, and his awareness is fantastic. Could be some player.

After a slow start dominated the game and fully deserved the win. Rogers was class and Watkins did everything but score. We looked more open day and conceded more shots than I would like but that is down without Luiz playing. Sun was out,, 3 class goals, 6 points clear in 4th and a European semi final to look forward. What  a time to be a Villa fan.

Personally, I think its outrageous the Premier League is making us play on Sunday. They surely could have moved it to Monday night. They are all out to get us.

14 minutes ago, mrchnry said:

If we won this has there been any indication when a parade down VP would be? I had heard that it could be the day after the final. 

Don't tempt fate! A lot of football to go before that.

Just now, Ceemo said:

Bonucci to keep Fenerbahce alive. Saved!

Villa vs Olympiacos.

On paper that is a better result. They are 4th in the greek league and have lost 7 times this season. Fenerbache are 2nd in the Turkish league and have lost once. I thought they would win comfortably over two games.

Unbelievably snidey write up in the Guardian. Like gameship hasn;t been in the game since it was invented. Look at Grobbelaar all those years ago.  So will Martinez be out for the first leg now?

Anyway who cares, we can take everyone on. Lets be avin you.