The Fun Factory

Very quietly has become a first team starter for Villa. Perhaps Dean knew what he was doing in the 'can we buy a central midfielder' debate of summer 2021.

Lets face it if next summer they come in with a bid over 60 million we will open up our legs and take the offer. McGinn is playing better without Grealish as he is going back to more of his natural free role rather than a out and out DM. Reminds me a bit of when Barry left and Milner became the main man for a season before also being sold.

Would love to have seen Fury's reaction as millions go down the plughole. Easy to say in hindsight I know but Joshua has been overrated as he is marketable and a good guy. Afraid to go into boxing wars after Ruiz but surely should have used his natural weight advantage versus a cruiserweight tonight. To lose one may be regarded as a misfortune, to lose two looks like carelessness. Losing twice in 2 years at your supposed peak is not a sign of a top quality boxer I am afraid.

A complete tool. The pressure is getting to him after half a dozen games.

Fantastic win. And the penalty is pure hilarity. Can we do the double against this lot?!

I can't believe people thought they are were geniune title contenders. OGS is and has always been out of his depth. Managing in Norway and getting Cardiff relegated is not really a resume to manage United. He got the job as he was a good player for them.Chelsea did that with fat frank and then sacked him off and got a proper manager in.

I wonder where all this petrol will go- next to the bog roll mountain of 2020?

I'll drink to that. Cheers.

Well that makes it fire retardant.

Are people genuinely retarded? Good grief.

Just realised that the premier league season will be starting at the last weekend of the commonwealth games. It is starting a week earlier because of Qatar. Do I put in a bid for some events that weekend?! Or perhaps Villa might request to play away for the first game as the city will be really busy.

It makes sense in a monetary sense. Nobody cares about friendlies and qualifying matches, it makes no money. I still don't understand the Nations League I think it has something to do with numberwang. The world cup is a massive cash-cow held in the slim window when league football stops. Lets double our pay-packets and increase it to a 48 team competition that can only be held on a continent or region, not a nation. So what if it devalues it and leads to player burn out. It is all about the money. And don't pretend to dress it up otherwise.

Yes why not. Lets flog the players to shortened injury curtailed careers and have constant football exposure 24/7 365 days a week. Of course it will get voted through as all the less well off FIFA representatives will do very well out of it. In fact lets just have a 200 team knock out global competition every summer. Cricket and the IOC may complain about it but it will probably get pushed through.

Or Villa 4 Wolves 1. 37,836 attendance. There were some good performances- but not enough for automatic. I think we then inexplicably lost to QPR and Bolton after that.

Garde has done f all since leaving us. It was a car crash appointment which sealed our doom. A lot of factors to blame other than Garde but 2 wins in about 6 months was not great was it.

Has done as well as Bentiez had done in the prem for Newcastle. It is really not pretty to watch but has achieved 2 mid table finishes for a club that has no ambition set by its owner other than staying in the division and making a profit. I don't really want to go over old history but at least he stabilised the club (at least on the pitch) in his 2 years at Villa. I mean we hadn't even won a away game for about a year when he took over. The over spending should be held accountable to Wyness and Xia not Bruce. I never really get the personal abuse the guy gets. The football is stodgy at best but their are worst managers out there.

Ashley Young to score a worldy and then kiss the badge in front of the Stretford End for top bants.

Smith out

It is frankly a disgrace that they don't even show highlights on terrestrial tv anymore. ITV may be cheap and tacky but they showed live champions league football for over 20 years and was free to watch.

I debating whether it will be the annual one or perhaps two penalties awarded to them. Loath them or loath them, you got to hate United.

Always a solid backup. He has been a good signing.

Just goes to show that having a loaded businessman does not necessarily result in footballing success. It increasingly looks like Morris got lucky on Crush Candy.

This. Our aim this season is clearly for top 10 with an outside chance of a europa conference spot. A top 6 side will win the league cup so that is one more spot back in the league. We got to the league cup final 18 months ago but had we won that and got relegated it would have been absolutely disastrous. It would be a fun thing to win but the financial reward when compared to the league is chicken feed I am afraid.

City fans don't care about it and they win it every year. The sooner these teams can't play in this competition due to the CL reforms, the better.

A good effort and now my interest in this competition has ended before the clocks have gone back. Seems a long wait to the FA Cup Third round.