djdabush

He's really poor defensively, I'd be disappointed to see him get game time ahead of Sanson after today.

Thought he was dreadful today, his first touch was way off. Don't know whether it's the injury or the fact he's not playing with Grealish anymore but he's nowhere near the level he was at last season.

Need that contract sorting ASAP. 

12 hours ago, Keyblade said:

He seemed to be behind the play for most of their major attacks. Odd decision to play him as a false 9 today, but they've all done it one point.

My theory is that Grealish was due to play on the left and Foden through the middle until they saw Milner was playing at right back and decided to use Foden on the left to expose Milner's lack of pace. 

8 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

 

…and remember, this is the very same prick, that a couple of weeks ago, made two announcements on the same day. Firstly, that the world had to ‘grow up’ and face the realities of climate change, and secondly that it was great that Brits were allowed to fly to DisneyLand again.

 

And then quoted Kermit the Frog.

33 minutes ago, villa89 said:

Seems to be playing as city's number 9 today. Bizarre.

And keeps drifting out to the left which means they don't really have any kind of focal point in the centre. Foden just works so much better in the City setup to me and still think it's strange to spend all that money when you have a player as good as Foden who's favourite position is the one in which Grealish is most effective.

Imagine how bad things must be when Liz Truss and Nadine Dorries are your best alternative.

8 minutes ago, Genie said:

Only 60 episodes so won’t feel too daunting.

I’m on it, cheers.

Give it time, takes about half a season to really get into. People also struggle with season 2 as it's very different to season 1 but persevere. 

29 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Found the first quote here at 16:00. Not sure about the second one. It does seem kind of hard to believe that he said that.

 

I've read it's from the Lescott video but I refuse to watch any of the PR that City have brought out so I can't confirm it.

1 hour ago, Thug said:

Tammy signed for Newport it seems?

azaz with the assist

Wait am I missing an in joke here? We know that Timmy is his brother, right?

5 hours ago, Panto_Villan said:

If you're booing the pantomime villain then fine, but I think a lot of people aren't viewing it as theatre when they boo. They genuinely dislike someone for having done something that's actually quite understandable.

Add to that that the person playing a pantomime villain is an actor playing a role, whereas footballers aren't actors. You're booing a real person for your entertainment. Which is fine if the player is deliberately playing the role (e.g. Troy Deeney) but if not, why do it? Especially when you'll be doing it alongside people who genuinely hate him.

Emotions aren't logical though are they? Hatred, in particular, isn't logical. Why do people hate Birmingham City? There's no logic to it, it's literally because they also play in the same city. People loved Grealish when he played for us and when people feel hurt and betrayed it's not surprise that logic goes out the window for a while. You can even see on here when people are starting to move on from the emotional response and are more understanding of the situation. When he comes back to Villa Park, those emotions will be heightened again and no doubt there will be a fair bit of anger flying about.

I personally don't think I would boo Grealish, I understand why he made his decision and certainly don't hate him for it but if people feel they need to boo him, if they make a banner or take along a load of inflatable snakes then I'm not going to criticise them. 

20 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

The Raptors' story was honestly so beautiful (minus the sacrifice of DeRozan). Like the perfect sports arc. Maybe I was naive in expecting Jack and Villa to mirror it.

On Lowry, that's an example of a player leaving on good terms. It sucks that he's leaving but he has the fans' blessing and he's having his jersey retired as unquestionably the greatest player in franchise history. It all stemmed from loyalty.

I mean I *suppose* you could consider Lowry a legend, but did he play 41 times for his club in the championship? Not enough to retire his jersey for me.

I wonder if Smith will consider going 3-5-2 next week if Bailey and Buendia are both out. 

21 minutes ago, Indigo said:

Buendia trained yesterday didn't he so I'm guessing they're just playing it safe with him.

Interesting to see how the team shapes up, I expect it to be more of a 4-4-1-1 but who knows.

Didn't train, just did the interview I think 

3 hours ago, villalad21 said:

Zero touches of the ball.

This will be his reality at City.

Is that really the best the media team can do? I imagine usually a player comes in, doesn't know the place or a lot of the players very well so everything's a bit awkward but the video is cut in such a way that it makes them look like they are having a great time and getting on well with everyone.

The least miserable thing in that is the weather. 

I don't wish him well and I hope it doesn't work out for him. He's a great player who has served us well but as soon as he's forced that move through and is no longer a Villa player then I want them to fail.

That being said, all these 'let Mings stamp on him' or 'wait until he plays against McGinn' type comments are ridiculous. They are all good friends with him and every single one of our players would have jumped at the opportunity if they had been given it. I imagine they are happy for him if not a bit envious.

7 minutes ago, R.Bear said:

Classy post from Jack that 

If you read that and are still angry, think he's disloyal, call him a snake etc then I feel sorry for you, I really do. It was an opportunity impossible to turn down and that's basically what he said.

A statement like that was always coming. I'm just amazed it didn't have the standard 'most difficult decision in my life' line in there. 

Just now, Aston_Villan4 said:

Those were purchases made before the Grealish money came in. Except Ings probably. No way we went all summer planning these signings around the hope that Citeh would come in with 100 million for Grealish.

Oh I'm aware of that, just puts it into perspective.

We've got Buendia, Young, Bailey and Ings plus roughly £15m left over for Grealish. Certainly softens the blow

Ok now imagine you are a Southampton fan, if this was shocking for us...

I had to check it was the official villa account about 10 times to make sure it wasn't a fake account. Got to be the most out of the blue signing I've ever seen.

If I try and look at it without emotion I would say that we are still a stronger team now having brought in Buendia, Young and Bailey and losing Grealish and Engels and that's without any other signings we now make. 

Just now, DCJonah said:

Heres where I am. 

I believe city have put in a huge bid (too many reports for it to be complete rubbish)

City don't put in that bid without someone indication from Jack or his agent that he's open to the move. 

If Jack had turned them down we'd 100% know about it by now. 

Jack is either weighing up his options after hearing our offer, or, and I think this is more likely, the deal is being finalised with city and its a waiting game. After all this is going to smash the British transfer record, its going to be a complex deal. 

Yeah I agree with this. I think we are probably negotiating the way in which the deal is structured. The longer it goes on though, the more chance I think he stays.