Don_Simon

2 hours ago, foreveryoung said:

Not many top 4/6 teams go for Championship players. A bit underwhelmed over this.

We're a top three Premier League team consisting of Watkins, Konsa, Mings and Cash. 

(All Championship players, FYI).

2 minutes ago, tinker said:

The chances are Lenglet hasn't got a recall clause in his contract, he was loaned in after Mings got an injury that was going to keep him out for 12 months, it would be pretty short sighted for us to have negotiated terms that only covered half of that time.

This.

2 hours ago, Kiwivillan said:

He's considerably richer than yow

He's considerably less empathetic and considerably more spiteful than me too.

1 hour ago, M_Afro said:

He won’t have much to be fair. Milan will negotiate with Barcelona and Lenglet’s management team. If all parties want the deal to happen, Barcelona will recall him and then loan him/sell him to Milan. The only involvement Monchi will have is to try and convince Lenglet to stay.

We agreed with Barca a season long loan. It's a contract. If we don't want Lenglet to leave, he won't. If we give it the okay, he will. 

5 minutes ago, M_Afro said:

I saw that. The tweet I saw said that Milan were negotiating with Monchi. Lenglet plays for Barcelona so I’m pretty sure that Monchi would have zero involvement. Sounds like bs to me. Hopefully he will stay until the summer. He’s just starting to show signs of real quality.

He plays for Monchi's team and has a loan contract with Monchi's team. I very much hope Monchi has significant involvement.

11 minutes ago, ferguson1 said:

Had a great time doing the stadium tour this afternoon and my son (12 today) said it was his best day ever! I really need to take him to a game now. Anyway, I would thoroughly recommend it for anyone that hasn’t done it. Very good value. I don’t want to spoil some bits for anyone thinking of doing the tour, so will put some comments in a spoiler alert below: 

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Firstly, our tour guide was called Diane who has been doing the role for 19 years and she was fantastic. Treated my son like royalty and nothing was too much trouble, ie photo opportunities for everyone. A credit to the club and clearly passionate about everything Villa. 

Anyway, she provided some really interesting insight and I asked her plenty of questions. There were some interesting points from today that I can remember: 

The North Stand redevelopment was all go for over 18 months until the Heck announcement and that announcement was the first Diane and other staff at the club knew about it. No advance warning to any staff etc. She mentioned the Euro bid and Villa Park hasn’t withdrawn it’s bid but capacity needs to increase in order to host games from 42,600 to basically 50,000. So we’re 8,000 short. It was very much suggested that Heck is now looking at the feasibility of filling the corners of all four sides but there are concerns over the differing levels and heights of each stand. Could be very messy. What was happening today whilst we sat in the Trinity was the away seats (Upper Tier Doug) were being replaced with safe standing seating and will all be in place for the Newcastle game. Holte upper I believe ready for next season, as being done over the summer.

Heck was showing four men from London around the ground during the week and they all did the tour with Diane, as wanted to see the fan experience for themselves. Asking Diane plenty of questions of what she likes and what she doesn’t like? Wasn’t explained who they were. Said Heck comes across as a really nice man so far and is very interested in what the staff think of the ground and what can be improved. Our previous CEO not so much.

One disappointing thing about Heck though mentioned today is that it was his decision to remove the replica trophies from the tunnel area and put them in the Directors suite. McGinn wasn’t happy and wanted at the very least the European Cup in the tunnel area, so a further replica was made and placed in the middle of the tunnel area, so we now have two replicas. Heck asked Diane this week what she thought of the tunnel area and she said it’s fantastic and Heck’s response was  “well it’s all changing over the summer and certainly won’t look like this”. Interesting. I personally think it’s great as it currently is but we’ll see what happens over the summer I suppose?

So much work going on today though and ongoing over the next week or so, from the seating replacement to painting inside the Trinity stand etc. Painters everywhere.

McGinn is very well thought off and is very much liked by everyone. Last to leave after a game, as having photos and signing for sometimes 90 minutes with fans.

Players don’t like not having a roof on the dugout and this is being reviewed in the summer (roof to return most likely). It was taken off last summer due to adding some extra seats for the Conference League requirements etc. 

Emery very well liked and one interesting point on a match day is that the players arrive at the ground individually very early (Sometimes 9am) and then Emery takes them away by coach to a local hotel for food and briefing. He is the first manager/coach to take the players away from Villa Park for their pre-match meal, and then he likes to coach them back in together closer to kick off. 

Dean Smith very well liked by everyone during his time at the club. Houllier, Lambert and Sherwood also, as they cared. Di Matteo, Garde and Gerrard not so much. Just none of them particularly invested in the club. 

As a final note, we’re in a really good place, as lots of very very good people at the club, who care. From top to bottom. Everyone wants success and are hungry for it. Going to be lots of decisions and changes made over the next 12-18 months, which will be popular and perhaps some not so much. I for one am excited though.   UTV

 

Diane is clearly MysteryMan, HairyHands and Christian Purslow.

16 minutes ago, Aston_Villan4 said:

Life’s simple pleasures?

Not getting stabbed. Not hearing that accent. Not being in London.

9 minutes ago, ChesterDad said:

I thought he was awful TRO - completely bored me to tears, his first thought was do not lose. I guess footie is all about opinions 

 

Alex’s injury was dreadful - truly great player, never shirked a challenge and could see a pass. I can’t recall which Sandwell towner did this, was it Cantello or that carthorse Brown?

You must have hated the season where we went seven billion games undefeated.

2 hours ago, PerryBarrPet said:

Agree. In fact you take your life in your hands if you go there now.

Went to London in the first weekend post lockdown lifting.

Worst weekend of my life. Billions of angry people being angry and being people. 

31 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Of course it’s an opinion, don’t let it trouble you so much. We will see who is right in the next few years and feel free to admit you were wrong if it turns out that Rogers doesn’t amount to much.

This guy.

My weekend entertainment has started early!

2 hours ago, Jareth said:

He's Brazilian. If he gets offers that are right for the club, that he also fancies, he's not going to say hey wait a sec, what about Birmingham!

Okay mate. 

5 minutes ago, Jareth said:

I know it'd be a blow to lose him but of everyone in our current set-up he's the one I think most likely to want a move, probably the most in demand and therefore the most money we'd likely get from a player sale. It's only been since Emery came in that he's any reason to stay, he honestly has no serious attachment to Birmingham other than as a place of work, and if an offer near £100m came in, with 2 years left on his contract, then I think it'd work for everyone, as we know for certain we have the right people to find his replacement. It would make us stronger in the long run I am sure.

How do you know he "honestly has no serious attachment to Birmingham"?

21 hours ago, Captain_Townsend said:

Grealish gave us three and a half great seasons. He also wanted out at least three times. McGinn has been there through it all as has Mings. 

Grealish also had a fair few transgressions and, no, I am not a fan of him the person.

Which we found out after he left.

If you find out McGinn did the same, is he then off your list?

5 hours ago, FLVillan said:

Pep wouldn't win the league with Brentford's players.  Lewis Hamilton wouldn't win Formula One races in a Vauxhall Astra. 

Or a Mercedes F1 car.

16 hours ago, DJBOB said:

I think while it will force some tricky fixtures - it's not nearly as bad as the group games. 

Also, this is Knockout Football. 

I would imagine it was quite emotionally challenging to get up for a trip to Mostar, (lovely city that it is), when you've already qualified.

The next batch of European games are going to be electric for fans and players. Shit gets real now!

16 hours ago, TreeVillan said:

Great player, shame it didn't work out.

"Great' is doing a lot of heavy lifting here. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, I guess.

Reports in Barcaland, aka, Catalunya, are that Xavi is under big pressure.

I hope the Netflix series gets footage of the phonecall when Unai tells Deco, "nah, I'm good here thanks".

B6 > Barcelona. 

Always. 

5 minutes ago, KangarooVillan said:

But is the Douglas Luiz train heading to or from work?

I don't think so.

However, if he was commuting with Alisha, my commute would be demonstrably better.

7 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Why help Arsenal out? And sign a player who really isn’t better than the ones we have, has been underperforming, would be expensive in both wages and fee and has had troubles with injuries, form, mentality/confidence… 

Now that we’re actually competing with or trying to rival these sorts of clubs… should we really be going for players that they don’t value or can’t get in their teams? 

The Martinez example is usually thrown out but it’s a completely different scenario…

first of all, we had been battling relegation or just trying to gain a respectable position or standing in the league…

Emi was one of the stars of lockdown, he was playing and excelling for Arsenal. One of the best performing players in the PL, he was shining.

He was a huge part in their form and success, leading them to two trophies - Charity Shield and FA Cup.

He deserved more respect and assurance but, when Leno returned from injury, Arteta and co messed up and preferred or prioritised Leno over Emi… and neither keeper remained at the club for long… we expertly exploited that situation, identifying a top player, giving him assurances and striking a bargain deal for him… and what a signing it has been!

ESR… has done nothing of the sort. Maybe he would’ve been a decent signing a few years ago but… but he wouldn’t have been interested then… our trajectory has overtaken his and he has declined… of course, he could improve with a move elsewhere but… 

we don’t really need to target players like that or take those kinds of risks or even burdens on… look where we are…

-

Anyway, I’d be very surprised if we were targeting players like this who don’t present much value and by signing, we would be helping an opposition club out…

particularly not under Monchi and co…

If we really are signing Nedeljkovic… that’s just further evidence of our strategy and scouting methods…

Again, for the first team, I think we’ll continue pursuing players like Pau and Diaby…

Because in this hypothetical world, Unai wanted the player, thought he would be of value to us and we're not run by children who worry about "helping" others.

(We also "helped" Arsenal out by taking their second choice goalkeeper, worked pretty well for us, I think).

25 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I think he's still on his 'Douglas Luiz is shit' train.

I commute on the train into Birmingham every day for work. It's shit.

And the Douglas Luiz Train is by far the shittest.

3 minutes ago, striker said:

Doesn’t improve Villa’s first team in any way.

For me the best loan deal this window is Kalvin Phillips and Villa should be thumping City’s door to get him.

To take whose place in the team?

Shouldn't have posted the full article - apologies @blandy. Lesson learned!

1 minute ago, Rosch said:

Yeah, I think he'll serb us well.

Just hope he's up to the (Bel)grade.

A really positive article. 

I was overly critical of the guy, I'm going to back off now and let him do his work.