thunderball

Kodjia took a penalty and scored after Tammy screwed his a few games ago. He clearly has it in him. I think he would step up. I think he offers more threat than Green or Adomah even out wide, the question is will he contribute to the team ethic as others have seemed to have bought into? Green and Adomah are not necessarily in the side to score goals, but moreover to supply service to Tammy and play their part stretching the opposition. It could work but i’d say more in a 4-3-3 set up, that’s totally different to how we got to the play off final. So there in lies the risk.

Who is “us”? They own Villa Park not us. It’s just transferring an asset to a another wholly owned company. They buy the club for £30m, personally incur the trading loss, inject about £35m of capital into the company, sell the stadium to themselves for say £100m and you are worried. Just remind yourself they have therefore invested over £170m, how might we be concerned that they are pulling a fast one? If we were sold tomorrow with the stadium we would only get about £30-£40m. This if anything reassures me they are looking at building the club to a major valuation (read £1b+) by investing and making us a much bigger and more successful club. The stadium saga is a non issue.

Exactly what I thought when I read this the other day. It’s just playing the game. Any future buyer will will want the ground so they will buy AVFC Limited plus NSWE Stadium Limited as one aggregated package. TBH we were flat broke and only saved by NSWE from going into administration last year, we owe it all to them - all the bank rolling, wages, signings etc, don’t forget they turned down a decent offer for Jack when without them it wasn’t possible. If we had gone through the club would have lost control of the ground anyway. If they own both club and ground but under separate companies it’s the same as this capitalisation they have been doning since they arrived (pumping cash into the club for new shares - asset isn’t increasing in value they are ‘investing’ in the future with their own money. This is the same but it at least it is viewed by FFP as a legitimate source of income. Famous last words but they seem upstanding owners, I think they are just being smart and being prudent and the club will benefit in the long run.

It depends on the buyer. If it’s NSWE via another investment vehicle and their intentions are genuine i.e. long term owners and project, then it’s like deck chairs on the Titanic, but only as long as we don’t piss the cash received on some empty short term signings or mega wages. But if it’s a commercial enabler and it oils the wheels and it could give us a kick start to invest and not sell our key players then use it as a platform for the future. I genuinely don’t see how you can make a challenge on the top 6 without huge cash, the advantage they have in the monopoly of football cash precludes most from getting close. The correlation between wages and league position is almost an exact science.

Derby fully deserved their place, they dug a terrific performance out tonight they looked very, very good at pace and attacking the goal - a real handful that I know we couldn’t cope with. But will this Derby turn up? Will the Villa that beat them 7-0 over two games turn up as we haven’t seen them for a while either? Both teams will compete and play attacking football, bring it on, football is the winner

Anyone read the BBC post match write up? Wow, They are reporting on a different match - I know we lost on the night but they suggest that with Brunt they would have won, and their attacking intent was clear and evidenced by the early goal? Their 27% possession and 10 shots 3 on target (vs 73% and 24 and 6) wasn’t incurred after the 80th minute? I would like to see the stats up to their goal as I think it would be an embarrassment. They defended well, but we were below par for both fixtures. This nervousness makes me concerned for Wembley

Thought Tammy was shown up, he really didn’t impose himself or seize the moment. A decent Centre Forward should make space make thing happen around him if he is getting no space. He will learn, he is young, but it highlights his real transfer value.

We were easily the better side despite the labour. Wembley is at least neutral, we have a fully fit squad and are hungry after last year

Other than his penalty he was pretty bright?

Jesus is animated bless him

Ok, we had all the stats but have never convinced other than the last 10 minutes of the home game. We look well short of the right stuff at the moment

Hopefully we have been practising penalties, Southgate/England like?

Maybe we are just not as good as we think we are

I just know we won’t win on penalties

Our big players haven’t showed up tonight