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Philosopher

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Everything posted by Philosopher

  1. There is another couple of aspects to this. The first is that the so called top clubs poach players from the group just below them in order to weaken them to prevent themselves from being usurped. They see us as a threat now so they aim to weaken us by taking our best players, and strengthen themselves in the process. They will come for Watkins, Ramsey, Diaby and Kamara too. Man City did it the other way round by using unspeakable sums of money. But they were an exception. Ironically City poaching Barry and Milner sucked the heart of MON's team out. Then they did it to Arsenal! The other aspect is that the only teams to break into that top 4-6 is Tottenham, City, and more recently Newcastle. Newcastle and City have huge sums of money so they don't / didn't fear others poaching their players as they can blow anyone out the water in regards to wages. And the players know that the clubs only trajectory is up. Tottenham are the only club to break into what was then a top four, organically. They did it through fighting tooth and nail to keep their best players at the club and when that wasn't possible extorting (with unheard of valuations) the interested clubs, and selling to foreign teams if possible. They didn't want to strengthen Man U so they sold Kane to Bayern, they did the same with Bale to Madrid. History tells us selling your best players to fund a push up the table rarely works out. The only exception to this is when you can go out an buy an equally good player for the same money or less. But if there is such a player, with our standing we can't compete with the top clubs who will surely snap him up. That's the unfair situation ANY team trying to change the status quo has to overcome. What we need to do is sell the players performing well, that are at their limit (in terms of capability) for inflated fees (more than they are worth). And keep the players that are genuine top class. And also keep the players performing well that still have room for growth. Selling Doug (as he is emerging as a genuine top class player) is not going to progress us. On the flipside while I absolutely love McGinn at his age he hasn't really got much room for improvement. So for me, if we could get 50 million for him I'd take it. Selling Digne, when he is 30 and a high earner makes sense if a viable offer came. Selling Ramsey would be utter stupidness. We need to sell on our terms. Nobody else's!
  2. Rice has a bigger reputation and is an English man. This inflates his value. However Rice only had a year left on his contract! 100m is needed just to get us to the negotiating table.
  3. We have 2 30 year old left backs and one of them will be replaced with a younger model within the next season and a half. Digne is the most likely to be moved simply because his wages are double Moreno's. But that makes him a harder sell. Dignes form so far has been very good, so I think the management see it as making him an easier sell, as having a 30 year old left back on 120k per week with Villas revenue isn't sound financial business. If we get a good offer for Digne we will sell.
  4. I too think it's highly unlikely that we are interested. There are probably Saudi clubs interested, so agent's are playing games. Because spurs have also been linked and I don't see that their interest is real either. Cristiante is a deep lying player maker type DM which fits with both us and spurs as we play with one. But both teams are well stocked in that regard. The only possibility is if Luiz is going to be sold. It would be a Monchi style of move, sell Luiz for 100m buy Cristiante for 27m. But he isn't as good or as young as Luiz. Has also had some injury problems. So i can't see it. It Would be a foolish play. Monchi is very shrewd.
  5. I don't believe he is fast enough. Not for our high line, and the athleticism of prem attackers.
  6. Emi is a brave man indeed. This is just further confirmation of this fact! He has courage in spades.
  7. I felt Lewis was getting in Grealish and Fodens way. As one was playing the CAM and they both like drifting from the left flank to the middle. And Lewis was always taking up that inside left cam position. We needed an overlapping fullback on the left. On the right Trent plays deeper as an inverted fullback so he has more time and space to display his impressive long passing. Also Saka was so wide there was no space for Walker to attack. We ended up looking like a back 3 with 3 cams on the left / centre left area. And no wing backs. The only defence i give Southgate is that he didn't have any specialist left backs to call on.
  8. You play a high line, you need a back line with recovery pace. So to play Maguire and leave both Konsa and Tomori on the bench is just foolishness. Southgate lacks the conviction to really create the best team. The attack he lined ip with was good, but having Trent play in the centre of the park when we needed someone to drive through the middle. Trent spraying the ball around from that deep inside right position (inverted fullback) is so effective. Southgate is gutless!
  9. Hope they play Bruno G. Let him be worn out and have Doug come back relatively fresh.
  10. I believe we sold a similar calibre of striker in Cameron Archer. So Pavlidis is a no for me. Good finisher, good movement. The rest of his game is not premier league standard. We have to also remember he missed a few good chances against us over both games.
  11. He did have a poor game. He is played in one the creative positions and came nowhere near creating or scoring. Going forward he was impotent yesterday. Only yesterday mind. But I do find a common theme that whenever he is kept quiet the team tend to lose.
  12. Just the final ball was letting him down. We needed our wide players to beat their opposite number more often. That would have opened them up and create more space for Diaby.
  13. Do not forget we have Ramsey and Moreno out, which would transform our left flank. So I'd say we are a right back away from our first team being as good as possible while we aren't a champions league team. By this I mean until we get champions league the calibre of player required to improve the first team beyond its current level (bar right back) requires champions league football to attract the next level of player. If we get champions league, the first place we will look to spend money is striker. Ollie is just below top tier for me. Currently that's the best we can do. But Champions league will change that. In fact the whole spine bar goalkeeper will be looked at. CF, DM, and CD. While Kamara and our centre backs are very good. To go to the next level a genuine world class operator is required in each of those 3 positions.
  14. Also I think Carlos at RCB with Zaniolo at Left midfield would be a lovely diagonal ball to play. With Zaniolo's frame and touch. Also with Zaniolo at right midfield that diagonal would also be a good option with Pau at LCB.
  15. Agreed. Next season we should find a good loan for him.
  16. I agree with this assessment somewhat. Although I believe Moreno is a better fullback, I don't feel the difference is so pronounced. Digne's first touch is really very good, amongst the best in our squad. Moreno's first touch occasionally let's him down. The space afforded to Digne yesterday would have been punished had Moreno been the player out there. His pace and ability to beat a man would've murdered Aina. Looking forward to him coming back. We need his attacking threat in games like yesterday's.
  17. I definitely echo the calls for a new right back. Personally I'd go for a genuinely threatening attacking one. Livramento would have been good, but his injury is a little concerning for the price. I like Cash, but for a top 4 -6 team, he is more of a squad player than first choice. Zaniolo is a but if a gamble, but I still maintain he could be world class. He needs some confidence. We have to remember he is a loan deal that will cost us less then Livramento even if we make it permanent. And players with his pedigree cost 50m plus if it wasn't for the ACL injury.
  18. We will need a good young attacking left back. Looks a good fit.
  19. I felt Bailey tried to make thing happen, but he was double teamed most of the time. I'd personally have taken off McGinn for Bailey. I felt that although Zaniolo wasn't particularly effective we had zero threat on the right as both McGinn and Cash were totally shut down. It was a poor game from both McGinn and Cash. Bailey at least provide a threat and we were far more dangerous down that side when Bailey came on. However when McGinn moved to the left it was worse there. Only Digne provided any attacking threat, at least Zaniolo was getting into dangerous positions and asking more questions. In hindsight the half time subs should've been Bailey for McGinn, and Carlos for Cash. Then maybe Mangala wouldn't have even had that shooting chance. Cash was getting murdered by Elanga defensively, and did absolutely nothing offensively.
  20. Dreadful start played into their hands. Ref let them get away with bully boy tactics the whole game. Watkins was manhandled on numerous occasions. Diaby had a poor game, kept making the wrong decisions in promising positions. What Martinez was doing for the second goal no one will ever know. Zaniolo got subbed off at half time, but it could easily have been McGinn. McGinn offered little out there today. Cash was terrible. Offered no threat going forward whatsoever. Constantly bypassed defensively. Luiz didn't have his usual influence. Kamara was frustrating. Some nice touches, mixed with some stupid ones. The back 2 were good. Digne was good today, couldn't find the right ball at the right time though. Bailey was double teamed, but had a go. Tielemens was good when he came on. All in all a poor day at the office. To concede so early, in such a manner was really disappointing. Was never at the races in that first half. To then concede at the start of the second half in an even more farcical manner m, we go what we deserved. I have to reiterate that was very much a home side bias with the ref. That guy should never ref a Villa game again.
  21. What gets totally ignored in all this is that when Britain gave the Jewish people the land we call Israel now it was far smaller, and the Palestinians were also granted a significant amount of land which Israel has since taken much of. Also Israel have taken land from all of its neighbours, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan. The reason Israel is hated in the middle East isn't because they are Jewish, it's because they use force to take other nations land. And persecute the Palestinians. Over a million innocent Palestinians have been killed by the various offensives of the Israeli forces. A number that is more than ten times the number Israelis that have died. It's genocidal levels of murder based on race! America (primarily) and Briton make billions from selling weapons to Israel. Britain started the persecution of the Palestinians when we colonised Palestine in the 19th century. Britain even sold Palestinian land to Jewish people in order to utilise divide and rule tactics to suppress the continual uprisings occurring in Palestine. However the Jewish community in Palestine at the time refused to be drawn in and it didn't work. When the second World War arrived the Palestinians sided with Germany, because they wanted independence from Britain, and Britain refused to give it. Ironically this definitely caused a grievance between Palestinian and Jewish people. This whole conflict is a cluster f**k created by Briton and perpetuated by America. We owe both sides a peaceful and lasting resolution.
  22. I agree on Bailey, Duran, Traore,. Buendia, Tielemens and McGinn maybe but unlikely they would have the acceleration, to burst through in behind, the rest no. Diaby doesn't shoot with power from distance, Watkins just doesn't score from outside the area. Doug curls the ball from range. It was a fabulous goal. Archer doesn't have the greatest top speed, but his acceleration is good, plus what slowed him down was taking the ball under control as it bobbled up a little. We have all seen it already, Archer is a clean striker of the ball. We all know the lad can shoot and finish. It's the rest of his game why he hasn't been kept around. The link up play, he doesn't have the running power of Watkins to continually stretch opposition defenses. The strength to consistently hold the ball up.
  23. I'm a big fan of Matty Cash, but I do think he can be improved upon. I believe defensively he can be got at at, and he is usually to one playing opponents onside when our offside trap gets sprung. Going forward, his crossing is inconsistent, and he doesn't have the dribbling or explosiveness to beat players regularly. On the flipside he can finish, he has bags of energy and makes good runs off the ball. So for me a player who can provide more of a threat going forward to provide real competition is what we should be looking for. This is because if we want defensive solidity we can always play Konsa at RB. Dendonker simply lacks the ability to play while being pressed. So he is a clear player we need to improve upon. This business probably won't be able to be done in a winter window, but I wouldn't be surprised if this happened next summer. Olsen isn't the right back up keeper. We need someone that is comfortable with the ball at his feet, and that is good at rushing out from his area. So at least we can still play out effectively when Martinez isn't in the team. The sooner we can find such a player the better.
  24. Well we'll have to agree to disagree, as far as I'm concerned there are very few coaches in the world that would turn their nose up at Grealish. Their isn't one player in our current squad that had done what Jack has, achieved what he has, and maybe only 2 or 3 that are near his talent level. Not one manager has claimed he is bad for morale or a poor trainer, in fact they all say the opposite.
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