Philosopher

38 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

I think the key is selling a player when you already have the replacement in your team. Brighton did this when they sold Bissouma for example. 

In case of Luiz it's out of our hands mostly. If I were him I'd give Villa this year and next year to make the cut and qualify for Champions League before I'd extend my contract. 

For Villa we should be smart and move Dendoncker on and sign another Central Midfielder who will improve our CM options giving us flexibility in case we sell Luiz

You make sense in that IF we had a good replacement for the player then we can sell in the comfort of knowing we don't need to replace them. Them the money brought in can be spend strengthening other areas. However we currently don't have that with Doug. I like Tielemens, but he lacks the mobility Doug has and we'll miss that.

Plus selling without putting up a real fight to keep a player sets a bad president. As then next summer the replacement will be plucked, then we have to have a conveyer belt of readily available replacements for our best players.

Monchi is a notoriously tough negotiator and very shrewd. So I'm confident he'll manage such situations as well as possible.

But selling your best players isn't a blueprint for success. It's a blueprint for being satisfied with your position. 

28 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

I’m not sure I agree with this 100% in regards to Newcastle. They may have all the money in the world, but they are restricted to FFP. They were lucky in the fact that for all the complaining about the previous owner, the club was run well financially and they were able to go and spend money initially and getting CL football has strengthened this. But they need to continue to get CL football to grow and like Chelsea currently, 1,2,3 seasons without CL football FFP will come knocking.

Im not convinced Howe can consistently keep Newcastle in the CL positions, time will tell. But that will allow other clubs to seize on those opportunities, as with the inconsistency with Spurs, Manure and Chelsea.

They will cheat like City, and their 400 Emirates sponsorship deal, when they couldn't even fill their ground. They have so much money,  own stakes in so many huge companies, they practically own the whole Saudi pro league. They have politicians in their pockets. They have many way to circumnavigate ffp!

14 hours ago, VillaJ100 said:

Exactly this. In a world where Rice is worth £105 million Doug is £150 million easy

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 hours ago, TRO said:

I think to get one, who can attack and defend in equal measure, is certainly going to cost a lot.

 I think Lucas Digne has done a sterling job, in the absence of Moreno, but both are more attack minded, than defensive.

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.

33 minutes ago, useless said:

Please refrain from talking about us signing Crisante, we're not interested in him, the speculation just speculates that we could be interested, and as they state, they're basing that on Monchi's Roma connections, but doesn't state that we actually want him just that it could be that we want him, not that that would make it any more likely even if it did say that we wanted him, and the initial source for this is 'tvplay'.

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.

26 minutes ago, obanken said:

I do wonder if we will be in for Juan Foyth at right back from Sevilla. 25 years old from Argentina and will be used to the style of play that Emery plays. 
 

I am a fan of Cash, but I’m not sure that Konsa is the long term solution as a backup right back.

Anyone know more about Foyth to suggest he will be an upgrade on Cash? Barcelona were linked earlier this year. 

I don't believe he is fast enough. Not for our high line, and the athleticism of prem attackers.

Emi is a brave man indeed. This is just further confirmation of this fact! He has courage in spades.

8 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

IF genuine this wasn't a contact injury in fairness.

He was holding his hamstring.

That doesn't sound good!

13 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

that was the other crazy thing for me last night, he cant / wont play TAA in his liverpool position because he leaves us exposed in defence, so instead he shoe horns him in to central midfield where he's never played in his liverpool life and then at the same time finally grows a pair of balls and pushes the fullbacks up

TAA should have been playing the same role as Lewis but on the right, his natural position, he got it wrong twice 

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.

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!

Hope they play Bruno G. Let him be worn out and have Doug come back relatively fresh.

12 hours ago, El Segundo said:

I was just watching a recording of the game and my thoughts were he'd be a great signing for Fulham or Brentford to replace Mitrovic or Toney (if he goes).  Also thought Everton and maybe Wolves as well.  

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.

9 minutes ago, RicRic said:

Theres no way you can call mcginn poor im not sure you have called that one fairly 

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.

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.

3 hours ago, Leeroy said:

I'd be amazed if we can't spend any money. Net spend very low last couple of years and we got nearly £40m for Archer, Ramsey and JPB which is pure profit. Whether they were sold for FFP reasons I don't know, I actually think it was more they weren't ready to make an impact on our team and that's why we inserted buyback clauses into the deals. Two of them were sold to teams likely to be relegated and one to a Championship team, hardly shows they're ready for a team going for Champions League. 

 

I'd certainly hope there is money to spend as we are 2-3 quality players short in our first 11 of being a top 4 team. Emery is a great manager but not a miracle worker, he can get us 7th maybe 6th but that will be the ceiling for this team until we improve it further. 

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. 

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.

5 hours ago, TRO said:

The physicality required to play up front in this league and hold your own ground, is a phenomenal challenge.

This boy is 17 and not a freak of nature like Jude Bellingham.

He might be tearing it up against other boys who give him space, to showcase his talent.....but he has a lot to prove to be a first teamer.

Never the less encouraging progress from him.

Agreed. Next season we should find a good loan for him.

9 hours ago, Tom13 said:

Digne has been good, and he's certainly a good player. But still, I'd have Moreno over him every single time. He's excellent.

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.

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. 

19 hours ago, sne said:

Watching the Copa Libertadores final this morning and Valentin Barco for Boca looked a really interesting prospect. 19 y.o LB/LM/LW or whatever (he was everywhere on the pitch  )

Quick google shows that the likes of Man C, Milan and obviously Chelsea are after him and I can see why. He's the type of signing I'd love for us to make.

We will need a good young attacking left back. Looks a good fit.

2 hours ago, fightoffyour said:

Still more effective than Bailey. Didn’t deserve to be pulled off at half time, especially given the replacement.

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.

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.

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.

9 hours ago, TomC said:

At the very least, McGinn, Bailey, Diaby, Watkins, Duran, Traore, Doug, Digne, Tielemans, and a healthy Buendia are all capable of it. They might not do it every time, but neither would Archer.

 

 

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.