briny_ear

Pretty poor match so far. Ajax are no great shakes and shouldn’t really present much of a threat. But we have been a bit passive with some sloppy stuff in midfield .Interesting to see what changes Emery will make. Think this may all be too early for Morgan. Bailey for Diaby.

2 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

Just listened to that Claret and Blue podcast with the finance guy.

So sounds like there has been slight meltdown over not much.

Basically, if we want to make big purchase we probably have to sell, but we are nowhere near doomed 

He intimated that after all the deductions our losses could come down to the 80 - 90 mill mark ( allowable is 105 ).

This is all without our expected new deals and hopefully Champs League money etc Al kicking in.

As we figure, the choice will be ours, do we prioritise keeping our best players and building further? Or do we cash in on players while their values are high and build Villa 2.0 ?

Also said ( As out owners and Heck etc have said ) Villa have, and are moving away from selling club status,  and we still have the room to make sure things happen on our terms.

I think the BBC reported this in a very ill-informed and misleading fashion and that may have helped fuelled the meltdown. Last time I looked, they are still raising it as if we are the next Everton/Nottm Forest, so they are still slightly embarrassing themselves.

1 hour ago, DJBOB said:

I think the key is that what we have (Unai) is what the other clubs are missing. Respect to Howe but he’s got a ceiling and Palace, Forest don’t seem to understand the manager is the critical part of maintaining sustainability. 
 
I believe that’s why NWSE pulled the trigger fast with Gerrard. They’re no Xia idiots and knew the upward trajectory had to continue immediately given the revenue and spend. I think that’s also why Deano got the sack and no time to turn it around. 
 
If we can make UCL for 3-4 years in a row, the combination of revenue, exposure, and commercial increases can make us competitive. 

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

Yep, realistically we need CL 3 years in a row and at least on one occasion need to make it to the knockouts.  That will then start to build some global recognition of Aston Villa which will then bring in the large sponsorship deals.

I hope very much the NSWE business plan isn’t expecting us to achieve CL football for the next 3-4 years continuously. There are about 8 clubs with a realistic chance and we can’t guarantee it will be us every year. We need to be able to build sustainably or another Xia-style crash is on the cards.

3 minutes ago, paul514 said:

It is an option but seriously, clear out the players that should be cleared out and sell one of our circa 100m pound player bring in 5 more and the whole situation is hunky dory. I posted this on the transfer thread a couple of weeks back with details. It is so obvious

I’m not convinced that “clearing out the players that should be cleared out” is quite as straightforward as you make it sound.

21 minutes ago, TRO said:

Another good rendition.

We all was Jas.....everybody was happy with that first half.

I could wax lyrical, until midnight, about some of our play this season.....its been scintillating at times....but I am slow, to state the obvious, because it is repeatedly stated...where defending seems to be the necessary evil.

but some of our defending, does need attention, and that's where, I think the conversation should be open.

Its as if we have to state the obvious, in order to qualify ourselves to debate the defending, in fear of being ungrateful or unappreciative.

 

We do need some perspective here.

We have the 5th equal best defensive record in the premier league and the 3rd equal best attacking record (equal with Man C), so I guess we must be doing something right. 

You wouldn’t think so to read some of the posts on Villatalk.

The team who have the fourth best defensive record are Man U who have conceded 36 but have only scored 36. And we are actually equal 5th with Everton who have conceded 37 and scored just 29 - we have scored more than double that.

I know which club I would rather be following.

I think there is a puzzle about why we often seem to start the second half so slow but I wonder if this is actually part of a plan to slow the game down and try to get a stranglehold on events. Unfortunately we may not have players good enough to play that way, so maybe that is where things are going a bit wrong.

But to claim we have some sort of defensive crisis at Villa seems a bit OTT.

Ok, got it. 

He is absolutely brilliant and we should sell him at the first opportunity.

Balanced.

I fancy a default of having Moreno on for the first half and Digne on for the second. 

He did OK. Difficult performance for him to come on as sub. I think he will be fine with Emery’s support.

Think it may be a matter of chance whether I have a stroke  or Villa seal a CL slot first. These last two matches have sent my blood pressure into new uncharted territory.

Sublime first half but I would like to know if Emery instructs them to play slow, passive football at the start of each second half or if the players have made this up by themselves. It just invites teams to score against us. 

Great performances from Watkins and McGinn, OK from everyone else, think Emery should have taken Moreno off sooner, he isn’t made for an ultra defensive game.

Worst performance from a referee I have seen in a long time.

Why didn’t Barkley ever play like that for us?

Great stuff, Lucas. Always love it when a VillaTalk whipping boy does well.

Very simple really. If you sit back and let a team attack you persistently for 30 mins, they are likely to score. 

Particularly against our own copyrighted brand of chaotic defending.

7 minutes ago, GingerCollins29 said:

Cannot believe their centre half not been booked for throwing ollie to the floor 3 times

He should bee off by now in my book.

We can’t be relying on teams like Palace to secure us a Champions League Place, now , can we? 

Fourth place us still ours to lose and the 10th March beckons!

4 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Oddly, although the notes don't give that impression in so far as I can tell - those at the meeting reported it as being conducted in quite a positive way and with a pretty open approach. 

In that case, it is an achievement of sorts to have produced meeting notes that seem entirely free of either positivity or openness.

12 minutes ago, Adam2003 said:

On the Football Ramble podcast they said if he moves it would be as the next £100m footballer - don’t want him to move but glad people are talking in respectful numbers about him 

£100m should be the starting point for the bidding war, not the conclusion.

On 25/02/2024 at 18:25, mjmooney said:

Yeah, what's the Basque for: "FFS, what is it with you **** ing fullbacks?"? 

 

Believing passionately that every question deserves an answer, I put this through Google translate, which came up with

Zoritxarrez, zer gertatzen da atzelari madarikatuekin?

However, when you translate this back into English, it comes out as 

Unfortunately, what about the damn defenders?

So I think we may not quite have got to the meat of this. 

Not sure how well my blood pressure is doing after that but in the end a clear enough win. That fourth place is starting to look like ours to lose.

Remedial classes needed in defending corners. Apart from that, a satisfactory performance. Looking forward to the Luton game.

Man U 1-Fulham 2

1 minute ago, stewiek2 said:

Commentators talking of 10-11 minutes added time in or game. How!? Seriously they are taking the piss now, especially as there's shitloads at Manure.

Long VAR check for the Man U goal

8 minutes ago, est1874 said:

The real stat we need to change is points gained from a losing position, as I'm pretty sure we're still closer to the bottom of that particular table.

We’re actually 5th best in the premier league on that one - 12 points gained from 12 deficits. Won 3, drew 3,  lost 6. Brighton, Spurs, Man C and Liverpool have done better.

Sanity restored (I hope).

4 minutes ago, matteyp said:

Why is our #6 listed 8th?

For that matter our #8 is listed 10th 

22 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said:

Obviously ideal, but their attack is the their strength and our defence is our weakness, so it is likely they will score. This game will have goals in it. Score first and we should win. 

We have the fourth best defensive record in the premier league* so let’s not talk ourselves down too much.

(*4th= actually - Everton have conceded the same as us but we have scored nearly twice as many goals ) 

Wonder why he’s being treated in Lyon? Doesn’t this make it harder for the club’s medical specialist to keep in touch with his progress?

Ajax are away to AZ on Sunday, so that should be a chance to assess how strong they are compared with a team we have already despatched.