Cizzler

16 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

If Ipswich don't play him, recall him. He's too good for them. Benching him is taking the piss.

If he's good enough to play, he'll play - how on earth is it taking the piss.

33 minutes ago, tomav84 said:

if there was anything untoward, i.e. with a bust up etc then he wouldn't be still involved with the club. if he's going to the youth academy that says it's his decision to take a part time role (which presumably the academy is)

why must everyone read so much into every single thing

dean smith has given lovely statements to both ROK and JTs departures. there's nothing dodgy here.

The statement on the website says he's "departing Aston Villa" - doesn't say anything about the youth academy. 

If this was planned, it wouldn't be two days before our first fixture - so I think there is something to read into. I just hope it's not upsetting personal news, or anything of that nature. 

5 hours ago, CVByrne said:

Why would Smith tell the opposition how we are setting up? He doesn't want them to know if a player will miss a game so it doesn't help opposition preparation. So he has an advantage here as they won't know how we'll set up and what team

The questions I was asking our club reporter to ask are literally no different to the one's Smith has just answered in an interview with Sky Sports.

Link to article

e.g. to my Ings/Watkins question: ""Watkins hasn't played wide for a couple of years," says Smith. "I didn't bring him in to play there. He scored 26 goals for Brentford playing as a centre-forward in the Championship and came to us and got 16 goals also as a centre-forward - so no, I don't envisage him out there".

2 hours ago, Fairy In Boots said:

Wanted Jack in a team that spent large periods on top rather than counter attacking cut and thrust football. Southgate is tactically inept anyway his opinions are gibberish 

Why would that be the case when Southgate deliberately sets England up to counter attack any time they play top quality opposition. Sorry but your post is just nonsense.

Not sure Southgate benefits at all from this move. He’s never liked playing him, I think it’s personal (but maybe also tactical to an extent) however Jack signing for the British transfer record only increases the pressure to pick him.

3 hours ago, villa4europe said:

Good player no doubt but I think exciting is something else that's hard to pin down

Sterling would be another example for England or City, maybe bernardo too and of course foden, foden should end up being a better player, better stats too but he's never going to go on the kind of run Jack made vs Rotherham, Leeds, Burnley or arsenal

That's why these gazza comparisons were thrown out there, he has that maverick element to him that's incredibly watchable 

Just not true - Foden’s a quality, quality dribbler. Look at his goal vs. France U21 

At 30 seconds in.

Foden and Mahrez are two of the most exciting players on the ball in the PL.

13 minutes ago, Tayls said:

Tad concerned by our prep for this season. Some cancelled games due to Covid which we can’t do much about, but other prem teams have been playing each other, where as we have had a couple of games against championship sides and a recently promoted serie A side… we haven’t even seen half of the new signings yet? 
 

Really weird prep… I hope it doesn’t impact our start as we really benefited from early wins last season. 

Yep, not been an ideal pre-season at all. On top of what you have said, JT left after a few days and Smith was isolating for at least a week.

2 minutes ago, ender4 said:

To replace Kane?

The stuff I read suggested not, and Spurs wanted Kane and Martinez to play together (but I guess all the Buendia stuff was about him playing with JG too...).

However the deal looks further away than I thought when I wrote that. As @VillaChris said above, doesn't look like Martinez is massively keen. Spurs looking like less of a pull than in years gone by...

2 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

You're probably right and in all honesty I think it's sensible to blood the newbies carefully. I'd be surprised if Bailey gets straight in having never trained with us yet.

Ings will start, I'm sure of it, emi2 too if fit.

Maybe I'm being over sentimental about Ash but he has looked great pre season and he looks fir enough for it. Hope he gets minutes.

I agree, be surprised if Bailey makes the bench at Watford at this point.

Young has looked good, I would love to see him LW again for a few games. I know Watkins played there a few times for Brentford but his best season by far is when he was moved centrally. I'm not sure he's a winger at this level - great striker though.

29 minutes ago, Phil Silvers said:

Agree and I think Ings will be on the left interchanging with Ollie. Bailey on the right.

From what I've seen today, I'd go a 3 behind of Ash, SJM(holding) Emi2.

Back 5 pick themselves.

Not being rude, but that midfield 3 would get destroyed. Has Ashley Young ever played CM? Buendia CM and McGinn holding seems very lightweight.

It seems like we’re just shoe-horning our best players/new signings in.

I don’t think we should change shape and I think it should be Ings or Watkins. Buendia has always played his best football on the right for Norwich too.

RM is Buendia/ Traore 
CAM is McGinn/ Sanson/ Chuk
LM is Bailey/ El Ghazi/ JPB

26 minutes ago, blandy said:

Sad for him. I hope he fares better than poor Freddie Bouma who did the same.

Didn't look nearly as bad as Bouma's to be fair. Robinson walked off, rather than stretchered. 

Hope he gets fit soon anyway.

21 hours ago, VillaChris said:

Spurs attacking options if Kane is unavailable for next weekend v Man. City:

Son

Bergwijn

Lucas Moura

Dele Alli

That's it baring a 17 year old striker they also have.

Nuno going to park the bus even more v them than Mourinho.

Vital we get off to a good start as think Spurs will have a pretty slow start to the season.

Looks like Martinez is coming in for £60m. That'll help.

On 06/06/2021 at 21:27, useless said:

I was looking on a Coventry forum recently and they were talking about him being easily their best player and fearing another side might try and buy him. If you look at his seven assists I think six of them came in the new year which showed he improved as the season went on. If he adds goals to his game could become a £10m plus player.

We haven't been great previously at getting transfer money for academy products (JG aside...). 

Liverpool sold Harry Wilson for £12m this summer, he's a year older than O'Hare. I'm sure they milked him for loan fees too. Sometimes I think we've sometimes been a bit too quick to let players go.

1 minute ago, Stevo985 said:

What formation are we playing today?

 

3 at the back or 4-4-2?

or Watkins wide?

Was definitely 4-4-2 first half.

1 minute ago, AV82 said:

Big fan of Ings so far.

Also am I missing something? I don't see Konsa with the armband.

Did the pre-match coin toss with the ref.

1 minute ago, Farlz said:

Is that Konsa captain? 

Yep. Seems strange with Mings in the XI.

2 minutes ago, sidcow said:

I swear to god, I was just singing the Tuanzebe song to myself and the notification of his arrival popped up. 

Sing the Messi song 

2 hours ago, av1 said:

Look I know it was only a training season and I’m not daft enough to take an awful lot from it, but watching him today down VP he looked just like the guy that left all those years ago. 
 

When he signed I thought great back up in the fullback position, but just watching him today makes me think we might see him more often than I initially thought. Not suggesting he’ll start week in week out, but he isn’t a “emergency only” guy like Elmo or Taylor. 

He looks for as a fiddle and still has that class. 

Reckon he could start at LW? 

Traore, Bailey and Buendia all prefer the right. Ings and Ollie both prefer the middle. Who else is there bar El Ghazi?

Especially as Buendia has a knock, Bailey nowhere to be seen and Ings has only just arrived… it does make me wonder if Ash could start the season there. 

Is he even in the U.K. yet? Wasn’t at VP today as far as I can tell. What’s the hold up?

Looks unlikely to be in the frame for Watford.

24 minutes ago, Killeen30 said:

I remember that interview I think after a game. He was saying what we all knew, however of course he shouldn’t have said it. He was suckered into it by the interviewer, gave the answer naively and quickly.

It was during a podcast with the Irish newspaper, The Southern Star.

7 minutes ago, Johnnyp said:

I don’t fella. I just don’t get the hate for a guy who’s literally turning up for work, pre season camp. I said he won’t be here when the season starts. 

I haven't insinuated I hate him. My comment was "I can't believe he's still here" and was directed at our lack of outgoing transfer activity, more than anything. 

He's copping some minor flak in here because he's posting drooling emojis on a public forum on a highly emotive topic. It was obviously going to touch some nerves when it's quite raw at the moment. It's not helped by the fact that he's previously ran to the media and declared Jack needs to leave us.

9 minutes ago, PeterSw said:

Don't get what the issue is here. Just sounds like people getting on his back for the sake of it. Hopefully the people commenting will also be having a go at Cash, Konza, McGinn etc. for their social media posts.

I'm sure it will be forgotten in a week. Don't remember any of the others drooling at Jack leaving - but I agree it's trivial.

1 minute ago, est1874 said:

League One?

Surely he's good enough already to play Championship football at least.

Grealish went to a worse team in League One, was scrapping relegation at 18 with Notts County. Ipswich will be aiming for play-offs.

Barry has a lot of development to do physically (as Jack did at the same age) - I think this would be a great move for him. 

3 minutes ago, turvontour said:

Really like the sound of that. Is that league 1 ye?

Yep, Ipswich will be aiming to finish in the top 6 in League One. Really good move for him if he can earn a place in the starting XI.

7 hours ago, Johnnyp said:

No need for this. Scored almost 25 league goals for us, bought for peanuts. He’s literally turning up for work at the moment. It’s pre season. Of course he’ll move on. 

Not sure why you have any sentiment towards him, it’s clearly not reciprocated.

His 25 league goals are irrelevant. He’s not good enough and I’m shocked he’s still here. Hope he never plays another minute.