Pez1974

Astonishing. And it should have been better. Everyone was brilliant. Even conceding 2, I thought the defensive effort was great - they just went gung ho, and with the talent they've got, they we're always going to score. The players never stopped - which kills off the argument that Dean should've played a better team against Stoke. That's the standard, now.

Holy **** shit. Amazing. Don't **** it up.

I get your point, but the concept of Liverpoo having 2 players test positive, and them not testing the rest of the squad endlessly and allowing them to infect another team is something even the PL can't get wrong, could they? With no fans, they need these games being on, and I'm sure if we lost players due to ineptitude like this, there would be lawyers involved. On the same note; I'm checking twitter every 5 minutes expecting (hoping?) for the next one of theirs to fall ill. I think football makes me a bad person.

Sorry - Fulham. Long week!

Don't know why people think Traore should play instead of Trez - "New players are better than the current ones" syndrome? Trez works his arse off, which we'll need. And Traore mishit a goal and looked anonymous last night. Much better as an impact sub right now, until he's properly up to speed and can fight for his place on merit. Same with Barkley for me. Players not knowing the system and their team mates can cost a team goals, and we don't want heads to drop after (for example) Conor's performance last week. Same 11 as the Brighton game for me, but suddenly we have decent options on the bench. Except in defence.

What this guy said. I think the loan policy is probably sensible and pragmatic, and probably slightly more complex than a headline or tweet. Barkley - prime age and ability, lets have him. Give's Ramsey a year to develop and us another year to avoid FFP problems. But we'll develop our own kids, not other teams.

I still don't rule out more forward signings. To occupy the 3x midfield slots we have Barkley, McGinn, and Luiz as first choice (I presume), with Conor/Nakamba on the bench. Jack could also come into it. It's a busy season, so rotation will help with energy levels and avoiding injuries. That seems pretty good, and means that Ramsey can get a loan out to start regularly, probably in the Championship. In the front 3x clots, we have Watkins, Jack and presumably Traore as first choice, with Trez, Davis and AEG back up. Ditto on rotation. Add (for example) Rashica into that list, and you have more rotation of players, and better substitute options in the front 3, and would probably sell AEG. This is the modern game. Sounds OK to me.

Barkley has 3 years left on his contract. RLC has 4 years left. So neither would be cheap to buy; both are somewhat inconsistent (more so with injuries for RLC), and both are on big wages (~Barkley £100k pw; on about £60k pw). We could perhaps just about afford either, but I feel the sorta money we're talking could go further elsewhere. But I trust the club knows a lot more than me!

The fact that he's now looking like the weakest link in our team means we've progressed quite a lot - early on last season, he was one of the better players. I think he gets some unfair criticism though - if his positioning was so 'wrong' in the eyes of management, they would be all over him during the game (you can hear them shouting now no fans are in the game), and they'd be correcting it on the training ground, or dropping him. They clearly see/know something I don't. He needs to improve quite significantly this season though, or he'll possibly be the next Guilbert/AEG - at best squad players and a lot less involved, so as we improve further, they'll be gone.

And the Boggies. Getting in Ivanovic and talk of Adebayor. If Covid gets worse, some of their squad might have to isolate.

Exactly this. People are already starting to identify the relegation candidates (Fulham, Boggies, Sheff Utd, Burnley), and those who 'could get dragged in' (West Ham, Newcastle, Southampton, Brighton) - and we're not in there at the moment. Add the fact we've got through 2x cup games by playing pretty much a 2nd 11 in both games (albeit against lower league teams, who have also made changes), and could be through the quarters by Friday - so 2 games from another trip to Wembley. We just look a more attractive proposition to any player than we were a month ago. I also think that the club don't leak stories, but aren't against using the media tactically to get what we want. I was never convinced we really wanted Wilson or King, and we got Watkins over the line a day or 2 later. Same with all the talk about Romero (and these weren't lazy rumours - they came from people who do know stuff, particularly at the Man U end), and we end up with Martinez. Suddenly we want Barkley or Loftus-Cheek - I'm not convinced given wages and our apparently being against loans without a buy option, or in an emergency, and it could be smoke screen to get another deal done. Or maybe Chelsea will let us have Barkley for a year free of charge to apologise for Drinkwater.

Definitely started better this season. In my opinion, it's his shirt to lose. Traore will have to wait for his chance, and take it when it arrives (which I'm sure he will at some point over the next few weeks).

Great result. Being 2-0 after 15 minutes basically meant this became another pre-season game for us. The stats might show them having possession, but we just let them have the ball where we wanted, and it killed the game. No need to rush on Traore, just get him a few minutes and let him build fitness further on Thursday. The fact that we've coasted, and (hopefully) after Thursday will be in the quarter's of the league cup; undefeated in the league, players are fighting for places, our new signings are looking the part, we have no new injuries and we have defensive confidence is an amazing start to the season. utv

Right team and bench in my opinion. Really hope Ramsey comes on and does something; maybe save us a few quid! Traore might cause chaos for the last 20 minutes. Looking at the Fulham team - I barely know any of them. And their fans don't seem happy with the line up, which will do for me. 5 at the back it seems, with wing backs.

Earns? About £2.50. Paid - £40k a week. https://www.spotrac.com/Premier League/aston-villa-fc/payroll/ https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/every-aston-villa-players-2019-21248170 https://futballnews.com/aston-villa-players-2019-2020-weekly-wages-salaries-revealed/ https://footballleaguefc.com/aston-villa-2019-20-player-wages/ (personally, I think this one is the least reliable of the 4 quoted) Not saying these sites are perfect, but you can check the totals against the company accounts, and as long as the figures are consistent across the different years of a players contract, then the are about right.

Bit of a weird response. When someone leaves - there's no harm in being kind. What they did is the least possible effort, and people notice. As a lot of people have if you read the response. If he has mates at the club, they will notice too. For the sake of 5 minutes writing, the club might have just left a couple of players a bit pissed off for their mate.

That's poor. Makes you think something has gone on behind the scenes. We need to be better than this. Not a leaving video but a short (obviously!) bio of his time with him, and some other niceties, plus a couple of pics and maybe a quote from the manager?

How'd you work that out? From reports, it could be about £2m in fee we've lost, plus about £0.6m in wages (which we'd have had to pay for someone) Given he was a replacement for Kodija - who the reported fee (transfermarkt.com) for was £2.7m, plus his wages for 6 months - our position in the end might actually be better than it would have been! Obviously, bringing in the right player would have been preferable, but the price for them in January might have been a lot more.

Loving this new cup competition. Acts as pre-season friendlies/keep fit games for the second 11. Nothing more at this stage. Some players did all they could though.

€7m reported - about £6.4m. Reported we bought him for £8.5m on a 4.5 year deal. Given Covid and only 2 goals, that doesn't seem too bad. For FFP purposes, that's just under a £1m loss on the deal (we would have depreciated about £1.25m of his contract during his 8 months with the club, which is normal, and the Kodija sale would have covered this).

We know who we want. We know who we want out. And the outgoings will dictate how we approach the last positions. Why take King for £20m (for example) if a couple of leavers mean we can afford Edouard? Clubs are still wanting and waiting for big fees, which may move downwards as we approach the end of the window.

This. Although for a team that plays with wingers and attacking full backs, the fact that we think we need a quality set piece taker on the bench (a view I agree with) is pretty damning on the first 11.

I'd go for the Traore's. Because we've already started. Oh yeah - forgot him.

Some first choice players look like they need matches - esp. McGinn, and probably Traore. Some back-up players will also need minutes in case they're needed - maybe Hause. The club will have all the metrics, so will know whether playing will help them or hinder them. This will just be another glorified friendly, with the team being based on what is best for the Fulham game. We are likely to care far more about trying to be 6 points from 2 league games, than we are about getting through to the next round.

We're all entitled to our opinions, but the vast majority on here seem really happy with this. Perhaps a comparison to Emile Heskey is fair in the circumstances? He was a 1 in 5 striker over his career (1 in 10 for us!), and 1 in 4 at his best for Leicester and Liverpoo. And he got 62 caps for England over a period of 11 years. He played 4 years for Liverpool - not their best team, but he won stuff. He also played 2 years for SHA, so he wasn't that good either. One might think he wasn't deserving of all of this, but many people far more knowledgeable about the game than I saw his worth. If Keinan started 38 games a season, would I think he'd get 8-10 goals (i.e. 1 in4/5)? Yeah, maybe. And with more development it'd be more likely.(I'm not saying this is good enough for this team). He may have 5 in 68 now, but how many of them were off the bench, for the last 15 minutes? What is his goals per 90 minutes? I have hope. But not expectation. And if he improves only a bit, we could probably sell him for £20m to Brentford