Pez1974

I see JJ as being the left forward in the team in a 433. Agreed in a 442 (or variations) he counts, but that begs the question why the stats from elsewhere aren't close to similar. I think that we agree that as amazing as the last few months have been - to take a proper next steps the squad which seems to defend brilliantly as a group need to start contributing similarly at the other end.

What confuses me about Villa Talk (and why I love it) is some of the directly conflicting info. A lot of people seem to count our midfield as settled for next year - with Luiz, Kamara and McGinn. And most people agree we need more goals. Those 3 have a total of 6 league goals. We need a lot more than that from the midfield 3 - and can't rely scoring from corners, and Forster not saving a free kick which is pretty much in the middle of the goal. Add to that, our defence combined has scored 3 goals - including a free kick and a deflection. More needed from there too. I know the system we play is critical to who scores, but I think that all spots are up for grabs. As they should be.

Yep - Deano going to Leicester changed that for me. Didn't really care who before.

Yep, but I think the context here is huge. We've shifted Ings - huge earner. £6m a year if Spotrac are to be believed. Probably why we took a risk on selling our only reserve striker. Add the difference in prize money for finishing 7th rather than 14th - £15m additional a year. There's some overpaid stuff in the squad - Olsen (£4m!); Digne (£8.5m - good player but can't pay that for a back up LB); Countinho (£6.5m); Dendoncker (£4.5m) - add Traore (£4m), Nakamba (£1.5m), Sanson (£2.5m); Davis (£2m); Wesley (£1.8m) - there's a lot of scope to trim the wage bill, perhaps a few will go to promoted sides, Saudi, or through contracts being up. Going to be hard to shift them all. All the salaries are from Spotrac - but seem in line with reports. The cost of doing bad business is huge - get that right we're flying., which is what Brighton and Brentford seem to do. Europe makes the difference too. Even the conference league is €3 for taking part, plus €0.5m per win - and up to €5m for winning. Do well and it's €10m+, plus the TV rights and money we make from games - you could cover your £25m here alone with a good run. Europa league is a step up again - could be £40m all told with a run to the latter stages.

This has to be garbage. Barca desperately need to shift players - why would they agree a blanket ban, especially given their statement that they cannot compete with us on finances. Bit like us wanting to get rid of Matt Targett, but refusing to do business with Newcastle!

A bit better at set pieces that Dougie.A lot worse at everything else. Don't think we'd spend the money it would take to make the team no better. As others have said - Newcastle. But WHam is a good call too in those circumstances.

All I need for this summers transfer window is Villa Report, and alcohol. No idea what's gonna happen. There's going to be some disappointments. But it's going to be fun. And - the adults seem to be in charge now!

I don't get the ongoing hatred for Purslow from some. He's clearly doing a decent job - Nassef in particular doesn't suffer fools (and I doubt Edens would be far behind). Under his watch, we've got promoted, survived, and seem to be building something special. He isn't a born Villa fan - but professionally he is. That's fine by me. If Deano was bringing Leicester to Villa Park and needed a win to stay up - would Leicester fans be worried he was a Villa fan? No. Gerrard was a mis-step - but was it all his? Plus, quite a lot of Villa fans - putting aside the loss of Deano - were excited. It didn't work, and he was binned. It happens. And wow have we moved on well! And without Gerrard, we may not have got Kamara - who I think will be amazing for us for years. It's not all bad. Just largely. He made sure we got good money for Jack - I can imagine others being weak here. Even we were laughing at £100m! And at the time, his handling of that was applauded by many. I get some may not take to him - but overall he's done bloody well for us in my opinion.

Maybe the owners is a bigger factor than we're recognising - perhaps the single biggest of all, by quite a distance. The ownership in Spain looks mad - worse than here. Almost like the President is elected based on who can promise the most believable bull shit imaginable. Then look at ours. Not steeped in controversy. Not scum bags. Just good people doing a great job and keeping their word. Maybe Nassef just spoke to him and told him the truth about their plans. When you are surrounded with bull shit, the truth can have a quite an effect.

Remember - Kessie was a free transfer. His transfer value was what, €50m, when he left AC Milan? That 250k a week is £65m over 5 years, when he was a freebie. Sounds OK in that context, if your figures are right. I don't think a DoF at Barca is judged on his ability to sign top players - I could do that; its Barcelona. I think its much more in the nuance about getting the right players across the squad, at the right prices, at the right time.

This is fairly astonishing. You can't ignore that Barca are in a bit of a mess (despite going to win the league), and that outside of the PL and a few very rich clubs, football seems to be in a bit of a mess financially - so the financial comments about Barca can't compete is (in my opinion) probably more to do transfer budget and player salaries, than his own salary. But....this shows massive ambition, and will surely provide that boost in the transfer market this summer. Players may now look at Villa differently compared to what we'd expect - this shows we mean business. Add Unai, our recent form, and the all round attraction of the PL. We are clearly on the up.

I am genuinely confident of 6th. Liverpool will get 5th. Spurs are falling apart, and if we beat them, I am sure we'll get more points in our other games than them. Brighton have the games, but losing to Forest is an example of how their games will go. Again, we need to beat them at home, but suspect by then a draw will be enough. We have momentum over these teams, and although the games look tough - they are probably more worried about us.

He's a strange one for me. Clearly there's some real talent, and the goal against Liverpool in the cup showed ability and composure. But - he's had 4 loans now, and it isn't quite clicking. I suspect good coaching is required, which is hard to get in League 2. Fingers crossed something clicks. There's a player in there somewhere.

They seem to be a bit down, despite winning at Wembley, and have a lot of injuries, and players carrying a knock. There is apparently fan protest happening Sunday too. And they've had a lot of games, so may be off it a bit As a Villa fan - this usually gives me false hope and we get tonked 4-0. But Unai seems to come into his own when we don't have to take the game to the opposition - at least with the current crop of players.

Our squad is paper thin. We have a guy who is 38 in a couple of months playing right back, with most of the 11 playing every game. But we are full of confidence, and the last 2 games have showed that we can get 4 points, from tough games, that we'd have previously probably got 1 from. This is why we have hit 5th; this is why Unai is a genius; and this is how most teams get to the end of a successful season. Arsenal have 3 points from their last 3 games, and will probably lose tonight, and with it blow the title. We are funding a way. Not pretty, but pretty effective. And when we're all in Albania at the end of July, remember that!

It's amazing what he's done. At the beginning of April, we'd been stuck in 11th for s few weeks, and were playing Chelsea. If we'd lost, we'd probably finish 11th. And I think many of us would have taken that. We're 5th. With a few injuries. And a few pundits have actually talked about us sneaking in the top 4. We won't but what he has done with this squad is simply amazing. I know others have games in hand, but that hard, and the games aren't all easy. Brighton have 9 games in less than 5 weeks - and only Wolves aren't fighting for something out of who they play. And they have to come to Fortress Villa Park. Spurs are a mess - so could go either way. And they have to come to Fortress Villa Park. Liverpool can't defend (but do have a decent run of fixtures, except 1 ) Does 6th give a UEFA cup place, given who is in the FA Cup final?

Also - Tammy took the penalties. Got to adjust for that. I think he scored 6 - so that kinda evens it out. And Archer hasn't started every game, as they have the leagues highest scorer in their team, and came in during the January transfer window, so needed to get up to speed. Different sort of players, but I think the comparison is very fair and on balance, Archer comes out very well.

Yep - it does seem like our loan system is getting better at finding the right clubs. In the past, too many got too little game time - not now.

This 100% They may not be starters - but they have to be able to make the squad most weeks. Their performances are the type that if they didn't play for us we'd be saying to go buy them!

Are a few seriously writing this guy off? He is young, he is learning, and he is doing OK. His side are struggling, and have had a change of manager and a total change of style. Norwich fans thought AJ was useless for the first half of the season - Boro think he's the second coming. At such young ages, these players sometimes just 'kick in' - its the experience they need. Anyone need reminding of that photo of Harry Kane sitting on the Leicester bench when he was 20, in the Championship. Scoring 2 in 13 games. And sitting next to a 26 year old Jamie Vardy, who got about 1 goal during this period.

This ties up the top 4 - unless Man Utd have a meltdown. Spurs and Liverpool players aren't going to break themselves to play in the Europa conference. Ours and Brighton's will. We have a chance at 5th, but am now expecting us to finish at wort 7th, ahead of Spurs. We have this in our own hands given how many of us have to play each other, and we play 2 of these at home. Just want Brighton to win today and make the FA Cup final, which hopefully will make the last game of the season an easier one for us (couple of heavy early challenges will do it, I reckon )

These are the games Unai seems to be able to get results from - but historically we always struggled to. I think he will outcoach Frank, and that will be the difference. Beat them, and we're 10 points clear of them with 6 games to go, which probably means we can't finish worse than 8th (just don't lose to Fulham!). And that would be amazing. And if we keep winning, then we're applying the pressure to Brighton, Liverpool, Spuds, and maybe even Man Ure and Newcastle - with a lot of games between these teams to come. Pressure and the end of season 'on the beach' mentality can make weird things happen. Some news outlets are now asking if we can make the top 4 - which would be just ridiculous!

I'd go even further. We don't know the recruitment set up and who exactly does what. Identifying Watkins, Kamra, Emi is probably the easy bit. We know from the Cutler interview that he pushed for Emi - credit has to go for looking at the stats, taking on board advice which was different, assessing the market and actually making the right choice. But this role has to balance the budget, and take the best action possible. We got rid of Ings in January - and it's worked beautifully. If it hadn't, we'd be going crazy! And sometimes doing nothing is the right answer, no matter the noise it creates. It also has to look after the club at all levels. If Feeney, Kerr, Wilson, Kellyman are all in the first team squad in a few years - Lange and the team would be well down the list of people taking credit, but I'd imagine they we heavily involved in that success (along with Harrison and the rest of the youth set up). They have a massive wide ranging role - I suspect most of us think only about the most visible 1% on any given day.

Probably depends on how quickly they expect the likes of Feeney, Kerr, Swinkels, and perhaps Bogarde (although he seems to be playing CM on loan) to come through. I always thought that getting Carlos made so much sense at his age, as it bought us 3-4 years to get these guys up to speed, with 1 or 2 seasons of loans.

I understand why - but the man is an arsehole. We don't need people like that around. Look at Man U since Ronaldo (and perhaps Pogba) left - sometimes the best players can be toxic, and you are better off without them.