Pez1974

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?

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

Tammy had 25 goals in 37 (0.67 goals per game), Archer has 9 goals in 17 (0.52 goals per game), not a huge difference.  If Archer had a full season, he'd be on roughly 20 goals, not a massive difference to what Tammy got for us that season.

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.

4 hours ago, burchy said:

I wonder if Luton come up via the play offs they’ll be interested in Marv as he seems to be doing great there at present.

As for Tim, I think he’s done enough in the first part of the season to get a lot of clubs interested in him next year, same for AJ.

Tim, top championship club, AJ promoted premier league club. Archer I’d keep and add to the squad (AJ too if we get Europe). 

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. 

22 hours ago, sne said:

 Ramsey, Iroegbunam and Archer makes 3 who could come in

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!

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!

3 hours ago, allani said:

I think Lange gets a lot of undeserved flak on here.  I think he's done a pretty decent job and most of our transfers over the last few years have been successful.  It wasn't his fault that FFP meant that to get from where we were under Bruce to where we are now we needed to recruit effectively two or three teams.  I would say that Emi, Mings, Luiz, Kamara and Watkins (in his current form) are five outstanding signings straight off the bat who represent incredible value for money (not sure how many Lange directly "recruited").  I think some people think that he should have been able to find 11 unknown players from the 3rd division of some a European league, signed them and seen them all turn into £60 million + players within 6 months.  Had Brighton signed the five players above I am sure that many on here would be exclaiming "Why is it always Brighton?  How comes we never sign those type of players?".  Brighton have made some exceptional signings but they have also signed plenty of duds - they're also the exception to the rule.  If you look at clubs who might be our direct competitors (Everton, West Ham, Leicester, Wolves, Newcastle) then our recruitment over the last 4 or 5 seasons in comparison to them has been pretty good.

That's not to say that we can't do better and the 3 guys mentioned above seem to have an excellent track record in Spain - so it will be interesting to see whether they can have similar success here (if they do indeed sign for us).  I suspect that the Spanish / South American market is going to be rich pickings for us over the coming windows given Emery's reputation and the fact that we've got a good core of young players in key positions doing well here already.  It will be much easier for players to adjust to a new club, new country, etc.

That said I would be surprised if Lange is moved out completely. 

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.

10 hours ago, pete101 said:

Still think a younger CB needs to brought in,

Both Mings and Carlos both now in 30s,

Just someone in early 20s that will push the lads we have

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. 

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

Muriqi wouldn't be the most exciting signing but would certainly offer something different to Watkins.  Could actually be a really effective plan B, with Moreno whipping in crosses for Muriqi to get on the end of.  If we were going for a target man type striker would rather have Mitrovic.

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. 

5 minutes ago, Mazrim said:

Martinez
Fresneda
Konsa
Mings
Moreno
Kamara
Luiz
Kamada
Bellingham
Mitoma
Watkins

Subs: Some Keeper or other, Carlos, Feeney, Cash, Iroegbunam, McGinn, Ramsey, Buendia, Bailey, Moukoko, Duran

What?

....what?

Yep - 11 subs. Can't do that. 

23 hours ago, paul514 said:

Here is one to keep the conversation flowing.....

If you had to buy 3 players from the bottom 8 teams so that excludes Palace as they 100% aren't going down now they have 33 points......

Who would they be bearing in mind what we need so not just the three best players?

I like these games, so much so I'm going for 3 positions, with options:

CM - Rice or Neves; perhaps Onana or Ward-Prowse if the price is right

AM - Johnson or Maddison

Wide - Bowen, Benrahma, Gibbs-White, Barnes or Gnonto at a push #(but what they want he isn't worth to us IMO).

Anyone for Alexis Mac Allister?

I really rate him - can play across the midfielder. We have a South American contingent, which can't hurt. And Brighton are a team would we would like to weaken if we are progress (which is amazing given their resources).

I'm sure others will be in for him - but we said that about Kamara. 

Fulham haven't been as good in recent weeks as they were earlier in the season - and now Mitrovic could be missing for a while! Might help.

3 hours ago, pas5898 said:

Best part of this deal for us, it to allow us to "bank" younger players from abroad who aren't yet eligible for a UK work permit. 

Enzo Fernandez when leaving River Plate most likely wouldn't have been eligible for a UK Work Permit, but signed for Benfica no problem. We can expand our scouting network for higher potential players who aren't quite good enough for the PL, but could do a job mid table in Portugal and we snap them up if they excel.

Perfect for us.

Absolutely this. Portugal (for reasons I haven't tried to look up) and Spain have always seemed able to have players who we couldn't in this country. From a business model perspective - it just makes a lot of sense. 

3 hours ago, duke313 said:

It's more than just an opinion though, three managers now have thought he's not ready for the Prem. Why do you think that is?  Do you think they just decided we aren't going to give this kid a chance just because? 

True - but perhaps unfair.

Under Smith, he was young, we were battling for points, Ollie was flying and/or Ings had just joined.

Gerrard was (a) a bell end and (b) had one tactic - full backs punt in crosses all game. Archer is (*checks various threads*) 3"6'? Not his game, but the Chelsea game in the cup shows he's capable.

Emery - this is the true test, but he needed game time in the second half of the season so the loan was right IMO.

Great news.

Guy's not perfect on the pitch, but he is off it.
Also - nowhere near as bad as the cesspool that is social media thinks he is.
The talk of him being 3rd/4th choice next year is also BS. We need 4 high quality CBs. If Carlos comes back but can't shift Mings and Konsa, this is a good thing as they've upped there game.

Not a legend yet - but is on the right path. 

On 02/02/2023 at 09:59, Bazmonkey said:

this window for me

from a business point of view....great...some money off the books...gets rid of some big earners.

But from a football view....very risky...smaller squad and relying on everyone staying fit and in the striker position....i.e Watkins....banging more goals than he has done before

Watkins is a 1 goal in 3 player, even when he was played out wide. If he can get 6-8 goals in the remainder of the season, with others chipping in as has been happening since Emery joined - we'll be doing great. 

People (not necessarily you) forget that although Ings had 6 goals in the PL this season - 2 were penalties. 

As you say - staying fit is key. 

58 minutes ago, maqroll said:

What do we get angsty about now?

Back to Phil Dowd for me.

Worst. Human. Ever.

3 minutes ago, duke313 said:

We signed two players though and got another recalled from loan.

Everton are joint bottom, and all their rivals have strengthened.  Buying and selling nobody would have been a better window than Everton. 

I was taking the pee. Not out of you - out of the "crisis" brigade