blunther

I think the draw logic is now the same as it's always been in this competition. We can beat any of them. We can have any of these teams whether two legs or one. We have a manager who is built for this. Let's win the word removed. 

5 hours ago, icouldtelltheworld said:

I'm superstitious!

I talked about booking a room in London when we drew Bradford over two legs, but didn't. Look how that turned out.

So I've got flights and hotel booked for this one!

8 minutes ago, mole86 said:

I’ve got hotel room booked, free to cancel, and a BA Reward flight booked that will only cost £30 to cancel should we get knocked out

That's my plan too! Guess I better get on it. 

Couldn't get on last night due to the volume, and now it's under maintenance. I did actually manage to order something once, a villa hoodie. But had to pick it up from the club shop and never got round to it. 

14 minutes ago, GlobalVillan said:

Way less than that most likely.

 

Wouldn;t be surprised if it was more like 5k.

I wonder if it's possible that they know that 50k is basically maxed out and the fan experience of getting in and out will be shit, so they're having one last look around for a site for a new ground before committing to VP.

**** hell, just pick a badge and stick with it, preferably for ever, and stop **** around.

We all like the old circle badge. It did the job. Bring it back and never change it again. It's so silly. Or just keep this one now it's here and everyone will get used to it. Whatever, just stop **** about

13 hours ago, S-Platt said:

Because we clap attendance announcements at Villa Park.

I mean that's a fair point, it's **** stupid.

3 hours ago, sne said:

The aim isn't to make the Saudi league the best in the world. It's to have a number of big name Saudi clubs who get to compete in the Super League and to break up the structure of European football. FIFA very much loves this idea.

I mean if clubs like Man City and Newcastle end up **** off to play in some arsehole league in some arsehole country somewhere, then I'd find that quite funny. Let all the glory hunting lads in other countries go and support their favourite player in the Saudi Super league or whatever, and we'll get on with the proper football.

18 hours ago, brommy said:

 

My wife and I caught the train from Barnt Green to/from Aston with no waiting or overcrowding so I suspect the traffic delays were caused by not enough people using public transport.

 

Surprised at that - went to the train station after the gig and the queue for the platform back towards town/barnt green was as far as the eye can see. Way worse than a matchday, and I'd be surprised if most of the crowd even managed to get on a train ebfore they stopped running. You must have got out quick!

3 hours ago, sidcow said:

Villa Park regularly had crowds of 50,000 in the 70's and 80's 

I don't understand why its seen as such a massive problem. 

Far more people relying on Public Transport in those days too. 

Probably a lot more local foot traffic back in the day, and more people using buses as roads weren't completely congested, as well as local pubs people would head to before/after. Seems demographic changes as well as costs of running a pub have put paid to local pub trade, 20 days a year isn't enough to sustain a boozer when a lot of the locals don't drink. 

2 hours ago, NeilS said:

I am not sure to be honest. I just recall it being mentioned from the results of the fan questionnaire that there were issues with the station and it being dangerous to catch a train out after the match due to crowding. The train won't help everyone, but every little bit that can be improved will hopefully have a knock on effect.

This is my worry with the increase. The difference getting out between the old days of 35k and 42k is massive. It's like 40k is the threshold at which the transport network just breaks down. 50k+ could be miserable. While a bigger station gives more room to queue, unless we can get extra trains put on it's not going to help much, and I think the train thing is well beyond AVFC or BCC to fix.

Personally I think NSWE need to take a leaf from Xia's book and build a massive rollercoaster into town as an alternative public transit option.

2 hours ago, NeilS said:

Yes I think we could easily go ahead and just start to build the new stand. I do think the club are very aware of the transport issue getting worse as a result. Therefore I reckon we are just holding fire on announcing a start date to keep the pressure on the council to agree to stump up funding on their part for the station which will ease match day traffic and improve the links into the area. That is why we saw the article I posted yesterday where Cllr Lee Marsham and Cllr John Cotton are highlighting the financial benefits of the outlay to the wider area if we win the bid for the Euros. A clear message of £30m outlay now could bring over £100m to the local economy in the near future.

Not sure improving the station will help transport issues that much, unless there are extra trains and I thought the bottleneck with that was New Street?

1 minute ago, Mic09 said:

I can have a decent sized bet he won't be a wreck. 

Okay, a wreck is hyperbole. But to play into your 30s at the top level you need to take pretty good care of yourself. Knock 10% off his sharpness and performances and he'd just be someone dialling it in for big wages. If we're going to have older players I want them to be consummate professionals. 

Obviously this could just be his one big pissup for a near unprecedented feat, but stick it with the other pissups we've seen, the drink-driving and the knowledge that to do a session that long you pretty much have to be on the beak, and I'd put money on him not having a particularly long career at the top.

22 hours ago, UpTheVilla26 said:

I think there is a fine line between celebrating by having a few and acting the fool to what Jack is doing. To do it for basically 3 days straight and end up in the state he's in, isn't a good look for himself or his club. 

People seem to be lapping his behaviour up, 'Jack the lad' and all that but I think it's a bit embarrassing. He clearly loves being centre stage and while the fans & media stand by watching, goading him on, he's playing up to it even more. 

I think he has a very unhealthy relationship with drink. He is clearly a binge drinker and we only see snippets of that, usually post-season, if he's got something to celebrate. It's already led him into breaking the law in the past and all I see is a bloke who is going to run into health problems, sooner rather than later, who's career won't stand the test of time due to this. 

As others have said, life is to be enjoyed and excellence should be celebrated but you can do that without coming across as a binge drinking clown. 

This is why I don't get it when people think we might take him back in a couple of years. He'll be a wreck by then. Not having him back just for one last sentimental payday thanks.

1 hour ago, turvontour said:

Why would the team not performing put a dent in the waiting list? I think relegation probably would. But not bottom half football. There was 25k on the waiting list before Emery joined and we probably had an average league position of about 19th in the premier league over the last 5 years 

Because during the Lambert years we never sold out, and I recall plenty of sub 30k games those years.

Yeah that's the same.

14 hours ago, Thug said:

https://fbref.com/en/comps/9/nations/Premier-League-Nationalities

57% of the players in the premier league are foreign.

We’ve been buying football for 3 decades.

"We" invented the game, invented league football and have a historic pyramid right to grass roots. We didn't buy football. You should know that being a villa fan. 

3 hours ago, Genie said:

One of these big transfers will go sour. Someone will get done for touching a woman’s arse in public or want to leave the country and they can’t because they handed over their passport.

Money talks, I imagine the footballers they're signing will be allowed to touch whoever they want without repercussions. After all, they're just women out there, mere possessions.

10 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said:

Plastic football in a plastic (albeit gold wrapped) country.

They can buy players, shit, they can buy associations and tournaments but they can’t buy culture, good luck creating that.

Exactly. Why can't countries like this create something of their own instead of just buying it. Armpit of the world.

Surprised. Expected him to stay if we got conference league. Shame. 

2 hours ago, desensitized43 said:

Meslier??? You must be joking.

He's only a babby for a keeper, reckon he's got potential to learn from the best. Some good experience for his age. 

First thing we need to look for now we have Europe is a competent second keeper. We should be able to offer some decent cup minutes so be able to get someone half decent. I dont know if he'd come to be second choice but I'd be making an offer for the Leeds keeper as a young understudy to play in the cups.