pas5898

For all the laughs and jokes Chelsea are a young, naive yet talented team. Apart from around 20 minutes (down to 10 men), they've outplayed us 3 games this season. We need to be really on it (crowd included) Saturday night to beat them.

foo.king.empty

Trump (if he wins) will fly to Kyiv and Moscow. Draw a line on the map and end the war with the threat of direct American involvement if they don't. The next few months dictates where they line is drawn.

Morgan Rodgers success has been extremely telling. Unai clearly has a game plan and very specific attributes he looks for, then can mold that into a good player. I expect Moreno / Rodgers out of the blue type signings who might not be the "best players" but attributes fit perfectly into our style.

Wouldn't be surprised if he turned down Liverpool. Whoever goes there next is going to fail. Even our Lord and savior Unai was (unfairly) perceived to have failed after following Wenger, Moyes same after Fergie etc. Same will happen whoever follows Klopp.

I normally sit in the Holte, but sat in the corner of the lower north near the Trinity as it was my sons first game. They started many of the chants which the North stand caught onto, and in time I think will give a good full ground atmosphere. Normally, the North stand waits for a really loud Holte to get involved, whereas it was more proactive yesterday. Give it a few months I think it will be a vital bridge for a full stadium atmosphere and not just the Holte starting everything. Full credit, keep on going!

We should've kept Danny Ings.

He will stay unless offered the Barca or Real Madrid job. Think that's what Guillherm Ballague said that in a podcast a few months ago.

Apologies if mentioned elsewhere. We've cancelled out their advantage of Burnley and Sheffield at home with our 6 point advantage. It's literally down to: Who can take the most points from: Villa: Chelsea, Brighton, Liverpool, Palace, Spurs: Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Man City.

The problem is. All 3 of those 50/50 calls would have been given at Anfield or Old Trafford.

Yep - that's why I firmly believe Diaby will be the second coming of Christ next season. Bailey was beyond awful last year.

The winner of the Conference League only gets 2 million less than getting into the group stage of the CL (this year, not sure next year as it's expanded). Obviously going deep in the CL is massive money. As per below, it's now vital we qualify for the CL group stages, or go deep into the Europa / UECL each season to maintain an extra 15-20 million. That's just prize money. Add in at least 1,500,000 for each home game.

I can't recall exactly where; it might have been Guillem Bllague; but someone said quite categorically - Emery would only leave Villa for Real or Barca, with Athletico Madrid a possibility.

Bournemouth game is absolutely everything. 120 minutes of football, players emotionally and physically tired. Bournemouth are a really decent team as well. Win this, we are mentality monsters and get CL.

Looking ahead to next season - works for us to have both Newcastle and Man U in European competition. Really will stretch their squads. Most of the Conference League who plays man united will treat it as probably their biggest games ever, it won't be easy for them.

I love how he is really really into it. But for his players and his club he walks straight down the tunnel and probably on the laptop within 5 minutes.

Whilst we have Emi Martinez, he will be so vital to our European adventure. Other teams will need to beat us, a draw i no good as we are now massive favourites in any penalty shootout we go into.

The "Saka Limp" on Twitter / X is quite funny. Multiple fan groups now realising Saka limps / feigns injury whenever he has a bad game.

My goodness - I actually read a couple of page of SHA thread on our expansion. How absolutely deluded can they be? Is it actually their fans posting this stuff or our fans taking the mick?

I went to the Real Madrid game with my Polish friend who is a Man City Fan (he unfortunately has cancer, and I drove him). It's becoming clear, around the away fans / that side of the stadium is there the original Man City fans sit. The opposite side, where I sat, genuinely; 2/3rds were "tourist fans". A lot of people from different ethnic backgrounds, lot of different languages, many actually supported different clubs. There's a video of Rio Ferdinand doing the round walking into the Etihad with swards of people trying to take a selfie. Years ago, he'd be sneaking in. As soon as they drop down to 3rd/4th expect their stadium to literally be half empty as those tourist fans will move on. Particularly if Man United get back to their former glories.

I disagree, I think the machine behind Pep is one of the main reasons for their utter dominance. That Txiki DoF has built this squad, with an elite manager such as Pep. Take one or both of those out, then it's easy to waste money (Chelsea, Man United).

They are VC guys. VC guys are ruthless money makers, after a return on whatever investment they make. They've purchased a distressed asset, hoodwinked an extremely desperate fanbase, in an area where the local council is effectively bankrupt. Lick of paint to the ground, fist bumps to the fans, sing along to SOTV, few nice power point presentations and they've managed to negotiate a really nice, sizable part of prime Birmingham land for a cut price. Slap down a 30/40k Euro bowl stadium (leicester, southampton etc) on the cheap; do what you want with the rest of the land as long as it's profitable. They can also sell the Small Heath land as well for a healthy profit.

Pep will only ever move to "a sure thing". The only one left is PSG. Can see Enrique doing a lot of the hard work for this non galactico rebuild, failing in the CL then Pep moving in around 15 months to "save the day". With no Klopp and Arsenal being the usual bottlers they will absolutely walk the PL next season.

Quite sad at the though of moving from VP, and the acceptance of it. Villa Park is what's unique about us in a mire of Euro Bowl stadiums. I think in a decade of so, the fact its an old school authentic stadium will be a USP / visiting factor. Knock down the North Stand, make it as big as the Holte, or bigger. Use the car park, put as much prawn sandwich stations, Corp hospitality, accommodation as required. Acquire the park behind the Witton and make it as big as possible with restrictions based on the houses behind that. There's plenty of space for the 60k+ stadium. I don't understand why that need's to be away from our home.