Raver50032

I can see it now... Nobody going to give the kind of money we want/hope/expect for him and it's all going to happen right at the end of the window leaving us in no position get a well thought out replacement in. I can only hope that the Club is actively tracking replacements. Be on the front-foot, show intent... and you may not actually have to sell your main asset.

Been some salty opinions in the past few days indeed.

I didn't really feel the nerves building until I suddenly began to feel nauseous about ten minutes past three and watching the BT Sport coverage. I felt proper ill from then on, real queasy. The match was unbearable, I hadn't actually felt like that watching a Villa match since the 1994 League Cup Final. So at the Hammers, a wonderful miss from Antonio, a wonderful goal from Jack, an Italia 1990 Paul Parkeresque deflection for their leveller and unbridled joy for the green, black and red of Aston Villa at full time... or whenever the Watford result was confirmed. Utter relief. Absolute, mental relaxation... I'm surprised I didn't have some sort of seizure. I am really pleased for the team, the Club and for Dean Smith in particular. I'll be the first to admit that my faith in him wavered somewhat this season. A month ago I was convinced we were down and believed that the Club should already have been planning for that happenstance. But quite beyond my belief (shame on me, I know), the team turned it around... Dean got them playing... and we dug out the results to see us home. Finishing 17th isn't great, it really isn't... but it was enough to see us home this season. Something to build on. Yes, I'm thrilled for Dean Smith, who let's not forget, has had personal tragedy during the lockdown. We have an opportunity to build, and continue towards where we want to be as a Club and a fan-base. Up The Villa, all of you. When you look at how many top flight seasons we have had in comparison with MOST, we really DO belong in the Premier League. We really, really, do. Please Villa, never make me feel like I did at ten past three on Sunday afternoon EVER again.

I found myself questioning where the sufficient points were going to come from. I always thought we might have a chance with Palace, but I couldn't bring myself to dream that we would break the Arsenal hoo-doo at Villa Park this time. I was kind of expecting another Man United situation. The match itself, was about as good as I can recall seeing us play all season. As someone else posted, the balance between attacking endeavour and defence clicked. There were spells where we were starting drag ourselves too deep and Arsenal looked like they were going to take control - biggest example for me was the few minutes before the second half drinks break. Fair play to Villa... I was up out of my chair with the Trezeguet goal - what a strike that was. I'll be the first to admit that I have doubted whether he is good enough for this level, but three goals from the Palace match and last night is pretty decent going. Almost an instant legend, I am pleased for him, and thrilled for us. I thought Grealish had his best game for us since coming back from lockdown, a wonderful sequence where he put Davis through for the chance to score a second goal, not to be this time. Defensively, we did our bit to chop up the play, to disrupt and make blocks at key times. Not bad for a collective defence that has been pretty questionable all season - pleased especially for Konsa, and Freddie. A stroke of luck with the rebound off the post and into Reina's arms. Everyone needs a slice of luck, and that was ours. I gave Jack MOTM - he really showed the fact that it mattered, personally to him. Flat on his back with relief and cramp at the end. I just wonder if the answer dodge he gave the Sky reporter when asked about his future really does mean that he is off, come what may. Up the Villa, on to Sunday and a decent chance to stay up now. I'm still smiling this morning... as good as a cup win that result. But we have to prepare to go again... (as Lambert may have once said). The fat lady hasn't reached the stage yet.

Yep, it's pretty pointless if you're doing long haul for 8 hours at 40,000 feet. You can do that in the Sim of course, but there are plenty of smaller aircraft to enable you to stay nice and low to explore all the ground level eye candy. The pyramids looks really nice at Giza - just a short hop out of Cairo airport of course. You can fly nice and low over Villa Park too I guess, but keep the trailing banners out of it!! There's so much more to it than mile high stuff.

No worries about that... I always enjoy a bit of Train Sim action... Class 50 diesels along the Dawlish Sea wall rekindling holidays of long ago... Happy days indeed. That said, I also enjoy Standard steam on the Carlisle to Dumfries area too.

Picked this up for £8.00 in a PS4 sale. Can't stand EA, but couldn't turn it down at that price. Gave me an awesome 'pick me up' beating City 22-0 in the League Cup Final. I only play career mode as I've found on line play to be full of sweats with nothing else to do than thrash noobs. A lot of it is a joke... I mean, I signed Gareth Bale in my second season at Villa and he wanted less money than he was on a Real. Something ridiculous like £30k. And I found that Wesley got suspended for a game. The media asked me while Wesley didn't play the match... The player asked me not to bench him for the game he was suspended for. What a load of Thomas Hanks. Glad I never paid full price for it. And won't bother with 2021. The spelling and grammar is really dire, even allowing for the millennial generation now entering the workplace as developers... <I know... okay boomer...>

So, I've been watching the development of the latest in a 40-year series of flight simulators from the Microsoft stable and the next iteration, Flight Simulator 2020 is due to launch on 18th August 2020. The YouTube pre-launch trailer looks stunning, showcasing some of the wonderful weather effects, landscaping and aircraft on offer. What marks this simulator differently from previous iterations and other Sim producers, the world is modelled in it's entirety, hosted on remote servers. You should technically be able to fly nice and low over your own home and certainly well known landmarks will be wonderfully rendered across the world. You can set your own weather parameters, or even choose to fly with 'real world weather' where the simulator runs the current weather as it is at the time you fly. We have actually seen that element before in Flight Simulator X, but the new graphical rendering of the weather is on a completely different scale and visual-orgy. Multi-player and group flight will be possible and there is fully functioning air traffic control, and real world live traffic should you choose to fly real time. So, you can fire up your Airbus A320 on a spare gate at Heathrow and be surrounded by all the live traffic jostling for position with you in real time for a take off slot. Pre-order has commenced - it's a 150Gb download, though in Europe, there's a hard pack available with between 6 and 10 discs in it if you prefer a 'disc in hand' approach. No VR support right now, but likely to follow. There are three tiers of purchase, standard, deluxe and premium. Standard is $59.99 and premium is about $119. Sounds expensive, but simulators like this have so much re-playability and co-op play. If you do 100, 1 hour flights, and imagine that you charge yourself a pound per flight, it's actually pretty good value. Unlike something you play through once for example. Standard edition gives you 20 aeroplanes right off the bat, including the Airbus A320 airliner, the Beech King Air twin turbo-prop business plane, the Cessna Citation light biz-jet, the Boeing 747-800 intercontinental airliner and a host of light aircraft, some of which are aerobatic. Standard also includes 30 fully rendered and fine detailed airports. That's not to say that there are only 30 airports in the simulator. There are many, many thousands all around the world, but they are rendered a little more generically. Premium (which I have pre-ordered) gives you 30 aeroplanes, with a larger version of the Cessna Citation Biz-jet and the amazing Boeing 787 Dreamliner intercontinental jet. If you want the fully detailed London Heathrow Airport, you'll need to purchase the Premium version. The simulator will welcome third party developers to create airports and aircraft and these will be hosted initially in the server marketplace - though Microsoft don't oppose separately hosted developers if they choose not to partner. There has been much unrest about the lack of Boeing 737 at launch, so there will be a push for a third part iteration of that I would think. I'm left handed, so I have had to choose my flight stick wisely. I've opted for the Thrustmaster T16000. And I've treated myself to a new PC set up to run it all on. You can play it on reasonable specs, but of course, with all stuff like this, if you want the best details and the enhanced immersion in the experience, you may need to upgrade your PC. The game will also go live at some point on the X-box console... It is anticipated that there will be an element of 'missions' to perform that may appeal to gamers, if not the simmers in the community. If you want to hook up and fly, it would be great to fly with other Villa Fans, even if we don't always have the same opinions elsewhere on the site. Stay safe everyone.

Well, whatever happens, Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 comes out on 18th August. That'll cheer me back up if we end up down.

You can tell how bad things are, even that banking TV advert with the Villa fan all kitted up and joining a call with other Villa fans and Dion Dublin can't even rustle up more than a 'groan' when there's a near miss. Not even an actual goal to celebrate, just a near miss for us. We am poo.

There was similar fawning over David Wagner when he lifted Huddersfield out of the Championship. Didn't end up too well for him there in the end, and has been incredibly sketchy at Schalke once the Bundesliga resumed.

I see what you did there. I approve of this. UTV

With FFP being dispensed with this year (is it?) we may not actually have to sell anybody. Of course, some of our 'big' names like Grealish, Luiz and Mings could actually go on loan to see how things pan out. I can't see many teams spunking mega bucks this summer, so loaning out may be better for us (to see if we can get back up and see if this virus goes away) and better for the club that might be interested in our players... Try before you actually buy... Grealish could be crap for United. He could end up on the bench all season, no good for him. We don't know. United won't be paying top dollar for him at all. Mings - he won't want to play in the Championship again now that he's an England international. But at the same time, as nice enough as a guy he is, I can't see mega bucks being spent on him as he's been part of a defence that has been collectively shite for over 9 months. I can see him going on loan to one of the promoted teams. Heaton - as with Mings. Whichever way you look at it, we won't be getting mega bucks for our players, and I'm sure I've seen it reported somewhere that the parachute payments for relegated teams will be reduced too. Going to be an interesting summer if you like white knuckle rides and pouring paraffin onto Aston Villa. Pretty confident that Smith will be our manager going into the new season - didn't Purslow say as much? We'd be sticking with Dean for the long term, even if we get relegated. You don't have to quote any of this with a sneer or a snipe if you don't like my post. It's just an internet forum and what I've typed may or may not actually be what I really think. Peace be with you all, fellow Villans, come what may.

Indeed, our last league win at Villa Park (against Mans Chest Hair United) was 1995/96, the first game of the season. Our record against them is absolutely dire. A real stain for us we cannot shift. Game finished 3-1.

Well, the club is in free fall currently. And I would be mortified if the club had not even begun the countenance the prospect of us being relegated and at least started making some plan for when the inevitable happens. But feel free to be embarrassed. Where are the points coming from?

Mings will bust a nut to get out of Villa Park when we get relegated. Southgate has nailed his colours to the cross that players seeking to turn out for England must be playing in the Premier League. Mings will want to be in the squad for the postponed European Football championships, in 2021. I could see him going on loan to one of the promoted sides. Out of interest, Purslow said after promotion last year that we were 1 year ahead of the plan. I assume that by being relegated this season that we would then end up a year BEHIND the plan??

I'm sure there are league regulations about playing a much weakened team as well, so your hopeful thoughts are wasted I'm afraid. It's all about United and Palace at home, and managing a draw at Goodison. We need to do enough to make sure that Hammers away means something to us. Nyland - never wear the shirt again please, a walking calamity waiting to happen.

It really has gone full unfiltered Football Manager re-gen players names in the academy!

Love in at Wembley Stadium... Living it up when we're going down... <aerosmith>

I'm not anti-Smith, but I'm looking over my shoulder and wondering what might have been if the board had got itchy feet. Can't do anything about it now mind you... But his statement after the City game at home is making him look a little daft it is true. That one game wasn't the one that defined our season... it's Spurs at home... Bournemouth at home, Bournemouth away, Wolves away, Watford away, doubled handsomely by the Saints, Palace away... although the latter was a VAR outrage. Those are the games that will define our destiny, we came up short in every single one of them. With 11 games to go, there are not too many more opportunities to be plucky in defeat with the prospect of a game the following week to try and put it all right. We have hardly ever gone on to 'put it right' in the following match. We've just not been good enough. Taking it all on the chin... It's only football. UTV... Make it happen Villa...

11 games to go... this has to be in the bracket of remaining opportunities where we 'can' win. A point here, considering who else we have to play at home or away says that in truth, this is becoming a must win game... especially if we truly are 5 points adrift come start of play on Monday night. It's all very well being proud of the team yesterday in the Cup Final, but ultimately all we did was spare our blushes. We need even more against Leicester, simple as that. Defeat is a disaster, a draw is the absolute bare minimum as the relegation finger of suspicion wends it's way closer to pointing at us. Recent history of 'plucky' performances being an indicator that 'if we play like we did in Game A despite defeat, then we'll be winning Game B or C' suggests that is a false narrative. It's what we do next that really matters... I fear a Bournemouth capitulation... but hoping for a Burnley type showing.

Realist. Back on topic... 2-0 Leicester.

Regulation Leicester win after the lord mayor's show. It's what Villa do. Scorers Iheanacho and Maddison (unlucky not to net a couple in the LC Semi). Hoping for a draw, but with 11 games to go, we need to start grabbing a win or two given the ground we've lost. I wouldn't back us for survival with a game in hand... Those above us have the points in the bag, and looking like more of a stomach to fight when the chips are down. I mean, look at all those who thought the Hammers would fall away after their Anfield experience... And who would have predicted Watford... the same Watford that was besmirched on this forum for being poo going to grab three goals against Liverpool and winning to nil?? It's anybodys... All of us down here can survive, but three must go. We have no momentum and just lost a draining cup final. Just can't see it happening for us. I'll cheer the team on come what may however... I am not a total negative nancy

What a load of semen... I mean, semantics. Some very seasoned and generally reasoned posters piling into TRO and seemingly (seemingly, note the word seemingly here... as I have no idea what your true intentions are) with intent to bully him off the forum. It's not like he's murdered anyone. He's not even done 32 in 30 zone. There's nothing wrong with having different opinions, but crikey, when someone has even backtracked, you still pile on. That's bullying folks. And, ignore. And where is the Mod to bring this all back on topic? All TRO has really done is used the word 'plethora' twice in a few days, for which he has my eternal respect, and accidentally rubbed a few of you up the wrong way. He's already said that he never set out to cause such offence, but the besmirching continues. Give it a rest. Never has a thread seemingly reached such millennial triggering as I have seen here.