useless

That second goal was sensational, when you watch it a few times you see that what happens is what he intended

On 07/04/2024 at 20:31, useless said:

Spurs remaining games are so incredibly difficult, Newcastle are very good at home so that won't be easy for them, then Liverpool, Man City, and Arsenal, are the three best teams in the league home and away, and Chelsea will give them a good game just by virtue of the fact it being a derby, I think they will be doing incredibly well to average a point a game over the next five, it wouldn't surprise me if they end up with three or less from those games

I think we will have fourth place sewn up before they even play their final two games.

When I wrote this we were in fifth place and Spurs had a game in hand with a better goal difference, it was a bold thought but ultimately I was wrong, although at the time of writing I thought they would have played Manchester City by now and their final two games would have been Burnley and Sheffield United

Five goals in the league in just 366 minutes, that's better than a goal every 90 minutes

He always makes good impact when he comes on, for player his age it's quite astonishing, it's getting to the stage where he'll need more game time, as a player this good has to play more, if not other clubs will come in with offers to give him more game time. He must be one of the very best U21 strikers in the world

22 minutes ago, useless said:

We couldn't comeback from two goals behind with 90 minutes to play against Olympiacos, we aren't going to do it in twenty minutes against Liverpool.

I was wrong, good draw, I would have taken that result beforehand, but coming from two goals down with so few minutes remaining makes it feel more like a win, and hopefully it will give us some momentum going into the Palace game, regardless of what happens tomorrow I still really want us to hit the seventy plus points mark

Iroegbunam isn't a DM, not sure how many times that needs pointing out, Chambers has played an whole season as a DM for Fulham, he's also a specialist defensive player, we obviously didn't bring him on to help our attack, it makes infinite sense to bring Chambers on in a game like this with the scoreline as it is over Iroegbunam

Edit: And again not saying Iroegbunam likely to be part of our plans next season, just that Chambers coming on in this game ahead of him isn't evidence of it by itself in isloation. I think he will probably be sold with buyback or loaned out next season

Not really, Callum Chambers is a specialist defender, and we're trying not to concede anymore goals, also we can't afford any more mistakes, so of course an experienced player is going to come on ahead of player who has only played four games worth of football for us. There's a good chance he will be playing for someone else next season, either on loan or sold with a buyback, but Chambers coming on ahead of him in this game in of itself doesn't tell us anything

Even just one goal back could prove to be useful in the event that Spurs get a draw tomorrow

We couldn't comeback from two goals behind with 90 minutes to play against Olympiacos, we aren't going to do it in twenty minutes against Liverpool.

This time tomorrow things could be very different

My confident prediction

We shall beat Crystal Palace

But they making so many chances, I'm less confident now despite equalizer than I was before the start of the game and I wasn't overly confident then. We must get a a secure position from which further progress may be made man. Luiz. must. comeback. wicked

6-2 and now this, motto should be 'well unprepared'

Remi Allen was only at London City Lionesses for six games, the reason she was appointed in the first place was because they were in the bottom two and in danger of relegation, that they would have finished on the same points as Reading without the win on the last day is a positive not a negative, when she was appointed they were eight points behind Reading but finished three points ahead of them, and more crucially ten points clear of relegation, she won four of her six games and was manager of the month for March

I hope we can get someone with an history of winning things, or of some kind of success, but if not then someone like Allen probably worth a go, she's done all her coaching badges and has been helping with the coaching of academy teams at all the clubs she's played for, as well as recently being assistant head coach to the England U23 team

Teams lose games all the time, but clubs don't launch kits during games all the time, the idea that Adidas wouldn't want the launch associated with a loss isn't laughable at all, and especially when they could coincide the launch with us qualifying for Champions League

In other words I think they will want Adidas announcement to coincide with Champions League qualification rather than beforehand.

So if we do it tonight, maybe the players will run into the tunnel at fulltime and then come back out in their new Adidas kits, which sounds dramatic, but somthing like that

No new kit tonight, the club are promoting the game using images of the players in this season's Castore kit

We get this every season people think we're going to wear a new kit on the last day but it never happens, just like we don't announce a new player as the kit is launched

The season will be over this time next week, so all the adidas stuff is probably a build up to then

I doubt adidas would agree to reveal the kit in such a game, as wouldn't want it associated with a potential loss, some might say likely loss

If we win maybe an aeroplane with a banner saying 'Aston Villa qualify for Champions League Impossible is Nothing'  will fly overhead

He was in our U16s, but I think left us a while ago, not sure if he was released or turned down a scholarship knowign he had an offer from Manchester United. Rodrigo Fortes, and Ted Bloomsfield seemed to be ahead of him

He's only played four games worth of football for our first team, so of course he hasn't looked particularly great, most youngsters don't when they first come into the senior set-up, as they need game time to get up to speed and to gain the confidence to play their own game rather than playing it safe, we had all this with Ramsey and Chukwuemeka when they first started playing for our first team

The funny thing is when Chukwuemeka was looking likely to leave a lot of people were commenting that they weren't that impressed with him, and were using Iroegbunam as an example of a youngster that they were impressed with in his few brief appearances at that time, was that really so, or was it just being said as a means to be critical of Chukwuemeka

I don't read anything into him not getting more game time owing to Dendoncker and Kamara absences either, for the simple fact he's not a DM in the same sense as those players, and even if he was, it would be a big ask to ask any inexperienced youngster to step up to that role, especially given all we have to play for, most managers wouldn't risk it, unless the young midfielder was some sort of generational talent who could be trusted to come into one of the most important roles on the pitch and do a good job without mistakes

More can perhaps read into him not getting more game time when the likes of Tielemans, Luiz, and McGinn have been unavailable

I have a feeling we might be undecided on him, I wouldn't be surprised to see him loaned out next season, put him in a decent Championship team, and I'd be very confident that come next summer we would have a more vaulable asset on our hands, either to sell, or if he really impresses to come back to us, and I think that's true for a number of our youngsters, see also Kesler-Hayden, Bogarde, and Barry; Azaz was a good example, last summer was worth a couple of hundred thousand, half a decent season in the Championship and we got a couple of million for him, if he had more time on his contract we might have got more than that

But of course man with FFP we might have to sell some of them

This season has been an anomaly in that Sheffield United and Luton massively overachieved to get promoted in the first place, and then didn't spend big to strengthen their squads, Sheffield United actually sold their two best players so arguably had a weaker squad this season than they did last season in the Championship.

I would expect Leicester and Ipswich to make a better go of staying up

Leicester because their squad probably isn't far off midtable Premier League quality as it is, just as Luton and Sheffield United overachieved in getting promoted, Leicester underachieved in getting relegated

Ipswich it could be said have overachieved in getting promted, but they did so with a defined style and system and often such teams do better when promoted than expected, see also Bournemouth and Brighton and going further back Swansea when they first got promoted, also they've got wealthy owners, I think it's been said that they might surprise a few with how much they're prepared to spend

Play-off winners might struggle, Southampton could perhaps be similar to Ipswich in that a set way of playing might help them, Leeds I think would have to spend big, Albion have a very good manager, but at best could only see them scraping survival, I wouldn't have much hope for Norwich, but Wagner did keep up Huddersfield in his first season with them as a Premier Leagut team

They will all likely struggle and all could end up relegated, but I don't think they will be as bad as this season's promoted teams, I'd be surprised if all three promoted teams went straight back down, it's not gong to happen every season just because it happened this season

I don't think Norwich did themselves any favors playing as they did against small heath, it was obvious it was planned to try and conserve energy and avoid injuries, but has meant them coming into this game with no momentum, they had drawn the previous two, wasn't as if they were in great form as it was. Maybe would have been better off going for it last weekend and carrying that into this game

U15s won tournament at Leicster training ground, beat Vitesse 3-1, OH Leuven 4-2, and drew 1-1 with Sheffield United

In semi-final today drew 1-1 with West Ham and then beat them on penalties, and beat Sheffield United 1-0 in the final.

Farid Addey penalty from yesterday secretscout instagram

I think Manchester City are more likely than not to beat Spurs, but it's obviously not a 'minute' chance

Spurs have actually only lost one of their last five at home to City in the league, and they've won three of those games

if we lose to Livepool, which is of course possible, then that could give Spurs a massive lift going into the City game, knowing a win would take it to the last day of the season

I don't take it for granted that City will beat them, just as I didn't take it for granted that Spurs would beat Fulham and West Ham

Caughtoffside is a very unreliable source, and they posted that story about three days ago, if any truth to it other media would have picked up on it.

It might be that he's undecided or still needs convincing, but if it was definite that he wants to leave then we wouldn't be giving him game time for our U21s when others players could benefit from it