Mic09

By all estimates, a bench player suffering a long term injury prior to joining Villa is an excellent analogy of a rusty car

If I buy a car for £30k (not cheap) and over the space of 18 months it's value rises to £50k that is a bargain.

Answer is simple:

Not sure about that, because an investment is a risk, and Cazoo cannot control what happens to the market or the players on it. It's a bit like Adidas taking Nike to court if Michael Jordan said that NBA isn't cool anymore. But, I agree that it's bullshit, and I think (hope) it will not happen in the shape that they are proposing. What I think will happen is either: a) Re-formatting Champions League in some way (Although I really like the current format) b) Taking League winners and a few special friends (like Liverpool in a normal year when they don't win the league or Barcelona) and creating a small champion of champions tournament with 8 teams making CL just a bit less relevant.

I thought that was Eric Dier?

He is just saying what 95% of VillaTalk posters have been saying for the last 2 years.

Can you imagine Premier League referees facing any kind of due diligence from the public? Never gonna happen.

I think they look very busy. At the same time, they don't look like a free scoring team, nor are they hard to score against. They just look busy. I don't know, I'm sure Bielsa is a good manager and the style is unique, but they aren't anything special, they weren't even anything special in the Championship. They are a good team, but they can get in line with teams like Crystal Palace for me.

when do you think we might see him feature in the first team? Maybe a loan to championship/league 1 next season?

It's amazing how they even wear Portugal kits. Taking the piss.

I honestly think it's too close to tell. Let me put it this way, I wouldn't bet a £100 on it.

He is or he's not. I don't think anyone can be certain. We can't tell with the current tech so in my opinion it shouldn't have been disallowed.

It wouldn't make a difference as to controversy, because you will still get close calls that will be disputed. It's the same how some people say there should be a margin for error. I hear what you are saying, but an offside is an offside - it's not like a foul where it can be disputed, offside is a measurable, objective phenomenon. We actually could, with the right technology, measure offsides to a millimeter. Unfortunately, what we have now isn't it.

Should de gea have reacted? It wasn't going at great pace...

Up there with Messi and Ronaldo for me

Apparently Covid-19 is now self isolating

I know. Sarcasm

Yeah, but the world cup init

Yeah, about 6 years too late

You might be right, and it definitely isn't a simple equation. And League 2 does not operate in a vacuum, sure. But I'm not sure if there is a direct correlation between PL clubs spending crazy money and League 2 clubs struggling financially, so while it is a factor, maybe Arsenal is not responsible for Port Vale struggling financially. I work in recruitment and I know some companies (especially bigger ones) like to spend above market means for no reason whatsoever - at least no reason I can tell as candidates are happy to be working for 20%/30% less in smaller businesses. And those smaller businesses compete against each other - not against Deloitte or Capita or in football terms, Real Madrid or Man City. While I agree it's not exactly the same as football and you can't draw direct conclusions from this, it seems to me that some companies are a bit more frivolous with money than others - often unnecessarily. I just wonder if that happens in lower leagues, and my guess is that it must do to a certain extent. I have previously given an example of clubs that prefer to pay an extra 2 year contact to 32 year old strikers past their prime rather than 18 year old academy players because it's just an easier, but more expensive option. I just wonder, and I hope you get your opinion on this, maybe a reset (as painful as it might be for some fans) will result in smaller contacts at lower league clubs, giving youth more playing time thus eventually resulting in a better league and more chance for young, unproven talents to develop. And once again, I really hope PL help those clubs out.

Yes, that is true to an extent. However Port Vale are competing against Tranmere, not Manchester United. We can't blame any bad financial management at League 2 level on Arsenal paying Ozil 300k a week. While I do not know financial insight into league 2 clubs, if many of them are likely to go bust than those 5-6-7-8 clubs that spent money well and did not offer silly contracts will come out of it much better than clubs which spent above means in 'hope' of promotion. As mentioned, I am hoping for a PL support for those clubs, however as harsh as it seems, a business which is not financially sound has got to go bust. The sad thing is that it's the fans that will suffer.

That's true, nobody could have expected a 3m John McGinn would be a 25m+ player, however some things are clearly wrong for everyone to see. Villa is starting to be well run, but not long ago we were giving massive contracts to below par players. I'm sure that is the case in lower leagues too. It's so much easier to pay a 32 year old striker for another two years than take a risk on a promising academy player who is 18. It's just true that many clubs, people and business often live above means. So the question is whether PL has to contribute - in my opinion, no. I don't think any body should make any business pay towards a different business. But it's just the right thing to do in this particular circumstance and I really hope PL help out.

Don't PL clubs already pay £5m a season towards lower leagues? That's £40m, which isn't much when you split it between clubs, but there is something. Most businesses are badly run - it's not just football clubs. You don't have to be a finance genius to figure out £40m for Joelinton or £4m for Will Grigg is too much. The whole virus situation has shown how on the edge most companies, including clubs, are. My wife is a finance genius and she always tells me that money in the bank is a waste for a big company - it needs to be invested. But common sense tells me that clubs need to have budgets to cover for things like stadium closures. In the world of terrorism it's not even unrealistic to assume bad things can happen. Right now, most people and companies are spending above their means. However, I admit that this has hit everyone, Wycombe or Burton Albion couldn't not have planned for this. I think that a PL bailout (which doesn't have to be massive) would be a good will gesture by PL clubs. Let Chelsea, Villa, Man U, and 17 others throw £15m into the pot, scrap that off FFP and help those clubs. That's 300m which would surely go a long way to helping league 2 clubs. You don't need a "big picture" project to do this, just good gesture from owners of 20 clubs.

The only reason Kędziora plays RB is because the manager is stupid and sticks Bereszynski at LB because he doesn't like Rybus from Lokomotiv. Bereszynski is very good, but not much different than Cash in my opinion. He is the smarter player, but Cash has a better engine and will improve more.

Be the most in form player in their position. Oh, wait, that doesn't work does it?