KMitch

As much as I hate the new crest, I can see why Heck went with this design.  The shield shape is unique and he is trying to associate that shield shape in everyone's minds as being "Aston Villa".  For example, look at Everton's shield design.  Remove everything else from their crest and leave just that unique iconic shield outline and ask any football fan which club they think of when they see that blank shield and they'll all say "Everton".  You can already see this association being anchored in people's minds around Birmingham via this initial marketing campaign with Adidas with just the shield in Villa colors.  The circle badge might have looked better to us, but to anyone new to the sport we'd be just another of the half dozen Premier League clubs with a round crest.  In 5 years if we continue to have success on the pitch, you'd be able to throw up that shield outline and ask any football fan which club does this represent and everyone will say "Aston Villa".  It's unique, it's modern, and it represents our new era being back as one of the Elites again. 

Gabri Veiga would be insane if we can pull it off.  He shocked everyone last summer when he went to Saudi for the money instead of his pick of the European elites.  I saw quite a bit of him in La Liga the previous season and he's absolute class.  Emery would make him into a global superstar within a few seasons.  He is Tieleman's technical brilliance mixed with Buendia's flair and Dougie's composure on the ball. 

I shut it off in the 80th minute and left for an appointment...  I figured we had lost 3-1, so imagine my surprise when I just saw the score, then the highlights!  

This game is the opposite of Thursday's...  Last week nobody wanted to impact the game, they were all happy being passengers and hoping one of their teammates would get them back in the game.  Today, everyone is busting a gut trying to be the hero that we're making bad decisions in the final 3rd.  

I really hate Simon Hooper...  He's one of the worst refs in the Prem these days.  Never BOOKS for fouls against us, unless they're over the top and blatant, so teams take advantage of it whenever he refs against us.  

Olsen with 130 MoM votes and 100% of the results...  Anyone else worried that this a sign of the apocalypse?

1 minute ago, thunderball said:

Cash played well, Tim offered little since he had chances in this team, the decision was obvious?

I think you missed one of the new VillaTalk rules that does not allow anything said about Tim short of him being the next Yaya Toure. 

The whole team is exhausted...  Never looked like scoring and we were dead our feet for the last 20 minutes of the match.  Brighton beat us like we've beaten other teams all season...  Stay compact, let the opposition press themselves to exhaustion and nick a goal late on when they've run out of gas.  I've heard all season about fans from other clubs moaning about how much injuries have killed their season and blah blah blah, but we've had some of the worst injury luck in 2024 I can ever remember.  Hopefully Rogers is alright because we looked lost up front after he went off.  We're relying on Spurs to bottle it now.

Also, Olsen was outstanding today.  Never put in a foot wrong, saved a penalty, and was unluck on the rebound  from the save.  Was by far his best performance in a Villa shirt. 

You see this and then realize exactly why we always fell off the Champions League chase so hard in the second half of every season under O'Neill...

La Cucaracha own goal...  Couldn't have scripted a better start.

9 minutes ago, Adbo9 said:

Also; I could see us going for Mikel Merino as well to replace and compete with Kamara - hes entering his final 12 months of his contract so can see his price softening 

I would love for us to go after Merino, but he is closer to Dougie than Kamara.

Chelsea look lost without Cole Palmer.  Sit back, defend, and then boot the ball into the channel for Jackson to chase.

lol...  Why on earth would he leave?  We've already built the entire club around him in the past year and a half.  Would Man United do the same for him?  Not a chance...  In fact, they've done anything but support their managers since Fergie retired...  It shows just how out of touch the media is.

That should have been a second yellow for Dougie...  He got away with one there...

A year ago, Olsen looked like Bambi on ice with the ball at his feet, but he looks comfortable on it now.

Just now, rjw63 said:

They are still trying to find a way to disallow it

For real...  I've never seen a more obviously onside goal scrutinized this much by VAR...

DURAN!!!!  1-1

Just now, jjaacckk91 said:

We're they just singing champions of Europe you'll never sing that?

Let's be honest, most Man City fans just started following football in the last 5 years or so...  Everything that happened before that "doesn't count"!  /s

Just now, Paddywhack said:

Just me who thinks we’re doing alright?

Considering we're playing our reserves against the Premier League/European Champions?  Yes...

This Newcastle v West Ham match has been spectacular!  One of the best Premier League games this season.

What is even going on right now?

8 minutes ago, May-Z said:

Is this Duran's replacement before he is shipped off to Chelsea?

Swap an attitude that is hard to manage with one eager to learn for about the same price?

Has anyone on VillaTalk met Duran?  Does anyone actually know anything about his attitude? Ever notice how it’s only black players who seem to have bad attitudes and are hard to manage?  

That was a typical Chelsea performance from this season...  Lots of possession, some nice attacking moves, but poor finishing and a Martinez masterclass performance cost them the game.  I do have to say that they defensively caused us the most frustration of any team we've played in months.  I think Poch's relentless high press of our defenders mixed with tight man-marking of our midfielders didn't allow us any time on the ball in transition until their team was gassed halfway through the second half and couldn't keep up that intensity.  That said, we had a lot of good chances through our set pieces and were unlucky to not score at least one.  I'm hoping our home form helps push us through in the replay, but overall neither team was at their best today. 

Was a weird signing along with Bednarek near the end of that window.  Neither fit our shape or team structure under Gerrard and it was like Lange thought they were bargains, so they came in.  Never had a problem with Donck.  Always did a job and was reliable, just doesn't pass well enough to be starting in Emery's team.  I wish him the best going forward.