KMitch

Fooking hate Michael Oliver's style of reffing... He needs to get control of this game or there will be red cards flying soon...

What was that offside restart? No where near where the lineo was when he was flagging and the ball never really stopped dead before taking the free kick?

He's a vampire, don't you know? Just needs another pint of blood at halftime...

Injuries piling up in the squad...

Does this mean Bailey isn't a waste of space and 30 million pounds now?

That's the sad state of the Premier League now. The only teams who can afford our deadweight are the other Prem clubs and maybe a dozen others across Europe. If they aren't good enough for us, who is going to give them a salary bump to come to them? Unless someone plays well for us, we won't get what we paid for them back and will have to eat the cost.

Agreed. Negotiating terms for players isn't like ordering something from Amazon and they show up on your doorstep a few days later... We've been keeping tabs on targets and talking to agents since Emery arrived, I'm betting. Moreno was probably the easiest to get over the line due to his age and others we've been pursuing (like possibly Joao Felix and Marcus Thuram) might be on their way to other teams instead.

I think part of the frustration with regards to transfer fees paid out is that while we have top 4 owners in terms of their net worth, we aren't exactly throwing around money like it lately. We spent a lot of money our first season back in the Prem (needed to because we had a tiny squad after promotion), but since then we're basically mid-table with our spending since. During our first 2 seasons back in the Prem (19/20-20/21) we were 4th in the league in terms of total transfer spend and number 1 in terms of total net spend. The past two seasons show quite differently... We've been 9th in total fees spent in the last two seasons and 15th in net spend, and that includes the Grealish money. Sure, maybe there were doubts with regard to Gerrard's managerial skills this summer and funds were held back, but something has changed and we aren't throwing money around like other clubs with "poorer" ownership. Maybe FFP is hamstringing us more than we know or maybe we're seeing problems were there are none, but the one thing that is clear is that spending habits have changed recently.

Yeah, you're right. I found it again now.

I see that Lyric has deleted his Twitter account... Found out to be a fraud.

Pathetic... Just shows how much work this squad needs. I expect a major overhaul this summer.

He's the Carrot Top/Nickelback of the football world. That said, if Emery wants him, I'll back him 100%... Seem to recall another overrated Manchester United central defender with off the field problems and the wrong side of his prime doing very well for us ~30 years ago...

The problem is that most football managers think short term and right now vs building for the future and the club is left holding the bag when signings don't pan out... This approach ends up putting pressure on the club to overspend on the manager's preferred players on bad long term deals to get them in the door to keep the manager happy, then you can't shift them if they turn out to be shit or the manager gets the sack and the new manager doesn't rate them... Not the manager's priority... They're judged on the here and now and not the future by the media and the fans... Look back at our last "successful" era under Martin O'Neill who ran a similar model to what you're proposing... Remember Habib Beye, Nicky Shorey, Nigel Reo Coker, etc. All these players we paid a lot of money for at the time on very lucrative long term deals who were riding the bench and couldn't get anything for. Part of the reason he threw his toys out of the pram when Randy told him to sell some of his deadwood before he gave him even more money to spend on players he wasn't going to play. This is where a DOF comes in... They don't answer to the manager/head coach, their job is to protect the club's interests long term and make sure we're recruiting sensibly and buying players who will in general grow in value with good coaching, while fitting the style of football the club has defined... Smith himself preached a lot about this when he was here, but priorities seemed to change to the "win now" model under Gerrard and we started buying players in or past their prime to get us into Europe on a timeline quicker than Smith was promising... I'm guessing Gerrard's team sold the board on a plan for spending on quality in a few key positions and we'd gatecrash Europe ahead of schedule, but that never happened and we're back to the drawing board again. Who knows what the direction will be under Emery, but my suspicion is that it will be somewhere in-between Smith's long term vision and Gerrard's short term here and now goal (2 seasons before we're in Europe regularly).

https://www.calciomercato.com/news/juve-c-e-mckennie-in-vetrina-esterno-a-cremona-aspettando-l-offe-37863 I read that too from the Italian rags... Sounds like a bunch of made up BS... Basically said he's stalling on the Bournemouth offer because he's waiting for a more ambitious club than them. Said he turned Villa and West Ham down in the past, but "It would be different if Dortmund or perhaps Chelsea or Spurs decided to make a concrete offer"

As an American, I've seen quite a bit of him... He is McGinn 2.0... All action, jack of all trades, master of none. That said, 15 million is a bargain. Just the exposure/shirt sales alone he'll bring in the USA will be worth it. If Emery is looking for another McGinn to rotate in and out of the team for him, this would be good business. Considering McGinn is the first player most on here think isn't good enough for the squad, most of VT will hate McKennie after a few months.

Started watching footy/following the Villa in 2006: Laursen Barry Young Benteke Grealish Honorable Mentions: Friedel Milner Martinez

This is what I'm expecting this summer as well... Splashing the cash to compete with the big boys.

Sums up his day, doesn't it? Oh Bailey... lol

LET'S GO WIN THIS NOW!!!

THERE WE GO!!!! NEVER A DOUBT!!!

See? Different fooking team this half! Plenty of time still left to win it.

Biggest thing is the difference in intensity of the two teams. Wolves running their socks off all over the pitch chasing the ball out of possession and charging forward in it... On the other hand, Villa look sluggish and several steps behind everywhere. Tactically, I think the team was expecting Wolves to park the bus, but they're taking the game to us and we don't know how to respond. I trust Emery to sort it out at halftime, but what a mess this half was.

Me either... Some of the reactions on here so far are out of line.

This... Need to settle the game down and cut out the misplaced passes.

Yeah, I'm not even mad... That was impressive. Unlucky for us.