KMitch

I love how we just keep blindly hitting high crosses into the box and hoping Ings can beat out 3 defenders to it... Didn't work last season, so I'm so glad to see the tactics changing after a full preseason...

What's the point when we wait until after 75 minutes to make them?

Getting ripped to shreds by flippin' Bournemouth of all teams... It's going to be a long season. Hopefully Gerrard gets the sack before the World Cup.

Poor Mings? Poor Mings? What about us? He's getting paid to sit there and watch this shite... We actually paid to watch it...

Smith... The majority of Villa fans still rate him, regardless of what some on VT will tell you.

It won't matter with Konsa behind him.

Jesus... What is this defending? Pathetic all around...

Ings at least looks lively today. We actually look like we have a goal in us.

Oh... That was close... Were almost right back in it.

Pathetic defending... Here we go again...

Because it's on the USA Network and not Peacock. Peacock+ only shows the games NBC doesn't play live on one of its networks.

Arsenal look a completely different side now in terms of style... You can really see what Arteta has done on the pitch. Took a long time to get to this point, but they're going to be fun to watch this season.

But Werner looked good against Villa when he played for RBL in that one preseason game 3 years ago... He's the current Shane Long or Wagner Love incarnate who has one good game against us and the "I only watch Villa" crowd wants us to sign him for the next 5 seasons.

We said the same last summer... Nothing happened.

How I picture all our VillaTalk FFP experts whenever the topic comes up...

Net spend is a useless metric... We strengthened heavily this summer in the key areas. Adding more funds by selling dead weight/prima donna youth players makes our FFP balance look better for next summer when we swing for the fences on more Champions League quality players.

...or maybe it's just a cryptic sign they aren't going out on loan this season?

Back on topic: Getting 20 million for a 17 year old is a masterstroke. Purslow is proving to be Levy levels of ruthless when it comes to selling talent.

It would be mixed feelings... He is the highest rated English player in the youth system, but 20 million is a lot of money for someone so young and untested. It could be brilliant business by Chelsea and end up getting a 100 million pound player at a discount, but on the other hand, all it takes is a Gary Gardner leg break and his career will never recover.

I guess playing time wasn't in the equation then, was it? Money only... Bye bye bye!!!

When was the last time we went into the season with a fully fit squad? You could argue a lot of Dean Smith's problems last season were caused by the injuries/fitness issues plaguing the team for the first few months of the season. Gerrard has no excuses now. On paper, this is arguably the strongest team we've had in 20 years with depth everywhere. Have to get off to a flying start and keep the momentum going.

I keep seeing this... The real world isn't Football Manager 2022. Just throwing money at players isn't going to get good ones to join. They still need a spark and a reason for players to want to come and play there. The best manager all the money in the world could by last season was Eddie Fookin' Howe, and for all this talk about supposed ridiculous spending this summer, they're looking like they're just going to pay way over the odds for James Maddison and a few other above average players from the continent. Gerrard/Villa have more pull in the transfer market than Newcastle does. Kamara & Diego Carlos were heavily linked to Newcastle this summer and they also tried to sign Digne last January, but they all chose us over the oil money.

Personally, I'm very happy with our business this summer. I don't rate his performance on the pitch so far, but Gerrard's strength seems to be pulling off coups in the transfer market and once again we've had a brilliant window. Coutinho - Signing him on a permanent deal at a fraction of his wages at Barca was a masterstroke Olsen - Looked really solid in preseason compared to his appearances last season Kamara - We beat off a lot of competition to sign the best CDM available in Europe this summer... For free no less Diego Carlos - Looks like a better version of Mings and the Prem will suit his playstyle better than La Liga Augustinsson - Making a profit off of Targett and replacing him with a player better than him on paper for a fraction of the cost is more good business Young - Played too big of a role last season, IMO, but with the expanded sub role and additional reinforcements to the squad, I'm happy to keep him around for another year Everyone is crying about not signing anther CM and striker is forgetting we have a bunch of highly rated youngsters in both positions who will have extended minutes due to the additional subs allowed this season. Ramsey, Carney, Timmy, & Archer will all be in the first team this season.

They're darkhorse relegation candidates, IMO... They're going to fall off hard this season and Potter will be sacked.