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East London Villa

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  1. East London Villa
    Linked yesterday with a Bundesliga loan for next season: https://www.footballinsider247.com/aston-villa-sensation-kadan-young-expected-to-join-bundesliga-club-sources/ (football insider is generally a poor source, but they seem to be more accurate with exclusives on youth transfer news). Has he been impressive lately since returning to the U21 setup after injury? A possible move to first team football at this stage would be a surprise to me, since the stats don't exactly have him pulling up trees.
  2. East London Villa
    Kosta has been injured ever since he signed for Villa, which is very unfortunate. Hopefully he'll be learning English (if he didn't already speak it well) and I wouldn't bet against Unai sending him a few hundred gigabytes of tactical videos to pore over. I highly doubt Kesler-Hayden will be at Villa for the long term, Nedeljkovic already seems to have a lot more of what Emery is looking for (pace, height, physicality, decision making).
  3. East London Villa
    I think we'll go Martinez; Konsa Carlos Pau Moreno; Bailey Iroegbunam Luiz Ramsey; Tielemans Watkins. But I wouldn't be surprised by any of Lenglet for Carlos, Digne for Moreno, Diaby for Iroegbunam with Tielemans deeper, Rogers for Ramsey if he's not ready. 7 games in 23 days, would become 14 games in 44 days if we qualify for the semis in Europe. I'm glad we've got Unai at the helm because we're going to have minimal time to prepare, have to adapt to injuries and tiredness very quickly.
  4. East London Villa
    Good news that he is training. Whether he's ready to start against Wolves or Man City is another question. Would be huge for us if we can keep him fit for the run in.
  5. East London Villa
    Ezri played perfectly to his own strengths in that position tonight. Defended very well, stayed deep to cover all their best attacking threats lurking on his side, kept the ball moving without attempting anything risky so that the more talented passers could take possession. It sounds like Southgate was pleased with him and I imagine he did exactly what was asked of him. So happy for him to finally get his chance. Well deserved!
  6. East London Villa
    My best guess... Start: Martinez; Cash Carlos Lenglet Moreno; McGinn Tielemans; Diaby Rogers; Zaniolo Duran. Bench: Olsen Gauci Pau Kesler-Hayden Digne Iroegbunam Luiz Bailey Kellyman Watkins. Luiz and Watkins could barely move by the end on Sunday. Bailey also looks very tired. Iroegbunam isn't fit enough for 2 starts in 4 days, so he'll be saved for West Ham with McGinn in for Ajax.
  7. East London Villa
    Also I want to flag that Kaine is eligible and on List B for the Conference League knockouts. So is Kellyman. You can make unlimited changes to List B throughout the season, unlike List A. They were both on the bench for the first leg and will be again for the second leg. https://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaconferenceleague/clubs/52683--aston-villa//squad/
  8. East London Villa
    If Kesler-Hayden is ever going to get minutes this season, it will be on Thursday. Cash played the full 90 against Spurs. Konsa is suspended. Chambers is ineligible. So if Cash has emptied the tank at some point against Ajax (likely), Kaine is the next best option. Emery is not going to pick a half fit Carlos at right back, or a left footer, or move one of the centre mids out there. Kaine has been training with the first team for 2 months now and on the bench for the past 8 games. If he gets a chance, I hope he grabs it.
  9. East London Villa
    Our kids beat their kids 2-0 away from home the other day (and deserved it): https://www.avfc.co.uk/news/2024/march/03/u21s--liverpool-0-2-aston-villa/. Including a few of theirs that featured in the League Cup Final and beat Southampton in the FA Cup. We have talent coming through our youth system, though of course there would be no shame in Liverpool having a better system than us. Bringing it back around to Iroegbunam...I think after injury problems in 2023 he needed an extended period to recover and start training with the first team again. I'm not sure he would have been fully ready for a loan by January, so it was the right choice to keep him at Villa. Clearly we needed to reduce the wage bill, hence letting Dendoncker leave and putting more immediate trust in Tim. Of course nobody expected Kamara's ACL, so he will get more opportunities than Emery intended. Tim showed at QPR and in youth football that he is very talented, but the position he's being asked to play is tactically very important and difficult within Emery's system. It will take him more time to adapt than your average youth player thrown into the team, told to go out and express themselves.
  10. East London Villa
    Great to see we have another strong group coming through. Our U21 side is now full of our best U18s and they are on a good run. Our U18s are struggling a little more now picking the less experienced players and some U16s, but they came very close to beating runaway league leaders West Ham before a stoppage time implosion. The talent is clearly there. We're starting to reliably produce strong sides at each level, great news for the long term future of the club.
  11. East London Villa
    I reckon we start with McGinn Tielemans in the middle against Ajax (take off Tielemans after 45 or 60 minutes), then Luiz Iroegbunam against West Ham. Luiz was out on his feet understandably at the end today, having played 90 minutes on Thursday and again today with 10 men for a significant spell.
  12. East London Villa
    The fact Emery trusted Tim to do that job in that atmosphere in a knockout game is a really good sign for his development. That was by far the biggest game he's ever played. McGinn had a knock but even if he wasn't an option to start, Emery could still have picked Tielemans alongside Luiz in the middle with Zaniolo Bailey Kellyman options higher up the pitch. Or rewind a few weeks, at the start of February he could have registered Chambers as his backup holding midfielder after Dendoncker left (he won Fulham player of the season playing there in 2018-19). Something that has also been overlooked - Tim has played hardly any football over the past 12 months. His last first team start was for QPR in April 2023. This season he has only played 3 games for the U21s and before last night, 37 minutes across 5 sub appearances for the first team. So he's not only inexperienced, he's rusty and hasn't been able to find a rhythm. No surprise he went down with cramp after 70 minutes. His biggest issues appear to be those associated with most young players (concentration, fitness, positional awareness) but also confidence. If last night doesn't give him the confidence and drive to push on, nothing will.
  13. East London Villa
    And as a result that would make it less appealing for those players getting a salary bump to leave the club permanently. I don’t know how many players would have a clause like that in their contract, but it would cause us a problem if it applies to someone we’re looking to move on. Only Olsen is out of contract in the summer.
  14. East London Villa
    Let's be honest here, we have spent a huge amount of money continuously since NSWE arrived. That is nothing new and the spending has taken us from mid-table Championship to 4th in the Premier League and the knockout stages of European competition. If we have to scale back on transfers now and sell a key player ahead of the summer, it is clearly still worth it.
  15. East London Villa
    I like him in the second striker role, or late on in a game in attacking midfield so we can use his ability on the counter attack. Defensively he caused a problem for us on the left side, didn't track the wing back well enough and gave away needless free kicks in dangerous areas. Obviously he needs regular minutes to develop but I hope Ramsey isn't injured because it is a significant drop in quality as it stands. If Ramsey is injured I would be tempted to pick Tielemans on the left and Diaby up top for the bigger games.
  16. East London Villa
    Just to be clear, Hause can't play for our first team this season. Not registered for the league or Europe. No longer an option. He has 1 year left on his contract, I don't see him getting anywhere near the same salary at his next club. So it will either be an early pay off like Traore, or a loan deal to try to rebuild his reputation ahead of a free transfer in 2025.
  17. East London Villa
    If they want to argue we should have signed Kellyman earlier then fair enough, but if you’re talking about the UEFA paperwork being messed up or some sort of oversight, that’s simply not correct. The rules for the qualifiers were not the same as the rules for the main competition. For the group stage we had to submit a List A senior squad and a List B academy squad. Kellyman hadn’t been at the club long enough to qualify for List B and we would have needed to drop a senior player from the squad to make room for him on List A. It was the same for Iroegbunam.
  18. East London Villa
    Lenglet and Zaniolo were cover for Mings and Buendia. They won't be replaced.
  19. East London Villa
    Yeah...I'm not going to question that they know what's best for the development of each individual player, but I expected a slightly stronger line up. Proctor Wilson and Brannigan on the bench was a surprise. When you add in Kellyman Young Patterson Broggio Jimoh Borland Katsukunya Pavey - that's an awful lot of our better and experienced players not in the side. Excited to see what some of them can do for the rest of the season stepping up a level to the U21s regularly.
  20. East London Villa
    Got 8 right! Thought we'd save Jimoh and Borland for Palace today, as we did with Rowe and a few others. Wright clearly on the bench for Sheffield United following Zaniolo's injury. Afoka not involved at all, maybe injured or we're just prioritising other players development at this stage. Here's a rogue prediction for you. Bogarde to join Deano on loan at Charlotte FC. He's miles away from first team minutes and needs to be playing at a higher level than U21 to kick on. Didn't get the Championship move we were hoping for on deadline day so there are few remaining options this season.
  21. East London Villa
    Cash, Duran, JJ, Luiz, Kamara, Bailey. I'm pretty confident Cash will go. I don't think he fits the way Emery wants to play and as a club we're now stretching beyond his level. Konsa would be playing right back if our central defence was more stable (Pau out, Carlos and Lenglet in poor form). Duran I think us more likely to be loaned out and we bring in a more experienced striker on loan in the meantime, but may go if Chelsea etc still want him and we could make a decent profit. We won't want to sell JJ Luiz or Kamara but one of them may be our big exit to fund our other business. Can't see us selling Bailey or Bailey wanting to leave us, as good as he is right now he's not been consistent enough over his time at Villa to warrant a bigger move.
  22. East London Villa
    Wright Ealing Rowe Katsukunya Munroe Bogarde Alcock Pierre Afoka Kellyman Moore
  23. East London Villa
    Obviously one we would have wanted to shift, but joining on a free and slightly lower wages mean Chambers isn't costing us nearly as much as Traore was per season. He won't be registered for Europe but will make the bench in the league and cup games when we have a few out (like now). Bombing him out wouldn't do us any good when there aren't many young prospects knocking on the door in his position. Kesler-Hayden will be there but beyond that, Nedeljkovic Feeney and Smith are on loan, Swinkels is injured long term, Bogarde has moved up to midfield.
  24. East London Villa
    If you look at what Traore cost us in amortisation and wages, plus Dendoncker's wages, I think January overall has seen us marginally reduce our spend for the rest of the season rather than increase it.
  25. East London Villa
    So Tommi O'Reilly and Josh Feeney have got their loan moves. Late loan for Lamare Bogarde? If not, interesting situation for him. Recalled from Bristol Rovers. Seemed to have Championship suitors. Wasn't in the youth squads for the last round of fixtures. Is he injured? Will Emery be taking a look at him in training for the rest of the season? Afoka also recalled, hasn't got a move back out yet. With Gauci signing and Proctor stepping up to the U21s, I did wonder if Wright would get a loan too. We'll see in the next couple of hours I guess...
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