BG_Villa_Fan

Indeed they do.

Yes.

I like Luiz and would like him to stay permanently and continue developing, however if City activate the clause then 35 mil would certainly give the club the opportunity to get a good replacement. It’s a win-win situation. Buying him has been a great move regardless of the clause.

Anyone who expects serious punishments is a being little bit naive tbh. We all know the reasons why neither FIFA and UEFA, nor the PL will do it. It's the same reason for creating the SL in the first place. They'll include some legally questionable texts about severe future repercussions for clubs who try this and that'll be it. In two months no one will even talk about this. Until the next time they try it, but much better prepared, that is.

You can be sure FIFA and UEFA have given the teams x amount of days to pull out with no punishment. I expect they'll quickly sweep it under the carpet, no one will be punished, same with the FA.

This is very true, and I'm probably in the minority but I think finishing 8th/9th next season and establishing into the top 10 would be very good and would represent further progress.

Well there's a difference between his perceived market value and the actual price Villa would sell him for ( hopefully ).

He definitely is both. His value was that at the time we bought him from Brentford. Only cost less because of a release clause. I'm not saying he's untouchable or he wouldn't be sold, but 30m isn't enough for him. Wouldn't be able to find a replacement for a similar fee. Tarkowski, Ben White, etc. cost more.

Jack has very good work rate as well tbh. I don’t think we’d be able to attract players that are a tier above Barkley, especially as it seems we’d need to make a mini rebuild of the squad with a few players leaving. We attracted him because he wasn’t going to get games at Chelsea after their new arrivals. I wonder what kind of player you’d have in mind to replace him with? Prem teams rarely sell regular starters to other prem teams unless it’s for obscene money.

Some of the criticism is way over the top. He's been good, he's won games and points for us, he links up well with Grealish, he gives us an extra dimension that no one else in the squad does. So he doesn't have Ollie's work rate? Boo hoo, not many do. Villa aren't likely to be in a position to attract better than him in the summer.

I agree that his price would likely be around 5 mil, but Purslow doesn't strike as someone who'd be sentimental about these things. He seems way more cutthroat, although admittedly we haven't yet been able to see how they act when they're in a position to sell.

I've no love for West Ham but how they can look at this incident literally 50 times and decide it's a red is beyond me.

Love his confidence 'I don't concede goals from these angles'

Brilliant game. Everyone was fantastic especially 2nd half. Targett or Mings for MoM

Wait, so you trust your eyes, yet you blame him for the goal that everyone has concluded shouldn't have stood?

I agree, I think this is exactly what Dean Smith is doing, but it still means you'd need Jack and another player on the left, as Barkley does currently. Practically all the goals Watkins has scored have been due to something created on the wing, not centrally.

It's also easier to commit more defenders centrally and leave less space than on the wing. Southampton consistently overcommitted men on their right side against Jack and we can expect this to happen even more in the future as teams try to find ways to defend him. He still found a way to create the goal because he's a genius but there will be games where we'll have to exploit such a tactic because it leaves the defending team in an unbalanced position. This is also why having someone like Traore on the other side would be important over someone like Trez, who works hard but isn't nearly as direct and can't really exploit space.

In theory. But in practice he's always played better on the left. It's easier to get the ball to him on the left, instead of in the middle, as well as easier to find space for his dribbling there.

I thought that was too expensive. I wanted Edouard over Ollie, as well as a couple of other names I wouldn't mention because it's embarrassing. After watching him for half a season I wouldn't want any of them over him. Don't care about the fee, he's great and will improve.

No need to overreact. Freak result, it happens. Happened to Liverpool last week. Learn the lessons and move on. We’re by far the better team.

I'm surprised Heaton hasn't already been loaned out to a championship team fighting for promotion. Guilbert too.

Not even an attempt to block Rafinha’s shot. The players know Bruce will be gone.

There was Aston Villa before Smith of course. It existed somewhere between SHA and Bolton.

Although I disagree I can accept the point that he 'stopped the rot', however this ^ is a step or three too far. He hasn't set any foundations, not here, not anywhere he's been. He was well on his way to have another wasted season when he was sacked. Everything we have now was built from the ground up by Dean Smith.

Classic 'we're right even when we're wrong'. What's funnier is everyone on twitter/message boards lecturing people who rightly thought this was in fact offside. At least with that clarification now everyone can say they were indeed ... right what a mess.