BG_Villa_Fan

The infuriating part isn't that Barkley's position would have affected the keeper's chance of saving it. Fair enough it's offside. In a way similar to Southampton's disallowed goal against us last weekend. But you can definitely see this type of situation not being very strictly enforced when, say Man U score against us and nobody even bothers to check for offside.

Exactly. And losing to Fulham was a true blessing in disguise.

Thought he lacked energy against Leicester, which is understandable. No idea why he didn't drop deeper between Mings and Konsa when they were trying to pass the ball around. I can only imagine it's by design as Smith never changed it but the distribution from the back suffered.

Not only the centre-back pair, but literally the whole team consists of players just entering their prime and who could grow and improve together as a team. All aged between 22 and 27.

Can't see a wage cap in football as different teams and different leagues have vastly different budgets and setting a wage cap as a % of revenue or something like that would limit the chance for teams like us to ever catch up. Loans though, are a much easier solution, it's just they don't want to do it. Make it so that a loaned out senior player still counts on the 25 man squad and teams will think twice. Make it so that you could only loan out young players who have played a certain number of years ( say 3 ) in the club's own youth system and prevent teams from buying young talent and immediately loaning them away.

Well done Purslow. Gives me the chills every time I hear an interview with him, he looks and sounds like Ted Bundy

If you think Man City would trigger his clause and he'll pull a Mings and travel up there in a Villa kit you're crazy. The way I see it, there are 2 possibilities - either Man City would want him in their own team, in which case there's nothing we can do about it, or they'd want to sell him for profit, in which case I'm sure we could negotiate with them. Either way 35 mil is a lot of money and with some prudent management can get you a very good replacement. Regardless of what happens that deal has been absolutely fantastic for Villa. I just hope they don't trigger it in January or the last day of a transfer window.

It'd be crazy if all the transfers on that journo's instagram post happen, except for Rashica to us

Correct me if I'm wrong but I think I've read somewhere that the German transfer deadline is much earlier than the British one, so if there's anything happening it won't be too long until we get updates.

I thought exactly that! Then I thought Connor wouldn't have made the run at all. He'd have stayed around the edge of the penalty area.

We could do with a back up winger, sure.

A is for rashicA right? Right?

I doubt it. Apparently, just like last summer, we've had two lists of targets - one in case we're in the Premier League and another in case we're in the Championship. I believe some of the leaked info on the likes of Eliasson and Swift is from the Championship list, just like Sawyers was last summer.

Both are true. Any left back would struggle against Salah/Mane/Jota. Whether it's Targett , who'd be suspect defending, or Taylor, who'd hoof the ball and lose it every time he touches it, while not being much of an improvement defending, we'd find it hard against Liverpool. So it'll have to be a team effort covering for whoever plays and maybe a bit of luck. I'm confident Dean and the other coaches will have a suitable game plan.

I thought he looked much better in the second half. The early yellow card killed any aggressiveness he might have had but he adjusted. Fulham's whole gameplan was to get crosses from the left for Mitrovic to attack against Konsa, instead of against Mings. Both Konsa and Targett were targeted ( see what I did there ) and they expected it and managed to do really well on the whole.

Oh f off to the Leeds thread, will you.

For the first time in years I'm happy looking at the league table. Just looking at it. It's so beautiful. Thank you Deano.

I don't believe in the conspiracies about him being in a bomb squad or anything like that. Otherwise they would have already got a replacement, just like they ruthlessly did for RB and GK. They can't expect to go into the season with 3 center backs. I'm sure we'll see him again when he's fit.

Looks like the only 20 mil player on the pitch.

Would be very good, regardless of options to buy. We need the best players we can get with the available budget.

He was brilliant and it shows how important it has been that Purslow/Lange/Smith waited for their number one target instead of panicking and buying someone else just because ideally players would have been bought earlier. Quite the change compared to last summer, although they had their backs against the wall back then, so it's understandable. Watkins, Rashica, Cash ( or perhaps Trippier? ) also seem to be plan A signings and it shows. Traore might have been too considering how quickly it happened and the lack of links to other right sided midfielders.

With Guilbert and Samatta seemingly on the way and whatever has happened to Engels it certainly seems we need a few more options for the squad. Targett, for example, is bound to miss 10 or so games through injuries. Hopefully they finally ditch the stupid no loans self imposed rule because there’ll be some decent players available by the end of the transfer window.

Good 3 points against a tough team. Looked rusty but wouldn’t have won it last season so clearly an improvement.

We've very rarely been able to get the right move for our young players, hopefully this one will be different.

A bidding war for Samatta?