bannedfromHandV

6 points separating 12th - 23rd in the championship, could be a helluva dogfight for the rest of the season

On 25/02/2024 at 14:26, VillaChris said:

Stoke since getting relegated from the premier league in 2018 seem to exist in complete turmoil.

First year they went down they had a bloated squad full of guys on premier league wages so that did for Gary Rowett and Nathan Jones.

Then squad was remodelled under Michael O'Neill but they never got close to a play off spot and just settled into mid table.

He was harshly sacked and Alex Neil walked out of Sunderland to join them but a very mediocre year of results saw him sacked.

Schumacher then walked out of a very good gig at Plymouth to join them. They had a little bounce in his first 4-5 games but are now on a losing streak with rumours half the squad don't want to play for him.

It's a strange one. I went to Uni up there (put your condolences here) and my first year was when they got promoted to the premier league so I saw up close how they did things with Pulis and Delap's long throws and what a nightmare they were generally to play against.

No identity whatsoever now and just general apathy in the stands so I could easily see them in league one next season. It is a strange one though as the ownership still puts money into the club and it's clearly an attractive job for managers working elsewhere to want to quit their jobs for.

When were you at Staffs Uni? I was there 2002-2005 (Stoke campus, studying journalism)

Every club sells players, particularly these days.

Would City have let Cole Palmer leave if they didn’t need to? Invariably this means we’ll lose one or two of our star players but if we get good value and can replace them well it’s not a major issue.

Guessing we have the toughest run in given that we’ve played the bottom 5 now home and away already, that said, there’s an argument to be made for playing mid table sides over the relegation candidates toward the end of the season I suppose.

I’m trying hard not to start believing too much in the vain hope it would soften the blow if we end up missing out but I can’t stop looking at the table and smiling.

3 hours ago, VillaAlex said:

I might be wrong here but if Man City get to the FA Cup semis, their game with Spurs will be postponed and moved to midweek, and Spurs potentially face the gruelling Man City, Arsenal matches in 4 days like we did back in December. 

Didn’t work out too badly for us 

He’s close to perfect at the moment, oozing confidence and seems to be enjoying every little battle on the pitch.

A lot to learn to play a midfield role here, shown up defensively second half but looked great in the first half.

We played them off the park for 80 minutes in the home game, it finished 3-1 but it was really more of a 4 or 5 nil match, Konsa literally gifted them their goal under no pressure.

They’ve definitely improved since then and their home ground is a bit of a leveller but if we do what we should, we should win, if Bailey’s on it again I reckon we win.

Gabby’s ‘perfect’ hattrick against City 

1 hour ago, ender4 said:

Surely he should have realised that already himself.

When was the last time he played for Villa or a PL team? 2-3 years ago? We are a massively improved team since then and he's probably worse after injuries and not playing for a while. 

He didn't really think he was ever going to get a game ahead of Torres, Konsa, Carlos and Lenglet?

Probably not but I suspect we may have kept it open whilst he was rehabbing to keep him engaged and motivated, all guesses at this stage of course.

Probably putting 2 and 2 together and coming up with 5 but I have a feeling we’ve told him he has no future here, social media is rarely a great source of truth for stuff like this (remember the anxiety when Mings posted the somewhat cryptic black and white photo a couple of months or so back) but around month ago he posted something (cryptic) about being let down, or to that effect.

It seemed to coincide with him having just returned to training, my suspicion is that we’ve strung him along a bit to get him through the injury / rehab etc and then told him he’s not going to get a look in.

Or I’m chatting absolute bollocks, either could easily be true.

1 hour ago, mikeyp102 said:

Brad Young has got 26 goals this season 

Clearly too good for that level, hopefully gives him the platform to get back to a better level 

12 hours ago, sidcow said:

So we're nearing the end of Winter and this has barely been in the news. Is this the end of it now? Is it just a type of flu now? 

I'm wondering if they'll even bother with future vaccinations.  Or is it just that the press have lost interest? 

The whole thing seems like a weird old dream now. 

Whispers quietly - it always was.

Be interesting to see if they go full strength against City in the cup tomorrow night too, can see Edwards wanting to rest some of the side ready for the weekend but unsure if he can given the opposition.

But worried about starting Chambers and Lenglet against their physical attack but fingers crossed we can score more than them as I can’t see it being a 0-0 draw.

Has turned out to be a very useful and valuable loan in, it’s taken an unfortunate set of circumstances to see him here at all let alone in the first team regularly but we’d be in real trouble without him right now.

Feel like that Tonali ban has massively disrupted them, it was their marquee signing and with all their other injury issues has only been compounded.

49 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Honestly his video before we signed him is still the best I have seen. Couldn't believe what I was watching. I thought we had a generational talent on our hands.

And I remember his debut, came on against Palace and just completely destroyed their fullback (Souare was it?), thinking okay yeah he's going to be ridiculous.

Yeah he forced an own goal I think in a 2-1 defeat shortly after coming on as sub.

Definitely was not a sign of things to come, well, other than the result at that time.

Where the hell did they get 5 minutes of injury time from?

To my knowledge there were no lengthy stoppages for treatment, no lengthy VaR checks, no substitutions, okay 3 goals and a bit for minor delays, but not five minutes surely?! Cost us too.

1 hour ago, bickster said:

They aren't even doing that. All they've done is change their guidance to schools. It's a complete non-event and it's just jumping on the bandwagon created by Brianna Ghey's mother's insane idea to prevent children having access to the internet.

Is it an insane idea? There needs to be regulation and I’ve previously considered whether ‘child only’ mobile phones could be created with highly restrictive security settings (ie blocking social media and any potential adult content), guess you’d also need to create a child version of the internet too so appreciate its not simple but something needs to be done.

On 15/02/2024 at 18:32, sne said:

3rd ep of Halo reverted back to s1 style drama and filler side plots. Get that they need to have build up and flesh out the story, but IMO it's not well enough made. Sure it will pick up again thou.

Episode 4 should be a cracker (I hope) 

Halo season 2 has started on Paramount+.

Must admit i fell asleep at pretty much the same point trying to get through episode 1, it’s good, but it’s not great, and it should be great given the source material.

Frustrating game to be losing, we’re finding plenty of space around their box but not doing enough with it.