rubberman

19 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

It means Messi is coming to show he can do it on a cold winter night 

35 and 5ft 7. No thanks. 

1 minute ago, Farlz said:

Liverpool will finish 5th. 

It’s a battle for 6th/7th imo. A good start with Brighton losing. 

Agree. 

F*ck var

Lolz from the beeb:

FFS forest you muppets

This could probably go in tactics thread as well, but Emi is (quite surprisingly) not leading the shithousing keeper charts. In fact only mid-table:

Quote

Bazunu took an average of 43.7 seconds before taking each of his 18 goal kicks at the Emirates. Add that together and Southampton were able to burn 13 minutes and 6 seconds of time while taking goal kicks. Only Brentford’s David Raya in the Bees’ 2-0 win against West Ham (13 mins and 29 seconds) had been able to eke away more time in a game from goal kicks this season.

from: https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/04/guide-to-premier-league-time-wasting/

8 minutes ago, GlobalVillan said:

8th I'd guess. Simply because of the games in hand the other clubs have. We need 12 points minimum for Europe I reckon.

I think 10 would be plenty. We'd have to have beaten at least one of Liverpool/Brighton/Spurs and drawn with one at worst to get 10 + Spurs and Liverpool have to play each other.

Beating Spurs is the real key game for me. Then it's in our hands - we just have to match their results to get 7th. (Obvs better than that would also be acceptable!)

I think we'll raise our game for this. Probably hoping too much that we'll see a Newcastle performance, but I'm sure we'll play much better than against Brentford and Fulham.

Them off extra time and pens and another game tomorrow (albeit Spurs) should be pretty knackered - we need to come at them hard and fast - another goal in the first 15 mins would be good. Ideally 1 or 2 back off the sick bed to give us better options off the bench as well.

Come on Forest and West Ham. Can see Liverpool having another of their shit games and dropping points, but sadly Brighton probably have too much for Forest.

A draw in the west london mid-table derby please.

Not too bothered about the top of the table clash. Arse win to stop the Citeh hegemony, but Citeh win gives more of a chance for Unai to get manager of the season.

It's the business end of the season. Points matter more than performance. If we get another Newcastle outing - fantastic, but if we win ugly - that's also OK. 

5th.just phenomenal. 

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

I think this is bang on - the season ticket price - the big number of £480 plus cup games on top of your ticket price feels horrendous and I don't see many Upper Holte Enders wanting to take that up.

We might see some season ticket holders migrate from other parts of the ground I suppose - those paying £899 in the middle Trinity might I guess consider £1,180 with access to a lounge all season and the fun of the Upper Holte as a price worth paying. 

But where it comes into it's own is exactly where you've said - birthdays, special occasions, fans flying in from the States - it's a wonderful opportunity to experience the atmosphere of the Upper Holte End and get a really nice lounge with pub grub, drinks, seating and a view - and sure, you pay for that, but for a special occasion, you'll be happy to - if you're already paying flights and a hotel, you'll also be happy to - that's where this comes into its own - providing an option with fantastic memories and a great matchday experience for people on special days - it's amazing for that.

The club haven't (yet) marketed it as that and I think that's very much because of the desire not to upset existing Upper Holte Enders. This is being marketed as their lounge, but I think that the real point here is that the club is only expecting actual, existing Upper Holte Enders to take up a couple of hundred of these spaces on any given matchday - the rest will be for 'experiences' - some of those will come from season ticket holders in other parts of the ground - Lower Holte Enders on birthday missions, Trinity Road season ticket holders on an adventure, that sort of thing, but I think most will be members looking for a special day.

If I live in France and I can only get over for one game, I'm going to pay for flights, a hotel and buy lots of stuff in the club shop - in relation to the cost of making that trip, £25 for a membership, £45 for a ticket and £30 for my GA+ is still good value for that once in a lifetime afternoon with the 'proper' Villa boys in the Upper Holte.

If it's my brothers birthday and he hasn't been for a couple of seasons, it's a great day out he'll remember and a treat that still lets him have some grub and a peaceful pint in the style he's used to on a Friday night in Bromsgrove.

I think the issue here is that the club can't really focus on that hugely positive opportunity because for existing Upper Holte Enders, the reality for them is that they'll no longer have the McGregors, or any of the facilities on that floor, they won't have access to the balcony and they'll have less space on the concourses available to them and less options for food and drink, and that they might be sat next to a fella called Soren who doesn't know any of the songs rather than Ian who used to come three or four times a season and was sound and proper Villa mate.

The thing is though that Soren will be having the best day of his life, Soren will be making a memory that lasts him a lifetime and Soren will be spending £300 on matchday, for the club, even outside of the obvious spending increase, there are so many advantages to that - Soren will be a Villa fan forever, and as a result there's a chance that his mate Henrik will be because he gets dragged to the pub in Aarhus by Soren every week to watch the Villa and hear Soren tell tales of the famous, the famous Holte End. Soren and Henriks kids will end up being Villa fans, it's all gravy.

 The facility opens up the option for great experiences for those who can afford it and want it - the only downside is that I'm not sure that those people are existing Upper Holte Enders - it's a pity in a way that this is the only place in the ground that has the space for it.

 

Yes - spot on this. I had a season ticket for a good few years before moving ever further South and [waves vaguely towards kids] all this took over weekends. My now infrequent visits up with offspring/dad are pretty big occasions - often for birthdays etc and the chance to soak up a bit of extra atmosphere in the ground would be worth the extra few quid.

I completely get that that is not everyone's match day experience or want though.

Mason in as caretaker caretaker. Peak spurs.

17 minutes ago, GlobalVillan said:

Any idea how I contact them without Twitter? Anyone know?

I guess just book a ticket on that scheduled boat in the tweet. It's an open service. 

1 hour ago, TomC said:

Fat Frank! It's like looking at Liz Truss's popularity chart. 

2 hours ago, Adman said:

I think the most important trait Emery will look for is players he knows will fit the system and take instruction or be able to be coached into his system.  Players he's worked with before would surely be a good place to start.  Players like Zaha etc can't see happening for instance 

Yep. Also intelligence to work in flexible systems. Eg chat about Pep and Kyle walker not being smart enough to play how he wants. 

4 hours ago, burchy said:

I think if we play as we did against the Geordies we can beat Brentford

Play like that again and I'd back us to beat anyone. 

17 minutes ago, duke313 said:

Same. I'm not worried about transfers this time, just gonna enjoy this window 

Hopefully we won't get all the hand-wringing and panic about whether NSWE have lost faith, turned off the taps etc this window!

I can't wait for the transfers to properly get started. It's going to be an exciting one I think,  particularly if we get a european spot.

Probably not in quantity terms, but certainly in quality.

0-17 please. Take our goal difference ahead of Liverpool and Brighton. 

2 hours ago, duke313 said:

Also, didn't he come out and say something about Walker recently that he isn't capable of playing a certain role within his team, I'm nearly sure I read something like that?

Yep. Essentially said he's too thick to be able to fit into the style Pep wants of switching between defence and midfield depending on the play. 

11 minutes ago, av1 said:

The closer we get the more I’m despising that useless prat Gerrard. If he’d managed just one more bloody win. 
 

 

Might have stayed for longer then. Best just to consign him to the best-forgotten bin with Sherwood, McLeish etc 

16 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

This is the problem.

When we were battling relegation and a fixture of “good team” v “bad team” was taking place, we’d typically need “good team” to beat “bad team”. And, happily there was more chance of this. The only problem was we wouldn’t typically get a result either. Which would lead to much frustration and general yelling at the sky.

Now we’re fairly good, we would prefer “bad team” to beat “good team”. Of course there is less chance of that happening. Which will lead to much frustration and general yelling at the sky.

Good point. 

Point being that they are overestimating the difficulty of playing eg Liverpool, Chelsea, West Ham and underestimating the difficulty playing us. Using a longer-term measure of 'power' doesn't allow for big up-turns/down-turns in form and using that to rank run-ins isn't particularly useful, IMO. And that's before we get to injuries, fixture congestion etc.

I don't think any manager out there would prefer to play us rather than Chelsea right now.

42 minutes ago, Wes said:

The below image was published on April 1st and is based purely on Opta's Power Rankings, which already has an element of subjectivity to it, but is useful as a rough gauge of difficulty.
 

Not saying the Opta rankings are a load of baloney, but today's update for the PL has us below Chelsea, and Liverpool in 3rd...

https://theanalyst.com/eu/2023/04/who-are-the-best-football-team-in-the-world-opta-power-rankings/

1 minute ago, bobzy said:

Problem is that Liverpool, Chelsea and Spurs “should” sort themselves out too - and Newcastle, of course, will be stronger.

But hey, exciting times ahead for sure. 

I'd say more like 'might' sort themselves out. Liverpool need a massive overhaul of aging players, Chelsea & Spurs still need a manager which will probably drag on into the summer and shorten the time to sort things out. Chelsea's dogs dinner of talented players, but no sign of anyone playing as a team and out of depth owner can see getting worse. Spurs - can see Kane off which will hugely weaken them.

Newcastle, Arse and Citeh will obv still be strong(er).

Can definitely see a solid push for CL next year - this year just a little too late a push, but confident we can sneak in a European place now.