AlwaysAVFC

Would anything other than relatively small Villa Park redevelopment (no more than the original plan for the North stand) or a new ground and location even be an option? 

I don't see any football ground share likely at all and Alexander stadium wouldn't be a particularly good option either.

They say you learn a lot in defeat. While there were personnel and shape differences against Spurs and Man City, I think the overall gane plans were similar to yesterday. However we executed it perfectly. Individual performances were high quality and worked well as a team.

The big difference was we kept them from scoring which enabled us to keep to Plan A.

14 hours ago, MrBlack said:

He absolutely was trying to get the ball back.  He thought he could win it and if he didn't then the game was going to end in a draw.

That foul was not a booking anyway. The ref ignored Ajer for 97 minutes despite committing more fouls and more cynical ones than that one from Luiz.

And he needed a rest anyway. He's been off the boil for a few games so I don't think he'll be especially missed compared with when he was on top form, and it may give him chance to get back to that form.  He'll still be playing 90 minutes a week anyway because of the Europa conference games, so this isn't the disaster it could have been, and he'll probably learn from this that picking up some of the more stupid bookings he did earlier in the season will come back to bite him. 

A lot of criticism of him yesterday for getting the yellow, which I thought was very harsh. The ball was defintely there to be won, it was a challenge after playing 97 minutes. With tired legs it's easy to get fractionally wrong which unfortunately he did. If it happened in the first half I doubt it would even have been given a yellow.

It's hard for him to be as effective as he was before Kamara got injured. Kamara was the primary defensive one of the pair since he's been out although it had been shared with McGinn he does have that extra responsibility.

1 hour ago, Stevo985 said:

This would be really interesting to me to.

I think a lot of people will put themselves on a waiting list just to be on the list.

You could say I've done that to be honest. I put myself and my lad on the list. I want to get a Season Ticket with him when he's old enough, but at the moment he's only 2 so it wouldn't work. But I put myself on the list assuming it would be a few years until I get to the top of it and can actually get one.

If they turned around to me tomorrow and said I could get one for next season I'd probably have to decline

 

I wonder how many people would be in similar situations

There will be a huge amount like that. I'm near the top and turned down the opportunity twice. This season I don't believe anyone had the opportunity in part using vacant seats in Holte for Terrace View as well as the original plan to demolish the North Stand would have meant a lot of relocations come next season.

So I'm on my last chance before losing my place in the queue. If I was asked tomorrow I think I would decline. Its not a 100% no but life just wouldn't allow it with ease currently. I now take my daughter more than I go with mates. So realistically more likely to go to the back of the queue and register her but then a couple of years down the line she might not even be interested.

Villa kindly emailed a 30% discount code to renew our memberships. So hopefully should be able to get tickets this time rather than having to get terrace view entry.

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

There seems to be a suggestion that opening the PDF in your ticket email and showing the QR code at the turnstile won't work for this one and that you now need to have downloaded the Villa App, with the only other ways to use the ticket being to print it or use one of the Google or Apple wallets

Can anyone confirm if that's the case?

 

 

Doesn't really clarify in regards to your question but have this from an email today. I will be going into the Terrace View rather than a turnstile but would say this applies to all.

Not too much to show today but could have been so much better. Just gone with 4 multiples today but chose the wrong combinations.

1330 5-1 winner

1410 15/8 winner

1450 13/2 place but had the winner in the ITV 7

1530 7-1 place (which was the 4th place but without fav)

1610 40-1 place.

1650 7-1 winner

So close but so far. That's betting all over though. I mean I'm up but seeing them listed in 1 makes me want to cry

Oh and 5 winners 1 placed and 1 unplaced in the itv7

21 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

No bad views at VP though, I hope she loves it!!

She will (as long as it goes well ). Still trying to hook her in. It will only be her 3rd mens game. Leeds last season and Legia. She does love the games live, not so much on TV. She did watch the first half with me today though.

12 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

How much was that, £80? That isn’t too bad when you factor in a drink and a bite to eat too. Plus as you say there wasn’t much chance of a general sale one so best to secure the ticket if you can even if you pay a little premium to do so.

Yeah £80 for me and £35 for my daughter. It will only be a drink each and programmes, food will be extra. The added bonus is my daughter is Coeliac and they've said there will be gluten free items on the menu. So all being well if I finish work on time we can get there in good time, enjoy the evening and have something to eat, rather than rushing a mcdonalds or eating in the car.

Our seats are right near the back of Upper Holte so it's a new experience for her too.

8 hours ago, alreadyexists said:

 

 

Woooahhh! Sold out. Didn’t even make it to 5pm today for the general sale. Going to be a mental atmosphere under the lights.

 

Hadn't renewed our memberships this season so only eligible today. Really wanted to take my daughter so had to get some Terrace View tickets. At least with the decent general price it's not too much more than a category A Premier league game for the of us.

A league game I probably would have held off and kept checking for a season ticket resale but only chance would have been if any terrace view tickets went on general sale, which I wasn't going to gamble on.

2 minutes ago, Jas10 said:

We came back out with zero intensity and were far too lax, casual and sitting back rather than controlling the play as we did in the first half - the contrast was stark. Even Ollie stated that we relaxed too much after gaining a 2 goal lead.

It’s not the first time and the only reason we have gifted Manure 6 points when we should have won both games comfortably…

it needs sorting.

 

We have to keep focussed and maintain the right intensity & sharpness… composure & concentration in possession for a full game, not half of it.

Too many silly fouls (even if the ref was abysmal, Watkins getting rough treatment all game and no decisions his way) in dangerous areas and continually inviting pressure on us.

We’ve been doing great but we’re far from the finished article… this is all new for this set of players but they need to learn quickly and rectify this stuff, otherwise we will be punished by better teams.

We have to improve defensively on set pieces… it’s a weakness… and was exposed once again today.

I’m not overly concerned, after all we managed to grab the win (even if we made it so difficult but it’s good to see the character of this side) but we are not perfect and there are obvious areas for improvement.

The injuries don’t help either…

We keep fighting and pushing.

UTV

I think there is somwhat some complacency, whether that be during a game like today or going into some games. When were on our game we are close to the best in the league, we're not good enough currently when we are stepping back a bit. It's something that needs to be managed. We could be worse off if we did try 100% all the time, who knows.

2 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

Mind you, you can go to the car park at the Hawthorns and stand with one foot in Sandwell and one in Birmingham without leaving Smethwick.

Birmingham has always had some strange boundaries and overlapping historical borders and districts, I wonder if that's the same everywhere.

 

It came up during the different level covid lockdowns but part of Kings Norton comes under Bromsgrove council.

14 hours ago, chrisp65 said:

Sorry, Birmingham has weekly bin collections and street lighting?

Is it the 1990’s?

Once every 3 weeks here for the bins, and the only street lights are at busy junctions.

 

Yeah, seen lots of the moans on social media. I've lived under 3 councils in the last 15 years, all have their own systems but general waste has been every other week. I'm a family of 4 and 1 wheelie bin is fine. Very occasionally I have to give the last bag a bit of a push. Where I live now has had the bi weekly approach for 20+ years I think.

This thread isn't as busy as it used to be. So thought I'd bring it up to the top.

Last night, not sure what she actually did, but it felt like my Mrs full on stamped on my thigh. I wasn't actually looking so didnt actually see but that's what it felt like. I've got a proper dead leg today still. I thought she'd actually done my knee last night as she came from the side and my leg was planted. I've done my knee enough plenty of times so its screwed, including not so long ago which is still recovering. My knee seems to be ok today but as you can imagine I was pretty pissed off last night.

We were messing about and she defintely didn't mean to do me damage but what the hell was she thinking?

I can see the funny side now but last night I wasn't so much.

Proper not on it today. Far to many awful passes, some of which pretty simple. To give Chelsea a bit of credit they are doing well tactically. Not helping ourselves though.

Even considering how bad we are Lee Dixon is still a raging ShitGibbon.

5 hours ago, Kuwabatake Sanjuro said:

Getafe reporting him for calling Greenwood what he is. Depressingly all the incels on the internet attacking him now.

It is crazy the amount of support he gets on social media. This is someone who likely shares the same social circles as Bellingham or at the very least overlaps in places. Bellingham knows as does everyone else, other than those that choose to blindly support him.

Not sure what to say about him. By no means I think he is shite. He's obviously a very talented player but he is clearly missing something at the moment. That little injury he had just knocked his momentum and since then his confidence has been shot. 

No idea whether it's purely down to his confidence, our tactics or the opposition but he's just not offering enough. 

I'm not sure we will, but feel we could do with going full strength. We seem to not be quite on it when we have a bit of a break between games on the return. Hopefully this would get a bit of rust out the system before Newcastle.

1 hour ago, villa4europe said:

And there will be a huge number of people begging for them to do it (and have been for a long time) 

Adidas bringing the trefoil back in to football will be a seller I'd expect their 3rd kits with it on next season to sell really well 

I saw this on twitter earlier. Supposed leaks for Elite club Trefoil jackets (does have a Roma one too) Not so sure of the Juve one but a Claret and Blue one would potentially look good.

1 hour ago, StefanAVFC said:

Yep looked that way to me too. Bizarre 

Just posted about it in the general officiating thread, was probably better in here but the transparency is awful. What was that about? We've seen the lines since but at no point did they seem to show that in their workings that we could see or at least couldn't match the pass and where he was when it was played. Then they moved on to something else and spent a while looking at a non issue.

Again the transparency is awful. Not seen if there has been more coverage of the disallowed goal, and have seen the lines that were shown after the decision.

At no point from what we saw on TV we could see them make that decision and why if that was decided that did they start looking at the following play?

As the pundits said, maybe it could be called a foul before even looking at offside. With claret and blue tinted glasses both were as bad as each other but you could see why that may be called a foul.

1 minute ago, sidcow said:

They've just shown the lines. He was offside, as it was clear from the eye test. I can't understand why people are thinking it was a ridiculous decision. 

Yes they've shown the lines but was that when the ball was played? you can't see from what they showed. Through their working it looked like they couldn't work it out, then started looking at whether Lenglet was blocking keepers view (he wasn't) Why would they even look at that if it had already been determined off side?

It's another case for hearing their workings. Not calling conspiracy but it doesn't help with their transparency.

21 minutes ago, MWARLEY2 said:

 Wouldnt mind some ltd edition gazelles for instance. 

The ones they've done recently have looked pretty poor and half hearted. Leeds and Argentina came to mind but there's been a few. There has been some quality Gazelles out though so so just seems to be these club edition ones that dont hit the mark. Whether I'd see Villa ones differently, who know.

2 minutes ago, villa4europe said:

I actually think the opposite, Adidas have some good collaborations and ranges and a fair bit of limited edition stuff which is collectable, not just the shoes but going in to the originals and spezial ranges, they've also done a lot of good work on their football originals ranges this year which we might miss out on and some retro stuff which we'll definitely miss out on (they've rereleased a lot of Germany gear, kits and training stuff, they've got a good arsenal retro range too based around the early 90s)

Definitely better as a brand than Nike imo 

Yeah like most very big brands they have a lot of of crap that could be considered Chavy but they have some very decent stuff if you like sports/casual wear and we are talking a manufacturer for a football club.

I do say this as a bit of an Adidas fan, particularly trainers but some clothing. I've just nipped to the shop in adidas trainers, coat and an adidas inspired hoodie.

As a Villa fan while on one hand it's my favourite brand. I'm not particularly sure I like the 3 stripes on the clubs sleeves, in a sort of sacrilege way. Which is a bit of a contradiction as the stripes themselves I often like on the  clothing.

Ultimately I rarely buy a shirt though and looking forward to some of the possible training/leisurewear and its win-win if we're getting a good deal financially.

3 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

I have been scathing of Heck on the crest but if this is resolved as Bardell has suggested then we have to give Heck some serious credit.

Others that are involved in kit manufacturing are better placed than me to comment but I would imagine securing a new global kit supplier at very short notice within a couple of months and without having your pants pulled down commercially is difficult enough. To get a kit worthy of your 150th year at the same time speaks to a job very well done. 
 

Yes, there were things in his favour but I think executing this would have required some very serious effort.

He probably couldn't believe his luck. A way to get out of a contract that he thinks he could get better, timed with performances on the pitch giving even more potential for revenue.

Although you can hear the social media meltdown down now. That it's August and the new kit is still not available to buy.