GeordieVillan

11 minutes ago, bobzy said:

I think you're missing what OP is saying.  It isn't "£400m on transfers", it's "£400m on everything including transfers (amortised) and wages and staff costs and buying toilet roll and..."

It’s this, or if you are in Europe, the lesser of this or ultimately 70% of your turnover.

53 minutes ago, ender4 said:

It’s funny that we both read the same articles and have interpreted it completely different.  
 

As far as I can tell, and I’m pretty confident that is what The Times and The Athletic are trying to say, is that this new fixed cap will REPLACE the 85% PSR limits. The key word there in both articles is the word “replace”.   
 

Of course, they might be wrong themselves, but that is what they are telling us.  In my interpretation of course.

Ultimately the 85% doesn’t matter, as we will need to comply with the European cap, whatever that is, assuming we are in Europe or aiming to be there again the season after failure.

There will be 2 limiting factors, the hard cap in the league at home, and the percentage cap in Europe.

The only thing clear from this thread is that no one really understands -

1) exactly what this all means.

2) exactly why the Big 6 vote was split. The Kieron Maguire Twitter post makes sense, but why would Liverpool not vote against it when they are in a similar position to Man Utd?

3) why Villa voted against and Newcastle voted for. All those saying that it’s because Newcastle can spend more next year, if it means they qualify for Europe and Villa don’t, then the roles are reversed the year after. We could then spend more the following season. There are two limiting factors - the European spend cap and the 4x proposed revenue cap - but ultimately there will be a finite ceiling regardless of your turnover. Both clubs will be building their revenues at the same time, both clubs have wealthy owners (billions is billions, regardless of the number of billions), and both clubs want to be in Europe. They should be on the same page on this. 

4) after all the wrangling trying to stop Newcastle and the Saudis by the Big 6, I would be amazed if they opening the door to them now. 
 

Interesting but also confusing.

Like pretty much everyone else - he had an off night, but still could have scored a hatrick (or one at least).

Based on his comments in recent weeks, I’m guessing he won’t be happy with his own performance or that of the team.

Hoping there is a fire in his belly for Thursday and Sunday now. 

5 hours ago, beasley14 said:

I actually think the opposite, he was restrained because he was 1) angry but 2) knew we'd played under our level but berating the players at this stage of the season achieves nothing.  We've had a great season and sealed 5th already, he was right to focus on the positive for the players sake imo, they've given there all this season. 

I think he was just very passive aggressive - it was quite funny - but I liked seeing it, it showed that despite what he was saying he’s not blind to the fact that we were shit!

That clearance was a howler, but I think we should remember that he’s generally played a decent part this season in a team that is going to finish 4th/5th.

This season was also his return from a pretty major injury, and our back 4 has changed a lot all season because of injuries etc.

I wouldn’t be too upset if he moved on this summer, but I also think if he stays then he’s a decent squad player and we might struggle to do better than him as a backup. 

Pau / Mings (assuming he comes back strong) / Konsa / Carlos and one more should be enough to cover to centreback places next season. Depending on the quality of the “one more”, Carlos may be 5th choice, and I think if he ends up being our 5th choice then we are in pretty good shape!

Back in our hands, can’t ask for much more than that at this stage of the season.

If we had been offered this position at the start of the season, after the Newcastle defeats or the Man Utd defeats, or after the Spurs defeat, we would have bitten everyone’s hands off.

It’s not over yet, but if Spurs fail to win either of their next 2, regardless of what we do at Brighton, it makes it very hard for them. To be fair, they showed enough today to suggest they can get at least 8 points from their last 5 games.

I don’t think he did anything wrong last night. At the end of the day, he’s our back up goalkeeper, I’m not sure we are going to get anyone better than him to sit on the bench and play 5-6 games a season?!

He’s actually improved a lot with his distribution, which is quite impressive for someone at the stage of his career to add a “new” skill like that.

No way should Carlos attempt to clear the ball the way he does at the end, regardless of Olsen’s position.

If Emi makes that save from Palmer at the end, people would be quoting it as another example of how good Emi is at 1v1s and saving with his feet. Give Olsen a bit of credit for the save at least! If we finish one point above Spurs at the season end, Olsen has played a huge part!

Interesting point tonight. If Spurs win tomorrow, we will collectively all be thinking that if they win their next game in hand against Chelsea, then they are very much in the driving seat. And they will be confident going in to that Chelsea game.

If Spurs fail to win tomorrow, then this feels like a good point today and they are really under pressure.

What I would say is, Chelsea showed us tonight why it’s so important for us to get Champions League this year. If we qualify, it will give us a chance to make 2 or 3 really high quality additions, to try to preserve our new status as a contender next year. If we fail, then it’s feasible Chelsea, Man Utd and Newcastle all go strong next season and it will be thought for us.

1 minute ago, Jas10 said:

 

I said it elsewhere - but look how angry he is!

I think he set us up to play on the break, just as he did against Spurs. I can understand why he did it in these games, but when it doesn’t work he leaves himself open to the accusation of being too defensive / meek / passive.

Just watched his interview on TNT - don’t think I’ve ever seen him that angry! 
Assuming he’s expressed this to the players!

You would think today is a good day to announce price increases. If not today, perhaps they are waiting to see if/when we qualify for champions league.

Maybe I’m a sceptic but I think they might try spin the price increase on a day alongside good news.

13 minutes ago, nick76 said:

Mr Percy, why put that last dozen words in to kill a positive article when it is unlikely as you say…it puts doubt in our heads.  If it’s highly unlikely then don’t write about it (I know it’s your job), we don’t even want to think about Ollie leaving.

 

Realistically, there has been paper talk this week of Isak being linked to Arsenal and now Barcelona. Is Isak better than Watkins?

I think there is a couple of scenarios in which Ollie Watkins might leave us this summer -

1) we fail to qualify for the Champions League and either Liverpool / Man City / Arsenal or another Champions League club make a crazy offer. In this scenario I don’t think he would go to any other team in England other than the top 3, but there is a chance he would leave.

2) we qualify for the Champions League, in which case I don’t think he would leave for any other English team, but he may leave if a club like Barcelona come in for him. I know it feels implausible and huge jump to think of Ollie playing for huge European team like that, but I really do think his performance this year and the numbers he is posting would make it a possibility that a club he could not refuse come in for him.

We have to accept that we have a handful of players now - Martinez, Torres, Konsa, Luiz, Watkins - that we would love to keep, but they are capable of playing at the very very highest level, and we aren’t quite there yet, and it is plausible that one or two could leave. If they do, I don’t think we should worry, we will get good money and we will use it wisely to strengthen the squad. Liverpool and Spurs have done this over the years and it’s made them stronger, certainly in Liverpool’s case.

To be clear, I don’t want Watkins to leave, and I don’t think he will because I feel we will make top 4 now, but I don’t think Percy is wrong to suggest we are making plans for “the unlikely event of Ollie Watkins leaving for a huge transfer fee”. It would be irresponsible if we weren’t doing this!

Watching his highlights reel from Sunday, I was hit with the sudden realisation of who he reminds me of. The way we stands, moves, runs, turns and dribbles, and even the way he finished for his 2 goals against Brentford and Bournemouth.

He really reminds me of Collymore.

Not sure whether he will end up being a centre forward, and he seems be showing the work ethic that Stan lacked maybe, and hopefully he doesn’t have the issues Stan had, but watching him live and then watching the clips, he has the explosiveness that Collymore had. He’s got the raw natural ability, just needs the attitude and hard work and he could be a star.

But on that basis, I would say that he and Ramsey aren’t actually that similar, and in fact they could play in the same team if Rogers is in the no10 role.

Did great tonight. Name a better striker at making an impact off the bench?

Maybe Alvarez? Callum Wilson?

Not sure either of those or anyone else impacts games in the way Jhon does.

I said to my mate earlier that we need to get through tonight and then win against Bournemouth and Chelsea, but I was worried because it would mean winning 5 games in a row, which is a big ask.

Turns out we actually lost tonight, so maybe that means we have a better chance of winning the next 2!

Late goal that saved us and a key penalty in the shootout, hopefully that will keep some people off his back until the end of the season! He looked a different player when Leon came on, they have a good understanding and if we are chasing the game - Cash is the only option at right back.

He takes control of these situations! Becoming a legend for Villa.

He’s lucky Watkins was ice cold though, I’m sure he didn’t appreciate having to wait that long to take his pen, although that was more the crowd than Emi…

Anyone else worried about how tired we are going to be on Sunday!

9 minutes ago, Wurzel said:

OK, time for a reset. Cash off Carlos on. Emery need to get into them, that performance was not good enough.

Cash has been fine. I don’t think he will take him off, as if we are chasing the game and need a goal later, we will need someone who can attack from right back.

The Lille press has been excellent. Blocking passes to the 4 players in our box midfield, and also limiting Pau’s ability to release Digne down the left. They did exactly the same in the first leg and it worked well.

Unai will have to figure something out, or maybe he’s just waiting to introduce Bailey and hoping for a similar impact to Sunday.

Rogers has only been on 20 mins, and he has been the best of our midfield.

Could go either way this.

Jamie Carragher just did a great bit of analysis on how Unai did it yesterday - it’s not yet on the Sky sports website but it’s worth a watch if/when they stick on there!

48 minutes ago, Brumstopdogs said:

One thing he would have done better is organise and lead.

In that crazy spell yesterday nobody took charge.

He definitely was a leader and a “talker”, and I definitely want him back and playing. But he too has lapses of concentration in him, and other than the run under Unai at the end of last season, he’s been part of the team over the last few years that has also been vulnerable to in game spells of collapse, or moments at the beginning of first halves and second halves where we give away goals.

I certainly don’t think we would be any worse with Mings in the team, just not sure it would solve these current issues. It feels more like a structural thing.

The way I see it, Man Utd are 12 behind and have a much worse goal difference. Even if we only won 1 more game, Man Utd would need to win 5 of their remaining 8 games to be level with us, and then either have the goal difference swing in their favour or pick up another point or win from one of the other 3 games. It’s a huge ask for them, and again that’s on the basis we only win one of our remaining games.
 

Christ if they lose to Liverpool tomorrow, they would need to make up 12/13 points from us in 7 games - we would have to go the rest of the season without gaining a point for that to happen I think. Even today, when we did our very best to lose, we still managed a draw. All those saying this Villa team throw away leads, they ignore the number of times we have come back this season to draw or win.
 

In terms of Spurs, both we and they seem to be doing our very best to let the other have 4th. If we were to pick up 3 more wins (not impossible/unlikely), they would need to win 4 of their remaining 8 games, which I think is achievable for them, although I certainly don’t think it’s easy given their fixtures.

It will probably go down to the wire between us and Spurs for 4th/5th.

50 minutes ago, ben1505 said:

60 points was enough for 5th in 3 of the last 4 seasons

Wow didn’t know this! I guess the issue this season is that the bottom teams aren’t picking up as many points, so there is a few more points for the top half teams…