handsworthvilla

cheers for this . I'll defo get down there for our next televised game

Man City was the best performance I've ever seen from a Villa side. But for some reason I enjoyed this more, and still now over 24 hours later I can't stop thinking about it. I've replayed the highlights nearly 10 times. I can't quite put my finger on it, maybe its because I'm in London and have loads of Gooner friends and I see the way they disrespect Unai. Or maybe its because I just did not expect us to get anything from the game at all, considering how we have been playing recently. But when Bailey scored I yelled like I haven't yelled in years. Pure, unrestrained delight just came out of me. My overwhelming feeling is one of pride, that the boys did that on the big stage, in front of all the cameras and pundits. The performance we all know they are capable of, and the world just saw it in HD. Special, special day.

I am! Plenty of Villans in London to be fair, pretty sure there is a supporters club as well. I remember when I first moved to London (about 15 years ago) it was dead easy to get tickets for all the London away games through official channels. I went to Palace, Fulham, West Ham etc all just by booking through avfc.com. Now its basically impossible to get a ticket .. shame really. Not heard of that pub ... but will look it up!

I had exactly the same experience, had to mute the game because of the female commentator and I've never once before done that during a game. I unmuted her when they scored their 'winner' and she was saying she couldn't see anything wrong with it, whilst clearly looking at images of him literally pushing the ball into the goal with his arm. Baffling.

I thought Benteke would go on to dominate European football and be playing regularly in the champions league. I thought that Jack would be widely regarded as the best player in the league once he left us and started playing for a team challenging at the top. I still to this day think Savo is judged harshly by Villa fans. He seems to have gone down (at least to some people) as a useless flop. He actually had a fairly decent goal record and had a good partnership with Dwight. Obviously the spitting thing was a sad end but he wasn't actually a bad player. I may be looking through slightly rose-tinted glasses as my first season watching Villa was when he joined and the first shirt my parents bought me had Milosevic on the back. I think Steve Bruce is also judged too harshly, and frankly I was quite embarrassed to be a Villa fan when everyone was celebrating the cabbage situation. Quite an appalling way to treat a man who had suffered personal losses that year and continued to get on with the job. People forgot he was 90 mins away from taking us up. (Although I will agree the style of play was utter garbage, but he could get results at championship level). I was at Ezri Konsa's "debut" for us ... a pre-season friendly away against Charlton, and I thought he looked useless. How wrong I was!

Really hope this goes through ... I think we need a little boost around the club after a few iffy results. The positive feeling of a new signing could be what we need

Agree, he's actually a really solid player to have as back up, which is evidenced by the all the clubs who have been trying to take him off our hands during January.

Good point. I for one raised an eyebrow at that decision, thought it would backfire. Kind of similar to the questions raised about letting Ashley Young go in the summer. Trust in Unai, he knows what he is doing.

If as reported we are getting £8.5m for him that is a phenomenal deal for us

The priority for me is a defensive midfielder to cover for Kamara. After watching the capitulation at Old Trafford I'm convinced we cannot afford to start another PL game with Dendonker in the line up. His ability on the ball (or lack of it) really hampered us in the game, particularly in the second half before he was hooked. I guess Tielemens could fill in (he wasn't available that game) but he's not really a DM so would be out of position.

I think his future with us (if he has one) is playing striker. He doesn't seem to have the pace to play out wide, but he has got the physical attributes to play up top. I think he could be coached into playing that role, and would be a useful back up to Ollie. His equaliser against Sheffield United has a classic striker goal. He can hit a ball, I just hope one of those long rangers goes in soon.

Its a shame about Coutinho. I always held out hope that we would come good eventually, but it just hasn't happened. I guess if he's not going to be the main man, and we have a chance to get his wages off the book, then its the right thing to do.

Really happy with this. This is a great coup considering its pretty much a last minute emergency loan

We need a left footed centre half to compete/cover for Torres ... so this makes a lot of sense. If Torres gets injured we are currently looking at playing a right footer at LCB which would really mess up our build up play. I can't see a world in which Hause would play for Emery, he just doesn't have the technical ability, so I wouldn't be surprised if this is true and we are prioritising a left footer centre half.

I think the Smith team has slightly more "likeability" for me. I remember after the 7-2 Liverpool game saying to my friend that they were my favourite Villa team in terms of personalities since the '96 cup team. Even players like Targett, Hourihane and El Ghazi ... I just really liked them and they seemed like all round good eggs even if they were a little limited. This side is definitely getting there for me. As others have said it helps that the big names (Martinez, Mings, McGinn and Watkins) are in the team and in form. Genuinely excited about what this team looks like when Emery gets to add 2-3 of his own players.

That is exactly how it works, and rightly so.

It's pretty pathetic to do this 2 days before the tournament starts. An announcement at any point in the 12 years since they were awarded the hosting rights would have been preferable. This really is quite a depressing world cup isn't it? I've seen every one since 98 and never felt like this heading in to one before.

It is my biggest pet hate in modern football, and one of the reasons I can very rarely sit through a full game of football on TV when Villa are not involved. I have BT Sport so used to watch a fair amount of Serie A and it is even worse there. It absolutely kills the game for a neutral when one teams sole focus becomes slowing the game down and keeping the ball out of play. Obviously we were at it today but I was still glued to the screen because I'm praying for Villa to get over the line, but if I was a neutral I would've turned off in anger. It could be quite easily stamped out by the solution outlined in an earlier post (the 60 minute stop watch) and i believe the authorities are exploring that, but I think we are some way away from seeing that implemented. One simple way of addressing it would be to actually use stoppage time appropriately. It is absolutely bizzare how arbitrary the decision is around how many minutes are added on. It seems like there is no science / method to it whatsoever. I think it should be much more common to see 8-10 minutes added on (like in our game today) than the typical 3 minutes that you see in most games.

It's the same with Hourihane. Yes he was limited and we needed to move him on to evolve, but some (the minority I hope) have zero respect for the big moments he delivered for us

Yeah the same Trezeguet that helped keep us in the league with his goal against Arsenal and took us to the cup final with his goal against Leicester

Incredible. I think our last win at home against them was my first ever league game at Villa Park, the famous 3-1 with Hansons "you'll never win anything with kids" comment on MOTD. As it was my first ever game I just assumed we would beat United and teams like them all the time ... little did I know what the next 25 years had in store.

Absolutely love watching Emi hold the ball in his hands for nearly 30 seconds

Did you think Bailey and Ings were crap last week against Brentford?

It's not so much his speed that has gone. As you say he never really had much pace. What he seems to have lost though is the energy / power in his running. He doesn't seem to have that ability to burst / shimmy past players anymore. In his time at Liverpool he was excellent at beating a player and creating a yard of space of a shot or pass. I don't see that energy in his legs anymore.

I don't understand your point. Of course he didn't make the final decision to sign them, there isn't a single football manager that makes that decision, that is for the CEO / Chairman etc. But if your main point is that managers should not be judged (positively or negatively) on signings because they don't have much sway over them these days, I'm afraid I disagree. Like him or loathe him, Gerrard walked through the door and within 6 months 4 players with big reputations sign for us. If we're saying that is a coincidence and had nothing to do with Gerrard then I think the blinkers are on. I repeat my point, I think he's a crap manager but the profile of player brought in has been good, and I think he should receive credit for that, just as he would receive stick if they'd all turned out to be crap.