TheStagMan

1 hour ago, StanBalaban said:

To be fair, he'd probably double his wages and get far more commercial deals at Chelsea if he was so inclined. However, he seems happy here and will be playing in Europe this season, as part of a project that he's a key figure in.

Given his attention to detail, I don't think Don Unai would leave much to chance. If Emi was looking at options, you can bet the transfer fee would be ridiculous and Monchi and Emery would have a plan in place.

Unlike maybe other positions on the park, a goalkeeper role cannot just be absorbed by the rest of the squad. For rumours of Emi moving away, there must also be rumours of us looking for a new #1 keeper - of which there are none. I've yet to see any links to the likes of Raya at Brentford for instance. 

Ideally, I'd love Emi to be offered a new contract soon, along with Ollie and a couple of other key players.

I'm not so sure. Chelsea are a shitshow at the moment and I cannot see them remaining a force

They are hamstrung by the choices they have made over the last couple of years and they are running on the momentum of what they have been. I would not be surprised to see Chelsea fall away over the next few seasons. 

Yes, they could probably offer him more money (so could we). But they can't offer European competition, and they can't offer a stable club with everyone motivated and moving in the same direction. It is an exciting time at Villa. It is not an exciting time at Chelsea.

Why on earth would he take a step down to go to Chelsea?

3 hours ago, Ceemo said:

Prior to the draw, UEFA form four groups in the Main Path, three of four seeded teams and four unseeded teams, and one of five seeded teams and five unseeded teams. Numbers are pre-assigned for each team by UEFA, with the draw held in two runs, one for Groups 1–3 with eight teams and one for Group 4 with ten teams. See the image below for last year, where each team has a number and plays another number on the corresponding side. The draw is a lot quicker by UEFA standards but also it means that the name of Aston Villa won't be coming out of one of the balls. That would happen in the group stage. The first team drawn in each tie is the home team of the first leg.

So if I am understanding that correctly, what that means is....

I should wait until after the draw and just accept whoever they say it is. 

22 hours ago, thabucks said:

This is how spurs demolished white hart lane so guess it will be the same process… 

I know it will only be temporary, and it will look great in the end, but it will break my heart to see Villa Park looking in that state!

Yeah, there is no way we are moving from VP.

Seen comments from Leeds fans saying that Farle will get them back where they belong. 

I assume they mean the Championship, so yes - he should be able to keep them from getting relegated.

1 hour ago, chrisvilla4 said:

I worry that Mings might accidently snap Zaha in training.

Nah, no danger whatsoever of that happening.

It would not be an accident.

1 hour ago, villaajax said:

A friend at my previous job would say "Up The Spurs" instead of 'bye'

Well, mental health care is somewhat lacking nowadays.

14 minutes ago, useless said:

Spurs bid £50m for him... and Maddison.

Is it £60m without Maddison?

I grew up in Kingstanding also. Don't remember ever meeting a nose when I lived there. 

Now I live down South and meet a surprising number of Villa fans. Even met one in Thailand (a local) when on holiday.

17 hours ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

In your first part Stag, it depends who that new player is though to a certain degree?

On your second part, Ash is a player of vast experience and has shown he has still got it at this level too. No one else in our squad has that same level of experience as he has imo.

 

Well, of course, but my expectation is that we will not be replacing him with someone from the U21 team.

There are plenty of other experienced players in the team and we should be replacing him with a top player to be our first choice who will have plenty of experience in his own right.

Yes Ash has lots of experience, but his age is against him and his salary will not be small. Absolutely the right decision to part company. Right way to do it? Not sure, but the focus had to be on that last game and we had to win it, so I am glad we didn't take out eye off the ball with sentimentality 

17 hours ago, useless said:

Whatever Xia's role was in our gloomy first six months of 2018 I hope he's not in peril in Chinese prison, would like to see him tweet again just to know he's okay. And not being facetious there, apparently he is or was in Chinese prison.

He was arrested after six months detention in 2021. 

https://www.scmp.com/sport/china/article/3120884/ex-aston-villa-owner-tony-xia-detained-six-months-arrest-report

difficult to find out anything about his current whereabouts. 

5 minutes ago, sidcow said:

To a certain degree. 

I think it was just a reflex

On 09/06/2023 at 17:51, useless said:

I don't really know if this is true but Xia took us out of the hands of Lerner not saying Lerner bad just lost interest so we needed new owner, spent millions on the team, buying some players who became heroes, was sending £5m a month from China just to keep the club going until he no longer could because of Chinese government stopped him, when he couldn't support the club no longer instead of hanging on to it - as many predicted for the idea was that as a Chinese man he would be too proud to sell unless to one of his fellow country men but that didn't happen, he sought out our current owners and agreed to sell to them for a cut price deal, stayed with them to keep his promise of getting us back to the Premier League, once he kept his promise he gave the rest of his shares to NSWE so they could use that money to give to Randy who was owed an agreed fee upon promotion.

 

No, I cannot agree with this, he was a charlatan and a liar from day 1. He was simply a front for *someone*. 

He had no financial nouse whatsoever and pretty much all of his backstory was picked apart pretty easily. Billionaire my hairy arse.

He pretty much bankrupted this club, to the stage we were taking out loans against future income from player sales and mortgages on 3 bed semis in Erdington. We were a couple of weeks away from having no club anymore.

He had no clue what he was doing and probably did not have any money. 

He sold in the nick of time because he had to. He did not keep any promises at all, he kept a stake in the club to try and recoup some money. Ultimately he did not "give" the shares to NSWE to pay Learner, they basically took them to pay Randy as they felt it was Xia's debt, not theirs or the club's. I remember an article about it at the time. 

Plus he talked bollocks about theme parks and tweeted stupid cryptic emojis all the time. 

It's a stain on Villa's history that we were duped by this utter con artist.

Xia. 

All day long

With Hollis, Krulak, Samuelson and  Wyness getting honourable mentions.

Jesus we have had some charlatans associated with our club.

Dark days.

25 minutes ago, Tubby said:

 

 

That's quite the tangent

Stop angling for attention.

8 hours ago, GlobalVillan said:

From their forum. I mean genuinely wtf!  

"Watching this Man City success I can't help thinking it could be us soon. With the Bellingham money to spend it'll be interesting to see the deals Gardner can get done and get us back up the top of the league".

Quick question..... When they say "back".... Don't they need to have been there before to be able to say that?

3 hours ago, tomav84 said:

he only has to look at ashley young to see what a long career you can have a the top level if you look after yourself. he'll be at a mid table side when he's 30.

I'm expecting him to have druk himself to death by then. Or at least no longer be capable of playing top flight football. 

So will Juve actually be allowed to take part in the tournament? I thought there was still a question about them being allowed to?

On 08/06/2023 at 11:51, UpTheVilla26 said:

Heard some West Ham fan going on about how they will retain the Conference League next season and win it again. 

Daft prick don't even know what competition his team will be in. 

In fairness, West Ham fan at work said he was looking forward to us playing them in next year's final after they get knocked out of the EL.

I don't know why he would be looking forward to it as they will lose.

If this is the quality of the final, we could easily win this next year.

I'll just put this here for them now. Saves time later.

I know this is a joke thread, but I don't think I would want Messi even if he would come to us. Watching him on and off over the last year or so, at his age he will struggle in the prem and it would be a shame to see a great player reduced to bit part performances. Yes, it would be a massive statement and probably pay for itself in shirt sales, but from a footballing perspective - not sure it would work for him as a player. Mercurial talent and moments of magic, yes, but his opportunities to demonstrate them would be very restricted in the prem.

That said, if he did sign, I would wet myself and deny all knowledge of the above. 

55 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

Do you really care what other fans think of us? We’ve just had our best season in over 10 yrs, we have top owners and one of the worlds best coaches at us, why not dream big

I don't give a toss what fans of other clubs think of us. If their opinions were worth anything they would already support Villa.