Deisler123

A hairy chest.... hmm suspicious

I recently got interested in British politics, and wonder anyone can explain to me why Labour party in this country is often referred to as a 'left-wing party'? I am aware of the usual image of 'class-less revolution'/Marxism being left-wing, and of course a political party that is built upon the support of 'workers' is naturally linked to 'left'. But I am still confused by the classification in Britain. - Has Labour party been traditionally defined as 'left-wing party' since its birth? What was the attitude of ordinary people towards Labour pre/post WWII? I understand that NHS was 'created' by Labour and the idea of NHS is in fact 'left-wing', i.e. anti-privatisation (thus anti-capitalism). So surely Labour should not be judged/hated purely by being 'left-wing' (because people love the idea of NHS)? - I heard back in 70s there were some 'privatisation' of state-owned businesses approved by Conservatives. And it seems to me (maybe I am wrong) that more and more people are arguing against that idea. Was Labour against that back in 70s? - In a few TV debates I watched on BBC, when people (including those panelists) tried to accuse someone's idea being 'left-wing', they will call them 'socialists' rather than 'communists'. My understanding is, generally speaking, 'socialism' being mid-left-wing while communism being 'extreme left-wing'. My confusion here is, why people often use the word 'socialist' when they are referring to 'left-wing' ideas? Is it because in British history, there were some socialist parties but never had strong communism movement?

I have only been a Villa fan for a year so I only know 20-ish players, but Green is definitely my favorite Villa player. He is young, he is fast and I particularly like the rhythm he has when dribbling. I hope this season can be a great one for him. I expect 5 goals and 5 assists from him, if he can have regular play time.

We seem to agree on almost every points raised. There isn't that much that we disagree on really. It is just either being 'realistic' or being 'hopeful or optimistic'. And honestly there isn't much difference between the two. As long as there is even 1% chance of making that happen, people should fight for it. Club like Villa needs an ambitious owner and an even more ambitious plan. Otherwise the history of glory is just a history. Some may find the the owner and the plan a bit too 'unrealistic'. But, my reading was that the 'ambition' is really a strong message from the new owner when he took over. He wanted to tell everyone (especially the club staff/players and the fans) that he wants to the bring changes to the club and he is determined to do that. I wouldn't really take Dr's ambition (i.e. to win Premier League title in 3-5 years time) too literally, but I still remain hopeful that Villa can play European football in 5 years. We'll see.

I hope this season we can get promoted. If we cannot even make to the play-offs, then I am afraid the momentum (of having a new owner who likes to invest but expect some success in 3-5 years) may be lost. Sometimes people are just reluctant to be optimistic, because their hopes have been crashed before. But this forum is, generally speaking, very positive, that is why I like here .

There is a distinct difference between UK and China, in terms of how people start to support their club at the first place . Say, if you ask 10 Chinese fans who were sitting in that stadium why they support Chelsea or Arsenal, I am 100% sure that none of them will say: I support them because my dad took me to watch their games at Stanford Bridge when I was 8. Instead, 99% chance you will hear : 'I first started to watch them because they were playing in the Champions league' or 'I watched their first match at the Uni because my friends followed them', or even 'my girlfriend really likes Fernando Torres so I had to watch Chelsea games (in my case, Maldini and AC Milan, and I followed Milan for 15 years already...)' Because there are only 32 clubs in the top two divisions in China and most of them are in big cities, 90% of football fans in China do not have a local club to support. They (including myself) normally choose a Chinese club and an European club to follow and (most of) them are quite loyal to their choices. It is impossible to follow any club if people cannot watch their games, so you are definitely right if Villa stay in Championships. Having a Chinese owner is not really a strong reason for people to follow, but having 1-2 Chinese players (who are good enough to play in the premier league) are. And if they can play in the Europa/Champions league? You could expect tens of millions of people watching. In 2006-2007, A Chinese Player, who played for PSV Eindhoven, played 4 games in the Champions League. One of the match was broadcast live in China. It was later estimated that over 25 millions people watched it on TV. Imagine what could happen to Villa's potential sponsorship contracts and merchandise sales, if every Villa's match is live in China with millions of fans watching.

Yes. Hisense started to use football as a marketing tool to expand their global market since three years ago. Although domestic market is huge in China (and almost every family in cities own 50+ inch TV, hence the huge market), international market is what most electronics manufacturers are looking to get into. Companies like Haier, Suning have been doing that and Suning even owns Inter. That is one of the reasons that Hisense is now desperate to sponsor any football club with good reputation in EU. Generally speaking, most weatern clubs still have concerns of having sponsorships from China (for obvious reasons; continental competitions are a bit more relaxed about it), but clubs with Chinese owners will not have issues with this. There will be more to come. Even more when we get promoted.

damn.... West Brom signed Yuning Zhang and loaned to Bremen. http://www.skysports.com/football/news/11698/10935231/west-brom-sign-china-striker-yuning-zhang-from-vitesse-arnhem pity.

Terrible news. I learnt this this afternoon from a friend of mine who is a local fan of that club. These are GIFs of him playing the last match (on Saturday 3/June). Can't believe how a great footballer who just played a game two days ago suddenly passed away.... RIP.

Haha not sure if you can, but he will probably bring you down quite easily if they win the playoff. Now the story. Story one: Dai family is not super rich (like Wanda or Huawei kind of things), but having at least 1.5-2.5 billion, enough to run Reading that is for sure. The sister is more famous in football as she used to be the owner of Guizhou Renhe club. A few years ago, at the Chinese FA cup final (two legs game), her club won 2:0 at home in the first leg. She was very happy after the match, and said (in front of the camera and all media) in the changing room to the players that, she will give 60 millions RMB (around 7 million pounds) as a bonus reward to the players if they win the cup. Then in the second leg, they lose 1:2 but win the cup. When the media asked her if she has given the bonus to the players, she said: ''well, in 60 millions, there are some from friends who promised after the first leg win. At that time we (they) were too drunk and said that. If today they give what they promised, I will give my share''. No one knows if she has given the money to the players in the end. One year later - the club got relegated from the super league. She then moved the club from Guiyang (a city at the south-west boarder of China) to Beijing, as she believes her company (or the club) will gain better financial benefits in Beijing. This club is known in China as 'homeless dog' as they changed the home cities for 3 times (for business purpose) in 10 years. Fans (apart from their own) think they are a disgrace.

Haven't posted for a couple of months, although always been checking VT every day (slightly) OOT (from the next manager/if Xia wants to spend big kind of topics): how do you guys think about the recent take-over of Reading club? Compared to Tony Xia when he bought Villa last year, the new owners of Reading are really really 'famous' in Chinese football. I can share a few funny stories when they were the owner of a Chinese club before. And I wonder what will happen if Reading win at the playoff final, considering that they have been rejected by the FA as 'inappropriate owners' for owning a PL club when they planned to take over Hull?

More to that, a way around the work permit (although Brexit....).

I have watched about 4-5 his matches. He is really good with the ball, especially the rhythm of ball control. My micro-criticism to him is that he needs to improve his off-ball running, particular in the space between full and centre backs. Oh, well, he is only 18....

I don't know why you think like this. A. RECON does not have much business in the UK. Owning Villa does not give RECON any tax relief in any way.... B. It is very very clear that owning Villa is only a part of his business plan - nothing wrong with this IMO, and making Villa successful can only be a good thing for his bigger plan. C. honestly, it is a bit unfair to say 'he doesn't have to make us successful or pump loads of money in'. He is not an actor, and you can see that he cares. But I do agree that in order to exploit full support of his deep pocket, Villa need to get back to PL next season. Perhaps this is the point you wanted to make?

Possibly from RECON or related companies, yes. Not quite possible from unrelated companies because at the moment Villa has no 'advertising effect' to exploit when playing in 2nd Division. Things will be completely different when we get back to PL tho.

It is just because the championships has zero coverage in China, unfortunately. Either going back to PL or signing a Chinese player (after returning back to PL) will definitely get decent sponsorship deals easily. It just does not work now no matter what, because simply we are in this league...

You mean the ground billboards? or around the stadium (outside)? I didn't watch the game live today. For the last home game, I did. Most were for Recon, and some small businesses (compared to Samsung, Sony etc.) I will check next time when I watch the home game and make a note of what they are.

When I saw we scored the first goal, I went on VT to check the reactions. And it was down at that point. Then we scored the second. At that time I kinda hoped that VT was down. So it was. I guess I know what the problem with Villa is now.... Moderators - can we test this theory at the next game please?

No one expects SB to take Villa to play-off. But the bottom line is to stay in this league. Check the league table now, we are only 7 points away from relegation. Considering the fact that we are at the top of the poorest form table, relegation is REAL now. A lot of VTers argued that we should give SB more time, at least till the end of the season. Yes, I do agree. But we have to stay in this league at the end of the season, surely? 16 games to play, 7 points away from safe, we will get relegated if we don't improve. And Aston Villa playing in League one? Not only a disgrace, but it is not impossible that the club staying there (perhaps) forever, and maybe got bankrupt very soon. 3-4 more games, if less than 3 points, SB has to go. Relegating this club to league one is a CRIME.

Let's have a proper debate here..... Every single away game, we sit back from the start, and play direct long ball. Giving away possession is ok, but giving away counter attack so easily and being counter back right after that is not OK. Grealish had poor performance in the 2nd half, why on earth did SB not sub him at 65-75mins? After Grealish got the red, why did we sub both strikers immediately? After we lose both strikers, we literally had no ball possession AT ALL for 15 mins. What was SB thinking? I am sorry, even if we are SHIT, the manager needs to make right decision - that is why SB is paid for. These amateur decisions from SB? LOL

Hogan off? Now I am confused

yes. I am back to watch this game, and if we win this one: I will be like 'wait we can still make play offs'! Exactly!

Pointless thread now, pointless efforts throughout the Jan window Everything seems to be pointless. Today's match is like a face slap to all of us, and all club managing staff, and most of all, to Xia. I am sorry. I give up. See you next season.

An absolute joke... A flat midfield formation? No AMC, no DMC, poor positioning, just endless long pass. Are we back to play early 90s football? Wrong tactics, wrong game plan, everything is wrong.

Don't think announcement will be made during or shortly after the game. So just get off from twitter and watch the game.