Midfielder

17 hours ago, av1 said:

Watching him yesterday whilst considering the fact that the club rejected a £1.5m bid made me think that even at 38, and a couple of stone overweight, it might not be too late. 

 

 

Wait, thoughts... check, weight... check, age... check. 

Calling all you Champions League clubs, he's yours if you want him. Come and get! 

Was clear on the radio that there were a lot of cheers when Bacuna came off. Hope Bruce realises this guy doesn't cut the mustard and "cashes in". 1.5m rejected? Liability in terms of ability and sometimes attitude. If someone bids again I hope we accept. Better than him available in squad in each of the positions he allegedly can play. 

I don't hate the lad I just think he's a bag of shite and that's not his fault that he's a bag of shite. Could fit in at St Andrews very easily. Nudge nudge 'Arry, help us out man. Sign this Gimp. 

I only had the radio to go off, but from what I was listening to it was frustrating. Not like a spoiled child do I expect three points just because we were at home and it's the first match of the season, and after all, Hull were a Premier League team last year...

...but...

the way I see it, that is two points dropped. Lessons not learned it seems. For us to be considered bookmakers tip for 1st or 2nd in what will be a tight league this year, every point is going to matter. Villa park has to be a fortress. No new news there, but, the substitutions. 

Onomah ahead of say Hourihane, like others have said in the Hourihane thread... odd. Also the Samba move reeked of last-resort desperation. Big lad sure, Heading prowess yes, but direct football with a defender up front in the first match of the season? Aside from that, why when chasing a second goal, take Hogan off and limit our striking potential? Then fiddle with the formation to little or worse effect. Daft. 

I am not saying Bruce out just yet, but ok so we didn't lose, but there were a lot of alarm bells from today. Kodjia, when back, will bring goals, but that's not going to magic everything better. Some very odd decisions today. Two transfer windows, a whole pre season and do we have an identity yet, do we have a clue on the pitch? 

Its damn sure time we did. The tactics were a mess today, the decisions, baffling. I hope you're not sat thinking "ah that was ok that" tonight Bruce. Post mortem that shit and get us on track. Yes, yes, only the first match but that was not encouraging, to have so many questions asked of today rather than answers to the bad traits of last season being resolved. 

7 hours ago, sne said:

Haha I'd love that.

Eliasson was one.

IFK Göteborg has a very promising young keeper in Pontus Dahlberg. Born in 99 and already the starting keeper. Loads of clubs are keeping tabs on him. Not quite ready to play at Championship level yet, but a huge prospect.

August Erlingmark is also a good prospect (98).

MFF have a striker named Mattias Svanberg (99) who's having a breakthrough season, one to keep an eye on.

Halmstad has a huge talent in Sead Haksabanovic (99) He is something special. Not "the next Zlatan" but one to follow. 

There are more of course but in general there is a big gap moving from the Allsvenskan to playing abroad. Hard to say who will thrive and who will struggle.

Of the players who are currently good enough to make an impact from day one I'd say Tinnerholm (MFF)  Christiansen (MFF) & Hopcutt (Östersund). Hammarby sold Joseph Aidoo to Genk a while back, he is decent.

2 players who I'd thought would have moved on by now is Lewicki (MFF) and Wahlqvist (IFK Norrköping) but both have stalled and not really moved on the way I hoped they would. Still young(ish) thou.

 

Edit: Should add there are a lot of young Swedish players who have moved abroad to Denmark, Holland, Belgium...in the last few years who could do a job in the Championship.

I've been banging on for years for us to sign Ludwig Augustinsson, he went to Werder Bremen in the summer and I'm 100% he will make the move to an even bigger club in a season or 2.

Same with Sam Larsson who is probably off to Celta Vigo soon. Very  exiting player who we could have got in previous seasons.

Cheers Sne, the detail is what I wanted, thanks for your time I'll do some background reading on these lads later. 

But thanks again fella. Mr. Sne- Villa's & VillaTalk's very own Swedish scout. Official. 

Listening on Talksport, heart pounding. Hearing the same old sh--

come on Villa, come on!

yeah do one Bacuna

2-1 to Villa, nervy, tense... late winner. 

Regardless, really looking forward to first match. Feel the jigsaw is incomplete as ever, but surely not far off at all. Still, like a kid on Christmas Eve, excited and hopefully Santa delivers 3 points tomorrow. UTV

Also one other thing. In the Steve Round thread I made a slightly critical / questioning reference to our scouting infrastructure. What pains me slightly is, that time on time, there are many players continually over your way that can make the step up to Championship / Premier League yet we rarely are ever in for them. 

I would love us to do more in that way. Not just Sweden but Norway and Denmark too possibly Finland. 

Bristol Sh1tty pay 1.5m for that lad could be an absolute bargain. Look what we paid for Hogan and McCormack , though I hope Hogan comes good. 

I will watch out for this Eliasson lad good luck to him but for 1.5m I hope we assessed him and thought he won't make the grade. Otherwise, it's a bit annoying if we simply don't scan the Scandinavian leagues and miss out on potential gems. 

I think SNE and some of the lads off here might have to send in their CVs or start work as agents if we are lacking / lazy with the ScandiScouting. 

Cheap fees, realistic wages, committed personality types, grafters and multi lingual, on our doorstep almost, plus they're not p1ssed off by our weather... damn we are missing out. 

On another note , @sne , who in Allsvenskan are the absolute hot properties currently under the radar of foreign predators who you think stand out and do the league proud? 

18 minutes ago, sne said:

IFK Norrköping losing their best player (Niclas Eliasson) to Bristol City for about £ 1.5 m

Man, this guy is the real deal, if Neymar is worth 200m, this guy has the potential to be the worlds first £10 billion player! According to his Wiki https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Niclas_Eliasson

HE HAS SCORED NEARLY 1800 GOALS IN THREE SEASONS...

This doesn't cut and paste properly from using my phone but this season an incredible 456 goals in 17 matches

damn... if we had signed him and turned him crap as we do to some players, even at a tenth of his capacity he would have scored approx 45 goals in 17 matches for us, that would do me! 

1800 goals. Damn. Screw you Neymar

I listen to Talksport a lot, but in relation to Deano being on, I have to say, his being on there has had me a couple of times thinking Dean, you're wrong, shut up. Particularly for example half way through the season one morning despite Zlatan being on form he was saying something like 'no, Jose should be playing Rashford, I'd pick Rashford over Zlatan any day' or something like that. Sure, United should play their young guns and bed then in more but at that time and whilst Zlatan was banging them in, he was seriously saying they should drop Zlatan. Proper cringeworthy. 

Some times though he has been quite funny. 

As for the man himself I used to love Deano and had the stringy neck shirt with Saunders 9 on was proud of that shirt. Parents still probably got that in the loft. Him and Dalian those were the days. 

1 hour ago, rodders0223 said:

That's not how you play the game, that's embarrassing.
What you should do when the ball goes out of play is put your hand on your hips, stroll over to the ball boy,  retrieve said ball, wipe it on yor shirt once, twice, three times. Look forward, look back, motion to throw the ball, stop, look forward again, look back, motion to throw the ball. Take the ball from behind your head in one hand, put your other arm out the side in a "come on ffs" motion, put the ball behind your head again, weight up your options, lose any will to actually retain possession, just chuck the **** thing, run back towards your own box, occasionally turning to the side, screaming at everyone else and flapping your arms.

What an absolutely spot on account of the modern day throw. There could be another stage to that, about two thirds into your description and that's to underarm throw it to a replacement throw in taker who then repeats the process. 

Annoying when after what Rodgers says, it mostly all ends up intercepted anyway. 

Deano's one a rarity. 

Welcome Josh, good luck to you lad.

Little paragraph off the net: https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/aug/04/tottenham-josh-onomah-aston-villa-loan

There has been a question mark over Onomah’s best position. Pochettino has seen him as an attacking midfielder, who can play anywhere in the line of three behind the striker but Onomah shone at the Under-20 World Cup in a box-to-box role, with a deeper starting position. Steve Bruce, the Villa manager, has moved for him after losing Jack Grealish for at least three months to a freak kidney injury.

1 hour ago, BOF said:

Well they just drew PAOK of Greece.  Tough enough draw but beatable.

Fingers crossed for them 

17 August - away

24 August - home....

always nice to get the away leg done first!

thanks for the formatting help there, looks a lot better than when i left it

Europa League Qual - 3rd Round - update

It is over to Ostersunds to keep the Swedish flag flying. Last night, AIK were eliminated after extra time away in Braga, 3-2 on aggregate. Damn that away goal conceded in the home leg. However....

Fola Esch 1- 2 Ostersunds (so 3-1 on aggregate to OFK) (ps a lesson learned by Fola, about celebrating a bit too much after that first goal went in, little did they know OFK were gonna turn it back round):

........means that around lunchtime 12pm in UK, Ostersunds are in the "hat" when the playoff fixtures are drawn. Damn some big teams in the playoffs.... AC Milan, Everton, Marseille to name a few are in there! 

from http://www.uefa.com/uefaeuropaleague/season=2018/draws/round=2000889/index.html

BOF : Edited for crimes against formatting ...

On 22/07/2017 at 12:36, Killeen30 said:

Just a heads up for people that Sports Direct (as we all know) are selling the new home and away shirts for £45.

There is for preorders free name and number and patch printing. So it's shirt all in with a name and number and patches for £45.  DEAL.

 

when are the squad number released?!

I missed this post. Tight arsed git I am now facing 65-70 notes paying. Ah well Mike Ashley doesn't get the cash. 

I was reading in the Birmingham Mail site the other day that 79% of all shirts ordered have been Terry 26! That's quite incredible out of all the orders. 

Anyway, since my order will be online, not near VP or Birmingham to go collect, guess it's the club site or Kitbag then as a backup unless anyone is our own version of Hot Uk Deals in the thread 

41 minutes ago, av1 said:

Even in todays market, when the ability walk in a straight line means you're worth £20m, i find it staggering that Spurs once paid £9m for this bloke. 

And that was back then, that 9m probably comparative to 25m today. 

Ironic that we loaned Kyle Walker, added to his development and showed Spurs he was first X1 ready and that Hutton was surplus. 

I like Kyle Walker, enjoyed his Villa year. But if anyone has a time machine, can they go back to stop us loaning Walker, as that would probably mean we never signed Hutton. 

I find it odd that with so many options at right back that at this stage we would declare him first choice. I thought at times, he looked destined for the door and that we were actively looking to move him on. 

At least he only has 12 months left, but then, if we keep playing him, he might be awarded another year appearances-based automatic extension like last time but I don't know the ins and outs of his contract...

Not worth the estimated 30/40k a week wages for that ability, not to be declared first choice. Hopefully this makes say, Bree, work his ass off and force him out. Or if you were Bree would you be a slight bit miffed by the first choice reference, probably the latter. 

as said, I thought it looked nailed on he was going. Maybe, here's a theory, just maybe, Terry has clicked with him. After all, Hutton must surely train really over the years really well to keep getting picked to start (what happens on the pitch is another story) and might be a decent / motivating influence in the dressing room. And maybe, Terry has said nah boss he's a good egg keep him for this last year. 

Clutching at straws here. Out of disappointment. But, ah well if he's staying then can we see Hutton v2.0 then? Please. 

Whatever the problem, get well / healed Jack. Would be typical Villa for us to have trickles of optimism at the dawn of new season and almost like De Laet have a man down at start of season, hopefully not long term this time.

I have been critical of Jack in the past for on and off the pitch stuff, but another setback in his career and a wait for him to recover is not welcome. All I want from this lad, is for when he gets game time, to be a success, whatever position it is. To grow and consistently develop, realise his talent, he's young but not that young. Many his age are first XI'ers by his age with maybe 100 starts minimum, sort of like Will Hughes we saw.

Clearly has talent, at times himself doesn't seem to know how best to use it and managers who don't seem to know either. Don't want to see this lad's stop / start career keep being disrupted or missing the boat for first X1 selections too much more. 

Get well, get fit, be ready when you're better Jack because if things go tits up this season we are gonna need you firing son, better than you have ever been! And if by some voodoo magic we're top two and flying by the time of your return, then the bar is raised higher and you'll have to work even harder to break back into the team. Good luck lad. 

Good work by our boys and girls in blue. So that pic is of the (alleged) 2am one? 

Surely only a matter of time. Height and build released, face shown, people who know that he was "out of the house" circa 2 am, was wearing a blue / purple adidas tracksuit top that night..... driving a car at 2am, maybe a taxi driver, food delivery driver?... 

you d like to think, that surely, people who know him who have no doubt seen his picture and what he's wanted for, would grass him up, crime like that it's the right thing to do for justice and the safety of others. 

surely a closing net though. 

4 hours ago, sne said:

There are pretty strong rumors about Olof Mellberg going to IFK Göteborg next season if you believe the gossip on a few IFK forums.

IFK are currently negotiating a transfer for one of BP's young talented CB's, Carl Starfelt.

But supposedly they are also working on a deal for Mellberg for next season. IFK and BP have a good working relationship and has done transfers before.

Really hope this is true as it would pair 2 of my favorite players leading IFK with Mellberg and Torbjörn Nilsson as his assistant.

Not that this is a guarantee but I think on Football Manager it lists IFK in the favoured clubs section for Mellberg I can't check at the moment as not with PC but I think he may be a fan. 

Either way, from what you've said that's a dream partnership. If it all comes true, come April 2018, first home game, get two tickets before they sell out and I'll meet you at the stadium 

I thought the same as someone above who mentioned the time between the events. But then I thought, who knows how someone would act "after". I was talking to colleagues about it yesterday and they were bitching, women by the way, Cheltenham women at that, about why is a child out til 2pm anyway. Whoa hang on are you forgetting what happened earlier in that evening? 

If the first happened at 7pm and she wandered out at 2am who knows, I'd believe the victim primarily and who knows, after such a horrific thing happening she will in the least be in a state of shock, pain, disorientation, shame, embarrassment, guilt.... any of. Such powerful states and emotions could have her sat crying or simply hiding for hours after, who knows. 

As for why she would go off with the stranger, who knows. Some kids are trusting, some are easily influenced. Maybe even an offer of sharing a spliff or vodka or cigs or anything who knows. 

still though, update, cctv images of the alleged paedophile rapists have been released. 

http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/police-investigating-two-separate-rapes-13402279

The teenager, initially reported to be 15 years old, was in Witton Station when she was approached by two men at around 8pm on Tuesday (July 25).

As said, it's shocking , awful, horrible for that girl. What's the world coming to, or already came to, when that happens... How can she ever trust anyone ever again, I hope the authorities take good care of her and the police, and local community, root these ______ out. 

I'm a born and bred Brummie but live away from Brum and I read the Evening Mail site to keep in touch with what's going on in the city. All rapes are horrific, but just clicking on this morn, I wasnt expexting to see this while munching my cereal, sickening to see our city coming to events like this and in the relative vicinity of VP too. 

I havent got kids, but lads on here that do, your boys and girls, I dunno what the right way is to educate kids on the fact people like that exist, capable of such attacks... but yeah keep 'em safe. All the best.

2 hours ago, sexbelowsound said:

I have one of those Mellberg shirts but I managed to be one of only a few mugs that picked up a shirt that just had 'Mellberg 4' on the back.

Honestly, what is the world coming to, when these days, you can't walk into a shop, buy 3,100 football shirts and they cant get the lettering right on all of them. Shameful Villa, shameful. 

As for you SexBelowSound, still though, that's a gift from one of our Gods, you are one of the chosen people. 

What the ____? This is sickening, the poor girl... at our train station and vicinity of VP. I hope these ______ are caught and "more". http://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/detectives-hunt-two-rapists-after-13395432

Detectives are hunting two rapists after a 15-year-old girl was attacked by a man in a car - moments after she had been raped by a different man inside Witton train station

Officers from British Transport Police and West Midlands Police have launched a joint investigation after the teenager was attacked twice between 7pm on Tuesday (July 25) and 2am on Wednesday (July 26).

The first sexual assault happened at Witton station. The 15-year-old girl was out with a friend and they walked into Witton station together. A man then approached the victim and led her to a secluded part of the station, where she was raped. Shortly after the attack, the victim walked away from the area and flagged down a passing

vehicle to ask for help. She got in the car and was then assaulted a second time by what is believed to be a second offender.

 

edit- can't see this on BBC site but the Daily Fail has more http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4736452/Girl-15-raped-TWICE-two-different-men-day.html#article-4736452

• Police say teen first attacked at Witton railway station in Birmingham on Tuesday
• Girl then flagged down vehicle outside the station and was raped a second time 
• First attacker described as Asian with light skin, brown eyes, skinny and 6ft tall
• Second also Asian, in early 20s, 5ft 7ins tall, of large build with a cropped beard