Keener window-cleaner

1 hour ago, Zatman said:

Seems logical if Olsen is involved in the deal. I think his days in a big league are numbered and Swedish players tend to go home to finish the career

Be a straight swap and maybe pay up his contract. Also means Elfsborg dont have to search for a new keeper

I haven’t followed Allsvenskan much up untill now when my hometown club VSK is back after 20 years, but I would be surprised if Elfsborg could afford Olsen. If he was to return home (which I agree is about time), I’d rather think he would go to Malmö FF or a Stockholm club.

I dont mind us gambling on Hakon as one for the future, but I’d prefer us signing an experienced 30+ used to the PL or Championship as our no 2.

3 hours ago, supermon said:

Tha **** is this thread? 

Wrong thread, we dont discuss Heck here

Do we have any clue about how much the bid is if true we made one?

6 hours ago, PieFacE said:

Apparently we're trying to sign Jovan Mijatovic, who is also wanted by the Man City group or whatever they're called. 

Abu Dhabi.

I like the look of him and this type of transfer, but dont remember him making much of an impact in the game against us. 

Yawn, another case of a player being interviewed while back home and it gets lost in translation/missinterpreted.

Nothing to see here, move along.

While I really like the lastest pictures of the badge, I wonder what it would look like if the golden lion was on claret background with Aston Villa and a border around in blue? We are a bit more claret than blue aren't we?

I thought he was very solid today and showed class, I have always rated his passing, now he was good and solid defensively as well.

Obviously need to see it properly, on the shirt etc, but if that's the badge with the golden detailed lion then it's the best I've seen. A lot of the ones in this thread, especially the latter ones, have been very good as well, but this one is amazing! 

There were a few on here who were very much against this signing from the outset, referring among other things to what "Lyon fans" thought. I argued quite much against this. A couple of years later, except the first season, I can just admit that they were right. Even villalad21!

He is one of the most entertaining players I've seen at Villa, but didn't seem to function properly in a system. Seemed to mostly do his own thing, sometimes it led some of the best moments and goals I've seen, sometimes it led to the trademark bild crossfield passes.

The last years he never seemed to be fit to play for us, but always fit to play for his country. Something wasn't fully right, but have no reason to think anything else than that he is a good person. A player with enormous talent, too bad he hasn't used it to full extent.

I'm very happy with this, and thanks Heck!

I've always been fascinated with Adidas, the history with the brothers Rudolf and Adi Dassler splitting and starting Puma and Adidas respectively, have never really got who of the two that was a nazi but from now on I will assume it was the Rudi/Puma guy and not our Adi!

For you who haven't yet caught this faschinating story, here is a summary and a good read: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adidas

Sorry if slightly of topic  

7 hours ago, Marka Ragnos said:

Part of me still strangely uneasy about this match. First time I felt under Unai like we had a serious problem that we haven’t been able to resolve. The fact is, we barely won. That’s just the facts. 

But we do have so many key injuries. It’s piling up. Some players in to cover people injured are themselves injured.

Keeping thinking of this: “But even now there is hope left. I will not give you counsel, saying do this or do that. for not in doing or contriving, nor in choosing between this course and another, can I avail; but only in knowing what was and is, and in part what shall be. But this I will say to you: your Quest stands upon the edge of a knife. Stray but a little and it will fail, to the ruin of all. Yet hope remains while all the Company is true.”

Gotta stay positive, but jeez — that was still too close!

We weren't at our best, but still Duran had two really good shots that their keeper made brilliant saves on, Konsa hit the post, a couple of half chances that could as well have gone in. So we could as well have gotten a few more goals and then it would have felt more secure.

Considering we played Lenglet (thought he was good), big Donk, Cash and Duran, also with Ramsey and Moreno just about starting to get up to speed, I think it's understandable that we didn't look that good.

Most importantly for me, without Luiz and Tielemans we lack our main passing assets in the middle of the pitch, Luiz is hugely important to the way we play. He is the only one of our central midfielders who is top class at passing. Tielemans comes close to it. Without them we more rely on Kamara or McGinn to kind of hit a pass in the channel and hope someone will run at it. Big Donk we barely have to mention in this aspect (though I think he is great defensively and reads the game superbly).

43 minutes ago, jamesbuchanan said:

You can watch the whole match on iPlayer. If you watch from minute 63 onwards you can see one definite wave of the arm from McGinn in the direction of Duran because he wasn't pressing. There are then 3-4 more instances of Duran not pressing up to when he is taken off. McGinn isn't on screen for all that time, but when he is on screen I don't see him gesticulating to the bench. I guess he could have spoken to the bench before 63 minutes - someone else can check the second half up to minute 63

Also watched it back and I agree, but it was a quite small wave with his hand, a bit like "press" and then the also small gesture towards the bench just after could as well have been like "shouldn't we press?". I didn't interpret as anything else than normal body language and communication between team mates. Duran didn't put in much of an effort in the second and I'm pretty sure the management team do not need McGinn to point that out to them

The last couple of 5-10 mins before getting subbed Duran was sulking quite much and looked half arsed, prehaps because he knew he was going off, but that's still not a positive. In the first half though I thought Duran was quite good, he had a couple of his trade mark thunder strikes, it's quite amazing how powerful his shots are at that age. He also showed some good ability in the air and when he sprints he looks really fast and athletic.

Still has very much to work on, not at least decicson making and understanding with his team mates, but he has got much potential and raw attributes. I wouldn't want him to go out on loan now but wait and see how much we can develop him.

He is steadily becoming one of my favourite players of all time.

I thought he had a very good game today, a lot of sweet controlled passing, like Pau in disguise, or not even in disguise, had no one told me I would have thought it was Pau on the pitch.

He is causing havoc when he comes on, but today we would have been better of keeping Diaby on the pitch. Very nearly a completely unnecessary red card, and then we got caught on our heels when the game continues after that VAR check. I feel we kind of lose our rythm a bit when he comes on, he wrestles and fights like Marlon Harewood or Grant Holt but quite often loses the ball and make us lose possesion. If his lay of to Watkins had been better weighted Watkins would have got a clean strike on goal as another example.

It's of course impressive that he is performing at such a young age and not writing him off at all, still much room to improve, but I think we need a better option going into the second half of the season.

That was a very good goal, saved us and means a lot not to lose that game.

7 minutes ago, sidcow said:

That's not necessarily true. Construction costs HAVE been extremely high lately and ARE expected to fall so a further delay might actually be cheaper, not more expensive. 

I was also just thinking. There are only so many companies who can do stadium work.   Buckingham were a very big player and companies are currently busy finishing off their jobs at Fulham and Liverpool.  It may be that 18 months from now, especially when Everton have finished there may be a few more of these specialist stadium teams looking for work than there will be in 6 months time. 

I don't see the Buckingham Leisure team rocking up anywhere else and going again. Reputation will be shot so there is a lack of capacity in the market. 

I'm not aware of any other major stadium work due in 18 months unless Leicester get on with it so people might start sharpening their pencils if there's a few firms chasing the one big contract. 

Yes, interest rates are perhaps at top right now and could be going down along with the inflation, making huge infrastructure investments in that environment sounds a bit risky to me if you as well can wait 6 months or a year.

Much can be said about the European Court of Justice and I'm not sure if I agree that they should have jurisdiction over this matter, but hey ho let any private equity fund create a Super League like a little boy playing with his toys, and let's see how many clubs want to join.

The Super League can be placed in the Blue League.

23 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

So where and how do we think this will be incorporated on the kit? (Because this is going to be on our shirts in some format).

Back of the neck as a small badge like we sometimes do with the lion?

As a sort of watermark on the front?

A sleeve patch?

What do you reckon?

 

I would prefer it to be as large as possible, both on the front and the back, thank you!

8 hours ago, est1874 said:

Wouldn't hate that, their kit materials are OK. The crests are a bit cheaply screen-printed though, so am not sure how that'll work if our new badge ends up being really rich and textured.

If they need help with designing the crest I'd be happy to offer my services!

Dont want to spoil the party but I think it looks classy and quite good, it's a bit artistic and will make people ask what it means. For a badge only ment to be used during one calendar year I can see the point with that, it will bring more interest than just a plain Aston Villa 150 years-badge. I think it's a nice design.

I don't imagine our new crest will be this way, that would be wrong (and my stand on the new badge is that we shouldn't change it too often, we could as well wait several years with that).  

I haven't been impressed from what I've seen of him before and has had bad vibes all along, but I actually liked that interview, I thought he struck a humble tone and much of what he said made sense. I don't know what's best of building the North Stand now or wait and develop a hospitality area first, but I think there are good arguments either way. Didn't he mention Unay when he said he didn't want to disrupt the current goings on the pitch with the stadium being a fortress, perhaps Unay has said he would prepare not to disrupt the momentum by strating a big renovation? At the current interest rates I guess it could be sound to wait a year and see as well.

As a supporter abroad I'm quite happy about the hospitality plans and larger supporter shop. I've been missing some areas to spend more time before and after games to make the trip a whole match day experience, not just go to your seat and then being squeezed into a que to the railway station.

I did like the North Stand plans, but I got a bit of a feeling that is was a Purslow prestige project, wanting to make a mark (Xia:s theme park anyone?). Now I still would like that to happen in some form (not the theme park) sooner rather than later, but I do appreciate that Heck doesn't rush forward but analyses the current situation and if if doesn't feel 100% right doing it now, better wait, that's good decision making imo.