Okonokos

1 minute ago, CVByrne said:

Arsenal City semi final if they make it is also bad 

Ideal scenario 

2 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

City Madrid ffs that is a bad situation if City get dumped out. Dortmund got the easiest draw too 

Absolutely no chance Dortmund beat Atletico.

Germany are now pretty much relying on Bayern and Leverkusen winning their competitions and all English clubs going out at the QF.

Smile.

2 minutes ago, ender4 said:

If we had to rank the 7 teams from hardest opponent to easiest opponent, what would the order be?

Lille

Fiorentina

Fenerbahce

Olympiakos

Brugge

Plzen

PAOK

I reckon we'll get one of the other 7 teams.

1 minute ago, KentVillan said:

You honestly think that was a mistimed tackle? Watch it again a few times, please.

I have done, thanks.

1 minute ago, KentVillan said:

Yes

Speak for yourself maybe, but not for me.

4 minutes ago, omariqy said:

The more German teams that go out the better regardless of us, City and Liverpool being favourites. You never know in tournament football what will happen. Bayern Munich and Bayer Leverkusen are likely to go quite far in their respective competitions. Therefore, we really need Freiburg and Dortmund to exit and make sure we have at least 1 or 2 more teams than that left who are picking up points. 

This week’s games to look out for

UCL

Arsenal v Porto (0-1) - If Arsenal win then that is 0.375 to our points total 

Dortumund v PSV (1-1) - you would expect Dortmund to win that and go through - 0.429 for their total

UEL

West Ham v Freiburg (0-1) - as per Arsenal - 0.375

Bayer Leverkusen v Qarabag (2-2) - as per Dortmund - 0.429

Brighton v Roma (0-4) - Brighton are out but if they can win the tie at least then it will be 0.25 for our total

Liverpool v Sparta Prague (5-1) - as per the above 0.375

UECL

Aston Villa v Ajax (0-0) - as per the above 0.375

That would leave the following 

Germany - 16.358

England - 16.375

 

Don't you get bonus points for round progression? Or is that included in the 0.375 and 0.429?

9 hours ago, KentVillan said:

In Sunday League, the ref is probably giving the player the benefit of the doubt that it’s late and clumsy.

At this level, we all know McGinn timed that tackle exactly as intended, ie he never meant to play the ball. That changes the offence to violent conduct.

If you’re making no effort at all to get the ball and you want to foul the player, you need to be pulling them down or doing a little trip, for a yellow. A proper kick like that is a red - it’s equivalent to just randomly doing that off the ball to someone. He might have got away with it on another day, or if he played for another club, but we can’t have any complaints.

There was a similar(ish) incident in a Cardiff game a few seasons back, Joe Ralls got a straight red for bringing down Moura. “Tackle” was yellow card level of violence, no real injury risk to Moura, but as there was no attempt to play ball, it was a straight red. Warnock was incensed but ref got it right.

This McGinn foul wasn’t quite as obvious as that, but I think if you watch it a few times you can see it’s clearly not a genuine attempt at a tackle and that’s what has got him in trouble, bc then it doesn’t need to be a flying lunge or studs up to be a red.

Do we?

Just now, Mic09 said:

Little spoiler about the Aston Villa Future.

In the future, one day, we will win the Premier League. Also, in the future, one day we will get relegated. 

Also Villa Park will be destroyed when the sun becomes a red giant and swallows the earth.

44 minutes ago, Leeroy said:

Not just in reaction to yesterday. We came into 2024 with loads of positivity, probably the most positive we've been since we were last regularly competitive in the mid 90s. Top 3 in the league and with a a manager we believed could end our nearly 30 years wait for a trophy. 

 

We had a really positive 2023 where we amongst other things:

• Reached our first European competition in 13 years
• Brought in Sevilla's Director of Football who had them winning trophies and getting into Europe every season
• Had our longest winning home run in God knows how long
• Outplayed the treble winners like no side has done to them probably ever
• Were in the top 2 at Christmas for the first time in 25 years

The only negatives were going out of cup competitions to lesser teams (Stevenage, Everton), getting pumped 5-1 to Newcastle on opening day, and losing two players to long term injury in Mings and Buendia. But those negatives were one-offs, they didn't start a spiral of negativity, and the positives far outweighed the negatives.

 

2024 to me has just been a really crap year. Ok, we have managed to retain top 4 so far and beaten teams we should have (Sheffield Utd, Forest, Fulham, Luton, Boro), but even in those wins we looked really ropey for at least one half of the game. And then the negatives:

• £120m losses with the press saying we'll have to sell key players in summer because we are close to PSR
• Not strengthening sufficiently in January when we were in our best position in the league for 25 years, only signing one player for our top 4 squad in a Championship player who hadn't stood out at that level (which I called out at the time) and an 18 year old Serbian right back wo we loaned back for the season, then letting our only other experienced holding midfielder in Dendoncker go out on loan despite now having a serious injury in that position
• Seeing our home form completely destroyed by losing to Newcastle, Chelsea, Man Utd and Spurs all in quick succession, despite being favourites in all those games
• Putting in an awful performance against Ajax in Europe, where again we just played really defensively like we did against Tottenham
• Monchi's signings so far really not working out, with the exception of Pau Torres (although even there, we look poor defensively even when he plays). Tielemans has been ok but for the amount of money he is being paid (£150K a week) he isn't doing enough, and Diaby has been hugely disappointing given the expense and can't even get in the side even with injuries to multiple midfielders. The loan signings haven't made a big enough impact. And then the signings in January were just totally baffling in my opinion, when we were in a great position and should have been trying to improve our first team not sign players for the next 5 years.

 

I'm not trying to tempt fate or be pre-emptive, but I don't know if our future is so bright. If our revenues don't improve quickly, given the rules we are up against, we could easily do a Leicester and get relegated in a few years after looking like a marginal top 4 side. Everton were competing with the big sides not so long ago, now look at them. And so were we in fact before we got relegated in 2016. We seem to have gone all in on Emery, putting all his key men in place and the structure to his liking, but if he leaves either by being poached or by mutual consent then where does that leave us? If we continue to sign players from Championship sides or obscure leagues in Europe, or sign players for big money then they can't even get in the side or don't perform, then we will go backwards and then start a spiral of negative outcomes. It has happened before and can happen again. I sincerely hope we know what we are doing and not repeating recent history again. 

I think I counted 4 IFs just in the last paragraph.

1 hour ago, Mic09 said:

He wasn't trying to hurt him. 

But he was trying to get into him to rough him up, get us fighting a little and overdone it. No intent of getting the ball, it was as cynical as it gets. 

That is a straight red, if it went the other way we'd be shouting for a red 

I know exactly what went through his head. He'd just had a good run at goal which resulted in nothing and he was trying to get his teammates and the crowd going by doing one of his trademark tough but fair tackles. The kind that would make the whole ground cheer and rev the team up. It was just a split second late. So many worse tackles go unpunished every week.

2 hours ago, calcifer said:

This added to the drama, it was right in front of the dugouts! With all the spurs bench up. 

In real time it looks a cynical tackle, born of frustration. 

Maybe further up the pitch a yellow?  But let's not kid ourselves the club would be stupid to appeal, VAR and the Ref deemed it a red, all it would do is give McGinn another game ban.

He can play Thursday and hopefully a captains performance from him, we are going to miss him, been exceptional since Unai came in,  just look back to when Gerrard was here. He was awful and it would have been a bonus to have him missing for 3 games! 

 

I completely agree there's no point appealing as they will always just back their referee buddies and he'll just end up with 4 games instead of 3.

Just makes me sick that we see worse tackles than that every week that go unpunished and he's facing a 3 game ban for this.

50 minutes ago, Herman22 said:

The more I see of the McGinn red card the more it’s clear the ref has been influenced by the spurs players and the bench. He clearly going to give a yellow card but then starts talking to someone and changes his mind. 

We have some of the worst and weakest refs in the world. As soon as any pressure came on he folded! And we all know the next steps. All his mates, the former refs who are paid by TV channels to say nothing will say he was right. A lovely protection racket they have set up. 

And if a manager dares to criticise them in any way, it's a touchline ban and a fine.

How are they ever going to improve if they aren't even allowed to be criticised?

Haven't really been keeping up with the 5th spot rules. Can anybody summarise them? Are we basically hoping English clubs do better than German clubs? When will we know for sure what 5th place gets?

Proud of the team. We played well and on another day could have scored 5 times. It's easy to forget how far we've come so soon. Just poor finishing on the day cost us, but football has it's ups and downs. We just have to stay behind them.

As for the scumbags we played against, I'll try not to say how I really feel about them so I'm not banned from here but I'll just say the day that club gets liquidated will be a very happy day.

The referee; I honestly don't think you can be that bad at your job without being corrupt. But as always, they can turn up, do whatever the hell they like and then have nobody to answer to. If anyone dares criticise them, they get a touchline ban. How can they ever improve if they aren't even made to face up to their mistakes?

4 minutes?!

4?!?

My favourite player of the "post-O'Neill" era. Absolutely gutted for him. Couldn't care less about the result. It is impossible to overstate how much we will miss him on and off the pitch. I hope VP shows him how much we love him at the first home game.

What an unbelievable player and professional he is. You can't not love the man. Think he's got the head on him to be a good manager one day too. Still got plenty to give before then.

5 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I guess some of our fans are stronger men than us, and athletes

When even swallowing and breathing is painful I don't see how it's a walk in the park as some make out.

I suffer chronic ENT issues and I'm telling you it's misery.

I know right! Sore throat that may develop into a full infection? Nah, you'll be fine. Go out there and play against the best team in the world for a team you've only joined 2 days ago! Oh and if you have a terrible debut, we'll write you off as useless too. No pressure!

Always find it funny how some fans dismiss illnesses like this.

3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

When was the last time any of you had a sore throat?

It can be genuinely unpleasant.

He did look/ sound knackered in his interview.

The worst pain I've ever had in my life was a thorat infection. They can be absolutely horrific.

Just now, foreveryoung said:

Is just me not understanding what the meltdown is. West Ham wanted Benerak, if he is good enough for them chasing Europe, he's good enough for us. Also Dendonka will work harder than anyone we have, he's a tough strong player too. If we bring in a name after these 2, we can crack on.

As long as we lose Gerrard ofcourse

These two plus someone like Gallagher and a new manager within the next month or so and I'll have no complaints.

20 minutes ago, OLDVILLAIN said:

Grapevine saying that Luiz is really pushing to go to Arsenal..thats all we need

Let him go. He scores 2 goals from a corner and thinks he's a world beater. Never rated him.

I'd happily sell him if we can get a decent replacement in. Only problem is I have no faith we can do that.

Dendoncker and Gallagher IN.

Luiz OUT.

Would be absolutely fine with me.

But that's just for the midfield. I still think we need a CB and a winger too.

Oh and a manager.

What we really need right now is a list of names from Dean Smith's son's friend!

Now I just made myself sad by thinking of Smith.