MrBlack

15 minutes ago, sheepyvillian said:

Remember we're now in a no excuses era. If we miss out on the top 4 it will be down to us as a team. Where do you get, "Nearly 2 full seasons" from? We was nowhere near the top 4 last season. We were close to relegation when Gerrard left and then by the brilliance of Unai managed to get the last spot for Europe. 

We have been virtually top 4 all this season, but 2 full seasons, I don't think so.

I see what you mean. I missed the word "Form." Apologies. 

 

59 games. 2 full seasons would be 76 games.

By the end of the season it will be 63 games, and by that time we'll likely have made over 15 more points that the team that averaged the 5th highest amount of points in the same time frame. And probaly 20 more than Spurs. If we somehow finish below them it would be bad luck.

I'm not saying there's an excuse for it if we do, just bemoaning our misfortune. We definitely deserve a reward for what Emery has performed with this squad. 5th place and europa league would be nice, but not quite what I think our form has deserved. 

3 hours ago, sheepyvillian said:

Why would it be "Absolutely Scandalous?" It looks like a foregone conclusion that we will, but even if we were to finish, say, 5th and win the ECL, it would still be one hell of an achievement. We would undoubtedly feel aggrieved somewhat, but I don't see how it would be "Scandalous," after all, nothing is guaranteed. 

Scandalous because we've maintained top 4 form for well nearly 2 full seasons, and it would only be down to unfortunate sequencing that means we don't finish top 4 in either of those seasons.

I'm not saying it would be a failure, just scandalously shit luck. 

16 hours ago, Brumstopdogs said:

 

This is why it would be absolutely scandalous if we didn't finish in the top 4. Thankfully I'm confident we will. 

5 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

There is no way a manager (regardless of how good he is) has any say into the infrastructure project of building a new stand. 

I'd normally agree with you, but it just got me thinking about how much control we've supposedly given him, and where the line would end.  If he's delivering on the pitch everything and more that's being asked of him,  where do we draw the line off it. 

Obviously sponsorship deals and other none direct football impacting things are out the question. But something like a stadium where we play the games that is a huge factor in our form might not be totally unreasonable. At the very least I'd be shocked if he wasn't consulted and offered a view that the owners would have given more weight than the average manager

1 minute ago, Jareth said:

Certainly not underestimating Chelsea, they are broadly where Man U and West Ham are, inconsistent but on their game they can match or beat us. I do think they are death spiralling out of this season though, must be poisonous behind the scenes.

Chelsea are in arguably a worse position than either of those clubs because of the financial situation they're in. They can't afford another poor season next year or they're really going to struggle to balance the books.

United are similar, but they make more money and don't have as much cost.

You're though,  that on their day all of them can produce a very dangerous performance.

Let's hope we get the Chelsea that's fully given up on this season after that loss.

16 hours ago, Alakagom said:

It's not nonsense its how probabilites work lmao. Spurs have incredibly tough fixtures so of course if they win few matches they don't expect things will swing. 

I'd say maybe not nonsense, but the fact they continue to swing wildly after every result suggests that results never consistently go as expected. Football will ALWAYS throw up odd scorelines, so it's kind of futile to put a percentage on a probability that almost certainly won't reflect reality.

I assume thats what @WallisFrizz meant.

5 hours ago, TheAuthority said:

I really, really want them to keep ETH and get relegated next season before going bankrupt and ceasing to exist forever. 

The Glazers then bulldoze Old Trafford and build a Center Parks or something equally as shit.

His reaction to the "reaction to" their semi final win is really small time. Moaning about people not recognising their achievement. Their achievement with the only victory of note coming against Liverpool in the Quarters in one of the 3 games where they've actually made any effort this season. Struggling to beat Newport and Coventry isn't exactly what Man United should be beating their chest about.

They've fallen so much, and although I don't think ETH is to blame,  I don't think he's the man to elevate them. They're toxic throughout,  and it's brilliant to see.

Relegation would be lovely, but sadly can't see it happening, they make too much money.

21 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Wes talks about us at the end of this segment (skip to 13:30) to see the sheer pride he has when asked about Villa. He said UTV with such a smile. What a guy. 

He seems very very invested in the champions league angle there. No mention of the conference league, although clearly led by the interviewer. Very very informed answer about the champions league places (yeah it's easy I know, but it does show he's following the table closely)

Suggests that may well be his priority anyway.

Given Emery supposedly has the keys to the castle...I wonder if it was his call to postpone the North stand development. 

Its ultimately his spending power that he be curtailing, and maybe he valued the full house and opportunity to qualify for the champs league and play in it to a full villa park more greatly than having an extra 10m to spend 5 years down the line. 

The owners may still want to go ahead but could be waiting on Emery to dictate when that is. 

The difference with Ollie is that he's always been recognised for his shift. He runs, and runs, and runs. Chases down lost causes, presses defenders, tracks back, and just keeps doing it for 90 minutes.

To have now added more combined goals and assists than anyone else in the league to that makes him absolutely priceless. There is no figure that justifies selling him. And I don't think we'll be forced to consider one anyway. Everyone knows they couldn't afford him.

20 hours ago, duke313 said:

I noticed that Onana got booked in the shootout, and the commentator said he wouldn't be suspended for the final.  Any reason why Martinez has been in that case?

Regardless of the competition, the only way to miss a Final is if you are sent off in the Semi-final (or the second leg of the semi final if its a two-legged affair).

All football associations changed it when there was uproar about players missing finals because they accrued too many yellow cards throughout a tournament. Seemed like an unfair punishment so Fifa revised the world cup rules, and FA/Uefa either followed suit or were already set up that way.

Onana playing doesn't exactly help then in the final anyway, I fully expect City to hammer them.

Just now, Stevo985 said:

The most recent version of the Lerner badge isn't that bad. 

it's not very good. But it's miles better than the original Lerner badge before the tweaks. And it's miles better than the "new" badge that's been leaked

It is better than the original Lerner badge.  But that is the lowest of low bars.

If you don't have any contrast between the background and your core symbol, then it doesn't work. The drop shadow attempts to resolve that (so they know its a problem), but it's so amateur it makes it worse.

It's the fundamental issue we face. Yellow/gold on claret, or claret on light blue.  They're the only options. 

16 hours ago, Teale's 'tache said:

Plenty of clubs change their crest, probably more often than you think, usually though, it's just tweaks or refinements that a lot of people, especially those not associated with the club don't notice. As a case in point, the refinements made to the original Lerner design were barely noticed by the wider football community, indeed some places still use the original design with no idea it was updated ages ago.

It's easy to say 'let's just stick with something', but you have to have something worth sticking to first. The clubs that don't change are those that have solid designs.

Our problem is we've never really had a design worth keeping, and so we keep changing and will continue to do so until we bite the bullet and create a genuinely good design.

How possible that is with the amount of fan consultation demanded is another matter of course.

The issue is Heck seems to think the Lerner badge was that genuinely good design. So that's what he's gone back to. Sadly, the core issue is that yellow on light blue doesn't work.

I can genuinely see us having another one year badge... the gold Heck badge on the shirts for the 150th year, because they're already going to be in production,  and then something else again next year. 

On 22/04/2024 at 05:52, Pinebro said:

It all started with stripping Pursow off footballing decisions and eventually kicking him out 

Key decision in our rise 

On 22/04/2024 at 05:54, HeroesAndVillans said:

Decisions like that are often looked back on as what is called a butterfly effect I believe. 

When this wonderful period in our history is all said and done I think people will be pointing to that whole series of events.

Yeah, but ... V

On 22/04/2024 at 07:45, Don_Simon said:

Praise the lord Purslow was empowered with the footballing decision of appointing Deano.

I think you could argue more that the butterfly effect started with hiring Purslow, rather than firing him.

He helped get us to the PL stage. Reached his limits.  Then we pushed on with Monchi and Emery.

But really key to all of it though is our owners.  And one of those owners is extremely good friends with Emery. And Emery is a man that values respect. He isn't going to leave without the blessing of Nas or until he feels he cant acheieve anymore. Neither of those things will be dictated by the club that is trying to sign him. A huge part of the reason he joined was Nas, he'll be a huge part of the reason he won't leave. 

This job will be one of Emery's longer reigns, whether thats the full 4 years or maybe 3 and a half who knows, it could well be even longer.   The club respect him and give him what he wants, we fans adore him and appreciate what he's done and he knows this, and he lives by his motto of continuous improvement. He didn't leave his last job until he felt he could achieve no more. The same will be true this time.

Stop worrying people, the last 30 years were a blip, we're back.

On 13/04/2024 at 14:54, foreveryoung said:

Not sure if it's been mentioned. But that West Brom pen was a good one. Player fired the ball straight at the player, hit his head out of the area and given as a pen. 

They have one job  to do.

They don't have VAR do they? Is this an argument for it to exist? I guess it would have got that one overturned but given how incompetent they are I wouldn't put it past them to rule it re-refereeing a decision and ignore it. 

17 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

I think that's why they just come out with a ruling on those rather than referring the ref, but I would like to see what calibration they use, as in several of the shots showing the lines, they run over Wan Bissaka's foot. 

 

They also chose to use a frame where the ball wasn't a blur because in that frame Wan Bissaka was even further forward and blatantly made the Coventry player onside.

The factual element of offside decisions becomes very questionable when you look at the limitations and the inconsistent execution.

They need a bigger margin for error that favours the attackers. They expanded the lines this year to try and acheive this, but it's clearly not enough.

And yes, we'd probably be worse off with our style of play, but at least football would have more goals. 

13 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

The rule is actually first point of contact with the ball, not when it leaves the foot:

 

It is, but even so they've used a frame where the ball isn't moving for the Coventry goal. 

So it's possible that it's before his foot came in contact with the ball. The next frame (due to the insufficient frame rates) the ball is a blur so has clearly been struck at this moment. 

So the event they're trying to judge took place between those two frames. 

And if VAR use the second frame he's onside. They used the first frame where the player is apparently offside.  Ignoring the fact the lines drawn don't appear to be in the right place, but they've definitely erred on the side of the defence here. And that isn't what football rules should be. We should be giving the benefit of the doubt to attacking play.

But more than all that, we need to bring back spontaneous and instantaneous joy. **** VAR.

1 minute ago, HalfTimePost said:

Ah it's the new-old-new new shit version of our newest badge, no-not-that-new-badge-the-new-new-badge-but-not-the-fake-new-new-new badge just the latest new-new badge

If you zoom in on our badge, it looks like they have cropped it out of another bit of media they've been given. There's a weird white blur around the edge and its not a pristine image.  Compare with the edges of their own logo.

It's almost like it's fake 

18 minutes ago, Hornso said:

Summary of the weekend - Seb stifles Small Heath

Louie Barry (Stockport County) 1st/24th [League Two]
Home to Accrington (4-2) - Substituted at half time [2-0]. 30 touches, 76.9% pass accuracy, 1 shot blocked, 3 key passes, 1 assist, 1 error leading to goal. Booked. WhoScored.com rating of 6.30 / Sofascore.com rating of 6.7.

Ben Chrisene (Blackburn Rovers) 19th/24th [Championship]
Home to Sheffield Wednesday (1-3) - Came on in the 84th minute [1-3]. 8 touches, 100% pass accuracy. WhoScored.com rating of 5.98 / Sofascore.com rating of 6.5.

Blackburn are 3 points clear of the relegation zone with 2 games remaining.

Leander Dendoncker (Napoli) 8th/20th [Serie A]
Away at Empoli (1-0) - Unused substitute.

Josh Feeney (Real Union) 12th/20th [Spanish Primera Federación]
Home to Unionistas (3-1) - Came on in the 90th minute [2-0].

Real Union are 2 points above the relegation zone with 6 games remaining.

Filip Marschall (MK Dons) 4th/24th [League Two]
Away at Harrogate (3-5) - Unused substitute.

Locked into 4th spot.

Kosta Nedeljkovic (FK Crvena zvezda) 1st/16th [Serbian Super Liga]
Home to Partizan (3-2) - Not in the squad (hip).

Tommi O'Reilly (Real Union) 12th/20th [Spanish Primera Federación]
Home to Unionistas (3-1) - Came on in the 90th minute [2-0].

Sebastian Revan (Rotherham) 24th/24th [Championship]
Home to SHA (0-0) - Played 90 minutes. 60 touches, 75.8% pass accuracy, 1 shot on target, 3 key passes. WhoScored.com rating of 7.42 / Sofascore.com rating of 7.7.

Rico Richards (Stockport County) 1st/24th [League Two]
Home to Accrington (4-2) - Came on in the 74th minute [3-1]. 7 touches, 0% pass accuracy. WhoScored.com rating of 6.02 / Sofascore.com rating of 6.2. 

Teddy Rowe (Gloucester City) 23rd/24th [National League North]
Home to Scunthorpe (1-2) - Came on after half time [1-0].

Viljami Sinisalo (Exeter City) 12th/24th [League One]
Away at Northampton (1-2) - Played 90 minutes. 70 touches, 74.1% pass accuracy, 6 saves. WhoScored.com rating of 7.36 / Sofascore.com rating of 7.6

Lino Sousa (Plymouth Argyle) 20th/24th [Championship]
Away at Stoke (3-0) - Unused substitute.

Plymouth are 2 points clear of the relegation zone with 2 games remaining.

Oliver Zych (Puszcza Niepolomice) 13th/18th [Ekstraklasa]
Away at Cracovia (0-1) - Played 90 minutes. 42 touches, 50% pass accuracy, 2 saves. Sofascore.com rating of 6.9

Two points above the relegation zone, 5 games to play.

Wow. Tommi and Josh had an eventful injury time. 

9 minutes ago, rbcuk said:

Well on the betano site they have put the new badge on the press release 

https://kaizengaming.com/aston-villa-and-betano-announce-principal-partnership/

They'll have got that image from us, it seems a bit strange that we'd expect them not to use it.

And then makes it even more strange that we announce the deal but nothing about the badge. Another Heck masterclass. 

2 minutes ago, Cizzler said:

This is just a mental opinion. He's having a fantastic season - but he's not better than Mbappe.

Haaland is also 5 years younger than him and clearly not recovered properly from his mid-season injury. He scored 36 in 35 games last season in his first PL season as a 22 year old.

The Kane slander (made by a few on here) is also really off. The only thing Ollie has over Kane is the ability to run in behind. Trying to paint the narrative that Kane is just a goal-scorer is bizarre, he's a fantastic passer of the ball. His first touch is a million times better than Watkins. He's scored a lot more (33 goals) and still assisted close (10) vs. Watkins this season, and is in the CL semi-finals. He's a phenomenal player.

Kane only did what Ollie has done this season in the PL once before but not for the last three seasons. This season, his stats were always going to be off the charts in the Bundesliga playing for Bayern.

I'm not saying they are not exceptional footballer, and didn't say any of them were "just goalscorers". I said they're outstanding goalscorers, but Ollie brings more besides. I don't think we'd be better for having any of them over Ollie.

Just now, Vive_La_Villa said:

Bloke in the concourse at half time while having a pint. So I wouldn’t worry too much.

Fair enough.

Strikes me as one of those utterly random injuries to state though that you aren't likely to make it up. Makes me wonder.

Fingers crossed it's third hand nonsense because the original comment after thursday from Emery suggested it was pretty minor and he was starting to show signs of hitting form just as we hit the business end. 

36 minutes ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I heard he has dislocated his back. I didn’t even know that was a thing. 

Neither did I but sounds very serious from a quick Google. Where did you hear this and would you consider it a reliable source?

Guess it would fit in with the theme of our season. 

30 minutes ago, bobzy said:

(Although FWIW, I'd say Coventry are on a similar level to Man Utd).

3-3 after playing for 120 minutes suggests you're right!

5 minutes ago, HKP90 said:

The Coventry decision got overturned and that was as borderline as it gets. There is no consistency. Like. At all. 

Fair point. I still don't think they should be claiming they were 100% black and white incorrect decisions or applications of the rules though. They weren't. 

The foul by Young defintely was.