MrBlack

The issue we've got is I'm not sure there's a club we can compare the value of his deals to. Newcastle's are inflated due to related parties. The other teams in the champs league next season will all be clubs that have been in it for most of the last 2 decades. The rest of the scum 6 that dont qualify are living off sustained recent historic form. And then you've got West Ham or Leciester as clubs that recently managed a season of success, but since then haven't pushed on or have gone significantly backwards. Looking Newcastle is about the closest to us, and what Newcastle scammed from their owners businesses, I'd say he's done an ok job with the contacts. Nothing exceptional. It was easy for him to escape the Castore contract after their shambles with this year's kit. It was presumably fairly easy to negotiate a deal with Adidas with Nas' links. The shirt and sleeve sponsorship deals may have been a challenging get out without penalties (assuming they hadn't run their course) so fair play on those, but the value he's got isn't anything more than I'd expect given the exposure they'll get from us next season. Yes, you can say he could never win.. well he could. He could have matched Newcastle's deals, and I'd have been impressed. He could have not launched a review of a badge that was totally fine and seemingly replaced it with a worse version of the crap badge we had before it, or done so and replaced it with something better. He could have communicated the cancellation of the north stand far more clearly and honestly, and had the website updated so it didn't still imply we were going ahead with it. He could have communicated honestly what was going on with the badge. He could have communicated the situation with the GA+ situation impacting holte season ticket holders earlier. There is plenty he could have done to get me on side, but the good things he has done just aren't that impressive to me. Maybe I'm under estimating how difficult it was to sell us to Betano or how key he was to the Atairos deal. The jury of my opinion on him remains out.

Do we get money from away fans? Presumably only if they buy a drink/food while they're here?

Also, a warning about this stand. . OK, I'm done. This could take over my evening if I'm not careful.

This is a brilliant game. I've found : slimy.pillow.shout dime.store.modest stand.cove.lame And my personal favourite, which I assume describes most of their fans...

DCL!

https://www.fourfourtwo.com/features/best-strikers-in-the-world-ronaldo-lewandowski-harry-kane 8th best in the world according to 442. Note Watkins appears nowhere even though this was done in January when Ollie already had 15 goals (all comps) for the season.

Rooney looks absolutely horrific. In VAR related news, why were they even checking that cross for offside. The lino didn't flag to call back play and warrant a check, and it was easily 3 phases before the goal. Liverpool had 2 chances to clear, and it was Everton's second phase of attack after the offside anyway. Worse than the one we had chalked off which shouldn't have been. At least it was deemed onside, but shouldn't have even been checked.

Boo. Although United winning is probably good for giving Chelsea less hope

I'd have given the team playing the one with a negative goal difference a chance before hand. Everton Liverpool derby game could make anything happen.

Man United. They're so utterly shit. Hahahaha

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.

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.

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

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

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Yeah, but ... V 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.

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.