MrBlack

Now you just need to edit that and say "sorry, double post". Question is, did Samatta get to 100 first? Just on topic, I'm still on the fence about this chap. Looked promising pre lockdown, clearly something happened during it that made him lose a lot of his confidence, fitness, or sharpness (possibly all of the above and more). I will hold judgement for him until he's had a "proper" pre season, although does 4 weeks count as proper? Hope he shows more of the prowess he was demonstrating in his first few games, and we'll at least have a viable scoring option from the bench if nothing else.

I saw the page count here and had the same thought. How can a player we don't have get more attention than one we do that started most of our last 15 games. Does it say something about Samatta or more about Rashica? Or maybe more about VillaTalk than either.

What I think it demonstrates is how perfectly tight lipped everyone in the Villa hierarchy is. If the Athletic can get insight and news about other clubs, but have to resort to making up stuff for Villa, it's not really a bad thing. But it is a good reason for me not to give them a penny. Win:win On topic edit: As for Grealish it is abundantly clear that he's happy playing for Villa if we're moving in the right direction I said last season that i think his love for the club actually hinders him in some of our bigger games, the nerves of a fan amplified 100 fold because you're on the pitch must be really difficult to handle. I think we also saw the emotion of a fan coming out in the latter part of the season, where everyone and his dog thought we were going down. His performances will have been affected by it, although he is such a good player that it would probably still leave him as our best or second best player on the pitch. He does seem to have got better handling it over time, I think he's going to have a truly amazing season next year if we get our signings right

Effectively. It's not about Luiz and Is about a captain and its not contract related... Calling it now, complete bollcoks whatever it is

And yet they'll turn it around and say villa priced him out of a move and he had to reluctantly sign a new contract. They'll speculate, or just plain lie, that the new contract has release clauses galore so he doesn't have to suffer the same ignominy again next season... anything so they don't have to formally backtrack. It's all crap and literally any football fan could write it. Spoken like fact, when it's actually an opinion. Tailoring to the social media generation.

Not enough arse involved for McGinn

I should have read the content of the last 10 pages before posting.

52 pages ....its happening!

What is this? Genuine question... artists impression? Architects design? Fan photoshop effort? Either way, no to filled in corners from me. Putting all the obvious objectives aside, what stand do you even qualify as sitting in if you're in that second tier that extends the length of the corner?

I can't see Jack leaving if we show some serious intent with our signings. He won't have come out publicly saying he's not leaving because if he did and left he'd undermine his legacy at villa completely, which he won't want to do. He may not want to leave, but he'll know that IF a huge club comes in with a big money offer that gets accepted, he'd be a fool to not consider it. Especially if we dont sign anyone that makes Jack think we're progressing fast enough to meet his hopes of playing at the top. That said, I dont think anyone will meet the asking price, and I have a good feeling that our owners will sign the players that convince Jack he can fulfil all his footballing aspirations at Villa.

Taylor is the only player that performed a significant role last season that I would be willing to lose. Hogan, Baston, lansbury, and Jota barely played 500 minutes between them and can all be shipped. Taylor played over 1000 minutes and I'd be fine keeping him as a backup if we needed to prioritise other signings. Losing anyone else that played so much, with all the dross we need to remove, is just too much turnover for me. Hopefully we're not in the position where we have to keep Taylor, but I won't be upset if we do.

Some similarities to how good and bad C. Ronaldo was when he first started playing in the PL from a performance perspective. Sadly, AEG is 6 years older than Cristiano was at the same performance level. The mentality that AEG has shown suggests he will not overcome the bad parts of his game, and is rapidly runnning out of time to deliver on his potential. Hopefully he proves me wrong as there's definitely a PL player hiding in their if he puts his mind to it. Would keep as a backup fpr next season and if no sign of improvement its time to move on.

It is... so.... maybe Marv wanted to get his pic in before we signed him for the likes. Which means... Wednesday is the day! In other news, 1+1 = 3

That second tweet, assuming its true, makes 90% of that daily mail article complete bollocks. Shocking "news"paper, basically on a par with twitter gossip for its reliability. Aside from this non scandal, great to see the women's team expanding with international players. Definitely a sign that our owners are looking at the whole picture to make this club great again (excuse the trumpism) and not just using villa as a quick profit maker.

He played DM in front of a back 4 for Girona mostly. This includes the game he starred in against Real Madrid. As such, this just backs up your comments. Edit: that video shows his Girona role ^ Think he's capable of playing most anywhere across the midfield, but feel like the deep lying playmaker is made for him. A robust tackling DM to break up play and lay it off to him if playing 4-2-3-1 ideally, but totally capable of being the sole DM when playing 4-1-4-1. He'll end up being one of those DMs that scores the odd worldy, and gets a lot of key contributions but maybe not so many assists.

Arguably not luck at all, and exactly what financial fair play was intending to achieve. Effectively, any club should be able to survive an unexpected downturn in fortunes. It doesn't in general, but may have helped us significantly due to our specific circumstances. Because we were starting from such a small base, the FFP restrictions prevented us from spending that much on proven players, primarily due to wages rather than signing fees. The result is the unexpected (massive) downturn impacts us less severely than it would have if FFP hadn't stopped us blowing our load. Also, our owners seem loaded to the hilt. Quite possible Arsenal's owners other businesses may have been more severely impacted by covid and Arsenal as a club a make a lot more money from match days than the average.

You're right, i think. It's the current year ending 2020, and next year ending 2021 that will combine, however, I dont know if the year ending 21 is Dec 21 calendar year, April 21 tax year, or Aug 21 end of season?

Definitely not happening now, jinxed it. Also, lock incoming

Really like that! Would be very pleased if that was the away kit.

Tempted to buy one if the sponsor peels off, always look better without a sponsor

Quite spectacular. You can take some of those stats in isolation and say they're a result of the fact we were a team playing counter attacking low possession football, but put them all together and it's truly astounding how good he was this season in a well below average team.

Up to 40m I'd buy, over I'd pass. Sadly, I think Chelsea would want more, probably 45m+

Grealish is sh*t, sell him. Edit: not sure i have the reputation to carry the sarcasm so I'll clarify, joking aside, those stats and jonjon's commentary on his attitude have pretty much sold me on Watkins. Hope it happens! (And we dont sell Grealish)

Yes, would welcome some nostalgia, if only because we were a decent team back in those days. Although, Wimbledon, Ipswich and Oldham would do well to get to the PL next season, given they're not in the Championship. I think Sheff Wed have a point deduction hanging over them too so can't see them making the playoffs next season.

Some interesting info there... Also can't believe only 7 teams have currently been in the top flight for 10 or more consecutive years. Wouldn't mind seeing blackburn, sheff wed and derby returning next season, replacing palace, brighton and Fulham. Would have a nice old school feel to the league