MrBlack

The clash with city could be resolved by moving it to a different Saturday and then having whatever was meant to be played that Saturday rearranged for midweek.  They've got options although why they wouldn't plan for this before releasing the fixture list i'm not sure

1 hour ago, TheStagMan said:

Yikes, just looked at the Rashica thread and it is on 99 pages as well.

So, this Samatta fella. Keep or sell?

 

*edit* Yay!

My work here is done.

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. 

20 minutes ago, TheStagMan said:

Bump bump. determined to get to 100

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.

Effectively.  It's not about Luiz and Is about a captain and its not contract related...

Just now, GingerCollins29 said:

That brad person has just said the news is about jack...

Calling it now, complete bollcoks whatever it is

6 minutes ago, Rightdm00 said:

Late to the crapping on The Athletic party but that article was pure trash.  Not a single quote, just pure speculative BS. 

Now I really want Villa to hand Jack a 6 figure per week contract.  The laughs we will get when the media's head all in unison. 

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.

On 08/08/2020 at 14:21, Brumstopdogs said:

 

Not enough arse involved for McGinn

1 minute ago, MaVilla said:

"something" is happening, although i dont think we can be sure what that thing is......

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

52 pages ....its happening!

On 09/08/2020 at 11:41, AvfcRigo82 said:

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? 

On 09/08/2020 at 15:15, AvfcRigo82 said:

So far Sarkic, Green & Chester have left. Drinkwater & Reina returned to parent clubs.

Would it be fair to say we will also see the departures of Lansbury, Jota, Hogan, & Taylor in this window?

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. 

6 hours ago, sparrow1988 said:

I thought these TBTs were always "throwback THURSDAY". Today is Tuesday. This has turned my world and belief system completely upside down!

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

18 minutes ago, Villan4Life said:

 

 

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. 

1 hour ago, sparrow1988 said:

To be fair the three of those were also exceptional footballers - Gattuso not so much as the other two, as well as flying in to tackles. Although I don't remember Makalele flying into tackles all that much. Keane in particular was a brilliant footballer, something which gets overlooked because of his tendency towards bursts of rage.

I saw a stat at the weekend that he has as many Champions League goals as Zidane. He was much more than a destroyer and I'd give anything for a footballer of his capability to be in this Villa side (without the rage preferably). However, I wouldn't put him in the DM role ahead of Luiz. He'd probably fill one of the other CM positions. But moving Luiz out of CDM now when he's probably just played the best football of his career (I will confess I haven't seen much of Girona), and certainly the best of his time here would be crazy.

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.

49 minutes ago, Woody1000 said:

Is it possible that we are actually benefiting financially from last season’s transfer approach with all the COVID implications?

What I mean is, if we’d spent say £200m+ for ‘proven’ players on higher wages, would we possibly be having to lay off club staff etc ourselves?

Obviously if we have then it’s a case of it being more luck than judgement, but at least it’s left us in a position where we are looking to spend big again this window as opposed to some of our rivals having to back-pedal.

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. 

6 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

Just on this - I thought it was the season just gone and the season coming up that are being counted together?

If that's the case, then our spend from last summer will leave us just about even at this point - so the change in reporting periods won't really have much of an effect on our spending I'd have thought?

 

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

1 hour ago, BleedClaretAndBlue said:

Now if this turns out to be the 3rd strip then they need to have plenty in stock 

 

 

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

51 minutes ago, sne said:

https://www.avfc.co.uk/News/2020/08/07/grealish-2019-20-in-numbers

Talisman!

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. 

6 minutes ago, A'Villan said:

What does VT think Tammy Abraham would cost?

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

9 minutes ago, bobzy said:

Oh, you definitely turn 25 after 24.  Maybe when someone asks you how old you are, your response is "I'm turning <x>" - as I said before, I might be old fashioned.  Ollie Watkins is 24.  I would describe him as being 24.

 

Your view on what a good season is may be interesting.  To quote the figures given by @villaglint (I can't be arsed checking them myself ):

 

19/20 - 50 games - 26 goals, 3 assists - 47 games at CF
18/19 - 45 games - 12 goals, 9 assists - 21 games LW, 20 RW, 3 CF
17/18 - 48 games, 11 goals, 5 assists - 36 games LW, 5 CF. 6 RW
16/17 - League 2 - 52 games, 16 goals, 13 assists - 30 games CF, rest all over the place

To me, that's 4 good seasons in a row, showing improvement each time.  It's pretty much what you'd expect from a young player getting better at his trade.  he's basically been involved in a goal every 2 games for his last 2 seasons, and a goal every 3 games at worst, for 4 seasons in a row.  That's decent!

For comparison, Grealish's figures are:

19/20 (Prem) - 36 games - 8 goals, 6 assists
18/19 - 34 games - 6 goals, 7 assists
17/18 - 30 games - 3 goals, 6 assists
16/17 - 31 games - 5 goals, 2 assists

Similar sort of thing, to me.  Improving stats over time, as he gets better at what he's doing.  Really not very impressive figures when noted down like that - maybe you'd consider him a "no season wonder"  - but around 1 goal involvement every 3 games, 1 every 4 at worst.

I just don't see him as a one season wonder at all.  I'm amazed anyone looks at this at says "ah, he's only done it once".  Sure, the most recent season is the one that is most relevant to any upcoming transfer and would naturally inflate his fee - and it should do, he's had a fantastic season - but it really is just a story of progression, at least statistically.

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)

15 hours ago, Dave-R said:

Wimbledon, queens park rangers, coventry, Ipswich, Oldham, Middlesbrough could be thrown into that mix though couldnt they??

Would have the 90s feel all over again.

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.