MrBlack

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.

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

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.

As long as you have someone else in your squad that can take a penalty (and clearly most teams do, then there isn't a better striker in world football at the moment. Mbappe, Haaland and Kane score for fun, but they're not bringing the level of all round brilliance that Watkins does. I genuinely 100% would not swap him for any of them. Found this list to see if there was anyone else in world football I'd forgotten about, and Watkins didnt even make it . But two players I've never heard of and Darwin **** Nunez did. Hahahaha. Four Four Two's top 10 strikers in January 2024. I get he had stepped up a level in the last few weeks, but even back in January he was setting the standard for non-penalty goal involvements. Him and Emi two absolute irreplaceables in our squad right now.

I've heard this a few times. Everton have a game in hand and two very winnable fixtures (3 if you include the Luton game) Forest were a point behind them with a more difficult run in. If I was a Luton fan I'd absolutely be wanting Forest to lose that game. Part of me wonders if it was a self fulfilling prophecy though. By trying to get the VAR changed, they're immediately questioning his integrity. Maybe he wanted to live up to their expectations. Shocking call on the last of the three penalties. The other two are consistent with what we've seen recently. They're borderline judgemental calls that aren't getting over turned.

Underrated comment. Lovely work.

His miss was reminiscent of Trossards against us. The most difficult aspect was the fact it looked easier to score. It does funny things to the mind. Both players ended up erring on the side of caution. Get it on target at all costs. But but attempts meant the keeper had a chance. And in both cases, the keepers have made really good saves. if Luiz and Trossard took a bit more risk and didn't aim for the middle of the goal, the keepers stand no chance. But they'd have risked missing the target totally. They played the percentage game and lost because the keepers are both exceptional. The composure for the penalty though, ice in his veins. Hopefully that new contract is just around the corner!

Chiesa would fit right in with our MO. Spend half the season injured so you don't get worn out and we only have to pay half your salary.

No, I know you weren't being sarcastic. I was though . Or at least, not entirely serious.

It does when you consider they're friends and both footballers. But when he then wears it and dances around in it to have that posted on social media, it does make you wonder...

Present from Diaby.

The fact is someone at the club carefully worded a section of some minutes, to state moving from villa park is not part of any plans. The fact is we have a formal club announcement on our website (Still available) saying we are building a new North Stand. It is entirely possible that neither of these things are now true, especially so as we already know one of them isn't. This doesn't mean we are or are not moving and this doesn't mean we are or aren't now doing a major redevelopment. Noone knows, and pointing to anything the club have said in the past to guide what is happening now is pointless. Especially so when pointing to some minutes that were so very specifically worded so as to remain true as of the time stated whatever happens in the future.

Unsurprisingly there wasn't much movement between the two updates given the fact it covered a time period when sales weren't even open .

I had an update in Sept 2022, then I got a random update in April 2023, but not had one since.

I think what's being discussed in this thread has two right answers. The importance of the money the champions league brings is real. It let's us sign an extra player we otherwise couldn't, or hold on to a player we'd otherwise have to sell. Let alone factoring in the players we might lose who want to go and play Champions League. But the memories and enjoyment brought by winning a competition and getting some silverware are massive in their own right. It has simply been too long. Weighing up which is more important will be different for everyone. Some will look longer term, and believe the CL qualification brings the possibility of bigger and more sustained success, but no guarantees. Some will prefer the guarantee of success, and with that the possibility of further/ greater success at a sightly lower probability. For me, I'm the latter. Obviously, I want both. But winning the UECL, guaranteeing entry into the Europa League (Emery's playground), and the fact it leaves Emery something more to achieve with us for a longer time (and hence more likely he stays with us) is just winning if I was forced to pick a preference. I'm not though, and I'm sure we can do both.

And the main factor that that extra team will (in all likelihood) be worse than the others that would have made it.

Does it make any difference really? They've been rubbish with him in charge, maybe the combination of relegation confirmed and rubbish manager gone will free them up. If there's any club that might struggle against them it's Birmingham, although I don't think Rotherham stood a chance with Richardson, and not sure it makes much of a difference without him.

A few other teams did but they had their relegations overturned. It certainly wasn't just Juve but trying to work out who did what is a murky business. As @villa4europe said, people went to prison, but the final report conclusion seems to be that their actions didn't affect the sporting integrity of the competition. Its like the final report is purposely unclear.

I tried to work out what happened there and got totally lost. They got relegated for it and had their title stripped, so as a precedent it's what I'd like to see happen to Man City. But the post trial stuff seems to suggest they didn't actually do anything that impacted the season. Sounds like they might have done things that might have affectes it, but there's no evidence of it, so it's considered a regular season. Really confusing.

Good facts, but the point remains, if it was Man United or Chelsea in 4th, coming off that of results, it wouldn't be considered a shock. Like I said, give us a season or two with this form and I'd expect the narrative to change.

Shock defeat don't you know. If one of the other sky 6 clubs beats another away from home, it's never a shock. We're still not considered part of the cartel. Need to sustain our position for a few years.

Pre season I expected is to either challenge the top 5, or have a run in a cup. I absolutely didn't expect genuine top 4 form and a run in a cup. Then we lost Mings and Buendia. Then we lost Ramsey and Kamara. And my expectations dropped further. It's unreal what Emery and the team has achieved. It's crazy that we're at this stage and favourites to get top 4 from the teams chasing 4th spot. A little bit more and we're there. But even if we don't, this season has massively exceeded all my expectations.

You might be talking about him sprinting up the touchline, but we probably want to be careful we're not playing 12 players given he was subbed off on the 79th minute.

Imagine being able to play Mings and Konsa on a Saturday, then Torres and Carlos on a Tuesday/Wednesday. Next season's going to be fun.

I'd given up on him. I gave him nearly a whole season, but about two games ago I didn't think he was going to make it. Either due to injury or aptitude. And much like Bailey did after I finally gave up on him, he's seemingly turned the corner. If this is a sustained improvement through to the end of the season (and I'm not expecting him to deliver that level of performance every game), then its a no brainer to sign him for £19.2m. The priceless aspect of the signing is the 12 months he'll have had under Emery already. Anyone else is likely going to take time to get up to speed and will almost certainly cost more. If he wants to stay, and he keeps this up, we should make it permanent.