MrBlack

We can be awake... but maybe still getting out of bed. I'm not exactly sure what giants do once they're up (eat whole cows?) but I guess that can be put up next year after we've won the Conference League.

And 777 will be like Xia...promising the earth (and rollercoasters) but not having the finances to back it up.

Makes for bad reading. You can only assume that if this is the best offer they have at the moment, the only way moshiri is getting someone better is if he lowers the asking price. Whether that's paying off more of the stadium debt, writing off some debt he's owed, or just asking for less in payment for the club...is he willing to do that? Or would he rather wait it out until someone else comes along with as much money on the table, by which time they might have got relegated and actually be worth even less. They're in a terrible state. A bit like us it feels like they need a relegation to reset and rebuild from the bottom. But do they have a £100m youth product on their books to help them?

Did you just Google "hyphen gif"? If so, top work.

Love that Union Berlin top. Such a simple idea, but looks great.

Feel like the team picks itself due to injuries... Watkins Diaby Bailey Luiz McGinn Kamara Digne Torres Konsa Cash Emi Zaniolo maybe in place of Bailey? Moreno on the bench due to lacking match fitness but coming on at some point.

Yes, but it's likely no more than 20%... they seem to use that figure a lot. He'll still bring us a decent figure if we sell him to a champ club after a good season. I dont know why we'd have given him an extension if that wasn't our aim.

Mings is a massive loss to how we play. He had the perfect blend of pace, strength, and commitment, was a huge commanding leader for our back line, and had added the ability to play out from the back to his repertoire. Losing him will hurt us all season long as no matter how up to speed Torres gets, he'll never quite have the commanding presence that Mings does, nor his ability in the air. In a similar way, the "dirty" work performed by forward players is weakened by our injuries too. We will miss Buendia's press, and general mobility to pop up anywhere and make the opposition make a mistake. I dont think we should fill the squad with only these types of players though, you need a balance, and whilst our balance is now off, it will improve with Ramsey coming back. I wouldn't want to be a West Ham that is full of those types, that don't have the craft and guile that we get from Luiz, Torres, and Diaby. You end up going to far the other way and suffering from a different issue with the same end result... inconsistent performances.

As stated above, he hasn't been with us for 2 years so doesn't qualify for the younger list... and yes the forced hand with Philogene that he wasn't happy with bit part time...could have been confirmed before we registered him for the Europa League.

I can only assume we planned to keep philogene around by the time the squad deadline came around... but then had a forced hand to sell him on (with buy back) Makes the decision to let him go look that little bit poorer. Shame Kellyman won't play but hopefully gets some time in the League Cup and Fa Cup early stages.

Putting the massive covers on the buildings can only ever be a one year thing. You won't know who's going or staying after the season, so they'll almost certainly be earmarked for a "change if needed" at the end of the season. The fact the building is getting knocked down and this was put up doesn't really mean they'll happily spend money tidying up something else that needs it. Feels very much like a Heck idea to improve appearances, and build on the connection between the players and the fans that Emery is constantly talking about. I like it! Also like the standalone lion in the middle.

I think there would still be a decent percentage of the profit on him we'd benefit from, over and above a normal player sold with a couple of years left on their contract. If we signed him on a free then up to certain ages tribunals set a sell on fee we owe to whoever had him before. There'll likely be a development fee we owe to whoever we bought him from, but the rest should be pure profit.

They do like to air their dirty laundry don't they. Unless sancho is a total rotten egg, and even then you'd try and protect your investment, I don't understand what they get from constantly ridiculing him in the public domain. They are a complete shit show and I'm similarly not convinced they're backing the right horse. They've got form for being terribly run of late, this would just be another example. Long may it continue too

Whilst he should never be playing for the national team when he's not playing for his club, he absolutely should not be getting personal abuse for mistakes. Its the same for any player. Look at what Saka faced after his penalty miss. The online world's a largely horrible place, and if Southgate is shocked at the abuse he's getting he probably should wake up. You can't pick someone that has zero grounds for being picked, and then be surprised when he gets abuse for making a gaffe due to being woefully out of match fitness and not in the zone. It was utterly predictable. Southgate has a slight share of the blame in the abuse he's now getting, but the sad fact is that's only because of the aforementioned horrible online world. Its out there, and there's no escaping it until laws change (or get more robustly enforced). Mental health awareness means that players these days may get it diagnosed, but it has probably been the same forever. Plenty of former footballers wasted their lives to alcohol and gambling and a spiral of events that could be rooted in mental health. As for the amount they earn argument, its well proven that wealth isn't a preventer of poor mental health, and whilst it may give them more means of escaping the rot, it doesn't mean any of those routes will work.

Aston has the same issue and whilst the railway capacity is there, the staff and trains aren't. So they could easily fix that before a multi million pound reinvention of Witton. Hopefully hosting the euros and the need for a second City stadium means both see the improvements that are already needed on a match day! My point is more that the respective authorities will find any reason to avoid spending money on them, and the leadership at villa will do everything to mitigate that risk so that we still get selected as a host stadium and still get the necessary permission to extend our capacity in the future. I'm sure our owners are still very much on the ball with this either way

Yes, North stand is not dependent on the station. But what about going further beyond that? I didn't think the next phase was approved and might be dependent on Witton. It would be nice to future proof ourselves in any case. Between the warehouse, the terrace view, and whatever else they plan in other stands by way of post match entertainment, it could mean it's less of a factor anyway in the future. Maybe we can demonstrate a reduced peak train demand after matches that means we don't need it at all?

Wonder how much we paid dragoon rouge for our one season badge that they could have got any one of us to design given the restrictions we placed on them. Would loved to have seen what they could come up with without the limitations of the limited and leading fan survey.

But, having played mostly favourable fixtures. Obviously Emery smashed it in an unfavorable run after joining us anyway, so it doesn't mean as much as it used to. That said, i'd still like us to be punching above our weight before the tolls of a longer season that most of our team have ever played start to take effect.

Gold is fine. Bright yellow is not. Problem is that both don't really work on a pale blue background. So we either have to abandon the powder blue and move to a darker one (I'd be fine with this), or have something to sit behind a standalone lion of we have light blue away shirts

Maybe , but I'm sure 10% of the WMCA's funding comes from BCC. £800m of it according to their last funding summary. In any case, if its something they're investing in to a study of, it's logical that they'd be fairly confident it's something they then be able to fund (or get funds for from Government). Definitely better news than no news, and sooner than I'd expected to hear anything of the sort.

I'm wondering how the council have even paid for the feasibility study itself. Unless it's being performed by Geoff from Accounts, who's now double hatting as the in-house facilities man and at the same time was asked to put the study together while he's on the train into work. Kind of feel that what ever the outcome this is going nowhere unless central government can be convinced its a necessary project to facilitate hosting Euro28 (when we eventually get confirmed as hosts), and there aren't enough other stadiums they can use.

He is....or at least was before we signed him. He's only started 2 of their last 12 games. His performance last night might see him given more time now though.

Scott and Cole were both saying this, it was so irritating. I get people have accents but if you're commentating on a sport you should probably pronounce the players' names correctly. Lazy.

So he did, they showed it twice so I assumed it went in

Not sure if the video was since updated but his back heeled through ball for the goal is in that video now. Gorgeous assist it was too. Edit: or not, they showed it twice even though it wasn't a goal