MrBlack

Timberwolves and 76ers look like they belong to the same parent group. At least as much as we look like Chelsea at the moment.

Phenomenal. He's got the winning mentality. Whatever his goalkeeping weaknesses (and I can't really think of any at the moment since he improved his distribution), they are more than made up for by the confidence he inspires in the team. And if you want to win a cup, there isn't a better keeper in the world to help you do that.

This, with the lion from the gaslight badge, could be lovely. It's just so uniquely "us".

Thanks. As well as swapping the colours over, I made the claret more "claret", as they were still too purple in my view. If anyone has actual code for our real claret colour I'll tweak around with them a bit more.

Yeah I thought the same, especially on the gaslight one. But I think a gold lion looks better than a claret one, especially so on our primary shirt colour, and it's just the fact it was washed out by a blue background that made it bad before.

For reference, I think the ones we ended up with lacked vibrancy and definition. Especially on a claret shirt. I think swapping some colours over would have made them both better....

Given the cryptic phrasing that accompanied our new kit release and the mod warnings from the 2022 crest thread, let's discuss what we think Heck's planning to do with our badge Hopefully we get a few more insights in the coming weeks but until we do... The quote from the release: This suggests to me there is some concern within the villa camp that the new badge isn't right for our future. Combine this with the fact Heck has given a talk on how the 76ers badge was formed, and the role he played in it, and it looks like we'll get something new for next season. This is the logo "range" the 76ers use: I think we'll get a similar style badge that has modular components that allows us to use various parts for various purposes. I'm envisaging a crest + lion that will be our primary. This could well be the current circular badge with some slight modifications to make it stand out a bit more. The lion ends up being the partial primary that we use on the kit. And I can see a recreation of the Villa Villan for our secondary. What do you think we'll get and what do you want to see?

I'd be disappointed it we left our home. Villa Park is still one is the best stadiums in the country, and one of very few that actually look good. Surely we can retrofit a modern interior, with expansion to the outside to accommodate a capacity that future proofs us and a service that matches our ambitions. There's loads of land behind the north stand to use for multi use purposes, as shown by the villa Live design, which still left a fair bit of space free. It would be easier and cheaper to buy a row of houses next to villa Park at the moment, than to find a new site that itself would need us to buy up even more properties and businesses to even get started. This is the only way to expand beyond 50k... but it's cheaper than binning it off and we won't end up with a soulless identikit bowl.

I now know why I've only heard of one of their songs....

Wouldn't be the first time a club have bought everything except what they really need. Wouldn't even be the first time United have done it.

They're screwed without Kane. With him they're bankrupt. Son already dropped off this year and I expect he'll hit the cliff next season. Maddison and Richarlison are a mid-table forward lineup. They're going backwards and will be a few years before they're back near the top. I'd love it if they don't sell Kane now. Turning down 70m for him is madness.

My concerns with signing a quality player in a position we're already strong in are to do with the fact we have FFP spending limits. That money then can't be spent in a position where we need a quality player more. I'd rather we spent 100m on a second striker and got that right, than 40m on Torres and 60m on a second striker that isn't our first choice. Obviously, money only goes so far to persuading a player to join. Maybe we've exhausted the really expensive first choices for those positions, and rather than over spend on a second choice we're striking while the irons hot on another player we see as the future of our defence. But part of my little concern is we revisit the second striker options later in the window to see what's evolved and if it transpires our first target now wants to come to us, but we can no longer afford them.... have we then hampered our season. Overall though, I trust Emery, and only have to look at what happened with Moreno to see that signing someone i didnt think we needed is probably more to do with me being wrong than Emery making the wrong call.

I agree. Looking back at it I still feel it needs some work, maybe more gold, maybe a slightly better shape, but it's in the right frame of being unique, but also not crazy, and actually meaning something to us. The lion was bigger and more detailed. That lion can then be used in isolation where we want to simplify the logo, maybe even on the shirt itself. Keep the full logo for other purposes, but as a shape that represents our foundation, it will never age. Feel like we're in a (still fairly sizable) minority on this though.

The sponsor is huge but I'd take a legitimate business like that over ours any day. Maybe if we get Europa League next season we can hope for a blue chip sponsor, but sadly they're out of our league at the moment, unless we are happy to take a massive drop in our sponsorship funding. As for the shirt, hard to go wrong with red and black, but I do wonder whats with all the random patterns appearing more than ever this season. They all just feel so arbitrary

This^ Mings should never have lost it in the first place, but now that he has, and they're both performing out their skin with their respective roles, I see zero reason to change it again. Giving mings the club captain role will be a good way to wrap the mistakes of the past up for good

I'm sure as a child they were banned from playing in uefa tournaments due to their decision to not play in their home nation's league. But then I recall Swansea played in Europe so guess if that ever was the case, uefa found a way to bend their rules to suit.

I'm not. Overrated and doesn't like villa so wouldn't come here even if we wanted to match what spurs offered

Brings back some memories that does...albeit hazy ones. Not too dissimilar to our own lion from the 70s (according to a source that may or may not be reputable)

I'd buy that... in the sale obviously.

Can't have a mostly claret background on our badge when we have a claret shirt though. In that scenario surely we just abandon the badge altogether and just have the lion. Gold lion on our claret and blue shirt Claret lion on our white away kit. Etc etc...

I'm expecting that Archer will be kept around this season to be added as an extra option in the early ECL stages, that effectively means he won't take up a space in the ECL squad as we've only got one or two others that qualify anyway. If we are seeking a goal to avoid going out against supposedly weaker opposition, I'd honestly back Archer to finish a chance better than Watkins. That's not to say I'd start him over Ollie in this games, but those throw off the dice calls might need someone like Cam. Assumes that the second striker we sign to replace Bailey means we aren't buying an out and out striker alongside then.

They will surely be posting another £1 balance sheet before the deadline. Whilst I wouldn't love the immediate impact on the club this would have, it would be great for the longer term. Let's hope they do get struck off.

It looks very nice, but makes me wonder what the background shown in the home kit release was. Also makes me wonder why we let them have two colours on our home kit. As if it isn't bad enough, they've given it two colours, neither of which are in the rest of the kit.

Why is anyone in the UK buying Chelsea players. They're not worth the money they're paying for them, and they're strengthening a rival by buying from them. It's ridiculous. There's better players out there for 60m United, leave Mount alone

Rules let you sign whatever length contract you want. But only 5 years of it will count in terms of the period you can amortise the purchase price over