MaVilla

not defending Gerrard, as im as glad to see the back of him as anyone....but..... tbh Gerrard was ok for his first 6 PL games (4 wins, 2 losses), but yeah to be brutally honest it just went downhill at a steady rate for the next 32 PL games and ended up in a dumpster fire.

As i saw the "Tea Thread", i thought we deserved a coffee one. Right now i am in to Turkish Coffee. Bought myself a Turkish coffee pot like this: got myself some Memet Efendi Coffee Got some Cardamom Pods (one pod per pot). 2 spoons of coffee in the pot. Add sugar to suit. Add cardamom pod. stir well. gently bring to just below boil and you get the nice froth on top. do not touch the coffee once on the heat. i have it black, or sometimes a tiny dash of milk, looks like this when its about ready: the really nice thing about it, is that if done right, even black, it isnt bitter at all, lovely way to do coffee imo.

milk. Strong tea (builder level tea) level spoon of honey.

tbh, i have been impressed with him out wide when i have seen him there, he drives with the ball very well like a winger, he's quite fast without being rapid (especially carrying the ball), but he can certainly make the yards out wide from what i have seen. If left footed Bailey might play on the left, i wonder how Ramsey (with his right foot), would do on the right. in a 4231 he defo isnt a pivot player, he isnt as creative as buendia or couts for the 10, but could act as backup as he does work harder than couts, i would like to see what he could do on the right in the AM three in a 4231.

Arsenal’s Pablo Mari ‘stabbed and seriously hurt’ in Milan: Player is one of six people wounded by knifeman in supermarket https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11362543/Arsenals-Pablo-Mari-stabbed-seriously-hurt-Milan.html wasnt sure if this should go in another thread?! terrible regardless.

will be interesting to see if Emery primarily goes for a 4231 or 442.

now that would be the way to fix our right side......dont see it happening tho tbh.

FYI its from this podcast, the Villa discussion starts around the 34 minute 30 second mark. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0d9n2df (you might need to copy paste this in to your browser, for some reason i cant get it to link properly)

possibly, but it seems to me that gerrard's problem is that he thinks he will get to the top by getting others to do all his coaching for him, while he reaps the benefits, it seems to me that he thinks he is a figurehead, the captain of the ship, who doesnt actually do anything than "set the mood". He will need to change that i think if he wants to succeed, or get a very, very good coaching team.

i guess thats what happens when you are played for one game, then dropped for the next 10 regardless of what you do, cant build any rhythm with your teammates.

the way we have mistreated and misused, or not used Buendia, is sickening, seriously sickening.

yeah i was about to come and post this. Seen a few pundits etc now saying his planning, tactics, sessions etc are super intense, and that some may not like it. Will be interesting to see who falls by the wayside, because it seems a few might if its that different to what most players are used to.

looks like this 100% is the guy. He is out of work currently, spanish journalist Guillem Balague said Emery's new assistant manager would be a historic champions league winner. Pako won the champions league as Benitez's assistant manager in 2004/05. all seems to add up.

no wasnt specified as "player". Seems i was wrong in my initial statement, i was looking at the 2007 Champions League that Liverpool lost to Milan when he was there. Was Pako at Liverpool when they won in 2004/5? edit: Yes he was, looks like this is the guy, he is also out of work currently, so seems to me it is Pako.

no, not in the slightest. He was Liverpools assistand head coach under benitez when they got to the champs league final in 2007, however not the "champions league winner" assistant manager reported by Guillem Balague.

interesting, doesnt fit the "Emery's assistant will be a champions league winner" as reported by that spanish journalist Guillem Balague.

im guessing Emery will love old Diego, exactly his sort of player, fast, strong, capable on the ball, the manager also speaks his mother tongue.

i wonder if it would be Martinez or Mings. tbh, one should be captain, the other vice, whichever way around it is.

will be interesting this Jan & coming summer, Emery must have a very deep understanding of the Spanish market, i wonder if we might go for some spanish gems/youth/younger players, or just some Spanish based players who Emery knows inside out. Gonna be interesting times.

he wasnt great in the PL, i wasnt even that impressed with him while he was in the Championship, maybe he just suits the less physical Spanish league?, or maybe he has improved vastly? I would be concerned if he were going in for players like Damjuma.

i dont doubt Couts' talent, but i do wonder if he will be to Emery's liking, i think Buendia is probably close to an Emery type player? will be interesting to see what Emery makes of the squad. If he picks McGinn im gonna cry tho.

i dunno, i agree we should back him with some signings, but he also has a history of improving players and bringing youth through. we already have a fairly large squad, i agree we should back him with a few signings, but we also need to offload a few as right now there is no real space or pathway for our youth (on the whole), and i honestly think one of his remits would be to bring a few youth players through the system and either integrate them in to the first team, or develop them to sell. Obviously i know nothing, but i would honestly guess that his agreement/remit might be: 1) we will back you with signings, but nothing mind blowing or that will put the club at financial risk (ie: 100m over Jan and the summer, but as much funded by sales/profit as possible). 2) offload some players (to help fund signings), i think we prob have quite a few players just not suited to how he likes to play). 3) improve the players we already have (he has a history of doing this - i didnt mean it as a cliche). 4) integrate & develop youth to either integrate in to the first team squad or develop to sell for profit (this will also help the transfer kitty and sustainability). i would guess that the days of spending 150m in a window, with no income from sales is gone, tbh, the last couple of years have shown this, we havent spent big in the last couple of years, in terms of net spend (i know contracts/salaries are different - but yeah, im just talking in terms of net transfer spend). I would honestly guess that Emery is coming in for the full project, to build the culture he wants, improve the players we have, buy some players but fund some of that with sales of senior or youth players (the youth players who arent deemed good enough for our own squad), i am guessing, but i reckon possibly one of the reasons he chose us is that the owners and Purslow have given him the full scope of the project to manage, alongside Lange and the rest of the team. as long as we as fans are on board and dont get restless, we could be in for an interesting ride. i just hope it doesnt turn out like the Gerrard debacle (i was defo guilty of trying to give Gerrard the benefit of the doubt for the first 6 months, but i was proven badly wrong), although this is a totally different kettle of fish, with a proven coach, so fingers crossed.

the players of any real value they have lost in recent years was: 21/22 - Buendia - 35m 20/21 - Godfrey - 25m & Lewis - 15m other than that, all their "core" players are still present. They signed players like Sara, Nunez, Hayden, Rashica (out on loan), Sargent, Gibson etc. Their first 11 consists of players like Krul, Gibson, Hanley, Hayden, Nunez, Sara, Cantwell, Ramsey, Sargent, Pukki etc. There is no way this team should not be pushing for automatic promotion, if they dont i think it would be seen as a failure, well, maybe via playoffs, but i imagine that wasnt the preferred/expected option. i really dont think Smith is doing as good a job as Farke did, as of right now.

out?, as in available to see?

just turn subs on and the english subs will pop up.