MaVilla

yikes, are Plastic City really gonna blow this!?!?

he's been almost permanently injured, when he has returned, he just keeps getting injured over and over. Not sure what you want someone to do with that?

come on Forest!!!

clearly rubbish and not good enough for us. Just like Bentancur. And Coutinho. And Digne.

thats great, so if we are saying we "dont need a 20 a goal season striker", which tbh, i do agree with, then the automatic assumption from that, is that this is because they offer more to the wider team, like intelligent build up play, excellent ball control, vision for a pass to benefit the team and build up, none of which Watkins has imo. I agree he works hard, very hard, but he doesnt have much else in terms of vision, football IQ, good tight control, strength to hold the ball up, excellent passing....etc etc etc.

i think McGinn is a good player, but thats it.....good. I dont see why ppl cant hold two thoughts in their head at once, he clearly does some very good things, he's tenacious, aggressive, and can have moments of amazing raking passes or the odd clever pass here and there, he also at times, has a great shot on him, i think he is probably best suited to a low possession (35/45%), high tempo, high aggression, direct style, and for him to be playing more advanced than he does with us. However, he also regularly struggles to pass the ball 5 yards competently, or pings raking balls to nowhere, he isnt the type of player that would suit any form of possession style football, he isnt composed enough to receive the ball in a tight space then find a high level intricate pass to retain or progress possession (yes he can do it, but not a good % of the time, consistently). I thought he played well at Norwich overall, he did a lot of good things, but a moment i saw that summed it up for me, is he was about 25 yards out from the opposition goal, at that time we had had quite a few slick, intricate passes pinging around, the ball was passed in to him, and some options were there for him to lay the ball off quickly and continue the swift, progressive, intricate build up. What actually happened, was he stuck his butt out, let the player behind him piggy back him, and spent a good 5/6/7 seconds doing the "McGinn ass special" to protect the ball, which completely killed the swift movement and passing, and the whole move broke down, he did retain the ball and pass it, but in such away that it completely broke the passage of play down, because rather than continue the swift passing and offloading, he reverted to McGinn ass time when it was completely unnecessary, completely, and utterly unnecessary to do that, it just wrecked the fluid move entirely. Anyway, my point is, i think he is a good mid table player, much more suited to direct, high tempo, chase the ball type play, he isnt a possession player, and if Gerrard wants to play possession football, McGinn simply wont suit that, most of the time, imo. Just my own opinion of course, and you are free to disagree.

If they brought in a system that basically corrupted the game being fair, i think i would have to think twice about binning football off. If the game isnt fair for all teams, what I consider "football" is basically gone.

43 goals in 43 games for Mitrovic in the Champ. Whatever you think of him as a player (quality wise), 1 goal a game, over 43 games........that nuts......

Would you say the same about Ferguson????? He was well known to never take training, and was rarely seen on the training ground, his coaches did all that for him, Ferguson was all about the man management, club/player discipline and standards etc. Now, im not comparing Gerrard & Ferguson directly, but to say any manager who doesnt lead training "a bad manager", puts a few of the most successful managers ever in to the "bad manager" bracket.

gotta say, Buendia was absolute class when he came on versus Norwich. So sad that we cant find a way to get him in the starting 11.

yeah this. He still has over 12 months on his contract, so this summer we can: a) try to get as much up front for him as we can (ie: 5/10m +, not sure whats possible). b) Put a hefty sell on percentage in the deal. If he doesnt want to be here, so be it, its not as if we havent shown as a club that we give youth chances if they are up to it (Ramsey/Timmy etc), so if he thinks he's better than that, good luck to him.

good. It may or may not work, but some of the signings we have made since our promotion, have been.......questionable at best.

its not about haivng a killer squad, but more that a lot of our players are mid table quality, or even lower PL quality, you wont finish top 10 with 3-4 when 3-4 of your players are bottom end of the Pl quality.

O'Reilly is a really silky player. I wonder where he would fit in our first 11, prob in the 10 role?, doesnt look like a no.8 to me.

yeah, i think we need a minimum of 4 new players in this starting 11 to even have a chance to kick on to the next level. Right now we are somewhere between 9th and 15th in terms of ability, depending on the day of the week, to get anywhere near a challenge top 8 we need a number of big upgrades, to challenge for top 6?, blimey, thats another thing all together. I honestly think, only Martinez, Digne, Ramsey, Coutinho from our senior starting 11, are nailed on good enough for a top 6/8 challenge (in terms of current or future ability), then Buendia and Cash as maybe's. So for me, thats 4-6 of our first team players, i might add Mings to the maybe list, as i think in a much better team, he would also play better, so in review, i think we must, must....MUST look something like this next season, as a minimum: So 4, or maybe 5, entirely new first team players needed, 4 is a minimum though imo (DCR, DM, MC, Striker). i think anything much short of that, we will be in the mid table mix again, the step up to top 8, or even top 6, is like night and day i think, and if we think any differently, we are fooling ourselves.

maybe the way to go for this season, but we dont want to be playing 2 "strikers" next season i dont think.

cool thanks. I kind of meant more in terms of wages than transfer fees, as i imagine the transfer kitty "could" be huge if NSWE wanted it to be. I was more thinking, does the 3 years PL thingy, give us a lot more wiggle room for wages?, now the 3 PL years go against income vs what wages can be realistically afforded? I suppose my point is, are we more likely to see some big signings this summer, on next level wages? (to attract the next level of player(s) we need to try and kick on)

so.... What difference will we have this summer in relation to wages/transfer flexibility/budget, now we will have "3 full PL seasons" under our belt in terms of money etc? (rather than the 2 champ/1 PL, then 1 champ/2 PL etc) Is it that big a jump from 2021/22 to 2023/23 finances?, in terms of what we can afford?

what's the score with their FFP troubles currently? Even if they stay up, i assume they: a) wont be making any big signings, and b) Might need to sell some prize assets?

Burnley Kryptonite FC are playing Aston Villa Supergirls twice in the next few weeks. I think Burnley Kryptonite FC will survive.

yeah wow, he said a few things that i totally agree with about Coutinho also.... Yuck, i agreed with Danny Mills lol. I think he was right tho.

its bigger than that, we prob need a DC in the summer, but i also think a lot of the problems our defence has been having, are very much down to our poor midfield not offering adequate protection.

If they can keep Rashica, Sargent, Tzolis, Placheta & Pukki etc next season, they should walk the championship (or at least have a very good of a top 2), and come straight back up for the third time..... I hate Burnely, Leeds...and dislike Everton, but i quite like Norwich, a very well run club overall, in terms of living within their means etc. I mean...think about it, 2 promotions in recent years, not quite enough to stay up, but in the last 5 years there net spend is MINUS 45 million. 2 promotions in the last 5 years, with a net spend of minus 45m, thats impressive.

Emi Martinez From Argentina he came to Villa, from Arse-enal. He's 6ft 7. He's football heaven. Please dont take, our Emi, away! (i know he's not 6ft 7........)