Powehi

He's definitely shifted some timber since Unai arrived

Why?

Player of the year: Mings has been a titan, but Luiz was so so close Young player of the year: Ramsey - kinda by default here, but you can't argue with those important goals Most improved player: Young in terms of his impact from last season to this Most regressed player: Cash Best new signing (summer or winter window, loans count): Kamara because his ceiling is potentially higher, but Moreno is an honorable mention Worst new signing (ditto): Olsen has been actively detrimental to our results this season Most underused player: Not a crowded field, so I'm just going to state that shipping out Hause in favour of Chambers was a mistake in my book Best victory: Manchester United at home just beats Newcastle at home because of the hoodoo-breaking Worst loss: Bournemouth on the opening day - the emperor wearing no clothes revelation was hard to take Goal of the year: Bertie against Leicester

Yeah as much as the current VT obsession with refeering slights or conspiracies is annoying, I keep reminding myself of this as an example of 'no smoke without fire'

Can't believe Messi wasn't the part that aged badly in this post

Him too??!

Great post - just to add that for 8th, we can also really go for one of the domestic cups too as an added bonus.

2-1 Villa, ref to give us a dodgy penalty and VAR to incorrectly rule out a last-minute equaliser for them.

Not on your life, my zombie friend!

Completely agree with this. I see where other fans are coming from with the view that he can only get better with 90 mins each week but as mentioned, occasionally games can pass him by. Slightly fewer minutes but higher impact could be a good next stage for his development and then 24-25 is where he cements himself as undroppable if he continues in this manner.

Sure. I'm going to enjoy a decent performance and win against a lacklustre Spurs where we're now extremely likely to have Europe in our own hands at home on the last day. You can watch the VAR slo-mo replay again and call the ref a clearing in the woods. UTV

I don't have a problem with it, I made an additional observation to the original post stating that we spend more time analysing the ref's performance than our own. Have a good weekend, enjoy the win. UTV

Right, not the 10-odd game headstart we gave other teams due to the Scouse chancer. Got ya

I like a moan as much as the next person but page 1 of the post-match thread where we've won and gone joint 6th being all about the consolation pen shows it might be going a bit far.

It is becoming a bit of an obsession on here.

He grabbed someone's wrist and punched himself in the face

I pay someone else for the pleasure and don't want to double dip

For the future fixtures you're totally right - it is fun to predict and have some investment in games not involving Villa. All the Butterfly Effect stuff about things that have been and gone, especially about teams not involving Villa, doesn't seem fun or enjoyable to me. It may have come across as more of a criticism than I intended - I know there's plenty of fans who derive a lot of enjoyment from moaning about Brighton beating Manchester United and its knock-on effect to us. But I think I just can't get into the stress of that for the run-in, and would rather focus on how we're doing and whether we can qualify ourselves through our own performances and results.

No disrespect, but that's a really exhausting way to look at football. If we finish 8th, its either because a) we're not quite ready yet or b) we had too much deficit to make up after correcting a poor managerial appointment which also lies at our door. Constantly expecting every other result to go in our favour after our own failings just seems pointless to me.

Depends on what your scale is? I guess I could replace that with consistently good performances, rather than great one week, bad the next which I'm sorry to say is JJ's current level.

I think he needs to be the understudy to a class player in his position next season - I really rate him and definitely am not writing him off, but I think he needs to see what 8/10 performances minimum in his position looks like so he can understand the level required.

Yeah out of the current crop, Watkins and Martinez have the best chance of making it - if they don't jump ship. Have to agree with the comment further up that that should lead to an automatic disqualification: not out of spite so much as the criteria for the Hall of Fame should be pretty stringent.

If we get 8th, we get 8th. The positive way of looking at it is that we can really focus on winning either or even both of the two domestic cup competitions next season.

Haha maybe - but I don't think so See loads of posts on pregame threads along the lines of "hope we f___ these___" or somesuch, when we're playing Bournemouth or someone. Must be exhausting having all that vitriol to go around, I conserve mine for Blues and Man Utd games.

Genuine question: is there anyone these days that VTers don't consider "f**ers" "scumbags" "bastards" etc.? Club and/or fans? Just seems like everyone these days just hates all other people involved in the Premier League. Surely Brentford are more likeable than any other team as a plucky underdog? Obviously I hope we win comfortably but I've noticed this trend over the last few seasons in particular. EDIT: Obviously Toney as a player is definitely unlikeable.