MNVillan

His first touch seems so poor to me. It’s so frustrating, especially against a team like Chelsea where a poor first touch gives the defense an extra second or two to suffocate you and that’s all they need to stop him.

Great.

Merry Christmas to you all. Thanks for being my main link to Villa fans!

A picture with Minnesota United was the last thing I expected to stumble upon in this thread

Here’s what I currently think: on my trip over I asked a few different people what they thought of Grealish. The older people were more sympathetic to him than the younger ones. I distinctly remember being in the Aston Tavern and when team news came out I heard multiple people say “he’s on the bench.” I didn’t even have to look to know who they were talking about. He means a lot to all of us. This thread would’ve died if he didn’t. As someone who’s a couple years older than him, but whose Villa support coincides with his coming-of-age, he was Villa to me. Watching him leave sucked because it means there are bigger things to aspire to than just Villa. I imagine that hits home a little harder to younger folk than older ones. I do think he’s a moron though, and that has nothing to do with him leaving.

Yep

Bump, just to remember the good times.

For those of you who know nothing about US college sports and have stumbled upon this thread, I want to welcome you with open arms to our Minnesota Golden Gopher community. To any Wisconsin Badger or Iowa Hawkeye fan, **** you.

I found the beer in Brum very hit or miss in terms of pricing. The “trendy” bars had prices similar to London. The “local” places (which are the good ones anyway) were a pound or two lower.

Zero clue.

I don’t know who Chris Sutton is, but if he thinks it was a shot he needs to get his eyes checked. Carney wraps his boot around it in a way that could only have been meant for the ball to cut across goal.

His play today was poor, but two things have stuck out to me recently. 1. Coming to the defense of Chuk at the end of the Leicester match after Maddison kicked Chuk‘S shins out. 2. His celebration after our second goal today, he was beaming and jumping. Surely at least part of that was excitement for Chuk’s fantastic assist. Having a senior presence to help along the young stars is a massive help. Look at how Jack transformed once he had proper leadership in Dean and JT instead of Gabby and McCormack to look up to.

It’s been that way all season and I’m not sure if it’s his fault or Pep’s coaching. He just floats off to the side as a sort of pressure release option. At Villa he’d get the ball often in those spots because it was our only option, but he gets it far less at Citeh with their attacking prowess. The spots he’s floating into don’t ask any questions of a defense. In Villa’s side he’d run at the defense after receiving the ball to test them, but he doesn’t seem to have that freedom at Citeh so that pass is a waste that amounts to nothing.

Because he’s a sellout

Yeah it’s been a bad showing for him no doubt

Football in a library coming through my TV. **** me I love that song

Great strike, love that he kept his composure when taking the defenders on

It’s for sport, no doubt, but there are also laws about using the animal that you shoot. If you kill a deer, you can’t just cut its head off for the trophy to put on your wall and leave the rest. The meat has to be processed and consumed. For a lot of people, the meat lasts them the entire year until it’s hunting season again next year. Of course there are plenty of people who don’t have use for 100+ pounds of meat, in which case it is donated to food shelters to help feed the hungry. So while it is sport, it creates jobs (butchers who clean the meat, taxidermists who mount the trophy heads, etc). It also provides food, either for the person that shot it or the hungry. Lastly, at least in Minnesota where we have hundreds of miles of open forest, it helps maintain healthy populations of different animals to keep the ecosystem balanced. It’s heavily regulated. Edit: and there are heavy penalties for illegally hunting and fishing. If you don’t obey the regulations you can get hit with massive fines and even jail time. For instance, wolves are protected here (can’t be hunted at all) because their population is at an endangered level. Getting caught killing a wolf leads to 6 months in jail and a $25,000 fine. And since the bald Eagle is our national bird, if you get caught killing one of them you’re looking at a year in jail and a $100,000 fine.

Really depends what you are trying to hunt and where. I’m obviously most familiar with Minnesota where I live. Pretty typical that big game (deer, Bear, moose are the most common up here in Minnesota) requires a permit tag where one permit = one animal to kill. And you’re usually only allowed to buy one permit per year, maximum, and they expire at the end of the season (deer hunting in Minnesota is annually November and lasts 2 or 3 weeks). So if you buy a permit and don’t kill a deer to “use” it, you can’t save it for next year’s season, you still have to buy a new one. The price and number of permits they sell every year is monitored by our Department of Natural Resources and depends on species. For instance, if the bear population is lower than normal they will sell fewer permits. Where demand exceeds supply, a raffle is held to see who gets a permit. Price also fluctuates by species. We have plenty of deer, so it’s around $20 to get a deer permit. Moose are much rarer, so it’s $350 to buy one moose permit. Moose permits are very tough to get - very few are given out, so it always goes to a lottery and your chances are not good. I also believe the rule in Minnesota is that you only get one moose permit in your lifetime, so you get one crack at moose hunting here (although I’m not 100% sure if that’s the case now). Smaller game you still need a permit but it’s for a limit. For instance if you want to go duck hunting you can buy a permit that lasts for 7 days, 30 days, 45 days etc (price varies by length of time). Then there is a limit that is set by the government based on species population. For instance right now the limit is 6 duck per day, per permit. You generally can’t hunt on government protected land (state parks, national parks, etc). You also generally can’t hunt within city limits. I have plenty of deer in my yard but I can’t just sit on my back porch with a rifle and hunt. Once you get outside city limits it’s entirely dependent on who owns the land. Public land hunting is allowed or restricted at the discretion of the government. Private land, hunting is allowed at the discretion of the owner. My in-laws own a farm in Southern Minnesota and don’t hunt themselves, but every once in a while they will have someone knock on their door asking if they can hunt for either birds or deer on their land. I know people who own a bundle of acres in rural areas that they just use as their “hunting land.” Sorry for the novel. Hope that helps. I live in an area where hunting is very popular.

I’m excited by this prospect. Vegas away would be a no brainer destination for away MLS fans who would then maybe learn more about Villa. Spread the claret and blue net as far and wide as possible

Wouldn’t be depressing if you won a lot of money

Because they’re a little more willing to sit back and counter with the lead and 10 minutes left. Sure we’re getting more desperate as time ticks away, but with that also comes a risk. Like giving up a 3 on 1 to some of the best attacking players in the world

Noticed that too, although couldn’t pick out who it would be

When it’s so loud that the commentators are forced to raise their voices, that’s not a TV company altering crowd noise. That’s a boisterous crowd

We grind so hard now. Could’ve scored 4 or 5 easily. Love that we didn’t let the disallowed goal get us down, we came out of the half with passion instead