Greenfly

29 minutes ago, Genie said:

On facebook I have a few old friends from school who are the noisy anti-eu, pro-Brexit, pro-Trump, covid denying anti-vax, Farage and Tommy Robinson supporters… they are ALL Small Heath supporters. No joke.

If there’s a factually implausible social media campaign against something sensible then Small Heath fans are at the front of the queue lapping it up.

Birds of a feather flock together, and all that. It seems to be true that you can tell someone's personality by the club they support.

40 minutes ago, PieFacE said:

By some minor miracle we've just signed the third most expensive footballer of all time and you guys are arguing about contract situations and how it's not a big signing before he's even kicked a ball? Jesus christ. Enjoy it. 

I think it's fair to say we're all pretty hyped about it. I think some of us are trying to temper expectations a bit though because expecting him to be as good as he was at Liverpool is putting way to much pressure on him.

The fact we've managed to convince a potentially world class player to take a pay cut to join us, and we managed to negotiate a "try before you buy" opportunity is unbelievable, and means there's no downside to this deal at all. He doesn't have to be anywhere near his best to live up to that.

Signing Chris Wood and Kieran Tripper surely means they're resorting to the ol' basic Brucey "flick it onto the clogger's noggin" brand of football that gets shit teams out of the danger zone.

It's not the romantic vision the barcodes have been carping on about since the Saudis rocked up but truthfully, it's probably the smart move for now.

1 minute ago, Phil Silvers said:

 

Excuse me while I go change my underpants.

Good luck, Axel. It's a shame it never worked out for him, but moving for game time is definitely the right thing to do.

47 minutes ago, a-k said:

Did he not complain about the number of deflected goals we scored?

I don't see how he could complain about that. Who's fault would he think it is?

40 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

It seems the skunks up north are upset that digne appears to have chosen us over them as they seem themselves as a more exciting project.

A relegation dog fight ?

What project? They were turned down by every DoF they tried to hire because the club seemed directionless. They must be an unbelievable shambles if even all the money in the world can't convince people to get on board.

20 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

how do they pronounce "Fred"?

"Cr-ap"

1 hour ago, hippo said:

Forget the salary as a separate figure - just look at the expenditure/outlay ...in relative terms it's not a lot of money ...about £7m ??? To get one of the best players in the world on your books ?

It's a calculated gamble that he hits the form of around 4 years ago. 

Really, he only has to hit his form from one/two years ago to be an improvement here. All he has to be is better than what we currently have, which he is even at 50% of his potential.

18 minutes ago, useless said:

Barkley wasn't as bad of a signing as sometimes made out, he faded, but played a big role in our good start to the season not just in terms of his performances but also us signing  a player like him would have lifted the other players, it was another sign that we were on the up and going for an higher class of player. And without that good start, it would have been a very different season.

He started out very good for sure. Then he got injured and he just didn't seem to come back. It was almost like he didn't even try at that point. Unfortunately, that's his legacy here.

7 hours ago, Pablo_2531 said:

Hello all I previously commented on gerrard. I know I know..I’m an obsessive Lfc fan.

However as a season ticket holder I feel in a decent position to comment on these two in particular..

I've been watching developments with villa with interest for obvious reasons and I think this will prove to be a very good signing.

I have to admit I haven’t watched lots of  coutiniho since he left but I can tell you about the player who was at liverpool.

Firstly, by all accounts he is a good lad, not going to upset anyone, speaks English and for us was not injured a lot from memory.

His touch is immense as is his awareness, close control and skills in tight positions. His other main strength is his shooting from distance both from dead balls an in open play.

I would say the other thing that helps with him is he can press and he does work hard. He isn’t just some number 10 who strolls round the pitch.

The general criticism of coutiniho from liverpool fans was that certainly for the first few years he was inconsistent. He could put in a 9/10 performance then 2x6/10 performances and that seemed to be the cycle. However in the last 2 years I think it was or certainly 18 months (an bear in mind he was young) it became near enough every game he was immense an for me he was probably along with hazard the best player in the league at that time.

You don’t go for 145m if you are shit an he wasn’t a flash in the pan like a dembele for instance.

yeh it worked out for liverpool as we sold him an bought Allison an van dijk who based on our American owners track record we would not have bought without the sale. 

However at 29 I see no reason why you cannot have 4/5 years of coutiniho. The fact gerrard will build around him will help too an I suspect he will be a success.

ps from reading a number of these threads over the last couple of months you aren’t the most optimistic bunch are ya? But on this one I think you might be pleasantly surprised.

 

 

 

After we were linked I started watching his Barca and Bayern highlights to get a better idea of what sort of player we're getting, and even though he's no longer at the level he was at for you, he's still far better than what we currently have. Even if he takes a bit of time to get back into the groove, he will be great for us and I have little doubt about that.

Also, if you'd had to witness the level of baffling insanity we've had to put up with over the last few years, you'd be a little on the pessimistic side too. We've been burned before. We had similar conversations to these about Barkley back when he signed, and he ended up being a lazy player who clearly didn't care.

As long as Coutinho isn't like that, which by the looks of things it seems like he's the exact opposite, the Villa faithful will quickly grow to love him.

55 minutes ago, useless said:

 

Damn. I suppose if you're as deep in the mire as they are, even the pond scum festering on the surface is looking up.

3 hours ago, wilko154 said:

Phwoar, ITK right there...

This comment, on the other hand, aged like warm milk.

Bluenoses arguing that the Coutinho signing isn't huge because "Bayern didn't want him, so he can't be that good", not realising that they're now comparing us to the likes of Bayern Munich while they're compared to Millwall.

Just now, Aston_Villan4 said:

it should do it automatically.

Reported by Sky, so we'll be waiting until next week at least.

58 minutes ago, QldVilla said:

If someone said 12 months ago you'd sell your best player for 100m and sign Countinho on loan, not sure whether you would call them a clown or bite their hand off?

In my mind Countinho is the better player and if we get the player anywhere near his best football it will lift the whole squad. I have concerns about the player, but not as many as I had with Barkely.

It's going to be an interesting second half of the season.

Let's be honest, 12 months ago most of us were such big fans of Grealish we wouldn't have swapped him for prime Messi.

Oh, such simpler times...

Just saw this. You can understand why it all went south after his transfer. I honestly believe a move to Villa would be ideal for him. There aren't many people out there who understand him better than Gerrard.

2 minutes ago, jacketspuds said:

Still find Dharmesh Sheth hilariously stupid.

"Newcastle are potentially sounding out the possibility of being interested in Todd Cantwell".

That's some cracking journalism right there.

They're currently preparing to plan to purchase the table they intend to consider placing the bid on. Maybe.

I haven't been this excited by a potential signing since Fish Boy.

Oh my god. Funniest goal I've seen in a while. What the hell were they doing??

3 hours ago, imavillan said:

The gift that keeps on giving 

Neanderthals 

 

 

"These big clubs crave winning every game. But where do you go from there?"

Up, usually.