est1874

Mathematically do not need to win? You're on. That's a deal, brother.

How dare you talk about Phil Jones like that.

Hahahahaha Slabhead at it again.

Aye, only if the Waistcoat rocket polisher is still stealing a living there.

How much? Go on, gentleman's agreement. I'll bet you a ton (proceeds to Acorns) - before all these lovely witnesses here who will undoubtedly keep us honest - that he doesn't.

He's just a twunt, Southgate. There's nothing profound or intellectual about his reasons for not picking Jack, or him in general. England will sleep-walk to the quarters of the Euros until Sadcase is exposed by a nation of similar quality who are allowed to play better football. And he'll be sacked, and Jack will go straight into the starting XI under a new manager, but unfortunately he'll have missed a major tournament and may not be a Villa player anymore.

Don't think you'd enjoy that, lockdown has added a few pounds...

"We invented this game, old chap. If we want to play turgid stuff that nobody wants to watch, then by gum, we're going to do it!"

And so they should be.

Typical eh. Sigh

- "So Gareth, what did you think of the assistant and all-round performance by Jack Grealish tonight?" - "I thought Mason had a fantastic game, he can be really proud, and so should the Chelsea supporters."

Southgate and tactical nous are total strangers to each other.

Time for Jack to do what he's done for the previous few seasons surrounded by mostly average players: steal the limelight and do it himself.

This, and surely we're also talking about pace vs acceleration here? Players can accelerate past a marker at frightening pace without necessarily being the player with the highest top speed on the pitch. You can leave a player for dust and catch them flat-footed but ultimately be slower than them in a head-to-head. Traoré is very good at this, it's all short bursts of pace and power to the touchline; but there might be a fleet-footed player who is speedier over 50m.

He doesn't play for Aston Villa.

Let's be honest here, a midtable finish for Villa this season would be a big deal, and we'd have to consider that huge progress. Anything beyond that is just dreamland and I'm not about to go there, nor do I think we have the depth to be able to achieve it. We'd have to be massively fortunate with injuries (which we consistently haven't been for the last few seasons, so there's no basis for believing we'll suddenly get lucky in that area). We'd also have to continue to get VAR decisions and deflections in our favour this season, and we know that won't happen, particularly with (ahem) certain refs who don't treat fouls against Grealish as real fouls. My pre-season prediction was 14th and I still believe we'll land somewhere around there. Of course, I think we should be ambitious and aim higher than that, but you have to be realistic all the same.

Jack's dream made reality - starring for Villa in the league and about to start for England. You love to see it. Just don't get injured please lad. (Touches every piece of wood in the vicinity)

Found this on PP earlier. Tickled me how well this has aged!

A bit overstated IMO. Try to imagine the Old Trafford crowd, 6-1 down to Spurs. Or City 5-2 down to Leicester. Did our home crowd lose hope and faith after conceding an early goal? Yes absolutely, but that was after years of witnessing the team do the exact same thing, and manager after manager who seldom had the ability to reverse a losing scoreline and turn defeat into victory. It's a vicious circle of course, but I don't think it's fair to call the Villa Park atmosphere toxic out of context. Our whole bloody club culture has been toxic for a decade.

He's doing well.

SLAMMING SHUT in 5... 4... 3... 2... 1...

Classy farewell, this.

The problem for me is less around Taylor being back-up and more around Targett being first choice neither of them is up to the standard of a first-choice Premier League full-back for me. Just my opinion, granted.

If the howlers hadn't been such a prominent part of his game he'd have been a really good keeper for us, as he's a good shot-stopper and had the better distribution of our 'keepers from last season IMO... though that's not saying much either. (Reina's was shocking for instance). Ultimately he was just a shade off being a good enough deputy for Heaton, and now that we have Martínez - with the mighty Jed Steer also back fit - it's fair to say he's very surplus to requirements. Will forever remember that Leicester cup performance with fondness. Thanks for your efforts Orjan!