KangarooVillan

19 hours ago, AV82 said:

Thing is.. we're only in a position to ask Grealish to stay after pumping 100-200m into the club. Do we really have a leg to stand on?

No we don’t, which speaks to a larger issue in football.

Although, in saying that, if Jack went to city it would be a particularly poignant example of any football romanticism being strong armed by business. 

Bring on a salary cap.

I’m calling it, he’s fu***** staying!!

Good to have you back SJG.

3 minutes ago, TRO said:

I don't think its been any different in the sense the top teams cherry pick the lesser teams best players.....its just the sums of money are different and the agents are in the players ears, like flies on a donkey and the media want their predictions to come true, for credibility.

There are so many moving factors, you have to be aware of replacing every player, Ollie could go, and we will have to replace him.....sadly its modern football, as I have said, not to get too emotionally attached, its that what consumes us.

Despite players attempts to tell us different, its their jobs and behind the scenes they see the warts 'n all.....That must have an affect on them.

from Jack standing on the terraces, to playing in the top flight with Villa....He must see a world of difference....That must affect his vulnerability and emotional standing.....eventually, its just a Job, albeit quite different from ours.

In time, if Jack goes I will generally be appreciative of what he has done for us and the player he became, although I think I may always mildly resent the the notice being relatively short. 

But right now, and into the future the thing I’m mostly angry about is what I have bolded above. This is the state of modern football and it’s sterile and 100% dictated by money. If Jack goes to city just an extra visceral example of the above.

37 minutes ago, TRO said:

We will be ready in the future for all these scenario's.....Other teams in the normal 14 deal with it, so will we.

The trick is, not to get too emotionally attached to them, sure its ok for the kids too,  applause is enough......They all have their sell by date.

TRO like I get your drift, but how can you get the enjoyment out of football moving along those lines?

I’m not being critical, and what you’ve said isn’t untrue in the current paradigm, but it feels so sterile.

13 minutes ago, Corleone said:

It didnt stop the Likes of Phillips / Rice playing nearly every minute despite not playing for "Elite" clubs and it also didnt stop the likes of Chilwell / Foden / James hardly featuring at all despite only recently having played in the CL Final (you can throw Sancho into the mix as well)

Sure, but at the end of the day 8/10 outfield players were from ManU, Man City, Chelsea, Tottenham or Arsenal.

Rice and Philips got a look in because England don’t have any other defensive mids at the top clubs.

Literally all the players you mentioned didn’t play because their position was already filled by someone from the Big 6; Shaw, Saka and Walker. What’s your point?
 

Literally all the players you

I just can’t shake the feeling that IF he does go, the biggest factor will be his chances for playing a significant role in the World Cup. Once that’s done, Jack will be almost 27 and may not have another chance. 

I think not being a starter at the Euros really hurt Jack, and whilst it’s a gamble that whether he’s playing for Villa or City he still won’t get a look in, playing at City (unfortunately) probably gives him a better chance. 

Fu***** Southgate.

I can’t help but wonder how much the World Cup might play a role here.

Like it or not if he plays in a CL final next year instead of Stirling or Foden he surely has to start for the WC. Or at least gives him a better opportunity. 

To me, that has has a bigger draw than just playing CL. Most people can’t remember the squad players who won a CL 20 years ago unless it was your team.

If he does go, this fu***** stinks at every level. There’s the fact that he’s been here since he was 5 and his whole family support Villa. There’s the fact that his grandfather played for Villa. There’s the fact that that’s been overridden by the promise of additional riches and success. There’s the fact this shows no one can resist the lure of the elite teams, no matter what. There’s the fact he would be going to a team who breached FFP and threatened to make a Super League and they still go unpunished and can poach the best players. There’s the fact that this is all funded by an oppressive monarchy far away who doesn’t really give a sh** about football. And there’s the example that this sets for all of our young players in the academy if they do indeed become stars in their own right.

2 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

You can keyword search and I imagine it’s an API issue when using the app. Problem is, there’s no way of knowing when it was deleted. These alleged smoking gun tweets about United could have been deleted months ago. Someone just held onto the screenshots for clout. 

Yeah the Google index cache doesn’t make sense - it could happen but only for a relatively short window.

Only other way seems to be retweets - but this makes it virtually impossible to no when it was deleted or if anything else was deleted with it.

Can someone explain to me how you know a tweet has been deleted? Unless you have saved the link you wouldn’t know would you?

23 minutes ago, His Name Is Death said:

We need this to happen or we're always going to be a beta team.

No more solid-but-unexciting signings. This is the kind of player we need to make progress, and that's the reality of football.

In the last 30 years of my being a Villa fan, we've never broken that star player ceiling in our transfer dealings, but this is the moment to do it.

Way to inspirational from a man who’s name is Death.

2 hours ago, WallisFrizz said:

Ok. Maybe your right, maybe the whole thing is a figment of media imagination and Jack will rock up at BMH on Monday in his Villa training gear and life will carry on as normal. That would be so nice. I would love that.
 

I can’t help be impressed, envious even, at people’s unwavering belief that he’s staying. 

 

 

 

My lord, don’t be so dramatic.

It’s not unwavering belief - there’s a chance he may go, but nothing outside of speculation has been reported to suggest Jack or Villa are keen.

If anything, it’s YOUR unwavering belief that we will be wishing him bon voyage.

3 hours ago, WallisFrizz said:

Too much smoke. If we were the buying club fans in this situation, no way would we be doubting that this was likely to happen. There would be “it’s happening” gifs all over the shop.

Look, I’m gutted about it, I would seriously love it if there were a massive plot twist and NWSE came good but I think he’s off. I hope I’m wrong. If it falls through now though, we’d be going through the same thing again in Jan. 

Sure, we did exactly that with ESR but then what happened?

Just now, Sam-AVFC said:

The complete opposite. At the time we signed him lots of people (including most Bournemouth fans) thought he was.

No worries, sorry misread.

Almost choked on my dinner but all good.

57 minutes ago, Sam-AVFC said:

He's currently better defensively than all of them apart from maybe Nakamba and a way better passer of the ball than him.

Ramsey is talented, but doesn't yet add much apart from running when he comes on. Needs to go on loan playing every week to properly develop.

I agree that ideally we'll be after a first choice midfielder, I just don't buy all this 'worry' from people. You'd think we scraped survival last season again. I also think our coaches and the club have earned enough credit for us to give them the benefit of the doubt, particularly with a player that one of them has worked with. 

At least he wouldn't cost near £30m like Tyrone Mings, the other 26 year old flop we've signed recently.

Are you saying Mings is a flop??

4 hours ago, avfcDJ said:

Same here if you solve it let me know. Tweets or anything else in quotes don’t load.

What browser are you using?

5 minutes ago, zab6359 said:

Surely that would be McNeil-Grealish-Buendia behind Watkins

I imagine it would rotate, but as a starting point McNeil is a left footer so he would play RW in Smith’s system. Buendia is predominately right footed but is decent enough on both feet so he could play anywhere across. And Jack would primarily rotate LW and CAM.

22 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

Reason why I put Buendia behind Grealish is because of how he can intercept and has a control on the game.

Iyes we have Sanson to come back but he's going to be another who's a question mark like Wesley as it at the moment and I'm unsure about him also. I mean Sanson stated himself he found it extremely hard to evolve to the premier level difficulty and that's my concern the fact he openly came out and stated that. Yet I hope he goes away and comes back the player the squad and club needs him to be.

I think Luiz and Nakamba are going to remain our CDMs and that's okay with me as I don't have as many concerns like others do in that department. I feel a knock on effect happening where we actually keep the ball longer in the final third and because of ball retention our CDMs sent put into action so much so fast and stressed out.

Back to Buendia but I would actually place him between our CDM and CAM, he seems very good at control, intercepting and retaining a ball.

Would be lovely to see Bailey come in but given the off chance he's not and it's media rubbish then I'd gladly see Pereira, Mcneil come in and be used on the forward line. I think we'd have one very quick lightning team with McNeil and Pereira on the wings with Jack back center and Buendia playing behind him, we may find we'd retain the ball alot better and control games way more.

It's all just thought anyway and most likely won't happen, but I wouldn't mind seeing if that would work or not mate.

I mean I wouldn’t say no if it worked - my concern would be it takes away from some of Buendia’s best assets in the final third and he’s a willing defender but I’m not sure he’s got the finesse to consistently break up the play without drawing cards.

4 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

You maybe right and spose that would be down to Smith to see it'd be worth changing him or using him there.

I do le the loom of pereiy over McNeil it I didsayvery early on Inthe window that I wouldn't mind myself both in a Villa shirt.

 

This would also be a possiblity and I like the look of, how do you feel about this?

               Watkins

Mcneil-Grealish-Pereira

               Buendia

          Nakamba/Luiz

Target-Mings-Konsa-Cash

               Martinez

 

I would hope we’d score lots of goals!

I think more realistically I’d like to see:

             Watkins

Grealish-Buendia-McNeil 

Sanson/McGinn-Luiz/Nakamba

Target-Mings-Konsa-Cash

           King Martinez

With a fairly fluid line behind Watkins and Traore rotating heavily through those spots too.

28 minutes ago, DaveAV1 said:

Yes I’ll bet you £50 million because that is probably the difference between a good season and finishing in the European spots or an average even flirting with relegation season. That is the bet or risk we take without adequate cover for Ollie. 
 

I haven’t got £50m and I guess you haven’t either, but the club have and I’d bet that they wouldn’t  be willing to take that bet, because that would be at the very least reckless. 

You can’t really look at the £50M in isolation though - I think I’ve been through this before but it’s essentially a risk-cost benefit analysis.

What’s the impact of Ollie goes down? What’s the impact of Jack goes down? What’s the impact it Martinez goes down? What’s the benefits of a new player if we do have injuries vs if we don’t? Can the player still play in the starting 11 when everyone’s fit? What’s the benefit of improving overall squad depth vs improving positions of weakness? What is the likelihood of each of these occurring? Etc

Personally, I’m okay with going into the season at ST with what we have IF Smith and the team give it the tick of approval. I would also completely understand if a player like Alvarez was brought in as a cheapish backup who can cover in a number of positions.

33 minutes ago, Dave-R said:

I see some would prefer McNeil over Bailey, it's a bad mad considering McNeil only plays the LW and LM positions but bailey can Cover LW,RW and CF. I do like McNeil, he's a quick one but if we're not going for Bailey I would much prefer us to bring Pereira in who can also cover LW,RW and attacking Midfield.

It's a tough call if we are not going for Bailey that who out of McNeil or Pereira would I prefer as I like both players. I just think Pereira may nick it on versatility, we have more options available and we would need another winger for the right if Buendia is going to play as CAM and Jack left. Pereira could be brought in for an attacking midfield role anyway. He's a nippy little bugger who's got good passing and does for West brom what Jack does for our lads because he seems to be a motivational player where other players rally to him. 

 

I think we have options with Pereira

Grealish-Pereira-Buendia

 

Buendia-Grealish-Pereira

             

               Watkins

Grealish-Pereira-Traore

               Buendia

            Luiz/Nakamba

I don’t see any reason McNeil couldn’t play the same positions as Pereira.

He’s actually left footed - so would probably play RW in our setup. He also rotates pretty fluidly between LM/LW and  an attacking midfield position in the Burnley setup.

I don’t get it. Most of the criticism re Traore has been his inability to track back. 

Bailey’s defensive stats are significantly worse than both Traore and Barkley? 

3 hours ago, VillaFaninLondon said:

Not expecting 6 players for £200m but we should be looking to spend more than we have especially when prices are currently very good in Europe with the pandemic etc. Kamara from Marseille for £15m (for example) is excellent value. Leicester have already taken advantage signing Soumare and Daka at very good prices too. Given we've brought in Lange and MacKenzie to look at talented players overseas, we just keep having the same uninspiring names crop up - Winks, Hughes, and to a lesser extent Tammy, McNeil, JWP (all good players but overpriced). 

 

I'm just a little disappointed but of course by pointing that out I get criticism. Always the way.

Lol I don’t think you can blame the club for who Joe Blow’s ITK publication has linked us to.

Not like we’ve signed them, relax.

1 hour ago, AvfcRigo82 said:

You're right mate.

All highlighted below.

 

 

I think all the evidence is here @KangarooVillan

Fair enough - thanks.

It’s odd there’s a photo but no official announcement when they have for other players. I guess maybe they’re waiting for the contract to be finalised, but still.

The messaging regarding this transfer has been f****** confusing - someone, anyone, produce the official paperwork already.