david-avfc

On 23/05/2024 at 08:29, thabucks said:

Let’s not rewrite history, he showed enough to make the move for £17mill permanent but his body just couldn’t deal with the demands of the premier league. He took a humongous pay cut to play for us and was a real coup at the time. Yes it didn’t work out sadly for all involved but he has always been a consummate professional and wish him all the best. 

Nah he was good for the first 2 months and then his form fell off a cliff (along with the rest of the team under Gerrard) and then he had a good final game when we lost to Man City.

Us fans wanted to sign him as a “marquee” player and on the hope he would return to his Liverpool form but the officials at the club should have done their due diligence and realised a permanent deal was just not worth it. He was a vanity signing led by the clueless manager at the time and it’s no surprise once Unai came in he binned Coutinho off and brought in Buendia, which is what most fans were saying even when Coutinho was still on loan 

11 hours ago, duke313 said:

It’s because of FFP.  Selling Ramsey for even £50m means we’d have an FFP profit of £250m. Whereas we’d need to sell Digne for about £12m just to break even.

Blimey how does £50m magically turn into £250m. I assume you are not an accountant 

5 hours ago, mikeyp102 said:

Personally it was always such a strange signing, especially for the price we paid. Wolves fans were happy to get rid.  

I heard from a few places that it was basically a panic buy thinking Luiz would be off to Arsenal, in the end he obviously renewed his contract and now Dendoncker looks like a stupid signing. Similar story with Sanson, we bought him thinking Man City were going to activate Luiz's buy-back clause but they never did... so somehow Luiz has destroyed 2 villa careers and wasted over £25m in transfer fees!! It shows how lucky we are to have him though if those 2 are the calibre of players we lined up as replacements

2 hours ago, Keener window-cleaner said:

I'm very much for this. As I remember last time he was here he was excepted to be an attacking midfielder (and did quite well the first months, the trashing of LIverpool comes to mind for example), second part of the season he looked injured/half arsed. If he now comes in as a CM I think it could be bordering a genius move. He is a real unit, strong in the duels, his passing ability is sublime, both short space possession passing and long range through ball-passing. He still has the ability to get past players in short spaces in the middle of the pitch (not so much the surging runs you would expect from a more attacking midfielder). As I've understood Luton has played a 3-4-3 where Barkley has been one of the two CM, seems similar to the role that our two CM has. He certainly brings the ability to keep the ball and control the game.

Forget about him as the attacking midfielder expected to win games with goals and assists. Instead, a big strong lad in the middle of the pitch who shows for the ball, often wins his duels, is an exquisite passer and has an eye for a through ball who we can get on a free transfer or small fee - yes please!  

He has played central midfield throughout his career, its not exactly a revelatory change in the last few months. I remember watching him stink out the England central midfield in 2019 in that weird Nations League mini-tournament in Portugal and I remember in the stadium explicitly thinking he was by far the worst player on the pitch, he was so slow it was embarrassing to watch.... and that was 5 years ago when he was in his "prime" years.

Last time with us he looked like a world beater for a few months, but by the halfway mark of the season he was back being an utter waste of space again. I would seriously not trust a few good months at Luton as any indication that he has suddenly become a reliable player - the last 7 or 8 years of evidence shows he has spent most of his career being a total waste of time and money apart from a few isolated periods. This would be a really disappointing signing if it goes through.

28 minutes ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

From what I've seen he has had rave reviews not only from Luton fans, but also from pundits and neutrals 

Apparently he has also been putting in proper shifts both attacking and defensive, picks up the ball from deep and drives forward.

So if he keeps up that work he could definitely give us a slightly different dynamic.

Would make the talk about him being " odds on " to join the other day have some credence.

If true.

But with no disrespect to Luton, getting rave reviews for a team where finishing 18th and getting relegated is considered a success is a completely different level to what we are aiming for. Barkley can have 5 or 6 crap games in a row and then have a blinder in the 7th and all the talk on match of the day would be how good is Ross Barkley for doing well at plucky losers Luton. 

We’ve seen this story before with Ross Barkley, he has a lot of natural talent and every now and again people remember he is a good player… and a few months later he is a complete waste of space again. If we want to progress we need to find players who have the same natural talent as Barkley but don’t have all the issues around his terrible physical ability and his severe lack of long term consistency. 

Please god no to Ross Barkley 

Fair play to him for reigniting his career, he’s done really well, but we all saw the worst of Barkley in his time with us; slow, unathletic and injury prone. We just do not need to bring him back, leave him to look good in a relegation side with no pressure would be my recommendation.

This season has been eye opening to me how badly injuries can derail a season, we just about got away with it in the league but it cost us the Conference League against realistically much weaker opposition.

Unfortunately you look at so many other teams who have also suffered similar injury problems this year and then think we’re going into a summer of international tournaments, and then the European club tournaments have now been expanded… there are just too many games at a high level of intensity, the injuries just aren’t going to go away and that’s for all clubs not just us. 

That means in order to compete across competitions we really do need proper back up in every position, we can’t leave gaps in our squad like we did this season and hope we can get by, we’ll easily get caught out.

I still can’t get over the lion looking like it’s a peel-off sticker.

He’s developed more than I thought he would, I thought he was just a bit of a run-arounder but has become a decent all round midfielder for Chelsea… personally I think a defensive mid should be the bigger priority and if we have our own FFP concerns then blowing the budget on Gallagher isn’t a move which makes too much sense, unless it’s a deliberate deal we buy Gallagher to help their FFP and they buy Duran to help our FFP

If we sell Ramsey we lose a club-home grown player from our already too small squad so I don’t get why selling him is seen as such a positive, it just permanently weakens our squad

11 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

He's not - but they might  have seen the Honda advert and they'll definitely have heard it in a film somewhere along the line - it's got a certain ubiquity.

That's the thing for me, Crazy Train just isn't a well known enough song - I can only ever remember hearing it at Villa Park and at one other sporting event in the US when I remember thinking "that's the song from Villa Park" - it's not something that gets radio play or is used anywhere else and I don't think it's something many people are playing at home. If it wasn't our walkout music, I wouldn't know what it is. Ozzy and Sabbath are a little bit too niche nowadays and Ozzy is much more famous for his stories and his TV show than actual songs - most people couldn't name three Sabbath/Ozzy songs, they'll just tell you he bit the head off a bat, married Sharon and pissed up the Alamo. 

The music itself just isn't well known enough, and probably just as importantly in terms of Crazy Train, it's not very good.

If you want “radio play” then your asking for Dua Lipa or Taylor Swift… I’m not sure how well “we are never ever getting back together (Taylor’s version)” will work and I’m assuming that’s not what you are asking for anyway but that’s “what people listen to in their own homes” these days.

I actually like Crazy Train, the absurd nature of crew song kind of fits supporting the villa over the years. I don’t like Ozzy or Black Sabbath that much but I do listen to rock so maybe I am biased. In terms of being more widely known there’s nothing wrong with it being “the villa song” for some people and most people will know who Ozzy Osborne is even if they don’t listen to 70s/80s metal so it’s not totally obscure, and there’s a local connection to it which is good.

The walk out is supposed to be a bit “in your face” to get people pumped up, rock music works better for that than most. I get this song is a bit of an acquired musical taste, maybe it does need to be updated but everyone will have their own preferences so there will never be unanimous agreement either way, just look at the suggestions on this thread for example. 

3 minutes ago, paul514 said:

 

Carlos - 31 in the summer, 2 years left on his deal brought for 31m
He is amortizing at 7.75m per year and his book value in the summer will be 15.5m

 

I think Carlos would be a prime candidate to be moved on this summer, even though he’s done OK it never 100% feels like he’s comfortable playing Unai’s way, he’s a good long passer not a short passer under pressure. He’s actually started 19 league games this season - way more than I originally thought - so hopefully he’s done enough for us to still command a decent fee, just breaking even to remove his amortisation and presumably £100k+ p/w wages would be a positive.

2 hours ago, Powehi said:

Ortega's performance tonight highlighting why this "who could we get as a number 2?" bleating is a nonsense. Comes in for the fourth time this season, makes some blinding saves and City's style of play remains unchanged. 29 year old from Bielefeld when he joined them. 

Well done for Olsen in his last start, let's say goodbye amicably at the end of the season and get someone dependable in as deputy.

Hopefully Gauchi is that man, presumably we signed him for a reason after a full pre season and a few friendly matches under his belt hopefully he will be ready 

40 minutes ago, picicata said:

You see those draw pots and you think 'this going to be tough!'.

Then you realise that we beat one of the teams in Pot 1, one of the teams in Pot 2 and one of the teams in Pot 3 this season.

We're a good team, yes it's going to be tough but, by god, I'm looking to it!

Obviously pot 1 is immense quality but if we get a lucky draw from pot 2 (eg Bruges / Donesk), and avoid the few tougher teams in pot 3 and 4 then there’s no reason we can’t progress

A defensive right back and a defensive midfielder are still the priorities for me, if there’s a possibility a new forward/winger too

3 hours ago, thabucks said:

Speaks for itself … 

Unrelated to transfers but that screenshot is exactly why this years badge is shit, I spent 30 seconds trying to work out who was injured for 29 games this season before I realised it was Chelsea 

Can you ask them why they think the recent state of the toilets in the upper holte are acceptable? Overflowing / blocked urinal trough in the K4 toilets for at least the last 3 or 4 home games, absolute disgrace and for it to be left for that long in that state the club must have been aware but deliberately chose to not do anything about it.

2 hours ago, Tomaszk said:

Very very much doubt it. It was absolutely on.

No problem with him taking the shot...but you have to score if there's someone in this good a position next to you.

Watkins has done similar multiple times the last month and it's been very annoying.

It’s not as clear cut for me, the defender coming in from the middle has blocked off the route for the easy lay off to Duran, it’s possible to do it but would have risked either being intercepted or being misplaced. He probably should have shown more composure than just lashing it at the keeper though  

3 hours ago, Shaun Teales Moustache said:

I thought Bafode Diakite was really good against us for Lille. He's played a lot at RB (and even a bit at LB). He was good at bringing the ball out as well as strong defensively. His goalscoring record this season is pretty crazy and speaks to how good he is in the air. He seems to be a perfect fit for what we need there primarily, with Nedeljkovic or KKH competing for the secondary attacking RB role. 

Was going to post the same, Diakite was good against us and seemingly fits the system perfectly. He’s a bit under the radar not linked with anyone else, Unai showed with Rogers he’ll look at players we’ve played against so maybe he could repeat the trick with Diakite

19 minutes ago, MaVilla said:

a lot of people are saying he is a better matty cash, is that really what we need!?!?

The fact Unai keeps playing konsa at right back and at Villareal played Foyth at right back shows what he wants to do with that position (and it’s not a wing back)

59 minutes ago, allani said:

To be fair he's gone where you would expect the ball to go - given that the attacker had two defenders trying to close down the cross, the only place he should have been able to get the ball was between the keeper and the defenders.  This was the gap that Pau closed.  The fact is that Konsa and Carlos both failed to prevent the attacker from not just being able to get the cross in but also to cut it back.  At that point it caught Pau out - but the main fault was the goal lies in failing to stop the ball coming across to start with.  

Surely the defender should anticipate the ball going to the attacker rather than empty space? Torres was actually marking the man and then left him to defend empty space.
 

With Torres you have to accept that it’s a case of netting off the pros and cons and hoping it comes out as a net positive, which I think it does, but there’s no point trying to defend his defensive ability because it’s obviously a big weaknesses 

Getting rid of Dendoncker wasn’t the problem, it was not replacing him which has left us in the shit. It was always clear he didn’t fit Emery’s system so we should have sorted it out properly in the summer rather than a botch job in January 

25 minutes ago, cb_82 said:

The Homegrown Player Rule is a UEFA rule for competitions that was first introduced in the 2006–07 season and fully enforced beginning in the 2008–09 season¹. A homegrown player is defined by UEFA to have been trained by their club or another club in the similar association between ages 15-21, regardless of the player’s nationality². In the UEFA Champions League, you are required to register a squad of 25 players, within which at least 8 players need to be considered as homegrown². UEFA's home-grown player rules set a quota of locally trained players at clubs but without any discrimination on nationality³.

 

Pretty sure he qualifies as he has spent that time with WBA/City 

I’m assuming the question was regarding homegrown at the club

39 minutes ago, MrBlack said:

Was he too old when we signed him to qualify as home grown per uefa rules?

Yes far too old, he would need to be at the club for 3 years before he turned 21, he is already 21