david-avfc

5 minutes ago, HolteExile said:

Adrien Rabiot available on a free this summer could be an interesting choice. 

Plays CM primarily but can also play DM and left midfield. 

Emery would know him from his time at PSG n'all. 

I'd look at Zaha at Galatasary too, if he's not on mental money there.   Always produced good numbers in the top flight, even if he is a bit of a mouthy so and so. 

Part of the attraction would be because  he is a mouthy so and so.  Emi and McGinn apart, we're a bit too nice as a team. It's great to be liked. But better if you're hated. 

Zaha moving to Galatasary I still don't understand, based on ability he could have moved to pretty much any team in the league especially on a free transfer, there must be something else to it for all the PL clubs to have avoided him, from the reports he isn't even on a crazy salary (in PL terms) at Galatasary. 

https://www.teamtalk.com/aston-villa/unai-emery-rocked-ac-milan-prepare-brutal-signing-star-pocketed-arsenal

Not sure if already posted but there are a few rumours AC Milan want to sign Diego Carlos, Teamtalk (who I wouldn't regard as reliable) are claiming two independent links regarding Carlos to AC. 

If we could break even on FFP terms (€15m I think) would probably make sense to sell, arguably too expensive on amortisation and presumably wages for a back up centre half with fitness issues

2 hours ago, CVByrne said:

If we can qualify for the Champions League I think we can get Nico Williams. He'd be a huge asset for us and I think Emery wants us to be less predictable and more flexible in terms of which side is the attacking FB and winger combination. So not always going LB and RW we could go RB and LW. Williams is great with both feet but generally considered right footed and we've got just 2 left footed wingers in the squad. 

Summerville would be a good alternative. We need that right footed winger who loves dribbling and has high sucessful take ons

I am not so sure on Nico Williams, Emery doesn't tend to play with 2 fast wingers on either side he prefers a traditional quick skilful winger on the right and then more of a midfielder or playmaker type on the left, like Rogers or Ramsey, so not sure if we drop £50m on a quick wide man just 12 months after we spent £50m on Diaby, and Bailey doesn't need replacing based on how well he's played this season 

7 minutes ago, Tom13 said:

I was gonna say...can you even appeal yellows

Pretty sure it’s been confirmed that the suspension stands. You can’t appeal yellows unless it’s really exceptional circumstances, the ref being a bit crap isn’t going to be enough of a reason for UEFA to open up a one-off yellow card appeals process just for us. 

On 22/04/2024 at 12:39, the_sun_never_sets said:

Who would we sell / let go to free up space in the squad? 

In priority order probably...

Chambers, Olsen, Donk, Cash (replace), Lenglet (replace), Kesler maybe (though ive always liked him)

I'd keep Tim for another season. 

I think squad restrictions are going to be the biggest limiting factor in the actual transfer business vs fan expectations - people throw out so many names to buy but never say who could be sold to make way in the squad.

If you look at our European registration apart from Olsen (to be replaced with one of the young keepers) and Tim Iroegbunam (who isn’t trusted by Emery) there aren’t any obvious choices to move on - Zaniolo and Lenglet will immediately be replaced with the returning Mings and Buendia, and Kesler takes a homegrown slot so doesn’t really free up any squad space. There will be some tough decisions in the summer for Emery if we want to bring players in.

On 12/04/2024 at 00:31, VillaChris said:

Really liked watching Haraldsson, he found pockets of space beyond our midfield nicely and on another night could've had a couple of assists.

Only 20 and Lille signed him for around 10m from Copenhagen last summer so guess he's already in 30-40m bracket but would be an interesting one to target I think.

I was impressed by Haraldsson and several of their players to be honest (apart from number 22, he makes Neal Maupay look classy), they were actually a really good side and I would say arguably they looked better than us. Despite the hype around their young centre back Yorro it was the other centre back that caught my eye, it turns out he also regularly plays right back so seemingly that would be a good fit for Emery's system. 

On 09/04/2024 at 06:38, Taxahunter said:

For the 15m£ reported by the media, I would definitely buy him

The buy option is €38m including add ons, confirmed by Galatasary - it’s a total non starter in my eyes. Even if it is £15m he’s done virtually nothing in pretty much an entire season, what’s the point in wasting £15m on a player who hasn’t been good enough? He’s already behind Rogers in the pecking order and we still have Ramsey and Buendia to come back. 

19 minutes ago, gilbertoAVFC said:

Needs a chant. Feel like fans singing your name really helps players settle in the longer-term.

“There’s only one Pau Torres”

20 minutes ago, StefanAVFC said:

Which top class CDM is coming in to sit behind Kamara on the bench? If we have a limited budget why would we blow all of it in a position where have a legitimately world class option? 

Kamara is out until October, at best, and who knows when he will be fully fit and back in form, we’ve seen with Moreno and Ramsey the injury can cost more than just the initial recovery time

If we don’t sign a solid player to cover defensive midfield it’s lunacy, it’s clear how much we’ve struggled without one in the last couple of months.

Pau is a lovely player to watch and I'd rather have him in the villa side than some of the cloggers we've been forced to endure of the many years I've supported the team, but as good as he is on the ball I never get the impression he's going to put his body on the line to stop a goal, he is too passive on the defensive side of things at times and today unfortunately all 3 goals he is culpable for not doing anywhere near enough to deal with the crosses coming in 

26 minutes ago, KentVillan said:

While we're beating up on him, something I just spotted...

Dougie has the most Villa Premier League appearances (171) of any player in the current squad, ahead of McGinn (163). And he's second on overall Villa appearances, as McGinn has a Championship season, and Mings surprisingly has fewer Villa apps despite the extra season.

And he's still only 25. Think we underrate his contribution sometimes. He has a very tough job to do in the middle there with Kamara out.

 

No one is questioning his ability or how good he has been for us... but that yellow card, 10 seconds of the allocated stoppage time left to play and he leaves his foot in like that... it's beyond moronic. Perhaps Emery should have subbed him (especially as he got away with one a few minutes earlier) but the player shouldn't be that stupid, especially that late in the game what was he hoping to achieve such a careless foul that late on

Looks like he'll be a really good player, he beats opponents with ease with the ball, can also compete physically but then best of all for a 21 year old has a decent end product too, When we signed him not many people got it, even Boro fans were surprised, but seems like we've unearthed a gem with this lad

According to whoscored stats we have the 3rd most bookings but only the 11th most fouls, and we’re fouled more than we foul others. Something seems amiss doesn’t it.

4 minutes ago, mikeyp102 said:

Konsa has also turned away from it, the ball is actually closer to Konsa. 
Yes Zaniolo should improve there but he isn’t the only one to blame. 
 

 

 

It’s only closer to Konsa because of how far Zaniolo jumped out of the way! He played well on everything else but there’s no excuses for the job he did in the wall, was something you’d expect in a kids game, kids jumping out of the way of the ball, shouldn’t be seen at PL level and it cost us as a goal at a crucial time of the game. 

1 minute ago, Tom13 said:

When he plays regularly, he still makes mistakes. Passing is supposed to be his best attribute, yet he misplaces so many and always has. I'm sure he's a lovely guy, but he is rubbish at this level.

When he was playing regularly for Gerrard he looked OK, overall he is an OK player for a low end Prem team but we’ve moved on from that level since we signed him

Not a great performance and mistake led to a goal but to be fair playing on average once every three months isn’t going to get the best out of anyone, need to part ways for both parties sake in the summer

Really nice goal both the finish and build up play. Could be a top striker if he keeps developing and remains sensible 

1 hour ago, cheltenham_villa said:

tactically i agree, personally i really dont believe any of the BS around bias and team selection. I dont think he hates villa, every message board in the country has a thread where they are astonished that X player has not been selected and believe GS has an agenda.

Personally i think its a tough job, no longer dominated by the best managers in the country and he bases selection on performance, suitability, player personality, flexibility a whole range of things.

I think Ezri and Ollie are both in a great position to be selected for squad that will only have 23 players in it. 

I don’t think Southgate “hates” villa but it’s abundantly clear he has his biases towards the big clubs, impossible not to see if you watched England for the last 6 or 7 years. It’s always the case that players outside the Sky 6 clubs have to do at least twice as much as those who do play for the chosen clubs To get in the squad or start games.

I don’t think Watkins will ever suit Southgate’s style, pass it around sideways and hope someone does something. Watkins has a lot of great attributes but generating something out of nothing isn’t one of them, he needs a proper team structure behind him but having a detailed plan how to attack the opposition isn’t how Southgate operates

19 hours ago, Sulberto21 said:

The worst scenario for me would be Ramsey going to someone like Newcastle and getting someone shit like Longstaff in exchange plus a token gesture of £10-15m.

I don’t think Ramsey is going anywhere 

We have a small squad and Ramsey is one of the only viable “home grown” players we have. If we sell him we literally cannot replace him because there’s no available positions in the European squad for non-homegrown players, it would be shooting ourselves in the foot if we sold Ramsey just to immediately run into issues with squad restrictions 

Would love us to re-sign Grealish, our best player in my lifetime. Unfortunately he’s 29 next season and would probably cost £40m at least, or a huge loan fee. I can’t see there being any value in it unless Grealish really pushes for an exit and Man City unexpectedly allow him to return home on the cheap

A total non-story, I saw the clip and he was asked a stupid question and he did he best to answer it out of respect to the interviewer, he never said he wanted to leave just that playing for certain clubs raises the profile of Jamaican football which he sees as a good thing 

3 hours ago, thabucks said:

Logo is quite inoffensive … 

Looks so much better than the vile BK8 or whatever it is, even though it literally has “bet” in the name it doesn’t look like a cheap betting company shoved in your face

1 hour ago, gabby_2010 said:

What do mean? It’s a fair question

I think it was a joke about saying thanks

30 minutes ago, avfc1982am said:

 

There is also a lot of difference between Rogers and Zaniolo, one has played at the highest level in Europe for several years, the other has played in the championship.  

 

Do you watch the games or just judge players based on their reputation?

I want all players to do well for us, really happy Zaniolo scored yesterday and has shown signs of improvement in the last few weeks, but it’s clear he’s not had the desired impact this season hence his game time has been limited in the last 3 or 4 months, regardless of who he has or hasn’t played for previously. Rogers is obviously still raw, but he’ll be playing PL with us next season, not sure any PL clubs will pick Zaniolo up to be honest.