david-avfc

On 15/10/2023 at 15:22, The Fun Factory said:

That's rubbish. He was a good squad player in the Smith years when we got promoted and re-established ourselves back in the top flight. He cost about 3 million and has been injured mostly for the last year. He has earned his contract on just the 10 minutes alone in the play off final when he came off the bench for us to hold out and beat Derby.

He was a great pick up at the time in the championship and after promotion and did a solid job for us for several years, there’s no debate around that.

But it was obvious we should have parted ways 18 months ago when his original contract was up rather than renewing it knowing full well he had no real future here and was only ever going to be 4th or 5th in his position at best. I assume that was the “criminal” contract alluded to in the previous post.

1 hour ago, John said:

It used to be said "If he's good enough, he's old enough", is he perhaps worth an occasional place on our bench, given our current lack of striking options?

He's playing kids football in the u18's so probably not

6 minutes ago, Mark Albrighton said:

I’m sure he can improve. 

Just not at all convinced he’s performing in a way that means triggering a permanent deal is a no brainer. 

As it stands I’m of the view the loan will be ended in January before any obligations are in place.

Agree I'm not convinced, I haven't worked him out yet whether there's a player in there ready to burst into form at some point or if he'll just continue to frustrate. In terms of the loan deal it depends what flexibility we do or don't have, Galatasary have already confirmed the future fee is €22m + €15m addons + 10% sell on clause and it was reported at the time the deal becomes mandatory under certain conditions.

He had a lot of ball but failed to do enough with it. He attempted 11 crosses today according to the stats but I’m not sure any of them resulted in a genuine chance to score. To be fair Forest defended their box exceptional well but given the time, space and positions which are afforded to him on the ball  the output just wasn’t there

3 hours ago, skarroki said:

Dunno if this is completely irrational but found the BBC commentator greeting Unai Emery at 4pm for an interview with "well Unai congratulations, good evening, another 3 points..." a bit unnecessary. Unai responded saying good evening perfectly. Felt like he'd plucked the courage to say something another reporter dared him too a couple seconds too late but danced back to it anyway. 

I just listened to it and it seems like reporter is just saying it as a polite and friendly greeting probably in response to Emery being polite and friendly to him in previous conversations 

On 27/10/2023 at 11:24, Kiwivillan said:

One of funniest thing about Alkmaar win is I've seen several posts last few months suggesting Matt Ryan as backup GK. 5 shots on target and 4 goals and the 5th shot was Bailey parry to Watkins 

If Olsen was in goal he would have conceded 6!

42 minutes ago, Demitri_C said:

Striker and a right back for me are the key areas.

Obv would like a bettee no 2 than olsen too

Watkins is in form and Duran has shown he is a competent back up option with 4 goals in all competitions already, I just don’t see another striker as a priority at all

4 hours ago, Adam2003 said:

Right, you could tell Grealish was annoyed but I agree that’s exactly what any striker should do!

Grealish’s reaction was pathetic, it wasn’t going in and even if it was why take the risk of leaving it just out of politeness

I think Watkins did well but realistically he is only really in the mix for 3rd choice behind Kane and probably Toney when he’s available 

On 13/10/2023 at 11:06, Vive_La_Villa said:

Where’s this come from?

“An agreement has been reached with Aston Villa FC Limited regarding the temporary transfer of our professional football player Nicolò Zaniolo for the 2023-2024 season with a conditional compulsory purchase option”

Only speculation what the conditions for the compulsory option are but presumably it’s going to be something along the lines of games played

2 hours ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He should be able to play for the next few months thought right.? That’s all I’m bothered about the moment. The fixture list looks scary. 

Problem is if there’s an obligation to buy after playing a certain number of games, the club won’t want to be forced into paying £30m or whatever it is for a player who’s about to be banned 

1 hour ago, El Zen said:

I honestly don’t care. They’re obviously as valuable as any fan, but making someone sit somewhere else to make room for a singing section is a sacrifice I make every day of the week without even a hint of hesitation. They can enjoy the game just as much from another seat, and a proper atmosphere (which improves the experience for everyone) requires organisation. Not having a designated singing section is absolutely nuts imo. 

Very immature comment to be honest, you not believing people are singing enough isn’t a valid reason to want to kick other fans out of their seats. Every fan has the right to experience the game as they want.

As for a “singing section”, the concept is pretty cringeworthy and besides, everyone knows the atmosphere comes from the Holte End so in a sense we already have a “signing section”, as that’s where all the fans who want to be part of the atmosphere will naturally go.

The atmosphere’s can be improved but there’s a lot more to it than such contrived ideas as “singing sections”.

10 hours ago, OutByEaster? said:

The stripped down lion and year thing - the one we see on the blazers, that worries me.

I think it's beautiful.

But it's very much a right-now kind of beauty, it's on-trend, it works and it's a very sellable design. It'll be outdated in two years and need replacing. That's what I'd like to avoid, the constant state of change around the badge/crest. 

Sure is pretty though.

Maybe it's just something I need to get used to, that the future of club crests is similar to that of club kits - the colours stay the same but we get a new one every year. I dunno, it just feels to me that it shouldn't be something so disposable.

We could easily do what Liverpool have done, which is have a simplified modern crest for the kit and merchandise, but also retain the historical style crest with the two designed to go hand in hand together.

The problem for us is because we keep changing the badge over the years we don’t really have a “historical” badge to use alongside a simplified version. The Lerner badge is universally disliked, and the new round badge is disliked by the management team probably for not being distinctive enough to have any value 

Funny how he scored probably the hardest chance of the season today. Hopefully he’s now shaken off the goal scoring hoodoo and it’s back to normal Ollie from here

If you wanted to eat out with a budget of £60 per person you’d go to a fancy restaurant for a proper sit down meal, not an all you can eat “street food” buffet with a couple of drinks vouchers. Ultimately people can spend their own money however they wish but objectively speaking it’s not good value at all once you remove the claret and blue tinted glasses

17 hours ago, villaglint said:

I think main problem with Chambers is he needs to be playing consistently. 

When he does that he can be a relatively solid pair of hands. Not great by any means but as other have said he is a lower PL/upper Championship standard player. Not a trainwreck like Olsen. 

However when he comes in for the odd game once every few months he does look awful and seems to make mistake after mistake. Later in game he looked like someone who's confidence had fully gone and he wanted to be taken off. 

He doesnt suit being a backup at all in my view. If I was him I'd be doing everything I could to make a move elsewhere work for all parties. 

Yeah when he signed first he was actually pretty good for us. Problem is he plays so infrequently he’s permanently trying to work off the rust but I can’t see him getting regular minutes so it’s not really a situation that’s going to be resolved. 

Seems to be playing a different role to last season, playing further forward which I know some people think is his strength but really his strength is being an all round box to box man - play him too high or too deep and his game is severely limited, he’s barely been involved in anything all season which is really unlike him

14 hours ago, Risso said:

Agreed, it's not his position at all. At Leicester when he was good and before the Leicester fans all hated him, his strength was getting forward and beating the press. In a two he looks as bad as McGinn used to when he played there under Smith, it just doesn't work. With Kamara in a bit of a trough at the moment though we don't have that much in the way of back up.

Unfortunately there’s no way Tielemans can get forward and beat the press any more, he is a very tidy passer of the ball but athleticism is not something he has at all. When he was 20 or 21 at Leicester first he was an all action midfielder, but something has happened to him in the years since as he plays like someone who is much, much older than he actually is. I do agree he needs to be in a midfield 3 alongside someone more defensive and someone more mobile / dynamic

To me he doesn’t look comfortable playing in a midfield two. In a three as the central pivot he is dynamite, popping up everywhere to kill the space and intercept the ball, but in a flat 2 he’s not the same player

4 minutes ago, Philosopher said:

Tim is classed as an under 21 player, homegrown under 21's don't need to be registered. 

Tim isn't classed as trained at Villa as he needs to be here more than 3 years. But he is homegrown as he has been trained in England.

For the PL he is an eligible u21 player so doesn’t need to be registered. I don’t think being homegrown / not homegrown makes any difference for u21 players for PL. 

In Europe the rules are different in that there’s an A squad list and a B squad list. A squad is for any senior player and includes the squad and homegrown restrictions which have been talked about to death, both at club and association (country) level. The B squad is for u21 players but is restricted to players who have been at the club (actually at the club and not loaned out) for 2 years  - which he does not qualify for.

23 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

Thought someone said it was 2 years. He joined in July 2021 according the start of this thread.

They have to be trained at the club for 2 years, Iroegbunam hasn’t because he was loaned out for a season

Tough for Tielemans that he’s competing with Luiz who’s been our most consistent player in the last 12 months. Luiz simply doesn’t deserve to be dropped and I’m not sure where else Tielemans fits in, he isn’t a defensive specialist like Kamara and isn’t energetic or dynamic enough to play more advanced and/or wider, it would take a change in formation to really fit him in which so far Emery hasn’t done.

On 07/09/2023 at 16:59, nick76 said:

I’m not looking to replace him, I’m wanting an alternative because he has poor periods and we need an option and even Emery has mentioned it a couple times that we need another striker for competition and that was after we had brought Duran.

The issue is not him but having an alternative quality option for a variety reasons.  

It’s the only outfield position that doesn’t have a senior quality alternative starter.  

That’s also one of the reasons he’s one of the first names on the team sheet because he’s the only option we have whether he is playing poor or excellent to start the game in the striker role.  

Now if you are saying he’s one of our best players then I have a fair few players ahead of him imo.

The issue with a “senior alternative” is that we’ve already had one, Danny Ings, and he was detrimental to the side. Having 2 first choice strikers meant we were constantly tweaking formations trying to fit them both in but we could never land on a style which suited both, either together as a partnership or individually. Emery saw the problem straight away and shipped Ings out at the first opportunity, and by just focusing on a system which got the best out of Watkins the team immediately improved.

If Watkins was injured then it would be a serious problem, but that would be the same for nearly all PL sides if they lost their main striker. As a rotation option Duran is decent and Diaby could also fill in.