Stevo71

6 minutes ago, fightoffyour said:

They’re playing Thursday and Sunday anyway the losers

Exactly! That was further justification for the about face. The focus on "prestige" really blinds people sometimes.

6 minutes ago, tinker said:

We haven't qualified for it since 81/82.......have we? 

Qualified as previous winners / defending champs in 82/83 - got to the quarters.

11 minutes ago, Mic09 said:

There will be challenges - but to people who say "we are not ready" (and I'm not saying that necessarily you) when would we be ready?

What is ready? 

I repeat myself, but is it 3 seasons of not playing CL and building a CL level squad? Because that doesn't happen. Is Porto CL ready? Is Fenerbahce CL ready? Maybe Prague? Were spurs ready when they reached the final? 

Are we not a better team than spurs in that season?

Is Girona ready? 

We are not a Bayern or Madrid. We likely won't be for some time. 

We need to get in, get some good transfers and results, and see what happens the next year. And the year after. 

It is an interesting chain of events. Established teams like Bayern can attract top talent as they're likely to win leagues and challenge for top honours.

Up and comers could, previously, throw money at top talent players and managers (Chelsea and Man City)

Now, up and comers like us and Newcastle have to qualify for the CL before being able to attract CL level players - we can't throw money at it so it's real last minute squad assembly (or refinement) once the ambition and calibre of the club is shown. Even then, there are restrictions and top players coming is not a given.

It's knife edge stuff. Seems the only good time is whenever the opportunity arises.

1 hour ago, PerryBarrPet said:

No she has balls so must be your uncle.

Not these days.

I don't listen to TalkShite etc but I'm bracing myself for the narrative that he isn't going to a "big" club because none of those clubs came in for him.

That way they their belief persistence is undisturbed. And the clickbait / outrage generation can continue.

You cannot win with these plonkers.

I remember the height of Sir GT Mk I, Big Ron, Little, Gregory, MoN - it's so hard to think of how it would end, or why, when you're in the midst of the good times. Of course, it does end, nothing's forever, and we eventually know why and how. Many a varied reason. 

Of course I don't know what Unai has in his contract - maybe there's a few clubs he insisted he could speak to, who knows; I'm thinking Barca and Real Madrid here, not Bayern.

But Unai didn't come here on a whim. Whatever went on in that interview, I just don't think Nas was looking to hire "just" a manager. I genuinely think he was presented with the vision, the possibly decade long project to get Villa amongst the world's top clubs and stay there. And Unai was the man they wanted to do it.

Incidentally I also think this is why Poch bottled it early - too big a job and responsibility. But that's just my hunch.

Grealish turnaround lesson and contract conditions aside, I simply don't see Unai going anywhere in the short or mid term. There is a path before him, a well thought out, incredibly well funded and fully backed path.

He's ours. 

Tough question.

Man City was absolute dominance, a game for the ages, but at our place and some key player missing for City (accepted we have too).

Arsenal at full strength, at their place, against the club that so disrespected Unai and Emi, a masterclass strategically and individual performances were 9s at least across the board.

So in summary, I dunno.

City might just edge it.

4 minutes ago, Stevo985 said:

The culture of playing out from the back that he has instilled continues to amaze me.

We have never ever played like that as consistently as we do now.

We've had spells, but as soon as we're under the cosh it goes out the window.

 

Yesterday we just point blank refused to stray away from that tactic of playing out from the back. Under huge pressure at times, we stuck to it rigidly and it paid off massively.
Players like Pau, Tielemans and Martinez are key to that.

Bang on. It was eye-watering at times. And the commentary team simply didn't mention it which, even if just from a causal football fan observation never mind paid professionals, I found bewildering. It was spectacular at times. Clearly so far off script it couldn't be processed by Drury & Neville. 

It's going to be a tough game, but if we aspire to higher competition then a good bunch of these players will be playing then too, so we need testing.

I've decided I'm going to view the Brentford game as a nick-of-time kick up the ar$e for us that will sharpen our senses going to the final straight of the league and Conference.

Yes, it's a cope!

And maybe a soupçon of derby pride? I don't really view games against Wolves that way, but get the feeling they do, and find an extra 10% from somewhere against us. Maybe a bit of that to get us the points (no suspensions or injuries either though please!)

During the England game on Saturday, I was struck that the commentators were speaking about Villa....because they were speaking about Watkins and Konsa, and that they were speaking of them because they had been selected....because of how Unai has developed them.

He's improving players across the board, in some cases to the level of national team selection. and this in turn is raising our profile. All these moving parts, pieces of the puzzle.

Phenomenal. As said, relish him while we have him.

13 hours ago, useless said:

Scored some cracking goals this season

 

Wow. Strong, fast, technical, good football IQ, driven, single-minded but also willing to lay off. An absolute handful. Right up my street this guy. I look forward to Brentford poaching him...

47 minutes ago, Talldarkandransome said:

Has to be one of the nicest people in football. Always respectful, doesn't badger or criticise refs, doesn't moan about stuff if we don't win. Demands more from everyone, understands how important the fans are. He's humble and very very knowledgeable.

It will be a great day when we win something with Unai at the helm

But he's not dry and boring either, very passionate - celebrates goals strongly and with the staff and players near him. Just a fabulous manager. Under "driven" in the OED, just stick a picture of Unai there. 

23 minutes ago, turvontour said:

Herr Dassler 

Which one?

9 hours ago, Jas10 said:

Oh right, thanks for informing and correcting me. Like I said, I don’t have a clue - I just listened to a podcast

I was just joking around but I have a bigger problem with “soccer” than anything else they come out with..

they call a sport that is predominantly played with the hands “football” while calling a sport that is predominantly played with the feet “soccer”… huh?

Just to be a geek - sports like American football, rugby football etc are called football as they are played on foot rather than horseback. Doesn't necessarily relate to the appendages used to control the ball.

Don't ask why this doesn't include things like basketball, netball etc. 

On the kit, would kill for Adidas, but get the complications for NS. Nike would be fantastic. Puma I would also like and does provide a nice symmetry to Adidas. 

1 hour ago, stewiek2 said:

He's been waiting for this game since they beat us 4-2 last season.

Yeah that's the game I meant - I didn't put it very well

2 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said:

I get what you mean, but I reckon they will be so fired up on Adrenaline it may nullify the fatigue/pain factor.

Had we lost to City, maybe not so much, however this game has now become monumental due to what a win would potentially mean.

The fans will also be in outstanding form I can imagine.

Yeah that's what I was getting at - for anything physical removed it'll have been replaced double with belief, and will fire them to new heights (imo).

Wednesday night was a huge effort, will have taken a chunk out of us. But I can't help dwelling on what the performance and result has put into us.

And fair to say Unai has been waiting for tomorrow's game since the whistle blew on the last one.

It's going to be interesting. 

2 minutes ago, duke313 said:

I'm still waiting on that second season drop off that Arsenal fans warned us about.  Anybody any idea when it's due to happen?

If we just knew what season we were supposed to look out for!

They're scared in the main I reckon. Scared we have any major success under Unai as it will prove how shallow and entitled they are as a fanbase* and how petulantly they acted towards a genius and a gentleman. It'll be a bad look for them. I'm sure they have their excuses lined up already: right man, wrong time. Does well at second-tier clubs blah blah. In fact, we're already hearing these being trotted out.

*not all of them, obvs 

A lot of confirmation bias on the socials last night but I thought he played well and was blameless for their goal. BK's reaction was telling, knew he'd dropped a nut instantly and didn't look to apportion blame.

20 hours ago, stewiek2 said:

 

 

Love that picture. 

"To win against me, you must beat me three times: in the opening, the middlegame and the endgame." - Alekhine

I'm seriously starting to get those vibes from Unai. You'd think Spurs won the game 1-1 after 45 minutes, then due to some unforeseen technicality, had to play another 45 minutes.