GlobalVillan

Ah well that's the thing, I don't think we are going to finish in the top 7 this season and so I want Fulham, Brighton and Brentford to lose so that we can get into the top half.

We have more chance of catching Fulham than Spurs. That's just common sense if you ask me. As for Brentford, we could finish above them as well, making 9th or 10th a real possibility. But there is still a long way to go and we will no doubt suffer some bad results ourselves as we try and build under Emery. I am just being realistic.

Yeah it's crap but it's because we are in the bottom half.

Because we are not going to catch Spurs. We may catch Fulham though. Looking at the table and the upcoming fixtures, it is looking very likely that if we beat Leicester we STILL won't be in the top half. Our poor start is the reason for this. Hopefully we can finish top 10 and give the top 8 a real go next season. To finish 10th, we do need Fulham, Brentford or Brighton to slip up, but there is plenty of time for that to happen.

I hope Spurs smash Fulham into next week! Why would we want Fulham to win again? Our chance of a top 10 finish depends on us catching Fulham, Brighton or Brentford.

It may do, but he has big commercial value as well remember. That's massive in this day and age.

Are you suggesting that VAR favours the two most famous clubs in England and gives then an advantage?

It's Watkins. I'm surprised this is even a question if I'm honest.

Given your profile name, would you be available until the summer perhaps?

You were discussing the problems at those clubs in the context of a discussion about where we would finish. That's why I suggested their problems, in this case,.won't affect is as we won't be finishing above either. They will sort themselves out. l agree Emery be telling the players to finish 10th. He will likely be focusing on each game at a time and won't be telling his players that any position is "the target". It makes no difference what we as fans think in reality, unless people start getting on their backs for not overperforming. If everything goes well until the end of the season and with a bit of luck, we could get 10th or at am absolutely push, 9th. But I think 10th is where we will finish. If we replace Ings properly that is.

10th would be amazing. We will not be finishing above Chelsea or Liverpool. That truly is crazy talk at this stage and I would be willing to bet any amount you like on that.

Yep. The run, the first touch and the finish against Wolves were of a quality nobody else at the club has. He will be a big miss to any club but even more of a miss to a side with only one other eligible striker. And I'd even argue whether Watkins is actually a striker.

Ah yes of course. Mixed him up with Chrissy Price.

Alan Wright was a beast and I always liked Luke Young. We had Kyle Walker for a season too.

Haha. We weren't getting 7th BEFORE we sold our only clinical striker. We certainly won't be now. But we can still try and finish in the top half which is surely the aim this season. 10th would be amazing, if a little more difficult than many expect.

I just wish we had signed a solid replacement first. He scored goals. He scores goals everywhere he has been and he will no doubt score goals at West Ham. Hopefully we will strengthen in the summer and can score enough goals to finish 10th this season. Doubtful but not impossible, especially if we start to defend better.

I like Cashy. Seems a good lad and is solid enough but we could do with upgrading. What I wouldn't do, is what we did with Ings, and sell our best player in a position before we have bought a better replacement. Ash is having a good season but is very limited given his lack of pace and is to be used as a stop gap and not a regular starter. Keep him until the summer and explore options.

I go to all the world cups and Euros following England but Villa are leagues above in terms of importance and that will never change. I don't go to Qualifiers for example and would take a Villa League Cup win over an England World Cup any day. I also watch Mexico because my missus is Mexican. But teams I care about? Villa. Thats it. (I don't even care about the women's team or the U23s either if I'm honest.) I go to watch Dortmund regularly due to work, as well as PSV and Ajax, but them winning or losing makes no difference to my evening.

That's exactly the plan. It's financial doping. Yet again.

Yes. If you ignore the 30 million we paid for Ings.

Absolutely no way. That's the mind of small time thing reserved for the likes of our neighbours and could potentially have set us back years amd/or totally destroyed the club. We know ourselves how hard it is to get promoted and we would have had to restart all over again. We were somewhat fortunate to go up last time and, over 3 years, in no way did we ever look like getting automatic promotion. To go through all that for a League Cup? No chance. Well, you did say it was an unpopular opinion tbf.

If the criteria for having an opinion is that you have to be Sir Alex then we may as well close the website down, along with every other football forum. I'm not a manager, although I do work in football, watch football all over the world and one of my partners is a PL agent so, whilst I am not Sir Alex, I do like to think I know a bit about football. And certainly enough to have an opinion.

I'm sure he did. But that's not what I was responding to.

I agree that I wouldn't have sold Ings at this stage. And certainly not to replace him with Dembele. We don't know that we are actually signing him yet though.

Nobody is doing that. And since you quoted me a few times in the Duran thread where I said he simply isn't ready to the lead the line of a Premier League team yet, it's pretty ridiculous. Learn to actually read what is being posted rather than making it up in your head to attack fellow fans. I've seen Dembele play multiple times and don't rate him on that basis.