villanwesty88

Has anyone ever been to the San Siro to watch AC Milan? I'm there this month and want to go but cannot seem to buy tickets via AC Milan website as they are not appearing. I don't want to put money into Viagogo or any ticket touting rip off site if I can help it.

If anyone has any ideas please let me know!

Cheers

Anyone know the best place to park to be able to have a mooch around Bristol centre, but not too far away from the ground for when the game finishes?

11 minutes ago, Grasshopper said:

 

A brute force performance is needed so no Bree, Thor, Omodah, Green or any kids is the way I think SB will go. Sit back & hoof

------------------

I'd like to see

                          Steer

Bree Chester Terry Taylor

               Whelan

Elmo  Lansbury Omadah Green

               Hogan

 

I think we still struggle to break them down. We should play the same system as them and invite them to attack us and aim to catch them on the break in my opinion. Otherwise if we attack attack attack we will be up against 11 behind the ball and vulnerable to the counter ourselves. 

He did fine for the first half but in the second half errors started creeping in and noticeable fatigue. I was surprised he stayed on the pitch and Lansbury didn't especially as he had a yellow card too. 

What is our best eleven with the new recruits? I'm finding it hard to pick and also to work out our best formation. It is nice to have options though! Seems to be pretty good competition in each area. 

4-3-3?

---------Johnstone----------

Bree Terry Chester Taylor

-------Jedinak-- Whelan------

-----------Lansbury--------

Green -----------------Elmohamady

--------------Kodjia

3-5-2?

------------Johnstone---------

-----Chester---Terry---Samba-----

Bree----------------------------------Taylor

-------Hourihane---Lansbury-----

-----------McCormack---------

------Kodjia-------Hogan-------

4-4-2?

---------Johnstone----------

Bree Terry Chester Taylor

Green Jedinak Whelan Elmo

------Kodjia----Hogan---

Great news! Hope he can go get some good solid game time in the EFL this season (probably not for us). 

1 minute ago, jackbauer24 said:

At this a stage a minor miracle.

Whilst I accept our start last season badly impacted on us, I also don't remember seeing long periods of time where we thrashed teams or even dominated them. Were we ever in title winning form?

So whilst I expect an improvement this season, I can't see how just a little bit of stability and John Terry is going to be enough to make up a 30 odd point difference between the top two and us. In fact, even if you argue Terry improves the defence, I think it was one of the last areas that needed improving anyway. Our issue is clearly the midfield creativity and the link between them and the strikers - a seemingly ongoing issue.

So mindset, fitness and consistency may help but I don't think that'll currently be enough to make us anywhere near favourites yet. If season started tomorrow I'd guess scraping playoffs at very best.

Agree with you. Although I could see the 30 point gap being eaten into somewhat with a stronger mentality seeing out those games we were leading and then gave it away at the death. That could be worth 10-15 points over the season. Then for me fitness, confidence but also quality competition for every position will improve us greatly. Perhaps we lack this most at the moment on the wings and in goal. 

I think a good quality winger should be our priority to deal with the creativity options. Back when we had Milner, Young and Downing rotating on the wings we score so many goals! 

1 hour ago, terrytini said:

That's numberwang !

46?

Split between going to Telford or Kiddy. I don't suppose we will know the squads until the night?

20 hours ago, steve1986 said:

Got my tickets!

Seems to contradict the OP - how did you sort that? I was planning on turning up on the night but don't want to risk not getting in

I think we should really make the most of the free transfers and loans potentially available. A shame we didn't go in for George Boyd who went to Wednesday but some good possible players out there. I think goalkeeper and a winger are our most critical signings required. 

Goalkeeper; Ruddy (free)

Midfield; Ledley (free)

Winger; Kightly (free) or Piazon (loan), Moreno (loan - Man City), Patrick Roberts (loan)

I ruddy well hope so! A very good goalkeeper on a free. No brainer! Whereas Johnstone for £2.5m, that's a real brainer! 

9 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

He did but apparently wasn't great which surprised me

Perhaps this highlights that these guys have to get out and play as much professional football as possible. Youth football is all well and good but less is riding on the results, the competition isn't as strong and the crowds are small. National League/League 2/League 1 would all be good leagues to get a few months of game time in IMO. 

53 minutes ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

I think the most likely ones to step up are Rushian Hepburn-Murphy and Easah Suliman but at the same time, I don't want to put too much pressure on them 

I think those two should go and get some game time in League 1 or 2. Didn't Sulliman play for Cheltenham last season? Not sure how he got on there. 

Any players in our youth teams likely to make the step up this coming season? Any hidden gems like Andre Green in there? 

4 minutes ago, alreadyexists said:

Transfermarkt has Wayne Hennessy as being out of contract this summer (and I've not heard he's signed with anyone), I would take him if it's on a free. He's not a world class keeper, but we need someone half-decent and I think he is.

I've said it a few times that there are some good frees to be had. I still like the idea of John Ruddy in goal on a free. 

It's true they haven't won the league for 13 years but let's not forget they've spent loads of money on a new stadium and had to cope with the rise of other teams spending lots of money. I think they have been in the mix to win the league a few times but then seem to run out of steam because of the lack of depth in the squad. If they can bring in a couple of top players and have some luck with keeping everyone fit I could see them winning the league again under Wenger. Maybe not having Champions League football will help them like it has with Chelsea. 

31 minutes ago, sne said:

So with Begovic going to Bournemouth, could Boruc be an option for us?

He had a good season but is 37 y.o so it would be a 1 season solution.

Certainly possible. John Ruddy would be my choice on a free. 

47 minutes ago, rjw63 said:

As before, I'd like to know where the incentives are for lapsed fans to return. We used to do "bring a mate for a tenner" and "Four for £40" type stuff but last season, nothing.

Even the last day against Brighton they only knocked a tenner off. I'm not going to watch second tier football for £30+, which with the missus equates to over £60,plus grub and drinks looking at about a ton. Way too much.

We seriously need to look at what Bradford City are doing - cheap tickets and match day experience. Surely if you get more people at Villa Park for a lower price they will spend on other things too, so in a sense we wouldn't lose out. Most importantly though it allows the next generation (and current) to be able to go to games building us a solid fan base for the long term. If what psychologists say is true (that fans can have an impact on the outcome of a game) then surely any slight subsidised cost would be coming back ten-fold with Premier League millions if a regular full Villa Park pushes us to promotion. 

Perhaps a free transfer or two would be useful for us;

Premier League frees  (obviously some are completely unrealistic) https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/premier-league/endendevertraege/wettbewerb/GB1

Championship frees https://www.transfermarkt.co.uk/championship/endendevertraege/wettbewerb/GB2

George Boyd, John Ruddy and Ryan Bennett would add to areas we lack depth and quality. 

Is there a new shirt sponsor due for 17/18? 

11 minutes ago, jim said:

Can't see us being anywhere near the top 6, especially now given the potential budget constraints.

All just my opinion of course, but I have zero confidence that Bruce can get the performances out of this expensively assembled squad that would propel us out of the division.

Far to early to say this for me. There are free transfers to be had, players contracts running down (so good deals available), players from lesser clubs who will sell at low fees (low for us but high for them). Constraints will force us to sell off deadwood/loanees and that is a good thing. I don't think an open chequebook policy is too clever anyway. 

We have a pretty decent defence, it's going forward and in the middle that needs the work. But even in that area of the pitch we have some good players still settling in. Also, we don't know what everyone elses team is for next season yet. We're talking about the teams ahead of us and teams coming down but there is bound to be a surprise team too. So it is far to early to say we won't be near the top 6 (IMO) - I think we are probably just a few players away (of the Chester level) from being a challenger. 

5 minutes ago, thabucks said:

I keep reading about Tony artificially swelling sponsorship to boost our income through one of his companies but it just cannot be done. All deals are scrutinised against fair market value so he just cannot decide to sponsor the ground for £10mil per season. Derby's ground sponsorship is worth about £850k per season, West Ham are looking at about £2.5-3mill per season in the Premier league. So any (artificial) sponsorship it would have to stack up against those sorts of figures. Every little helps but think of it this way removing Gabby from the wage bill would be worth £2mill from the wage bill. Richards £3mill, or jedinak for instance would save us £2.5mill etc. Couple with Amavi & Veretout (unfortunately) Gil, cissokho, Gollini, Tish, that's probs close to another £7.5mill saved in wages- plus transfer fees of £25mill. 

This is another reason why in my eyes Bruce is the wrong man for the job. Sure he has under bugdetery restraints previously but he has not shown me he is the right man to get the performances out of the player we have got, he couldn't mould Jan's signings into a coherent team. 

Also, if it forces us to utilise youth players more that can only be a good thing. Johnson and Robinson from Preston for instance, could play a part in our current squad. This is the best way to save on wages and transfer fees and ultimately even generate money from selling some of them. We have to be far more savvy in this regard.