Leeroy

1 hour ago, duke313 said:

I’ve a feeling he might regret not taking Rashford, especially in the latter rounds against tougher teams, he would have been a good option off the bench.

Yes, he’s not had a great season, but United have been shite, and that hasn’t stopped him picking Maguire, Mainoo and Shaw.

He's got a good goal return for England but he simply doesn't deserve to be there and there are better options.

Why would we need Rashford when we could bring on Eze, Watkins, Palmer, Gordon, Bowen. There is no room for him.

Grealish and Maddison are also quite lucky to be in but I'd rather bring them than Rashford because of their ability to keep the ball.

7 minutes ago, jayEm said:

BBC says 2pm

I saw 1pm but must have been wrong, my bad. 

1 minute ago, WallisFrizz said:

People connected to the players must be leaking. We’ll know the whole squad by the time 2pm comes.

It's 1pm the announcement.

Watkins will surely be in, Southgate has lost the plot if he isn't. How Ivan Toney has made the squad I don't know, the guy's a fraud. 

Konsa's form has been iffy the last couple of months but he performed in March, I'd expect him to make the training squad.

At least Henderson has been dropped and I am glad to see players like Wharton and Eze in. Jones and Quansah seem to only be in because they play for Plop. 

Short term deal (i.e. 2 year contract at most) it's fine to add depth. Barkley has had a good season with Luton and technically can play in our team, but isn't a long term answer.

If it means we can spend big on a defensive midfielder and right back then I'm ok with these smart deals. Just don't put him on a long contract. 

1 minute ago, duke313 said:

Most of those teams with exception of probably Leverkusen are going to be picked apart.  Guirassy, Stuttgart's top scorer will almost certainly get a big move and Undav their next highest scorer is on loan from Brighton so i'd imagine he'll return.  Girona might not even be allowed to play in CL with their links to City, and are already losing one of their main players, Savio who's signed for City.  Bologna will get decimated, Thiago Motta is Juve bound and they'll lose their top players like Zirkzee.  Leverkusen will get a stay of execution only to the fact Alonso is staying, if he had left they'd have been torn apart too.

I'm not sure, it's speculation if they lose those players at this point (other than Savio). There's lots of speculation we will sell Ramsey and Luiz too but we might not. Bologna losing their manager could derail them, I agree on that, and they're probably the weakest of the teams along with us based on league performances. 

50 minutes ago, Frodo said:

Don't think there are issues to address, other than Sqaud depth for more quality, if we hadn't of got the injuries we've had this season, I think we would of finished more comfortably in the top 4 & maybe stayed in the title race longer, so little bit of luck with injuries next season & a few good additions, we will be just fine under Emery.

I don't agree, we need to find a holding midfielder at a similar level to Kamara because he's out for probably half of next season, we need an upgrade at right back, so at least 2 need additions to the first 11. Arguably another centre back/left back hybrid to add to the team too depending on what right back we go for. So at least three new starting players I'd say + 1 or 2 squad players to improve our depth.

I do agree about injuries and you would hope that next season would be more generous on that front, but no one knows for sure. We will still be in Europe and may go far in the League Cup or FA Cup (or both) and injuries will pile up if that happens. It happened to Newcastle, Brighton, Man Utd, Chelsea and other teams this season as well. 

45 minutes ago, omariqy said:

It’s just one fan tbf. I’m not even sure he’s a fan.

Yawn, you're boring. 

50 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Because we just had out best season for 40+ years? 

Yes we may well get smashed next season against teams that are more established. The only reason we won't succeed will not be for trying or lack or effort or competence by the staff and owners. The reason will be the shit rules in place to try and limit newer teams succeeding.

Why can't you just stop looking for negatives all the time and maybe just try and enjoy how we are doing for 5 minutes. All teams bar a few get hammered once in a while. Surely you knew yesterday was not going to be max effort and intensity and it showed, after a long hard injury ravaged season.

You just seem to constantly find negatives. How did you cope when we got relegated, if this is how you are at a comparatively great time. 

Best season in 28 years yes. Ok so all the work is done now and we can just return to mediocrity. That's now how it works if you want to be a big club.

I'm happy but there have been some bumps this season that I want addressed. It's negative but it's constructive, I'm always looking for ways we can improve and get better, if everything was rosy this season I wouldn't be saying anything negative. I was actually probably more positive at the end of last season and if you look at my posts there was very little negative, because last season we ended on a real high and went into this season with real optimism. 

The relegation season is a bit of a blur to be honest, I blanked it out, I don't think any Villa fan enjoyed it. Attendances were at an all time low if you want reminding. We are a completely different team now though.

Anyway, we'll agree to disagree.

Just now, S-Platt said:

Yeah but many of those teams will have managers and their better players cherry picked.

We don't know what our squad will look like at the start of the season I trust The Don to have a plan to negotiate The Champions League.

It's bloody exciting there will be 8 chances for us to pit ourselves against Europe's elite what more can a fan ask for!?

UTV

I’m excited I just want us to rectify the very clear issues we have before the start of next season, precisely because we will be facing Europe’s elite while still trying to maintain a top 4 push.

4 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Have you ever considered maybe following football may not be best for you man?

Lol, why so bitchy. My post was perfectly reasonable, if you don’t agree with me you can say so in an intelligent and purposeful way rather than just trying to put me down. 

We’ve been hammered just as many times as West Ham this season and looked shaky for months, if you don’t think that’s cause for concern fine but I do.

Think we should lower the expectations. Race for top 4 fine, race for title I say no chance.

Spurs finished top 4 for four years in a row under Poch without spending much in comparison to the teams around them, so if we aim to do something similar I think we can.

Don't see us getting near the title unless we plough in £200m+ on new signings.

All the "new" teams that qualified for CL this season like us look better equipped to do well than we do:

• Stuttgart - 2nd in Bundesliga on 73 points from 34 games, GD of +39, lost only one of their last 16 league games
• Girona - will finish 3rd in La Liga only behind Barca and Real and ahead of Atletico, 78 points from 37 games, GD of +32
• Bologna - probably a bit more like us, 67 points from 36 games (2 to go), but only lost 5 games and GD of +24
• Leverkusen - goes without saying, unbeaten in all competitions, GD of +65 in their league, insane

There is a lot of work to do just to beat these teams let alone the really top ones like Real, PSG and Bayern. We need a really good transfer window and in particular to target players with elite mentalities because the players who played today don't have that at all. 

It would be a real disappointment if we qualified for Europe's top tournament for the first time in 41 years to just get embarrassed. Especially given we're one of the few teams to have actually won the damn thing.

I think both him and Moreno shouldn't be first choice. Neither can defend, Moreno has a bit more athelticism but his final ball has been poor all season. Both are 31 next season too so getting on.

We should go for a first choice left back to start next season, with either Moreno or Digne as backup. As Digne is on far more money I guess he makes way.

Earlier on in the season I'd have been all for keeping Digne, he was brilliant up until January, but he looks like he's aged 5 years these last few months so time to move on. 

Having reflected a bit, my thoughts:

1. Firstly, great season. Hats off to the management and the players, they deserve to celebrate tonight. 

2. The injuries/players missing haven't helped. No Zaniolo, Moreno or Rogers today to add to Buendia, Mings, Ramsey and Kamara. Then Martinez, Cash and Pau Torres given the game off because they're probably still too hungover and Tielemans rested for the Euros. That's 11 players out. Palace had Hughes, Johnstone, Franca and Doucoure out but that clearly is far kinder that our absentees.

3. Palace are a good side with a brilliant manager. I said Palace will finish above us next season, it was tongue in cheek, but if we don't massively up our game from the last 2-3 months of this season and continue playing like this into next season we will go backwards. Palace I think are a dark horse for top 6 if they keep their best players. Wharton should go to the Euros over Mainoo for me and Eze over Maddison. Even so, there was enough out there on the pitch for us to at least compete and keep the scoreline respectable, but sadly we didn't even do that.

4. We have a lot of work to do. There have been too many hidings this season considering we finished 4th and that's why our GD is way below that of the top 3 and there is a soft underbelly that needs fixing, and we can only do that by bringing in new players. Defensively we have so much work to do, only 8 clean sheets, 61 goals conceded, and our only decent defensive midfielder is crocked. One positive is we should have a lot more players fit come August, but we need a really good transfer window.

5. I don't know how many of our players will go to the Euros, but I don't think it will be that many considering we finished 4th. Watkins for England, McGinn for Scotland, Tielemans for Belgium, Cash for Poland should all go. Maybe Pau Torres for Spain and Konsa gets in the England squad. Either way I hope whoever does go plays well and those who don't rest up well.

How we ever spent £30m on this guy I have no idea, thanks Gerrard. He seemed to do well at Sevilla, but whenever he has played for us we have shipped goal after goal after goal. We need to move him on this summer, he's 31 so isn't going to suddenly come good for us.

Emery bought Saliba in 2019 for a similar price to what we paid for Carlos, he needs to find someone similar for us because we literally have no one who can defend other than a player coming back from long term injury.

Thank God it was just a loan. Just doesn't understand the meaning of defending. Good luck to Barca trying to find a buyer.

Didn't do anything wrong but he's clearly nowhere near good enough and inspires no confidence in the defence. Will be gone soon enough.

Needs to be the first out the door, dreadful player.

Like the start of the season when he went five games without a goal, he ends the season with five games without a goal.

Gutted as I wanted him to get to 20 goals. The wait for a 20 goal a season striker at Villa goes on.

Thank **** the season is over. Something you shouldn't be saying after finishing 4th but that performance today symbolises the last couple of months, we've been largely turd bar the Arsenal performance.

Injuries or no injuries there is a level of pride you show when pulling on the shirt, I didn't see any pride from any of them today.

I hope we have a huge clear out especially in defence. I don't want to see Olsen, Carlos, Lenglet, Chambers and probably Digne ever play for us again and I hope Konsa has some competition next season because he ain't all that.

2 minutes ago, nick76 said:

So? We’ve got top 4, that’s the point.

Ok, loser mentality of our fans, no wonder we’ve done nothing for so long.

And playing like this we’ll probably not win a single game in the champions league, we’ll be embarrassed.

I don’t care if nothing is riding on this game, it’s a disgraceful performance.

I'm sorry but these are some of our results this season:

• Newcastle 5-1
• Spurs 4-0
• Man City 4-1
• Liverpool 3-0

And now Palace beating us 4-0. We only lost one game last season by more 3+ goals (Newcastle away) and Emery wasn't our manager by that point.

We may have got top 4 but we have had some embarrassing performances. Yet another one today.