Leeroy

It's an absolutely embarrassing record tbh, even Unai alluded to it today. We haven't beaten them at home since NYD 2008, over 15 years ago, a home win is well, well, well overdue. Our away record at Spurs is actually reasonable, since 2015 we've won there three times and lost three times, but for whatever reason we cannot seem to beat them at home. Part of the reason for that I'm sure is how sh*t we've been over the years and now that we are finally competing again near the top end of the league I'd expect sh*tty records like this to start to change, hopefully that starts on Saturday. We certainly need to improve from the last couple of games.

Cash should hopefully be back for this so would bring him in, Young has been a great professional filling in but don't think I'd start him for the rest of the season, his legs are showing his age now. Kamara will hopefully be ready to start and I'd be tempted to drop Ramsey for Bailey or Coutinho just to try something different following two defeats. Martinez Cash Konsa Mings Moreno Kamara Luiz SJM Buendia Bailey Watkins

That was the point I was making but the guy clearly didn't bother to read my post.

Mcginn has been good under Emery, but we can't ignore that he has just one goal this season and only a couple of assists. That isn't good enough for a player playing in an advanced midfield role. I like mcginn but I think his role now must only be as an impact sub. Don't think we should sell but we need to upgrade that area of the pitch and that would see his minutes drastically reduced next season. Maybe sell in summer 2024 though. Ramsey is young and will get better but he's starting too many games, next season he needs more competition which will hopefully get more consistency out of him. Buendia is another one, he is our record transfer but what is he really offering except work rate? Very rarely does he open up a defence and he has scored just 9 goals in two seasons for us. Again I probably wouldn't sell this summer but next season he shouldn't be more than an impact sub in the league. We need to bring in a significant upgrade this summer. Likewise for Bailey, everyone says sell, maybe we should, but I wouldn't be opposed to him being an impact sub next season either. But definitely shouldn't be starting. Watkins I'm 50-50 about, maybe give him another season as main striker, but these periods without scoring are a concern. Konsa needs more competition too and we need a right back. Young is a great professional, but do we want to rely on a 38 year old in defence again next season? No in my view, but definitely give him a coaching role. If we can sell Digne we need another left back too and while Moreno has looked good for the most part (except the last couple of games where he's been poor) he'll be 30 next season so we won't get more than a couple if seasons out of him. Traore, Coutinho, Chambers, Olsen and all the players on loan (Sanson, Nakamba, Davis, Hause, Wesley etc) need to be sold IMO, none of them have a future at Villa. I'd almost consider with a couple of them, if we can't sell, just release them like we did with Guilbert but that's down to the owners. The young players on loan (Archer, Ramsey, Iroegbunam etc) maybe go on loan again or are integrated. Buy: Young backup goalkeeper (eg James Trafford, Bazunu) Right back (eg Foyth, Dumfries, Geertruida) Right sided centre back (eg Christensen, Timber) Attacking left back (eg Truffert, Tierney) Central midfielder (eg Guendouzi, Kokcu, Lo Celso) Creative attacking mid (eg Goncalves, Maddison) Pacey winger (Williams, Torres) That's seven new players without buying a new striker so shows the amount of work we have to do this summer if we want to break into the top 4/6 positions. Might well have to do it over two summers (2023 and 2024) as would be very expensive to do it in one summer alone.

If we end the season with five straight losses that for me is plainly unacceptable. I don't think we will finish in the top 7 now but want to see at least a good end to the season, we'll probably lose at Liverpool but let's get at least a point in the home games if not all three. If the players can't do that to end the season on a positive then quite frankly I don't care if we replace 8-9 players in the first 11 next season because we want winners not players who down tools. Spurs and Brighton are both winnable games at home.

That would be an ideal summer and see us improve greatly, but sadly villa rarely tend to do great summers and always feels we fall short. Let's hope this one with the new DOF coming in things are different and we really go for it. Those sort of options next season would have us challenging.

Tbh it's probably a blessing in disguise not getting into Europe, we need a serious summer of upgrading many of these players. I particularly want to see our midfielder upgraded because Buendia, Ramsey and McGinn are not good enough to have us competing with the very best. I'd even say wolves have a better midfield than us which is not good Hopefully we have enough to bring in some proper competition for Watkins and Konsa too.

Very funny. We were never coming back against defensive wolves after going 1-0 down. Needed to score first but failed and we haven't turned up again in an important game. Spurs game next week is pretty much irrelevant now.

Nearly full time now. Going to score are we?

Spurs winning, we're losing. Game over.

Reading the Barca forum, they seem to think Torres would perform really well under Unai and say he's a good player but not at the level for a team winning league titles. Seem to think he might be an option on loan for us and then a deal at the end of next season for around 30m, certainly would be a good option. Feels unlikely but may happen with this new Barcelona DOF coming in. Christensen is very highly rated on there, probably their best performing defender all season, and they prefer him to Kounde and Araujo. So clearly would be a big upgrade on Konsa (as good as he's been under Emery) but would cost at least 50m by the sounds of it so not cheap. Although as Barcelona need to offload players it might be cheaper.

As were Newcastle in the Championship 6 years ago, and bottom of the league 18 months ago, but things can change very quickly in football. It is probably a bit early to attract these types of players, but at least we're finally acting like a big club and going for top players, we should have been doing that under Doug or in the early years of Lerner. I remember Spurs before they consistently broke in the top four regularly being linked with players who seemed out of their league, I suppose it is about the vision of attracting these elite players and what we have to do in future to get them here.

This weekend is key. We have to beat Wolves and expect Tottenham will beat Palace, and if they drop points it's a bonus. We need to be at least level on points with them when they visit us next weekend, because then a win puts us three points ahead of them with two games to go. I would imagine 6th is probably out of reach now with Man Utd's sheer incompetence of letting Brighton beat them twice this season while it's been nearly 70 years since we've been able to do that, but hey ho. 7th is still up for grabs, although if we finish 8th it's definitely not the end of the world.

Vlahovic and Torres do seem a little out of reach at this moment, although their stock is not as high as a year or two ago. Vlahovic's Juventus stint so far hasn't been hugely successful and as a goalscorer over the last 18 months he hasn't been any better than Ollie, but his all-round game is better and technically he's a level above. I imagine if we want a striker it would be the next level down so someone like Openda or Jonathan David. I think a second striker/winger, attacking midfielder, central midfielder and right back are all positions we need to strengthen before upgrading Ollie though, and I'd probably upgrade Konsa before that happens too. I'm not really sure why there are so many that like to say this or that player would never come here. We've been rubbish for over a decade but I think this season shows the next few years we are going to compete. Of course we have to show that consistency but we are not a joke team like we were a few years ago, we're a very serious club that wants to compete with the very best. I think we might need a top 4 finish to convince players like Vlahovic to come, but I'm guessing even if we finished top 4 they'd still be some people on here saying this or that player wouldn't come. Instead of speculating maybe it's better to wait and see what the club can do, I have a feeling we might sign 2-3 players this summer that we didn't think we'd have a hope in hell of signing.

Yeah from what I gather Kokcu is a bit like Gundogan, could play in a double pivot or slightly further forward. Very impressive player from the clips I have seen, very comfortable in possession and doesn't panic or dally on the ball like Buendia or Ramsey when pressed by the opposition. I'd potentially add two midfielders (one like Kokcu and then a playmaker to replace Buendia), a pacey second striker/winger to replace Bailey, a RB to replace Young/Cash. and another CB to compete with Konsa who has been brilliant under Emery but is always playing when Chambers is the only alternative. We need a backup GK to replace Olsen too and maybe another striker as Ollie competition.

Kokcu would be a very welcome signing, an all round midfielder who is already showing world class ability and captains Feyenoord at the age of 22 who are on the verge of winning their first title in 6 years. The only issue is the league is pretty weak and a lot of players signed from the Dutch league have flopped in the Prem before - but I have a feeling Kokcu would be a sensational signing if we could get him.

Must win. If we don't win this against the weakest of our final four opponents then Europe is over. It's a cup final and f*ck them if it's their cup final too, it's more important we win than they do. We need injured players back but we also need players to perform much better, Buendia, Ramsey most notably and Ollie needs to start scoring again because it's now three games firing a blank. If we could get at least 2 of our 4 missing players back for this it would help an awful lot. I rate their manager but they are genuinely sh*t, losing 6-0 to Brighton who had their three best players on the bench is an absolute disgrace and of course didn't help us. They literally gifted most of the goals to them, they should be embarrassed letting Danny Welbeck get a brace. Of course they'll play out of their skins against us the horrible b*stards, but we just need to beat them whether it's a flukey 1-0 or a hammering. Why oh why we never beat these I don't know, only one win since promotion, and that was a last minute penalty, they are better at home than away but they aren't the team they were three years ago and it's about time we beat them again and preferably comfortably. Draw or lose and we finish 8th IMO.

Luiz didn't give the ball away time and again and quite frankly is a class above Buendia, Ramsey wasn't great and ran into trouble a lot but still held on to it better than Buendia. It's fine if he occasionally gives it away in the final third if trying a difficult pass but not on the halfway line when the opposition can break away and cause us problems. It's actually quite brainless and he never seems to learn from it.

He's perfectly fine as a squad player as he has the occasional glimpses of quality, but nowhere near consistent enough throughout 90 minutes so should only be on the bench most weeks. A new number 10 in the summer is a must.

One of the first players we should replace in the summer. Emery plays him every week but probably because we have no other playmaker in the team with Coutinho injured. Buendia just cannot play in a possession team, constantly gives the ball away, and crucially never attempts to win it back. I just don't like him. Yes he may play the occasional nice through ball but he isn't good enough if we want to compete with the big boys.

Watkins massively got the better of him in the other game, never been impressed with him myself. I know you see him a lot for Sweden though.

Lindelof is very bad, Ollie should fancy his chances against him and an out of position Luke Shaw. Midfiled needs to press Eriksen too because he's not a natural DM.

I think probably better chance next season because Unai will have a full summer window, preseason, and we won't have the disaster of a start we had this season. But then you'd expect Chelsea to be better, you'd expect Liverpool to be better, Newcastle will spend money again to improve their team, Spurs I don't know because Kane leaving will leave a massive void and I could see them going backwards but if they get a good manager they'll be another one to watch. However, I see Brentford and Fulham falling down the table next season, Brighton will depend on which players they keep this summer. Wolves and West Ham could be better next season but I don't think they'll be better than us. A lot will depend on what we do in the transfer window, in my view we need a good 3-4 players to go straight into the first team to be credible top 4/6 challengers next season. What I want to see under current ownership and management is not a couple of seasons of flirting with Europe and then drop back into mediocrity like we have done in the past, I'd like to see us regular top 8 finishers for the next 10 years, like we were in the 90s and early 00s. If we can do even better than that and be regular top 4 or top 6 finishers like Tottenham have been the last decade even better. But I want to see consistency over a long period, we never seem to see that with this club and always end up f***ing things up, I don't want to see that play out this time whether Emery stays with us for the long haul or not.

Not really. Arsenal and Newcastle are away, very unlikely to take anything from those. Man City is at home but it's Man City, again unlikely they get anything. They may beat Man Utd who are the weakest of those teams but I'd be very surprised to see Brighton do the double over them, as I would to see us do the double over them too which is why I've gone for a loss today (best case I reckon is we draw today which I'd be happy with). I know it's popular to treat Brighton as football royalty and world beaters but whilst they have some cracking players like Caicedo and McCallister and play good football they also have some very average players in their team, I mean Danny Welbeck who must be well into his 30s is still starting for them. March has had a great season but is a very limited footballer outside of his incredible stamina. If we had Newcastle and Arsenal away and Man City at home still to play I'd predict losses for us too. The only result I've maybe been a bit harsh is Man U home but like I said I can't see Brighton doing the double over them. Let's wait and see anyhow and see who is correct.

I see Brighton getting 7 points from 6 games before they play us which would put them on 59 points when they play us: Man Utd - draw Everton - win Arsenal - lose Newcastle - lose Southampton - win Man City - lose I see us getting 6 points before we play them putting us on 60 points: Man Utd - lose Wolves - win Spurs - win Liverpool - lose I'm basing that off Wolves yesterday who were absolutely abysmal (they are better at home but we are great away under Unai so we really should be beating them if we play at our best, plus we have some injured players back hopefully to give us more options) and Spurs have been poor for a long time so another game we really ought to be winning especially with home advantage. We may get a point or more at Man Utd or Liverpool but let's assume losses as they are the hardest fixtures. If we are above Brighton by the time we play them we only need a draw on the final game of the season to grab at least 7th (probably 6th if we beat Tottenham) but I can see us beating Brighton with the crowd behind us and we have a very good record against them. So no need to be negative even if we lose today, although if we win today or even draw that gives us an even greater chance. The injuries are the only thing that concern me as we have to keep playing the same team and a 37 year old at right back, sounds like they should train next week so if we could have all of them on the bench for Wolves that would be very encouraging.