Leeroy

Not really sure on Forest's players. Gibbs White looked lively but terrible end product, Johnson has pace and scored 8 goals this season but again didn't look great. I'd maybe gamble on Johnson if they go down especially given his age but only if Forest ask a reasonable price.

Leicester's assets are more attractive to us. If we could convince Maddison to come here it would be a great signing, if not then Barnes is another who'd improve us and I think he'd very likely want to join. Tielemans is another who would definitely improve us but again would be a hard sell even if we make Europe. 

Southampton look doomed to me and while most of their team is poor I do think Lavia will become one of the best defensive midfielders in the world in a few years. Definitely one player we should look at but not really a position we need to strengthen this summer given we have Kamara.

Wherever we finish this season he's done an incredible job and truly shown up Gerrard who was making a mess of everything.

How we do against other teams in the top 10 will determine how good a season we have. 7 of our last 8 games against top 10 teams. Under Unai we have so far played six times against top 10 teams, winning three and losing three with no draws. If we include Chelsea (who will likely still finish top 10 IMO) it's four wins and three defeats. 

I think we'll finish on around 58 points and either sneak a Europa Conference place in 7th or just miss out in 8th. Either way it should be an exciting end to the season. We could really do with getting Coutinho, Cash and especially Kamara back from injury ASAP as with another injury to Bailey yesterday we really are down to the bare bones.

Looking at the fixtures, I think aiming for around 18 points from the final 11 games is doable which would have us on 56 points. 5 wins, three draws and three defeats. 

Out of the fixtures, I would say we could win any of the following: Leicester, Forest, Newcastle, Brentford, Fulham, Wolves, Spurs and Brighton. The ones where I'd be very surprised if we won would be Chelsea, Man U and Liverpool, although Chelsea really are not great at all and I think we can easily take a point off them and possibly even win.

Of the home games, I think we can do well there: Forest should be three points, Fulham likewise who I think may run out of steam, Brighton we have a very good record against and I think we are capable of beating Newcastle and Spurs at home. If we got three wins from the home games, one draw and one defeat, that would be a reasonable return. 

The away games are more difficult to predict because our away form has been so good. Leicester on any given day could beat us but we could also beat them, a draw would be ok there. Brentford is a very difficult place to go as they haven't lost at home since September, so a draw again is quite likely although I actually think we might win. I think we can win at Wolves although another difficult game as they also have a very good manager. If we could win two of those games and draw the other, that would be very good. I think Chelsea away is on paper difficult but they don't look good on the pitch and Potter is struggling to bring the best out of a huge squad. I think a draw is doable. United and Liverpool away likely to be defeats. So two wins, two draws, two defeats from the away games. 

That's a return of 18 points leaving us with 56 points. I am probably being a bit ambitious with those predictions, but equally I don't think I am being totally unrealistic either. Five wins, three draws, three defeats is certainly achievable with our run-in and Emery in charge.

I've no idea where we would finish on 56 points, but I reckon it would be top 8. Probably just miss out on Europe but that may be a good thing as we can build this summer and I'm confident next season we can make top 7 if Emery is backed and we get our first choice targets in. 

Great performance. Ramsey was great today, hope he can find some consistency now.

Finally into the top 10, let's hope Everton can do us a favour so we stay there. 

12 minutes ago, VillaAlex said:

Important game for Bailey, Unai has kept the faith but he really needs to show something now.

He needs to have a good game, it's been so long since he did. Seems we say that every week though.

Please deliver today Villa. 

Just now, MaVilla said:

i dont think Toney should have been picked, if for no other reason than the tool is subject to literally hundreds of betting charges, its unreal he has been picked tbh.

Aside from this, i just dont think Watkins is good enough to be picked for England, if he is picked, its more of an indictment for the quality of English strikers than anything.

Im not saying Watkins is "bad", he is a good striker, but he isnt elite in any way (other than workrate).

Toney isn’t elite either, neither is Wilson. Neither was Calvert Lewin but constantly got chances when he was fit.  Watkins is a better all round striker than all those too.

When you see dross like Phillips, Maguire, Dire and Pickford in the squad there really isn’t a high benchmark to get in that squad so being elite or not is irrelevant.

3 minutes ago, CVByrne said:

Toney and Kane are tough to get past. He's unlucky

Not really, he could have taken all three and left out any of: Phillips, Dire, Maguire or Gallagher, none of whom deserved a call up.

Yes they play different positions but it’s never stopped the tool picking too many right backs before. I feel for Ollie because he deserved to be in that squad.

We don’t sell our best players to Spurs, doesn’t happen,  honestly can’t remember the last time we sold a key player to them and I don’t think it’s ever happened in my lifetime. They couldn’t buy Benteke from us when we were battling relegation every season and couldn’t buy Grealish when we were in the Championship. Now we are very much a midtable team looking to get into Europe regularly so higher in the food chain, they have played CL this season but last season and the season before they were playing in the lesser European competitions. Since we started going shit in 2010 we have both reached three finals and lost them all so likelihood is Martinez would win nothing there anyway so if it’s trophies he’s after spurs should be a no go. 

Not saying they aren’t better than us, they are and have been since 2011, we should never have let a similar sized team get so far ahead of us, especially one like spurs run by levy who is a complete tight arse with investment albeit a very shrewd businessman, but blame Lerner for that.

But I just don’t think martinez would go a team that doesn’t win things when he’s said that’s what he wants, either way the only way spurs have a chance of signing him is if they make top 4. Still think Liverpool will sneak that final place although they’re doing a good job of messing it up. I also don’t think levy would sanction a huge offer for a 30 year old goalkeeper because, let’s face it, we aren’t selling him for anything less than £60m and the likelihood is it’ll be even higher than that.

I thought Carlos preferred left side but if he can make it work with Mings and play on the right side we might go with that for next season, a young CB like Inacio we should certainly be keeping an eye on though given Mings and Carlos are both 30 now and Carlos has had a long lay off. Cash probably gets replaced in the starting 11 by a RB/CB hybrid but we probably do need another CB as Mings competition to be fair as Chambers and Hause aren’t good enough. Just depends how much business we can get done and our budget.

I really don’t know about Dembele, he could be a good impact sub for a couple of years, but I’m not convinced he will do much here or replace Ollie longer term. On a free he might be worth a punt but I wouldn’t be giving him a 5 year contract on £100K+ as we’ll struggle to sell if he disappoints. I’d rather just wait until we can buy a clear Watkins upgrade which probably won’t be for a season or 2. 

4 minutes ago, tomsky_11 said:

Really?! 0.64 goals per 90 at Lyon. I like Ollie but he's almost half the number in the Prem at 0.37.

The one thing that looks odd with Dembele is he's had two off seasons out of five, so perhaps less consistent? But one of them is this season and he's still at 0.33 goals per 90.

A striker on a free with a chance of being a 1-in-2 scorer scorer. Even doubling his reported wages he'd be half the hit on the P&L that Ings was per season. Seems pretty sensible to me if we can get him.

Yes his goals per minute are better than Ollie's but I think Ollie is a far better striker. Also it is a bit easy to carried away by stats. First, it is the French league and whilst I would definitely buy players from that league, the teams you play other than PSG are not that great. Dembele is currently not first choice at Lyon who are 10th in the league, he is being kept out of the team by Lacazette who was hardly a roaring success at Arsenal. And as a backup striker his stats have dried up and I don't think he's good enough to displace Ollie so he would only be getting 20-30 minutes for us at best. I'd take David here but that's because he is younger and is first choice at a better team, as well as seems to be on the way up rather than the way down: he has drastically improved this season and is joint top scorer in the league with Mbappe and so we'd be buying him off the back of his best season. Dembele would be coming off the back of one of his poorest seasons. 

Maybe I'm being harsh on Dembele but I'm just not that big a fan and I do watch European football. Given it is a free it's low risk and his goalscoring record is good, but I'm just not sold on him and he clearly thinks he's better than he is if he's asking for huge wages. 

17 hours ago, burchy said:

I think for me we’ll spend in the region of 150-180m, more if we sell Digne.

For that outlay I think we’ll go for the following (in order or priority)

£50m - RM - Otavio all day long or Guendouzi at a push.

£25-£35m - RB/CB - someone who can play both defensive fullback and CB - my suggestion would be Simikan at Leipzig or Geertruida at Feyenoord (he can also cover CDM)

£20-£30m - RW/SS - this will be someone like Nico Williams but I’d like us to take a punt on a cheaper alternative (and better one IMHO) Johan Bakayoko.

£25-£40m - LM/CAM - this might be the linked Pedro Goncalves. I’d quite like Xavi Simons but again, I might have my Fifa Wonderkid goggles on there.

£0-£55m - ST - I think this will be a free (Dembele) but would like it to be Jonathan David. Would also love it to be Gonçalo Ramos but that’s wishful thinking on my part.

I think those 5 are the priority but I think we could also do with…..

CM - we need comp/cover for Luiz - who? Have no idea. I’d like to see someone younger, perhaps Kokcu or Kephrem Thuram or Kone. Again Guendouzi might have already been earmarked for here though.

CBL - Comp/cover for Mings (Inacio at Sporting please)

LB - If we sell Digne I’d like us to go after Maatsen at Burnley (Chelsea) or Truffert at Rennes

Backup GK - have no idea on this one but would be happy with a loan but a better one than Olsen. Who’s that crazy looking keeper from Uruguay or something, played in the World Cup recently, that’d be a fun watch

I'd be fairly happy with for example: Nico Williams, Guendouzi, Goncalves and a CB who can also play RB (Simakan is a good suggestion or Foyth who Emery coached at Villareal). I think four players to potentially go straight into the first 11 could cost up to £150m so I'm hoping for/expecting a really big push this summer.

I'd love Jonathan David who I think is an upgrade on Watkins and four years younger but think he'd eat up too much of our budget and I think Ollie is good enough for a European push especially with better players behind him. If we move on Digne then Truffert or Maatsen are both decent young options who won't be on big wages, but Digne and Moreno is ok for next season at least. Inacio is excellent but with Carlos and Mings both preferring to play on the left side I'm not sure how feasible it will be unless we move one of them out.

Dembele even on modest wages isn't worth it, even on a free, Watkins is far better, and we need players to improve the 11 more than the squad. Duran and Archer are fine as squad players and both are likely to improve by quite a bit unlike Dembele who is 27 this summer.

Lyon fans say he's terrible, he most certainly won't end up at Man U or even Newcastle and I'd be very disappointed if he ended up here.

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

He’s a deep lying midfield rather than a holding.  Haven’t seen enough of Palinha to know what he is. 
 

Either way I don’t think Chambers or Donk are good enough so we may need cover in this area but it’s not a priority in my opinion. 

I agree with that but point is I think if we had signed Palhinha we could have played all three (Kamara and Palhinha holding, Luiz a bit further forward). We also didn't know if Luiz was staying or going in summer, Arsenal bid three times on deadline day, then we signed Donk as a panic buy.

Either way you look at it our summer window last year wasn't great. Hopefully under a proper manager like Emery we will do much better this time around, but yes I think other positions are higher priority now given the system we play.

1 hour ago, useless said:

We didn't need Palhinha, we had signed Kamara and already had Luiz, that's two very good holding midfielders, we wouldn't have been able to keep both those two and Palhinha happy, no team in the league has three DMs that good, frankly we're lucky to have three as good as Luiz, Kamara, and Dendoncker.

Our fans probably would have moaned about Palhinha's performances anyway as a midfielder, because he doesnt' do the kind of things that look good in a youtube video, even as an opposition player probably won't be long before there's a backlash and people asking 'what does he do', it's always the same with midfielders of that type, even Declan Rice recently.

Luiz isn't a holding midfielder.

8 hours ago, thabucks said:

So if the rumours are true in his Infinite wisdom Slippy turned down the suggestion & chance to sign Palhinha for £17mi only then to panic last minute for a new DM leaving us with Dendonker @£13mill… Now being linked with £60mill+ move to sky 4 teams…  He well & truly set us back massively the charlatan. 

Palhinha was a bargain, I thought so at the time, I was actually shocked he ended up at Fulham (Portuguese manager aside) as felt he would have had better options including us. He’s one of the main reasons they’ve done so well this season, huge loss for them if he goes in the summer but they’ll make a good profit.

Will surely be back in the next England squad with Kane and Toney, would be an outrageous decision by Southgate if he didn't select him given how good he has been week in week out since December.

Took his goal brilliantly again today and should have had another, if he keeps this form going he will get get at least 15 this season and may even get close to 20 which is incredible given his slow start to the season. 

It's actually a scandal that this guy hasn't got a recall for Brazil this month, Joao Gomes from Wolves in the squad over him is a farce. He's been one of our best players all season and is definitely one of the top performing midfielders in the league now. Literally at least a 7/10 every week from him, another very good display again today. 

The irony is he was getting called up regularly for Brazil a couple of years ago when he was really inconsistent and made rash decisions, now he can't seem to get a look in but is actually performing far, far better for us. How he didn't get a World Cup place over Fred I'll never know. 

Ramsey and Bailey the poorest players in the team today and quite often are. Think I'd rather have Aaron Ramsey than Jacob at this moment in time.

Overall a point isn't too bad and stops our losing streak against these, but it's yet another game we haven't beaten them. We've taken as many points off West Ham in the last three seasons as we have against City, a far better side, and that just doesn't make sense.

Trash performance but Ramsey was worse. Just doesn't get the hate because he's from the Academy.

Both Ramsey and Bailey shouldn't be starting for us either way. Bailey looked a great signing at the time but he has been very disappointing. 

In an ideal world our summer would look something like this based on players we've been linked with:

In

Guendouzi 

Nico Williams (the Bilbao one)

Foyth

Tierney

Goncalves 

Pau Torres

Out

Coutinho

Digne

Young (move him to a coaching role)

Traore 

Nakamba 

Sanson

Chambers

Davis

I don't think those ins are out of our league except maybe Torres and possibly Williams, so if we can't get them an equivalent ball playing CB and a pacey winger. As for outs, will be difficult to shift all those unless we're prepared to take hits on what we paid or use them in part exchange for our ins. Bailey, Buendia, Ramsey and McGinn can all stay as vital squad players but will be in and out the team. We can probably afford to sell at least one of them though if we bring those other players in.

It will be an expensive summer but we are well overdue one given we haven't spent much last two summer windows. 

We're well overdue a win against these tw@ts. They've won the last five against us but very lucky in some of those wins, the one at VP this season they were lucky to win and the game in London last season and the season before we were the better side for large parts and were unlucky to lose. 

You can accept it to a degree when they are good but they really aren't good this season. They've got some good players but are in trouble down there, we really mustn't help them out by gifting them 3 points like we usually do, we will win this game and finally end our hoodoo against them if we get our tactics right. We've won 4 of our 5 away games under Emery, be disappointed if we don't make that 5 wins from 6. 

4 minutes ago, Sulberto21 said:

Excellent post . Except Watkins who (imo) is improving rapidly under Emery. I’d keep Mings too as he is excellent for England which shows with better players around him he’d be solid as a rock.

I think that probably next season they will both be in the team although I'd be very surprised if we didn't sign at least one CB this summer which would mean Mings and Carlos battling for the other spot and if Carlos recovers his form he is better than Mings and also better at playing out from the back so I see Mings being on the bench more often next season. 

Watkins yes he will still be in the team I think and despite his technical limitations is thriving under Emery. I think he might be one that surprises the most in holding down his place, at least for a couple of years, as he seems to be putting in the effort to adapt to Emery's system.