wishywashy

Eyes on Blackburn and Plymouth.

HT. Halfway there.

PLYMOUTH!

102 councils out of 107 have declared and the Lib Dems have won more than the Tories. It would be hilarious if they finish 3rd

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Aston Villa manager Carla Ward is set to take a break from football, after deciding to leave the Women’s Super League club at the end of the season.

It is understood the departure is her own decision, and Ward, 40, is understood to now want to take a significant period of time away from work to recharge her batteries and spend time with her family.

The former Sheffield United and Birmingham City manager has been with Villa for three seasons and guided them to ninth place in 2021-22 and fifth place in 2022-23 - the club’s highest ever league position in the women’s game.

This term, Villa sit a respectable seventh, with two WSL games remaining. The first of those is Saturday’s trip to eighth-placed Brighton and Ward’s final match in charge will be at home to title-chasing Manchester City on Saturday 18th May.

“To step down from my post here at Aston Villa has been the hardest decision of my managerial career, but I know it is the right one for my family and I,” Ward said. “Managing a great club like Aston Villa has been a full-throttle job and I have always given the role 100 per cent dedication. However, I now believe it is the right time for me to prioritise the other important things - such as my daughter and the rest of my family life.

“I am immensely grateful to Monchi [Villa’s president of football operations] and Damian Vidagany [director of football] who tried so hard to encourage me to stay in the role, but I know it is the right time to step down after our last game of the season.”

Monchi said: “Carla came to us a few weeks ago and spoke of her plan to step down. We have had extensive dialogue with her to see if there was anything we could do to persuade her to stay, but she is adamant that she wants to take a break from the game. On behalf of everybody at Aston Villa, I want to place on record our grateful thanks to Carla [and] wish her well for the future.”

Telegraph Sport understands Villa do not immediately have a replacement lined up and an extensive recruitment process will now begin to find Ward’s successor. The role is likely to be attractive to high-level candidates from around the world, because of the English women’s top-flight league’s popularity and profile being continually on the rise.

It’s understood that the club’s head of women’s football Lee Billiard will draw up a shortlist of potential candidates for Monchi and the club’s director of football operations Damian Vidagany to decide upon.

Vidagany added in a club statement: “Carla is one of the best managers in women’s football and we are sad to see her go. I would like to wish her all the best for the future.”

38 minutes ago, wishywashy said:

Crazy how this is the conclusion that is being drawn, when it's plainly obvious that people clearly vote very differently in local elections versus general elections. Had this nonsense in last year's local elections, too.

I'm certain this is just the media either being completely ignorant of what the PNS entails, or spreading misinformation for interactions/something else, but it would be hilarious if even a single Tory at No 10 genuinely understood it like this.

Crazy how this is the conclusion that is being drawn, when it's plainly obvious that people clearly vote very differently in local elections versus general elections. Had this nonsense in last year's local elections, too.

Another Labour Source™ with a bizarre comment and some very odd undertones...

2 hours ago, Dante_Lockhart said:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-politics-68609729?src_origin=BBCS_BBC

What on earth?

Sad day, although not overly surprising. An amicable departure has felt like the most likely scenario for a few months imo. Big job to do next season.

Hopefully it's genuinely for the reasons given and not a reaction to the budget given for the upcoming season. From her statements in prior weeks she did seem to imply that she wanted something bigger...

I'm surprised nobody's really tried this before!

I think for the CMs at this stage you either go with Luiz and someone like Tim, or go Tielemans and McGinn, who clearly manage to make it work.

Luiz and McGinn just don't really complement eachother.

Played well tonight IMO. Frustration definitely got to him towards the end though, I think he might have accidentally booted the ball at a steward at once point!

1 hour ago, AshVilla said:

Were only 1 point ahead of Spurs if you take into account the free wins against Sheff United and Burnley.

1 win is still required and I don't know where it's coming from if we play like we did tonight though.

They're not free wins until they've been won. Burnley definitely aren't a free win now: they've lost 1 in 8 and will be fighting for their lives now they have a chance. Even Sheffield United can spring a surprise draw now and again (against us for example)

0/10 performance tonight!

The hell happened to him?

Shadow of his former self, very schoolboy errors and and he's been picking fights with opposition players non-stop as of late.

No excuse for having arms up like superman in your own box

95% chance of 4th according to Opta.

Take something from today!

3 minutes ago, The_Steve said:

Spurs like to leak goals if Chelsea feel up for it they will score. 

On paper, they're two teams who both have strong attacks but very leaky defences, so it promises to be a high scoring game.

It'll finish 0-0.

24 minutes ago, sne said:

Was in the Barcelona directors box for the Barca-Valencia game earlier in the week apparently. Might be nothing, might be something.

Having a look at Javi Guerra, maybe? He does goes back to Spain a lot, so might have just wanted to watch some football.

8 minutes ago, Pongo Waring said:

Is he joining us this summer? 

Yes. Turns 18 in May so he'll sign for us once the window opens.

https://www.instagram.com/p/C6Y2XozIanv/?hl=en

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Nice day doing some filming with the club! Exciting plans for the future of the club and the stadium is in good hands ️

Shame Gabby's involved in this prospective video but the info is nice enough!

19 minutes ago, Delphinho123 said:

Any good?

Managed to get a hattrick of assists two days ago, and is La Liga's top assister. Emery was the one who brought him through into the Villareal first team, I believe.

Loves a through ball apparently.