wishywashy

Nice.

Marca are under the impression that we want Vlahovic. I think Marca's journalists are on something. https://www.marca.com/futbol/barcelona/2023/05/04/6453c973e2704e316c8b45af.html

It is written in the stars: Wesley to score the winner in the playoff final for Levante against Las Palmas, so we can sign Moleiro on the cheap. Funny how Moleiro was linked big-time with one other club in January: Barcelona...

Looks like he'll be available for Barcelona on a consultancy basis for this coming window as required: part of that role being that he'll continue to be the liaison between Barcelona and La Liga to ensure that they meet financial rules. Between that and his July join date, it actually seems a bit awkward for Villa: especially as we love to wrap up our business by June nowadays. I'm sure there'll be a lot of off the books involvement from a mysterious Mr Ynamela regardless, but it goes to show just how much we seem to want this guy. His pedigree seems outstanding, especially given the situations he's been in. The implication that Mendes facilitated this deal as well as Emery's is fascinating too: given the situation at Chelsea and how closely connected he is to Villa nowadays, I genuinely wouldn't be surprised if we made another attempt at Felix...

This sort of thing is presumably why he's leaving Barca to join Villa. The fact he's being replaced by one of Laporta's mates (who doesn't even have any experience as a sporting director) says it all. That makes two clubs in a row where Alemany has had to run a sporting department almost in spite of the interference of those above: Laporta at Barca and the infamous Lim at Valencia. The promise of much more control here and working for people with their heads on Earth rather than Jupiter (and the truckloads of money) was an offer probably too good to refuse. The fact he's still been a success and well-liked at both clubs despite the circumstances also bodes very well: what can he do when he isn't constrained by foolish powers above him?

I wonder what this means in terms of access to Barcelona's analytics staff: going after a few of them would be grand. The Barcelona Innovation Hub is allegedly very, very good. IIRC their work does tend to get ignored by the powers that be: who im pretty sure rejected recommendations to sign Mbappe and Haaland in 2017...

Ok, maybe I was exaggerating (a lot) in the heat of the moment. But it makes him sound better so let's pretend that it's true A better choice of phrasing would have probably been "difficult financial restraints".

Barca announcement suggests that it's done. Imagine being told 5 years ago that Aston Villa would be poaching a highly-rated and well-liked Sporting Director from BARCELONA. Barca fans seem to really like him: he's got them back to winning the league on a shoestring budget. Genuinely insane.

The new kits will sell like hot cakes, there's no doubt about that: the City Football Group badge template clearly works from a business perspective. I just find that sort of stuff empty, so corporate in feel. My disappointment comes from the feeling that they could have made a badge that both works well from their marketing perspective and made the greater public happy without defaulting to what is clearly a template. You had people on Twitter of all places managing to pull this off with countless concept badges that were just.. better. At all levels. It was not an impossible ask. I'm weirdly passionate about this sort of stuff, I don't know why. I'd say I'm pretty business-heady a good 90% of the time. Yet I was also irrationally peeved at what they did to the Pringles and Firefox logos

Honestly, I prefer the current one to the upcoming one. And the alternatives. The fact that it (clearly unintentionally) looks like an Aston Villa version of the Chelsea badge simply by playing it safe shows you how uninspired and mediocre it (and a bog standard round badge template) is. They could have at least *tried* to offer something a bit more out there and keep it round if they really wanted to: Ajax managed it. Hell, go crazy like Koln did. But no, Round Badge Template Easy To Use In Marketing #232 it is. The gas lamp alternative had plenty of problems too, from the name feeling off to the fact that it barely looks like a lamp. Clearly *someone* in the design process had a bold, cool idea that would have showcased a unique historical aspect on our club while looking all modern, but it was watered down into mediocrity: just like the round one. Not sure why they bothered if that is the case, really. The soullessness of it all is quite indicative of the direction that Villa's commercial department has taken over the years: pure marketing with no thought to anything else. Also, that survey at the start was a joke. I actually laughed at how most of the questions were just asking people to pick meaningless buzzwords. I reckon you could have gotten people to take it 3 times a day and the results would have been entirely random each time, as nothing actually meant anything. Yet they seemingly clung to the results. No idea what they were thinking there.

United at home have lost 1 in 16 (at the start of the season), for the record. It was always going to be a big ask to get anything out of this game, even though we were on good form. It happens. Onwards to the next game.

3-0. wolves please

2-2. booo. poor from hampton there

DALY AGAIN!

1-1. boooo

First set piece goal United have conceded this season!

I think this is just a regurgitation of an old link that's all a bit hypothetical: Matte Moretto who broke the Moreno link said back in December that Truffert was the alternative target for a starting LB if we didn't get Moreno. We may well have bid in January, but I'm not so sure we'd go back in even if Digne leaves: especially since Moreno has solidified himself in the team.

Him coming in for Bailey has worked out pretty well for the team: without a dedicated DM like Kamara (and pre-Emery in general) I feel that Luiz and McGinn in particular are stifled, with fewer creative responsibilities. Sure, Dendoncker is, at best, a decent defensive midfielder who links-up play pretty consistently (unlike liability-in-possession Nakamba!). But his profile is essential to allow our other midfielders to play to their strengths. I don't think it's a coincidence that since he's come into the team McGinn has been on fire (although moving to RM is doing wonders as well). A good reason why we haven't particularly missed Kamara, imo. Also, we didn't concede until he came off in the Stevenage game

It really puts things into perspective when you consider that this season was the first in a very, very long time where it hasn't been a matter of life or death whether we sign a bunch of starters. We've only just really shaken off the consequences of awful squad building from the Xia-era and getting promoted arguably a season before we were really ready. Like, we obviously need a striker, but it's not a case of "it'll be really, really bad if we don't get this one right". The squad-building is finally finding some stability and now there's an elite manager at the helm. Fascinating summer ahead.

Guendouzi's relationship with Marseille has really soured. Been benched last two games and seems like they both want to part ways now. Looks like the deal for wherever he'll go to will get wrapped up nice and quickly (and I doubt for the money they were asking in January...)

can at least go back to hating united, and with more reason than ever. hope ratcliffe and the glazers run them into the ground x

Sancho scores 7 minutes in. Spurs defensive structure non-existent. Come on... United.. Nope, still hurts. Jokes aside, you had 3 Spurs players on Sancho and they just.. let him do his thing? What on earth are they doing?