NeilS

I can't see it, he would need a few minutes off the bench to get gently re-introduce him to the speed of the game. It would be high risk for Diego's fitness and our chances of victory to throw him back into a starting spot, let alone a starting spot in a derby match.

I have never heard of this guy, but I am imagining he will have one hell of a shot on him. Any Villa Talkers that have seen him play that can confirm? Villa want Van Den Boomen Aston Villa are interested in signing exit-bound Toulouse midfielder Branco van den Boomen, according to The Guardian’s Fabrizio Romano. The Italian journalist has revealed (via Twitter, 5 May) that van den Broom has decided not to sign a new deal with the Ligue 1 side as he wants to keep his options open.

They are starting to notice us, and that worries them. He knows next season we could well be a lot closer to them without the handicap of starting the season with Gerrard at the helm. Rio almost went full Keegan there with that quote.

If Brighton qualify after that run, then hats off to them. I feel the fixture congestion for Brighton gives us a great chance, points on the board at this time of year are always important. We just need manage our own business, and not worry about what others do now. We have a tough run, but if we take care of ourselves then we hopefully take points away from our competitors for those positions.

I think it’s a stretch blaming the goal from yesterday on him. Looking at a replay of their goal yesterday, Young messed up and should have hooked it behind for a corner but missed the ball. Toney got a good connection and the rest is history. However, I think we need to look at a new back up goalkeeper in the summer. Olsen is a poor choice as back up keeper, he seems very nervy and that spreads through the whole back line when he plays. It is strange as he is an international keeper and played in some big teams in the past. I am not sure whether his head has gone, his confidence shot? Once that is gone then it is very hard to get back. Much like a golfer who gets the yips, every small putt fills you with nerves and it’s a downward spiral from there.

It’s so close down there. Anyone from Palace down could still go down. As we saw a few years back, you just need to strung 2-3 wins together out of nowhere and you can survive. I wouldn’t write anyone off just yet, last week I thought Southampton, Bournemouth and Forest were doomed. Bournemouth got a valuable 3 points today, but still quite a few games left yet for someone to perform a miraculous escape yet. If I were a betting man, I think it will still be Southampton, Forest and Bournemouth.

Good old VAR,

Haha. It was a strange decision that. Gerrard the manager who was looking for a bit of magic to win a game, and he shipped off one of our greatest magicians in the squad.

I can't say I have heard of these people, but we have cancelled one betting partnership. This isn't because of the above though, more to do with them still trading in Russia after Ukraine sanctions. We cut ties with Parimatch EXCLUSIVE: Aston Villa terminate deal with betting firm Parimatch after they were sanctioned by Ukraine for operating in Russia... with Chelsea, Newcastle and Leicester also expected to cut ties with sponsor Aston Villa have terminated their sponsorship deal with Parimatch after the betting firm were sanctioned by Ukraine, with Chelsea, Newcastle and Leicester expected to follow their lead shortly. The Cyprus-based sports tech company were one of 287 betting operators sanctioned for continuing to operate in Russia earlier this month, with President Zelensky accusing them of seeking to benefit financially from the invasion of Ukraine. Sportsmail revealed a fortnight ago that Chelsea were reviewing their contract with Parimatch due to particularly sensitivity at Stamford Bridge over the Russian invasion, but Villa have moved quickest to sever ties.

This! We looked out on our feet when Unai first arrived. Fulham and Newcastle had just smashed us either side of a good win against Brentford of course. We were still heavily involved in a relegation battle when he first arrived. He has more than steadied the ship since then, and appears to have implemented his playing system succesfully into the first team squad who are starting to get to grips with playing out from the back. I think once he is 100% happy that we have that side of the game cracked, then he will feel more comfortable seeing which youngsters he can integrate into the first team playing that system. I would expect this to be when we have nothing left to play for, which could only be a couple of bad results away from happening. At the moment we still have an outside chance of a European slot, so that will keep us interested for now. I would also add, the youngsters need to earn their chance, UE has already said as much when talking about the subs bench. He is not going to gift them an opportunity, they need to work hard and impress him and his staff.

Could the end be near for our Sporting Director? It looks ominous according to this link in the Birmingham Mail. Lange future in doubt Aston Villa are understood to be in discussions to bring in Real Betis’ sporting director Antonio Cordon. The news broke this week after Cordon suddenly announced he was to step down from his role at Betis having headed up the club’s transfer activity since the summer of 2020. Estadio Deportivo in Spain, via Canal Sur Radio, have detailed how Cordon is weighing up “two very attractive offers, one from Barcelona and the other from Unai Emery’s Aston Villa”. His assistants at Betis, Jose Ignacio Navarro (recruitment analyst) and Alberto Benito (analyst), are understood to be keen to follow Cordon to either the Camp Nou or Villa Park should he opt to accept an offer.…

You are right, a little context is needed. We were poor against Man City, we deserved nothing from that game, but they are one of the best teams in Europe who were fired up after the week they had. Arsenal we were minutes from a decent point, two late goals make the score line look worse, again Arsenal have been one of the best teams this season. We may even had snatched a win if Ramsdale hadn’t tipped Bailey’s effort onto the bar. Leicester we were undone by errors after it looked like we were up and running early in that game. Leicester had Maddison back after a long time out, and were clinical, they followed that result by sticking 4 past Spurs as well. So to summarise, it is frustrating, on paper the results look bad, we do need to improve drastically at the back. I don’t think it is time to judge the manager, he needs time and patience to instil our new way of playing which should fix the problems we are seeing. This will involve players not up to it being sold on. I think people’s frustration has come about because of the good start with Emery as boss, and they were confident we could push for a top 7 spot and European qualification. I always had it in mind that this group of players have never maintained good form at any period, and a drop off in form was likely. I had reconciled that mid table was our likely finishing point this season which I was content with because we looked like relegation fodder after that Fulham match.

I haven’t heard anything, but to be honest I would rather play one of the young goalkeepers than Olsen. He is awful, and doesn’t even have the basic thing you would expect of a goalkeeper in being a good shot stopper.

Just when you think they can’t get any worse, PGMOL plumb new depths of ineptitude.

I would say we have been affected pretty bad by Man City and their cheating of the system. We were early casualties of their cheating. I know many probably won’t agree, but as a sliding doors moment, their rise and cheating the system ripped our team off apart and ultimately caused our relegation a few years later. Costing us multiple millions of pounds and years in the Championship that almost ended our club. Even gifting us a league cup win won’t really be a punishment as we didn’t get to enjoy the moment, and we didn’t get a year in European competition. I hope they get punished severely, as they have damaged a lot of club’s finances over the years. I think they probably won’t though, as the powers will be will ultimately hand out a slapped wrist like Chelsea and their 1 year transfer embargo.

Our players once again proving mentally fragile. One mistake leads to another and they lose their heads. Everyone makes mistakes now and then, top players get over them quickly and don’t lose their heads. Disappointing to concede three goals in 45 minutes. We must improve for the second half if we want to get something out of the game.

This is where I am at. I think we will finish around tenth. We have had a bloated underperforming squad for a long time. We have cleared the decks, and of all those to leave only Ings contributed significantly. I am fairly confident that with a clearer squad, our owners financial clout and our improved FFP situation, that we can target some real top quality players in the summer.

You are going to get a Kenneth Williams pic with that typo at the end. On a serious note, I agree. Unai will love his pace and his anb to bomb forward, but will want to work closely with him to see if he can take on instruction to improve his defensive play for the team.

Speed of thought is also a big thing in my view. For instance Adama Traore is rapid of foot, but not of brain.

It seems the most logical appointment. Dyche won't get a bigger job at the moment, Everton have a battle on their hands so will need to grind out results. Dyche does seem the best fit at the moment.

Making room for a cheeky Pau Torres bid?

This is exactly how a fair play system should work in Football, I have said this myself in the past. It levels the playing field so it comes down to the club being well run rather than who has the most money to spend hoarding the best players in their squad. It would give hope and a chance to all teams that with shrewd planning a team could rise up and challenge for titles and trophies. Which is why it won't happen.

I have no problems with the membership, overall it isn't a massive amount of money and you get a nice pack including goodies such as wooly hat or one year a scarf. I use it just to get earlier access to tickets and support the club. You will need a membership for your wife as well, as the membership only allows you to buy tickets for linked accounts. I tried to link to my girlfried who wasn't a member, it linked ok, but I couldn't purchase a ticket for her until I made her a member as well. My one question goiing forward though, is what will happen to Membership owners when the North Stand is demolished. I imagine with 30k season ticket holders that even Membership owners will struggle for tickets? I wonder if they will pause Memberships when that work is ongoing, or if it will carry on as normal but with little chance of buying a match day ticket?

Yep. Nobody of decent reputation or in their right mind would take over at this moment in time. Whoever they would bring in would want to have the chance of bringing in a couple of players in January at minimum to spruce up the squad. It will be a caretaker role at best for someone, maybe Big Dunc will come back in and do the Eric Black job.

Yes agreed, we all foolishly thought we would bounce back like we did under GT Mk1. The Championship is a tough competitive league and being a big name means nothing if you are not up for the fight, in fact being a big name makes it all the tougher as you are the prized scalp in the division. Getting stuck down there for a few years has cost us big time, and without NSWE saving us who knows where we would be now. We were fortunate, many other big clubs have not returned as quickly.