NeilS

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.

Yep, even the best teams win ugly every now and then. Let’s not forget where we were only a few months ago. We are not going to suddenly play every team off the park, so for me a wins a win. lets Enjoy it, good times are coming.

Three wins on the trot including Man City, this was always going to be a difficult match.

He has been patchy for us since signing, shows signs of being a great finisher and links up play pretty well, but doesn't have the mobility of Watkins up front which is an important part of forward play in the modern era. Ings will also be in the final year of his contract in the summer, so I can understand from a FFP point of view and for the club and player why this deal may happen. I just hope that we have a forward lined up to sign this window (as well as Duran), otherwise we may be short of quality up front if we suffer an injury to either Watkins or Bailey and Duran takes time to settle.

Haha, I missed that stat when reading. I think even Samatta scored some goals in the CL. Please be a monumental waste of money! I would love to see one (or more) of the SL6 crash and burn.

This might explain part of the inflated fee. £22m donated by Shaktar to Ukraine War Effort "Shakhtar Donetsk president Rinat Akhmetov has pledged to donate £22m to the Ukrainian war effort following the transfer of Mykhailo Mudryk to Chelsea. The Premier League side signed Mudryk from Shakhtar on Sunday in a deal worth up to £89m, a transfer record for Ukrainian football. Akhmetov said the money would help a project named 'Heart of Azovstal,' aimed at "helping Mariupol defenders and the families of fallen soldiers". Ukraine was invaded by Russia in 2022. "I want to thank the entire civilised world for helping Ukraine," said Akhmetov. "Today we are able to talk about Ukrainian football thanks to the Ukrainian army, the Ukrainian people, and the tremendous support of the entire civilised world." Akhmetov said he had "mixed feelings" about Mudryk leaving Shakhtar for Chelsea. "I have never made it a secret that my dream is to win European trophies," he said. "This means that players like Mudryk should be invited to our club, to our Ukrainian championship, and we should win European trophies with such players. "Unfortunately, it is impossible now, as Ukraine is fighting the horrendous and unjust war waged against us by the Russian Federation." The Shakhtar president said money from Mudryk's transfer fee would go towards providing medical and prosthetic treatment, psychological support and meeting specific requests in order to help Mariupol defenders and the families of fallen soldiers. "Their acts of bravery are unparalleled in the modern history," Akhmetov said. He also said Shakhtar would play a friendly against Chelsea at Donbass Arena in Ukraine." Furthermore in the article, it claims Graham Potter didn't get involved in the transfer. It sounds like he knew nothing about the deal, which may suggest the owner is employing a trolley dash approach to running the club. "Chelsea manager Graham Potter says he has "no idea" of how the Blues secured the signing of Ukraine winger Mudryk. The 22-year-old joined the Blues on an eight-and-a-half-year deal, but had looked set to sign for Premier League rivals Arsenal before he completed the move to Stamford Bridge. "We're delighted he is here," said Potter after the Blues' 1-0 victory over Crystal Palace on Sunday. When asked whether he had any part in convincing Mudryk to choose Chelsea, Potter said: "I've no idea in terms of how it's happened. "I've been focusing on the game, as you can imagine, but he's an exciting player - a player with real quality, a young player that will need time to adapt to the Premier League and to us, but we're delighted to have him." Todd Boehly, who led an American consortium in taking control of Chelsea in May last year, has recently stepped down from his role as interim sporting director, allowing new technical director Christopher Vivell and director of global talent and transfers Paul Winstanley to take a leading role in recruitment. Mudryk is Chelsea's fifth signing of the January transfer window following the arrival of Joao Felix on a loan deal from Atletico Madrid, plus the permanent signings of Benoit Badiashile, David Datro Fofana and Andrey Santos. Until this season Mudryk had only scored two goals in 47 appearances for three different clubs in Ukraine, but he increased his stature in this season's Champions League, scoring three goals in six games for Shakhtar. He could make his debut appearance for the Blues in the Premier League against Liverpool, who sit one position above 10th-placed Chelsea, at Anfield on Saturday."

You are quite right 10 points from 15 is a bloody good return considering where we were coming from after Gerrard. I think my doubts are based on the many years of false hopes where I think we have cracked it only to then be bought down to earth quickly with a bump. The FA cup performance and exit was one such bump, which has left me disappointed and has shown that some of shortcomings within the squad are still there. Saying all that, I am very hopeful of what Unai can achieve in the medium to long term with us. I just think we have left ourselves too much to do this year, but would love to be pleasantly surprised at the end of the season. There are no easy games in the PL, but like you say the next few matches could be seen as one of the more favourable run of games you could wish for. If we can win a good chunk of those games and remain unbeaten during that period then the feeling of hope will rise again. I think as a person I do tend to err on the side of caution though, especially when Villa are involved.

I think we can forget European qualification this season, I think our best chance was through the FA cup but that is no longer an option. In the league, whilst not impossible, We require too many teams to drop points, and we are not 100% convincing just yet. We seem to struggle in the games we are expected to win, so with that in mind the next few fixtures will either confirm or disprove that theory. Win our next three games and I might change my opinion on the qualification chances. I think top 9 would be as good as we can expect this season. Improve the quality of the squad in the summer, then we are well set for a push for qualifictaion next season.

If we can turn a profit on him then I would take the deal, if they are offering £30-£35m+ then I would bite their hands off and re-invest. I think Cash has great energy, and does a decent job but also has weaknesses positionally and with his distribution. He doesn't contribute as much going forward as I thought he would when we first purchased him from Forest. Like someone else said earlier, he hasn't kicked on like we would have hoped. To maybe cut him a little slack I am not sure if he is fully fit, he has been picking up niggly injuries this season. Firstly against Man City, then he injured his shoulder pre World Cup but managed to carry on playing, then seem to pick up a strain this weekend.