NeilS

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.

I think what we lack is leaders with tactical nous out on the pitch. It feels like our players sometimes need a player to dish out a rollicking or two on the pitch if standards start to drop, someone who can carry out the managers instructions. Dare I say it, someone like Roy Keane in his prime or a Jordan Henderson. I hope this is something that UE will look to resolve fairly soon.

Yeah Coutinho being in the team was a major part of the problem. He was one of the main creative forces in the team that did not create a thing. He was one of the players who was always trying to thread intricate passes through a packed centre of the pitch, which bar one instance where Sanson scored was not threatening the Stevenage goalkeeper. He was tidy, but ineffective in my opinion. The less said about his shooting the better, all bar one of his shots sailed high and wide, the one on target was staright down the goalkeepers throat. I am not sure what he offers for us as a team going forward.

Agrees. Neither are good enough for a top team. We won’t get to where we want to with players of this level. Mid to lower league table players, we needed better to replace Grealish. We should have spent big on one decent player, rather than waste the fee we received on inconsistent performers.

Had the opportunity to make it 2-0 just before half time but tried to control with his left foot, then slipped over. Pretty much sums his time at Villa to date. I would look to move him on in the summer, and replace with someone of UE’s choice.

I had this discussion with my Dad on the way back to the car. It’s like arguing which is the worst dog turd. Nyland was at least a decent shot stopper at times, Olsen doesn’t seem to even have that in his locker. I am not sure how he managed international caps.

Unai found out today that most of the fringe players are not good enough. That looked reminiscent of the performance versus Watford last season with us trying to thread the ball through the middle all of the time. The passing was laboured, and didn’t really stretch their defence other than on a couple of occasions. The defence was a shambles, Olsen what can I say, I would play a youth goalkeeper over him. What was that at the end! Shocking! For me, Cash, Coutinho, Bailey and Olsen are not good enough. I am sure there are many others. I am so disappointed, I felt we could have given this year good go as a route to European qualification. I hate that we rested so many first team players, and now we are out again. I think I read that we haven’t won any of our last 8 FA Cup matches, that alone is a disgrace.

Tony Morley was my first Villa hero as a young lad for that exact reason. The rest of my list agrees with you, but with possibly Platt replacing Mellberg. Platt wins out for me because of the goals he scored for us, and the goal for England against Belgium was a proud moment for a young Villa fan at school surrounded by annoying Spurs and Liverpool fans. Yorke played some sublime stuff for us, I remember him making a fool out of Southamptons Ken Moncur and Francis Benali in one game.

Yes! Are we going to return the favour from last season with a late turnaround? Come on you Villa boys!

oh yeas, just noticed the year.

David Gold RIP David Gold West Ham co chairman and ex sha owner has passed away at the age of 86. I hadn't realised he was as old as that.

Loan has now finished according to the OS. I guess we will set up a new loan hoping for more match experience in the next loan.

There is now an article from the Express and Star on News Now which highlights the injustice towards us.

To be fair to Neville, he played for Man Utd so it was seen as perfectly legal tackle when he did it.

Pepe, should have scored. That was the chance.

Should have finished it then!

Blimey, how don’t I remember that game. 4 red cards, and there could have been more.

I have never seen so many cards dished out in one match, and I don’t think I have seen anyone booked during a penalty shootout before. The referee has had a nightmare.

It looks like it was Dumfries according to the bbc.

It looks like it was Dumfries who got the second yellow according to the bbc.