sne

Is a bunch of talented young Scandinavian players about currently. Most of them are out of our reach or have just moved this year thou. Wouldn't have minded any out of Robert Skov, Erling Haaland, Alexander Isak, Sander Berge, Dejan Kulusevski and Martin Ödegaard to name a few

I know as a Villa fan I am expected to "hate" Birmingham City, but I don't care about them. Living is Sweden I've yet to meet someone who supports them, at home or abroad. They've hardly ever posed a challenge to Villa and mostly been playing in lower divisions. Obviously I want us to win when we play them and I get why people who have to be around City fans all the time dislike them and their fans. But for me they are just insignificant and a nothing club I struggle to get engaged about.

I'm a couple episodes into S4 but I'm at a point where I'll only watch if there is absolutely nothing else to do. I think the high scores for S3-4 is partly down to casual watchers like myself dropping off and only the hard core fans staying on. As I mentioned some people really like it a lot. I'd say the acting is soap opera telly level poor in many places, but perhaps that's me not understanding how future space people are expected to act.

I think it's extremely overrated, but then again I've not read the books. For me it's a 6/10 bang average show but not poor by any stretch. It's supposed to be gritty hard sci-fi but I just can't get into it. The world in the show doesn't really work for me, it's almost but not quite. Apparently there is a lot of people who do like it, a lot, so it may very well be up your ally.

Our big issue in the summer was that everything had to be done in such a short period of time. It was a mad scramble and likely forced us to both gamble more than we would have wanted and also spend more than we should have. We had to build a whole squad almost from scratch in 6 weeks. And I know some have suggested that we could have kept guys like Jedi, Hutton or Whelan but that would have been cruel on them. They were so far away from PL quality. Once again now in January we are in desperate need of reinforcements and I hope we have been planning for it so we can make some early deals.

19 y.o Swede Dejan Kulusevsk (Parma) named player of the month for December in Serie A. Sweet!

Certainly not to us, no.

Weren't we interested in Rafael Leao at one point? Can't imagine he'll get much time at AC Milan now that Zlatan is signing for them. Not had a good season but at least he is rapid, maybe a loan with option to buy if he performs?

Björn Engels agent Evert Maeschalck claimed it was he who suggested Wes and Nakamba to Jesus. http://sportwitness.co.uk/pitarch-connection-helped-aston-villa-raid-belgian-market-summer-helped-three-transfers/

The Daily Star reporting that Manure is readying a double swoop for Grealish and Mings in January. £80m and possibly Tuanzebe going the other way. Probably not happening

One for the "unpopular opinion" thread perhaps but I think I still prefer Grealish out on the left for now. If nothing else because our wide options are pathetic. Hourihane & Grealish is pretty much the only ones of our players who seem to have an understanding of each other and can pass and move to create something. While a CM of these 2 together might be too weak I still like them on the pitch together (perhaps not against the top sides) so Grealish on the flank. Now teams have read us because we are very predictable with the get the ball to Grealish "tactic" and maybe he is easier to double team in the flank than in the middle but on the other hand I think our CM options are better than our wide options so for the greater good I'd stick him on the flank. It's not like he's not involved out there. Or in tune with the festive season maybe we could try the Ancelotti 4-3-2-1 Christmas tree formation.

This I'd be willing to try. Especially if Grealish is playing centrally again as the need for the LB to overlap would not be as high. I just don't see Mings body holding up at LB. He is too big and has previous issues with his knees. He's also looked cumbersome and frankly a bit slow and wasteful on the ball for the latter part of this season. I suspect he's been carrying an injury for some time before he got injured more severely. As for Targett he is OK, but he is slow and just like Taylor did he is allowing the wingers too much time and space.

I'm gonna stick my neck out and predict that Norwich will not sell their one goal threat to a relegation rival and that we will not have him on any shortlist of potential targets. However long that list may be.

The last time Mings played a league game at LB was a 12 minute sub cameo for Bournemouth against Leicester on the 25th of August 2015. He did play a game as LB in the League Cup against Blackburn in September last year but I can't see how it makes him our best LB. What are you basing this on? He was moved to CB because he injured his knees and can no longer play in the way he did before, And that was 4 and a half years ago.

For me the worst is in films where fire arms is an established thing but you still get the protagonist waving his arms and legs against some similarly specked baddie time and time again, preferably in some fancy location. I get it, they are both really hard guys. Can we move on with the story (if there is any) please

And in other news https://www.mirror.co.uk/sport/football/news/michail-antonio-crashed-lamborghini-garden-21167760

Fight scenes in movies is tedious and boring.

Why I used the " around home. As in AC Milan is "home" It was always going to be AC Milan and not Inter even thou he played there and supported them as a kid when his idol Ronaldo played there..

It's about moving "home" for him. He's not moving there to win things. He brings a lot of things to a club off the field as well and in Milan he is huge.

Stats are just stats, in this example they reinforce a picture we all saw. Our wide players were awful and that is the reason I still rather play Grealish on the flank. But Wesley doesn't understand the role he is playing and is out of position all the time. He lacks the instinct to be a striker and doesn't even look like he want's to find himself in scoring positions. There was 1 time when he was in the general area where a cross flew through the air and he didn't even jump. He certainly isn't our only issue but he is a pressing one.

According to Whoscored he had 59% passing accuracy, the worst of all our starting players today. Had the least amount of time on the ball of all our starting players today with 2.5%. Won 2 out of 4 aerial duels, made 1 tackle, committed 2 fouls, 1 offside and had zero attempted shots, on or off goal. I don't think he was our worst player today but equally he was hardly involved and almost constantly out of position.

1 CF and 2 wingers if Grealish is going to play centrally.

Zlatan expected to sign for AC Milan sometime during this week. It's the city he want's to live in and the club he's been happiest in so can't be a surprise for anyone who knows anything about him. Only stumbling block has been the details of the contract where he wanted a 1.5 year contract and Milan a 6 months with a 1 year option. While not signed yet I never really saw him moving anywhere else this time if he was to carry on playing.

Newcastle getting destroyed by Man U. Takes a huge amount of luck to pull off results the way Newcastle are playing. If you only have 30% possession you really are riding your luck. Sit super deep and try to break quickly have worked really well for them but it's not really sustainable over a whole season I think. Might have picked up enough points already to stay up thou.