KentVillan

But we don't enjoy access to 100% of their wealth, so that isn't the right reference point. Other clubs have much more wealth held directly by the business, and generate much more cash globally through their brand (all of the 'Big 6' plus around a dozen other clubs around Europe). On balance, we're probably in Europe's top 20-30, in terms of our commercial prospects. Hopefully this will change, as more is invested in the club, and the results continue to come, but we're not there yet. Anyway, my point was that we shouldn't be worried about him leaving, and if he goes in the next couple of years, I won't see it as a betrayal.

I hope not, but let's see. I don't think being a minority investor stops him from being poached by a much richer club, but yes, in all likelihood he'll want to stick around here and at least try to implement a 5-year-plan. I just meant that we shouldn't be afraid of this possibility, because he's left a very good legacy already. The club finally has a coherent strategy.

Purslow is class. People calling him oily / snake / whatever, I think that's just typical of the role. He's an ambitious man in a sleazy industry. If a Champions League club come in and offer him CEO role, he'll probably jump without any thought for the club, but I don't care really -- the point is he came up with a strategy that has worked. Listen to all his early interviews, and it's clear he'd thought carefully about how to structure the coaching setup, what sort of coach would suit that setup, what transfer policy to adopt, and how to stay on board with FFP. He's done all the hard work, and deserves a lot of credit for getting us promoted.

Fair play! Would be good to hear the same from a few others who were getting on his back when the luck wasn't going his way. The quality he has which really shines through is good temperament. He didn't get carried away after the West Brom win, when Derby were out celebrating like they'd won the Champions League. He never threw any of his players under the bus when results weren't going his way. He's even managed to get the best out of players who we thought were done - Taylor, Adomah, Whelan... arguably even Hourihane after he was getting booed by his own fans. He just seems a really calming influence on the club. We'll need those qualities next season, because life's about to get tough again. I love his "be a good teammate" philosophy, and I love how we look like that on the pitch. A genuine team, who celebrate together and have ambitions as a team, not just looking ahead to their next transfer. Been years since I've seen that at Villa Park. UTV

It looked more like a sprain from the way it happened, and he seemed in too much pain to just be cramping. Was a superb tackle, by the way. Would have got a lot more credit for it if they hadn't have scored straight after. But the weird thing is he seemed to be running around after the game, so I don't know if he just has injury fear or what. I know some players who've struggled with injury tend to expect the worst whenever they get a knock, so maybe it just gets in his head. Or perhaps he's been playing through injury for the last few games. Will be interesting to find out. Despite all the praise McGinn is deservedly getting, for me Mings was MOTM. There were a few moments of absolute calm where he turned serious Derby goal opportunities into counter attacks for us. "Rolls Royce" defending. Definitely someone we should be signing this summer.

I wish Dion had headbutted him harder. But I agree it would be much better to have several big clubs chasing Jack than just one. Especially a badly run, desperate club like United. Personally I suspect he'll realise that one more season at Villa won't do his career too much harm. I reckon only a really elite club with genuine Champions League prospects could tempt him (I don't include Man Utd in that) -- Liverpool, Man City, maybe Spurs if they keep Pochettino.

Whelan played 90 mins at DM when we beat Derby 4-0 at home. Hourihane was playing as one of the more advanced midfielders, where we currently start McGinn and Grealish, so I don't see this as an argument for starting Hourihane, unless you want to drop McGinn or Grealish? In the 3-0 game, he did play as a deeper midfielder (although the lineup is listed as a 4-4-1-1 / 4-2-3-1 with Hourihane and McGinn both sitting - not sure if that's correct?). However, Derby were missing Mason Mount, so we didn't have a Number 10 to worry about. With Mount fit, Derby are dangerous through the middle, and it makes sense to play a specialist DM. We have enough talent (Abraham, McGinn, Grealish, El Ghazi) to score goals. I'm more interested in having a good shape, especially in the first half, as we try to get a handle on the game. A good shape isn't just a negative defensive thing. It's also what allows full backs to overlap and centre mids to overload the box without being exposed. Whelan's game is to give other players that freedom. Hourihane's natural game is more selfish. Remember DS's catchphrase: "be a good team mate". It's about winning the match, not individual stats. Hourihane is still a quality option to have on the bench - either covering the attacking mid roles, or coming on for Whelan if we need to unlock the door.

I don't think starting Whelan means we're playing a defensive game, or stops us from pushing on. Some of the most attacking teams in the world play with a DM. It's just about having a better shape and having more composure in the middle. Hourihane is panicky and I question his decision making.

I don't think alcohol is a huge problem for a young player with two weeks to go before his next game, even if he's hammered in that photo. Probably just knackered tbh? Can't see it having any impact on the play-off. What he might want to think about is how long a career he wants. The lifestyle choices are a slow burner. He'll notice it as he nears 30.

Wolves had a coherent strategy, Fulham didn't. Clubs who have immediate success with European transfers often get several players in from the same country. Arsenal and Newcastle had a lot of joy taking players from France. Wolves with a Portuguese manager, couple of established Portuguese players from their promotion season, were well placed to welcome some new Portuguese players or players who had played in Portugal. At the other extreme, you have clubs like Burnley who sign virtually all of their players from English lower leagues, and have good success with that. So it's more about consistency than anything I think. If you just randomly throw money at a load of highly rated players from wherever, it usually ends in tears. Given the makeup of our current dressing room, I'd look at English lower leagues, Scotland, Ireland, France, Holland, Scandinavia for good value players who can fit in quickly.

I agree with you. We're too fixated on how a naive kid handled the media over a few weeks, and ignore the several seasons of very good service that led up to it. Hard to argue with his decision now. We forget that "loyalty" is often a cover for a lack of ambition. There was a great comment from Pochettino recently where he said he wants to have players who push for transfers to bigger clubs: https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/tottenham-boss-mauricio-pochettino-reveals-16242819 I'd like to see us have this mentality. We should be a club where players come to prove themselves and try to win things, not a comfortable job for "nice guys" who say all the right things on Twitter.

I **** hope so. Only one way to find out - spank **** out of Derby on Monday and build a PL team around him.

Got 2 assists in a Champions League semi-final, despite a frustrating season with injuries. 5th highest assists in PL 2017/18, 6th highest goalscorer in PL 2016/17. And still only 23. The idea that there are loads of young players of Alli's proven quality floating around Europe is ludicrous. Yes he had a bad World Cup, and yes he's gone missing a lot this season, but he's a top player. Whenever I hear someone say "X is better than Alli" it's usually someone in their late twenties, playing at their peak, so an unfair comparison. Can you really think of many players his age or younger who are doing what's doing? Mbappe is clearly ahead of him, but otherwise he's in the same bracket as Asensio, de Ligt, de Jong, Dembele, etc. Perhaps Foden will overtake him. I'd also be very keen to see how Grealish gets on next season.

Overrated by Spurs fans, yes, but he's very clearly a Champions League quality player. He does take people on (but that isn't his job), he does score long range goals, and he can take control of games. He has had some injury niggles in the last 12 months that have held him back a bit, but he was superb the 3 preceding seasons, and he's still only 23. His qualities are his movement, his first touch, his range of passing, the speed he moves the ball on, his aerial ability, his workrate (you cannot win Pochettino's trust without doing the hard work). Different player from Jack, but would look equally as dominant if he dropped down to the Championship. He was a fantastic signing from League One. I also think James Justin fits a similar profile -- playing at a lower level because it's his hometown club, where he progressed quickly through the youth system. He's won their young player of the year and has been a regular fixture in a dominant league season for them this year. I have more confidence in that kind of profile than someone who failed to break through at a Prem club, dropped down, moved around, etc. With those players you always suspect there's a flaw that has forced them down to third tier football.

Sure, and I'm not disagreeing with the basic sentiment that we should be financially prudent. My point was that it's possible to spend "big" in a sensible way. The £69m that Wolves supposedly spent was much more sensibly invested than the £67m that Brighton did. I think the unfashionable positions - full back, keeper, defensive mid - are where we can afford to fork out a bit of cash on proven talent, because the premium is lower for those positions, and they will significantly improve our chances of nicking points and hanging on to leads. Wolves apparently picked up Joao Moutinho for around £5m, and Rui Patricio for £16m. Those are the kinds of transfer I'm thinking - players with real class, who have perhaps dropped a level with age, but can solidify the team while you develop your youth (exactly what Whelan did for us this year, to be honest). If they're good pros and enjoying their football, you can still get several years out of them.

I disagree to some extent. There are sensible risks we can take in the transfer market which will improve our chances of staying up. We just need to get the maths right. In some positions we look weak even by Championship standards, and these weaknesses will be ruthlessly exposed in the Premier League. I'd be willing to pay a premium for a defensive midfielder with some top-flight experience, and likewise for a couple of decent full backs. Ideally players with a good injury history. The premium for proven quality players in these positions is less financially risky than forking out on a big name striker, and I think it would be money well spent. But I agree in the sense that we shouldn't just start flashing the cash at old players with no resale value, or injury prone strikers, or a Billy Big Balls who's going to upset the changing room. We need to have a long-term plan, and part of that plan should be accepting that we may be scrapping with Brighton etc for 17th place.

This makes sense. Which Villa penalty taker has Johnstone spent the most time facing in training? Almost certainly it's Kodjia. Taking a one-off penalty against a keeper is very different from taking several penalties. Remember Cristiano Ronaldo scored a penalty in open play for Man U v Chelsea in CL final, and then missed in the shoot out? Think that's quite a common occurrence in World Cups as well.

Yeah, and however much I love him as a player, any transfer fee needs to take into account the injury risk.

If we go up and buy him (we should), El Ghazi might benefit from us playing against better teams. Could see him being more dangerous on the counter or against a high press, which we haven't really seen much of this season. You look at his early career stats and reputation at Ajax, and we could have stumbled on a real gem here. Ajax fans seemed to have a fair amount of sympathy for him after his falling out with Peter Bosz, and the way that all unfolded suggests that while he might be humble in conversation with a journalist, he's not lacking in ambition. Definitely the kind of personality we'll need next season.

I think one of the things DS has instilled in us is good discipline. You watch that Leeds v Derby game, and you see two teams, gloves off, just having the footballing equivalent of a 12 round brawl, with all tactics out the window. West Brom tried very hard to throw us off our stroke, and ended up picking up two red cards in the process, without particularly riling any of our players. I could easily see something similar happening to Derby. I just don't see us letting Derby turn it into an end-to-end free-for-all in the same way Leeds did. The Berardi red card was so stupid. The only player on our side I could see doing something as stupid as that is Hourihane, and DS seems to be getting a better tune out of him recently. Our good discipline, and the options coming off the bench, mean we should win it. But obviously Derby have some dangerous players and a bit of momentum... not writing them off. It's going to be a nervous bank holiday weekend

The media will report this as Fat Frank and Cashley vs. JT, only angle remotely interesting to them... maybe something about Jack going to Spurs. Anyway, **** off Leeds.

Haha this is class.

Got to say I think West Brom were the toughest opponent for us. They had a good system for frustrating our attacking players and exploiting our high line. I think Leeds and Derby will both let us play football. Not saying either of them will be easy, but think it will suit us a bit more.

This is much better to watch than West Brom parking the bus and kicking the shit out of Jack for 3 hours. And my blood pressure is nice and steady. Derby looking useful now!

Yep I wasn't really talking about his passing. I meant his shots and set piece delivery. And tbh, I don't think you understood the point I was making (in the bit you didn't quote).... I wasn't really praising him.