KentVillan

Have you ever had a view or interest that was seen as a bit odd by most people at the time, but later was widely accepted as correct / the norm?

Who do you think does it?

Emery got that spot on. Just lacking a bit of squad depth to really take advantage of the situation, but we weathered a hell of a storm there. I gave the referee a "poor" because although he got most of the decisions right, that 10 mins of added time was absolutely ludicrous.

Where the **** has that 10 mins come from

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-65658609

I think all those happy smiley daytime Tv presenters are frauds though aren’t they… to differing degrees. It’s impossible be as permanently nice as they pretend, and to build that level of brand around yourself implies a decent helping of narcissism. Ellen, Philip Schofield, Eamon Holmes, Jeremy Kyle, Noel Edmonds, etc **** the lot of them. I don’t see them as fallen angels because they’ve always been fake clearings in the woods.

Morrissey is a good shout. Also Michael Jackson I guess. There are some reverse fallen angels though, like George Michael or Michael Schumacher. People who I didn’t really like who turned out to be very very good people.

Kevin Spacey.

Jim Davidson. Was probably obvious at the time that he was a clearing in the woods, but to me as a kid he was just the guy who presented Big Break, which I loved.

Think it also helps that he's in a squad where they can rotate him whenever he's showing any signs of wear and tear. At Villa he will have been playing through minor injuries and fatigue a lot more often, which is usually what causes the problems.

Hard to make that judgment if you haven't watched him besides the odd England match He's definitely improved a lot tactically and defensively. Attacking wise, I think he's still much the same player, but more restricted in what he's allowed to do.

It's absurd. The Premier League and Sky have been huge facilitators of the gambling culture in this country.

In fairness, he absolutely served it up on a plate for Haaland, and was involved in the build up to one or two of the goals (can’t remember exactly). And defended well. It was a very good performance. Just not sure why people are getting so carried away with it being a magical ****-all-the-haters performance. He was also up against the biggest fraud in the Madrid lineup. The real shame (for those who care…) is his one really good driving run ended in a fluffed through ball. That would have been some goal.

He's 22 and been out for an appendectomy recently. I think that's all there is to him supposedly being "out of favour". Still City's 2nd highest goalscorer in the Premier League this season, and 43 appearances across all competitions. Everything Guardiola has ever said about him suggests he sees him as the future of the club. Grealish is at prime age now, and by all accounts not looking after himself properly. So imagine he'll deliver another 2 or 3 years of high quality European football and then have a meltdown and start being papped out and about in a Villa shirt, engineer a move here, deliver a handful of good performances at VP, retire at 32, bankrupt at 35, regular on TalkSport by 40.

That illustrates the point about chance creation, though? Grealish's "chance creation" stats are far better than KDB's, but he's slightly behind on xA, which suggests he's setting up more low quality chances, whereas KDB is playing people in for sitters.

Fair point, haha. Yeah I'm not suggesting he's crap. I think he's probably a top 50 player in the world. Incredible touch and ability to retain possession. What keeps him below the KDB, Bernardo, etc type players is his passing isn't incisive enough. How often do you really see him unlock a defence in the way KDB or Foden did last night? Pep has found a job for him out wide that he does very well, and he's probably about to win a famous treble in the best team of its generation. So can't really criticise his move or his form. Just think he's getting a bit overrated atm because he's English and very media friendly. Bernardo Silva is a much smarter and more dangerous footballer. Of the current crop of English players I'd take Saka and Foden over him too.

Also, at the risk of sounding like @rjw63, it's amazing how much more fiercely people defend Owl Hair on here than they do most of our current squad.

If we go back properly through to the 90s and to the European Cup era, when this stat wasn't even recorded, then players like Charlton, Keegan, Hoddle, Waddle, etc. would all feature. In recent times, most likely Rooney, Beckham. The clue is in how few of Jack's "chances" convert into goals. A better stat would be expected assists (xA) which would factor in the *type* of chances he's creating, and would give more weight to players who are splitting defences with their passes, rather than just having lots of touches around the box. Jack creates a lot of low percentage chances because he recycles possession around the box. It's not a criticism of him as a player, I think he's class. Just pointing out that this stat inflates his contribution to games.

I think PEDs during injury recovery and some borderline / hard to detect practices like blood doping etc are probably quite common on an individual level. Doubt it’s the majority doing it, but a significant minority. But the stuff you describe in this post sounds a bit fantastical tbh. Black holes for eyes. Hmm.

He has, and not saying he isn’t a talented, creative player. But there’s a suggestion he’s created 10 more chances than literally any other player in the competition, and that he’s the most creative English player *ever*. His stats are inflated, which is why his assist:chance ratio is so much worse than KDB’s. He’s an excellent player, top 50ish in the world, maybe. He’s not the leading creative player in European football.

In the entire history of the Champions League? I’d say there are a couple perhaps

People have stopped watching games with their eyes. There's no way on earth Jack Grealish is the main chance creator in this City side or in European football. He gets credited with a "chance created" every time he drives to the edge of the box, runs out of ideas, rolls a hospital pass back to someone 30 yards out, and they blast it wide. That's why he has only 1 assist out of 35 chances created in the Champions League. Whereas KDB has 7 assists out of 21 chances created. Grealish had an excellent game, no doubt... kept possession well, and it was a beautiful cross for the Haaland chance. But the idea he's now England's most prolific chance creator at this level... madness.

It’s good to see him playing well again and justifying what we all said when he was here. He’s a very stupid man and full of shit, but what a player.

I think it’s translated into generally a lot more physical contact and heavier tackles / physical contact being handled more leniently. It’s not quite the 80s or 90s but it’s definitely a much more physical game today than it was 3 or 4 years ago.