KentVillan

I like the team Newcastle have assembled and I like the manager. But you're deluded if you think people dislike Saudi govt ownership of a football club out of pure envy... maybe get out of your football bubble a bit and think about what it actually means, and who they are. Besides all the well documented human rights abuses, which you may or may not care about, they've just agreed to drive up the global oil price with their OPEC cartel in collaboration with Russia. You'll be enjoying better football on the pitch, while your day-to-day life gets noticeably shitter because of their actions. It's madness that we're letting despotic governments use our national football league to sportswash their image. All so you can watch some more talented footballers. It's no different from when Pablo Escobar bankrolled Atletico Nacional to the Copa Libertadores in 1989.

Overplayed, but it’s a great song

Feel like Twitter is really starting to fall apart as predicted now? It's so buggy now and just full of nonsense. Shame there's no real alternative for that format of information sharing

Knowing what we know now about how many innocent black Americans have been murdered by the police, I think a lot of those 90s hip hop tracks resonate This one is particularly poetic Not so much a fan of the crusty middle class socialism brand of political music, it’s all a bit Sean Penn / Angelina Jolie IMO, but always had a soft spot for Masters of War by Bob Dylan (edit: including the Eddie Vedder version just posted by @VILLAMARV)

There is something so innately naff about them though isn’t there. Of all the little wealth flexes people do, they are up there with flashing your watch in photos and leaving labels on clothing

Watch it again, Young was already chasing back and was our deepest defender, so I don’t think backing off any further was an option. He thinks about the shirt pull, but Barnes is on the edge of the box by the time he catches him and he doesn’t want to give away the pen. Only thing stopping that goal is more pace… someone like Walker probably deals with it, but most don’t. Just a really really good goal (and a great ball by Faes).

In fairness to him, the Barnes goal was absolute class. A lot of much younger, first choice PL right backs would have been done by that touch

Funny thing is, it's still very much the same Ollie Watkins. It's not like he's suddenly scoring worldies from outside the box. He's just being given the right service and used in the right way. The goal tonight was the sort of thing he's always been capable of.

Really think he's the perfect manager for us. He doesn't want the limelight and a squad full of egos. He wants players who have a point to prove and want to step up a level. This could be one of the most magical managerial appointments ever. Fair play to Sawiris. He interfered in the best way possible.

Boring to keep reminding people that he’s one of our star players, they’ll be back when the ball bounces off him and someone scores

Missed the game, can someone give me a little run down? @fruitvilla review was good, but what was the story arc? Did we deserve it?

My postman is called Eric Djemba-Djemba

I love both bands, but it is a bit weird the way people worship some fairly basic jangle indie songs they’ve made. Reni is probably the standout musician across the two, I think he would make a lot of bands sound incredible.

Marr has done more stuff, wider variety, kept evolving… I find him a more interesting guitarist and more focused on the song. Squire wins the shoot out with Love Spreads.

Even his "And it's LIIIVE" at the start sounded like late career Alan Partridge. I missed the Lungstaff line, but "Where there's a Willock" made my entire anus implode

Yeah, suppose it depends a bit on mood and genre. I mean I like listening to choral stuff which is very much not sung in a conversational way. But if I think why, say, Aretha Franklin is a better singer than Mariah Carey, it’s that Aretha sounds more like a big acoustic guitar and Mariah sounds more like a hair metal lead guitarist tapping out pentatonics. Same reason why Leonard Cohen or Lou Reed are better singers for me than a lot of more technically accomplished singers. All subjective obviously, and the best singers are unique in their own way.

Yeah but I think we would all be livid if that was a Villa goal and got disallowed

Didn’t see much wrong with that goal tbh, he would have scored regardless

Ffs, it’s like watching someone try to change the TV channel in an old people’s home

I don’t think Rodgers going will change much initially. Still fancy our chances

I know exactly what you and @mjmooneymean. There’s a conversational quality to a really good singing voice - it’s like they use more of their talking voice.

We still have some of the big characters and natural leaders from the Smith era - Mings, Martinez, McGinn - I genuinely believe these 3 love the club. Dougie Luiz also seems to be growing into that role too. And Ashley Young seems to be really enjoying his comeback now, too. Emery has combined that with the ruthlessness that Gerrard claimed he was bringing, and that we did need, but he's done it in a way that hasn't involved picking fights with the big personalities... and the results help, too, of course. One of the things I loved about the Smith era (at least the first 2 or 3 seasons) was it felt like everyone in the squad had a part to play. Whether it was AEG or Hourihane or whoever, most of our squad made an impact at some point, and looked motivated to help the team. Under Gerrard we lost all of that, the fans started to lose interest, and the squad looked disjointed. Now there's that feel good atmosphere in the stands and on the pitch, and you know that when Emery brings someone on in the second half, they'll do a job and enjoy being part of the win. It's crazy really to think that today's starting lineup featured 6 players who've made more appearances for Villa than any other club (Martinez, Mings, Konsa, Luiz, McGinn, Ramsey). Watkins will be going past his Brentford total soon, and Young has made more Premier League appearances for Villa than Utd. So that's 8 players who are "Villa players". Contrast with Chelsea today who had just 4 who can say the same - Kepa, James, Loftus-Cheek, Kovacic - and a couple of those probably only playing because of injuries.

Emery's only had 5 months with the team, with a World Cup break in the middle, and a packed fixture schedule. Some of them like McGinn are clearly good learners who like being coached. Others maybe not so much. I think we'll see some more McGinnesque transformations after the summer. McGinn is just one of the standout examples right now, because he's bright and he was desperate to turn things around. Others will follow, I'm sure of it.

The Watkins thing was worse because he was actually turning out quite a few decent performances when he was getting attacked by our own fans. McGinn is a strange one as he really did have a massive dip in form for an extended spell, just constantly stinking the place out. Given the quality we have in midfield now, I didn't think Emery would be relying on him much, but fair play to him, he's given him a new lease of life... he's a genius.