Rightdm00

Only £44 million spent on permanent transfers so far by all 20 PL clubs. Even more interesting, only one signing for a PL first team, Radu Dragusin (spurs). While the winter window is always low activity, this is a really quiet window. FFP definitely keeping clubs from throwing money around. 

Another big plus for the non big 6 clubs. Big 6 clubs can't destabilize challengars by breaking up winning teams. Should lead to great season finish for Top 4 or 5 and the title challenge. 

This guy is going to drive the body language police crazy. Good showing tonight. Keep it up Jhon. 

Rule it off already so we can score another. 

Leicester not winning another title may be FFP related but them getting relegated was completely due to their own mismanagement. For me, FFP has performed admirably. The league hasn't been this competitive, top to bottom, for 20 years. Teams like Brighton and Villa can keep its talent without having to bow to the financial might of the Chelsea/Man City types. 

It can definitely be improved upon but to think we should repeal and go back to the way it was before is madness. We would be a mid-table club with no chance of a top 4 finish within a season. 

22 minutes ago, sharkyvilla said:

I was wondering whether owners could have the option of say paying in x amount of money to a central PL fund/bank, once it's cleared the club then gets it back to add as a form of revenue but pay something like a 10-20% tax on top which gets divided up amongst the rest of the clubs.

Sounds like a luxury tax which MLB and the NBA use. 20% wouldn't be enough though to stop nation states from buying titles. Would need be punishing once you got over a certain cap, say a 2 for 1 tax for every dollar an owner wants to spend over that cap. 

Without FFP Newcastle would have stripped us for parts the same way City did 15 years ago. For all of its flaws it's definitely better than what we had before. 

1 hour ago, Adam2003 said:

Keep reading about Duran’s supposed immaturity while this lad gets booked for dissent twice in a week or two

 

Ref was having a shocker. Showed great maturity in picking up the booking but never getting close to another yellow. 

Looks like Zaniolo got the final inadvertent touch from an offside position. No VAR saves us there. 

On 27/12/2023 at 07:53, Mantis said:

Lol at BBC Sport declaring this a "new era". They'll go back to being shit next game.

Spot on with that prediction. Can I get some lotto numbers next please. 

Slow as molasses. How did Barcelona ever think he was champions League quality. Great b/u to Pau for this season though. 

40 minutes ago, Keyblade said:

Getting better. Few more matches until we see the JJ of old I reckon. Must be a sickener for Zaniolo though, having to watch him play himself into form while he rides the bench.

Zaniolo got 15+ games while Ramsey was injured. His fault for not locking down his place in the first 11. 

4 minutes ago, HalfTimePost said:

I thought my stream had died he took so long to take his pen. 

Nope, just wanted to make sure everyone was watching. 

On 28/12/2023 at 15:07, Tom13 said:

His minutes per goal is dropping again. Only Jackson in the PL's top 10 scorers has a worse goals per minute than him.

Hopefully he can get back on the scoresheet against Burnley.

Not this argument again. Don't you know strikers are measured by goals scored and that's it. The modern game demands nothing more from your front man. 

Edit:  Ollie is #1 in the PL for Goal Creating Actions and 10th in the entire PL if you go by per minute. So once again who are we getting better than Ollie. 

7 hours ago, Delphinho123 said:

As much as that might be true, I’ve never bought into the idea that there isn’t enough quality in the Championship. 

I mean, look at some of our better players. McGinn, Mings, Watkins. Then there is the likes of Buendia, Cash. You’ve got the likes of Bowen at West Ham, Olise and Eze at Palace. Lots of quality has come from the championship or played in the championship. I’d actually argue the standard of football in that division is better than most other leagues if you take the big clubs out of the argument. I mean, Leeds vs. Ipswich. I bet that’s a better game than Udinese vs. Bologna. 

I don’t know a lot about Summerville other than he’s very quick. BUT, buying from the championship doesn’t bother me one bit at all. 

 

It's not that buying from the championship is bad. It just takes awhile for most of the players to adjust to the PL. Look at how long it took McGinn to find his footing. Sometimes you get a guy like Ollie but he wasn't cheap. So given that your January signings usually need to hit the ground running I doubt we make that move in the winter. 

Highly doubt we will be doing January transfers in the championship. 

Ross Barkley playing like man who has refound his love for the game. Great story. 

Has one of the best celebrations in the PL, sucks but he knew the celebration police would have been all over that. 

2 hours ago, Tom13 said:

You do know Ramsey's been injured? And by all accounts if Zaniolo is good enough we have the option/obligation to sign permanently anyway.

Yes he has been injured so he deserves a longer run than 2 games to reintegrate. Zaniolo has been pants for pretty much this entire campaign. Jacob's play over 2+ season has earned him some grace to work his way back into the form. Can't do that from the bench. 

5 minutes ago, Genie said:

We should batter them. United won’t sit back and defend against us, they’re at home too. They’ll have to play, which should suit us. 

2-0  

Was thinking the same. 

Not sure which would be better, United comes out in a low block at Old Trafford praying for a 0-0 or they come and press us and we put 3 or 4 past them. 

Honestly calling what Sheffield did a low block is not doing it justice. At times they had all 11 players below the 18 yardbox. They showed no inclination to even attempt an attack.  Missed Buendia badly as he and a player we probably need to acquire in the summer will be needed when coming up against this strategy in the future. 

4 hours ago, DakotaVilla said:

Ramsey needs to be dropped. We all love him and know how high his potential is but he needs to feel the pain to redouble and refocus his efforts.

Zaniolo has been through that journey and deserves a start now. 

So Zaniolo, a loane, gets 10+ starts but Ramsey can only get 2. Way to show one of our star boys from last year some faith. 

23 hours ago, oishiiniku_uk said:

I know these kind of articles are completely arbitrary, but how does Watkins come 98th in the Guardian's 100 best male footballers when Darwin Nunez is 78th? By any metric Watkins has been one of the best strikers in Europe this calendar year and yet Nunez, Lukaku, Isak etc. are all above him. Do these things get rated on 'vibes' or what? 

Unless that's a list of footballers who miss clear cut chances then no way should Darwin ever be ranked above Ollie. Go ahead and toss that out with the trash in morning. 

1 hour ago, PaulMcGrath_5 said:

Surely, you mean that you couldn't care less? 

Yep. Trying to VillaTalk while in work meetings. 

1 hour ago, Vive_La_Villa said:

I seen a picture sent around which looks like insta of him trying to pull up Maupay by his shirt with a comment ‘We never give up, boys showed big character today’

I can’t see it on there though. 

Oh no I love him even more now. 

If we win trophies I i could care less if everyone else hates us.