SJSharky

2 hours ago, tomav84 said:

kessler should count as club trained now right?

Yes! Thanks for the correction. I'll fix the original post. I had looked his 'date joined' wrong and thought he had been on loan too much to count as club-trained for UCL, but obviously he was a part of the youth team before that.

5 hours ago, East London Villa said:

The way I had read the rules last season, you need a 3 year stretch at Villa OR 2 years with a max 1 year loan in between to achieve club trained status. If that is still the case, I’m not sure that Louie Barry is eligible for UEFA List B either.

Yeah, the same rules AFAIK. You are correct about Barry. I wasn't going to include him in the list originally so forgot to check.

19 minutes ago, OutByEaster? said:

I'm confused, if Duran and Nedelijokovic are both U21, why are they in the first list?

I addressed this later:

56 minutes ago, SJSharky said:

If I understand the registration rules correctly (quite possible that I don't), while Duran, Nedeljkovic and Lino Sousa count as U21 players in the PL, they can not be named in the UCL B List, because they've not been at the club for 2 years. Therefore they would take one of the 17 non-home grown spots.

I didn't go deeper into the registration rules and was wondering myself if we could register Duran in the B List for the knockout phase in 2025 once he's been at the club for two years. The wording wasn't clear on the UEFA site, whether it meant 2 years before the player's first registration or the current registration.

I was going through the list of our current players and squad registration for both the Premier League and the Champions League next season. I thought I might as well post a few observations in case anyone else finds them interesting or helpful in structuring the current squad.

Non-U21, non-homegrown - Maximum of 17 in both PL and UCL
1. Douglas Luiz
2. McGinn
3. Bailey
4. Torres
5. Diaby
6. Tielemans
7. Kamara
8. Buendia
9. Diego Carlos
10. Digne
11. Moreno
12. Olsen
13. Gauci
14. Zaniolo - probably not in the squad
15. Lenglet - probably not in the squad
(16. Duran - for UCL)
(17. Nedeljkovic - for UCL)
Didn't include: Dendoncker, Coutinho, Hause

Homegrown - Minimum of 8 (incl. club-trained) for a full 25 player squad
1. Martinez
2. Watkins
3. Konsa
4. Mings
5. Cash
6. Rogers - no longer U21 next season
7. Chambers - probably not in the squad

Club-trained - Minimum of 4 for a full 25 player UCL squad A List
1. Ramsey
2. Kesler - no longer U21 next season
3. Archer
4. Sinisalo

U21 - Don't count towards the 25 player limit in PL or UCL, unless mentioned otherwise
Duran - can't be named in UCL B List
Nedeljkovic - can't be named in UCL B List
Sousa - can't be named in UCL B List
Iroegbunam
Kellyman
Others: Marschall, Barry, Bogarde, Revan, Chrisene, Munroe, Feeney, O'Reilly, Young etc...

We're already at a point where we need to pretty much start with moving players out before signing new ones. Rogers and Kesler are no longer considered U21 players next season.

If we want a full A List squad of 25 for UCL, we would need to sign at least one more club-trained player (eg. Grealish, Philogene) (Edit - not true). If we don't keep Ramsey, Kesler, Archer or Sinisalo, we're basically giving away a spot from the UCL squad. Picking Sinisalo as one of the main three keepers would release another spot for an outfield player compared to choosing Olsen and Gauci like we did this season.

Someone like Barkley would add a homegrown player for the PL squad if we're going to be short otherwise. Assuming Chambers is moved on and Archer and Sinisalo are still not considered, we currently have 8 homegrown players for the PL squad. You'd think Martinez, Watkins, Konsa and Rogers are absolute certainties for the next season. Then there are:
Mings and Ramsey - I can only see them not named in the squad/sold if there are serious issues with their recovery, or FFP/PSR reasons in Ramsey's case
Cash and Kesler - not in the squad if Emery deems either not good enough/not suited for the tactics, possibly a loan in Kesler's case

If I understand the registration rules correctly (quite possible that I don't), while Duran, Nedeljkovic and Lino Sousa count as U21 players in the PL, they can not be named in the UCL B List, because they've not been at the club for 2 years. Therefore they would take one of the 17 non-home grown spots.

This season Emery didn't have a full squad and I think he mentioned earlier in the season that he doesn't feel it's necessary to have a 25 man squad, which is probably usually true. It's already difficult to keep everyone happy if you have two players for every position, assuming we have slightly better luck with injuries. Obviously you can also utilise the U21 players.

Feel free to correct any mistakes.

48 minutes ago, WHY said:

Just prior to the Mings injury yesterday we had a free kick that was played out wide. The ref blew up and in commentary they said it was for offside, it clearly wasn’t for offside though as Digne was miles on. Does anyone know what the reason was for the free kick against us?

42 minutes ago, sne said:

Swedish commentator speculated it was for obstruction. Which is funny since that didn't apply when Newcastle did it before their offside goal.

It was prior to the yellow card foul by Emi Martinez if someone wants to check for themselves (around 52:30 played in the first half). The exact same foul by Kamara on a Newcastle player as the one on Cash in their 2-1 goal that the VAR team had a chance to rewatch and ignore.

I don't care if the referees interpret fouls and offsides differently than I would. I just want some (any) consistency.

5 hours ago, lexicon said:

Emery gave him quite a talking to after about 15 minutes of him playing against Walsall - I think he was annoyed that he wasn't following instructions and I think maybe that's what has bothered previous managers about him too. How he played after that talk was very different too; perhaps more subdued but much more positionally disciplined. 

It might be that he's a bit stubborn, arrogant or dim and has been difficult to train. 

When he came on after half time he played behind Watkins in the Buendia/Bailey role. After we made the rest of the substitutions in the 65th minute he moved into a defensive midfield role. I doubt he was given a "talking to", but rather tactical instructions.

The easiest way usually is to open the Match Centre (and move to the correct game if necessary) and the live video/audio will be in the Live Match tab, assuming you've logged in. A direct link for the Burton match: https://www.avfc.co.uk/Fixtures/2010 to 2019/2018-2019/English League Cup/Burton vs Aston Villa?matchdetails=1

15 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

Where have you got that from?

I googled him and there were reports by a few Finnish football media sources from February/March.

7 hours ago, sir_gary_cahill said:

According to the Birmingham Mail, we’ve signed Finland u17 goalkeeper Viljami Sinisalo

Apparently he signed a pre-contract in February and has been training with the youth team since.

If you ever need a jogging partner, give Micah a call. The man loves his jogging.

Aston Villa Football Club - the blind lion reaching for a star?

I never even complained and I got an e-mail telling me I'm getting a free month. The least they could do is be consistent, I think. Check your spam folder, maybe your e-mail offering the free month got trashed accidentally.

I don't think I got the email. I was checking the junk folder regularly for another email I was waiting for. But if I did manage to miss it, it's permanently deleted by now. My subscription hasn't been extended either, or did you get a promotional code for the free month?

I sent in a complaint after the Luton match and only received an apology. Didn't Jack promise during the Wycombe commentary that all the AVTV subscribers would receive an email this week?

Wouldn't really do much with an extra month anyway and as long as there are no further problems with the friendlies, I guess I'll have had my money's worth.

 

Surely if the player himself says that there's something in it then that's more believable than any ITK?

 

The only things the player himself seems to have said on Twitter are retweeting something he was asked to retweet, acknowledging he has new followers from England and stating there's nothing concrete, but he'd like to play in the Premier League. Villa not having shown any interest in him would definitely count as nothing concrete.

I really don't think there's anything more to this and can't see us signing any more central defenders anyway.

A light push in the face these days doesn't usually result even in a yellow card (though it should), never mind a red. Once again **** over by the referee.

There's not much point in even having 22 players on the pitch, when the referee and his minions seem to decide the result in about half the Premier league matches. I think we've definitely been on the losing side of these decisions time after time this season, making it almost impossible to stop the poor run, no matter who the manager or the players on the pitch. And it's not just about Villa, it's also completely ruining any enjoyment watching the other games as a neutral football fan for me.

Today I could not see Sunderland scoring until that decision, Villa maybe. And while everyone focuses on Houllier, I'm still thinking we're more likely to get relegated if we sack him now. I didn't really want him as the manager when he signed, but I'm still willing to give him time and believe he will at least get us into mid-table safety. That is, unless the supporters turn on the team.

Finnish Canal+ web site has this same poll at the moment. The current results after 378 votes are:

36.2% Villa

40.5% draw

23.3% Chelsea

Not that this really matters in any way, but it's an interesting comparison. Either outsiders have a lot more confidence in Villa (at least in Finland) or people are just more likely to choose who they want to win on the Canal+ site, while people here are voting more "honestly". Usually, you'd expect the fans to favour their team.