The_Rev

Pundits were drooling over it on MotD. Obviously it's not going to get the headlines that Garnacho's overhead kick did but it was a delicious finish. The quick feet made it, Vicario was not expecting the shot to come as early as it did, he'd taken half a step to his left when Ollie controlled the ball with the outside of his boot and by the time he'd got his foot planted the shot was heading towards goal and it was too late.

There's a large Polish diaspora in the West Midlands, I suspect a lot of them will be Legia fans and will just go to hang around with their people in town anyway. I know if I lived somewhere in Europe and Villa were coming to town I'd go find the Villa fans before kick off regardless of whether I had a ticket or not.

He's already on the longest term contract in Villa's managerial history. The club haven't put a number on it, but we've had quite a few managers sign four year deals so unless the press release at the time was a lie then Emery is under contract until at least the end of the the 2026/27 season. I think it's clear the club are committed to him in the long term, in the 13 months he's been here there have been a huge number of appointments in key areas which are geared towards making Emery feel at home. We bought in scouts he's worked with for years at previous clubs (link) we've bought in his old partner in crime Monchi (link) and we look set to announce a partnership with Real Union, a third division Spanish Club from the outskirts of San Sebastian where Unai Emery grew up and now owns (link). Unai was out in Milwaukee during the international break with Wes Edens (link) and while I can only speculate over what they were talking about, I'm guessing it wasn't all basketball. The club's commitment to Unai seems rock solid right now.

Scored again today after missing the last two Madrid games and the England internationals with a shoulder injury. Still top scorer in La Liga and he now has the most goals (14) after his first fifteen appearances in the history of Real Madrid. For context he's ahead of Cristiano (13) Di Stefano (13) and Puskas (11). I don't think it will last, partially because I think Madrid will buy a centre forward next summer, but right now they really aren't missing Karim Benzema and who would have said that in August?

He's new to the league. His team plays exciting football and he seems like a decent guy. He's also good copy, which journalists love as he will give them quotes they can work with. I'm sure metrics are involved too, Spurs have 3 or 4x the number of followers across social media channels as we do, a lot of that will turn into clicks. Obviously it's not a one to one thing and Spurs might have inflated numbers because during the decade where Social Media really blew up (2010-2020) they were having one of the most successful periods in the club's history, even if they weren't delivering trophies, whereas we were slumming it with the dead men. There's been loads of pro Villa stuff during the international break, did you not see it? There's no circus around Unai either, so column inches aren't being generated by drama, nor is he a guy that neutrals could sit and listen to for ages. Some of that is his personality, he seems pretty chill but some of it is just because he has a thick Basque accent too and it's not easy on the ear. I don't care either way, the Villa stuff is out there if you know where to look, just don't expect the BBC, Sky or whoever to start acting like a fan channel.

Newcastle and Brighton did and we smashed them. Really impressed with Spurs so far. They use the ball really well and they are very good at shutting off our passing lanes. We are weathering the storm but only just.

It was a foul throw.

Can’t allow this observation to go unnoticed. You aren’t far wrong. Everything I’ve seen of Nunez just shows he’s trading on athleticism. Has he always been the biggest, fastest and strongest guy on the pitch? At his age (24) there’s still time to improve his technique but he came through the Peñarol and has been at Benfica and Liverpool so it’s not like he’s this unpolished diamond that just needs good coaching, he’s had that his entire career. Maybe this is as good as he’ll ever be and just bringing the chaos and having the occasional afternoon where he’s unplayable because of physicality will be enough.

I don’t know for sure but I’d be very surprised if it wasn’t. From everything I’ve heard, through the grapevine but from people who would know, is that the police are concerned about Warsaw fans and the enhanced security at recent games (we had mounted police at Luton!) have all been dress rehearsals ahead of Thursday night. I’d go with the assumption that you won’t be able to walk towards Witton Station via Witton Lane or the North Stand Car Park.

Just needs a Bundesliga title and a couple of Ballon d’Or wins to truly emulate Keegan’s time in Germany now. Veering off topic but re: Ballon d’Or, it does feel like this one was the end of the Messi - Ronaldo era. The next one is wide open and you’d feel that a couple of English players, namely Kane and Bellingham are in with a real shout. It will probably be dictated by what happens at the Euros but on club form those guys are making the right kind of headlines.

Now the international break is over there are some weekend previews up and one of them (BBC I think) mentioned that Harry Kane would have already won last season's golden boot in the Bundesliga, which was shared by Niclas Füllkrug and Christopher Nkunku who both got 16.

They’d have a historic claim because between the days when UEFA was founded and the early 90s the flag of Kazakhstan was this: Their people were citizens of the Soviet Union and played in UEFA competitions. Any player in the squad right now who is older then 31 was born in a country where the capital city was Moscow. Most of the population will be in the same boat. When the transfer from AFC to UEFA happened (2002) only the people who were below ten years of age would have been born after the Soviet era, so while a lot of things you say are true when it comes to negotiating with which federation your football will be played in, Kazakhstan have a strong cultural and historical case.

They certainly do things differently over there.

It seems like a really odd timing of an announcement. If he's had bad news from the doctor then why broadcast it now? He's got a contract until 2026 so it's not like there's any time pressure on him. I know he did an ACL at Bournemouth and missed a year there, was it the same knee?

Lerner also got divorced at the same time. That took a huge toll on his ability to back Villa.

He’s carrying Mo Salah.

Forest are pretty good at home. They picked up 30 of their 38 points last season at The City Ground and they are unbeaten there this season. I’m not trying to say it wasn’t a disappointing result but they are one of the bottom half sides who a lot of better teams will drop points to away from home. We do need to pick up the pace a bit though. Rationalising defeats isn’t the same as putting points on the board. If we are shooting for 70 points and Champions League contention then 25 points away from home is a bare minimum.

So. Um. Tifo like us now!

They’ll just buy weapons from France or China instead. The sad truth is that wheels need to be greased and sport is one of the most visible components.

Some mental gymnastics going on there. Lineker once turned up to MotD in his boxer shorts.

Saw the replay. That’s on Lindelof.

He’s not gonna want to pull a hamstring six weeks before he’s due to fly out to Munich.

Ramsdale won't say anything because he's not stupid but there's a story out there and a thirst for endless content, especially at a club like Arsenal (who have 8-10 times as many followers on social media than we do, and their match highlights have 4x as many views as ours on YouTube) so the simple truth is it exists because people click on it.

That would probably be just picking up returns. But yeah, I’m happy to go to some of the ‘lesser’ fixtures. Denmark vs Austria in the groups or something. I’ll start laying groundwork now though.

Taking this off topic on the first page, but I just realised I might need to do some homework if I want to get to Euro 2028 matches. Last time I went to a tournament was Euro 96, only did one game (Scotland 0-0 Netherlands at Villa Park) but it was possible just to buy tickets from Villa Park a week or two before the game. What's the procedure these days? I'll bet I've not been to an England game in ten years but I'm more than happy just to do the games at Villa Park in the Euros regardless of who is playing.