The_Rev

He's just seen the highlights from last night.

That's a big if isn't it? The club aren't stupid, or at least they aren't that stupid. The standard model for Champions League remuneration to players is a +% bonus for being in it, not pretending you didn't notice what happened to Leeds United in the 00s.

I get what you are saying but losing our games and bowing out while collecting the money and status that comes with being a Champions League club is better than not being there at all. The simple truth is that being in the big cup opens up a whole new world of revenue streams, sponsorship deals and transfer targets that simply aren't interested in anything else. Look at the rise of Spurs over the past 10-15 years for example, they've hardly been operating on a shoestring but most of the good things which have happened to them have been predicated by good business in the transfer market and half a dozen Champions League campaigns. It's better to get in and use that as a springboard than wait for a day (where you go in with a competitive side) that may never come.

Why not? Don’t you want us to qualify for it in case it messes up our chances of qualifying for it?

He’ll not keep up this insane rate for the season but unless he gets injured then 50 in all competitions has got to be feasible. edit: last six weeks on Whoscored.com's "latest matches" form guide:

Yeah, he'd still do a job for us. I think Guardiola want's to keep him for now though. The ball for Foden's goal last night was absolutely delicious.

The term is borrowed from cricket (it’s taking three wickets in three balls, apparently the first time it happened in a competitive game some people in the crowd were so impressed they bought the bowler a new hat. ) but it would have almost certainly been used for football in the UK first.

Away from the team news, do the club have anything planned to honour Charlie Aitken? It's our first home game since his passing.

We are losing every 50-50.

Germans are weird. But really I was hoping someone would bite so I could do my crappy visual dad joke.

Clearly not in the same half as the other two.

Still hasn’t scored a hat trick if you go by the weird German definition that all goals need to be scored in the same half.

I think all their fans live in Bromsgrove and Lichfield.

Imagine what Rio is going to be like this evening if Fluminense win!

I know Wembley fairly well though my job. The company I work for has a depot a hundred metres south of the stadium (circled on the map) and I’ll find myself there a few times a month The old stadium was built in pretty much the same location but they moved it by a similar distance as Spurs moved their stadium. The main reason with Wembley was because the old stadium was squeezed right up against the road (South Way) and railway line, the new stadium has much more space for crowds to circulate and vehicles to access on that side and the stands are much much wider because they contain so many more facilities. If you laid the old stadium on the new one then the twin towers that adorned the north stand would be in the middle of the pitch at the new stadium. Preserving the towers would have required either not making the new stadium fit for purpose (which would have made rebuilding it pointless and unlikely to happen) or taking them down brick by brick and rebuilding them only to find that because of the scale of the new building they’d look like Stonehenge at a Spinal Tap concert. It was a shame to lose them but any call to have saved them doesn’t stand up to any kind of scrutiny.

I often forget how close we came to oblivion before NSWE came along. Man u fans will never know what's it's like to support a team that has true lows. What do you mean? They had that one season where they finished 6th and only got to the Quarter Finals of the Champions League.

This was actually a thing. (Emu war)

He's been done dirty by Mainz. I thought he'd be unable to find a new club now as he'd already been registered with two clubs this season but it seems the rule got changed in 2020/21 to allow for three. Hopefully someone picks Anwar up because he doesn't deserve this.

Marvellous, isn’t it?

This is delicious. Forcing them to watch it in Paris and then giving him another trophy for it is just off the charts level of rubbing their faces in it.

I actually don't mind that. I agree that it's probably something that has come down from boardroom level and while it's easy to roll your eyes at 'prescribed fun' I feel enough people will buy into it for it to have a positive impact on the atmosphere in the areas of Villa Park that aren't called the Holte End.

This one has been doing the rounds over the past couple of days and I love it. I'd have this framed and put on the wall at Bodymoor if I were the coach who drills our defensive line because damn. The fact that the opposition player looking gormless is one Ross Barkley really is the icing on the cake.

Before my time, but he was Mr Aston Villa. Hopefully they’ll be a good tribute in our next home game against AZ.

I was right behind that. I think it’s the first time I’ve ever been in the lower North but was maybe ten yards from the chance and to be fair it was a hell of a save. One thing about being so close to the pitch is the little things you see players do that are easy to miss. I didn’t realise Dibu and Pau had such a bromance going on, they were acting like an old married couple at times and it was fun to see Diaby struggling to believe that Zaniolo missed the chance after five minutes, he stopped to watch the replay on the big screen just to see what happened.

Not sure what to add other than that I’m jazzed that we are putting games to bed after an hour. It’s got to be good to be able to drop into second gear for the final 30 minutes when games come thick and fast. As for the performance? We are just a lot better than Luton. On another day it could have been 6 or 7. Zaniolo needs a goal, Dendonker isn’t anywhere near as good as Douglas Luiz and Diaby is class, but we knew all of this already.