The_Rev

It already was, Bertie wore it last season after being recalled.

We've got a two legged play off in the last week of August (24th and 31st) before the group stage starts. There are still a few games to be played before we get involved, the second leg of the second qualifying round (1st-3rd August) and the third qualifying round (10th and 17th August). The draw we are interested in is on 7th August, when that is made things will become a lot more clear.

I really like it. Problem is the guy who removes sponsors on Twitter says it doesn’t work on white shirts.

Everybody had a passport this time? The Diaby goal was interesting, we are going to be looking for that ball over the press quite a lot this year but him and Ollie were almost standing on each other’s toes. I guess only time on the pitch together will iron those kinks out.

Pretty sure this is footage of Monchi receiving the offer from Inter.

Screenshot from a YouTube video (Villa on Tour) and I kinda like the pre match top. Would be nice if it were available at some point.

Perhaps not, but it sets a precedent that Newcastle have got a dumping ground for whatever players they deem surplus to requirements. If they are currently in the sign Craig Bellamy/James Miner/Samir Nasri phase of the Manchester City cycle they can fast track to the Pep Guardiola and Erling Haaland phase because they can always win in player trading. Selling Saint Maximan for a price that people can look at and consider ‘fair’ just normalises it all. He’s going to a club that won’t be a rival in any competition Newcastle will be playing in and they get the price as if he would. What’s to stop them doing the same with this Summer’s signings in two years and using the money to sign Jude Bellingham?

You can find last years kit in the sales and for the longest time last the flagship JD Sports on New Street had a huge Villa display on the most prominent shelves, but the new shirt is conspicuous by its absence. I work right in the middle of town and I’ve still not seen it on display in any shop. I’ve only seen a handful of people wearing it too. As a kit launch it’s a something of a wet fart compared to what other clubs have been doing.

Can you still only buy the shirt at Villa Park? I’ve been in the city centre every day this week and am blown away by the lack of visibility. Every shop you walk into has Liverpool, Manchester United, Arsenal (etc) yet nothing of the club who actually play here. Is Castore’s distribution network that poor that they can’t even reach shops three miles from the stadium?

Still screams of transfer silly season to me. He's been in the news because Atleti are back in pre season training and it seems he's lost his shirt number (7) and is probably not part of their plans for 23/24, but you can find his name linked with Manchester United and PSG just as easily as you can find it linked with Villa. It's media outlets writing stories they hope people will click on and/or agents trying to drum up interest.

Scudetto means “little shield”. It’s a tradition going back a hundred years.

That’s because we are fekkin’ massive. Seriously though, Flamingo Land is a park and zoo based in Yorkshire which is primarily looking to attract business from the large centres of population within an hour of its front door.

Yeah. I mean it’s kinda equivalent to Villa’s shirt sleeve being sponsored by Drayton Manor.

The stadium tour is going on the list. I'm trying to score some tickets to Sociedad vs Celta Vigo too, but they aren't on sale yet. Annoyingly Bilbao are at home the day we land and the day we leave, they've got Osasuna away in a Basque derby on the middle weekend but getting tickets to that might be almost impossible and I suspect the atmosphere could be tetchy even if we did go. There's still a small chance Villa will get Bilbao in the Conference League while we are out there and that would be amazing. I think I'll try and grab some sea food too. The Semana Grande festival is on too. Had no idea it was even a thing but it looks fun.

Former Barcelona footballer Luis Suarez.

I'll be on holiday in Bilbao on the day of the first leg (pure coincidence, booked it months ago) so I kinda hope we do!

It's a nail in the coffin for the league because it will just entrench the clubs with the most fans. Manchester United (62m followers on Instagram) will wonder why they need to share revenue with Aston Villa (3 million followers on Instagram) when there are a million metrics pointing to the fact that they will get a bucket load more money if they cut out the middleman. This happens for a few years and somebody floats the idea of the European Super League again, only this time it's much easier because the collective bargaining agreement has been severely weakened. I don't think there's anything we can do to stop it happening, but unless you support one of about six clubs in all of Europe then it's probably foolish to wish for it. We've already got a system where new fans of the sport just follow one of the elite sides and any changes to what we have will send us further down that path.

He's been involved in the coaching side at Everton for years and the players seemed to respond well to him when he was caretaker manager. He's also got a bunch of Premier League connections and maybe they thought he'd be able to secure loan deals on favourable terms by calling in a few favours. Hannah Dingley has got her work cut out for her though. Forest Green went down with a whimper last season and unless there's a massive overhaul of players this summer the squad is going to struggle next year too. I hope she's not screwed over by circumstances beyond her control, but I suppose she has to take the opportunity wherever it presents itself.

Sea Life Centre is fun with kids that age. The Lion King is on at The Hippodrome, the Birmingham Weekender is on at the end of the month (26th/27th).

Yes. Having the financial backing of a nation state will do that for you. Ashley was a crap owner, but even the best individuals can’t sponsor their own club shirts for five times the value of the previous deal.

No. They don’t spend any money and Eddie has done a great job on a shoestring. (/s)

It’s a remake of their away kit during the ‘Spice Boys’ era of the mid 90s. They wore it in the FA Cup final which was made famous by their white suits. I liked the original version, I’m not so sure about this one.

Buyout clauses in Spain are a bit more complicated than that, it was highlighted by Manchester United's failed attempt to sign Ander Herrera on deadline day ten years ago. AFAIK it breaks down like this: 1) Under Spanish law anybody has the right to buy themselves out of a contract they have with their employer. This isn't just for footballers, it's for any job in Spain but footballers are high profile. Football clubs will set a value for a contract which gets reported as the release clause. 2) The important bit of the first sentence is that anybody has the right to buy themselves out of a contract. This means the person subject to the contract is the person who has to pay the fee. Obviously if the fee is high (like, €50m) then finding that kind of money is borderline impossible for an individual but a third party can step in and stump up the money. Thing is they have to give the money to the individual buying themselves out, so the Spanish government will see that is income and want income tax on it, so a €50m fee would require a payment of €50m plus tax, which might be another 20 or 30% on top. 3) Usually it's quicker, easier and cheaper to avoid step 2 and just come to an agreement between the buying club and the selling club. In Chelsea's case Villarreal knew that there was a serious amount of time pressure on the deal so they were in a strong bargaining position, they could just ask for more than the release clause and be fairly confident that Chelsea would pay so that they could be in front of the July 1st cut off date for their 8 year contract.

I've been dipping into this since it came out. Not sure how far I am into it, nor what my hour count is. I'm definitely one of those wander round and smell the roses kind of guys when it comes to open world games like Zelda and as a result I'm really enjoying it. Obviously it's not going to have the same impact on me as BOTW did, that's an impossible task as BOTW was an industry shaking title in the same way as, say, Streetfighter 2, GTA 3, Call of Duty 4, Minecraft (etc etc) did in that there was a games industry before it came out and a different one after. TOTK could only refine what BOTW did so all of the impact would be lost. That said, I'm enjoying the sky stuff and the depths, the Zonai system is really clever and some of the stuff people have made and shared online is delightful. I love how Twitter became a platform for Korok torture videos for a while, and I really love how the game just lets you goof around. I concede if you are after a more guided experience and want to feel like you've made progress after every session then it might not light up the bits of your brain that you want it to, but for me it's great.

Been said a few times already in this thread but where would he go? Martinez isn't going to try and force a move out of Villa, he's got four years left on his contract with the club. He's never going to be more expensive for anybody who wants to buy than he is right now. Of the clubs who 1) could attract him and 2) could afford him, how many are in the market for a goalkeeper? Manchester United are probably one of a very small group but reports today seem to indicate that as long as spectacularly mishandling the DDG contract situation (they offered him a new deal which he signed, then they refused to counter sign?) they don't want to pay as much the Inter want for £60m for Onana so they are looking for better value elsewhere. Liverpool don't need a goalkeeper, Manchester City don't need a goalkeeper, Newcastle don't need a goalkeeper, Barcelona don't need a goalkeeper, Real Madrid don't need a goalkeeper, PSG don't need a goalkeeper, he won't sign for Spurs considering he's on a hiding to nothing if he goes (ex Arsenal, it's a borderline sideways move and their squad is in need of an overhaul) which might leave Chelsea who have two insanely expensive goalkeepers on their books already. I'd only be worried if both of them end up in Saudi Arabia too.