Ginko

Bent is Arsenal through and through.

Pretty sure Bosnich and Spink overlapped at some point, didn’t they? Not sure how good Spink was by then, though, as I was still in single figures at the time.

I do think the criticism Olsen gets is OTT, but I can’t say he fills me with confidence whenever he plays, and as @Condimentalist alluded to in his post above, it looks to me like it has a knock-on effect on the outfield players, too. I also question why a keeper who is Sweden’s number one and still young enough to be playing on a weekly basis elsewhere is happy to sit on our bench. That to me reeks of a lack of confidence in his own abilities, and that he’s quite content to pick up his wages knowing he’ll only play the odd game every now and again. Quite a conclusion to jump to, I admit, but that’s just my opinion. The expectations have gone up a couple of notches since Emery came in. If we really want to challenge for CL places this season and get to some cup finals, we need a dependable back-up goalkeeper. I’d prefer to go either for a solid keeper in his twilight years or a highly rated youngster, but I appreciate those aren’t easy to find. You’d like to think our young keepers are highly rated, but obviously Emery trusts Olsen over them for some reason.

Perhaps the problem is the people at the club who choose the final design. Presumably they’re given a number of options?

Better than I thought it’d be, but I’m not sure about the pattern. It’s supposed to be ‘a unique design that showcases the lions that have represented Aston Villa throughout its existence’, but I can barely make anything out except for a couple of claws. I don’t hate it, but it’s very abstract if that’s what it’s supposed to represent. Also, it looks like they’ve gone monochrome with the badge, and whereas I don’t hate it, it seems pointless if the original colour scheme matches the colours of the kit, which it definitely does. I think the proper badge in claret and blue would look better. Either way, I’m not buying it with that reprehensible (and ugly) sponsor on it, so I guess it doesn’t matter what I think.

‘Too many players! We’ve got too many plaaay-ers. Too many players…’

He’s not wrong… In Spanish he’s known as Tiggre.

I think it’s more to do with being an unknown quantity, the hope being that they’ll settle into the team quickly and explode onto the Premier League scene. Of course, that rarely happens, but at least you can still hope for that with players from other leagues. Less so with those who have played PL football before, especially if they got relegated. Never that simple, though, is it?

If we sign him, hopefully he’ll be a right jem.

Possibly, but then why did he use the pen emoji? That’s pretty much synonymous with signing a contract.

Fair enough. I don’t think he’ll ditch the lion altogether, but I don’t think it’ll be a lion rampant. I’m looking forward to what they come up with. It’s about time our brand was brought into the modern era.

All evidence suggests Chris Heck was brought in to spearhead a rebrand that will make us unique and instantly recognisable. A lion rampant is far from that. I think a lot of fans who want to keep our traditional imagery are going to be very disappointed by the time this project is completed.

Oh it’s definitely a huge improvement, but is it ever going to be globally recognisable like the big clubs? I don’t think so. Perhaps the higher ups weren’t happy with how Purslow (assuming it was him) went about the rebrand, so rather than spending millions changing the badge on every conceivable physical and digital platform, they’re waiting to see how it does because Heck and his team don’t reckon it’ll do the job. Just a theory. I agree it’s a bit of a shambles, but I used to work in design and my girlfriend still does, and the best designs are always the ones where the client provides a few clear parameters and then trusts the designers to do their jobs. I think we put too many constraints on the re-design and listened too intently to far too many people regarding what they wanted, hence why we wound up with two very average, bland designs. I imagine our owners have far bigger aspirations than that.

Perhaps we should sign Pascal Groß whilst we’re at it?

I think Bob Vance from Vance Refrigeration might have something to say about that…

Yeah, we probably won’t if we’re being as ambitious as the media claims. Probably why we wanted Alemany as DoF, for his supposedly legendary skills of negotiation. Best not to get our hopes up, I feel. If we can pull one or two major signings off then it could help with the rest, but it’s going to be tricky to compete with biggest clubs in the world, most of which can offer CL or Europa League football. Nothing wrong with aiming high, though. I just hope we have good second or third options.

Maybe the mods know something we don’t? Either way, let them do their job.

I’m sure we could get a deal with Nike or Adidas nowadays, but the deal wouldn’t be as lucrative for us as lesser-known or upcoming brands like Castore. That and we’d be far down their pecking order in terms of priority. Besides, when we had Nike we finished sixth three times in a row, so we were a more attractive proposition.

Evidently not, but to be fair to Purslow I’m sure it was a hell of a lot easier selling Liverpool to potential brand and sponsor partners than it is Aston Villa, especially when he took over here.

It hasn’t been handled particularly well, I agree, but it’s a lot easier for teams like Liverpool to get long-term partnerships with kit brands and sponsors than it is for most clubs. That and they will treat ‘big clubs’ with priority. I’m sure we’re not the only ones that wait so long to sort our new kits out. Also, I think it’s important to take into account our growth over the last few seasons. With each passing year we’ve improved and made ourselves a more attractive proposition for brands and sponsors, so it makes sense to keep contracts short so we can get better deals that reflect our higher league position the season or two after. Hopefully it’ll plateau in the next few years and we can get lucrative long-term partnerships that will enable us to get the kits out much more quickly and smoothly, as well as being more beneficial to the club overall. I’m sure that’ll be on Purslow and Heck’s to-do-list.

The state of some of these reactions… We’ll have been planning our summer transfer strategy since Emery joined, so I don’t think this will impact things at all. Things at Barca clearly changed since he said he was leaving to come to us. It’s just business, it happens. There’s not many clubs that can compete with the pull of Barcelona, and who wouldn’t rather live there than Birmingham? Doesn't at all reflect badly on us, and it’s not embarrassing that someone who works at one of the biggest clubs in the world would want to stay there if the circumstances suited them. We’ll move on and appoint someone great, keep the faith.

I reckon so. I’m a bit surprised so many posters here don’t think it was a penalty to be honest. He looks to just about be onside when he starts his run, Martinez doesn’t get the ball and does impede him. Yes, Kane could have jumped over him and he definitely leaves his feet trailing to catch him, so he’s looking for it, but it’s still a penalty. If Watkins did the same thing, I think all of us would be saying it was a penalty. Of course, the ref wouldn’t have given it to us, but that’s a different story.

Irony makes a nickname even better. Long live Big Heck!

I suggest you look at our final league position history over the last twelve years to put things in perspective. Absolutely bizarre take.