Zatman Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 3 hours ago, useless said: That post had already been quoted on waccoe within five minutes of me posting it on here... type "villatalk" into their search engine and you get over 100 results... For some reason they've become obssessed with VIlla and this website. All the Leeds fans from last season still using the accounts. Amazingly none posted again after Derby knocked them out Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 5 hours ago, useless said: Daily Mail have an 'exclusive' story today that the premier league are threatening to impose relegation on the bottom three if they oppose playing at neutral grounds, insisting that the best way for them to survive is to earn it on the pitch. If that's true, which of course it may not be, then it sounds like they're saying either the season goes ahead with relegation, or it will be decided on PPG. Resort to blackmail then Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulC Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 2 hours ago, bannedfromHandV said: Probably been raised already but is there a danger some players may not want to even come back to football at all. Im thinking more the ones who’ve earned substantial amounts already, perhaps over the last few months they’ve realised it’s not as important to them as family or even some other hobby they may have started during the lockdown. Yes many don’t need to work again so why should they I guess Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 Before the premier league decide anything, they've got to be told whether it's going to be safe enough first, if government turn around and say they can't play even behind closed doors then they'll just have to cancel the season and then decide what happens with relegation and promotion... These are quotes from the daily mail today... "But fears about safety could yet prove a stumbling block. A cross-party sports group - comprising experts from football, cricket, rugby and horse racing - met the Department for Digital Culture Media and Sport on Wednesday to discuss safety protocols. These protocols have yet to be presented to the Professional Footballers' Association and the League Managers Associations before the Premier League clubs are asked to approve them on Monday. Medical experts from the Premier League and the government will then present the protocols to a senior player from every club in an effort to ease concerns over their safety." All Football App Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadridVilla Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 I don't know if I'm missing something but what's the point in playing at neutral venues? If the concern is that fans will turn up outside the ground I would imagine moving Villa's games to Leicester won't stop fans travelling if they want to go. Also for bigger clubs who have fans across the country, it wouldn't matter where you move the games to because there will still be fans nearby who can congregate outside the ground. If they're that concerned why not set up a roadblock outside stadiums and fine people who turn up. Also if the PL threaten dissenters with relegation it's a pretty hollow threat in my opinion. They can't send Villa down having played a game less than everyone else around them, and PPG is a non-starter. They also couldn't send all 6 dissenters down, so to punish 3 with relegation and 3 with no punishment would surely be unfair. I'd guess it's just tabloid talk taken out of context. The best thing to do is to play the games behind closed doors at the normal stadiums, and create a backup plan in case the season still can't be finished before the end of July. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 1 minute ago, MadridVilla said: I don't know if I'm missing something but what's the point in playing at neutral venues? If the concern is that fans will turn up outside the ground I would imagine moving Villa's games to Leicester won't stop fans travelling if they want to go. Also for bigger clubs who have fans across the country, it wouldn't matter where you move the games to because there will still be fans nearby who can congregate outside the ground. If they're that concerned why not set up a roadblock outside stadiums and fine people who turn up. Also if the PL threaten dissenters with relegation it's a pretty hollow threat in my opinion. They can't send Villa down having played a game less than everyone else around them, and PPG is a non-starter. They also couldn't send all 6 dissenters down, so to punish 3 with relegation and 3 with no punishment would surely be unfair. I'd guess it's just tabloid talk taken out of context. The best thing to do is to play the games behind closed doors at the normal stadiums, and create a backup plan in case the season still can't be finished before the end of July. I think idea is they get the 3 clubs currently outside the drop zone to vote to relegate those currently in it Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 (edited) I think the point of the of neutral venues is that it makes it easier to quarantine the players, but if you're having to quarantine players from a deadly virus then they really shouldn't be thinking about playing football in the first place. Edited May 7, 2020 by useless 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The_Steve Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 The Premier League know the headache forcing relegation on clubs will bring in terms of lawsuits will bring. They are trying to distract from the inevitable. It's all PR to them. Ghouls. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 3 minutes ago, useless said: I think the point of the of neutral venues is that it makes it easier to quarantine the players, but if you're having to quarantine players from a deadly virus then they really shouldn't be thinking about playing football anyway. Its about the policing for the matches and using less built up area's ..but if the EFL are not doing it seems pointless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MadridVilla Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 20 minutes ago, Nabby said: I think idea is they get the 3 clubs currently outside the drop zone to vote to relegate those currently in it I wonder which way they'll vote? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post John Posted May 7, 2020 Popular Post Share Posted May 7, 2020 (edited) 5 hours ago, useless said: Purslow quotes from Henry Winters' twitter, the actual interview is behind a paywall so don't know if he said any more... "It (no relegation) is an idea out there. It was billed to me as, ‘This is a way that cuts through all the compromises that people will be asked to take.’ It’s serious, it’s been thought through & needs to be debated properly"... "I don't think neutral venues are by any means the only issue that needs to be resolved that goes to the heart of ‘is this still a competition everybody signed up to’. But I remain of the view that we're going to complete this season. It's a question of when & how not if"... "You’ll have players desperate to get back to work with the attitude of ‘I'll take my chances’ & players with circumstances where it won't be practical or comfortable. The single biggest challenge we've got is to get those protocols signed off by everybody in football"'... “It's obvious with 500 footballers that we're going to have positive tests and that's going to impact on teams’ ability to field a full-strength team. There are a lot of teams mathematically capable of going down whose squads can’t survive 3 or 4 players falling ill,"... The quotes from Purslow from the above interview in today's Times: “We’re nowhere near having found the formula to complete the season,” “I’m told how keen government are to get football back. I remain of the view that we’re going to complete this season and it’s a question of ‘when and how?’ not ‘if’.” “Yes, of course I have to look after my club’s interests but there is a duty on 20 Premier League clubs to find a formulation that we know is nowhere near perfect but gets football back to complete the 19-20 season so that crucial issues at the top of the table can be resolved but that doesn’t ask people to agree to incredibly damaging changes for their own particular clubs. People have to see through that we need 20 clubs to be happy and that’s the statesmanship job that’s needed at the moment in the league. “I don’t think neutral venues is by any means the only issue that needs to be resolved that goes to the heart of ‘is this still a competition everybody signed up to’. “It’s about anything and everything to do with full-strength sides and squads. What happens with sick players, or players who are symptomatic, that ultimately means you’re weakening teams. There are a lot of teams mathematically capable of going down whose squads can’t survive three or four players failing ill, not being able to play. If Villa had to a play a match without [Jack] Grealish, [Tyrone] Mings and [John] McGinn the chances of winning that game reduce enormously. “You can’t compare it to normal season when on January 1 Tom Heaton and Wesley, our goalkeeper and our star centre forward, ruptured their cruciate ligaments [away to Burnley]. That’s bad luck and that hurts teams like us and we take that on the chin. But we’re talking here about a known, global, devastating epidemic that is still at large. It’s obvious with 500 or so Premier League footballers that we’re going to have positive tests, that players are going to get sick and that’s going to have an impact on teams’ ability to field a full-strength team. “I don’t know what the solution is. I’d obviously like a rule that says we don’t have to play if our best players had Covid. We’re trying to complete a league quite quickly to give our broadcasters a product they want to show but how does it really work if after two games everybody’s off? You tell me.” “Even in the executive group in the Premier League shareholders group we haven’t even been shown yet what they call ‘return to play’ protocols. So I haven’t discussed it with my players at all. The sense I get around the players is, like society generally, you’ll have people absolutely desperate to get back to work and have the attitude of ‘I’ll take my chances’ and you’ll have players with particular circumstances where it won’t be practical or they won’t be comfortable. If I was a betting man I would say that the single biggest challenge we’ve got is to get those protocols signed off by everybody in football.” “Although it all sounds extremely scientific, players being able to do physical conditioning work where they’re socially distanced in conditions that are completely sanitised and safe I think those are very doable. It’s a completely different ball game moving from socially distanced individual training to contact football and we haven’t had sight yet of those protocols.” Concern for players’ welfare, clubs’ economic health and the debate about the nature of sporting integrity are inter-woven here. There is talk of some executives among the bottom six wanting no relegation, but doesn’t that send sporting integrity up in smoke? “I heard about that [the idea of no relegation] on Monday morning,”. “It’s an idea out there. It was billed to me as, ‘This is a way that cuts through all of the compromises that people will be asked to take.’ So it’s serious, it’s been thought through and it needs to be debated properly. There are lots of aspects on which 20 teams are going to need to compromise and some of those will be tough choices that, and these are your words not mine, ‘send sporting integrity up in smoke’. “Ditto neutral grounds which obviously for a team that’s got six home games out of 10 left tilts the balance well away. Neutral grounds is a really serious issue for Aston Villa. I don’t think the Premier League in any way, shape or form wanted to entertain neutral grounds. It’s not coming from the Premier League. I think that’s coming from probably the police.” The fear of relegation is compounded by the reality of falling into the financially stricken Championship. “I was astonished when I arrived 19 months ago in a League of which I had no prior experience to see how broken the financial model in the EFL was, particularly the Championship. League One and League Two clubs are all well run, they’re obviously now devastated by no fans in attendance as they are run on the basis where fan income is used to cover carefully controlled wages. But the Championship model has been broken long before Covid and I have real empathy for [new chairman] Rick Parry because he’s taken the job and out of nowhere a crisis has occurred, a devastating epidemic, which instantly brings to the fore the financial crisis the Championship already had. “With the [wage] referrals we took at our club, the conversations I had with my players is, ‘We have to make Premier League clubs even stronger because without the Premier League there is no pyramid.’ We already essentially do fund English football whether it’s directly through solidarity or indirectly through our clubs loaning players, or buying players that keeps the pyramid self-funding. There’s an ecosystem in football but is completely dependent on the revenue-generating capability of the Premier League and that’s the way it should be. “Do you think today three teams dropping down into a league that we were told yesterday is insolvent with £120 million [parachute money] is a good use of that money?” No. “So surely anyone could see that saving that money so it could be used to help fix the financial problems faced within the Premier League and elsewhere in football is quite an ingenious idea. Problems in the EFL long predate Covid. There are lots of people in that league who don’t think parachutes over in history have worked particularly well.’’ “I do take that particular link really seriously because I was campaigning for reform in the EFL last year because I felt the model was broken.” “I’m very, very, very proud of my club but of every other club. It’s life-enhancing and moving to speak to all my colleagues at other clubs to be reminded that many of our clubs were created with a social purpose initially. I don’t know of any club that has ever lost sight of that. “In the case of my own club it was an important message to players as if they would take really significant pay deferrals it would enable us to not only keep all of our much, much, much lower paid staff fully employed through this crisis but equally keep the club open for doing many of the works in the community which football clubs do.” Edited May 7, 2020 by John 8 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
weedman Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 1 hour ago, Zatman said: All the Leeds fans from last season still using the accounts. Amazingly none posted again after Derby knocked them out It really is amazing with the history Leeds have they still jump the gun on everything. They seem to be celebrating our relegation with 10 games left and ditto for their promotion, didn't they do EXACTLY that last year only to fall away with a whimper? It's also amazing that a group of fans that desperately tries to convince everyone they're a "big club" is still bitter about some nothing rivalry we had for 1 season in the Championship, basically centered around them being upset that Grealish "dives" (ironic considering the last game we had their striker did a worse dive than anything I've seen a Villa player do in a decade that includes Ashley Young). They seem to find us more important than even Blues fans do, and it really is saying something to be more small time than Blues Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nabby Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 6 minutes ago, John said: The quotes from Purslow from the above interview in today's Times: “We’re nowhere near having found the formula to complete the season,” “I’m told how keen government are to get football back. I remain of the view that we’re going to complete this season and it’s a question of ‘when and how?’ not ‘if’.” “Yes, of course I have to look after my club’s interests but there is a duty on 20 Premier League clubs to find a formulation that we know is nowhere near perfect but gets football back to complete the 19-20 season so that crucial issues at the top of the table can be resolved but that doesn’t ask people to agree to incredibly damaging changes for their own particular clubs. People have to see through that we need 20 clubs to be happy and that’s the statesmanship job that’s needed at the moment in the league. “I don’t think neutral venues is by any means the only issue that needs to be resolved that goes to the heart of ‘is this still a competition everybody signed up to’. “It’s about anything and everything to do with full-strength sides and squads. What happens with sick players, or players who are symptomatic, that ultimately means you’re weakening teams. There are a lot of teams mathematically capable of going down whose squads can’t survive three or four players failing ill, not being able to play. If Villa had to a play a match without [Jack] Grealish, [Tyrone] Mings and [John] McGinn the chances of winning that game reduce enormously. “You can’t compare it to normal season when on January 1 Tom Heaton and Wesley, our goalkeeper and our star centre forward, ruptured their cruciate ligaments [away to Burnley]. That’s bad luck and that hurts teams like us and we take that on the chin. But we’re talking here about a known, global, devastating epidemic that is still at large. It’s obvious with 500 or so Premier League footballers that we’re going to have positive tests, that players are going to get sick and that’s going to have an impact on teams’ ability to field a full-strength team. “I don’t know what the solution is. I’d obviously like a rule that says we don’t have to play if our best players had Covid. We’re trying to complete a league quite quickly to give our broadcasters a product they want to show but how does it really work if after two games everybody’s off? You tell me.” “Even in the executive group in the Premier League shareholders group we haven’t even been shown yet what they call ‘return to play’ protocols. So I haven’t discussed it with my players at all. The sense I get around the players is, like society generally, you’ll have people absolutely desperate to get back to work and have the attitude of ‘I’ll take my chances’ and you’ll have players with particular circumstances where it won’t be practical or they won’t be comfortable. If I was a betting man I would say that the single biggest challenge we’ve got is to get those protocols signed off by everybody in football.” “Although it all sounds extremely scientific, players being able to do physical conditioning work where they’re socially distanced in conditions that are completely sanitised and safe I think those are very doable. It’s a completely different ball game moving from socially distanced individual training to contact football and we haven’t had sight yet of those protocols.” Concern for players’ welfare, clubs’ economic health and the debate about the nature of sporting integrity are inter-woven here. There is talk of some executives among the bottom six wanting no relegation, but doesn’t that send sporting integrity up in smoke? “I heard about that [the idea of no relegation] on Monday morning,”. “It’s an idea out there. It was billed to me as, ‘This is a way that cuts through all of the compromises that people will be asked to take.’ So it’s serious, it’s been thought through and it needs to be debated properly. There are lots of aspects on which 20 teams are going to need to compromise and some of those will be tough choices that, and these are your words not mine, ‘send sporting integrity up in smoke’. “Ditto neutral grounds which obviously for a team that’s got six home games out of 10 left tilts the balance well away. Neutral grounds is a really serious issue for Aston Villa. I don’t think the Premier League in any way, shape or form wanted to entertain neutral grounds. It’s not coming from the Premier League. I think that’s coming from probably the police.” The fear of relegation is compounded by the reality of falling into the financially stricken Championship. “I was astonished when I arrived 19 months ago in a League of which I had no prior experience to see how broken the financial model in the EFL was, particularly the Championship. League One and League Two clubs are all well run, they’re obviously now devastated by no fans in attendance as they are run on the basis where fan income is used to cover carefully controlled wages. But the Championship model has been broken long before Covid and I have real empathy for [new chairman] Rick Parry because he’s taken the job and out of nowhere a crisis has occurred, a devastating epidemic, which instantly brings to the fore the financial crisis the Championship already had. “With the [wage] referrals we took at our club, the conversations I had with my players is, ‘We have to make Premier League clubs even stronger because without the Premier League there is no pyramid.’ We already essentially do fund English football whether it’s directly through solidarity or indirectly through our clubs loaning players, or buying players that keeps the pyramid self-funding. There’s an ecosystem in football but is completely dependent on the revenue-generating capability of the Premier League and that’s the way it should be. “Do you think today three teams dropping down into a league that we were told yesterday is insolvent with £120 million [parachute money] is a good use of that money?” No. “So surely anyone could see that saving that money so it could be used to help fix the financial problems faced within the Premier League and elsewhere in football is quite an ingenious idea. Problems in the EFL long predate Covid. There are lots of people in that league who don’t think parachutes over in history have worked particularly well.’’ “I do take that particular link really seriously because I was campaigning for reform in the EFL last year because I felt the model was broken.” “I’m very, very, very proud of my club but of every other club. It’s life-enhancing and moving to speak to all my colleagues at other clubs to be reminded that many of our clubs were created with a social purpose initially. I don’t know of any club that has ever lost sight of that. “In the case of my own club it was an important message to players as if they would take really significant pay deferrals it would enable us to not only keep all of our much, much, much lower paid staff fully employed through this crisis but equally keep the club open for doing many of the works in the community which football clubs do.” Good solid points there and when you see the whole interview it comes across as different that some of the headlines being created from it I'f im not mistaken his he suggesting in not relegating the 120mil parachute cash could instead be distributed to the whole league not just the 3 clubs going down 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sne Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 2 minutes ago, Nabby said: Good solid points there and when you see the whole interview it comes across as different that some of the headlines being created from it I'f im not mistaken his he suggesting in not relegating the 120mil parachute cash could instead be distributed to the whole league not just the 3 clubs going down Pff, communist!! 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sharkyvilla Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 I just don't get why there would be any real appetite to relegate a club like us in unfair/contrived circumstances. Having Villa and yes, Dirty Leeds in the Prem would increase the profile of the league I'd have thought so they have an opportunity to do that plus give the parachute payments to the Football League to help them out. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
midian Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 I reckon there is probably 2 or 3 other teams apart from the bottom 6 which would vote against neutral venue aswell Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
danceoftheshamen Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 I see Gary Neville has come out & said what the PL are doing is basically Blackmail / bullying against the bottom few clubs. It's basically heads you lose tails you lose for those currently occupying the bottom few spots, but with tails having a very slim & unrealistic chance of eventually turning to a win due to the circumstances having been altered to drastically change the odds in the favour of a loss. But if you see through our biased little scheme & refuse to throw the coin we'll make you lose anyway. Well done to the PL for displaying the absolute worst of Human behaviour by promoting Bullying & blackmail at the most awful time & on breeding such negativity & angst for so many people during the worst pandemic of our lifetimes. Great example to set for all the millions of kids all over the World who follow the English game. Shouldn't be surprised i guess having witnessed the shameful way VAR has been so biased all year. Lets not forget if it wasn't for that we would not be in the bottom three right now anyway! But once again we have no option and have had to put up with the daylight robbery of points from us all year! Always thought the PL was rigged anyway it's obvious if you look at the evidence. Reminds me of the WWF / WWE now to be quite honest & i actually struggle very hard to take it seriously now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Villarocker Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 3 hours ago, JAMAICAN-VILLAN said: You're missing the point. Anyway, on a serious note. I'm seeing people report that A. Some people are being diagnosed/written off purely on "symptoms" which are shared with a multitude of other conditions. B. Institutions actually have monetary encouragements for reporting Covid - 19 deaths/diagnoses. C. Some healthcare workers have confirmed this. I've seen some stories where family members were actually forced to accept Covid - 19 as cause of death for their loved ones. I don't doubt for one minute that people will have Covid-19 on their death certificate even though they died from something else. Whether it be error or because someone did it purposely although, why would someone do that? I mean, it doesn't benefit the government to have increased figures. But, if someone goes into hospital having choked on a piece of toast and they are terminally ill with cancer, if they contract Covid-19 and die of respiratory failure of course it will be death caused by Covid-19. I actually think that there are more deaths than has been reported officially as the amount the figure increased by, when taking account deaths in care homes, just didn't seem high enough to me. I wouldn't be surprised if the actual real figure was closer to 40k. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TRO Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 (edited) The proposals to finish the season are becoming farcical, a vote too would be like Turkeys voting for xmas.....there are too many clubs with their own vested interests, not what is fair. There are so many variables to consider, restarting and finishing it, will be a farce....the adjustments like neutral grounds, is not part of what the competition is, its not normal. If it was a military war, the season would be cancelled, because the rules of the competition/league cannot be fulfilled.....In this case too many adjustments need to be made for it to work.....its wrong.if the season cannot be fulfilled under the circumstances it was signed up to, then it should be scrapped. This is a war.....its a medical war against a killer virus? There are still too many games left for any team in any division to claim anything, no one has won or lost anything as unpalatable that may be to some....some teams are just in good positions, that is all...nothing more. Its no one's fault and compromises should not be made.....it should be scrapped and as tough as that can be its an across the board call that should be made. Edited May 7, 2020 by TRO 4 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
useless Posted May 7, 2020 Share Posted May 7, 2020 (edited) Fiorentina just confirmed that six members of their staff have caught the virus including three players. Not sure how that will affect their plans for resumption of the league. Edited May 7, 2020 by useless Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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