The College Dropout

Even in Premier League football - being slow is a killer. We won’t get there with PIF unless they change how they operate the club.

No - "very good reasons" is speculative. All we know is it's taken a long time to announce new training grounds and stadium. It also took them a year to replace the CEO. There are several data points that suggest PIF is a slow decision-maker, regardless of *reasons*. That does not bode well in the world of elite European football.

Agree with everyone. There's been a lot of good. But a lot is on the table too (I mean he's just said it). PSR is a limitation but it's not the full story I fully agree. I mean, it looks like he's been reading my posts in here. I've said for at least a year now there's no aggression, urgency, pushing, fight. No announcements on major infrastructure projects. I don't think it's an obvious point. People have been telling me on here - that doesn't matter it's all PSR.

We can't do what Chelsea did (legally). We are unlikely to do what Chelsea did (illegally). And our Owners seem to care far less than Roman did.

He scored a great goal for us (forget the team - Man U maybe? or was it the cup). Scored a brace in Barcelona. Cisse scored a bag of great goals for us. Harvey Barnes has a great highlight reel for us alone. Ameobi turned Desailly and Ferdinand inside out on his day. A lot of players will look great with their highlights. I've watched this lad closely for what must be at least 500 minutes. His lack of fundamental control is apparent. It was apparent from moment 1. I've seen lads here that have lacked heart or desire or didn't look up to it physically. Thauvin & Cabella in particular. I couldn't really tell you about how good they were - just they weren't strong/quick/determined enough for the league. None of that is true for Elanga I give him that. But the amount of poor control, misplaced simple passes - that's indicative of his ability.

If they are determined and leverage their power - we can be a powerhouse in a decade. Definiitely 15 years. It does require determination, aptitiude, leveraging power etc. and they've not done that thus far. And if we are succesful - we won't be a total money pit either - a lot of the value will at least hold maybe appreciate (do need a better stadiuma nd facilities mind). PSG might win back to back CL's, barely hear anything about sportswashing these days. Same with Man City. Etihad on the shirt and stadium. Green and white kit, main sponsor, stadium name, green and white second kit. They can do all that with us. With less resources and less powerful Owners Villa are heading into their 4th consecutive season in Europe, most likely a 2nd CL campaign.

We have a lot more potential than a lot of their other investment. We can be pretty heavily Saudi-branded and if we get global success we'll do a lot for their profile.

We absolutely don’t know he’s much better technically than what he’s shown.

Also requires weak competition. Leeds are loads better than most promoted teams. Not spent a fortune either.

Very poor from everyone to bring him in. And I think the whole team responsible should be disbanded. But like... he's bad at a lot of things and only good in specific situations. Not exploiting him correctly is a minimum issue - if any.

A winger that can't come short and make simple passes is a problem. Then he struggles to beat a man, cross or shoot. Like... there's not a lot to work with

He's always done this though. Chris Wood was a perfectly viable PL striker, Howe couldn't get a tune out of him. Much better overall track record than Wissa btw. This is my issue with this board with a lot of people (not saying you Tron). When things are good - everything is perfect and the manager can't be questioned. When things are bad - everything is bad and he must go.

I think it's a massive contributor. There are other issues but all football managers have issues. They are bolded when the team doesn't get results and doesn't perform. We aren't going to get a new manager that has all of Howe's strengths and none of his weaknesses. The team have fallen off a cliff mentally since Barca. There were positives at times to work with prior.

Overall point here is that we’ve been poor in both boxes. Which is a transfer issue imo. The worst thing about everything is the performances have got worse and worse, no new ideas.

I don't think they were perfect but they were a massive net positive and would welcoem them back in a heartbeat.

I don’t think the injury is fake. I did think Tonali’s was fake mind

If you buy young players they will likely have a sell on. That is normal practice. Everyone having 15% of the profit is fine. Us having nothing for Anderson or Minteh is poor.

I didn’t think Luis Diaz was worth the money Bayern paid. Let alone playing at this level. Having less games, less intense league, weaker opposition weak to weak is massive. We’ve seen Gordon tear up lesser defenders and turn it on im big games.

I’m not really biased in this. In recent years I question Vini’s work rate and tendency to overplay but there isn’t anything Kvara can do and has done that Vini hasn’t. Talk about big moments. Vini’s scored in 2 tight CL finals including a winner. Multiple goals and assists in CL SF, QF. Think he has the most CL knockout goal contributions since 2020. Kvara seems to work harder these days and has a lot less mileage in his legs. Wider than this. Barely having a league competition is a big reason for his good PSG (and Bayern) look in March/April/May. Thats a major reason for their ‘major moments’ rather than having some clutch abilities.

Mbappe is proven to make that side worse Think Vini gets in if he’s willing to graft like he used too. He has that positional flexibility. Kvara is great but Vini would be crucified if Vini had Kvara’s Ligue 1 output. Outside of that I think Jude or Valverde have a chance due to the stamina, positional flexibility, work rate.

Every single one.

Yeh Anderson isn't a water carrier at all. Really good in tight spaces and a ball progressor. Better on the ball than any of our CMs bar Bruno.

It’s the lack of desire to even try.

We bought him in January, it wasn't a majorly distressed transfer (May or June is distressed). 15% is ok. As it's just the profit. Chelsea would have a bigger sell-on fee for Tino from Southampton than Southampton would have for us.

I think if you buy young players - most will have sell-on profit clauses. 15% of the profit is fine imo. If we sell him for £70m and say the total fee from Everton was £45m. Everton get an additional £3.75m. That's no major issue.