The College Dropout

But a previous regime did the Tonali contract. The Ashworth/Staveley era is proven functional for signing quality players and getting contracts renewed. This is a new era. Theres no credit in the bank. Even the Botman deal would’ve been made easier due to injuries and relatively low stock. Announce Tino, Bruno G, I wouldn’t worry about Hall. As it stands I’ve no reason to believe the contracts will be signed. To just enjoying this team. I always thought Isak was the first domino of this team being disbanded.

Go on Vini what I love most about this is that someone would’ve had to have translated that for him and he still made sure to get it back in blood

This isn't variance imo. Arsenal play for set pieces and are the best at it in the league. They also have the 3rd/4th most possession, play the most controlling style of football in the league. That's going to lead to fewer penalties conceded.

We've announced 2 major contract renewal post-Ashworth (not including Tonali as that was Ashworth's time) Botman & Gordon. People are right to be concerned because we delayed with Isak. Tino hasn't been announced.

Will also encourage us to go out and sign more Minteh's knowing we can give some game time. But.. I just want to win trophies

Far less intense games though. Might also encourage us to sign more developmental players and play more youth. And man we need to win trophies.

I had a feeling Elanga, Wolte or Wissa would have a massive moment for us. Started to think we'll start Willock for Barnes. Tino + medical staff will take his own call. If he's all clear he will get 60-70 minutes imo (if we are still in the game - earlier if we aren't). Key for us is still being in the game with 20 minutes to go imo.

Looks like Villa are returning to the mean a bit. Happened with Forest last year/this year.

Aye it was obvious in real time Tino doing something a little different discombobulated them. I’m interested in why we chose to do that at that moment. Was it instruction? Was it the players recognising an exploit? It’s something Tino has done in the past.

I’m sure there is. Everyone continued the game. If it was to be forfeited it has to be in the moment surely. At that point it’s a refereeing mistake no? Funny thing is Senegal walking off was from why seemed like a culmination of refereeing decisions in favour of Morocco throughout the tournament. As if CAF were desperate for Morocco to win. And then they hand Morocco a win via statement kind of proving the accusation

Chelsea are not a football club. This isn’t a sporting or glory endeavour. It’s some weird private equity bullshit. Abramovic wanted to win. These owners don’t care about winning at all.

Aye. Fair enough if it was canned in real time. But it wasn’t and they played on for 30+ minutes. Lifted the trophy everything. Hand them a heavy punishment going forward. But retrospectively changing the result is stupidity.

Also backups the eye test - especially early in the season. He was lining them up and the lads were missing. 12 big chances created and like 2 assists?

Few weeks in the sun. Couple of weeks of training.

Lyon were better than you for large parts of both legs. Cherki was brilliant from memory. They took him off and they went to shit and bottled it.

Massive ifs. Man U were fortunate to get to the final last season. In any case they are the 8th and 9th richest clubs in the world - multipes of wages and squad cost of the entire competition. No surprise they won. Let's see if Villa win it. Personally, I don't care. I simply want to win more trophies.

PL has 2 Europa League wins in about 15 years. You would think PL teams dominate it the way you lot are talking.

Winning trophies is good fun. I’m not overly excited for conference league but this is a golden era for us. Let’s stack the trophies. Get used to winning. I used to (as a kid) dream of us becoming a dominant force in Europe like in FM. Today I’m just taking what I can.

Chance to win a trophy. I pray we start signing more development players - it's great for bedding them in too. And we need to build our co-efficient to get more money.

Which podcasts? Let me know so I don't watch them. We beat Man Utd recently and Man City. I guess it might be away from home.

I'm just excited

Losing Tielemans is massive for them. But they were poor statisticaly with him anyway.

What a fail era that was.

Who would he start in place of? Barnes at LW? He was great at PSG so I’m not against it. Maybe he does start ahead of Barnes. Run his heart out for an hour. Keep us in the game. Bring on Barnes and Murphy. The more I think about it the more I like it. The key is not to be blown away early.

Previous seasons Villa finished where they were expected or close. This season Villa have been largely poor every time I’ve seen them but got a lot of results early. I think a lot of Watkins poor form has been down to a loss of confidence partly caused by Emery and Villa constantly trying to sell him and bringing in replacements. Emery was starting Rashford ahead of Watkins as a striker. That’s bound to impact his confidence. Emery has also persisted with his style which has not been working. They can’t ply through PL teams in the middle anymore. Chelsea tried to do similar to us on the weekend - no bueno. The long shot stuff has dried up. That’s how they beat us. Yeh Sunderland have been riding a wave all season. Next season will be interesting. They’ll need to be better. It does show how far tremendous spirit, work rate and a bit of luck can take a team. I think Eddie has that ability to bind a team and that’s worth 4-10 points a season. For a lot of old school managers that was their entire coaching output. And it made a massive difference.