The College Dropout

Smal green arrow. Still far off the pace bur it’s ok. Still early days for the Champ. Finally starting to like my team at least. liking Enzo as an option. But Gabriel’s fitness is a major issue. Option (a) Almost certainly selling Dalot for a LIV defender. Likely TAA. And doing nothing else. Possible if Gabriel is fit. (b) Virgil (over TAA) + Enzo for Dibling. Means I don’t have to start Rogers every week. Better bench cover over busy period. Needs a fit Gabriel. (c) if Gabriel is out. Get Virgil and Kerkez. Sell Rico Lewis. If Gabriel doesn’t play midweek this is my likely move.

This new implementation of VAR is waiting for a massive blunder. Can’t keep ignoring blatant referee mistakes. That was a pen all day. 1-1 anyway.

I think seeing what’s happened to us has helped Villa prepare. And they have more saleable assets. Rather than give their Joelinton a new contract they sold him.

I'm all over the PSR thread. @80 covered my points. Also this: Agree fully. I don't think Eddie vs a different coach is the difference between midtable mediocrity and a CL push. At least not at this moment. Last season i felt we were broadly going in the right direction and a decision or two or some good luck away from a really good season. But from June we've lost all momentum as a club. PSR and our mismangement has come to light. I don't think a change of manager is going to really move the needle. Could be wrong. We could've hired Maresca or Slot in the summer imo and maybe they would work magic. But also those clubs have top 3 wage bills so with City faltering - they should be in position to capitalise.

Ok cool - could we hire a multiple European cup winning manager? And give him the tools to succeed? Villa are currently 6th. 1 place better than Howe managed last season.

We are attractive to managers a level above Howe with all of our PSR issues? I'm not even certain a manager like Emery is a definitive level above Howe and would come in and make a meaningful impact short, medium and long-term. IMO bigger issues upstairs.

You are both right I think. It took me some time to realise we could only ever be as good as Ashley wanted us to be. Didn’t matter the manager. We would never sustain a challenge. So now what the owners do is my number 1 issue.

Do you think we can make a Bruce to Rafa jump in quality before the end of the season? I don’t follow other leagues closely. Just Real. So I only know if Xavi Alonso as an elite manager. Could we get him? I would do that tomorrow. But I don’t think it’s possible.

There’s always things the manager could do better. I think overplaying and causing injuries to Wilson, Isak and Joelinton probably cost us 6th place last season. Not trusting Tino and Hall a little earlier cost us 6th place imo. That midfield gap cost us 6th place. Howe has always made mistakes. But the squad should finish 7th ish and that’s what he did. If Howe was the perfect manager maybe we could’ve finished 5/6th but he’s not perfect. Now we are a little down on where we should be. Agreed. Yeh if Howe did everything right we would be 5th/6th. As long as we are in touching distance of where we should finish 7th/8th im not going to complain too much. I do think June - Sep has caused a headwind and finishing 7th/8th would be a good job from Howe. Unless the mood changes I think a 9/10th would be ok even and the performances it brings. But I reckon he pays for that with his job. I stand by it - there’s no reason why we should demand European football. The cost of the squad nor the wages demand it. The squad is stale. The atmosphere isn’t right. A couple smart signings and a cup final would change everything aye.

We were better at the end of last season for sure. With a worse squad available. The June - Sep shit show has sidetracked us completely.

‘Not more moans about PSR’ PSR and revenues is the defining issue.

Agree with this. Look at Man U, Spurs - it’s not the managers that are the problem. We don’t have any right to demand European football.

Like if we are selling academy players for 15-30m - that’s going to be a player that could contribute to the first team squad. Thats not necessarily the case for the ‘top 6’.

I don’t necessarily agree. If anything you want academy players in the first team. They are cheap. We aren’t good enough that we can sell academy players that aren’t good enough for us for significant money. Even selling Anderson and Minteh - good for the short term. Bad for the long term. Chelsea and City are only able to get away with it because they have the very best academy’s in the country. And they sell youth players that could contribute for expensive signings that are no better. That’s not a good model. You can’t criticise Pep but they could clearly benefit from Palmer and Lavia alone. Liverpool have the best model. The lads they sell are mostly not good enough or have tried and failed to secure a role. Villa try to keep their best youngsters through buybacks.

It’s the wages for both Leicester and Everton. The season Leicester got relegated I think their wages were top 7. Everton wages are way above where they finish in the league. Leicester were always unsustainable. They would’ve had to sell players for more than £50m every season and sign players for half the fee and wages on a continuous loop. Neither club has massive revenues. High revenues, low wages is the key. You get fucked by PSR when you have the opposite. We have the opposite. Our wage bill keeps increasing while our revenues are £250-300m. We can’t sustain inflation wage growth without a sharp increase in wages.

And this is why selling one Purple probably doesn’t change things substantially. We need 100m of recurring revenue. That’s a game changer aged. £100m for Isak will land us a few cheaper signings but it’s not a game changer.

@brummie PSR is rolling. Once you have issues with it you need to significantly recalibrate your squad or revenue or it will be an ongoing problem. Amortisation and wages carry over year to year.

It’s not the managers. It’s him. They don’t invest enough in wages for the playing squad. This squad isn’t good enough to play Ange ball. I’m an Ange sceptic and he’s probably going to get fired. But Spurs love to penny pinch somewhere.

I said Chelsea were not it and a Palmer injury away from being average. But it’s not true. Going forward they are good and have great depth. Not convincing defensively though.

Caicedo one went a red. Kulu’s arm is at a 90 degree angle. It’s the reddest red you’ll see for some time. VAR is trying hard to not overrule referees but it’s taken too far.

Two left footers I think. Very bad for Tosin.

Cucurella slips twice and that’s a joke. But the defending from Chelsea has been awful.

Really poor from Colwill as well.

Man U are up against PSR. Not like us but they are there. They’ve got massive scope to move the needle though. Moving on Jadon Sancho frees on £15m on wages alone per year. They can get a better player on half the wages.

Eloquently summed up my thoughts @Gallowgate Toon