Gallowgate End

I think we'll stay up. The Fulham thing is nonsense, like. As if the sensible thing to do would be not to sign new players. Better than big-spending Fulham and worse than big-spending Wolves. Only sensible if the manager is right. Will Dean Smith get Top 10 first season up like Rafa Benitez(Without money) and Nuno Santo did? Nope. I think Aston Villa will be more in the Fulham and Brighton category = underachieving PL big spenders. I think they might be in the Brighton category - teams who spend the TV money and achieve exactly what they aim to - Premier League survival. The big advantage they have over Brighton and Fulham is ground capacity and potential support, which means they will be more likely to push on, backed by owners who are willing to spend. Do you really think Brighton are underachieving? Massively have you not seen their net spend? Reason why they’ve underachieved in relation to their net spend = The manager. Aston Villa will have the same issue. Net spend is kinda irrelevant - what matters is whether they are making a profit/breaking even, and whether they stay up. Don't know this year's figures yet, but here are last year's: https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2018/12/11/brighton-and-hove-albion-post-11m-profit/ They made a profit and they stayed up. Isn't that the bottom line? Just go look at their net spend You’ll be surprised. I did. Like I say, it doesn't mean much on its own because you have to factor in the enormous amount of money available from the TV deal. Their TV income went up from 7.7M to 110M when they got promoted. If they can argue that a net spend of 60M or whatever it was this year kept them in the Premier League then good luck to them. I'd be surprised if they broke even this year because presumably their wages went up again, but they stayed up, and that's the key achievement. Rafa Benitez and Nuno Santo would have them Top 10 with their net spend.

Here man, just f*** off will you. One of the worst posters this place has seen and given their was a Nazi lad back in day it’s a congested field. Absolute f***ing bellend. Hughton still has fans though. Not think it would be a smart PR move by Mike Ashley? I’m a Hughton fan. Why are you maligning the good man’s name? As I said it would be a good PR move too.

Here man, just fuck off will you. One of the worst posters this place has seen and given their was a Nazi lad back in day it’s a congested field. Absolute fucking bellend. Hughton still has fans though. Not think it would be a smart PR move by Mike Ashley? It’ll never happen. You’re a fucking idiot. :smiley: I honestly think he would take it given his current position. We’re probably the only current Premier League club that would give him a job.

Here man, just fuck off will you. One of the worst posters this place has seen and given their was a Nazi lad back in day it’s a congested field. Absolute fucking bellend. Hughton still has fans though. Not think it would be a smart PR move by Mike Ashley?

I think we'll stay up. The Fulham thing is nonsense, like. As if the sensible thing to do would be not to sign new players. Better than big-spending Fulham and worse than big-spending Wolves. Only sensible if the manager is right. Will Dean Smith get Top 10 first season up like Rafa Benitez(Without money) and Nuno Santo did? Nope. I think Aston Villa will be more in the Fulham and Brighton category = underachieving PL big spenders. I think they might be in the Brighton category - teams who spend the TV money and achieve exactly what they aim to - Premier League survival. The big advantage they have over Brighton and Fulham is ground capacity and potential support, which means they will be more likely to push on, backed by owners who are willing to spend. Do you really think Brighton are underachieving? Massively have you not seen their net spend? Reason why they’ve underachieved in relation to their net spend = The manager. Aston Villa will have the same issue. Net spend is kinda irrelevant - what matters is whether they are making a profit/breaking even, and whether they stay up. Don't know this year's figures yet, but here are last year's: https://www.brightonandhovenews.org/2018/12/11/brighton-and-hove-albion-post-11m-profit/ They made a profit and they stayed up. Isn't that the bottom line? Just go look at their net spend You’ll be surprised.

I’m surprised Mike Ashley hasn’t gone for a cheap PR move like Chris Hughton. Still has fans up here and would be cheap to get. Also has a managerial ceiling that matches the ambition of Mike Ashley

I think we'll stay up. The Fulham thing is nonsense, like. As if the sensible thing to do would be not to sign new players. Better than big-spending Fulham and worse than big-spending Wolves. Only sensible if the manager is right. Will Dean Smith get Top 10 first season up like Rafa Benitez(Without money) and Nuno Santo did? Nope. I think Aston Villa will be more in the Fulham and Brighton category = underachieving PL big spenders. I think they might be in the Brighton category - teams who spend the TV money and achieve exactly what they aim to - Premier League survival. The big advantage they have over Brighton and Fulham is ground capacity and potential support, which means they will be more likely to push on, backed by owners who are willing to spend. Do you really think Brighton are underachieving? Massively have you not seen their net spend? Reason why they’ve underachieved in relation to their net spend = The manager. Aston Villa will have the same issue.

All this time you spend running around shrining VAR. It won't love you back, man. It will I’ve watched 1 Red for the opposition in the Premier League in 6 years VAR will definitely love Newcastle Utd more than football did without it.

“Mike Ashley offered Sam Allardyce a surprise return as manager last week, but he rejected the opportunity. There was an issue over the club's recruitment policy and a concern that Allardyce would have little if any say over signings” Daily Mail. Sounds like they’ve approached loads of managers and only Bruce is interested in talking I’m sure Rafa said their offer this Summer also had less say on transfers which made it unsignable. Surely time for Mike to realise there is a big issue with their strict policies. How many people need to tell him they don’t want to work under such restriction.

I think we'll stay up. The Fulham thing is nonsense, like. As if the sensible thing to do would be not to sign new players. Better than big-spending Fulham and worse than big-spending Wolves. Only sensible if the manager is right. Will Dean Smith get Top 10 first season up like Rafa Benitez(Without money) and Nuno Santo did? Nope. I think Aston Villa will be more in the Fulham and Brighton category = underachieving PL big spenders.

Gianluca di Marzio’s French correspondent @Guillaumemp Reporting that West Ham United approached Juventus today for Gonzalo Higuain, envisaging a loan with option to buy. Juve asked for €40m. Jesus Must be great knowing you’ve got £40million to blow on a Striker.

Frankfurt forward Sébastien Haller is refusing a move to West Ham, despite the Hammers being willing to pay €40m to sign him - Frenchman would only move to a Champions' League club, according to BILD. Better than Gomez please don’t happen

VAR Absolutely crucial to have it there. Will it get any credit? Nope.

I was talking about the media/pundits Anyway where do you think big spending Aston Villa will finish next season Brummie? Better than big spending Fulham did or?

Anyone could do the job Rafa did apparently? Well we’re about to find out

What's it like being a Villa fan atm? Optimistic, I assume? I tell you the big thing. Until we went down, we'd had six or seven years where I hated going to the matches. Going down (although ideally it would not have been for three years) at least meant I started enjoying going to matches again. Smith's impact this season was remarkable. Winning ten matches on the bounce to easily qualify for the play offs when we'd been 13th in March was incredible. The major thing is the new owners. They're both super-rich, which helps, but as you guys (and us with Lerner) have seen, that's not a guarantee of them doing what they say they will. So far, though, they've been brilliant. We've sold more season tickets than for 40 plus years, apparently, there's a degree of optimism that we are starting to recover. We'd pretty much all take staying up next season, at this point, though. This season there was a really clear bond between fans and players too (that's one reason Mings is so popular). Someone said something somewhere (twitter probably) the other day - that for years he'd loved the club but for the first time in a while, he loved the team too. Which I thought was about right. If you'd said just over a year ago when I left Wembley after losing to Fulham in that play off final - you're about to narrowly avoid a winding up order, get bought by some extremely rich, benevolent people, struggle for a bit, ditch Bruce, appoint a progressive coach who tries to play the right way, put together a record winning run and then go up through the play offs, I would have thought you were fucking insane, honestly. Question. Do you think Aston Villa will finish 10th first season up like Rafa Benitez did?

Schalke head coach David Wagner confirms Yevhen Konoplyanka is leaving the club, telling Funke Sport: "He is training individually. Yevhen wants to keep fit with us while looking for a club." He would be a decent signing for the Premier League clubs that spend money

At least the Rafa moaners will find out what a real dinosaur looks like

Bruce down to 1/4 to get the job Everyone else pushed out to 16/1 and 20/1.

Titan Sports Plus @titan_plus 15m Dalian Yifang is close on signing Salomon Rondon from West Bromwich. The 29-year-old Venezuelan striker was loaned to Newcastle United last season. Rafa Benitez is expecting to have a reunion with him in China. If it happens, Nyasha Mushekwi will leave Dalian.

Dean Jones @DeanJonesBR Hearing that Anthony Hudson was offered a coaching role at Newcastle last week as part of the new staff. The American Eddie Howe on the coaching staff

Apparently Arsenal have been offered Real Madrid striker Mariano for just £18m. He would be good value for West Ham/Everton at that price

Makes perfect sense cash in on 33 year old Heaton while still can and let the more talented Nick Pope take over Strengthening a Premier League rival while gambling on a 27 year old with less than 1 PL season under his belt and hasn't played for over a year Anyone that has seen Nick Pope knows he isn’t a gamble. More talented all round keeper for me.