GeordieDazzler

It was made worse by the fact we were staying down there to see Faithless so had to walk back though Birmingham in our toon tops. Lots of abuse all the way back to the hotel. Had a mint night after that but, yeah, fuck the Villa

On the Villa/Newcastle rivalry, I was in the away end there when we went down. I wish them every misfortune as a football club. Brummie is sound though

Villa are a miles bigger club than Villareal regardless of league position. You could fit nearly the entire population of the place inside Villa Park. Villareal are a well run and well funded side that have consistently punched above their weight. I’d argue their relatively smaller size has helped them do that.

He is obviously head and shoulders ahead of Gerrard as a coach and definitely a much better appointment, but to play devils advocate for a few moments; - doesn’t tend to last over 3 years at anyone club and tends to leave before his contract expires, although was sacked at Arsenal - he’s a more pragmatic coach than attacking one a big complaint from Arsenal fans was a real lack of a defined playing style - he’s good at setting up teams for matches against bigger opposition as evidenced in some of his results with Villarreal in the CL, however he can struggle when it’s on him to dictate the game - there is going to be a lot of pressure from the outset, these owners already got one marquee appointment wrong a second could be fatal for them. - The pressure and exposure at Villarreal is far below what will be expected of him at Villa, although he’s been a plenty big clubs earlier in his career. He will improve Villa, there’s no doubt in that but could be a rather expensive medium term appointment and may not take them as far as their ambitions lie.

7m a year salary and payed 6m to get Villarreal to release him.

Emery is great at devising game plans for the opposition, esp against bigger teams. Struggles a little when his teams are expected to take the initiative. Good appointment for Villa, wonder if he’ll be in for Saturday.

Nice Garth, although I’m pretty certain Spurs didn’t play in Europe midweek

BBC briefly did during the Euros and WC a few years back didn’t they?

Eddie Howes Field Tilting Mags™

Luke Edwards on the BBC football podcast some how managed to drop Brucie into a chat about Leeds. Met him for coffee and Steve told him that Bielsa was the manager he was most in awe of.

Comments on those threads are interesting, they are very pessimistic about their chances.

As much as those journalists don’t want to hear it, Eddie doesn’t really care about the Saudi ownership. If he did he wouldn’t have taken the job. The ownership have maintained a degree of separation from him that allows him to simply be focused on the football. Although as he’s the easiest target for them as he’s has to give a press conference every week. He answers their questions quite honestly. Obviously there is more to us travelling to SA, but as far as the footballing side of club is concerned the warm weather training worked last time so it would seem a good idea from a football perspective to do it again. I'm not fully comfortable with the SA ownership but it’s happened and it should have been the govt or FA that stopped it. What do they want from us? Just to stop existing as a club? They own us now and bar the govt making a decision like with Chelsea that’s not changing any time soon.

Yeah he does which is why he may wait until the summer and see what comes up. Juve and Bayern jobs not totally safe, Wolves job may look tempting too if they stay up.

Miggy or Bruno said in an interview they work loads on that ball over the top like for the Palace and Fulham goals. You can see they’ll always play it if it’s on.

Tuchel and Poch off the list. Honestly think it might be similar to Wolves and you’ll have to wait for the summer to get the right guy.

It’s on the match cam footage, absolutely catches him sleeping.

Wolves have just seen that they aren’t as an attractive prospect as they may have thought. Yes the Prem is an attractive league but it can also shred your reputation if you make the wrong choice. Tuchel may take it to keep his Visa though

Marsch should have been sacked for those jeans he wore against Arsenal if nothing else

done a million times before but who cares

Does Beale speak unexpectedly good Portuguese

I think if we get an early goal it won’t be to difficult. However low block teams still trouble us.

Wouldn’t suit our long ball game

Brighton haven’t scored with any of their last 50 shots on target.

Proper Yohan Cabaye special, was clearly a retaliatory challenge for Bruno’s earlier foul but pretended he was sorry to try and escape a card.

I felt we got very lucky at the time with the Trippier one. Didn’t think the Sancho one was a pen.