brummie

Drinkwater is an absolute disgrace. Every time it was like someone had gone into one of the pubs around the ground three hours before kick off and held a lottery whereby the most shitfaced punter by half an hour before kick off would get to play for us. One of my mates said it was like watching some fan who'd come in full kit, with his boots, just in case we needed an extra body (as per every schoolboy football fan's dream), only to find the dream came true and he got his chance. Except we were paying him 100k a week. And it happened every week. shudder.

Barkley is infuriating. There were performances like Arsenal away where him and Grealish basically just took them to pieces, they were both brilliant. But for every performance like that, there were 9 unarsed, petulant, nothing performances. It's a shame, he looked like an inspired signing for a short period of time, but you'd genuinely struggle to find a single Villa fan who would suggest we should have kept hold of him after last season. Not the worst player we've loaned from Chelsea in recent years, but when you consider the worst was Danny Drinkwater - genuinely, in 50 years watching the club, the worst player I've ever seen play for us in the top flight - it puts it in context.

I like him. We've been linked with signing him, which I am not massively excited about, but that's because we need to be signing players elsewhere. The fans loved him. He came here on loan and absolutely bought into it. He's got heart.

"Negotiating down from there". Really? I don't think that's how it is going to work. I also would bet everything I own if we were to put a price on him, it'd be more than that. We don't need the money and don't want to sell, he's got 4 years on his contract and is extremely unlikely to do a Delph on us. The arrogance of the ESL wankers (less so Spurs, as they weren't really credible in that company in the first place) makes me want to vomit. What's the point even trying with these wankers in the press making it so easy for them?

I don't know about the Grealish goes, Grealish stays thing but one thing which was crystal clear last season was how much we relied on him. Buendia is clearly here with that in mind, and so I imagine would be Cantwell.

Genuinely hadn't heard anything about that.

The owners have been absolutely brilliant since joining. They've made tons of money available, hired people who know how to run football clubs (something Lerner never did), instilled a solid coaching structure top to bottom, invested more in the training centre, are building a massive 'inner city academy' right next to the ground to develop local youth, and are buying players with the right attributes. Interestingly, on the acquiring players thing, they're doing it top to bottom, so right down to the youth structure - nicked Louie Barry from Albion via Barcelona, got a youth side which won the FA Youth Cup, hosing up promising kids where appropriate, and hiring top development staff to bring them on. One of them - Edens - watched his NBA team win the championship last night, built on a platform of keeping your best player and building around him. I've no idea if Grealish will stay, i suspect he will, but i like the fact we are at least trying to build something. No guarantees any of this will work, but it is good to be having a go after ten years of having liquid shit injected into our eye balls week after week and coming within literally hours of going into administration.

Lazio have always been like that - Mussolini was a Lazio fan and they have a history of anti-semitism, fascism and general nastiness that goes back decades. Roma were traditionally the club of the working classes.

Me too. That has 'massive fucking nightmare' written all over it.

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I don't understand what we are trying to do with this. It sounds like a highly unlikely transfer, but I don't think we'd be bothering if we hadn't had encouragement (and I don't think it is his agent pushing his wages negotiation). I also find it hard to believe we are just doing it to troll Arsenal (annoying entitled bell ends that they are)

No. If there was going to be a Grealish replacement (and there won't, as he won't be leaving) it would have been Buendia.

We are allegedly trying to sign Julian Alvarez from River Plate. No idea who he is. Good YouTube though. Mind you, don't they all.

Ashley Young return confirmed. Clever move. Until he signed today, our oldest player was, apparently, 28 years old.

This will be like when Alex McLeish joined us from Blues. Except with a world class manager rather than a depressing second rate relegation merchant.

I hope this is true. One thing we really miss in our squad is an experienced head or two. We used to have that in Heaton (and arguably Elmo) but now they are both gone. We've not really had that since Petrov retired. As extra cover in that position and as someone for the younger players to look to, this is a really canny move. I hope it comes off.

Wouldn't be at all surprised to see Bruce look at Conor Hourihane. Bruce loves him. I like him (Hourihane not Bruce, obvs) but he's right on the line in terms of good enough for top flight or not. Has a belting free kick and shot on him. Used to annoy us otherwise by standing and watching the entire midfield get overrun without tracking back or getting stuck in in any way, though. No idea how he's done on loan to Swansea this last season.

Ignoring whether the player would want to go or not, I genuinely don't think there is any amount of money large enough to be realistically offered to make the owners sell. We've (apparently) got the third richest owners in English football. They've spent a ton already, and seem happy to continue doing so, they certainly won't give much of a shit about the money in. What I am saying is, if there's a factor deciding whether he stays or goes, it won't be transfer fee. Interestingly, the massive difference between these owners and Lerner is they're making sure their money gets spent sensibly. Some of last summer's signings were absolutely inspired, hard to spot any who have failed.

Yeah, he was injured for most of the latter part of last season.

I tend to agree with you, I don't think they would, which is why it won't happen. Although all those free kicks we pick up from Grealish (and more from Buendia I imagine) around the edge of the box having some chance resulting in goals rather than clearing the cross bar by 20 feet, that's a nice thought.

Rumours we're after Ward-Prowse.

There's no chance Grealish is going. Owners have said all along, plenty of money available to strengthen, no pressure whatsoever to raise money and Grealish seems very happy. It's more about making the decent signings which would have him want to stay than it is moving him on.

Thought this was quite funny (translation: 'DVB' = Dirty Villa Bastard, what that lot call us).

As a rule of thumb, the worse the last friendlies before the tournament are, the better we do. 1990 great example. We looked horrendous, the press crucified Bobby Robson, as you'll remember.

Good to see the exclusive club for winners of big cup remains unenlarged.