timeEd32

Wasn't that mooted as a training ground option?

Worse than when the takeover happened, but better than 6 months ago with a huge unknown about what happens next.

I just don’t think we have much to spend without selling.

The difference between January and June is wages spent (or saved if selling), plus a portion of amortization. July 1 and after very different.

In January I was definitely more optimistic about the summer. I thought the revenue growth in 23/24 from Sela + CL, plus Adidas this summer and an expectation of more coming would suitably offset our amortisation + wage bill. And our behavior gave the appearance of being fine -- bringing in Hall at the deadline, not selling anyone in January. June was a wakeup call.

We'll know more in a couple months when the accounts come out, but all signs pointing to the math in this thread being quite accurate... From Hope:

The sad fact is that it is far more important to be in the Premier League than to win it.

https://www.thetimes.com/article/39f2ff28-61ca-42f3-be11-4ae63bb01f20?shareToken=851d3dac2c308a167149012f6d5ae46b You can just imagine the backroom dealing going on right now. As the article says, it almost doesn't matter given City's combativeness and the pending tribunal ruling.

One of the best IMO with a great setting.

It’s awful. The location is bad enough but it’s like they didn’t even try. When someone says soulless bowl that is the stadium that comes to mind for me.

With only a couple exceptions all NFL stadiums are. Baseball has the best stadiums in the US.

In theory, but imagine the uproar if we immediately tried to push something through that was inflated. Would be chaos.

Great thread on Reddit today of new NFL stadiums that were built next to existing ones. Seems appropriate given where this may be heading: Atlanta Chicago (new built inside of old) Houston Philly (clockwise from bottom - new NFL, new NBA/NHL, old NBA/NHL, old NFL/baseball, new baseball) New York (New Jersey) The thing that stands out the most is the size of the new ones when capacity isn't all that different. For example, the last one only has 2k more seats. It's suites and facilities.

I feel like it's going to fail, but I also don't understand what happens if it does. This can't live in limbo forever as what happens when a club brings a new sponsorship forward.

Whether it's fair or not he's got 10-12 months to show something before the knives are out because he doesn't help himself every time he opens his mouth.

I really don't know what would happen right now if we put forward something like a £10m training kit sponsor, which would match Spurs' latest deal. It's high, but not outrageous.

"As one sporting director at a rival club said this week: 'Howe and his team can't half develop talent, because Lewis Hall could not defend for toffee when he left Chelsea.'" https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-14079665/Lewis-Hall-accidental-left-questioned-s-season-Newcastle-star-shining-Eddie-Howe-ready-make-mark-Thomas-Tuchels-England.html

Not worried about him leaving if we're playing well and he's scoring. The latest stuff reeks of his agent, but that also implies he's probably happy to stay for the right amount of money. If we ever accept less than nine figures for him I will be furious.

I am fixated on the Liverpool game. Under the lights at SJP only three days after they play City at home, which is going to be billed as a title decider. We play on the Saturday, so an extra day of rest. Midweek before that they play Real Madrid. Three days after we play them they have Everton away. It's an incredible opportunity to beat them and it will be even better if we can take six points off West Ham and Palace.

Arsenal is the only time we’ve scored in the first 30 minutes of a game. We definitely need to stop making things difficult for ourselves. Score early/first in some of the games coming up and we may be back to some of the very fun scorelines.

When I posted these stats we had just lost to Fulham. It had only been five games, but it was concerning how far we had dropped off from prior seasons. Since then we've played City, Everton, Brighton, Chelsea, Arsenal, and Forest, and we've improved in every single metric: We are now up to 12th in touches in opp. penalty area (previously 18th). We are now 12th in touches in our own penalty area (previously 18th). We are joint 10th in carries into the penalty area (previously 14th). We are 9th in passes into the penalty area (previously 12th). We have the 9th fewest clearances (previously 4th most). We are 12th in shot creating actions (previously 15th). We have now made 11 errors that led to a shot (which is one more than all of 2022/23) and is joint second worst (previously joint worst). We are 4th in aerial duels won, 53%. (previously 5th at 52.4%) We have faced the 9th fewest crosses into our penalty area (previously the most) and have the 6th best % of crosses stopped by the GK, 7.8% (previously 6th worst, 4.7%). We are 11th in tackles won + interceptions (previously 19th) and slightly more per 90 than each of the last two seasons. Let's see where we are at the halfway point. Given the form and fixtures I'm optimistic we'll continue trending up.

Half the season so eight more games. Seems unlikely. We're going to need Kelly to step up for West Ham and again when Schar is banned.

Leaves us very short at CB until Botman/Lascelles come back and also makes it much harder to think about selling Trippier in January.

Villa have lost four in a row, winless in five, and have two games a week for a month after the break: Palace (h) Juventus (h) Chelsea (a) Brentford (h) Southampton (h) Leipzig (a) Forest (a) City (h) Newcastle (a) Brighton (h) Would love to see them drift away.

Based on how he plays and how Eddie seems to want each of the positions to play it does seem like Tonali's skill set may be best suited to the following order: 1) As the CM, Bruno alternative 2) LCM, as the Willock alternative 3) RCM, as the Longstaff alternative I find it hard to believe our best XI does not include him, but I think this is the dilemma. I would like to see Tonali get a run in a better functioning right side, but I'd also love to see him centrally with Bruno taking up the right.