christ

Shell shocked we managed to hold on to a lead tbh.

Yes. What’s your point caller?

Trippier giving his glowing report.

You must be a used car salesman’s wet dream.

I’m not sure the issue is fitness now as much as it is a squad low on talent and low on confidence.

It’s a good opportunity to get them more intimately involved with the club too. Whet their appetite a little bit. Show them the day to day, allow them to see how shit we are in person.

I’m usually a bit suspicious of ‘warm weather training camps’ as it sounds like an excuse for a bit of a jolly. No chance of that happening in Saudi. Facilities will be light years ahead of our training ground too. In that regard I don’t see any issues with it.

The DOF stuff is such a red herring. All the drama around the supposed lack of structure was whipped up by anonymous agents complaining that they didn’t know who at the club to pester on behalf of their clients.

Got as far as “sustainable, measured investments” and laughed so hard I popped a lung.

I understand the impatience but some people could do with logging off FM for a bit.

Us hiring a manager to ‘give us a lift’ would’ve been a total disaster. We’re not a fundamentally decent team that have lost our way a bit and need a kick up the arse like Villa. We’re shit. The only time the core of this squad has looked good for any length of time is when it was drilled to within an inch of its life. If a Lampard or a Gerrard had landed here they’d never get another job in football.

I understand why people are upset and ranging around looking for persons to blame. I do think the fundamental truth is that the years of chronic underinvestment have came back to bite us on the arse at the worst possible time, and trying to judge either the new ownership or management team on this season is mad. One or both might turn out to be shit but what’s happening right now has very little to do with them and a lot to do with what came immediately before.

In fairness to Howe I don’t think there’s many managers who could come in and salvage this mess. That’s not to say he’s without fault and he doesn’t deserve scrutiny but we’ve got so many gaping holes across the squad where we lack anything approaching Premier League quality.

I think people grossly underestimate how much of a specialist position it is. There’s a reason centre backs who are nominally pegged as being able to play defensive mid are usually absolutely shit when they do have to step in. Joe’s been a revelation in midfield but he’d be shit in a 2.

Still, it’s good news about all the transfers.

No one likes a show off.

See you all at 10am next Thursday for the next one then.

Could’ve had Longshit. Absolutely dreadful posting.

We’re owned by mental cunts who want to build cities in a straight line across the desert. I don’t think it’s much of a secret we’ve money to burn.

They signed him last summer and he’s what, six months younger than Wood? They’d be in the same year at school ffs They’re both basically 1 in 3 across their careers.

Danny Ings cost Villa £25m.

And yet it hasn’t because this thread is choc full of people shitting themselves in public? This woe is me culture war nonsense can fuck all the way off like. This is a forum. People can say stuff, people can respond. ‘Twas ever thus. If you have an issue with it I don’t know what to say.

The general understanding of the value available in the transfer market is fucking abysmal on here like. I assume it’s due to years scraping around trying to sign people for a few million. £20m is absolutely the going rate for someone like Wood.

People are allowed to point out that our fans are being dafties, and people are allowed to agree with them. It’s not tone policing. It’s basically how communication on the internet has worked for the last 30 years.

Spot on this. We’ve got people turning their noses up at someone who has consistently scored goals in the Premier League when the sum total of our striking options for Saturday is a 19 year old charva from Whitley Bay or no one.