roonst83

Good shout. After I typed that I thought it would have been unlikely we would've signed directly from Arsenal.

Pires?

Maybe he's just smiling for the halibut

(Please) Announce Rashica

Bricking it about that left ankle.

Would’ve LOVED to have seen Grealish wearing it in the announcement.

I have no idea why I keep coming back to this thread. I know the "outcome". But whenever I see it's been bumped, I habitually dive in.

He’ll be nicknamed John McGinsters soon He really wasn’t anywhere near as sharp as we needed last ten games, injury granted. The difference in speed and how svelte he was at the start of last season is no comparison. Watched some highlights from the early games and he was incredible. It took him the best part of ten games to get somewhere near his best at the end of the season and with the short pre-season I think he’ll be looking at the first ten games or so again. The pictures don’t look great. Kappa shirts are ridiculously tight for their sizing but there’s no denying McGinn is way off where he was a year ago.

Have just checked and looks like the first post of Nakamba’s that Rashica liked was July 26 when Marvelous posted the picture of the players celebrating in the changing rooms after we stayed up at West Ham.

You may not, but you must be able to see that it would be a potential distraction to our plans for the upcoming season for the coaching staff and players, no?

Assume it means a deadline and cut-off point for us allowing a deal for Grealish to be completed. We did this before a couple of years ago when Spurs were chasing him, and even though they came in and matched the fee we wanted it was beyond the deadline we'd set. I like this. We don't need to sell Jack, he's our best and most influential player and we don't need the money. Add to that his value to us is way more than the fee we'll be asking means we should be in the driving seat for this deal. We can't have this dark cloud of "will he or wont he" hanging over us when we need to prepare in a shorter pre-season for a hugely important season for us so one way or an other we need toast a deadline for this deal and move forward and know what we're working with.

Makes a lot of sense.

There were definitely times when the drinks break came as a great relief. But also times when I feared if we were slightly on top and had more momentum than the opposition that it was an ideal time for the opposition coaching staff to recognise what was going on and nullify our threat. Essentially, the drinks break benefits the team under pressure providing their manager and coaches have the ability to stop the flow and change the momentum of the game. And, naturally, the better coaches are better than others at this so over a season it'd likely benefit the better teams more in a similar way the 5-sub rule did. If we were somehow leading City 0-1 last their place, id be dreading Pep getting stuck into his team during the drinks break as we'd almost certainly end up 2-1 down by HT. I was such a nervous wreck in all of those last ten games that any break in play came as a feeling of sanctuary (much like half time) as it's the only time I can somewhat rely during. game. That said, i'm all for it going next season and would rather we didn't have it at all. It also guarantees more added time at the end of each half which most Villa fans will, naturally, be dreading.

Must admit I find AVTV hideous to use on my iPhone. Its so jumpy, terrible user interface and extremely clunky to get round. I do miss the extended highlights from YouTube, they were so good. I was also dead certain that having Jack Woodward back as commentator was going to curse us and send us own last season like he last time he was commentating for us, but that's more my own issue than his.

I found out when I ordered our light blue away and green third kit for £18 each on the online store during lockdown. I’m usually a medium so ordered that size and am now going to give the away top to my 13 year old nephew. Bizarrely, the third kit fits much easier but I’m not too comfortable in it. I’ll be going large from now on for sure.

Rule of thumb seems to be whatever size you think you are, go up a size for Kappa.

Can only assume from the comments that he’s gone elsewhere?

Any clarity on when the fixtures will be announced?

We are tremendously weak and slow in the attack. If this guy offers more than El Ghazi, which it sounds like he will, then he’ll be a useful addition. We need someone in the wide areas with pace and tenacity with an end product. Trezzy seems to try too hard, but has shown he can get into the right areas to pop up with goals. I’m a big advocate for healthy competition for places breeding better performances and bringing the best out of players. Watkins could help us with that in an area we’re crying out for. Hopefully we’ll bring in a few new faces to offset the pressure heaped on him, assuming we get this deal done.

I welcome the decision, although I'm certain Kevin Friend would still arrive at this same decision if we looked at the monitor at Palace away. I fear some refs will be too proud to admit their mistakes. Unlikely, I hope, but I wonder if there'll be a hint of that. I know Palace away is long gone, but as I was there 5th row from the front I could see Grealish and MacGinn constantly in the ear of the ref and linesman all second half. I felt at the time, and still do, that this contributed to the ref feeling angered by this which contributed, in my opinion, to them punishing us with the foul on Grealish and disallowing Lansbury's goal. And if it's not mandatory for a referee to visit the monitor to verify their own decision then i'm not sure they always will in situations like Palace.

Ha, absolute fail. I've no idea why I wrote that. Cant even blame that on the auto correct on my phone

Agree with a lot of the above. Liam Rosenior is an excellent pundit. He deserves to be featured on Prem games but he’s kind of moulded the role for himself for the EFL games. i also think Andy Hinchcliffe is a decent co-commentator too. Speaks sense and reads and analyses the game intelligently. Heard a lot of him with Villa games in Championship and more recently this season in the Prem. like him.

Fully agree. The North Stand upper at half time is absolutely ridiculous

I agree that we shouldn’t have it. It becomes a game of three quarters and enables managers and coaches to have a mini pep talk to the team as well as disrupting the flow of a game that has its advantages and disadvantages depending on how the game is going. You get the feeling that this will benefit the better teams more than the rest.

Was listening to the 1984 podcast with Bardell and Gregg Evans earlier and Gregg stated how he was led to believe we're definitely in for Watkins and are more keen to get him than Benrahma. He also said we could've got Watkins for £10m last summer but passed it up.