Hobsons Choice

Forza football says he’s not available for spuds for ‘personal reasons’

Brummie accent phobia.

The Sunderland one was brilliant. First season was exactly as you expect a football documentary to be. Second season was a f**king mentalist exploration of how bad a bunch of sleazy wideboys can mess things up. Rather reminded me of America at the end of the Obama years going into the Trump administration.

As I said before, we’d struggle to implement a salary cap, as much as it can be admired in US sport. I think the PL and EFL could maybe work out a way to better distribute youth talent though, through impartial assessment of youth ability and control of the number of the top youth talent at higher rated teams. If a way to do this could be found it would also be a way of distributing income, since top clubs would need to pay lower league teams big money for developed talent.

I'm not that bothered, in that everyone will still call it Villa Park. I would be if it was a new stadium. Etihad. Just reeks of Corporate.

Not necessarily, it's an arms race. You have to invest every year or you go backwards. You don't stand still. The injection of money is with a view to increasing equity in the club. They don't just sink money into a hole with no return, they put money in to get better players, gain a better league position, a bigger following etc. All of this equates to the value of a club. NSWE have put approximately £300M or so since 2018. Villa's current value according to Transfermarkt is £367.48M In June 2018 the value of the club was £69.3M That's why it's an investment. They fund the acquisition of players, but ultimately the value of the club offsets those losses (if the investment is undertaken wisely). Given that the value of the lowest of the top 4 is £791M, if villa could break into it by spending say £200M, they would still come out winners. Of course they will continue to put money in, providing they see an opportunity to get to the next level in terms of club value. And that's without any of the other revenue streams.

In terms of times to play against teams it does not get better than this. They have been rank, and they have weak european opposition before playing us. They either play a strong side and win, which mean they will be less well rested for us and not ready for our ability after playing a cack side, or they put out a weak team and lose/scrape a result which means their confidence will be even further down the crapper. If we play as I know we can we can thrape this Spurs side. Skill wise they are decent, but Nuno is having to do a lot of 'attitude adjustment' this season, and I don't think they are anywhere near the races yet. All this probably means we'll get walloped. I've been watching Villa for too long

Ollies biggest problem is also his biggest strength. He's self critical almost to a fault. He's the epitome of a confidence player. Once he gets a couple of goals he'll be beastmode.

If it's Spurs I'm not worried. We don't make deals with teams for monopoly money, snacks, or a whippet that Levy bought from a bloke in the pub.

You say that now. How many would say that if we were 15th and staring down a relegation battle?

Fair point you know.

Do we really think it is performance that gets you an England call up at the moment? I would argue that Toney would be a better inclusion that Watkins on current/recent form and injuries, despite being happy for Ollie.

Competition is good though isn't it! I didn't think Ollie was at it last time out, although it's clearly just cos he's not been back long. I would have considered dropping him for Buendia to give him a bit more time, but with Bailey out I would expect us to accommodate both. Tottenham is a big big game for Buendia, if he wants to keep a shirt.

Some folks on here were discussing him playing more of a false nine role, which tbh I was against, but if that is how we are going to be playing him (deeper), then he will naturally get fewer goal scoring opportunities. I'm not worried at all, and his assist for Bailey's goal proves he has more in his locker than just goal poaching in the penalty area.

Interesting! I've always thought that it is possible to be a counter-attacking team and play attractive, exciting football. I've never subscribed to the opinion that you can only play that way against the top teams, although they are the ones who are most likely to be attacking themselves, particularly at home. I guess you have a few options in the locker tactically, but I have no problem with our baseline tactic being direct counter attacking. If you have the right personnel it's surgical, not hoof and hope.

I get your point and I agree that DS fares favourably against Potter, but I think it does Potter a bit of a disservice. They were a decent/in form striker away from much bigger numbers last year. Their xG was huge.

Honestly I'm not sure I get it. I am all for increasing revenue, but surely the reason you would play overseas games is to increase the profile of the league/teams. Now I've been fortunate to see a bit of the world over the years, and I have never been to any country where folks have not heard of the Premier League. It is by some distance the most watched league around the world. The twinning idea mentioned elsewhere with regard to Pakistan seems like a better fit to me, because it can grow interest in the local league and the Premier League at the same time. Then have a pre-season visit where we play our doppelgangers.

I think he's referring to what our owners would have had to invest had we not sold Jack to make it a net negative spend. Footballtransfers.com has our net spend to be the lowest of all Prem Clubs including Brighton, Burnley, Norwich and Newcastle (-£19M) Not sure I believe that figure, but you get the point. If you assume an annual investment equivalent to our peers, then I guess you could argue that we have money to spend.

Yeah, I think we'd sell him for that. I think I'd be OK with it too. He has been good for us over the years, especially during the promotion year, but I don't see how he fits in with what we're trying to achieve now.

I get what you are saying, but leeches tend not to circle, but to wallow in their own filth in stagnant water. I think maybe that metaphor is more accurate.

Throwing another name around, how come Veretout never made it here? He scored 10 goals in 29 matches for Roma last year from midfield. Sold him for 7M euro, two years later he fetched 16M euro. Him and Gueye. Gueye signed for PSG for 30M in 2019. We sold him for 7.1 in 2016. How come we could not get a tune out of them? They were obviously decent footballers, and we ended up playing some of the shite listed above. Awful management.

Ah, the old ‘Burnley Feast’.

I’ll find a way.

FFS. If City buy him I swear I am personally going to go to the Etihad, do massive dumps in all their toilets and not flush.

I thought it was only based on distance, angle, type of assist, and type of shot (ie head or foot). If it does include defender position, then apologies, my mistake.