Villa cruised to a two-goal first-half cushion that was enough to survive Spurs’ ramped-up second-half intensity and ill temper and go through to the fourth round of the FA Cup. And to be honest, knocking Spurs out with Frank in trouble and the team full of frustration was very satisfying. Following Palhinha’s cynical and injurious foul on Kamara, it was always going to be an emotion-based outcome.
I’ve no problem with professional fouls, but I do have a problem with cheap shots. Sticking a foot out and tripping someone up, low odds of injury. Being beaten dead to rights and putting a leg across a player in full stride…bad things can happen. I liked to be physical when I played. But I never wanted to hurt anyone. To me, that was a sign of my own deficiency (skill or character, take your pick). For Palhinha, it seemed to be the idea he was going to send a message. That message apparently was that he has no problem injuring you when you’re defenseless. And because it came so early, the ref wasn’t going to blow.
We’ve seen a lot of this under Emery given he likes to play through the middle. Countless tugs, pull-backs, and dangling feet in the middle of the park to stop us breaking. Ollie comes in for a lot of it, as do Youri and McGinn, Buendia. Anyone in that central spot receiving and looking to link play. Sometimes they know they’re going to make the turn and get fouled, and as long as it’s not dangerous, they understand it’s part of the game, no real harm done.
We all remember the “foul Grealish by committee” approach when he was at the club. So for me, there’s got to be a better way, and with Kamara on the ground, plenty of time for a VAR word in the earpiece. I also wouldn’t mind seeing some kind of accumulation, like 5th foul, whoever commits it gets a yellow.
Anyway. That’s done, we’re through for better or worse, and it’s a full week off before Everton and then the Europa midweeks come calling again. Kamara sounds like he’ll miss two or three weeks, fingers crossed. We’ll see if it makes the Key Match Incidents too-late-to-matter report, which at least confirms we weren’t biased in thinking Merino should’ve been sent off for Arsenal.
Transfers
Here we are again, trying to skirt PSR and whatever else, seemingly missing out on Connor Gallagher as a result. Spurs could pay the cash up front and Villa couldn’t. Whether that’s good or bad, I don’t know, but I was thinking his energy and work-rate would help fill a need. For £35m? Up for debate.
Elsewhere we’re being told we’ve lodged a bid for Ferran Torres, Donyell Malen might be off to Roma (sure seem to have quite the Bat Phone with them), and others are linked. Alysson and Madjo have been signed and both might well represent very good business. How or if they will help this season…? Not really Emery’s way, seem like buys for the future, especially Madjo, but we’ll see. Maybe they get some Europa or cup minutes. Maybe our hand is being forced and they play more.
Tammy is once again in the frame, wouldn’t really be a window without rumors of his return, but this one maybe adds up given the swap nature of the deal, with Malen going the other way and Tammy coming from Besiktas. Malen, I understand. He’s chipped in some really useful goals and fits certain moments. But he can also fail to provide much influence for long stretches and isn’t a good stand-in for Ollie.
Wouldn’t be unfair to say that we’ve struggled getting in a wide player for the right-hand side for a while now. Maybe the idea is that Sancho stays out there, Guessand provides cover/rotation. If you get a goal-scorer in, maybe it all evens out and you have insurance for Ollie.
But this will all have changed by the time I post this. Having trouble believing we can go full-price for what I’m seeing about Torres, but who knows what dark arts and deals could be employed.
The only thing I believe I could say for sure is that it must be more than a bit frustrating for all involved with the restrictions.
Over to you.
Dirty Spurs, Transfers and a Week Off
John, if Malen goes, it won’t be the first time Unai has moved a player on after 1 year. He did the same with Diaby. We also still have Ned on loan at Leipzig, Iling Junior, Barrenachea, Dobbin etc. Should raise some capital to help with UEFA’s SCR’s.
Then there’s Sancho, Guessand and Elliott being used sparingly or not at all. Plenty for Unai to clean up.
He did, yes. For me, it’s really hard to tell exactly what he’s looking for given the way they’ve been forced to cash in. Onana, Tielemans, Maatsen. Pau and Lindelof.
Seems like most of the others have sort of been bargain-bin punts. Get the body in, see what they do, work a deal to move on quickly if they’re not what you’d hoped.
Should probably have also said that the roster churn has to be taken in context. Yes, we’ve got the bookkeepers after us, but you look at all these sides with bigger budgets splashing cash all over the place, and to what effect? So many ‘flops’, certainly lack of instant impact, so many sidelined, moved on.
Point being, I think it’s probably hard to judge some of the business we’ve done. We like to look at the Brentfords and Brightons, etc., but we’ve still placed higher and they inevitably end up selling the gems they do unearth. Which doesn’t mean I wouldn’t like some of those gems and think we could hold on to them, but without looking more closely at all the unheralded signings, I can’t really offer an opinion on their success rates overall.
I think the 2 new guys are ones for the future. Didn’t cost a lot and we’ll see how they develop. Alysson may be first to show.
If reports are to be believed, Emery had hoped to get Alysson some minutes against Spurs.
So that’s Malen off, it seems. Apparently a £2m loan fee, then an obligation to buy for £25m. Net £6m (bought for £21m). We’ll see what happens next. Might well be paving the way for Tammy.
Still wonder if Elliot will be able to impress Emery in training. Seems like he is lumbered with us and seems like he was being a wimp not wanting to play for Deano in the US (assuming it was on offer). Liverpool leaving him to rot at Villa will hopefully lose them lots of money next summer. Elliot is going to be damaged goods.
I presume we will be doing the same with Bailey but at least he paid back his transfer fee getting us into the eurocrap cup 2 seasons ago.
Tammy coming back would be a sentimental return. Has that boat sailed? Should you never go back and possibly spoil the original memory? GT2 comes to mind.
Funny you mention, was going to reference an article about Villa and Liverpool needing to have a ‘grown-up’ conversation…which then puts the onus on Liverpool (rightly). Now, I feel bad for Elliott, not his fault, but if Emery doesn’t want him, there you go, under no obligation to play him. Monchi’s fault? May well be why he left. But Liverpool could remove the obligation, take him back, raise the threshold.
And of course it would be up to Elliott to prove he’s worth £35m, which apparently he hasn’t done or is simply not where we want to spend that.
Tammy I’m torn on. Haven’t followed him, seems like he’s been hit or miss, but maybe the profile still fits. Can’t imagine he’d contribute less than Malen (which wasn’t nothing).
“I also wouldn’t mind seeing some kind of accumulation, like 5th foul, whoever commits it gets a yellow.”
That is actually in Law 12. Persistent infringement is a caution. We were always trained in referee sessions that (at least in the U.S.) persistent fouling of a single player by multiple opponents is included in this proscription. That situation is rarely called, though.
At least it’s there and could be called. So long since I’ve looked at an FA rulebook (’70s maybe?) that I’ve no idea if it exists anywhere else.
Best wishes for your future Donyell. I will miss those razor sharp shots and penalties. I have to trust Unai on this one which of course I do.
Lifers have picked up and commented on the lack of refereeing protection we receive from the hatchet men. Seems Unai has also noticed the same issue. Wants his troops to beef up in the gym to compensate and adapt to the changing refereeing decisions. Interesting read.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-15471125/Aston-Villa-Unai-Emery-accuses-rivals-playing-dirty-Morgan-Rogers.html
Yeah, just read that. Classy as always, but pointed.
It’s nice to come on here and feel like there are still humans living on planet earth, instead of the social media-verse or absolutist bubbles.
I said previously that so far with Unai, the best football we’ve played was his first 12 months. Well I have to take my hat off to Emery because his tactical evolution/adaptability has been phenomenal. I think now is the best football, in terms of being competitive for 95 minites, in attack and defence, in rest periods or front-foot periods.
He’s had to adapt to frequent key injuries and having his hands tied by PSR, but he has kept the squad moving and you can see that during the whole 3 years, we are the 3rd best team. That’s all down to Emery.
Be interesting to see which forward we bring in to replace the Melon. Good player but he didn’t fit into plan A, so well done to Emery for dealing with what he is given, polishing it, adding value and making a (small) profit. It’s a long way from Dendonker, Coutinho, Digne and Carlos…
Yes, it is refreshing to not have to deal with typical internet/social commenting on here, henryx2.
Also, it really has been a remarkable management/coaching performance. Hard to say who’ll replace Malen, but the Tammy links remain strong.
Beyond that, we seem to linked with roughly 15-20 midfielders.
Yeah, I’m a big fan of Tammy due to his first spell. I have no idea about Tammy’s current ability or our finances, but assuming we’re playing CL football next year, we’ll need 2 good strikers to keep moving forwards.
Counting all the ones we have on loan, Olabe has a big job on shifting the players Unai doesn’t want and sorting out the pawns from last year’s PSR-summer, so that we’re dealing with a straight deck of cards going forwards, when it comes to the players on our books.
Big game coming up today. A chance to move to P2 after match week 22. Unbelievable. Heading off to VP shortly. COYVB.
Halcyon days indeed!
We usually follow up 7 days of rest with a slow start and energy conserving performance. I can see the same again today, especially with our stretched squad. And we play Fernebache on Thursday, where we can qualify for top 8. We’ll have Evann and Tyrone back, maybe Ross and Alysson by Thursday, so three points is all I’m interested in from today’s game.
I assume Everton will sit tight for the first 45 then see what they can grab in the second half, so it’s up to is to kill the game (with goals) as soon as possible.
Bloody Hell. Route one almost screwed us on 10 flipping seconds. Moyes has our number!
Noticed Buendia buzzing around doing sharp snappy things.
just like last week. We lose a key midfielder on 15 minutes. Threadbare squad losing key players?
Is fate kicking our arse for not being able to get Gallaher?
Good run but weak effort from our African superstar.
Benevolent VAR rules an Everton goal offside. They are starting to muscle us out of the game. Konsa also doing too much fiddling and twiddling AGAIN!.
Typically slow and unfocused first half. Buendia has been a one man disaster zone. Doesn’t help that Ginny is one of our best gear changers.
They’ve started playing different game plans towards the end, so I assume Emery will get into them and realign everything.
Not much on the bench if we want to change the pace and most of these will have to go again on Thursday in Turkey…
Ist half honours go to Everon. They are playing plain, simple, uncomplicated uncompromising football with some noticeably big athletic players à la prime moyes spam of yesteryear.
Funny little cameo of Torres mixing it with Tarkowski (everyone’s second favorite thug) at an Everton corner. Thug benevolently didn’t kill Torres.
Yeah, defo a half-asleep half…seems we’re almost better playing every three-four days. Lots of dithering, short passes and the like.
Agree, Emery will get into them at the half, but it’s true there’s not a lot to change round, atm.
SJM’s departure did seem to bother things. Guessand just can’t bring the same presence or link up.
Will need to sort Buendia-Rogers-Watkins. Ollie was invisible, Maatsen probably the best attacking impetus.
Playing on that off side, Guessand might yet get another chance to pull a Malen.
His header that hit the bar late on was like the header he scored for Ivory Coast a few weeks ago. Perhaps he’s got the makings of a striker in there somewhere.
Fingers crossed
Leaving it short again
I hope the transfer committee have their ear defenders on…emery had a glint in his eye as he was walking off.
It was a case of too many sick notes coinciding at the same time for us, not sure who will be left for Thursday. There was no juice left in the tank at the 75minute mark.
Good to see Hemmings get more game time. He looks the right size for a PL centre mid.
Buendia had one of those games and Guessand has the demeanour of someone who would fall asleep during his own water boarding, maybe he can be converted into right back…
Fair play. Hemmings was a promising huge plus. The only bright bit of the game for us.
“Guessand has the demeanour of someone who would fall asleep during his own water boarding” – one of the best descriptions I’ve come across.
Christ
Route one stuffs us with the help of a Torres slip. Methinks we are in the doodoo.
If that effort from Rogers doesn’t sum things up
We couldn’t have played worse, yet it comes down to a cock-up.
Emery’s face said it all: not angry or animated, just resigned.
But it has to be said that without Kamara, Onana and then SJM, we were missing the foundation.
Doesn’t seem like much, but I think if McGinn stays on we win that. Looked fine up to that point.
Yeah I think Youri still doesn’t look capable of playing back to back full intensity 90s. And he had to hold it all together and be the link man by himself once McGinn went off and Buendia was having a stinker.
Hell, probably if Lindelof had kept his place we’d have at least drawn.
Everton beat us fair and square with inferior less experienced players and a bigger missing list than us.
Seems Moyes basic simple earnest old school football is better at coping with missing players than Emery’s high tech fiddly twiddly control system. Think Mings would have been better suited than Torres for this game.
I’m a bit worried that we are back where we were two seasons ago when we slowly ran out of steam after an unexpected good start. Dougie was our main man then and just about got us over the line. Our two best and most progressive midfielders are injury prone. None of our players (excluding SJM) would win a physically robust competition. If you’re unfit to play, you can’t display your superior technical ability.
Other results elsewhere dictate that we have lost minimal ground today. Everyone had a bad day. Buendia had the least bad day so he gets my nomination for the least bad POTM.
GRUMBLE GRUMBLE SULK!
OK. Maybe T’mans might have been the least bad POTM. I’m probably overimpressed with Buendia’s ratting and scrapping qualities.
It does get to some fundamental truths about football. It’s a simple game, and there’s a slew of managers who keep it that way. They won’t generally take you to the top, but they get the most out of minimal resources, sticking to the basics, and fitting a certain physical profile.
But, if we hadn’t gifted them the opportunity, they never looked like scoring on their own.
For me, Everton’s approach was what you’d expect. What was poor on the day, to my mind, was simply our performances across the pitch. A couple good moments here and there, but everyone seemed flat, off-key, and all too often not on the same page. Dawdling, anxious, complacent, leaving it short, hitting it long.
Might be a harbinger of things to come, might just be the old bad day at the office and odds catching up to you. This is what happens when the moments of magic aren’t there. It also hurt that there weren’t any ways of freshening it up and getting new ideas and impetus into the game.
What’s funny was that in hindsight, the early warning from the kickoff ended up characterizing our play throughout.
And I wonder about the window (reinforcements anyone?), missing players and playing again on Thursday, this title-race nonsense, how all of that played into looking so jaded.
I got le Saux on commentary here today, and while he’s often hit or miss, he put a lot of poor balls down to tension and trying too hard. One where Youri rifled it through the left channel more like a shot, for example. Me, I saw it in Rogers and others carrying too long, running out of options, final balls to no one, that sort of thing. Like everyone was in a fog.
That’s why I thought McGinn leaving hurt as he was doing well just keeping hold, winning fouls, linking up. Guessand, I’d be more charitable if his attempt had gone in, but he’s really pretty useless, not sure how the scouting got him so wrong. So you’re almost playing with 10 at that point.
It seemed to me that Rogers was trying to do too much, looking to shoot as if he was the only option. They had him pretty well surrounded so there must have been some openings elsewhere. And Ollie might as well have been in Liverpool instead of Birmingham for as little as he affected the game. It seems like we have always struggled against Moyes, often in just the way we did yesterday.
Now it appears that Duran will be lining up against us on Thursday. I fear a three-match losing streak…
Not just Big Jhon that we have to worry about, Asensio is in top form for them.
Bummer. A performance from our darker days. Haven’t seen the data or stats but it seemed to me that Everton had more fight and looked sharper. We looked slow. I just couldn’t see us scoring a goal. The early injury to SJM proved decisive. Sometimes you can only play as well as the opposition let’s you but we looked tired as well, so maybe a bit of both. Dunno.
At least the title talk can now be removed from the table. It’s a scrap for a Champions League place only. Trying to decide if any of our players did OK today. Perhaps Maatsen. Pau not only cost us the goal with his error, he also gave the ball away multiple times. Simple passes were missed, not just by him but Ollie, Rogers, Buendia, Bogey, Cash, T’mans and Konsa did too. Konsa was back to his 360 degree turns again.
Rogers converted most of his chances into row Z. The one he got on target was saved by Pickford. I would also query the timing of the sale of Malen with so many missing from midfield. The bench was bare of attacking options. Guessand looked the poorest player on display. He did get a header onto the crossbar but missed a great chance to score which he scuffed.
All in all, a bad day at the office. And we’re looking a bit threadbare. Damage hasn’t been too bad but our advantage will soon disappear if we see many more of these types of performances.
Ouch. New York Times reporting that Kamara is out for the rest of this season. Our midfield woes worsen.
Ah, I see you beat me to it.
We seem to have a very complicated relationship with Roma.
We sell them my goal scoring Melon – WTF?
We agree to take back my favorite slagging off victim Bailey. I thought the Melon was his more robust replacement – WTF?
Bet red scouse don’t do the same with Elliot, or does he now get some games?
Does all this point to some Tammy action? Are we being Roma’s bitch?
So many WTF’s 656. My thoughts entirely.
No, I’m expecting Liverpool will hang Elliott out to dry.
With Roma, I’m just thinking it’s a ‘good relationship’ based on necessity. Recalling Leon makes some sense as insurance (rather than trying to get a new player in) given Besiktas apparently are being difficult with Tammy, though now I’m reading Mateta coming our way, Guessand going to Palace in separate deals. We had to offload Dougie, he wanted a move. Being touted as a possible replacement for Bouba since he’s only on loan at Forest and not playing much for Dyche.
It’s hard to know what to make of any of it, sometimes. But the PSR/SCR limitations are really doing damage.
Never mind Pahlinha.
Well Monchi said he would welcome Dougie back with open arms when we HAD to sell him. Wonder if Emery felt the same way? Dougie looked shot in his last few games – I wondered if he was having girlfriend problems at the time. If so, I wonder if he has got over it.
Yeah…Had it at one time, at least he knows everyone, could be the only available emergency stopgap. Been other rumored midfielders.
Spurs have gone up in my hatred index ten-fold (tough to do): Crock Bouba, hijack Gallagher.
We have an Independent Football Regulator set up as a Gov’t watchdog who are going to produce a report on the state of the game in draft form later this year. We are told it’s wide ranging and will be looking closely at parachute payments for EPL relegated teams which are deemed unfair and anti competitive by the EFL since it gives relegated teams a huge advantage over the rest. The EFL call them trampoline payments.
For their part, the EPL say these payments are vitally necessary in order to give club owners the confidence to invest in their clubs. It’s outrageous of them to play that card when their own PSR regs are designed to restrict that very investment from challenging the “entitled six” clubs. So they wish to encourage owners to invest in clubs, but not so much that may tread on the toes of the “entitled six”. Another WTF?
I’m not sure what I’m talking about here due to age related memory fogginess but here goes. I thought these parachute payments arose out of the formation of the premier (spit) league in 1992 when sky (twats) invented football.
They reduced the old first division from 22 clubs to 20 clubs and the parachute payments were a sweetener for the first division turkeys to vote for christmas and agree for a few seasons play off games to get the numbers down. No idea how legally binding the parachute payments are.
News now is that Bouba is potentially out for the season. Devastating. (Edit: Plug had already mentioned this)
Deloitte have released their football club financial results for 24/25 (our UCL year). Villa now up to 14th richest club with revenue of 450.2m euros or approx £378m depending on exchange rate accuracy. That’s healthy. Our wage bill is registered by Deloitte at 71% with UEFA SCR’s for the year at 80% max so we are quids in. However, for the current year (25/26) we will have reduced income due to lack of UCL money and a max SCR of 70% placed on us suggesting the current financial year will remain tight. Where we really miss out on revenue compared to our rivals is in sponsorship deals.
https://www.deloitte.com/uk/en/services/consulting-financial/analysis/deloitte-football-money-league.html
Team news v Fenerbahce. New pair of CB’s and Sancho in. Asensio and Big Jhon for the opposition.
Aston Villa XI: Bizot, Digne, Mings, Lindelof, Cash, Tielemans, Bogarde, Buendia, Rogers, Sancho, Watkins.
Subs: Konsa, Torres, Garcia, Jimoh-Aloba, Maatsen, Onana, Guessand, Young, Proctor, Hemmings, Wright.
Fenerbahce XI: Ederson, Muldur, Oosterwolde, Skriniar, Nelson Semedo, Yuksek, Fred, Akturkoglu, Asensio, Nene, Duran.
Subs: Soyuncu, Alvarez, Cetin, Demir, Biterge, Aydin, Talisca, Karatas.
Excellent header from Sancho central on the Pbox line after some nifty tippy tappy stuff on the right.
Villa looking cool calm and collected. Fenerbache starting to look ratty and narky – yes even Asencio. Excellent goal from Sancho, everything was perfectly judged. The rest of his game has been just off. Mings and Lindelof look good.
No mention of you know who @cos I don’t want to tempt fate.
I had my head down in work, so once I saw we were up 1-0, I decided not to jinx it by tuning in at the half.
So all I can say is that’s a great result, especially in context.
Glad Sancho produced and that apparently Duran had one called back for offside…?
We brought on 4 subs all at once. Straight away we got caught cold and disorganised in a melee and the ball went in the net. I was busy tutting and didn’t notice the offside. Took a few minutes before the offside was called. The game officials didn’t notice the offside. I thought we had stupidly blown it. Think that was the last straw for pouty boy!
Whew…I’d seen us up 0-2 on an own-goal that apparently got called back, then I saw 1-1, clicked through and it was back to 0-1.
You take these any way you get them.
Satisfying energy conserving win for Villa. It was a bit like the Everton game except that we played like Everton scoring the one chance and Fenerbahce played like us but just couldn’t do anything right. They had more shots and headers on target than we did but Bizot was always on hand.
Mings and Lindelof locked up our backline. Lindelof seems to be just as good a free signing as T’mans but has hit the ground running. Ollie just couldn’t get going but at least fully engaged their hard man CB. Didn’t want to say anything before the game ended but Mings had Duran in his back pocket. Duran had a few little goes in the first half but Mings swatted him away – bit like daddy lion in the nature tiktoks where baby lion was allowed to be cheeky but was paternally biffed by daddy lion when he went too far. Pouty boy just wandered off out of the way.
Mings my POTM ‘cos he was the adult in the room and made sure every thing was tickity boo. Big mention for ultra professional Lindelof. WTF were manure thinking? Oh well, their idiot loss.
Amusing cartoon analogy 656!! My thoughts were…..it was never a 1-0 game. Should have been a 5-0 game. Lost count of the times we broke forward at pace with overload options either side of the ball carrier only for the carrier to make the wrong choice or no choice at all.
Agreed about Tyro. He was immense and watching Big Jhon get more and more angry as the game wore on had me smiling. Bizot had an excellent game too. And I’m with you on Lindelof, he has been the best of our summer signings.
The Sancho goal was a bonus. In the right place at the right time and dispatched perfectly into the onion bag. Cash unlucky with his blockbuster against the post. Nice to see Onana back as well. The ref was a real homer, he let so many of their fouls go but jumped on us for some that weren’t. Unai seen giving T’mans Rockall during his overtime substitution. Was he upset because T’mans picked up a yellow for time wasting?
You just know it’s your night when Brann score an equaliser on 90+10 against Midgetland to put us clear in 2nd place. A home win against Salzburg next week bestows second legs at VP advantage from hereon forward.
Big swing there
All-round good performance, great result, inadequate scoreline – I guess two out of three ain’t bad! Sanchez lively enough, could have had three goals, Bizot and Mings superb, in fact nobody really ‘off’. Quite a relief after Everton!
I’d keep Bizot for the Newcastle game, Mings and Lindelof too: they made a solid central pair and, with Torres off-colour and Konsa going through one of his dithery, ponderous and almost ‘entitled’ periods, we’d have a bit more beef at the back for a change. Onana in for Bogarde (not that he’s done anything wrong) and – who knows? – Bailey to come off the bench, I reckon we can put one over on the Geordies.
Dare I dream of Manure nicking a point at Arsenal, too? Or am I being greedy?
The Sukru Saracoglu Stadium. A bear pit. Expertly navigated by the Villa boys. Fred neutered. Big Jhon locked up by Tyro. Asensio shackled. Ederson beaten by Sancho. The sight of them all becoming more agitated as the game progressed, wonderful.
The experience should set us up for the Wai Ayes, it will be a game of similar fan pressures. Very promising seeing our alternative players looking solid. Bogey is coming of age. Unai masterstroke bringing on Maatsen to play left side of midfield in front of Digne. Good to see Onana back.
PS – you are being greedy Viva.
Read a nice write-up in The Athletic about Villa’s growing maturity, going into such a hostile environment and being more composed than the home side.
May not be the CL, but could well have been. There’s massive value in nights like that. And though we should’ve had more, 1-0 away in a cauldron with big implications shows some mettle.
Happy days, I had predicted 16 points would be enough for top 8 but the table looks incredibly competitive right now.
Seems as tho Tammy is a done deal. I think that’s a good swap deal with Malen, as Tammy is a striker. It seems the money men have found some money down the sofa because we also have Baileys wages…
Only open question left is Harvey Elliott, will he stay or will he go?
And I’d love to see Hemmings start next Thursday against Salzburg. When I first saw him in pre-season I thought “he doesn’t look like one of ours” in terms of the build of player that usually comes through our academy. Low and behind, we took him off Forrest.
Really caught the eye over the summer and there may be an opportunity for him to seize here. Emery is generally really slow to bring young players in, but maybe his hand will be forced. I’d like to think the kid will take his chance if he gets it.
Tammy on the way subject to medical on Saturday.
https://x.com/TheAthleticFC/status/2014749364527247529
Everybody happy?
I have reservations 656. John mentions the costs below. They had him on loan from Italy, with an obligation to buy for £11m if certain conditions were met. They have been. Ozcan cost us about £7m. So if rumours are correct, £11m has jumped to £25m after a few months in the Turkish league. If he proves to be the difference between Champions League and missing out, it’s a no brainer. Other than that…..Hmmm?
I think it’s a shame we couldn’t get him before Besiktas and they have slightly taken the financial piss out of us. Whatever happens at the end of the season, he will be our fully integrated, mentally well balanced, Emery ready squad player for next season – unlike Rashford.
I think it’s a justifiable gamble. As JC and Plug point out there are pitfalls, but 20 million for a 28 year old, international, 6’2”, athletic goal-scorer is as close to “value buy” as you get in this day and age.
We had to do something, Ollie is 30 years old and has injury niggles.
Sort of remarkable, jbd…linked with him every window since god knows when and here he is coming back.
My only worry is the injury history, otherwise I think it’s not a bad punt for the rumored £18.2m plus Ozcan, the young CB. Tall, offers something different to Ollie.
I also think it’ll be very interesting to see Ollie’s reaction. He typically has not liked having competition – Ings, Duran, Rashford.
Now he has someone 2 years younger who is club AND national team competition.
Hope Emery can get into Ollie’s head and tweak his play to dovetail with Tammy.
Great result by the Cherries, scoring on 90+4. Keeps the gap between us and red scouse.
Team news for Newcastle game:
Newcastle: Pope, Trippier, Thiaw, Botman, Hall, Miley, Tonali, Joelinton, Barnes, Wissa, Gordon
Subs: Ramsdale, Osula, Elanga, Woltemade, Willock, Burn, A.Murphy, Ramsey, Shahar
Aston Villa: Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Torres, Maatsen, Onana, Tielemans, Sancho, Rogers, Buendia, Watkins
Subs: Bizot, Lindelof, Digne, Mings, Bogarde, Hemmings, Bailey, Elliott, Guessand
Elliott and Bailey on the subs bench. Emi back in between the sticks, CB’s rotated. COYVB.
World’s number one saves inside minute one. POTM already?
Magical right foot bamboozling long range crossshot goal from outside right hand side of box by Buendia.
2nd worldy save from world’s number 1 keeper.
Villa’s best first half away performance this season. Running rings around newcastle at times. Sancho’s best performance so far and looking good. Buendia looking sharp and dangerous. Martinez doing unbelievable Emi things. Eveyone playing well except Ollie. His workrate is faultless but nothing working for him at all. Looks totally pissed off with himself.
Hope I’m not being too cocky – but we are looking good.
Bit surprised Bailey subbing Sancho. Sancho been good and done nothing wrong.
Ollie has done it. Long determined run to the far post and a low headed goal. Except for one good shot earlier on, Ollie has had an abysmal game but he has worked hard and never given up.
EMI BUENDIA…..FROM ARGENTINA……
Massive win. Just massive. Don’t want to pick a MOM as it was a complete team performance. But Emi’s goal was magnificent and Ollie killed them off.
Sob on the Tyne ringing out from the away support….
Can’t believe it. Magical performance from Villa. Quite possibly their most impressive imposing away performance. No POTM for me ‘cos everyone performed to their max. Shout out to Martinez for two worldies which must have demoralised newcastle. Shout out to Buendia for a another classy long range wonder goal. Shout out to Maatsen for locking up the left hand side defense then moving into left midfield and closing that as well. Biggest shout out to Ollie. Miserable off key game for him then scores a goal poacher’s winning goal. Never gave up working endlessly hard through his own individual crap.
I will never be a believer but I’m beginning to have a miniscule wonder.
Shoves last year’s sneering cheating game right up their arses. JJ looking forlorn and homesick. His agent should be binned for messing Villa around last year.
I’d say that Champions League next season is now ours to lose. Today was a thoroughly professional job.
Huge result…once again, had to miss the start, saw we were ahead and once again decided not to jinx things. I’m onto something.
Huge result. 21 yrs I think since we’ve won there? A creeping sense of malaise after Everton followed by two big away wins on clean sheets.
Managed to catch the Fenerbahce replay last night, though. Buendia coming up when needed.
Well done Villa. Two extremely tough away games in less than 3 days. Two brilliant results. The journey home for the away fans will be delightful.
We’re just a mere 10 points clear of the bin dippers in P5 after match day 23. With another tough venue out of the way. What a weekend, I’m stoked.
Keeping that distance, remarkable. The turnaround in league form after Euro weeknights has really been impressive.
The season suddenly feels a bit shorter. Anfield, Emirates, St James, Elland Road, Stadium of Light, Everton’s new bear pit, all out of the way. Only Old Trafford and Molineaux that hold scars left to go, and Villa Park is our fortress under Emery.
Doesn’t get much better. Having a deep and smug bask over one of the best games Villa have had recently – then Amazon delivers more goodies that I had forgotten about.
Just 4 points off the summit 656. Massive result and performance.
MOTD TWATS.
Although Villa were good, poor little newcastle were without Bruno Guimarães and just can’t win without him. No mention of Kam and SJM for Villa.
To Wayne Rooney’s credit, he pointed out that Guimarães being out was the chance for someone else to come in and make an impression.
Monday morning and I’m buzzing. There’s a spring in my step. Next up is Salzburg who we must beat to ensure a top 2 finish in the Europa. One game at a time, firmly grounded and not going to get ahead of ourselves. There is a BUT coming, after all, we have just dismantled the Wai Ayes on their own patch. Should we win another 5 EPL games on the bounce (possible) the cat will be well and truly loose among the pigeons. Dare to dream?
And you called me greedy! 😉
Results this weekend were beyond anything I imagined Viva. Still 15 games to go.
That was very impressive. I’ve loved Villa under Emery, but the persistent weakness in Villa (going back a long way) has been their physicality, winning battles. This Villa team is hardly a team of warriors but they really have a bit of the eye of tiger about them. They looked focused and fully aware of what the stakes were in the last two games. They scrap for the ball, they’re alert in anticipating the 2nd balls. Like I said, they’re hardly Spartans, but they really seem to be aware that they have to compete for the ground.
Apparantly, we are buying someone called “Kevin Oghenetega Tamaraebi Bakumo-Abraham”
KEVIN!!!! Going to have some fun with that one.
Dougie on the way back on loan. If he is any good we might have option to buy.
Positivity reset after T’mans news?
Not saying anything about this season (no chance of winning the league and maybe outside chance of eurocrap cup next year!) but it looks good for next year if Kev and Dougie get up to speed this year.
It seems the story about Dougie coming back to Villa on loan has real legs. Looking at the loan rules, an EPL club are allowed up to 4 loan players in any one season. Tick. We will have 3, Sancho, Elliott and Luiz. Rules also state that only 2 loan players can be registered at the same time. If Sancho is going to be one of them, who will be the other? Does it mean we will have to de-register Elliott to make way for Dougie? Or de-register Sancho? Or am I wide of the mark?
No idea about the rules but if only two then Elliot is totally toast. In a way, Emery has effectively deregistered Elliot already.
Confirmed! Kev is in the house.
Welcome back Kev. Here’s hoping you can help us get P4 this season. Anything better than that will be a bonus.
Seems that the off field department is slowly rising to Unai’s level. PR boosts with Tammy and surprise Dougie news, to soften the mood for Youri’s injury news. Bravo.
Gutted with 2 injuries from absolutely deliberate fouls, committed by professional midfield “hardmen”, neither of which drew a card. Half a year of football gone, poof, just like that, and no punishment…
Glad to have Dougie back (soon), hope he gets over his injuries because he’s been even worse than Barkley for unavailability.
Villa need to hire a hamstrings-whisperer, an NASA-grade oxygen tent and a year’s supply of cotton wool to wrap Onana’s legs in.
Hard agree with all of this.
Couple things…a personal post up that you can feel free to ignore, read, comment upon or leave alone. I’ll have something new up in advance of Salzburg.
Second, welcome back, Dougie. All things considered, a very reasonable move and fingers crossed.
New page chaps