I'm writing them off if they don't improve their defence. It took Liverpool buying Van Dijk to get close to then overtake City. World class attacking players are fairly easy to buy if you have the money. A world class CB is tough - not many of them around. It also helps that Liverpool have two of the best full backs in world football. Chelsea have got some excellent young talent but they a few years off being ready to challenge for the title IMO.
Remember Alan Hansen's quote after the first match of oñe season back in the late 90s. Manchester United Lost 3-1 to Villa, and he said, "You win nothing playing the kids." We all know what happened that season. Logic says you are right but there is a lot of experience in that Chelsea squad.
I don't expect the 'pool fans not to be crowing after winning the league, or indeed the media not making some fuss, they deserve it. But I really think the "30 years of hurt" bollocks is pushing it a bit. Those "fantastic" fans could do with a reality check, like supporting Grimsby (just a random pick) for the last 30 yrs. But stupid is as stupid does, I wonder if there'll be another C19 spread party in the city tonight.
They are also linked with David Alaba, a LB from Bayern Munich, I think they could be definitely a surprise package next season.
Yeah it’s the 30 years of hurt bollocks that annoys me. Not winning the league in 30 years but still being in the top league, having some of the best players, a rich club, and regularly competing and winning trophies in that time does not constitute football hurt. **** right off. They deserved to win the league, they deserve to celebrate that. But try and have some class!
I'm torn . I don't mind westham at all , but despise their owners . I Hate Bournemouth Fans . Not all , but since they got promoted a LOT have jumped on the band wagon , but I like the Manager / owners ( as in he is invisible ) . Cant they both go down ? Bloody Villa
If Villa can get to the last day needing a win against whu to stay up, then they would have done incredibly well. That's how slim their chances are right now.
Their run in, at least on paper, is utterly brutal. Now, that could maybe change if Liverpool takes their foot off the gas, or Everton and Arsenal are on vacation, but I certainly wouldn't want to be them at the moment. While I quite want WHU to get relegated, they have the easiest path by far. Will take great skill to get relegated under the circumstances.
Watford for me are the key team. As stated, West Ham have the easiest run-in, whilst Bmouth and Villa have the hardest. Brighton meanwhile have stolen a little march, and might only need one more win. So if Watford can do the business, Villa and Bmouth should be toast (especially if Bmouth don't beat Newcastle in midweek - it's arguably their easiest remaining game). But if Watford stumble, the others have a chance. Right now though, Villa are arguably at greater risk of finishing 20th than 17th.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...ans-growing-influence-arsenal-identity-crisis Interesting reading about the influence Joorabchian had over the Soares deal.... there has to be some reason how that bizarre deal occurred.... he must be on an absolute shedload....
Interesting piece in the Times today... The 2 most fouled players in the Premier League this season are... Grealish and Zaha. Grealish is fouled on average every 4th time he touches the ball. It's clear that Grealish and Zaha are the major creative threats for their respective teams. Many of the fouls are 'professional' fouls. That is where there is no intention to play the ball, and team players take it in turns to commit such fouls meaning that any yellow cards are shared around and nobody gets sent off. The argument is made that where fouls are committed where there is no intention to play the game it should result in a sending off. Ethically this seems to me to be a sound argument and in an ideal world would enhance the idea of skillful football being rewarded. In reality it might lead to VAR being used even more contentiously. If however the rules had changed to reflect the ideas above, it is not difficult to imagine Tadic being our best attacking player of the last 10 years and perhaps why he flourished so spectatically when he joined Ajax, where he was not necesarily the major creative influence...
Most seasons - for quite obvious reasons - there's barely a single player amongst all three relegated clubs who I'd happily see us take. But in the case of Norwich, there's four or five players. And yet they're languishing in bottom place. (Of course the amount we've regressed in recent years also has something to do with that.)
All seem like good sorts as well. Yeah, I'm up for that, even if its just to improve our strangely unbalanced squad.
It was an interesting article, and worth noting that the Zaha/Grealish stuff was all about how the most fouled players were in the smaller teams, where that creative individual was so much more critical - bigger teams in particular worked out that if you shut that player down, you take the game.
It's fascinating, because I'm not sure that any club has really benefited from being closely tied to Joorabchian. West Ham certainly didn't gain long-term (though they might have gained briefly thanks to Tevez). QPR certainly didn't. I have no idea why teams continue to contract out their transfer dealings to his agency...with Pedro Mendes at least you can convince yourself that you're laying the groundwork for the transfer of James Rodriguez or something nonsensical. Said it before, but much of what people decry as player power is actually agent power. When most of the benefits of a contract are realized when it's first signed, and contracts can be torn up at any time, you're creating a system where agents have every incentive to constantly be pushing for either a new contract or a transfer.
Which is why I’ve always said if we must have agents they should be on a fixed fee not a percentage of the transfer price. Or, if that’s unworkable because of younger players needing an agent and the cost being prohibitive, bring in a ceiling for their costs. They’re sucking the blood out of the sport (my opinion) and wrecking the “smaller” clubs by getting their players to move!
