So Jhon Duran has got the move he, or more likely his agent, has longed for and signed for Al Nassr in the totally meaningless Saudi Arabian desert league.
There’s only one reason you’d want to go there and we all know what it is. Money. Boatloads of it.
I’ve seen talk of £300k a week as the basic wages. Get your head around that, just as I am as I type it. Let’s say he’s signed a 3 year deal. That would be just shy of £48 million tax free. While it’s easy to say that he’ll be a rich man wherever he goes or even if he stayed at the Villa, consider that he’ll only be 24 or so when that contract is done. Then the money is earned and he gets the choice of doing what he wants.
Seriously, would you turn that down? I’m not sure I could or would have, looking back at that age.
It is an odd one though. The Saudis are throwing money at all sports to try and improve their image, but when it comes to footy, they generally target superstars who are nearing the end of their career. Are they signing Duran because they believe they can keep him for many years or have they simply seen him as the big name throughout Europe over the last six months? If it’s the latter, we should be grateful just for that extra exposure he gave us, I suppose.
Whatever, while I quite liked Duran as a striker and much better finisher than Ollie, I have no qualms about him going.
To my mind he’s a petulant sort who will never be happy with his lot. I’m guessing that he caused Emery a world of grief with his moaning, which is why we’ve let him go. If Unai couldn’t control or mould him, I pity any other manager who has to try. On the other hand, he was seen handing out gifts to the mere low life staff in the tunnel after the Celtic game and that makes him much more my kind of guy.
While I think he’s made a mistake, where he risks his reputation (any decent striker can score lots in Saudi, surely?) I wish him well. Where he goes from here is a good question. I honestly believe that if he applies himself as much as he can, he’ll become another Harlaand and score loads wherever he ends up. But I’m inclined to think he’ll become complacent and just fade away.
The really big question is who are we looking to spend it on? I’m seeing loads of talk about attackers, but I don’t see it. Maybe one striker , but way more important are defensive players. We’re apparently interested in Rashford and I don’t see that either. Good grief, why would we? Yes, on song, he’s a great player. But he seems to have serious issues and I wouldn’t touch him with a bargepole. Then again, there’s been a few instances where I’ve thought Unai was wrong, but ultimately he’s doing a stunning job and you can’t argue with where we are.
Which is 8th in the Champion’s league table. I’m still struggling to get my head around that too. For a neutral, we’re brilliant to watch, but for a fan, we’re a nightmare. It’s a roller-coaster and while we play well at times, so we are awful at others, which leads to me being probably overly-critical. It’s just the frustration in not getting what we want and I guess that’s the difference between a fan and a more knowlegable manager who sees the bigger picture better.
And so onto the Dogheads tomorrow.
Again I’m laughing to myself, as it’s another where I don’t have a clue as to how it’s going to go.
Squad news first and Matty Cash will be out for around a month. If that doesn’t lead to us getting a Right Back in, I doubt anything will, I’ve said all along that I see this as by far the most important position that needs shoring up, but it hasn’t happened. I’m not convinced it will in this window either.
Tyronge Mings is apparently close to being available, but this game is too soon, which contradicts a report I saw saying we’ve underplayed his injury. Ross Barkley is still training on his own and is about a week away from rejoining the squad.
As for Wolves, striker Jorgen Strand Larsen is out and Joao Gomes is suspended after a red last weekend. Carlos Forbes is a big doubt and they have another three or four players unavailable.
Despite a good start under the new manager, Wolves have lost their last four games, with a GD of 1 for and 10 against, which would indicate that having a striker injured doesn’t make much difference.
This ought to be easy really, but it’s a game of jeopardy, where we’re a gift to any team on a terrible run.
I’m tempted to think we’ll tear the heads off those dogs and beat them soundly, say 3 or 4-1.
But I think we’ll look really tired again and will do well to get a win at all.
I’m going for a safe draw. 1-1.
And while I don’t think that is enough for a team aiming at CL qualification, I do think it’s about as much as we can expect if I’m trying not to aim too high. Hence I’d take it as better than nothing.
UTV!
Martinez is not the best in the world. And we need some centre backs.
Getting beat by fuckin wolves oooooh
Referee another shit one we get
Why oh why oh why are we so clear on bringing in Marcus Rashford on loan but still no centre half!!!!! This is border line insanity right now!
And this ref won’t let the game go on more that 10 seconds
Will be a massive missed opportunity to close the gap on top 6/4.
Selling Carlos before a replacement was signed and sealed was an elementary error. Sawiris and Edens should not be happy.
I’m beginning to think Unai is a nutcase the team picking over the last few months been unbelievable and lost us games, all this is down to wanting to play his way . What the hell is he doing ? don’t he know how angry fans will get playing local clubs and being made to look as if we are the bottom of the league. F:;king wake up Unai bleeding crap again .
We can’t handle the physicality or workrate of Wolves.
It’s shocking, as Wolves could be 4 up!
You can see why some think we’re generally bloody awful and dead lucky to be where we are.
As for signing attackers, 100% agreed. We can’t defend to save our lives and every penny of that Duran money should be going there.
Dreading the HT chat, as it can be summed up in one word.
Shite!
Got to be the worst 45 minutes I’ve seen from Villa.
Wolves want this game far more than we do – is it arrogance on our part?
Going out to dinner so fortunately won’t have to watch much more!
I get Ramsey a Villa fan living the dream
BUT he is not a top 4 player . Great in midweek against a sun standard championship team from Scotland
But Malen ought to be given a run
We are defensively dire & Wolves should feel hard done by not being 3/4 nil up. Can say goodbye to top 5 hopes now, may as well focus on FA Cup and Champions League, being found out to be a bang average PL side.
First half is unforgivable whether we get a result tonight or not.
There is a tiresome element to our post European play.
McGinn in the right doesn’t work. Plus I reckon he’s lost a yard in pace.
Garcia looks good so far. Why wint we play a long ball? Looks like Watkins has done a groin strain. Means we could be playing either no recognised strikers and one centre half. Ironic that we sold I. These two areas.
Awful again and we want to bring in a forward who can’t be arsed to play for man u
Bloody hell well pisded of with this
One of the worst 45 minutes under Emery! Playing a shite team with plenty of injuries and we are making them look like a top 4 side. Now it looks like Watkins has picked up an injury to rub salt into the wounds.
Forget top 4 or 5 or even top 7! If our players don’t bother to turn up for games like this then we will be lucky to finish top half.
4 changes incoming!
Watkins, Ramsey, Garcia and Digne off.
Totally needed.
Bogarde goes RB.
Malen on, I missed the rest.
Bailey and Maatsen on.
Our set pieces are junk lately.
Wow the ref is a bell end
No cards for wolves cynical fouls
VAR is complete crap
Morgan Rogers given offside for no reason at all.
That was a perfectly good goal that the ref should have looked at.
It would have been hopefully the first of many by Malen.
Typically, after my previous comment, it was a well worked set piece.
Disallowed – said Rogers had impeded the defender – complete rubbish. Didn’t impact the outcome.
What happened to referees call?