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!
And Bailey slips as he’s about to cross.
I’m sick of seeing that.
No excuse for me, wear boots that grip, FFS!
McGinnis too now
Sorry but Saturday evening, derby match and it feels like the ref has drowned this game alone
We’re applying some pressure now.
Bogarde looks like a proper defensive right back. It’s a long time since I saw one down the Villa.
Why do the Villa players keep slipping over?
Boots. It’s got to be.
Just what is going on here!!!!
Tell you what, studs should be looked at because they should know watering pitches at home games call fog studs to be longer,
Yeah it looks like we are playing in an ice rink now
WTF, their player fouls our player during a free and they get to take the kick again?
Surely we should be given a foul?
This ref is an utter joke and we ain’t getting anything from this game.
I’m expecting at least 13 minutes injury time here
Unai looks seriously pissed off. And who can blame him?
Love the gaffer’s passion. He really lives every kick.
Doesn’t matter about the ref we are shite again lucky to get top 8 on this kind of form one point from wet spam and wolves just not good enough
This would be hilarious is Ollie is out for a few weeks now
Malen looks a better finisher than Watkins, from what I’ve seen tonight.
But yes, it would be a big loss.
It makes no odds, imo. You won’t win games whoever the striker is if you can’t compete overall against shit like Wolves.
Agreed. We’re miles off being sharp enough.
That is truly embarrassing.
2-0 to Wolves.
And that is an utter disgrace. No excuses. They’ve deserved it, simple as.
I’m fucking fuming again.
We’ve lost this all because he play it like a manager just in the game , where was his Common sense putting players out of position, 2-0 I’m right pissed off now
Told ya clear foul on Roger’s
Referee a F@@@@ disgrace
Same old post CL slump. Better second half but we got what we deserved.
Emery needs to have a look at himself. After every European match we play virtually the same team and they are a yard off the pace.
How can 4 players come on at half time? Why not start with them to inject pace.
Finally, and my reason why Emery needs to take some time to think – why 3 right backs?
Garcia looked fine but pulled at half time.
Bogarde yet again moved position during a match then pulled
Ned, about to go on loan, not trusted yet but why come on.
Common Emery get a grip. I know we will become stronger. Currently finishing 7th will be a problem.
FFS. That was…….I truly don’t know. We were certainly in this game. They just crowded us out, and we had a perfect goal ruled out.
Oh, come on mate, that was awful and we didn’t look close to getting anything imo.
You can’t be crowded out in the Prem because it will cost you and that’s exactly what we saw tonight.
We are dogshit slow. Think back to how we played last season, with pace and verve.
We saw not an inkling of that tonight.
Is it down to our small squad size? Probably.
Champion’s league qually is gone this season and I’ll bet Wolves continue to struggle, yet they beat us soundly and easily.
We get stuck facing teams using the supposed ‘low block’, what we used to call parking the bus. We have forgotten how to stretch teams and create space we can then run in to. There was a helluva lot of more forward passing today, but gotta give it to Wolves, although they are struggling they were better than us today when our finishing was again wasteful, but I don’t think we were shite. Did we deserve more? Probably not all things considered…
Don’t get me wrong, I’m effing annoyed at another chance blown with today’s results, but what the hell do we do until fresh faces arrive and bed in?