Okay, so it’s just a quick one, basically so we can move on from the last post, where the subject has become a little out of date.
I said in the previous batch of comments that I’d take Grealish at £30-40 million, but he’d have to be willing to cut his wages to suit our wage structure. Although in fairness, you might expect that we’ll have to step the wages up to what would be commensurate for a Champion’s league club with aspirations of staying there. Still, it won’t be anything like the £250-300k a week he is supposed to be getting at Citeh.
It turns out that the rumours are that Greasy is going to Bayern anyway, so this probably won’t happen, but it’s a nice thought, because there’s no doubt that he’s a Villa fan, as much as many fans felt he’d let the club down. My stance is that quite simply, I don’t blame him for going for the money. He has his future to think about, after all. But now he’s ensured he’s banked millions, he could afford to look at more than the wages side of things, although I’m not sure I’d like to see my wages reduced, even at my lowly level unless there were big plusses to balance things.
Whatever, why would I take him?
Well, I believe he would give us options.
Many of you probably know I think fullbacks will always favour defence or attack. It’s exceptional to see someone who’s good at both, although Kyle Walker springs to mind, yet it’s his pace that helps him out.
I get where the doubters come from when they say that Pep has knocked the spontaneity out of his game. But I think that’s actually a plus, because now Jack can play to a plan, which we all know Unai very much believes in.
My thinking is that whereas we currently have Digne or Moreno marauding down to left to often good effect and producing dangerous crosses, so both in my opinion are poor defensively and it’s worse when they’re caught out of position.
Hence we could play Grealish on the left, in a forward position, which would allow us to bring in a better defensive left back who doesn’t get forward as much.
I think we’ve already got that sort of thing on the right, where we have Cash (albeit not quite good enough imo) linking up with Bailey or Diaby.
Taking Grealish would allow a similar thing and make us more balanced.
Plus then, we could get Grealish moving in from the left or just simply playing in the hole.
Options, as I said.
I won’t even mention his ability to win a free kick.
I know he has a checkered history outside the game, but I’d suggest that the press chasing him would reduce because of his lower profile and he’s likely to just grow out of his clubbing etc quite naturally anyway.
So there you go, those are my thoughts.
Feel free to tell me why I’m wrong.
It’s all kicking off in the Premier. Man City suing the Premier League. It is reported in The Mail that Chelsea, Newcastle and Villa owners have sympathy. Now this is where I have a dilemma.
I believe in a free market concept. Therefore, if owners want to plough vast funds into a club so be it. I have totally supported NSWE putting in investment into Villa via ordinary share capital, that means the. Club has no debt. But the rules have been slanted to stop the likes of Villa joining Chelsea and Man City through owner investment. At the same time rules now in place stop over inflated sponsorship e.g. Man City and PSG have received outrageous sponsorship as a way of circumventing investment restrictions. But then again, via NSWE contacts, if they can get a great sponsorship deal that is greater than expected , why not? But we can’t and we are in the perverse situation of qualifying for the champions League and having to sell one or more players to meet financial restrictions.
Therefore, why not have unlimited investment via direct investment or sponsorship deals.
But the dream we believe in is that any team could win the title. Since I was born prior to the premier league the following teams won the First Division title:
Man Utd x 1
Man City x 1
Leeds Utd x 3
Everton x3
Arsenal x 3
Derby x 2
Nottingham Forest x 1
Villa x1
Liverpool x11 owned by Moores family richest owners in football at the time.
Premier era:
Man Utd x 13 – a great manager
Blackburn x 1
Arsenal x 3
Chelsea x 5 when owned by richest owner in the league
Leicester x 1
Man City x 7 6/7 years and richest club up until last year.
Clearly the big winners of football are the team owned by the richest.
Trouble is if Man City win Newcastle will dominate. Man City owners worth £22bn and Newcastle £489bn.
As the great line in Snatch said ‘big fxxxx little’.
The idea floated recently that a club can invest into players and wages 5x the lowest premier clubs income seems one way of keeping some form of competitiveness. In essence, if all 20 clubs were owned by owners who can write off £500m a year, then it will come down to how well a club is managed. This would be my preferred option in this horrible mess we are now in. Oh and by the way, the £500m would be via share capital, ensuring no debt is levied on the football club.
So overall, I sympathise with NSWE but unbridled greed is not the answer.
Sid, you’re singing from my hymn sheet.
Was speaking to a financial guy whilst taking a short break away (a Chelsea fan but a really good bloke). Neither of us can understand the logic behind FFP / PSR rules.
Unmanageable debt is the real threat to clubs and, whilst using unsustainable losses as one measure is fair, there is no balanced consideration of the actual risk and overall financial health of the club. The fact that FFP has been rebranded because it’s not intended to be a measure of Financial Fair Play says it all.
Villa have no debt and two billionaire owners who have demonstrated that investment is via share equity which essentially means they take all the risk. Yet this is not included in the FFP ‘formula’ the effect of which is to prevent the club from challenging the elite. Add to that clubs being penalised in a way that increases their financial risk is perverse.
It seems there is growing unhappiness around the financial rules – it will be an interesting watch.
There’s another important point: If the lower league clubs become irrelevant because the ELP clubs keep all the cash so no trickle down, the players coming up, that supply line will simply disappear. Even if the top 10 EPL clubs had massive academies to find the next Grealish, Rooney, Beckham etc., the percentage of those breaking into the top will become even smaller. And if the lower leagues become Sunday leagues they won’t be able to sustain any sort of decent wage structure so players will become carpenters, or electricians instead. It pays the bills.
Eventually, there will be fewer players coming through and all we’ll see are exhibition matches and pointless Leagues like the French. It will be the death of football and all because of short termism.
It’s the same with music festivals now being so crap. Look at Glastonbury this year. The worst line up in history because no new bands come through because Streaming is legalised theft, so again, festivals and the music industry will eventually die.
We need to find a better way, but UEAF’s coefficient stinks of protectionism, and protectionism is one thing the Yanks love!
Short-termism. That’s pretty much how the whole f****** world works, isn’t it Bum Bum? And the reason? The root? Answers on the back of a postcard…I imagine they will all be the same answer.
Yep. Drives me mental. That’s why I don’t bother voting anymore.
Family. Pub. Music and back again. That’ll do for me.
Lots of news coming through about Villa needing to sell before the end of the month to comply with the rules, along with 4 other clubs. It’s disgusting. How does that work when the club’s just finished 4th and qualified for the Champions League? Makes absolutely no sense as the club has not been reckless with spending at all; it’s been very orgsnised, professional, and calculated.
Joke.
I’ve repeatedly said that if Villa has FFP / PSR issues then we would need to sell (at least) one player before the end of June which is our financial year end.
The owners have repeatedly said that Villa comply with FFP rules and that the recorded loss of £109m was in line with the clubs financial strategic plan.
Notwithstanding BFR you are right and it demonstrates that the rules are primarily designed by the most powerful clubs to protect their dominance and wealth – wasn’t Platini the principal architect of FFP – I rest my case!
I prefer to ignore the media noise and rely on actual facts!
On a more positive note, Konsa and Watkins are included in Englands final Euro 2024 squad which is no more than they deserve; Grealish misses out which shows how far his star has fallen but don’t feel sorry for him – he went to Citeh, not to play football but to collect large sums of money and tin cups.
Looking at Southgate’s rather pitiful defensive options, compared with those of yesteryear, I think Konsa has a good chance of becoming a regular starter, as long as he keeps his head down and shows what he can do on a consistent basis…
Can someone explain why everyone’s so shocked at Grealish being axed? Seemed obvious to me. Or is it ‘open season’ on the England manager pre big tournament, as has been customary for generations? Grealish isn’t in because he doesn’t deserve to be. End of. Eze deserves to go. Bowen deserves to go. Watkins deserves to go. Palmer deserves to go. So who would you leave out to take Jack? Toney? Not the same position though, is it? And who cares what the overgrown darts baby Luke Littler thinks? And Merson is also talking out of his jacksy – he reckons Rashford and Jack would walk into any team at the Euros and Southgate’s left 150 caps at home. Caps don’t win trophies, Paul! Perhaps Peter Shilton and Rooney are available? “Gareth needs to win this tournament”. No, Paul. The England players, perennial losers and nearly-men, bottlers, need to win the f****** tournament. Like you could’ve won the 1998 World Cup with the talent in that team and squad, including your own. They might want to work on their penalties – more specifically, their ‘bottle’ when taking them, in shootouts and during the 90 minutes. England’s problem has never been talent; it’s always, always been mentality.
I appreciate Southgate isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. But let’s keep it sensible. He’s picked an extremely attack-minded squad – young, energetic and vibrant – and for years we’ve been moaning he doesn’t attack enough. The defence is crap, whoever you pick. So I can’t see how you can pick a better squad than that. Personally, I’d have taken Solanke over Toney, as he deserves it, but there you go; he makes the decisions and he’ll live and die by them. Personally, I hope he goes one better than the last Euros.
Spot on BFR.
I would also have taken Solanke over Toney but Southgate’s paid to make the decisions.
Watching England – not sure why – absolute crap.
Iceland the better side by far – England managed one shot on target all game – awful.
Yet still we torture ourselves. Or at least I would if I’d remembered the match was on.
An eloquent argument in Horseface’s favour BFR.
There’s only one problem. Actually, there’s a few.
Horseface has proven himself to be tactically poor and gutless over years.
Granted, he seems to be more attacking of late, but it matters not.
The bloke is a proven loser and inspires absolutely nobody.
We can talk him up, but who seriously thinks we have a chance of winning this competition?
I don’t regret remembering the election debate over any game that clown is in charge of, put it that way.
Well that was a crash back to reality last night.
I might ruffle some feathera here, but I can tell you now I would have taken Grealish without fail. In fact I would go as far to say he potentially makes my starting 11, failing that, he’s a dead cert regular. Why? Because he has the ability to carry the ball up the pitch on the left. He has so much more time on the ball over the average England player, he can pick and pass, he can win a free kick, he can win a corner, he create and he does have a goal in him. Ok so he’s not explosive and burst up to pitch, but he’s intelligent and I bet you any money he if he played over Gordon last night, he would have picked Foden out a at least once who was screamed for to ball dead centre in the box.
Grealish coming of the bench for 10 minutes to see out a narrow win I think is worth it’s weight in gold at that level.
On a side note honestly can’t help but wonder how these lads feel when they have spent a season in the dressing rooms with the likes of Pepe, Klopp, Emery and Arteta. These guys are bundles of passion, energy and tactical knowledge. Then, when the levels are supposed to be 1 up again at international level, Southgate is plonked in front of you! Come on! How would you feel?
Tom, how can you say that when he’s barely played any hasn’t performed? You can’t pick players on reputation and past exploits. You just can’t. It’s unprofessional for a start, and completely takes the incentive away from young and hungry players to perform. Would you have accepted Soughgate picking Rashford or Sterling over Watkins? It’s basically the same principle. And Merson’s argument that Rashford should go. Utter bollocks.
Grealish is clearly past his best and his private/personal life is very much beginning to catch up with him. He needs to reassess otherwise I can see him drifting from top flight football within 2-3 years. Reminds me very much of when Hoddle dropped Gascoigne in ’98. Hoddle got similar treatment to Southgate from the media and fans, while Gascoigne was the loose cannon ‘darling’ who could do no wrong and who allowances should be made for. Everyone has their right to their opinion but I can’t agree. And it has nothing to do with Jack leaving Villa; unlike some, I have no problems with that whatsoever. He just doesn’t deserve to go on his last 12 months’ form.
And what makes you think Southgate has no passion, energy, or tactical knowledge?
Haha!
Does anyone really think that after sweating out the reduction of the squad size and the media scramble that went with that, that players are going to risk injury or mistakes when they are that close to real thing. That was no more than a kick about on the training ground. A total fund raiser with no real purpose. Where there any tackles or fouls of note. Iceland were trying and England where not. Leaving Grealish out of the squad was a mistake.
Over the course of last season based on number of minutes played, I don’t think Grealish deserves to be picked. He’s become a shell of the player that played for Villa. Pep has spent £100m (thank you) and gradually ruined him. It’s partly because of injuries but unfortunately he doesn’t fit into Citeh’s style of play and has been consistently behind Foden, Doku and Silva.
I don’t blame him for leaving. After all, he was almost guaranteed silverware and huge wages. He needs to move on if he wants to play. The problem is will he want to sacrifice next season’s silverware haul to play for a club that will give him the game time he needs?
I’m not a fan of Southgate. His football is dire to watch and there’s little chance of us winning the Euros. As a tactician, he’s not worthy of lacing Unai’s shoes. But credit to him for having the balls to drop the mavericks in Grealish and Maddison for players who have performed consistently over the last year and not on who the media wants to see.
Thank you, Holte. My earlier post was not an endorsement of Southgate at all. Just a statement that Grealish doesn’t deserve to go. So like you say, we’ll done the manager for having the balls. And if anyone questions those balls, think Paul Ince, the ‘guvnor’ and a midfielder, shitting his knickers in the centre circle at Wembley in ’96, unable to look, while Southgate, a centre half and relatively new to the England team, stepped up for a life-changing professional trauma. Easy to laugh and criticise those on the dance floor when watching from the bar, so to speak.
And as for the senior ‘pro’ who (allegedly) went to see Southgate for an ‘explanation’, I hope Southgate’s response was ‘I don’t have to give you a f****** explanation and if you don’t like it, you can f*** off to Ibiza with him.”
BFR, I think you’re confusing horseface with a decent manager.
The thought of him using expletives is laughable.
The man is a box ticker for the FA, who is employing desperation measures in dropping players before he gets the bullet after another massive underperformance in a tournament.
He should have been dropping none performing players YEARS ago.
He’s on borrowed time and everybody I know is keenly awaiting someone decent replacing him.
Badger, I’ve not made a single statement which states my opinion on Southgate’s pedigree as a manager.
He’s been there 8 years, so everyone, him included, knows that he’s coming to the end of his tenure. That’s a basic rule of averages. So I’m not sure if “borrowed time” is the correct phrase to use. It has nothing to do with perceived levels of success.
He replaced Fat Sam, after Hodgson. The national game was in the gutter at that point, a joke. Within two years, it wasn’t, and the backstabbers were even beginning to get close enough to get a whiff of his arse, before kissing it. I refer, of course, to the happy summer of ’18 when, but for the skipper and talisman missing a sitter from less than yard, which would have put England 2-0 up with 45 minutes to go, England would have made the final.
Then he gets to a major final, amidst Covid chaos, something no England manager had managed since Ramsey. He blew that. But he did get to the final.
Then his team play the world champs off the park only for the same skipper and talisman to gumboot a penalty over the bar, sending England home in the quarters, the stage England’s ‘better’ managers in recent memory – the likes of Eriksson – didn’t manage to get past, despite having teams at least as good as Southgate’s.
So if we can agree he’s not as good a manager or coach as Robson, Venables, Hoddle, and Eriksson, how is it that he’s managed to do all that?
I don’t really have an opinion on him as a coach. I just see his record, and it appears to be far superior to his many predecessors. And I do respect the fact that he took that penalty against ze Germans, when others went missing and pooped their panties at the mere thought of it.
Anyway, we’ll never agree on this one but the facts are undeniable.
And if England fail, as is likely, my money is on the skipper and talisman having something to do with it, not Southgate.
Define “massive underperformance” Badger. Compared to what? We’ve won fuck all since 1966.
BFR – at last something we can all agree on 🙂 🙂
At least I was lucky enough to watch that game – in black and white on a tiny screen. Went to the ‘flicks’ to see the film, until which time I hadn’t realised they’d actually played the game in colour 🙂
Massive under-performance as in not winning a tournament even though we have overall the best players in the world in the best league in the world.
Don’t get me wrong, he’s not alone in having been crap, but he’s been by far the best supported in his 8 years of being allowed to do what he’s wanted in achieving a big fat nothing.
The bloke is plain and simply not a winner and never will be, imo. And it was obvious years ago.
Just read an interesting article in Birmingham Live – not going to post a link as it’s a nightmare web page.
The essence is that Villa are not under pressure to sell a major player to meet PSR / FFP rules but are probably close to the £105m loss over three years. They are more likely to sell a fringe player(s) but will have to do so before the end of June if they need to reduce their losses.
It seems Villa also put forward a motion to increase the allowable losses to £135m over three years which was not supported. I can’t really understand why not – the £105m limit was set in 2012 and has never been adjusted for inflation which has affected the running costs of all clubs. If inflation is applied to the £105 figure, it would revise to £145m; even if inflation is only applied since 2017 it increases to £137m.
So Villa’s request seems logical and eminently sensible but the turkeys continue to vote for Christmas 🙂
Now they’ve introduced more financial rules for 2024 / 25 and new acronyms to go with them although it seems the new ones are ‘non binding’
Madness is descending on football.
Bunch of f****** corrupt cheating wankers. 2012? Ridiculously embarrassing. Of course it should be adjusted for inflation, and a bit more to account for Covid. Villa’s request was more than reasonable. But no. Bent assholes won’t budge. Pathetic. The game is a mess. VAR and all this financial bullshit is chaotic. Purslow mentioned something about not killing the golden goose a while back. They’re positively slaughtering it and it won’t be long before we’re assessing the remains of what used to be the best league in the world. Incompetence and corruption is a combination that’s almost impossible to rectify. Slippery slope…
Can anyone actually confirm if we are in trouble financially or not. I keep reading we are on the brink of points deduction if we don’t sell by end of June.
Imyears and years of Chelsea, city, United spending what ever the bloody well want and the second we get into the champions league and look to push on, they say we can’t afford it, yet our owners are more than willing to spend.
Can anyone calm my nerves with this one because even as much as 3 points deducted would be a blow for us.
This is ruining my champions league build up now!
The whole thing is rigged, Tom. Now I understand why Heck won’t develop VP. Why bother when the corrupt powers are gonna do all they can to derail us? F****** bent bastards. F*** them all.
Tom, the answer to your question is – only the Villa management know. Remember also that Villa put out a statement saying the financial results were in line with planned expectations. That didn’t sound panicky to me.
According to Birmingham Live Villa are on the edge of the £105m three year loss but not a big problem and BL claim they don’t have to fire sale a senior player – more likely a fringe player if they can find a team to buy them.
I suspect they’re looking at players like Carlos, Cash and Chambers plus maybe one of the youngsters like Iroegbunam who looks unlikely to develop further. I’m sure they’d also like to move Coutinho. FFP does explain why we sold Aaron Ramsey, Bodace and Archer all of which delivered 100% profit to the bottom line.
The transfer window opens on 14th June so Villa have two weeks to raise funds should they need to do so. After 1st July we’re into a new three year period with significantly increased revenue so I would expect some incomings – maybe one bigger signing but I can’t see them over extending the finances – but I’m just speculating.
I don’t get the ‘Saka on back pages after defeat’ storm, but I daren’t go there. Can someone explain what the fuss is about, please?
Me neither BFR.
I see the Villa website has published the prices for various packages.
It falls under the title General Admission (GA+) season ticket
The Lower Grounds: A1, A2 , A3 & P2
Adult: £2,700 Under 14: £2,250
The Terrace View: K2
Adult: £1,860 Under 14: £1,550
The Cells: R2
Adult: £1,560 Under 14: £1,300
There is a full description of what each package offers.
Is Dougie on his way out? Personally, I’d be gutted to see him sold. Entering his peak years and plenty more to come. A mistake if avoidable.
I hope Dougie going is one step back and two steps forward.
I actually will feel a little relieved to get a few players out the door before the month is over, comply is ff-F-p and then we see some quality come in next month. Dougie would have been a keeper for me but the difference now is I trust Emery and Monchi to get it right. If Dougie has to go, let him go abroad as I couldn’t bare to see him in an Arsenal shirt
Agreed Tom – if he goes to Juventus fair enough but not to the Arse – please.
If he has to go, then at least it’s not to a local competitor. And who knows what possible buy-back clauses might be applied to the contract.
Not so sure about the supposed part-x involving “Samuel Iling-Junior and Weston McKennie” as per B’ham Live, though. While I know that we have to trust that Emery & co will get the right players in, McKennie wasn’t over-impressive at Leeds a couple of years ago.
I’m reminded of the great Bill Shankley’s comment when watching Luiz –
Is he a good player having a great game or is he a great player having a good game?
I’m a big fan of Luiz. It was only the last month or two when is form dipped a little. It would be a mistake to let him go unless we signed a quality replacement. Maybe Gallagher could be but I doubt we are likely to compete for his signature.
Only the Villa hierarchy know how much money we need to raise to comply with FFP or whatever bullshit rules are in place currently. Convenient for the big 6 to maintain their status.
The media are desperate to see the likes of Villa lose their big players to the clubs they are attempting to challenge. You can be certain that all the Villa lads involved in the Euros will be tapped up as we have experienced in the past.
Sky reporting that a deal with Juventus is close.
The two Juventus players named are (according to Sky) not in a part x deal for Luiz but part of the same negotiation. So, if this is true, for FFP reasons expect Juventus to buy Luiz before 30th June and for Villa to then buy the two Juventus players after 1st July. The way the actual cash is paid is irrelevant it’s all about qualifying revenue before 30th June and expenditure after 1st July.
I wonder if Villa tried to structure a similar type of deal with Arse (around Gallagher) who refused to play ball because the last thing they would want to do is help Villa with FFP – just a thought!
If the EPL want to run with crass financial regulations then they have to expect teams to find ways around them and, if we want to play with the big boys, we can’t afford to be nice – nor will our owners to achieve their ambition for the club.
Oops – confusing Chelsea and Arse – easily done.
Principle remains the same though.
Still rumoured Chelsea want Duran and Villa want Gallagher as part of the deal!
Don’t sell Duran! At 20 years old, he’s an unbelievable talent. In 6-7 years, he has the potential to be one of the best strikers in the world, in my opinion, and worth 3-4 times what we’re hearing. This could be a mistake as big as Chelsea selling Salah and De Bruyne. And Villa selling Cahill. The talent is raw but it’s clear for all to see. If he wants to go, he’s a fool – doesn’t Champions League football mean anything to him?
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-13518843/Aston-Villa-owner-Nassef-Sawiris-legal-action-Premier-League-PSR-rules.html
From an interview in the FT today.
Bloody hell! Our owners are simply speaking the truth when they say the existing rules cement the status quo…
Good for them – our owners are not going to mess around and the EPL needs to start realising their protective financial rules are not fit for purpose.
Badger, we need a new thread. This is huge. Mr Sawiris, we salute you! It’s about time somebody took it to the bent PL! 👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏👏
It’s beyond a f****** disgrace that we’re being forced to sell players after last season’s effort and success. Ridiculous. And it seems Sawiris gave them a chance to do the right thing with the more than reasonable request to raise the amount off loss allowed within very logical parameters, factoring in inflation. They said ‘no’.
OK, have it your way. See you in court d***heads…
The Champions League coefficient stinks. ManU are allowed to spend a fortune becuase of their performance over the last 20 years even though the last few have stunk.
Rigged. And bent.
Sawiris has said as much albeit in coded language.
I don’t really understand what Citeh have to complain about – surely it’s teams like Villa and Newcastle that are affected the most?
I think with City it’s more a “back off and don’t f*** with us” thing, rather than a legitimate, valid grievance – giving the PL something to think about before the November hearing. Why November when Everton and Forest were dealt with in double-quick time?