OTF

I agree. The truth is if we are aiming to compete at the highest level under the constraints of FFP then generating a sizeable passive income through this and other commercial means is necessary. There's a massive difference between bringing in serious dineros and merely masquerading to bring more brand awareness for your own company.

Well we've found Bruno's weakness. Can't fucking clap to save himself.

I'll be honest and say that I thought Gerrard would be a half decent manager. I detested him as a player mostly because of his sanctimonious stance on diving which was wholly contradictory to his on-field behaviour, but I heard from various sources that he trained very well and was very professional about it, demanding the same from his teammates. Therefore I at least expected that as a baseline for him as a manager; expecting high levels of professionalism from the players. This of course is the opposite of Bruce who is a lazy prick full of excuses who lets the players take it easy, or at least teflons off the training aspects to coaches. So if Villa fans are seeing parallels between the teams performances under Bruce and Gerrard then I'd expect that it's not because they're similar managers but that they're both just not very good managers.

We never get much meaningful info on Maxi's injuries, progress or expected return dates to the point where it's becoming odd.

Let's just conveniently forget that their wage bill is fucking massive (easily more than double ours) and has consistently been in the top 3 in the league.

Analysing only on net spend is not very useful tbh, need to account for sales and also wages. Liverpool pay massive wages and spend big on incoming players; the only team in recent history to have broken the mould of spend more on players (transfer and wages) to win things is Leicester. Liverpool have been more effective than other teams in turning that spend into results (namely Manure) but they've not been exceptionally good.

I don't think he's ever implied it's not safe, just asking whether it's currently necessary.

TBH It'd be a great midfield to join as a DM as both Bruno and Joelinton don't shy away at all from defensive responsibilities.

It will be interesting to see where we land when Shelvey is also back on deck. Will it be Bruno, Joelinton with Shelvey playing that anchoring role behind (don't want to call Shelvey a DM)? That could work because both Joelinton and Bruno get back and do loads of defensive work and Shelvey does offer another more versatile passer which could benefit Wilson, Isak, Miggy and ASM. Or will Willock keep Shelvey out? Seemingly it's Longstaff, Bruno and Shelvey that Howe has used in that more tethered midfield role so I can't see that changing to include Willock or Joelinton there as both of them have more pace to use breaking forward.

He's been a vital cog in our midfield with his energy, link up play and helping to transition from defense to attack. He's multi-faceted enough with the ball to attract defensive attention that can open it up for others and his passing is pretty reliable. Not standing out in particular but you can't have every player in the spotlight at once. We've also not seen him look like he's forgotten how to walk/run in ages which I think must have resulted from that persistent toe injury that he was playing with.

Not a downer at all, just tend to err on the side of cautious optimism. Further on that side than many of us, rightfully so with our history. It's actually great to see you, and others, letting our hair down and predicting results befitting the performances we've experienced of late. Also, you didn't apologise for anything on that post nor this one... so I've still got my eye on you. 🧐

Who are you and what have you done with Rayvin?

Important in what way? Gifting young foreign managers victory?

Stock had risen as the worst Premier League manager in history. Anyone who watched us would know that staying up had nothing to do with Bruce, as he marched us backwards in pretty much every conceivable metric during his time here. Ashley would have sacked him for sure if it wasn't going to cost him.

You should loan him out to us for some rehabilitation.

That would actually be quite honestly great comedy as it would show up how fundamentally lacking in footballing knowledge he is despite him making 10s of millions as a manager.

If WBA have a large payput required in the case of his sacking they've only got themselves to blame. Appointing him was pathetically bad to begin with so it's probably yo be expected that they don't. It's hard to fathom that "professionals" in charge of such large budgets could make a choice that a few hours of googling could substantiate as foolish.... at least it would be hard to if we hadn't lived through the Mike Ashley era.

I can't disagree with that. Only change I'd make would be to start Targett at LB. Nothing against Burn, he's far from terrible there but Targett looked more adept at transitioning to and from attack. I'd even leave Longstaff though I was more than a little upset when he turned it over the fell over which lead to them putting the ball in the back of the net. We're at Old Trafford next, hope we take the game to them.

Eddie was very quick to point out that there is no buyout clause in Bruno's contract.

9 goals in 2 games - roll back to Bruce era and we'd struggle to get that many in 2 months.

Only one goal from Haaland, I'm going to call it, he's finished.

Fantastic; after that early scare we kicked into gear and before we knew it we were in cruise control.

Great ball from Joe there.

Agreed, his positioning is spot on both in attack and defense and as a result he improves those around him.