After watching Spain-Portugal, I don’t think I understand the game anymore.

So I’ve just watched the above and I’m somewhat lost in my thinking.

Footy was always a simple game when I was younger.
The whole idea is to get the ball in the net more times than the opposition, is what I was taught as a 4 year old.

It’s a simple aim, isn’t it?
And the most successful attacking side wins. Easy peasy.

So why did I feel that I was watching a totally alien game this evening?
It’s probably to do with teams trying to constantly attack and win the bloody game, I reckon.
Just as you’re supposed to do.

I’ll bet I’m not alone in wondering why some teams feel the need to constantly pass the ball sideways and backwards.
Indeed, it’s no wonder I’ve got very little hair left, after watching the Villa over the last few years.

But it seems it’s endemic in our domestic game and is probably why I don’t think England have a hope in hell of winning the World Cup.
The English game, while it has plenty of blood and guts, is nowhere near dynamic enough in it’s play.

And if you asked me who our best shot at England manager would be to actually win a tournament, there is only one in our game.

Jurgen Klopp.

He plays the game as it should be played.
Attacking, with a smile on his face, even if he loses.

Southgate?
He’s an FA groomed puppet. A total non-achiever and the perfect example of why England don’t have a prayer of achieving anything in this tournament.

To be honest, I wonder why I watch British footy at all.
Oh, er, I don’t, unless it’s the Villa.

To be honest, it bores me witless.
Because we’ve forgotten what the game is about; which is winning, as opposed to not losing.

71 Comments

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  1. Holte66
    Holte66 June 20, 2018 at 7:04 pm . Reply

    Keep checking the news for latest doom and gloom story at VP. Getting bored of it now if I’m honest. The media love nothing more than speculating about how much we owe, and after the fire sale we will be left with just Hutton and some of last years U23’s. Until I hear an official statement from the club I will disregard all media crap that we are being fed. One thing that is certain is how little anyone outside of VP knows about our current circumstances.

  2. Bill Pearson
    Bill Pearson June 20, 2018 at 7:48 pm . Reply

    Yes, It Stinks Nath, never in my life time have I seen Villa in this much trouble, So called business men playing silly buggers at our expense, I blame him for not knowing his problems taking on Villa, hes the one that imployed people to run our club. Hes got that to deal with in court, yes you did see the writing on the wall ,as Hitch intermated its not all about the ffp its bad running of a busines that’s caused this. I could understand if we only had 15 thousand on matches but we had doubled that and sponsored by good companies. It’s mind boddling.

    1. Hitchens 60
      Hitchens 60 June 21, 2018 at 11:24 am . Reply

      1960’s would be close Bill until Pat Matthews bought the club – we were close to going under then

      1. Bill Pearson
        Bill Pearson June 21, 2018 at 12:19 pm . Reply

        I missed that Hitch. Mind you I was in the forces then. oh yes got married in 61,

  3. nath
    nath June 20, 2018 at 8:09 pm . Reply

    there is a old saying, no smoke without a fire. nobody knows the extent of the damage, because the owner is running scared. hes never been so quiet. doesn’t that tell you something is not quite right. i washed my hand s of this mess. i had hoped it gets sorted, before the seaosn started, but i know it won’t,

    hope we are all enjoying the world cup 🙂 i am watching spain and iran great to watch football. we are fans and life to short to worry about the mess at villa. the millionaires will all be ok ,its just the poor minimum waged staff will lose out. banks will all get their money and other clubs will get their money, we will get docked 10 points. lose our best players etcetc

    next season will be a major struggle but we should get top 24 or thereabouts

  4. nath
    nath June 20, 2018 at 9:00 pm . Reply

    love watching two different styles and tactics. i thought iran was hard done by in that match. yes they were second best in most of the game. but i thought they coped with a far superior side, quite well. they didnt get the decisions too. that offside was marginal at worst. man for man spain should have won easy

  5. Hitchens 60
    Hitchens 60 June 21, 2018 at 11:21 am . Reply

    Of course Dr Xia is the ultimate guardian of the club but Wyness was CEO and had overall responsibility for running the club on a day to day basis. Similarly the Board has a fiduciary responsibility and I guess sanctioned the strategy, expenditure as well as player sales. To allow the club to gamble it’s whole financial future on effectively one game is IMHO at best negligent and at worst – well perhaps I shouldn’t use the word I had in mind.

    This financial situation is not directly of SB’s making no matter how much fans hold him responsible for not achieving promotion.

    The Wyness sacking has to be more than a bust up at a (board) meeting. I clearly remember Wyness saying they had a plan in place for promotion and one for a further year in the Championship – was he lying or has the owner vetoed the funding element of the second of those plans or did Wyness mislead the Board?

    In the meantime, the club appears to be lurching from day to day with the fans treated like mushrooms (keep them in the dark and pile sh*t on them!). Effectively we have no manager, no money and just possibly no team.

    However, I agree with Badger, we might have to face up to administration (as Leeds did) but the club will survive with or without the Dr.

    UTV

  6. DSVilla
    DSVilla June 21, 2018 at 6:18 pm . Reply

    It’s reported in the Telegraph that Xia has put another £5M into the club to see it through June. If that’s true it could suggest he can keep the club afloat while looking for investment. If it was going into administration he may as well have kept the money in his pocket.

    That’s assuming he hasn’t borrowed more money against future income or the business assets.

    1. Hitchens60
      Hitchens60 June 21, 2018 at 10:25 pm . Reply

      If true it’s a fair point DS. There has been quite a lot of talk about how Xia would want to avoid a ‘loss of face’ in China through a business failure. It also raises a question as to the extent the Chinese authorities might relax rules over foreign investment to prevent this happening – this was suggested by a university professor expert on China.

      What we need is some definitive statements / answers from the club – the first should be – who the hell is our manager for next season? If they can give Hutton a new contract then surely they can answer that question.

  7. Holte66
    Holte66 June 21, 2018 at 8:06 pm . Reply

    Difficult to muster any enthusiasm about fixture list released today. I had a quick glance over to see when we were playing Small Heath and Tesco FC. Hopefully when we all know where we stand around about mid July, then maybe we can start looking forward to the new season. Funny how they keep releasing images of next seasons shirt to entice everyone to buy it. At least it looks more like claret than purple which it has been last few years. Amazingly loyal fans too when we have gone past 20,000 season tickets. About time they were rewarded with news on manager and players they will be seeing.

  8. Bill Pearson
    Bill Pearson June 22, 2018 at 5:45 pm . Reply

    Bjarnason, hope he stays in Russia , what a crap game by all of Iceland players.
    Slow, cannot pass the ball and useless taking penalties, the only good thing is the chant ,

    1. Hitchens60
      Hitchens60 June 22, 2018 at 7:00 pm . Reply

      What a difference a day makes – 24 little hours.

      OK it’s more than a day but you get my point. I didn’t see either game but Bjarnasson goes from hero to zero! I still think he’s worth keeping.

    2. Bum Bum
      Bum Bum June 22, 2018 at 7:27 pm . Reply

      And their very cute female fans! Yum!

      1. Hitchens60
        Hitchens60 June 23, 2018 at 7:08 am . Reply

        Now, now Bum Bum – political correctness and all that cr*p LOL

  9. badger123
    badger123 June 22, 2018 at 8:53 pm . Reply

    I’ve been trying to think of something to write, but I’m really not seeing much to talk about, except who we are/ought to be buying (lol).

    Yes, Xia has apparently put another £5 mill in.
    He has to and I believe will do, at any cost.
    What damage that’s doing to us down the road, I dread to think.
    Imagine the rip-off interest the club will be charged.

    There’s word that we’ve borrowed money against our last parachute payment.
    In which case, we’re only kicking the can down the road.

    In the meantime, I’m seeing no news as good news.

    Although I totally agree; we need to know what’s going on ASAP.

    It might well be Xia who’s losing money, but the fans are the club’s lifeblood.

    1. DSVilla
      DSVilla June 22, 2018 at 10:25 pm . Reply

      The key is the sale of Grealish. Nobody with any sense would invest £30M for a minority share in a loss making club with poor prospects of promotion next season. Therefore the money to rescue the club comes from sales – our most saleable asset will go to the highest bidder. Better resign yourselves to the inevitable. I’ll bet a tenner with anyone on here that he goes.

  10. Hitchens60
    Hitchens60 June 23, 2018 at 7:10 am . Reply

    Posts now showing straightaway Badger

    1. badger123
      badger123 June 23, 2018 at 6:05 pm . Reply

      Cheers Hitch.
      Shows what the experts know.
      But while it’s a temporary solution, I’ll have to dig deeper to see if I can find what’s causing it.

  11. nath
    nath June 23, 2018 at 7:34 am . Reply

    nobody in their right mind wants to sell grealish. he is our only hope of promotion, but the owner won’t gamble anymore on villa, he is trying to recover the money hes lost, before he does a disappearing act. seems like this could get a whole lot messier and worse for villa if their is no sale of the club.

    in my opinions while we are running at loses unsustainable now because the drX and his backers don’t want to be in a business which is losing money. wages alone sound like they are gonna cripple us. then the taxes on the loans hes taking out against the club assets could ruin us and any future sales of club.

    when i said we were in the brown stuff ages ago i didn’t think it would happen so quickly. also dsvilla has already posted, clubs wanting grealish will play us like fools over the price of grealish. they know we are wanting to sell and they will just not hurry the deal. they will see it out, until last day of transfer window. knowing we will get more desperate and that will hand them a big advantage in the dealings.

    fubar

  12. Bill Pearson
    Bill Pearson June 23, 2018 at 9:06 am . Reply

    It’s pretty obvious now we run with our second side and hope tthey’ll bail us out of this problematic situation, we can also now resign to the fact we will be in the championships for a very long time. Compensation for Body More and the sale of assets might keep us going, I wonder if they introduce the buying of shares again , which ever way we look at it we’re in a tight situation.

  13. nath
    nath June 23, 2018 at 3:49 pm . Reply

    i will get shot for saying this. but i think the championship will be good for villa. we have a great youth side, once we realise that and start blooding them and not be afraid of doing this,when we get promoted, we’ll be a far stronger side for this.

    we should be looking to lower the wages in the short time, this could take years to achieve. from our youth team and other youth teams around the world, we should be able to attract good young players,which to build a side from the ground up. we will be able to offer these younger players a platform to showcase their skills,

    but we really need a owner and somebody running the show with some stability. somebody whos not gonna put all our resources all in and have nothing else planned if that fails.

    who ever has been handing out the contracts needs sacking if hes still around. we can’t pay wages that will ruin us. we can attract decent players on miles less than we are paying now.

    for example that bree looks a good player. but one season only experience and hes got a pay rise from 3k to 20k plus. that tishbola paying 5mill for him when we have our own youth players which to me look better prospects. plus his wages make him unsellable. we always seem to make more mistakes off field than on

    1. DSVilla
      DSVilla June 23, 2018 at 5:36 pm . Reply

      I actually don’t disagree with you about Villa in the Championship. Where I would take issue is that last year you didn’t think the youngsters were up to it. Since most of them didn’t get that much pitch time I fail to see, other than Davis, how they will be better equipped this year. Will be nice to see them have a chance though.

      1. nath
        nath June 23, 2018 at 7:12 pm . Reply

        i don’t think the youngsters were up to it. but we need to play them and improve them. if we play the whole 11 youth team next year, we will be relegated you can be sure of that. but you can mix them up with experience players. we have a handful of potential players.

        green davis will be ready next year. then we have maybes in clark lydon hayes ohare taylor murphy. they wasn’t ready last year, they can all play bit part roles and we shouldnt suffer too much. suliman and kirdy both went out to league two and failed to make impact, but that should be a wake up call to them and others.

        i would rather see us blood the youth and get them fast tracked finish midtable than pay millions in wages to finish same place and not blood any youth. cause without grealish we will be mid table to bottom i reckon

        green is not much a downgrade on odomah, davis has already shown he is capable. i seen alot of hayes he can play, but and its a big but. youth football they don’t tackle, in the championship can hayes stand up to the physical side. he was skinny last year. he might just get swept away. bypassed but if he can handle that side, he is better midfielder than hourihane and lansbury jedi etc.

        taylor is another player who could make the step up, strong lad who loves to make driving runs beating him fullback, he will be good last 20 minute player to be introduced slowly

  14. Bill Pearson
    Bill Pearson June 23, 2018 at 5:46 pm . Reply

    The way we going Nath we won’t have a field to play on, its got to go back to the days when footballers up and coming play the game to progress in life, bringing in players looking to get the best wage at the end of their football careers didn’t work, we also need a owner thats hands on, not one that on the end of a phone.things have to change drastically at the club, I don’t know what’s happening with Bruce but he needs to be alive to both teams and use young players that show promises.

  15. nath
    nath June 23, 2018 at 7:27 pm . Reply

    also that doyles hayes is a team player. by that i mean he knits the team together links up defence midfield and attack. he spray the ball around without a care. he alway makes himself available for pass he just needs the time to adjust from youth tippy tappy stuff. others in the squad might be just needing a game. its a big preseason to stake a claim for a shirt.

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