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.
Am I alone in thinking this?
You are not alone in your thinking. The game has changed drastically over the last 10 years or so. Barcelona perfected the ‘beautiful’ game which funnily enough is something Arsene Wenger introduced at Arsenal. Man City and Liverpool were the most entertaining teams last season in the premier league, but when it comes to international football, England are the worst in transferring quality from its league status to international level. Getting out of our group is probably as good as we can expect.
Think you’ve hit the nail on the head, English footy is so boring and predictable, especially when it’s Villa with SB in charge with his ultra defensive tactics and lone striker. The Portugal-Spain game was like a breath of fresh air, and is how the game should be played.
Badger, you hit the nail on the head, I lost it years ago, when they took it to the drawing board, took away inside right ,right wing, brought in wing back, the days of Stanley Mathews disappeared to me. put it down to old age, I have.I love to see a player that has dribbling skills and goes alone in a game to create moves.
Ho Happy Days.
What the dickens Badger.
At long last England have a manager who is trying to play an attacking brand of football.
The last time I recall any other manager playing attacking football was Hoddle and Venables with a clear philosophy.
I’ve been disengaged from England for a number of years. I’m actually looking forward to seeing us play and I think we will do better than many expect.
If I had read your article in a newspaper I would have called it lazy journalism.
Ha, fair play Sid 🙂
I’m not sure about the lazy journalism part, though?
I thought I offered a different view that opposes the “English game is the best in the world” bullshit, myself.
Although you do have a very good point.
My recent experience of footy fans in general, is that most are not madly bothered about this WC.
I suspect this is mostly down to the fact that the press haven’t overly hyped us up this time.
Which, given that we have an inexperienced, young squad means we might actually do okay.
My view is that we have a few players who can turn a game with an unexpected flash of brilliance, which might work in our favour.
But we’ve still no chance of winning the tournament, imo.
I just can’t see past Germany.
the website its swiss ramble. it has all the financial stuff, if you have the time to read it, which i don’t i have given it a once over and it depressed me
Agreed. Most teams play safe a lot of the time. Even a team like Barcelona, that can be thrilling at times plays a lot of passes that are simple and seemingly negative or at least pointless. I guess it’s all about tiring the other team out and getting them out of position. Boring as hell a lot of the time.
I enjoy watching Liverpool and think Klopp is great. His enthusiasm and passion, and desire to attack and outscore the opposition are streets ahead of most. Would be nice to see someone with that attitude at Villa Park……..sigh.
I was agreeing with every word until I realised that, most probably, neither of these 2 sides are going to win the tournament. Because the winners of tournaments like the World Cup don’t leak 3 goals, however beautiful they were, in the opening game. So, unfortunate for us fans, it’s going to be the team that can defend the best that will win – which is what Germany understand (and Italy used to) and why they’ve won so many in relation to all the exciting, attacking teams. Spain/Brazil were the exception. Take your point about Klopp though – good shout. Tournament manager if ever there was one!
I was agreeing with you totally but then I thought about it. It was a great game to watch. But how much of that was down to some poor Spanish defending? Nacho on Ronaldo – poor. Pique on Ronaldo – worse. De Gea? Spain made basic errors in defence (and poor substitutions) and, credit to Ronaldo, he took advantage. Brilliant going forward, yes. Fantastic game to watch, yes. World Cup winners? I dunno if it was either of these. Unfortunately for fans of the beautiful game, solely attacking football in tournaments, gets you knocked out. And it’s all great wishing Villa would play like Man City but, let’s face it, most teams in the world would like to play like Man City – and they got found out in Champions League. SB has to be pragmatic – as we now know so much was at stake for Villa this season and the reason we got to the playoffs was Chester and Terry, not Grealish or Grabban. I know what you mean about the game – but it’s always been the same – or certainly since the 80s. My fear now is that Villa will leak goals. Think we can talk God out of retirement?
That said, Klopp is a great shout for England – I would love that.
Jonny,
Agreed, that the out and out attacking sides often lose out.
But explain Brazil over the years?
Whatever, wouldn’t it be good if for once the world looked at an England side as “good to watch”?
I’m suggesting that we’re mediocre and the world in general knows it.
As in “very average at best”.
We’ve had a decent defence at times and a decent attack too.
Neither wins the WC, imo.
It’s about the balance and the truth is this is what we fail at, nowadays.
We really aren’t that good and are nowhere near worrying the top sides.
Which all goes back to the way we play the game.
I’d say that Brazil today are a good example of the right balance – and even, in the Dunga (WC winning) days, too defensive. But overall, I’m with you. Let’s just live in hope though, eh?
VAR is so bloody corporate and American. It’s another nail in the coffin. It takes the spontaneity out of the game.
Regarding England’s chances, we weren’t expected to do well in 66. I think Southgate has Brough the squad together and taken some of the pressure off. We’re still suffering from too many foreign players. Apparently Brexit will have some bearing on this. I bloody hope so or we’ll never see any homegrown players develop.
Bjarnasson played well today so his market value will be on the up. Unlikely we will keep him while we are stuck with Jedinak and Whelan for another season, and if I could boot out one of them it would be Whelan. Unfortunately he is least likely to offload with the wages we are paying. It was bad business to bring in two defensive midfield players nearing retirement on contracts longer than 12 months.
england chances are slim. we lack in our defence and i feel we will struggle against well organised defences to break them down.we are also poor from corners for and against. but we do have enthusiastic players all eager to prove everybody wrong. they do have good energy and pace.
watching iceland against argies. the way they shut down the argy attack is the way we had to shut out fulham at wembley. notice how iceland closed down the space in front of their back-line. Argentina miles better than fulham at picking their way through defences and they struggled to get behind iceland or pick their passes through them.
I have to agree with Sidforever. As a Scotsman I view the England team with a degree of detachment. This current squad has engaged me more than any for the last 20 years. I think they have a much sharper attack than England normally have. Add to that they have several players in the squad to defend that I do not think are up to it e.g. Young, Jones and Delph. So I see no option but to play attacking football.
The factor that makes football the compelling spectator sport that it is, is that it is so difficult to score. That allows a game like Iceland v Argentina to be a gripping spectacle and produce a draw. Such mismatched teams at Basketball or Rugby would always result in a win for the better side.
Enjoyed reading all the opinions – still in Madrid where I didn’t even realise that Spain were playing last night – read into that what you will.
What has interested me far more than the over hyped, over priced, World Cup is that, despite all the problems at Villa, season ticket sales have just hit 20,000. What brilliant supporters we have – it’s down to you Dr T not to let them down.
UTV
More stories of Xia desperately trying to raise cash from outside investment. What seems clear is that he doesn’t have the money to invest himself. The fact that he struggled to raise a few million to pay off HMRC should tell everyone that we are up against the wall here.
The problem is, anyone investing millions will need to do a serious amount of checking ahead of investing, and it is unlikely that we have much time. I am really worried about this, and feel that we are odds on to enter administration.
DS – sadly I have to agree that administration is a real possibility unless Villa (Xia) can find a substantial injection of cash. Despite the media hype, this has absolutely nothing to do with meeting FFP rules but simply the business has run out of cash. I keep saying – forget FFP rules, they cannot bring the club down but lack of cash can and will if Xia cannot find a significant cash investment or sell the business.
My issue with the latter is that if I were a prospective buyer knowing Villa’s position, I would wait for administration and then seek to buy it at a lower price from the Administrator. I did it once in business by pulling out of a negotiated deal at £5m, which forced administration and I then not only acquired the (very good) business for £750k but was able to leave the real risky bits with the Administrator!
Agreed. FFP is irrelevant and is clearly a smokescreen. I agree about the administration to a point (and have been through the same process as yourself). The difference would be the punishment to the club would be a points deduction and therefore damage the clubs prospects.
Accept your point DS and had been thinking about the 10 point deduction that would follow but I think (not entirely sure) that the FFP slate would be ‘wiped clean’ so (if true) the new owners would not be under pressure to sell our best players. I would back us to stay up even with a -10 point start.
Anyway it’s all hypothesis at the moment.
Sorry Hitch I wasn’t clear there. What I was thinking was that the points deduction would effectively end any (slim) hope of promotion next season rather than threaten relegation. A prospective new owner would presumably think twice and pay less if they knew we were consigned to the Championship for at least the next season.
As you say, all speculation.
This all very worrying, so why has no one come out and given us fans the full story. If the rumours are correct and we have no reason to believe they are not then Xia is a total fraud and should be sent packing as soon as possible. As we all know unless we start hearing some better news and the longer this drags on the fans will turn on him. We all know you loose the fans and your a dead man walking.
Tell us the truth and quick AND SORT OUT YOUR MESS OUT BEFORE WE START THE SEASON ALREADY POINTS ADRIFT.
Remember this is our GREAT Club you are just a temporary custodian who promised so much but has nothing to back this up.
Rocky, like your thinking, Dont think for one minute I’m turning on Xia , he took a gamble on Villa and lost, we must have been on the verge of receivership a few years back, why didn’t he make it known to the club instead of giving wages that we could not afford, he must have been that unknowable of the game he’s been railroaded. I fear for our club now because the knives are out to ruin our Great Villa Park, all this talk about name change making me worry.
Bill
Surely though if Xia had all his eggs in the promotion at all costs basket the money would not have been given out straight away by the EPL? i would have thought that this would be drip fed to clubs throughout the season and not given as a cash lump sum up front?
The problem is we have a short term cash flow problem and to me promotion would not have changed anything now. Unless Xia would then be able to borrow on that EPL payments. To have the money just dry up is inexcusable and to be honest we should as a club of our size be financially sound enough to cover the costs of the players in our squad that we had at our disposal last season.
With the crowds we pulled in on average 33000 per game plus.
For me this is total mismanagement and the busk lies at Xia’s door. What he needs to realise is you get your house in order first, but you do not buy in to a football club expecting to make money, the intention is you have to spend some of your own money to get where you want to be, and hopefully turn it in to a viable business that will bring in a return, but not straight away.
Totally agree Rocky 1, you cannot tell me he wasn’t aware of Villas plight in the early stage of him taking control. If he did then he’s a man in business that gambles and got there by luck. We should never be in this shit, a few years ago we was one of the richest club in England if not the world, so how the hell we are now broke.I would check the books on the last decade of Villa trading.
Ah, Hitch has called this pretty well.
What price would you give that we go into administration and another Chinese company (somehow related to Xia) buys us up?
I’m laughing about all this, because as I keep saying, we will NOT go tits up.
I’m being taken the piss out of, from all sides, from other club’s fans, but when I tell them that the game will not allow us to fold totally, they have no argument whatsoever. They all know we need to be involved.
Sod the big six. We started the first big twelve and everyone knows it.
We’ll be ok.
And folding us would be like folding the Bank of England.
We are genuinely part of football history, as much as some of you might not see it.
Trust me, it just wouldn’t suit the books overall.
The situation with Villa is probably different to that Hitch experienced, and the one that I went through too. It appears that a number of parties have expressed an interest in Aston Villa. If the club now enters administration, since those parties have already declared an interest, they would legally be entitled to bid. That makes it different to the way many of these deals happen behind closed doors, and a deal is done without other potentially interested parties knowing what is happening. The first they find out is when the new owner is announced. That new owner is usually the same owner, or someone closely connected as they have the inside info.
You’re right DS – we did have an inside track although other bids were made. The administrator wanted to go to court- file the administration and sell the business all in one session. I think it’s called a closed pack deal. Administrators always want to find a buyer quickly.
Agreed. I have a horrible feeling this is what is going to happen. It also means we will be sold to anyone who has the cash handy so can wrap up the deal quickly.
A bit of good news at last in finding money,
Aston Villa owner Tony Xia could sell his shares, or put the Championship side up for sale, as he searches for investment options to help the club.
It is reported Villa need about £40m to comply with Financial Fair Play.
Earlier this month Villa reached an agreement with HM Revenue & Customs after missing a £4m payment, but another is due at the end of the week.
Documents on Companies House show shares can be sold and a restriction on Villa’s sale has been lifted.
The documents, which now allow new investment to be generated either by the sale of shares or the club, were signed on 25 May – the day before the play-off final at Wembley.
Chinese businessman Xia, 41, warned of “severe Financial Fair Play challenges” after Villa lost to Fulham in the Championship play-off final in May, costing them a potential £160m in future revenue
Bill we are in a worst state than when Lerner lost interest, hiding behind the curtains when the tax man is at the door – if it wasn’t so disturbing it would be laughable.
He has gambled the existence of our club and this is unforgivable – he needs to sell up now – we don’t give a monkeys about him losing face in China 🙁
I understand your frustrations Saddened its as bad as mine, he has that option to sell or slap in his shares, both ways its bad for the club in bringing humiliation to the name of Aston Villa.this what’s gone on is not just happened, it’s time to dig into the club’s trading over the last 10 years, we was one of the richest clubs once by being 11th, what’s gone on, 11 million to O’Neal and he walked, and that’s not counting the other twats we had.I think the fraud squad needs to take a look.it’s disgusting to say the least.
Bill – forget FFP – this is about cash flow which is far more worrying.
Hitch, I know that its what I’m getting at , the assets they had has in some way gone over the last 10 years, bad accounting by who? Someone knows more than they are saying, Doug is too feeble to pop up and ask that question, he made a statement that whoever takes over do not sell the assets, how come we are now in the mess we are. We been having large gates, the sales are up on merchandise, and still cannot make the books balance, who is responsible. We’ve been robbed in someway.
I have given up completely with the Chinese. I have just been down to the China Palace to complain that my chicken in black bean sauce was rubbery and the cheeky fucker said ” I glad yo wiked it mister wocky”
UTV
i said we were in the brown stuff and i was being dramatic. but reading posts since i last appeared and seems like you all realise that. doesn’t matter the details we are in shit whether its cash flow or no money or even ffp and running costs which dwarf our income.
if drX stays he will asset strip. if he finds funds to see out this season we will still have to sell star players or player ie grealish. we are in a mess. the good drX seems to have no intentions on ploughing more funds in. i believe that his backers are not willing to throw good money after bad. he will try to sell or cut his losses before the banks and other creditors come calling for their dough.
even the loan he just secured to pay the tax bills, was against the tv money of this season. i hear villa fans say don’t believe the papers or other news outlets but nobody is speaking to the fans from the club it stinks.
Completely agree Nath and Bill, gates are up, season ticket sales are up, merchandising is up – but the club have to borrow money just to pay a tax bill which they knew was on its way – What an absolute bunch of amateurs.
Who signed off the fit and proper person of the Doctor as it sounds like he hasn’t got a pot to pee in and is hiding in china – exactly the same as Lerner !!
I would be pretty worried if I had bought a season ticket, unless on a credit card. I can’t believe we have got to this position. The money in football attracts all kinds of chancers. Even if we get rid of this one we are more likely to get another one than a proper owner.
DSVilla
Too late I have bought mine in April before this crap came to light. But I am just one of 20000+ that have been led by our ultimate desire to follow our team. The fans never let the club down it is the custodians of our Great club that let us down big time.
The lack of a statement from the club and the owner in particular is woeful and he has ultimately shot him self in the foot, as the majority of Villa fans want him out and quick so there is no going back he has blown it and can never be trusted again.