So much for FFP then.
As I’ve often suggested, it’s a load of old tripe that you can get around if you have the means.
It is of course a good idea, that is designed to stop clubs going bust, but we’ve seen that there are ways around it, as demonstrated by the likes of the blue mancs, even though it seems they’re being threatened with sanctions.
Yeah, right. Just the same as red manc are in trouble for being close on 1 Billion in debt.
It would seem common sense has prevailed and after the Villa’s discussions with the powers that be, it would also seem that adequate funds have been guaranteed by our owners and we’re clear to spend a few quid.
I do not expect the £5 odd million quid we’ve apparently spent on Kalinic to be our only signing, by a long chalk.
Expect a CB and LB to come in and more, just as we all want.
And no, Grealish will not be leaving to pay for it (yawn).
Kalinic will hopefully be a great signing, given that it seems someone at the club has tracked him since our first interest 3 years ago. But I wonder who that someone might be, given the lack of continuity amongst the coaches?
Did we commit to signing him as soon as he became eligible for us when we first showed interest in him, I wonder?
On the face of it, it would seem so, to me.
Hence, is that a good deal?
Whatever, he probably can’t be worse than Nyland, can he???
Onto the game and I’m hoping I’ll actually be able to watch this, although it’ll be touch and go, depending on what time I finish work.
This is a massive game, to my mind.
If Leeds beat us, I think you’d have to call them as clear favourites to win the league.
They’re the big threat to my mind and we have to pull points back on them, if we’ve any chance of winning the league.
Note the “winning” part.
I still believe we have a chance, as much as that might seem daft at the moment.
Squad news then and it’s a bit early, but Grealish is out. He’s wearing a protective boot.
Adomah is a better bet and he’s trained.
Lansbury won’t be available, although Jedinak might be.
Whatever, this should be a great game.
Bielsa is very similar to Smith in the way he plays, in that Leeds play the high press and go for a high workrate.
That ultimately killed Leeds last season, but won’t affect them this early.
McGinn has to be the pivotal player for us, imo and if he plays well, I suspect we can dominate this one.
I’m going for a 2-1 win, but my brain says it will be a 1-1 draw.
Comments
85 responses to “Leeds on Sunday and Kalinic signing; it’s getting interesting.”
COYL!
Grealish is a massive loss; we don’t have another playmaker unless Deano takes a chance with one of the U23’s. It’s also a massive confidence booster for Leeds who are already on a run of five wins on the spin.
Sorry guys but I think this one might be difficult for us. If we can get a draw then it will be a decent result.
UTV
Totally agree. The key is to prevent them pulverising Nyland’s goal, which will no doubt be their intention. If that happens, there’s a real danger we’ll concede 4 or 5. We must start on the front foot and keep it there for the duration!
leeds game is a big one and should be premiership such a shame its not. you can make a good argument for both teams to win this encounter. leeds play aggressively and so do we, so both teams will be going for the others throat. grealish missing again, but i don’t think he will be missed as much as last season, we are much more a team now and he is only one tooth of the cog. cant split them draw 2 2
new goalie i am not surprised, but i am of who it is. i wonder if smith only chose this goalie as villa would have had a complete scouting report on this guy having almost signed him once before. i he looks very similar to the goalie we already have. so not sure hes much of a upgrade. he punches and pushes the ball away not a typical english style. end of the day, smith will want to bring his own in and if this his is signing its all good.
good to see lansbury returning from injury, i believe this guy will get a new lease of life at villa under smith. the playing style smith plays really suits him down to the ground,
lastly not villa the sacking of mourinho really got my goat, players have so much power now, they got one of the better managers the sack. he might not be everyone cup of tea, but his record is second to none. certain players seem to lead a revolt and then they are helped by reporters stirring the pot of pressure. one last interview a reporter asked him are the players playing for you. everybody can see they wasn’t, but how can a manager answer that question and still have some support from one or two players who were playing for him.
merry Christmas villans 2019 will be ours 🙂 this season we will finish like fulham did last season. hopefully leeds and norwich will hit the wall soon. if not we will be back at wembley and put right the last year game.
Jose and Bruce…..2 peas…
I think there’s some truth in that VillaAway – it’s the era of a new breed of young attack minded coaches which makes for enjoyable watching.
I now realise I was wrong about Bruce but still can’t help liking the guy.
My point exactly VillaAway. Jose is not a great manager anymore. You can’t forever use your ‘record’ as an argument, just like Bruce couldn’t!
record counts for nothing ?? how can some fans or reporters, who both might not have ever played the game. be allowed to disrespect him like they did. i found it all distasteful the treatment he received
Nath, his record stands for itself and only a fool would disrespect it. But Jose’s behaviour, attitude, and demeanor did not command respect. He attracted the attention with his negativity. He loved it when the press and fans adored him when he started at Chelsea, again attracting the attention with his ‘look at me’, ‘listen to me’ attitude. You can’t have it both ways. Mourinho knows how to manipulate the press when it suits him, so his Mr Grumpy routine was only going to get the treatment you find distasteful. The only thing distasteful was the way he hammered young players like Rashford publicly. That’s the kind of garbage KMac was dishing out. Thankfully, the Utd players are at a stage where their egos are strong enough to take the public slatings their manager gave them. How can you give your all for a guy like that? I’m no psychologist, but it’s pretty basic stuff. Look at Pochettino and how he conducts himself. But he’s no pushover. Look at how he dealt with Rose and Alderweireld when they were ‘playing up.’. The difference is he doesn’t behave like a big baby and commands respect from his players, all fans, and the media by the example he sets. The example Jose set was embarrassing, This is coming from a guy who thought he was amazing and even bought his book when he started out. But my opinion changed, as did many people’s.
BFR I guess your right. its not just him, its most managers when they get the sack. the press don’t half take it in turns to lay into them.
my point exactly wasn’t hes great, it was how the players hadn’t played to their ability, for whatever reason. its not always about tactics. players hunger differs and trying to motivate a millionaire to play a high press like pools manager does, can not always be a given. then suddenly he won’t be all that any more.
interesting listening to Solskjaer say he has a hair dryer he will use, how he will treat the players like his kids and offer them chocolates to encourage um. didn’t fergie bully his players like kicking a boot into bechams head.
players have too much power in todays games. the balance needs to be addressed back to the clubs or at least 50/50. how can richards earn his money at villa and not play any games or even be involved in training . collins gets injured and rips up his contract probably because he has morals,
bruce’s son defending him on twitter and hes right. bruce helped villa to almost win promotion, we were in a worst state before him. think its more important to look forwards. smith is king now and no need to keep being nasty to bruce, i wish him luck at wednesday he will need it they are in trouble
It’s been going on for a long time that players hold the upper hand in the game,
Vengar did well to last 20 odd years in the game, money has taken hold now a player can be a millionaire in months all he has to do is put a average game out and look good but the commitment not there.you know a player can get the manager the sake in time, Pogba a classic case he’s instigated the latest manager to go its as you say Nath no manager is safe, The game now has run away from being sport as we use to know, agents and advertising runs it now in today’s world.
Maureen does indeed have a great record and it’s certainly much appreciated by me.
But according to a red manc mate of mine, the footie was just unacceptable for the “biggest” club in the world.
They look at what Klopp and Poch are doing and think they’re missing out.
Very similar to what we expect and what we got under Bruce, imo.
It just isn’t good enough, whatever the previous record.
And rightly so.
Football has to be about entertainment, at least in some part.
i agree i was in a pub full off utd fans and all wanted him gone and they couldnt care less now. it just doesnt sit well with me not just him but the way managers are treated in the weeks before they are sacked and it all gets very nasty and disrespectful. i guess the compensation makes up for it
spot on bill no manager is safe. all depends on the players if they remain happy with how the manager kisses their ass then his tactics will do.
also i heard harry redcrap talk about how players where earning 50k nowadays and he said they couldn’t even play. lastly i can not stand him or utd even jose gets up my nose,
i watched the utd game tonight and watched them against pool, they were very good tonight slick passing fast tempo and very high pressing.the difference between the pool game and tonight was night and day.
incidental changing of manager at utd and jones injury record, some utd fans told me they might want Axel Tuanzebe to be recalled. that would hit us hard. he has become a much better defender under smith, not getting caught out as much and he very assured coming out with the ball
incidentally
Nath, I’ve heard a minimum £15 mill pay-off for Maureen.
I’ll bet he’s gutted!
Personally, I think he’s had enough of pandering to over-paid players who just aren’t worth the hassle.
My Derby mate asked me today, how the hell is the likes of Jones even playing for Man U?
I had to agree. He’s garbage, imo.
Man U will not recall Tuanzebe, imo.
He’s not a big enough name yet to appease the fans, even though it might be logical.
true 15 mill i heard too. axel might be its not about the name its about hes developing good he is still not good enough for utd in prem but jones keeps getting injured
i havent mentioned the boxing lol bill but that was a good fight then
A general might be the greatest tactician and the smartest guy in the world but, if he loses the trust of his men, he won’t win anything. For some reason Mourinho didn’t think he needed to have the players on his side. That’s not to say that they need to love or even like you as a manager but they need to respect you and be able to see where the team’s going. Mourinho lost that respect for some quite ridiculous and arrogant decisions on his part.
The same thing happened to Bruce and it shouldn’t have been so much of a surprise that Smith could get a tune from the same squad that Bruce miserably failed with.
It doesn’t matter how good you are if you lose the dressing room you’ve lost the plot.
It should have been Pat57, sorry Pat.
Holte57, BFRon, Nath, correct his demise was at Chelsea and the young lady he abused was the start, fans started to think hard about his attitude for what he did plus I’m the chosen one. That made me think you won’t last long in this country being a Prat like that, he got what he deserved in my honest opinion.
i forgot about that bill and you are right that probably where his stock dropped. it was a naughty thing he did to that physio or dr blamed her personally didnt he
I m sure the Special One will surface again in Milan. Amongst the nuggets in Sir Alec’s published views on tactics was ‘it takes better players to defend than to attack’ which was part of his explanation for priority of spending. After ‘best target man you can afford’ which would be high on most managers’ lists Fergie went for 2 Best goalkeeper, 3 Best full backs – which probably put him in a class of one.
I agree with Fergie, and reverting to Villa for the moment, getting a better keeper is our priority. hope Kalinic will be a lot better than Nyland. I don’t mind goal-keepers punching the ball if they don’t think they can get two hands on it to catch it, so long as they are aware of where the ball will land. I would hope our full backs are the next to be replaced.
Leeds? A tough one, if Nyland is still in goal I cannot see us scoring enough to outweigh what we concede. Points for Villa only if Leeds have an off day.
there are lots of news albeit from fans saying axel is out of todays game and some more news fake or not hes back at utd hope this is b/s we need him today
No Tuanzebe. James Bree in. Very attacking bench. Very unbalanced squad.
Is Tuanzebe injured or is he going back to Manure? I can’t see us getting anything from today’s game with a weakened side.
I think we will get turned over today I’m afraid. 1-3 to Leeds is my prediction. Reason is we have Bree who will be stale and Whelan who always looks stale. Tuanzebe out because of metatarsal supposedly and Grealish as expected. Nyland in goal for a few more games which concerns me to how his mental state will be knowing he will be dropped soon. At least the bench is strong and I think it will be called upon based on a weakened starting 11.
Agree Holte – just can’t see us getting anything out of this game.
No Hitch he has a foot injury, Dean Smith on now talking about it. Bree is in .
cannot call this one . Hope we win.
Tuanzebe out ‘for a number of weeks’ with a foot injury. We don’t seem to be very lucky with injuries.
With Tuanzebe out for several weeks we must recall Mitch Clarke – surely?
I said we would need a back up CB in January. Now it looks like we need a new CB and a back up CB. Mitch Clark must be recalled now.
A youngster at LB for Leeds at last minute. So surely you put Bolasie onto him as much as possible.
We have a right Bastard of a ref, he’s against us already.
Goal abraham
Goal Villa 2-0
Shot on goal by Hourihan left foot