This final game of the season isn’t just about qualifying for the Champions league.
It is of course about that as well, but perhaps more importantly, it could be a very big pointer as to which direction the club takes over the next few years.
First off, let’s put simply what we need for us to actually qualify. We need to win and either Chelsea or Newcastle drop a point against Forest and Everton respectively. Either that, or Man City have to lose at Fulham.
Any other combination won’t be enough and that worries me, (everything worries me with the Villa), but I certainly don’t think it’s impossible. Everton are a very tough side to beat. Forest could still pinch our current Europa league place so still have something to play for. And Man City have improved of late, but they still seem liable to being beaten by anyone.
So it’s a big ask and I’m not even going to discuss our record against Man U. We’ve had the worst record of any club against them since the Prem was formed. Enough said.
I’ve been saying for months that qualifying for the Champions League was the most single important thing, apart from winning it this year and we’re very soon going to see why.
If we qualify, It’s all sweetness and roses. We might have to part with one top player, but the revenue should be adequate, albeit maybe £50 million light as a pure guess.
But failing to qualify will slash our revenue. The Champions league earned the club just over £45 million this season, but it’s more than just that. It’s the sponsorship and the prestige too. And then, being in it massively improves our pulling power. Or just as importantly, in my opinion, our ability to hold onto players.
I know Martinez looked like he was a goner last week and he definitely looks like he might be off, as it makes perfect sense to me, but I don’t think for one minute he’s made his mind up. He’s happy here. His kids look at Brum as home and apparently his missus has just set up a clothes shop in Tamworth. Of course, 300 grand a week in Saudi can easily turn people’s heads, but keeping the missus happy might prove just as important (I’m clutching at straws, aren’t I?).
But if we already have to flog one player and we don’t qualify, I can see that turning into two or maybe even three players leaving. Say, two of Martinez, Watkins and Rogers and probably Mings too, if rumours are to be believed. And Tielemens is also being mentioned too.
As much as I trust Emery and Monchi to bring decent replacements in, that sort of loss would be a major setback. I’m quite happy for us to do a Rogers, in getting a player in cheap, improving him and then flogging him in short time for a fat profit, but I definitely don’t want to see us having to rip a big chunk out of the team. You need at least a decent amount of stablity.
So this is the biggest game since, er, the last big game. And we’ve had a few this season, haven’t we?
Squad news and Rashford is out , but importantly Youri Tielemens has a fair chance of being at least on the bench after Emery reported that he’s trained since Friday. Jacob Ramsay is available after his suspension.
As for Man U, Leny Yoro probably won’t be risked. Lisandro Martinez is out, as is Matthijs de Ligt.
I think the fact that I’ve never heard of two of those players says it all about how the Reds are in freefall and I also believe that we’re easily capable of beating Man Utd.
The big problem I have is our disgusting record against them.
Even so, it doesn’t really matter to some extent. We win, and the show goes on until the other teams have finished.
We lose and I’ll be close to tears. Yes, the Villa still have the ability to do that to me.
I’m going for a scappy 2-1 win, although I’d love to see us put five past them.
UTV!
Non mentality monsters fuckin blew it just as I expected no shots on target against the worst man screw team since 1974 absolutely poor as piss
I’m starting to lose the faith in Unai’s no plans B football.
And Newcastle losing you couldn’t make it up uefa cup it is two nil against that shite embarrassing
Sick as a dog but like I said I expected it
I agree with RSS and Rogers has been found out. Time to sell while his value is high. Watkins too if we can get £40m. Bailey is another who combined would get us £120m there or thereabouts. As much as Martinez was a complete numpty today, I would hope we can keep him. Other decisions to look at are RB and LCB as Torres and Cash are liabilities. Why on earth Mings is overlooked is beyond me.
As you probably guessed Holte I’m not Rogers biggest fan and I’m probably not the right one to ask for an impartial opinion BUT…
I’d sell him in a heartbeat, loses the ball and goes missing to often for my liking.
Maybe Emery needs to look at himself as he clearly has favourites in Torres and Kamara but when they don’t perform they need to be on the bench. Not playing Mings is like Slot not playing Van Dyke. The statistics don’t lie and results show we win games with Mings and lose games with Torres!
Torres to lightweight for the prem IMO.
Why are we surprised?
Typical Villa.
I’m so pi**ed off with our inability to get a result when we absolutely need it.
It hurts to lose yet again to f’ing United – whether or not the ref was rubbish.
That’s just three wins at OT since 1955 – we might as well give them the three points every season and save the bus fare!
What’s really galling is that we only needed a draw!
Oh well positive thoughts lads – new season, new opportunities.
UTMV
Disappointing end to season. That man city late winner proved to be defining after all. When the dust settles and the blood stops boiling, I will have to say it’s been a mixed bag of a season. Champions league run unbelievable memories of that. League, not good enough. I feel that this team has ran it’s course and we will have a rebuild this summer with some big names being moved on. I expect we have seen the last of Watkins, Martinez, McGinn, Bailey, Mings and Digne.
Keep them and cash in on Rogers before he’s properly found out.
Certainly agree we’ll see a rebuild this summer.
Without CL we may not be in control over who goes out which is of concern.
Be interesting.
And next season we have two chances to get back into the CL
Olsen did well. Some players make mistakes and we blast our annoyance at them. Other players do absolutely nothing and nobody notices.
The second half did follow a predictable plot line and should have been prefaced thus.
“Any resemblance between what you are about to see and a match played under the laws of Association Football is purely coincidental.”
The laws can be changed after reviewing Villa matches, this is the 3rd since VAR started. The ref blew the whistle as Rogers struck the ball towards goal but that stopped nobody from playing it. Goal wrongly diallowed.
A United player chasing the ball outside the penalty box, steps sideways off the line of the ball – back into the area but outside playing distance – into the path of Maatsen. This forces a collision and gets a penalty. It should be a Villa free-kick for obstruction, but Law 20a – special conditions for matches at Old Trafford applies instead.
Olsen needs to dive smartly out of the path of Erikson’s down-the-middle spot-kick, but he manages it.
Or – Villa fail to be bold in a big game and bottle it on the big occasion (again)?
For me it’s about winning trophies. Emery going into his 3rd full season should be expected to get us some silverware. After all, Newcastle, Palace and two shite teams in Manure and Spurs have won silverware in the last couple of seasons. To win any trophies, we need players with a winning mentality. The games which have really mattered this season, we have bottled it. Whether that’s purely down to the players or maybe Emery’s tactics in crucial games, we need to sort it out for next season.
Now we have failed to get into the CL, we will continue to see our best players linked with the clubs who have qualified for CL.
On the Rogers debate, and I think anyone has a selling point, but is it the fact we have shifted him from a number 10 to playing out wide which has coincided with loss of form. Asensio started great but the second half of his loan spell has been average at best. Also the talk of our loan signings being great has ended with disappointment with Rashford’s injury and Disasi not being good enough to play at all in the end.
This summer could see a massive overhaul in the squad and Monchi will have to earn his bucks!
Monchi’s biggest task is telling Emery when his favourites are not good enough and when the players he has dropped are. Definitely that applies to Torres at CB. It is a tight call between Maatsen and Digne: Digne has more savvy. If we are shifting out players who are not Top Five quality there are a lot with ??. Desasi, Cash, Torres, Onana, McGinn, Bailey. Even Asensio, Rashford and Malen. Rogers is let off, he is improving.
I agree, if the coaches are bold and brutal, there will be a lot of changes.
Agreed Holte. He’s doing a job that doesn’t see him in his best position.
I really don’t understand why some have such a downer on him. You would think it wasn’t him who had the ball in the net today (yet again).
And it’s almost as if he was the only one giving the ball away.
I would have said apart from Emi, there wasn’t a single player who played anywhere near well today.
Well, I did say Rodgers was unreliable, and so is Watkins, Mcginn has worked till he dropped Emery with wrong choices in not playing workers and as for Cash get rid. We need to clear out idol players like Torres, and get a central defender that can kick arses we was shit today
.
It’s easy to criticise Rogers but he’s only 22 and its his first full EPL season. Also Emery has played him in every game for which he’s been available which, in hindsight, may not have been appropriate.
To expect him to play up to the highest standards in every game given the foregoing is probably unrealistic.
His stats are impressive and I suggest selling him at this stage might be a mistake unless the offer is so high as to be hard to refuse.
Emery must have a view as to how he wants to restructure the squad in the summer although the major challenge will be the Eufa SCR financial regulations (squad cost ratio to revenue.)
I’ve no doubt NSWE will back Emery in the summer within whatever we can afford.
Just watched Emery’s post match interview.
Very gracious and also realistic. Although today didn’t go our way, it was the results on the middle of the season that hurts us.
So whilst disappointed no CL, he admitted that any European qualification looked unlikely mid season.
Whilst disappointed, I think we have to view the season as a whole and Emery accepted that qualifying for the Europa League is still an achievement.
That was gracious of him considering today’s shower was of his making?
He got it wrong, same old same old against the worst MU side in living memory and there for the taking.
Hmm, Anyone feel that if we just have to accept that because a ref blew his whistle to early and cost us a perfectly legal goal and potentially tens of millions if not hundreds of millions with champions league in the line. Why should the league not be a little more easy in the ffp? If they are going to out so much in June for the sake of goal difference, or in our case possibly a shit call from the ref, maybe the league need to take a long hard look at how they punish teams for their financial status.
Take them to court for compensation. Teach the bent f****** a lesson. The stakes are so incredibly high. People and businesses go to court for a lot less.
The poor performance is totally irrelevant. We needed a draw. But for having our pants pulled down we would have got it. Sue them. Simples.
And we all can’t forget what ever the hell martinez did was just nuts!
Perhaps we need to learn a lesson from that situation because I remember Martinez being left in a similar one against psg which he just about made. For me, the instruction is if you can’t get there in time, you are keeping the player wide until you have cover. Somebody will have to run to our goal whilst that happens
Guys, I didn’t see it, but from what I can gather from your comments we’ve been royally butt-f***** by the officials. Someone mentioned a court case. Why not? I wonder how many family members of the officials were told to bet on Chelsea qualifying for Champions League? I glanced at the TV when it was showing a replay of the Martinez incident. If I’m not mistaken, was there not at least one Villa defender covering behind him?
BFR, we can’t really argue about the sending off. Cash doing is usual and turning back towards goal before hitting a weak pass which i think was with his weak left foot. Torres was ambling back towards goal but he wouldn’t have stopped a goal bound shot. Maybe someone like Mings would have done so. Ironically, Maatsen did the same with a weak header in the second half but we got away with it.
Villa have put in an official complaint to the premier league FWIW. Expect an apology and a sympathy card. Meanwhile the free spending Chelsea who can open an even bigger cheque book for next season and the mighty Spurs will be able to sign better players due to CL qualification.
I can’t help but feel Sky’s super 6 lovelies are always going to get back to the top thanks to PSR / FFP.
Apparently Villa have launched an official complaint and reading all the headlines and with Mike Dean and Keith Hackett being very critical I think maybe Mr Thomas Bramall has maybe Referred his last PL match?
This season we demonstrated that at times we could compete and beat the best. However, we also demonstrated inconsistency and ultimately that is what has cost us. Why can we compete and beat the best, simply really, we have Emery. So why have we been inconsistent.
– Injuries: There were times during the year when we struggled in certain positions as key players were missing.
It then meant playing players out of position or playing lesser players.
– Mental toughness: Certain players just lack that cutting edge. When things are going well they look like world beaters and when not, they go missing. We all have players we think fit this criteria. For what it’s worth the players I feel lacking in this department are: Cash, Torres, Bailey and Watkins. That’s the FA Cup and today the team bottled it.
– Tactics: 9/10 Emery gets it spot on. Occasionally, such as Crystal Palace away the team is not set up right. We all have questions on team selection. Mine are why is Roger’s moved over to the right handier, when he’s so much better on the left. Why is Ascensio picked to start in away matches, when he does not deliver (he’s great at home).
The reason it hurts so much is that we are so close to being an established top team. And now PSR will have an impact. And in Emery we trust. If anyone can find a jem, it’s him!
A 6th finish, FA Cup semi final & Champions League quarter final has to be considered our best season in many years. Next season we go again.
And my final thought to undermine my reasonableness. I really hope we sue the PGML for negligence and resulting lost revenue.
Sid, you forgot the one major reason why: competing in the Champions League – that’s where the inconsistency came into play. Lack of mental toughness = fatigue. All compounded by a horrendous injury list, particularly in defence, for half the season.
Nevertheless, but for 30 seconds at the Etihad, we would have made it.
Sadly, it’s another ‘what if’ season – similar to 92-93, that will be analysed for decades to come.
Spot on with suing the PGML.
Just back from work and seen morgs goal for the first time ref has done us big time and he was fuckin quick to blow his fucking whistle cheating prick I’m fucking gutted I think ffp was brought in to protect the top 6 and var was brought in for the same reason
Although we were under the cosh, we were actually defending well with 10 men to the point you forgot we were a player down.
If that goal would have stood, it’s unlikely that Utd would have gone on and immediately scored. It totally disrupted what little flow we had.
That mistake has cost us £100m. Everyone in the media is scathing about it.
Disappointingly, it looks like I need to re-emphasise one of the site’s very few rules;
“Anyone posting with an agressive or threatening attitude to another poster will be barred.”
Sadly, I’ve had to act on this rule today and the decision won’t be up for discussion.
Thanks chaps.
What’s happened? What did I miss??
My bigger gripe was about the penalty. PGMOL should concern itself with player cheating. It is bound to happen and increases so long as players get away with it – look at the all-in wrestling at corners for example. But three seasons ago we had Walton saying Salah, who stepped sideways and braked in front of Mings, was cheating to gain a penalty and refs should routinely deny the perp, so the practice would stop.
Yesterday we saw exactly the same trick pulled on Maatsen to rig a penalty. You may step sideways to shield the ball but only if both your feet are still within playing distance – 1 yard – from the ball. Otherwise the law concerning obstruction applies at the cost of an indirect free-kick.
These are the utterly patronising words of that boring, no personality twat that is Alan Shearer
“I think he got it awfully wrong – for Newcastle’s benefit as they sneak into fifth position because of that,” he said on BBC Radio 5 Live.
“I imagine Unai Emery and Villa are raging. I understand what they [the laws] are, but even with Newcastle benefitting you have to feel for Aston Villa.
“That’s not a decision that you want to go against you – particularly with what’s at stake.”
He more or less repeated the fake sentiment on Match of the Day where he was totally smug about his beloved Geordies claiming a CL spot and winning a Cup. Who is he kidding ? He absolutely detests Villa. In the words of Lloyd Grossman on ‘Through the Keyhole’….”Let’s Look at the Evidence”
As a player, Uriah Rennie sent him off, for persistent fouling, against Villa, including two elbow incidents, in an opening day defeat to us in 1999.
Next, he was their Captain in the game where Lee Bowyer and Kieran Dyer were both sent off in 2005, against Villa when we were undeservedly given many generous decisions by Referee Barry Knight.
And of course, we can’t forget the final game of the 2008-09 season at Villa Park when Damian Duff’s own goal relegated them. Shearer was interim manager on that day. His face, on the pitch was a sight to behold. So, there you have it. You can bet he was laughing his knackers off yesterday and only gave lip service on TV. Incidentally, does anyone recall an absent Shearer on MOTD recently when we pissed all over them ? Funny thig that, isn’t it ?
Didn’t he also almost smash Ugo’s eye out of its socket at St James’s? And didn’t he also ‘cutely’ pull Bosnich in the box at VP when he was about to kick downfield, resulting in the keeper losing his balance and Newcastle scoring?
https://www.independent.co.uk/sport/shearer-admits-to-tug-on-bosnich-1282923.html
https://www.irishtimes.com/sport/ehiogu-s-eye-1.180112
Call me Columbo. 🙂
Oh, and not forgetting booting Neil Lennon clean in the head like a football. Which also went unpunished.
https://sports.yahoo.com/article/aston-villa-furious-howard-webb-211426009.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAAKjgG2u37xxpRNqPtkD0CiCUpXwH0rf0sbBtJAhxAuMTiHX-umKsj5Ob55qU_U8z1cmZlLCx_L8puwq4fYgrf_kJWJTftZOHD694TdsngUgKSWtzS13rPqwK_naxA32hK2pPI_HjpNXsSeE4EAATkqgOySw_dVFWhw0_C23cNT3v
Top quote from an excellent article:
“Claims that the team have only themselves to blame, that they performed poorly against United and missed a plethora of chances, miss the point. In that one incident, Rogers rounded Bayindir for a goal that ought to have stood. And it would have stood, as Villa captain John McGinn pointed out, in a sport such as rugby union, where the TMO directs the referee’s attention to iron out any obvious mistakes. A quirk of the system in football, regrettably, ensured that as soon as Bramall’s whistle sounded, and even with Bayindir all at sea, any recourse to VAR was blocked.”
With 100 million at stake, and VAR actually IN PLACE and able to intervene, the most bizarre rule in history is beyond anyone’s comprehension. Even the likes of Daffy Duck and the Mad Hatter would be saying ‘WTF’?
Just a quick note on Emi’s sending off. Hojlund got to the ball but knocked it away from goal so, it wasn’t a goalscoring opportunity at that point. Not only that, there were defenders sprinting back to cover, once Hojlund had got to the ball and head towards goal.
Rewind to the League Cup Final in 2010 when Gabby, closing in on goal, was brought down by Vidic. We got and scored a penalty but Vidic remained on the pitch and never even received a yellow card, although the law states that a straight red should have been awarded.As history shows, Vidic was eventually booked on 68 minutes, which should have at least been his second yellow card , leading to United possibly limiting their attacking options by taking a forward player off to cover for the absence of Vidic. Instead, six minutes later, Rooney scores their winner.
Sir Alex said afterwards that Vidic should have gone but, when you win the game and it doesn’t change anything, you are bound to say that. I bet if Vidic had been sent off and Villa won, he would have been fuming and disagreed with the Red Card.
Much the same as that patronising Shearer. Full of ‘sympathy’ at the disallowed Villa goal by Rogers, only because Newcastle qualified for the Champions League. Had the goal stood and Villa qualified, I’m pretty sure he would have the opposite view and be moaning like F**k.
In other words, we always get shafted when it really matters.
“Would you like corruption with your bias, Sir?”
Badger
Thank you again for running the site another year. It allows us a place to chew the cud on all things Villa. I really appreciate it.
Sidforever
Cheers, Sid.