I said in the preview that I thought Everton would struggle this season and I think on that display, I look to be totally correct. Not that it’s any surprise, as they’ve looked increasingly poorer over the last few seasons.
But they offered absolutely nothing today. What must surely be annoying Sean Dyche is that they looked so toothless and massively lacked physicality in exactly the same way as we did against Newcastle last week. Except it was worse.
I seriously think Dyche has bitten off more than he can chew this time.
Does that mean Villa weren’t very good?
Well, no, I wouldn’t quite say that, although we didn’t need to be good if I’m being honest.
What concerned me slightly is that I thought Villa actually stepped down a couple of gears and eased off the throttle, which surely won’t be to Emery’s liking, as we all know he plays to win at a flat out pace. That said, it’s difficult to blame players thinking they have a game wrapped up, even as early as it looked. I don’t think it made much of a spectacle for us fans though and most of the game looked like a training exercise.
There were a few things to talk about, one being our penalty, after Pickford was deemed to have fouled Watkins. I like to think I’m pretty neutral when it comes to penalty calls and offsides, and I honestly think there were grounds for Everton to complain that although Pickford definitely did clatter Watkins, it was after Watkins had made his attempt and hence had lost possession of the ball. Of course, it doesn’t give the goalie any right to clatter a player, but we all know these sorts of clashes happen and I don’t believe there was any intent.
I’m certainly not going to complain about any penalty given in our favour, but I think if the shoe was on the other foot, I wouldn’t have been very happy.
Luiz took the penalty and I was intrigued as to why it wasn’t Watkins? Then it seems that Watkins missed a couple in the pre-season, so it seems Luiz has now been tagged as our penalty taker. I’m really not sure what that says about Watkins, but surely any striker wouldn’t be very happy about that. I think it’s yet another indicator of how the striker couldn’t hit a cow’s proverbial with a banjo lately. I honestly hope he hits top form again, but the reality is he seems to miss more and more chances as time moves on.
Then there’s the injury to Coutinho, where he really didn’t look in good shape. Surely we’re not going to get another long term injury, are we? I certainly hope not and you have to expect that might have scuppered any transfer he and maybe the club were hoping for. Not good.
Man of the match was officially John McGinn, but I’d already given it to him at half time. Exactly the opposite to last week, he worked tirelessly and dominated the midfield.
And then there’s Jhon Duran, who was only on for about two minutes before he was gifted a chance from a terrible Ashley Young throw in. It’s definitely a funny old game, but it was nice to see the lad get his first goal for us.
All in all, a nice easy day’s work which leads us nicely into what should be another easy game at Hibs, who won’t even have the weather in their favour.
Here we go with the pretty much non stop games.
I can’t wait.
Oh, I reckon Archer should start tomorrow. He’ll tear them a new one, imo.
Archer to Sheffield United for £18m.
Looks like Archer is going to Sheff Utd for £18m with a buy back clause. As I mentioned the other day with A Ramsey going for £14m to Burnley and Philogene likely to go for £4m. Add in Davies to Hull, who we got in a free, this is at least £40m profit. This has a significant impact on our FFP status.
Moreover, it’s great to see Villa using the loan system to confirm a player was ability Ramsey and Archer. Previously players would rot in U21 and fail to progress. Or if they were able there was a first team player blocking the way. Selling players with buy back clauses is clever business.
Will the likes of J Ramsey break through into the team and learn on the job again? I doubt it. It has taken him 2 seasons to become a quality Premier player. With the demands and expectations Emery places on the team there is very little room for passengers. Therefore, the loan to buy back route will become the norm.
However, after saying all that I thinks there are two players who will go down the loan route and then into the first team, namely Feeney and Wilson, but that’s 3 seasons time.
What an exciting time to be a Villa fan.
There is one caveat to mention about buy-back clauses. It is not triggered by the selling club. If the club who buys the player does not put that player up for sale the original seller cannot exercise the right to buy the player back.
OLL – doesn’t it depend on how the buy back clause is worded?
Emery is on record as saying we want these players to get experience but retain control (of them) – that sounds like Villa can excersize their right to acquire the player back within specified time frames.
Add to that it’s been reported that Aaron Ramsey has signed a contract with Villa which will be triggered by Villa exercising their buy back option.
OLL I’d be surprised and disappointed if that was the case. I recall Villa fans being very nervous about losing Luiz after one season as City had the right to buy him back. Thankfully, they didn’t. But I imagine Villa would put in place similar measures. I’m not sure if 12 months is enough though. I’d like to think the club could buy these guys back after 2 or even 3 seasons. On a personal note, I’ll be very disappointed to see Archer depart. He hasn’t had ‘a fair crack of the whip’ to quote Big Ron.
My expertise isn’t in football contracts, but I am an Arbitrator of English contract law. If the vendor sells goods at an agreed price and is paid in full the goods become the property of the buyer. The vendor cannot enforce a buyback at all, even at a price to be agreed or put to a 3rd party failing agreement.
If you sell with deferred payment of the full or partial price, then the goods remain the vendor’s property while a balance of the payment remains unpaid. Say we sold a player for 18m headline fee but accepted 12m cash and the balance of 6m to be paid in 3 years time. The player remains Villa’s property for those 3 years. the buyer cannot sell the player on, only back to Villa. But the difficulty comes if the buyer pays or wants to pay the 6m after two years and take full control of the player. I do not see how that could be prevented.
Terms giving Villa a right to repurchase are a gentleman’s agreement. Unenforceable – like a wager.
OLL – I bow to your greater knowledge in these matters but would put forward the following argument.
The buy back arrangement is, effectively, a reverse release clause arrangement which is probably unique in football sale and purchase contracts.
So inserted in the S&P Agreement is a series of buy back prices, say, after one year, two years etc. effective in each following summer transfer window.
So hypothetically Villa insert a buy back price of £20m for the 2024 transfer window – this effectively becomes a release clause and, if offered, Burnley are obliged to sell as they have already agreed an acceptable price within the S&P contract – so the contract terms can be shown as being fair and equitable.
Of course the player could say no but Villa have got around this by already agreeing a contract with Ramsey triggered by the aforesaid offer of the release price.
I did work a lot with contracts although only in a pseudo legal capacity and see no difficulties with the above arrangement.
Interested in your views.
I should add that payment terms are not, imho, relevant as they apply to every single transfer and, in the event of a team selling a player before having fully paid for them – which must happen, then they are obliged to settle any outstanding sums as part of the sale.
Players become ‘owned’ by the buying club once a sale has been agreed and the player registered with the relevant regulatory authority.
Daily Record (how to watch the match on BBC iPlayer)
Is there a live stream?
Yes, it will also be shown on BBC iPlayer. For fans down south keen to watch, they can log on and enjoy on the website without having to change their location to ‘Scotland’ in settings and access the channel that way.
Yes, although you can change location if there’s a problem, I watched Hibs v Luzern on the BBC iPlayer with no problems. Just select the sports category and scroll along. It should be under the ‘Sportscene’ brand name.
Yes 1874, simply change your postcode for somewhere in Scotland – weatherpersons in Arbroath should do the trick 😁
Apparently we’ve signed Muslim Athlete Charter. Has anyone heard of him?
You do realise the game is on the normal freeview BBC Scotland channel starting at 5.25.
Hibernian: Marshall, Miller, Fish, Hanlon, Stevenson, Newell, Campbell, Boyle, Obita, Youan, Vente
Substitutes: Boruc, Doyle-Hayes, Jeggo, Le Fondre, Doidge, Harbottle, Delferriere, Rocky, Molotnikov, McAllister, Megwa, MacIntyre
Aston Villa: Martinez, Konsa, Carlos, Torres, Digne, Kamara, Luiz, Bailey, Diaby, McGinn, Watkins
Substitutes: Olsen, Marschall, Cash, Tielemans, Traore, Chambers, Duran, Revan, Feeney
We are taking this seriously
No banana skins here, done and dusted.
0 – 4 give the reserves a go 🙂
5-0. Professional job. No injuries. Respect shown.
Great night in Edinburgh. But yr right what u say about Burnley. They beat ManU in a behind doors game last night. A different prospect entirely.