I am actually back home now, but not for long. I’m off to a training course tomorrow in Middlesboro, of all places. So I doubt if I’ll be able to see much of the game, as I’ll no doubt be stuck in tons of traffic.
Whatever, I’m hotfooting it back to Spain on Saturday to get away from this weather and back to my original holiday plan.
I heard a statistic on Sky sports news earlier and it shocked me.
We have only won one FA cup third round game in the last eight. That is frankly disgraceful for a team that has been mostly in the Premier league. But yet, so typical of Aston Villa.
Just like we’re going to be up against a new manager bounce after West Ham sacked Lopetegui and appointed Harry, oops, sorry, Graham Potter today. It’s a hard life for managers sometimes, isn’t it? Potter walked away with a rumoured £10 million or more payoff, had a nice 20 month break and then walks into the West Ham job, where I have a feeling he might do a decent job for them. Hopefully that turnaround won’t come too quickly though.
And to cap it all, it looks like we might have to face a new manager bounce when we face Everton too.
Anyway, can we change that shocking third round record? And does Unai actually care about the FA cup?
The main news for us is that John McGinn definitely won’t be available. Pau is out for weeks, but those two apart, we seem to be all good.
I’ve searched for West ham team news, but everywhere is dominated by Potter’s appointment and I don’t really care much anyway. I do know they have a couple of top players out, but that’s it.
Emery made out that he wants to win the game and I wouldn’t expect him to say anything otherwise. He also points out that winning the cup is a route to the Europa cup, which worried me slightly. Is that an admission that we won’t qualify for the Champion’s league? I prefer to think not and he just vies that as a worst case back up.
He also talks about how we’re trying to build a team and that sort of comment makes me think he might want to give some players a rest and some young players a game. I can see Maatsen coming in, but we don’t have a lot of room for many changes, I’d have thought.
Certainly Philogene won’t feature as his £20 mill plus signing by Ipswich will probably go through tomorrow. Does Kosta Nedeljković replace Cash at right back? Maybe, but apart from giving the lad game time, I can’t see why. Cash, as much as I don’t rate him, has hardly burnt himself out this season, I wouldn’t have thought. Duran is still suspended, so “Whack it wide” Watkins (thanks, whoever posted that one) is assured a start. McGinn being out leaves few options in the middle and the hope would be that quite a few of our players play themselves into some sort of form, which isn’t an ideal way of looking at games.
Thoughts then and the biggest plus for us is that West ham leak practically two goals a game and I don’t see Potter changing that by tomorrow night.
The problem is that we’re not taking our chances and our defence is nearly as abysmal as West Ham’s.
Will Potter change much at all? It’s difficult to see after just one day, so this is basically going to be all about the new manager bounce. And after what I’ve just read about Lopetegui and his relationship with the West Ham squad, their players are going to be at least in a more positive mood and will be all out to impress the new manager.
Which means things might prove probematic for us.
Everything about this game is a total guess for a fan, but surely we’re due an FA cup win, aren’t we?
Add in our home advantage and I’m going for a 2-1 win and a happy 150th Anniversary.
Heh, I remember the 100th Anniversary like it was yesterday. And that makes me feel really old 🙁
2-1 it is then and UTV!
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150 responses to “Villa – West Ham; FA Cup third round and 150th anniversary.”
I quote “Kasimpala’s manager has all but confirmed to Turkish media that Yasin Ozcan will be moving to Villa with a loan back to the Turkish side until the summer”
Reported as a small fee but with bonuses could reach around £8m. 18 year old CB with a growing reputation. Rumoured to have undertaken a medical in Birmingham yesterday. Good business if true.
Just going back to the Philogene transfer – Villa have made at least £28m in profit on the deal in less than 12months. Sold to Hull for £22m and bought back for £13.5m (triggered right to buy back plus the original transfer had a 30% sell on clause) and sold again for another £21+m. This is what Nawiris was referring to in that the EPL’s PSR rules mean football clubs are forced to play around with academy players to maximise profit.
Emery said he believed in him but I suspect the buy back was with a view to selling him again.
Massive opportunity tonight to kick-start the CL qualification push. It is doable, looking at the table and points. But we need to put 3-4 wins together.
I think Moyes will park the bus tonight, so our slow, play out from the back tactics will play into their hands. It’s time for some ‘rock ‘n’ roll’ football, but will it come?
I doubt it…