Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Match Threads & Player Ratings => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on February 03, 2026, 12:32:15 PM
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Sat 7th, 3pm KO
1-3
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Will go for 2-0 to Bournemouth and be optimistic and say we only pick up one lengthy injury.
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Back on our feet 2–0 UTV
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Defeat.
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Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, Onana, Luiz, Bailey, Rogers, Barkley, Watkins.
Haven't been that impressed with Torres lately. Granted Mings was appalling v Salzburg but this pitch always seems to be play tight so will suit him. Harsh to drop Buendia but think we need proven impact off the bench. Will only be 60mins or so in Barkley anyway at 10, can swap in Buendia then. If all are fit above our options are strong.
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More open game should suit us. High scoring game we can’t really afford to lose. Even a draw and the gap to 4th place could be 2 points which feels much less comfy. Checking the take, still a healthy gap to 6th though .
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I’d start Abraham.
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Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, Onana, Luiz, Bailey, Rogers, Barkley, Watkins.
Haven't been that impressed with Torres lately. Granted Mings was appalling v Salzburg but this pitch always seems to be play tight so will suit him. Harsh to drop Buendia but think we need proven impact off the bench. Will only be 60mins or so in Barkley anyway at 10, can swap in Buendia then. If all are fit above our options are strong.
Mings wasn’t appalling v Salzburg. A bit of complacency for their 1st was the only thing that he did wrong.
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Time to get our title challenge back on track. 2-1 to the Villa Boys, and an enjoyable cycle home for dorsetvillan.
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Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, Onana, Luiz, Bailey, Rogers, Barkley, Watkins.
Haven't been that impressed with Torres lately. Granted Mings was appalling v Salzburg but this pitch always seems to be play tight so will suit him. Harsh to drop Buendia but think we need proven impact off the bench. Will only be 60mins or so in Barkley anyway at 10, can swap in Buendia then. If all are fit above our options are strong.
Mings wasn’t appalling v Salzburg. A bit of complacency for their 1st was the only thing that he did wrong.
He was poor for their second goal and played their forward offside for what could have been 0-3. Not his best day
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I thought Mings was immense for the Fernabache game and then poor for the first half against Salzburg. But he’s not Emery’s no 1 choice and Torres hasn’t really done anything to deserve to be benched.
Martinez
Cash
Konsa
Torres
Maatsen
Onana
Bogarde
Luiz
Watkins
Rogers
Bailey
2-1 us (Watkins, Rogers)
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Could do with a win.
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It's always a battle down there, would be very impressed if we manage to win.
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Still very much the injured party whatever the fit starting line up is, be delighted with the draw, Bournemouth always seem to raise there game v the good sides, probably have to chalk this one up as another lost game.
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0-4
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They have a good home record to be fair, something like W6 D3 L2 in the league with losses coming fairly recently against Arsenal and Everton.
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I think it’ll be tough, but they’re prolific going forward and quite leaky at the back. That will present opportunities for us, but we need to be sharp. Ideally we’d have Ollie back starting and Tammy as an option from the bench.
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He will play Ollie on the left and Tammy in the middle.
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That would be a terrible idea
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Ollie isn’t good on the left. He’s our best striker - Tammy is a good back-up/option to change things tactically when the situation dictates.
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We’ve now reached the point in the season where tactical accas come into play. Last week every result went against us (if you are looking over your shoulder). That is a lucrative source of winnings. Same will happen this week. Get your cash on.
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We’ve now reached the point in the season where tactical accas come into play. Last week every result went against us (if you are looking over your shoulder). That is a lucrative source of winnings. Same will happen this week. Get your cash on.
This is good advice. Well, it isn't, it's terrible advice, but it's what I'll be doing.
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Martinez, Cash, Konsa, Mings, Maatsen, Onana, Luiz, Bailey, Rogers, Barkley, Watkins.
Haven't been that impressed with Torres lately. Granted Mings was appalling v Salzburg but this pitch always seems to be play tight so will suit him. Harsh to drop Buendia but think we need proven impact off the bench. Will only be 60mins or so in Barkley anyway at 10, can swap in Buendia then. If all are fit above our options are strong.
Mings wasn’t appalling v Salzburg. A bit of complacency for their 1st was the only thing that he did wrong.
I don't know. He was complacent for alot of 60 mins before we started to come back. Most thought his gift for the first had been telegraphed with his casual play for most of that half. He could have done a hell of a lot better for the second as well and was the one too deep playing the player on for the shot that could easily have been 3-0. So i don't think it was one thing. The hope is he has gotten that out of his system because the Fenerbache match showed how good he can be as well.
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Think we'll come away with the win given they'll come at us and there'll be a lot more space to exploit.
Onana has to start though. Love Bogarde, but this will be a game that we'll have to control down the middle.
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we will bounce back with another win. Probably. Or more likely another goal disallowed because we tripped one of their players by accident coming out to start the game. Or the ball was out of play for goal kick 10 minutes prior to the goal, restarted correctly, they had the ball, we won it back and scored. Something like that.
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A few forward passes might help us!!
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I think well win this one, so long as they dont decide that Peter McParland charge on Ray Wood was a foul.
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I think well win this one, so long as they dont decide that Peter McParland charge on Ray Wood was a foul.
:D ;D :D
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You do wonder how many other weird and wonderful ways can be found to stop Villa winning matches from those, either a ref, a lino or VAR. It's no comfort a week later to see those in charge got it wrong once again...
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You do wonder how many other weird and wonderful ways can be found to stop Villa winning matches from those, either a ref, a lino or VAR. It's no comfort a week later to see those in charge got it wrong once again...
I ask this. If we are playing the Europa League final and we concede a last minute goal that denies us and the ball had gone out of play in the build up what would you say? You don’t need to answer. We all know that we would never ever stop complaining about it.
I’d ditch VAR tomorrow (it has ruined the spectacle of football) but it was entirely correct on this occasion.
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You do wonder how many other weird and wonderful ways can be found to stop Villa winning matches from those, either a ref, a lino or VAR. It's no comfort a week later to see those in charge got it wrong once again...
I ask this. If we are playing the Europa League final and we concede a last minute goal that denies us and the ball had gone out of play in the build up what would you say? You don’t need to answer. We all know that we would never ever stop complaining about it.
I’d ditch VAR tomorrow (it has ruined the spectacle of football) but it was entirely correct on this occasion.
I don't think I've seen anyone saying the decision was incorrect, factually speaking. I think everyone's (or at least most people's) complaint is that the information VAR had available to it didn't ALLOW them to be 100% certain. There was no definitive camera angle showing the ball 100% over the line. Could they say it was probably out? Yes, of course. At the time on TV, in real time, I thought it had gone out. But it wasn't given, so I waited for VAR to show a definitive angle proving it was out, and they didn't show that.
Over the line, or not, isn't like a foul - it's not a subjective decision for the ref to make, or not, it's factual. With offsides, we get lines drawn, with the goal line, we get goal-line technology, so for another definitive yes/no decision, I expect better evidence than a "it was probably out" shot.
Had the goal been given, and two days later that fan video gets released showing the ball was definitely out, there would be uproar about us getting away with one, and a discussion about the role of VAR in balls crossing the line, or not - which is how it should be. But there is no discussion, because they got it right, despite it being impossible to be 100% certain it was out. For a factual decision, being 99% certain isn't enough.
Getting to the RIGHT decision, in the WRONG way, will only lead to further bad decisions.
(and of course, this completely ignores the phase of play argument and the fact that Bailey was defending when the ball went out, not attacking)
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You do wonder how many other weird and wonderful ways can be found to stop Villa winning matches from those, either a ref, a lino or VAR. It's no comfort a week later to see those in charge got it wrong once again...
I ask this. If we are playing the Europa League final and we concede a last minute goal that denies us and the ball had gone out of play in the build up what would you say? You don’t need to answer. We all know that we would never ever stop complaining about it.
I’d ditch VAR tomorrow (it has ruined the spectacle of football) but it was entirely correct on this occasion.
That really depends, did the ref see the ball on the line and wave paly on and was it by the oppositions corner flag?
Sure there'd be complaints, of course there would but trying to play the "don't be a hypocrite" card is a bit cheap and, as many have said, the argument is that 19 seconds is a fucking long time to go back and 4 1/2 minutes is a really fucking long time to decide that something is a 'clear and obvious' error where they're then so sure of their opinion that they didn't need the ref to review it.
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If all the poor VAR and Ref decisions balance themselves out over a season, then we are due a few in our favour over the remaining games. A penalty would be a good start...
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It was enitrely correct after visual evidence was produced way after the fact. In the time they had to review it during the game and even then they took ages, they couldn't prove it went out categorically. I mean, how much time do we need to give them? And if we are finding every minute infraction then VAR needs to have 100's of cameras all over the ground to find faults in the build up to a goal. Certainly then cameras following every player. There needs to be a reasonable maximum time for reviews and it won't be perfect but it will address clear and obvious errors because in 30-45 seconds we can all determine that.
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2-0 defeat I would bet on if I had to for this game.
The season feels quite "fizzly outey" at the moment with the injuries to the key midfielders.
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It was enitrely correct after visual evidence was produced way after the fact. In the time they had to review it during the game and even then they took ages, they couldn't prove it went out categorically. I mean, how much time do we need to give them? And if we are finding every minute infraction then VAR needs to have 100's of cameras all over the ground to find faults in the build up to a goal. Certainly then cameras following every player. There needs to be a reasonable maximum time for reviews and it won't be perfect but it will address clear and obvious errors because in 30-45 seconds we can all determine that.
They will just make bad decisions quicker.
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It was enitrely correct after visual evidence was produced way after the fact. In the time they had to review it during the game and even then they took ages, they couldn't prove it went out categorically. I mean, how much time do we need to give them? And if we are finding every minute infraction then VAR needs to have 100's of cameras all over the ground to find faults in the build up to a goal. Certainly then cameras following every player. There needs to be a reasonable maximum time for reviews and it won't be perfect but it will address clear and obvious errors because in 30-45 seconds we can all determine that.
They will just make bad decisions quicker.
It would just default to the on field decision quicker like it does in the NFL. So in this case in 30-45 seconds no way at all they could determine if the ball was completely out. So it's a goal.
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If there had been a break in play such as a throw in before the goal would they have still referred back to the out of play? I think not, I thought the camera's were to be used for off sides and goalmouth incidents not a line call deep in defence.
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It was enitrely correct after visual evidence was produced way after the fact. In the time they had to review it during the game and even then they took ages, they couldn't prove it went out categorically. I mean, how much time do we need to give them? And if we are finding every minute infraction then VAR needs to have 100's of cameras all over the ground to find faults in the build up to a goal. Certainly then cameras following every player. There needs to be a reasonable maximum time for reviews and it won't be perfect but it will address clear and obvious errors because in 30-45 seconds we can all determine that.
They will just make bad decisions quicker.
It would just default to the on field decision quicker like it does in the NFL. So in this case in 30-45 seconds no way at all they could determine if the ball was completely out. So it's a goal.
The problem I have is that these idiots have preconceived ideas about the outcome.
I just don’t trust them. I think there is more integrity with NFL officiating.
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You do wonder how many other weird and wonderful ways can be found to stop Villa winning matches from those, either a ref, a lino or VAR. It's no comfort a week later to see those in charge got it wrong once again...
I ask this. If we are playing the Europa League final and we concede a last minute goal that denies us and the ball had gone out of play in the build up what would you say? You don’t need to answer. We all know that we would never ever stop complaining about it.
I’d ditch VAR tomorrow (it has ruined the spectacle of football) but it was entirely correct on this occasion.
I don't think I've seen anyone saying the decision was incorrect, factually speaking. I think everyone's (or at least most people's) complaint is that the information VAR had available to it didn't ALLOW them to be 100% certain. There was no definitive camera angle showing the ball 100% over the line. Could they say it was probably out? Yes, of course. At the time on TV, in real time, I thought it had gone out. But it wasn't given, so I waited for VAR to show a definitive angle proving it was out, and they didn't show that.
Over the line, or not, isn't like a foul - it's not a subjective decision for the ref to make, or not, it's factual. With offsides, we get lines drawn, with the goal line, we get goal-line technology, so for another definitive yes/no decision, I expect better evidence than a "it was probably out" shot.
Had the goal been given, and two days later that fan video gets released showing the ball was definitely out, there would be uproar about us getting away with one, and a discussion about the role of VAR in balls crossing the line, or not - which is how it should be. But there is no discussion, because they got it right, despite it being impossible to be 100% certain it was out. For a factual decision, being 99% certain isn't enough.
Getting to the RIGHT decision, in the WRONG way, will only lead to further bad decisions.
(and of course, this completely ignores the phase of play argument and the fact that Bailey was defending when the ball went out, not attacking)
This is in part correct, so the decision was based on APP that is the attacking phase of play, so bailey had the ball he was running to his own touch line or base line so in a million years can not be attacking, it could also not be deemed defensive phase of play because we was in possession, plus the decision was based on an attacking decision, it could also not be deemed as a counter attacking decision because again Bailey was going back in defence not countering anything, then you take into account the time passes so it wasn't even the same phase of play, it was a goal, I would also add to that Chico Henry fouled Bailey dragging him to the ground you can see he does it, its clear as daylight, pulling bailey down caught him off balance leading to the ball going out.
Verdict, their is no way in a million years that ref either seen the incident, (ball going out) was up with play to see the incident or able to see the ball go out, he instantly made the correct decision by instinct, that is to let play flow, Villa scored and then we got robbed.
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From Jacob Tanswell
Amadou Onana, Alysson and Ollie Watkins trained on Thursday ahead of #AVFC's trip to Bournemouth. Alysson's return had been scheduled this week, with the timeline duly followed - meanwhile Onana and Watkins hope to be fit for Saturday.
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Let’s bloody hope so.
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Some positive injury news from The Athletic
ASTON VILLA’S OLLIE WATKINS AND AMADOU ONANA EXPECTED TO BE AVAILABLE FOR BOURNEMOUTH GAME
Amadou Onana and Ollie Watkins trained on Thursday ahead of Aston Villa’s trip to Bournemouth on Saturday.
The pair featured in Unai Emery’s session, having missed Villa’s 1-0 home defeat to Brentford the previous week.
Watkins sustained a hamstring issue in the first half of the Europa League tie against RB Salzburg a week ago. Villa decided against taking the risk of the England international playing against Brentford, with Tammy Abraham starting up front and making his second debut for the club.
Onana, meanwhile, was a curious absence and remained on the bench for the duration of the defeat. With key injuries to Boubacar Kamara, Youri Tielemans and John McGinn, Onana’s importance has grown.
Emery said after that the Belgium international had suffered “muscle tiredness” which restricted his involvement. Onana has struggled with fitness since arriving for a club record £50million fee from Everton in 2024, but had been in excellent form before missing against Brentford.
Villa will train again on Friday before travelling to Bournemouth, with the expectation of both Watkins and Onana being available. January signing, Alysson, also returned to training this week and aims to be in contention for the match.
Watkins endured a slow start to the season, but has scored eight goals in 23 Premier League games this season. Onana has dealt with hamstring issues of his own but has appeared 21 times in all competitions for Villa.
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Onana had ‘muscle tiredness’? Isn’t that an occupational hazard for all pro athletes? Despite all of his obvious talents, he does seem to be very susceptible to missing lots of games.
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All his problems seem to be hamstring related so it's almost certainly something related to that. We do need to work with him to find an underlying cause though and do what we can to resolve it because it's happening far too often right now.
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Martinez
Cash
Konsa
Torres
Dinged
Onana
Dougie
Sancho
Emi
Rogers
Watkins
Bench:
Marco. Bizot.
Maatsen
Mings
Lindelof
Bogarde
The lesser spotted Barkley
Bailey
Alyson
Tammy
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Ads's team is probably what I'd go for too, except maybe with Abraham starting ahead of Watkins. Isn't Barkley fit? If so, I'd have him on the bench instead of Hemmings
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Ads's team is probably what I'd go for too, except maybe with Abraham starting ahead of Watkins. Isn't Barkley fit? If so, I'd have him on the bench instead of Hemmings
I knew I'd forgotten somebody. I'll update.
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Ads's team is probably what I'd go for too, except maybe with Abraham starting ahead of Watkins. Isn't Barkley fit? If so, I'd have him on the bench instead of Hemmings
I think I'd prefer Maatsen in there rather than Sancho.
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Emery in his presser saying Watkins and Onana fit for tomorrow. Alysson not ready just yet, though is training with first team.
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Relief about Onana and Ollie.
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Does anyone know of decent pubs near-ish to the ground that allow/welcome away supporters? Going to the game with my (adult) son. UTV
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We have got to get our goal scoring boots back on the league.
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Big game, 3 points are crucial as far as I'm concerned. 3 points from 3 has left us looking wobbly in front of the chasing pack. Statement win please lads, 1-4...Rogers, Tammy, and a late brace from Watkins as a 75 minute sub. Job done.
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Da boiz about to land at Bournemouth International 8)
(https://i.ibb.co/V14bxKh/Screenshot-20260207-013317-Chrome.jpg) (https://ibb.co/V14bxKh)
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Hope you enjoy - we could really do with a win
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I have a sneaky feeling Elliot will feature and really step up today.
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(https://i.ibb.co/rR55LKH7/IMG-0782.jpg) (https://ibb.co/rR55LKH7)
What’s with the helmets on the players (official social media pic)?
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I assume it's because it's the Super Bowl this weekend and some kid in the marketing department has wrongly assumed that the average Villa supporter gives a toss and thought they'd make a nod to it.
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(https://i.ibb.co/rR55LKH7/IMG-0782.jpg) (https://ibb.co/rR55LKH7)
What’s with the helmets on the players (official social media pic)?
Something to do with making their suits more aerodynamic.
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Da boiz about to land at Bournemouth International 8)
(https://i.ibb.co/V14bxKh/Screenshot-20260207-013317-Chrome.jpg) (https://ibb.co/V14bxKh)
Looks like Leon's missus when off for a slash.
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(https://i.ibb.co/rR55LKH7/IMG-0782.jpg) (https://ibb.co/rR55LKH7)
What’s with the helmets on the players (official social media pic)?
New protective kit. We can't risk any more injuries.
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Good plan. Gonna be upset later when Onana goes off injured with a broken helmet.
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Broken neck. The helmet will be too heavy for him.
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Good plan. Gonna be upset later when Onana goes off injured with a broken helmet.
From a Duran-style stamp you mean?
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Good plan. Gonna be upset later when Onana goes off injured with a broken helmet.
From a Duran-style stamp you mean?
Mings has form. I keep telling them it was an accident - both times.
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Da boiz about to land at Bournemouth International 8)
(https://i.ibb.co/V14bxKh/Screenshot-20260207-013317-Chrome.jpg) (https://ibb.co/V14bxKh)
Looks like Leon's missus when off for a slash.
Shudder!
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All the lads. I bet they've been engaging in some epic bantz.
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Torres hasn’t really done anything to deserve to be benched.
2-1 us (Watkins, Rogers)
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He hasn't really been "benched" in the old sense. We are now having to manage so many games that apart from a some positions it is all about rotation to keep energy high for all of them.