Heroes & Villains, the Aston Villa fanzine
Heroes & Villains => Heroes Discussion => Topic started by: PeterWithesShin on March 15, 2026, 03:56:21 PM
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Bag of shit thrown into a river of shit.
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What's the point of Roger's?
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99% of us could have written the script for that game and got it exact.
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What's the point of Roger's?
Can't carry the entire attack on his own all season?
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Fuck off football. You ******.
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Predictable. Shit or bust on Thursday now. Watkins done now. Fuck ffp. Fuck manure and the scum 6. Hope spurs fucking drop
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Utter fucking shit as per usual. Not just against this lot but just in general the past month or two. So depressing.
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We’ve been crap since Emery started wearing that rubbish Adidas Terrex jacket. He needs to bring his smart Hugo Boss number back.
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He's worked miracles with this squad. A few of them peaked a while back, some probably never that good, the usual lot.
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
We only conceded 3, no injuries.
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What's the point of Roger's?
Unai knows way more about football than I will ever know, but I wonder how many more times he has to watch Morgan play off the right, to know he can't play off the right?
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Finding a way to lose at Old Trafford has been the story of my life. And I'm starting my seventh decade. I just can't help but feel that once again we've hit a glass ceiling and the next period of decline is starting.
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Amongst other things, I don't think Malen for Tammy + Leon was a good exchange in hindsight. We miss that directness and drive from Malen.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
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Completely timid. Just waited for them to beat us. Not a semblance of bravery from coach to the players. The bit at the end was hilariously bad.
Watkins was terrible again and Abraham being his replacement isn’t exactly exciting nowhere near good enough. Bailey, Buendia and Onana all really poor too.
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I don’t understand what the point of buying Abraham was unless you play to his strengths.
Severe lack of bottle in this team. Something I thought affected Arsenal not us.
I’d love it to turn but I really can’t see it
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We’ve been crap since Emery started wearing that rubbish Adidas Terrex jacket. He needs to bring his smart Hugo Boss number back.
If you gave him a thousand pounds he'd probably but 20 coats from Primark. We spend £50m on two strikers this season, one is on loan at Palace, the other spends most of his time on the bench. Why not just buy one decent one?
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I'd like to say that performance beggared belief but it didn't, that's just our modus operandi now
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Three things are certain in life. Death, taxes and losing up there. By the way three wins in twelve now.
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Completely timid. Just waited for them to beat us. Not a semblance of bravery from coach to the players. The bit at the end was hilariously bad.
Watkins was terrible again and Abraham being his replacement isn’t exactly exciting nowhere near good enough. Bailey, Buendia and Onana all really poor too.
We didn't wait for them to beat us, we actively assisted them, especially goals 2 and 3.
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We don’t look like we believe , i am struggling to see where the next point is coming from
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There is a serious lack of fight and belief in this team. That’s how it looks to me.
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We're going to need a huge rebuild.
Martinez
Bizot
Mings
Digne
Lindelof
Barkley
McGinn
Watkins
All the wrong side of 30.
And add in
Torres 29
Buendia 29
Not forgetting
Cash
Konsa
Tielemans
Bailey
Abraham
All 28
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Looks like Europa or bust to be honest,cant see us getting past 60 points.
Bailey, Watkins and Buendia aren't very good now and hopefully gone in summer, I don't care what they've done previously.
Emery won't be here next season and based on the last two months lack of nous, I can't say I care that much.
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Tammy is no replacement for Olly but sadly he is completely out of form so we have a couple of duds up front. Did their keeper have a save to make? No need to worry about Unai to Utd after that.
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Absolutely useless.
I can’t see anything changing either. Baffling decisions, shit players, shit team performance.
Shit shit shit to a letter.
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I don’t understand what the point of buying Abraham was unless you play to his strengths.
I think Unai was waiting until he'd drained every once of confidence out of Abraham before giving him a chance. Now he looks like Tammy Watkins.
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Clearly we’ll finish below Man Utd now, but both Liverpool and Chelsea aren’t exactly great shakes so its not over. If we can somehow get our shit together we’ve a whole run of lower to mid table teams coming up.
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Bailey stays on the bench we don't lose that match.Convinced of this. Unai has had ages to sort this out. Brain dead tactics.
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Stop picking Watkins. Stop playing Rogers out of position. Stop playing the convalescence home bound Mings. Play your best fcuking side. You might have a chance then.
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For ten minutes we gave them a battle, just before our equaliser and just after it. Tammy misses a sitter, Bailey fucks-up a pass into their box, they break and Konsa ball-watches while Cunah - a player who routinely scores against us and who our coaches would have drilled into our players to monitor; gets free and has a simple chance.
Unlikely to come back again after that, they got a bit of luck for their third.
When things aren't going for you, you have to dig-deep and fight fire with fire. We played with the handbrake on in the first half which is more about structure than confidence. But I really wish we would show more intent in the first half of games, being reactive in this league will only get you so far. That's on Emery. We don't have the class of Tielemans and Kamara so expecting inferior players to thrive in a structure that is heavily dependent on those two players is seriously flawed.
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Every time you expect it, every time you're still fucking appalled at the performance.
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
Mings and Barkley were ok I thought. Was fuming they started but did well.
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We looked the we are, a team on the decline through injuries, lack of confidence and of most of all lack of progression. Appalling recruitment, dragging rejected players back and no room for manoeuvre financially.
Emery will leave and we will revert to PL cannon fodder.
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The second goal was so shite after we had responded to going behind well and getting the equaliser. Gave the ball away cheaply and then a pathetic lack of pressure on the ball, so so easy. Shipping goals and blunt up front with terrible decision making. Just massively disappointing.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
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When things aren't going for you, you have to dig-deep and fight fire with fire. We played with the handbrake on in the first half which is more about structure than confidence. But I really wish we would show more intent in the first half of games, being reactive in this league will only get you so far. That's on Emery. We don't have the class of Tielemans and Kamara so expecting inferior players to thrive in a structure that is heavily dependent on those two players is seriously flawed.
Amen.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Yep.
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When things aren't going for you, you have to dig-deep and fight fire with fire. We played with the handbrake on in the first half which is more about structure than confidence. But I really wish we would show more intent in the first half of games, being reactive in this league will only get you so far. That's on Emery. We don't have the class of Tielemans and Kamara so expecting inferior players to thrive in a structure that is heavily dependent on those two players is seriously flawed.
Amen.
Eamonn
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Just don't get it, what is wrong with Unai? the one team you would never contemplate bringing Bailey on against it has to be Manchester you freaking nighted, we went in at half time 0-0, fine, we went one goal down, live with that, you can always come back and we did with a wonderful goal from Barclay, what the hell has been going on with Elliot, how would you prefer Bailey to Elliot against this lot, even under the restrictions he has another game in him, ffs Unai use him when it would best count, have to say it we could easily taken a point from that, Manchester Utd are no great shake, and it not written in the stars that we have to lose to them.
I do hope Unai that their is some magic formula and reasoning to all this like we are going for the Europa tourney to get into the top level of Europe, some kind of thinking none of us are privvy to because otherwise this all going to look pretty sick.
Lets hope Spurs can dig something up at Anfield.
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We looked all nicey nicey with the ball up until half time but were hugely passive. Came out for the second half in sleep mode duly conceded and then fought our way back to equalise. We then decided to give Fernandez the freedom of OT for the rest of the match and that was that.
Special mention today for Watkins, Rogers and Buendia. Absolutely fucking useless from all three of them which will hopefully be reflected in brontebillys scores shortly. Abraham and Bailey offered not much more when they came on. Luiz on far too late as Barkley was running in treacle from after his goal.
In addition I get the need to manage minutes but are we really saying our first choices in Maatsen, Torres can’t manage three big games in a week?
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
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When things aren't going for you, you have to dig-deep and fight fire with fire. We played with the handbrake on in the first half which is more about structure than confidence. But I really wish we would show more intent in the first half of games, being reactive in this league will only get you so far. That's on Emery. We don't have the class of Tielemans and Kamara so expecting inferior players to thrive in a structure that is heavily dependent on those two players is seriously flawed.
Amen.
It's Eamonn but thanks :)
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Last 12 league games - 3 wins 3 draws 6 defeats.
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Add in the waste of money on Elliott.
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Onana has been a massive let down, just when we needed him. Bailey and Buendia just aren’t at the level we want to be but it’s all we have.
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
Mings and Barkley were ok I thought. Was fuming they started but did well.
We were comfortable until we contrived to let that Funko Pop score from a corner. Then we equalised and were on top, but Konsa inexplicably lost Cunha for their second (irrespective of Bailey giving the ball away, the two CBs had it covered; i think they got distracted by Mbeumo who was offside), and their third we gave them on a plate - that was our ball and should have been cleared.
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When things aren't going for you, you have to dig-deep and fight fire with fire. We played with the handbrake on in the first half which is more about structure than confidence. But I really wish we would show more intent in the first half of games, being reactive in this league will only get you so far. That's on Emery. We don't have the class of Tielemans and Kamara so expecting inferior players to thrive in a structure that is heavily dependent on those two players is seriously flawed.
Amen.
It's Eamonn but thanks :)
Too bad a mood to play that card.
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It was a telling statistic that this was our oldest starting XI since McLeish. But where will we get the funds to bring in younger talent?...
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This team is weak and soft over a full campaign—just look at Bailey for their second goal. These players don’t give a fuck.
Brentford are now the team we need to watch out for because there’s zero chance we’re finishing in the top five.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
True, but the restrictions meant we were shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player.
I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks. Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
And that sums up our place in the food chain
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We looked the we are, a team on the decline through injuries, lack of confidence and of most of all lack of progression. Appalling recruitment, dragging rejected players back and no room for manoeuvre financially.
Emery will leave and we will revert to PL cannon fodder.
Sadly I agree, that is the likely outcome. It is Champions League or bust for the manager.
If somehow we can scramble a win against West Ham and get Youri back after the break, we might still have a have a chance of 5th, (largely due to Chelsea's ineptitude) or to win the Europa League.
However, things have to change. Big players have to step up and show a bit of character and a lot more confidence and quailty. Everyone needs to improve and I include the manager in that.
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Big surprise that. Wrong team, bad display - again.
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We seem a team in decline sadly. Emery is in a real funk too. Man United there for taking today and we didn't have the courage to have a go until 1-0 down.
Martinez 5 - poor for first I thought, if he's getting a touch to it it should be going over
Bogarde 6 - caught horribly by cross field ball for their goal but should have been bailed out, ok for backup right back
Konsa 3 - soft as shite for two goals
Mings 7 - surprise return but did well defensively. Not much to defend against, mind
Digne 3 - completely finished at this level
Barkley 7 - no pace in game so did well on ball and finished well for goal
Onana 6 - did well for a 15 min spell after we went behind but poor for two goals
Rogers 3 - awful yet again, touch and head gone
Buendia 5 - tried hard with little coming off
McGinn 5 - bit off pace as expected and hooked early
Watkins 2 - tragic
Bailey was awful as per usual, Tammy very poor, missed two glorious chances but hold up play was shite. The other three weren't given enough time but two of them conspired to cost us a consolation at end.
Emery - shit scared team selection and leaving likes of Luiz and Maatsen on bench until 82nd minute was insane
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Harsh..
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A predictable and disapointing scoreline but I didnt think we were as bad as some are making out.
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Bloody hell brontebilly I’d say theres some generous scores on there.
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A predictable and disapointing scoreline but I didnt think we were as bad as some are making out.
We weren't but we looked like a team that didn't hadn't had the investment our opponents had. Very simple stuff.
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I was out of coverage, glad I was from the comments on here. All too predictable.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
True, but the restrictions meant we shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player.
I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks. Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.
Asensio£7.5m instead of Guessand , Ben chillwell (free) Grealish on loan instead of Sancho ,James McAteer £21m ..
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Were things really that good before this recent run ? I don't know.
Are things really that bad now and is it all falling apart ? I don't know.
It's all about opinions and there will be 101 different reasons given here about the present state of affairs.
Next season Unai could be taking us on an exciting CL run again, he may have left, we may be in a Gerrardesque relegation struggle. None of us really know.
Let's just agree on the one thing we do know... Man U are c*nts.
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Genuinely didn't think there was that much in it overall outside of a few lucky deflections and a touch more individual quality. Room for improvement of course, as there was in the Lille game. Meh.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
True, but the restrictions meant we shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player.
I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks. Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.
Asensio£7.5m instead of Guessand , Ben chillwell (free) Grealish on loan instead of Sancho ,James McAteer £21m ..
Erm, that is literally the definition of scraping the barrel, however you cut it. They spent 60-70m three times. We didn't spend anywhere near one of those on all three. Has recruitment been shit? Generally speaking, yes. Is that partially due to having to shop in a lower tier than we want to/our position these days should allow? Fucking damn right.
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Only saw up to the equaliser and thought a draw would of been fair at that stage.
West Ham is now massive and their recent form is better than ours!
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
True, but the restrictions meant we shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player.
I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks. Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.
Asensio£7.5m instead of Guessand , Ben chillwell (free) Grealish on loan instead of Sancho ,James McAteer £21m ..
Erm, that is literally the definition of scraping the barrel, however you cut it. They spent 60-70m three times. We didn't spend anywhere near one of those on all three. Has recruitment been shit? Generally speaking, yes. Is that partially due to having to shop in a lower tier than we want to/our position these days should allow? Fucking damn right.
How has £50m record signing Onana done since joining?
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Add in the waste of money on Elliott.
weird decision this one. I kinda think If he had a run and got a few assists and a goal and got us a few more points when needed , and made the chumps league , the money we would earn from it (75/80 mill) then the 35 million would be worth it and I still believe we would get the money back selling him to someone else or If he had doe really well we might have kept him .
I mean I cant see him giving the ball away and doing fuck all like leon bailey who at this rate will cost us 80 million etc not making it.
Anyway its all bloody odd.
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Thought we lacked threat for most of the game, but not helped by Watkina being really poor and not holding the ball up or seemingly able to commit a defender with pace.
Bailey gives the ball away needlessly in the build up and they score a second, after we needlessly give away a corner too for the first. Poor decision making.
Same old story really that hasn't gone away. We have too many of our best players that really make us tick out injured. It was great to have McGinn back and hopefully he'll be fit enough to keep going deeper in the games to come. We may well be two away (Lille and West Ham for Tielemans).
But we cannot expect miracles when you have players like Buendia or Bailey as attacking options. They were not good enough and we are having to rely on them, when they're probably past and sort of use in this league. The quicker we can rely upon McGinn and Tielemans the better.
That is also 7 goals conceded in two league games where Mings was brought in to deal with a high ball. Another one not good enough.
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i was making the point that just because we couldn't eat at top table didn't mean we had to go to the food bank.. Asensio better than Guessand ,Grealish better than Sancho thats the squad/ team improved with still over 20m in kitty
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No PL side with serious CL ambitions is starting any of Mings, Digne, Barkley, Buendia or bringing Bailey on as first sub. We started them all and did bring on Leon.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
True, but the restrictions meant we shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player.
I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks. Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.
Asensio£7.5m instead of Guessand , Ben chillwell (free) Grealish on loan instead of Sancho ,James McAteer £21m ..
Erm, that is literally the definition of scraping the barrel, however you cut it. They spent 60-70m three times. We didn't spend anywhere near one of those on all three. Has recruitment been shit? Generally speaking, yes. Is that partially due to having to shop in a lower tier than we want to/our position these days should allow? Fucking damn right.
How has £50m record signing Onana done since joining?
I'd sell him.
I think people are being hysterical. The goalkeeper, defence and midfield are a match for anything in the country. The problem is attack. It was clear in the summer and I remember saying as much. Rashford, Asensio and Ramsey all left, leaving us to get a load of cheap last minute shit in due to financial constraints. Now we can't score goals.
Considering we needed a full Premier League attack, what we got was 30m and a couple of loans. Meanwhile United signed Wolves' best player, Brentford's best player and Leipzig's best player. If people think that's a fair competition, then crack on with that.
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i was making the point that just because we couldn't eat at top table didn't mean we had to go to the food bank.. Asensio better than Guessand ,Grealish better than Sancho thats the squad/ team improved with still over 20m in kitty
I agree with this. I don’t know for certain who has the final say on transfers but, whoever it is, needs sacking. Even if it’s Unai. And I say that because we are in a deep hole with this squad. Real trouble.
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They have Cunha and Fernandez in form, we have Watkins and Rogers who are both bang out of form. Similar to how both teams are right now. Add in Bailey and Buendia and it’s no surprise we didn’t win.
Was never expecting anything from this and the Chelsea game, the next few games are more important.
Amazing we have stayed in the CL places for so long during this run.
Still time to turn it around.
UTV
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No PL side with serious CL ambitions is starting any of Mings, Digne, Barkley, Buendia or bringing Bailey on as first sub. We started them all and did bring on Leon.
No but we didn’t have to start them - Pau, Maatsen are definitely better choices. Doug is better than Barkley, but he’s played a lot of late.
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I've said it before and I'll say it again. Both Villa and Man United needed to buy about three attackers this summer. They went and spent, what, 200m+? We were left scraping the barrel. One club is in chronic debt, the other isn't. One has 50p negative net spend over the last five years. The other doesn't.
Alrighty then.
So we spent what little we had on Guessand £30m, Elliot and not play him and give Sancho the best part of £180k a week, its not all down to FFP, a lot is down to absolute crap transfer dealings which we then compound by getting shot of Malen and paying £18m for a player we could've got for £11m.... maybe we might be better off if we didnt piss money away on players who arent good enough
Exactly this. We can moan all we like about the financial restrictions but no one forced us to buy a turd in Guessand and give an oxygen thief like Sancho that sort of wage.
True, but the restrictions meant we shopping in that market when we really needed to be buying a much better calibre of player.
I genuinely can't believe how bad some of those players have been over the past few weeks. Some of them have got bad attitudes as well to boot.
Asensio£7.5m instead of Guessand , Ben chillwell (free) Grealish on loan instead of Sancho ,James McAteer £21m ..
Erm, that is literally the definition of scraping the barrel, however you cut it. They spent 60-70m three times. We didn't spend anywhere near one of those on all three. Has recruitment been shit? Generally speaking, yes. Is that partially due to having to shop in a lower tier than we want to/our position these days should allow? Fucking damn right.
How has £50m record signing Onana done since joining?
I'd sell him.
I think people are being hysterical. The goalkeeper, defence and midfield are a match for anything in the country. The problem is attack. It was clear in the summer and I remember saying as much. Rashford, Asensio and Ramsey all left, leaving us to get a load of cheap last minute shit in due to financial constraints. Now we can't score goals.
Considering we needed a full Premier League attack, what we got was 30m and a couple of loans. Meanwhile United signed Wolves' best player, Brentford's best player and Leipzig's best player. If people think that's a fair competition, then crack on with that.
I agree with Mellin - issue is attack the rest is compariable with anyone. Our attack is woeful. And we cant spend the money we need to make a difference.
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Bailey is fucking shite.
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No PL side with serious CL ambitions is starting any of Mings, Digne, Barkley, Buendia or bringing Bailey on as first sub. We started them all and did bring on Leon.
No but we didn’t have to start them - Pau, Maatsen are definitely better choices. Doug is better than Barkley, but he’s played a lot of late.
But we did start them. Whether we had to or not isn't the point. We're dropping out of CL contention because we're too reliant on too many players that aren't consistently top 5 quality. Of our starting 11 today i'd say 4 are of that standard, even with the Unai factor it's not going to get you there over a season.
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Monchi messed up in summer 2025. Hence he was moved on fairly quickly
But there will be a rebuilding job in summer 2026 and with Olabe in as a new sporting director it is fairly important that we know that the Unai set up is 'all in' for another go.
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For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.
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Where was Alysson? Surely he'd have been better than Bailey and he was never going to bring Eliot on. Is he injured again? He's only played about 45 mins in total. He's looked very promising when he has come on.⁷
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For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.
Well said.
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For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.
5 year net spend. Them £0.7bn, us negative.
That’s not the whole story but it’s a main chapter.
We have been playing without a functioning centre forward and right winger all season too.
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Unai interview
https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=1647842853021283
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For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.
There is no excuse to play him though. Our hands are absolutely tied, but they're not forced with selection.
Bailey, Mings, Buendia- I wouldn't have them anywhere near the side.
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Only Barkley and Mings can feel hippyish with their performance today. That chance we had near the end summed us up pretty well. Reminiscent of the chuckle Brothers. Thursday is now very important.
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Just utterly predictable why did we bother tuning in. We knew they would let us down again at OT
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Farting around at the rear.
Too spread in the middle.
Thin on top.
Bit like myself.
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For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.
We had little choice regarding Bailey, Roma are paying the full season loan fee to have him away from their team. I suppose we could have said, he's your problem, don't play him if you don't want, send him back in the summer but that wouldn't have helped with his resale value. I do wonder if Bailey and Watkins are being played in an attempt to increase their transfer value in the summer? Right now it's the only logical reason I can think of for their selection.
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For the avoidance of quoteathon - if they'd bought Guessand in the summer they could have bought another two for the same amount each in January. We had to bring back Leon Bailey. Our transfer dealings have been poor in the last two years but us and them are operating under different rules.
There is no excuse to play him though. Our hands are absolutely tied, but they're not forced with selection.
Bailey, Mings, Buendia- I wouldn't have them anywhere near the side.
No and that’s the issue. Poor recruitment has narrowed our options (and as Dave says we are more exposed to errors) but we’re not making best use of what we do have.
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Watkins is playing because he’s our best option. I love Tammy but he hasn’t done enough when he’s been given a chance. He wasn’t very good today when he came on.
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https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1DtMfM6Wtx/?mibextid=wwXIfr
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
The Razzies were already announced last night.
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Watkins is playing because he’s our best option. I love Tammy but he hasn’t done enough when he’s been given a chance. He wasn’t very good today when he came on.
The statistics say Abraham did more in 30 mins than Watkins and Rogers put together .
You know all that xg and shit.
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There's no fluidity when we move forward. It's very, very slow. Very formulaic and very easy to follow.
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
The Razzies were already announced last night.
And we are not Tottenham Hotspurs.
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Clearly we’ll finish below Man Utd now, but both Liverpool and Chelsea aren’t exactly great shakes so its not over. If we can somehow get our shit together we’ve a whole run of lower to mid table teams coming up.
The positive part of me , ever shrinking of course, thinks that Unai just wants to get through this period to the international break and still be in contention for top 5 then hope that a functioning version of McGinn and Tielemans can restore some verve for the run in.
The majority of me is just a Brummie version of Frazier from Dad's Army. "We're doomed"
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Abraham needs to start a couple of games to get himself up to speed. UE isn't giving him that chance. Failing that, why not try starting them together. Just try something different ffs! That result was entirely predictable! A terrible 2026 so far.
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Amongst other things, I don't think Malen for Tammy + Leon was a good exchange in hindsight. We miss that directness and drive from Malen.
Look, we have to play fair. This means selling our talented academy players and also selling players we have bought to replace them with lads who we got shot of to try and improve the team. This is fair, right, and appropriate.
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These fuckers are billions in debt and we aren't. We have billionaire owners who aren't allowed to spend. In order to buy players we have to sell. Emery has done an amazing job here and yes we've been utter Blues since losing the midfield, but this is the Premier League laid bare...only certain clubs can win things and you have a league with rules completely set up to ensure this every season.
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Can anybody see any positives from that performance?
The Razzies were already announced last night.
And we are not Tottenham Hotspurs.
Or Burnley. The only two teams below us in the last 10 games form table.
https://www.flashscore.co.uk/standings/KKay4EE8/OEEq9Yvp/#/OEEq9Yvp/form/overall/10/
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It's all a bit disheartening. Full faith in Emery, but bloody hell this is an absolutely terrible run.
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Same old same OT performance. Can’t think why anyone thought it would be any different
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This team would be closer to the bottom without Emery.
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I would like to be positive that we are in 4th place, but we can all see the problem
Dreadful summer recruiting
Some really strange purchases
Players out injured no depth to call on
Normal Mould trafford performance
Rogers gives the ball away in their half, they romp down and they score
Digine for reasons only known to him gives away a corner instead of a throw, they score
Bailey gives away the ball in their half , they romp down the pitch and score
Need a clear out and new faces this summer, but will it happen ?
Rogers was probably the last player we signed that has been a success
Digine
Bailey
Watkins
Buendia
Do we have the money to replace them ?
Only if we qualify for Champs league
If we don't qualify Uni will probably bugger off
real cheerful tonight, sighs