Emi Martinez

[Rigadon]

I would not do this personally but there are guys out there when they suspect their missus of playing away forgive them fully and carry on - i'm not aware that many of those relationships ever get back to where they were.

I liken this to our beloved Girl flapping her over flirty eyes at a new bloke but rather than leaving it there she tells her mates she wants out to be with the new bloke and can they let him know via social media. You keep hearing rumours but give her the benefit of doubt.

Not only is the new bloke a lot richer than you - he is also the twat that bullied you through school so you hate him with a passion

Hard to fully forgive that. She may come back and we may have some future great times together - but it will never be the same 

An elaborate but strangely effective analogy. 

I'm generally agnostic if he goes in the winter / summer / stays for a couple more seasons.  He's fucked his Villa legacy up but so long as he does his job well, whatevs.

[LeonW]

I would not do this personally but there are guys out there when they suspect their missus of playing away forgive them fully and carry on - i'm not aware that many of those relationships ever get back to where they were.

I liken this to our beloved Girl flapping her over flirty eyes at a new bloke but rather than leaving it there she tells her mates she wants out to be with the new bloke and can they let him know via social media. You keep hearing rumours but give her the benefit of doubt.

Not only is the new bloke a lot richer than you - he is also the twat that bullied you through school so you hate him with a passion

Hard to fully forgive that. She may come back and we may have some future great times together - but it will never be the same 

An elaborate but strangely effective analogy. 

I'm generally agnostic if he goes in the winter / summer / stays for a couple more seasons.  He's fucked his Villa legacy up but so long as he does his job well, whatevs.

He’ll be gone before the start of next season and I have to agree that he’s messed up his legacy. It is what it is and both parties will move on.

[kippaxvilla2]

Gone in January is my view.

[Dave]

Not impossible, and I imagine "long-term goalkeeper succession planning" is high on the list of priorities of the recruitement team.

But surely his options are now even fewer than they were in August? The only massive club that is about to be in need of a goalkeeper is Bayern. And he doesn't seem to be in much of a rush to take the Saudi Riyals.

[Meanwood Villa]

Man Utd still haven't sorted their keeper position out, the massive balloons. So maybe that happens in Jan now.

[Somniloquism]

They bought the player we were looking at to replace Martinez. Obviously it is too early to tell whether he is their answer as the press and fans are totally overhyping him after one match against newly promoted opposition (just like the overhype for when they bought Onana IIRC.).

[Dave]

Yeah. It appears their summer keeper plan was either Lammens or Emi and they went for Lammens. If their plan was to have both they'd have just bought both in the summer.

[Meanwood Villa]

I hadn't realised they'd played the Belgian kid yet

[Drummond]

Their fans were serenading him with 'Are you Schmeichal in disguise' when he made a save.

I don't think he's completely ruined his legacy, and we'll never know for sure what went on in the background over the last couple of windows.

He may have been told he was saleable and we'd consider offers, at which point, it's our fault. That he maybe then pushed for it afterwards smacks of someone feeling unloved and that the relationship was already broken.

There were 5 players that could have made us a profit, to my mind he was one of them, but lower down the list than Ramsey and Watkins, and higher up than Rogers and Kamara.

Given the choice, who would we rather have gone?

[eye digress]

Bailey.

[eamonn]

You always think the best in Villa people, Drummond. It's irritatingly admirable.

[Ian.]

I miss Bailey.

Anyway, football stinks at the moment. For years we’ve had to sell players for reasons where they have had their head turned and want to go abroad, Man Utd or Man City. Or they feel we haven’t got the ambition to match theirs and join Middlesbrough.

Now we’ve got that ambition and we’ve competed with the very best and we don’t have to sell for the above reasons, but we do have to sell because of some stupid rules which are in place which don’t seem fit for purpose.

[Drummond]

You always think the best in Villa people, Drummond. It's irritatingly admirable.

My starting point is that I think that most people are inherently good people. There's always an exception but for the most part they're good.

We know Martinez is a winner and he's ambitious. If he felt we weren't progressing or that he couldn't achieve, then perhaps he'd want to leave.

If it was money, he'd choose Saudi. If it was Champions League, he'd choose a club that was in it. If he felt he could make the difference, then maybe he'd choose that shit show but other than that there's no good reason to leave, unless he'd been treated badly etc here. Monchi left, we've a 100% record since. He was the problem.