Villa Players on International Duty - Covid impacts

[Risso]

No sympathy from me. We told them not to go yet they ignored us and put stupid photos of them on a private jet gloating.

Did we tell them not to go?

Smith said they did, yes.

[Demitri_C]

No sympathy from me. We told them not to go yet they ignored us and put stupid photos of them on a private jet gloating.

Did we tell them not to go?

Yes

Dean Smith revealed he had spoke to both about the situation and made the club’s feelings clear.

He said: “We have sat down with them and told them the Premier League are banning players going to Argentina. So we’ve told them we don’t want them to go out.

“I don’t know what their plans are but they certainly know what our wishes are, that they don’t go, because they’d have to isolate in a government hotel for 10 days when they come back

[Ian.]

Someone somewhere, the players agents, the Argentina FA, one of our members of staff, someone must have asked the question, what are the guidelines for entering Brazil?

[cdbearsfan]

If that link Dave posted is correct, and you have one part of the Brazilian government giving them permission to play while another department tries to ban them, it may be that Argentina received permission from someone who was not authorised to grant said authorisation.

[paul_e]

If that link Dave posted is correct, and you have one part of the Brazilian government giving them permission to play while another department tries to ban them, it may be that Argentina received permission from someone who was not authorised to grant said authorisation.

This seems the most likely explanation. I don't think the 'they lied' part is remotely true either, someone will have advised them that it had been sorted out and handled everything for them.

[gpbarr]

This could really interfere further with our season - what an almighty cock up. If it’s true we told them not to go but they did anyway I can’t imagine it’s not going to create tension once their back.   

[BC Villain]

No sympathy from me. We told them not to go yet they ignored us and put stupid photos of them on a private jet gloating.

Did we tell them not to go?

Smith said they did, yes.

Which suggests neither player was particularly frightened of crossing him.  Club have got to take a share of the blame here.  They should have put their foot down.  The likes of Ferguson or Clough would put their foot down

[andyh]

They are twats. And the Argentinian football authorities are twats.
It seems these two want to have their cake and eat it.

[paul_e]

No sympathy from me. We told them not to go yet they ignored us and put stupid photos of them on a private jet gloating.

Did we tell them not to go?

Smith said they did, yes.

Which suggests neither player was particularly frightened of crossing him.  Club have got to take a share of the blame here.  They should have put their foot down.  The likes of Ferguson or Clough would put their foot down

but the FIFA rules are very clear that the club can't refuse to let players go, so the only way we could do that was to threaten them with fines and/or being dropped. Does anyone really want to see the 2 of them dropped from our first team right now? Everyone knows that would be either an empty threat or a clear case of cutting our nose off to spite our face. It's far from ideal but I'd hope that the shit today puts us in a much stronger position for the next window where we can ask them again to drop out to avoid this sort of nonsense.

[Legion]

You clearly have to be a master of subterfuge to get past Brazilian border staff.

I've been to Brazil. They'll let anyone in.

[andyh]

Someone somewhere, the players agents, the Argentina FA, one of our members of staff, someone must have asked the question, what are the guidelines for entering Brazil?

Fuck that.
Why are any members of our staff accountable?
The players wanted to go, they should fucking well know the rules, and sure as shit the Argentinian football authorities should.

The one group who is not responsible is our club.

[not3bad]

I think it's fair to say the start of Villa's season has been affected by the odd hiccup.

[Bent Neilsens Screamer]

We’ve tried to appease our players whereas other clubs have simply said no and it’s bitten us on the arse even before the events of tonight.

[Flin5tone]

Makes my Blood Boil that these elite Footballers and those involved in the game think they are above the laws and rules whilst everyone else is suffering being kept apart from families

[Skerra]

Daft thing is that Brazil and Argentina are not that far away from qualifying anyway. Argentina have Bolivia, at home, on Thursday so should get 3 points from that with or without Martinez. After what’s happened tonight, the best thing Martinez and Buendia could do is hop on that private jet back to Brum ASAP and forget about the Bolivia match.