Aston Villa 0-2 Chelsea post match thread

[Risso]

We are a joke and apart from us fans the people I feel most sorry for are the owners.

They're extremely successful billionaire businessmen who bought a Premier League football club, knowing exactly what that would entail. They need to prove that they're still as interested as when they arrived, otherwise it's going to be another few years of trying to scrape by. The team isn't good enough and they didn't do nearly enough to improve things in the summer.

[AV82EC]

We are a joke and apart from us fans the people I feel most sorry for are the owners.

They're extremely successful billionaire businessmen who bought a Premier League football club, knowing exactly what that would entail. They need to prove that they're still as interested as when they arrived, otherwise it's going to be another few years of trying to scrape by. The team isn't good enough and they didn't do nearly enough to improve things in the summer.

Yep they don’t get a pass because Gerrard and to an extent Purslow aren’t performing. Sort it out fellas.

[boozey182]

It's no good saying "if we play like that we'll be fine" if you the don't then back it up. We played really well against Man City but then struggled to score against Leeds and Forest.

Yep you're right. The bottom line is that this is a results game and we're not getting them. You need to score goals to win games and we're not getting them. You can't just blame the strikers because nobody else is scoring either.

I really don't understand why he hasn't tried 4-2-3-1.

Pick one of Ings, Watkins or Archer, then have three of Buendia, Couthinho, Bailey, Ramsey and McGinn behind them. It then gives you a striker or two on the bench, and two other attacking midfielder options.  So yesterday for example, he could have started with Ings up front and Coutinho and Buendia, then maybe brought Bailey and Watkins on later to run at them. All with the base of Luiz/Nakamba/Dedonkey behind them mopping up and helping the defence.

Agreed, it is really obvious that 4-2-3-1 suits the squad we have.

I really thought that this was the plan all along. The recruitment seemed to fit in with that. Kamara and Doug sitting in fron of the defence would be a very good partnership - it would mean Doug didn't have to cover as much ground and they are both pretty good on the ball to get it forward. In Kamara's absence we could use Nakamba or Dendonka. Then McGinn/Ramsey would have a bit more license to get forward while Coutinho/Buendia/Bailey wouldn't be quite so isolated. It would also allow the full backs a bit more protection. It just seems the obvious solution that would benefit individuals and the whole team.

[Hookeysmith]

We are a joke and apart from us fans the people I feel most sorry for are the owners.

They're extremely successful billionaire businessmen who bought a Premier League football club, knowing exactly what that would entail. They need to prove that they're still as interested as when they arrived, otherwise it's going to be another few years of trying to scrape by. The team isn't good enough and they didn't do nearly enough to improve things in the summer.

For all of Gerrards faults i really have started to agree with this.

Buendia is still our most expensive player with Ings a close 2nd - both bought with "free" money from Greasy sale.

Carlos was a good buy but at a very average cost for a premiership player nowadays - shame he got injured of course

Kamara - might be on big money but was a "free"

Digne - cost £25m when yesterday theirs cost £50m and does not always start - Man City have spent almost a quarter of a billion on their various players in same position - and before people say we are not in the Arabs league - our guys are filthy rich and are getting even richer.

Dendonker @ £13m is hardly earth shattering and the list goes on.

I must admit i thought with these guys we would be looking at least a few galactico's when in reality we are now advised its a one on one out policy

Maybe its the reason we are struggling to attract a top coach / manager?

[tony scott]

Nail on the head Hookey

[ChicagoLion]

I don't feel sorry for our owners, as Risso said they knew the score when they bought the club and our situation could be a lot worse if they hadn't.
But Hookey is right our lack of ambition in the summer has come home to roost.
They need to engage pretty soon and work out what needs to happen at Executive, Management and Playing level.
I would hope they have started by holding Purslows feet to the fire.

[Clark W Griswold]

The first seeds of doubt came when they made a profit in summer 21, and as it turns out the money we did spend was based on some fuck-wit stats based idea that we used in 15-16 and saw us relegated.
They did put the money in prior to that to give us a chance of re-establishing but yes, it seems that any spare cash now is going into a new stand whilst we sit and watch a dog turd of a team managed by someone they clearly didn’t think too hard about before employing.

[eamonn]

A profit in 2021? The Grealish money was all spent on the three stooges.

[eamonn]

Also, couldn't FFP be preventing us from spending more? The Noocassil chief exec said the other day that they can only spend up to a certain amount despite the riches of their owner.

[Nunkin1965]

Also, couldn't FFP be preventing us from spending more? The Noocassil chief exec said the other day that they can only spend up to a certain amount despite the riches of their owner.

If there is an FFP issue with us when would that end?

[dave.woodhall]

Also, couldn't FFP be preventing us from spending more? The Noocassil chief exec said the other day that they can only spend up to a certain amount despite the riches of their owner.

If there is an FFP issue with us when would that end?

We seem to be the only club that ever worries about FFP and we have done for a decade. Nobody else seems bothered.

[cdbearsfan]

The people that think we have problems with FFP never seem able to explain why it didn't bother us when we were newly promoted and yet it does now that we are an established club in the richest league in the world with a sack full of Grealish (and Chukwuemeka) money in our pocket.

[eamonn]

 That's the only decent money we've made on sales in recent memory and has gone straight out of the bank account on other players.

I'm not saying FFP is definitely hampering us but posing it as a possibility as no one seems to know for sure. In terms of us spending a lot of money off the back of promotion (and Fulham and Forest doing likewise since), there may be a sliding-scale on spending over a medium-term period than a window-by-window cap.

And, I don't think it's just us that may be affected by it. The club that mostly resembles our net spend in the last five years is Everton and they had to reduce their spending last year, when Benitez went into defensive/survival-mode.

And these are the Newcastle chief exec's quotes from last week:

"The reality is we have financial fair play in the background and this is a factor that we have to abide by," he said.

"You can’t just go for it because you think you might have a good season, there are set regulations. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be shrewd and I’ll give great credit to the ownership and Dan [Ashworth] and Eddie [Howe] in terms of the business they have done so far.

[aj2k77]

Ashworth and Howe and experienced combo. Gerrard and his idiot mates and the long haired dude, rookies.

[Hookeysmith]

That's the only decent money we've made on sales in recent memory and has gone straight out of the bank account on other players.

I'm not saying FFP is definitely hampering us but posing it as a possibility as no one seems to know for sure. In terms of us spending a lot of money off the back of promotion (and Fulham and Forest doing likewise since), there may be a sliding-scale on spending over a medium-term period than a window-by-window cap.

And, I don't think it's just us that may be affected by it. The club that mostly resembles our net spend in the last five years is Everton and they had to reduce their spending last year, when Benitez went into defensive/survival-mode.

And these are the Newcastle chief exec's quotes from last week:

"The reality is we have financial fair play in the background and this is a factor that we have to abide by," he said.

"You can’t just go for it because you think you might have a good season, there are set regulations. That doesn’t mean that we can’t be shrewd and I’ll give great credit to the ownership and Dan [Ashworth] and Eddie [Howe] in terms of the business they have done so far.

Thats all well and goot but Newcastle have spent a lot heavier on key players than we have and Everton were doing it whilst we were not even in the division.
Sigurdson - 40m
Richarleson - 35m
Iwobi 28m
Gbamin - 25m
Kean - 25m
Mina - 27m

They might be shit players but the point is we have the alleged 4th richest owners yet we are the 10th biggest spenders in last 5 years on gross purchases and 15th if averaged out nett spend each season

www.transferleague.co.uk/premier-league-last-five-seasons/transfer-league-tables/premier-league-table-last-five-seasons

Not what i or i would imagine a lot of other supporters was hoping for