Unai Emery

[SoccerHQ]

If we don't qualify for the Champions League would anyone be totally surprise if we start next season with a new manager? I wouldn't! Top end football is about winning trophies and I'm pretty sure the owners will be as pissed off by yesterday's result as us fans. I just can't get my head around yesterday's performance. So insipid. When we play with purpose we're as good as anyone. When we play so slowly we look awful. It was Crystal Fucking Palace for fucks sake not PSG or Barcelona.

Unai is not getting sacked for finishing 6th or 7th, let's not be silly.

We've competed in three competitions this season. Liverpool won the league for months and they went out in the cups within three week period. Arsenal gave up on the prem around February and concentrated on the prem ever since. Spurs and Man. United put in atrocious prem seasons to try to win the Europa league, at least one will hilariously fall short, hopefully both of them. Chelsea done the same as we did last year so far.

It is not easy to even do well in two competitions even if you have a mega squad with the endless games now squeezed into shorter time frames.

Newcastle have done the best but they've had no Europe so just having free weeks to prepare for most of the season is a huge advantage.

I think if we had a season out of Europe we could finish 3rd on 70 + points for example and give both domestic cups a really good go.

We've had a pretty good season and have shown we can combine Europe with league without dropping off too much so that bodes well for future seasons. Newcastle finished 7th and have kicked on so no reason why we can't and sacking Emery certainly isn't the way to go about it as horrendous as yesterday was.

[SoccerHQ]

I do wonder if things are not quite as rosy behind the scenes.  The Watkins interview where he said 'I am furious with sitting on the bench, I have told the manager, me, AND A FEW OTHERS, are not happy with being on the bench'.  I thought at the time that it was a naive thing to say as it didn't come across well.  By all means, talk about yourself Ollie but to mention others smacks of an attempt to undermine.   Emery will sort out the furious bunch, I suspect.

I think Ollie is done here now. Feels like time is right to start breaking up the 2018-2020 intake. Served us very well but most were involved yesterday and it didn't happen.

As regards others on the bench he can only be talking about Malen and perhaps Maatsen? Barkley and Onana been injured for months so bit of a cheek if both are moaning about not starting recently although Onana was another surprise omission yesterday with his physical profile.

[Sexual Ealing]

Mings was my first thought re 'others'.

[Villan82]

Enthusiastic, hard-working, keen to learn Ollie has been a joy to watch in an Aston Villa shirt.

He's seemed a bit sulky/moody since he came back from the Euros and I did not like that interview either.

If there is a bit of discontent in the camp they could have parked it for the good of the team ahead of a chance to write themselves into villa history

[PeterWithe]

I suppose the European qualification was always going to bring about its financial challenges, you need a bigger squad with higher paid players to make any impact, but when it doesn't happen the next year, you are under pressure to shed the wages.

[SoccerHQ]

Mings was my first thought re 'others'.

He'd have been hugely disappointed not to start yesterday. 99% of us would've put him in ahead of Pau to deal with Mateta and given Isak barely got a kick last weekend I think Mateta would've been on the fringes a little more than he was.

However again Mings in his 30s, horrible injury etc so think his days of being a week in week out starter are now over and we need to find a younger version for LCB.

He was giving an interview the other week saying how much he wanted to continue here so dosen't suggest someone on to his agent regularly to fix him up a move somewhere else.

A few years back he was in England squads with Conor Coady. Coady just spent the season warming the bench for a horrific Leicester team and playing the odd game so think Mings will look at that and think there are many worse clubs to be at as a squad player than us.

[SoccerHQ]

I suppose the European qualification was always going to bring about its financial challenges, you need a bigger squad with higher paid players to make any impact, but when it doesn't happen the next year, you are under pressure to shed the wages.

Bit bonkers though if we're just budgeting every single season to make CL now. Emery is good...but he's not that good.

We completed maxed out the company credit card giving Slippy a few vanity signings while finishing bottom half so not a good strategy to be doing the same a few years later even if we have a vastly better manager.

I know what we signed in January but we weren't established in top 4 then. We were falling off the pace and needed a run of five straight prem wins just to stay in touch effectively.

I think if we're just playing Conference league next season we'll make CL as Man. City will get some sort of points deduction and Forest and possibly Newcastle will drop down the league a bit.

[PeterWithe]

I suppose I was just opining that its a necessary evil, you have to buy players on big money but then they aren't getting sold after a year so you need to trim the squad wage bill elsewhere, so you have to create a squad 'churn' you don't really want but have to do.

[Deano's Mullet]

If this is a season of transition it's been much better than most league seasons we've had. If we can win 3 of the last four I think we can look back and say its better than 2023 and as good as 2024. It's the cup exits though this season will probably  judged on. I can't believe we played like that yesterday. 

[pauliewalnuts]

Some of this ‘terrible season’ stuff is so over the top. Yesterday was horrific but a week ago we were dismantling Newcastle, short memories.

Quarter finals of the champions league, semi finals of the cup, challenging for European places.

Honestly, anyone who thinks that is a bad season must have been supporting us for about two years.

[BC Villain]

I do wonder if things are not quite as rosy behind the scenes.  The Watkins interview where he said 'I am furious with sitting on the bench, I have told the manager, me, AND A FEW OTHERS, are not happy with being on the bench'.  I thought at the time that it was a naive thing to say as it didn't come across well.  By all means, talk about yourself Ollie but to mention others smacks of an attempt to undermine.   Emery will sort out the furious bunch, I suspect.

Feels like time is right to start breaking up the 2018-2020 intake. Served us very well but most were involved yesterday and it didn't happen.

   This.  Save for last season, these are players that have spent their time here dicking about in the bottom half of the table.

[Sexual Ealing]

Some of this ‘terrible season’ stuff is so over the top. Yesterday was horrific but a week ago we were dismantling Newcastle, short memories.

Quarter finals of the champions league, semi finals of the cup, challenging for European places.

Honestly, anyone who thinks that is a bad season must have been supporting us for about two years.

I think this is why people hate Arsenal and Spurs fans so much. Getting a taste of being good before ultimately being shit again feels much worse than having been consistently shit for years. It brings out the whinger in us much more readily (I'm only speaking for myself here, but I've only very recently started actually being pissed off when we're bad. I think. Probably talking rubbish. Actually, I am, because I remember spewing regular invective against Bruce and Gerrard. I guess I'm just a twat.)

[Brazilian Villain]

What was in the fucking ale yesterday and why are you making today worse than it needs to be.

Given some of the takes I've read on here in the past 18 hours, I can only assume it was LSD, or the like.

[Toronto Villa]

Some of this ‘terrible season’ stuff is so over the top. Yesterday was horrific but a week ago we were dismantling Newcastle, short memories.

Quarter finals of the champions league, semi finals of the cup, challenging for European places.

Honestly, anyone who thinks that is a bad season must have been supporting us for about two years.

I’m livid about yesterday but in the context of everything we have a lot to be proud of and thankful for. It’s ok to have both perspectives and be right. This season may end up short of where we all hoped just a couple of weeks ago. And no doubt Emery who got us here has also gotten a few things wrong. Especially in the past two games. I used the word entitled a few weeks back. Many of us can still remember when it was truly shit. This isn’t it. Be angry. Be disappointed. I am. But eventually I’ll remember that we have 4 winnable games to make it to the CL or at worst get a spot in the Europa. Not the success we wanted but relative to a few years back it most certainly is.

[DB]

Re Unai, stating the obvious, but we/he neesd a strong end to the season...4 wins, we can't just let us tail off.