Unai Emery

[Smithy]

Think we would all prefer to see the likes of Hemmings and Burrowes getting minutes over the likes of Bailey at the minute

Its 100% Unais short coming. He wants instant success and trys to build for that. He is not bothered about tomorrow at all

I just don't think that's true.  If the young players were good enough right now, he'd be playing them.  We've had plenty young players on the pitch in the last few months, but none of them have become 'regulars' yet.  Saka, Smith-Rowe and Martinelli all became semi-regular first-team players at Arsenal as teenagers under Unai.

[RamboandBruno]

When you see Bailey ambling around it makes you wonder why Jomoh-Aloba was sent out on loan. Emery doesn’t really trust kids but surely he’d be a better option at the moment than a few who seem to be welded into the team.

I have wondered this myself. We’d also have saved the money on Bailey’s wage. Bailey was done last season which is why we shipped him out. Why Emery thought bringing him back to premier league after a poor spell in a lower standard and slower league would work is a bit odd. Desperate maybe, but certainly not the only option when Jomoh Alina could have been an option. Plus he has that thing we have next to nothing of in this side: pace.

Roma didn’t want Bailey and sent him back, I’m
Not sure wee had a lot of choice. Doesn’t have to play him mind.

[Mister E]

Is there an argument that Villa are producing a superb crop of Academy graduates and that the Emery reign is squandering them?
I’d love to see a couple of them given a chance. It’s like a total blind spot for him.

Gave three of them a chance v Salzburg and two of them went on loan the next day!
If Emery has deemed Bogarde the best academy prospect on the books, I like him but he's limited, then it's clear we don't have a superb crop available. We had this talk before at the end of MON's reign but it was soon clear the likes of Bannan, Clark, Albrighton weren't really up to it. Need to be careful.
Also we should never have sold Ramsey!

We've been guilty of selling off our youngsters for years, starting most obviously with Gary Cahill. Of those you mention, Albrighton is a Premier League winner, Clark played (in an admittedly average) Newcastle side for a few seasons and Bannan carved out a very good career as an influential midfielder (I accept he probably wasn't quite Premier League standard).
I always thought that we should have kept O'Hare as understudy to Grealish.
I've said a few times on here that we should, more recently, have kept Barrenechea and that Burrowes / Broggio / Young could have done no worse than Bailey and Sancho and enjoyed some good development playing minutes. Sending Jimoh out on loan seemed pointless at the time, and still does. And Hemmings must be feeling somewhat deflated after being summarily dropped from the matchday squad.

[Mister E]

Oh, and here's something else to have a whinge about! - I said to my son during yesterday's game: for a team which is set up to control possession we are really profligate and turn the ball over all the damn time! After 3+ years with Emery, how is it that our ball retention (other than the passing-around-the-back routine) is so poor?!