Champions League Contention

[Drummond]

If supporting the Villa for 30 years has taught me anything, its that if any club could fuck it up, it'd be us.

And Spurs fans across the country (well, some of London, and Korea) will be saying the same thing.

[Dave]

I’d have Son, Udogie, Van De Ven, maybe Bissouma and Bentancur in our squad. That is all I reckon.

Bissouma is inconsistent as fuck according to one of my Spurs supporting mates. Drifts in & out of games & not a patch on any of our central midfielders.

I would have Son for the LM, Pedro Porro for RB, Udogie for LB & maybe Van de Ven as the RCB... At a push.

The rest? All Villa...

I never rated Bissouma when loads on here thought we should be signing him. He's ok but as you say drifts in and out of games too much.

I'd also say no to Udogie, he's a good player but no better than what we have really. Porro on the other hand would add depth in one of our weakest positions and is a lot better than Cash (even though I don't think Cash is as bad as a lot make him out to be).

Van de Ven has a similar problem to Udogie, he's very good but with Torres and Mings I think we're well covered there.

In general I don't think there are many players in their squad that are significantly better (or worse) than we have in the same position.

Watkins is clearly the best centre forward across the squads, Son is clearly the best left winger, Porro is clearly the best right back and Konsa is clearly the best right centre back. After that is probably mostly personal preference, we all think Emi is miles better than Vicario but given they're probably the 2 best keepers in the league right now I think it's fine to say wither would be a fantastic option for any team.

I'm sorry I must take issue with that Paul, I think Vicario is shite.

Nah, he's decent. Bit ropey on set pieces, but excellent at pretty much everything else. For what Spurs paid he's been a bargain.

[DB]

If supporting the Villa for 30 years has taught me anything, its that if any club could fuck it up, it'd be us.

And Spurs fans across the country (well, some of London, and Korea) will be saying the same thing.

Spuds fans are also saying they want to lose vs City to help them win the league. They are not as bothered  as us, seem to be more bothered that Arsenal being champions

[PeterWithesShin]

It's very small heath with some Spurs fans.

[Toronto Villa]

I’d have Son, Udogie, Van De Ven, maybe Bissouma and Bentancur in our squad. That is all I reckon.

Bissouma is inconsistent as fuck according to one of my Spurs supporting mates. Drifts in & out of games & not a patch on any of our central midfielders.

I would have Son for the LM, Pedro Porro for RB, Udogie for LB & maybe Van de Ven as the RCB... At a push.

The rest? All Villa...

I never rated Bissouma when loads on here thought we should be signing him. He's ok but as you say drifts in and out of games too much.

I'd also say no to Udogie, he's a good player but no better than what we have really. Porro on the other hand would add depth in one of our weakest positions and is a lot better than Cash (even though I don't think Cash is as bad as a lot make him out to be).

Van de Ven has a similar problem to Udogie, he's very good but with Torres and Mings I think we're well covered there.

In general I don't think there are many players in their squad that are significantly better (or worse) than we have in the same position.

Watkins is clearly the best centre forward across the squads, Son is clearly the best left winger, Porro is clearly the best right back and Konsa is clearly the best right centre back. After that is probably mostly personal preference, we all think Emi is miles better than Vicario but given they're probably the 2 best keepers in the league right now I think it's fine to say wither would be a fantastic option for any team.

I'm sorry I must take issue with that Paul, I think Vicario is shite.

Nah, he's decent. Bit ropey on set pieces, but excellent at pretty much everything else. For what Spurs paid he's been a bargain.

And from their perspective, whatever his flaws a massive upgrade on the tail end of Lloris' career.

[Dave]

And from their perspective, whatever his flaws a massive upgrade on the tail end of Lloris' career.

True, also that.

Which I think is also why we took to Emi so quickly given the cavalcade of Nylands, Gollinis, Guzans, Kalinics etc that preceded him.

[Clark W Griswold]

So you can get 40-1 on Spurs to beat Chelsea and Liverpool plus we lose to Brighton. Or swap the Brighton loss for a draw and it is 50-1. As emotional hedges go, those are both very tasty.

I think Spurs will beat Chelsea. 

It's certainly possible, if unlikely. The way I'm looking at it is like this: If we can beat Brighton, Spurs would need to beat TWO of Chelsea, Man City and Liverpool to go ahead of us (or beat one, and draw with the other two).  And that's assuming we lose to both Liverpool and Palace, and they beat both Burnley and Sheff Utd.  There is a reason the bookies have us as the red-hot favourite for 4th.

An awful lot has to go right for them to get ahead of us. It's not impossible, but it's in our own hands, which I much prefer to relying on them to lose. Win 3 games, we're guaranteed 4th.

If the situations were reversed, 90% of the people on this forum would have written off our chances of 4th, and rightly so.  And you know what, if they do the unthinkable and win all five games from now to the end of the season, they'd probably deserve 4th.

That is all I have to say till Friday.

Friday 3rd May 2030...?

No, I'd like to comment on Friday as Spurs won't get three points, but not in an I told you so manner.
I have enlightened that Spurs have won once at the bridge in 31 Premier League games

If anyone wanted to be 'enlightened' by that fact they could just go to 11v11 and work it out themselves.

But, to be fair to you if Spurs once again get fuck all at Chelsea feel free to come on here and blather on about it as much as you like as i'll be delighted and won't really care.

[Demitri_C]

If supporting the Villa for 30 years has taught me anything, its that if any club could fuck it up, it'd be us.

And Spurs fans across the country (well, some of London, and Korea) will be saying the same thing.

Spuds fans are also saying they want to lose vs City to help them win the league. They are not as bothered  as us, seem to be more bothered that Arsenal being champions

I have a lot of spurs mates and i can confirm they would rather miss 4th if it meant arsenal didn't win league.

Very blose like.

[Dave]

[devil's advocate]

Their feelings towards Champions League qualification are probably a bit more blasé than ours. They've played in it, what, six times over the last decade or so, including a run to the final?

So while I'm sure they'd much rather be in it than not, it would be understandable if they don't see it as quite as big a deal as we do.

[/devil's advocate]

[Monty]

[devil's advocate]

Their feelings towards Champions League qualification are probably a bit more blasé than ours. They've played in it, what, six times over the last decade or so, including a run to the final?

So while I'm sure they'd much rather be in it than not, it would be understandable if they don't see it as quite as big a deal as we do.

[/devil's advocate]

That, plus some disaffection with the club's higher-ups, is I think the big story for them yeah.

[LeeB]

It's easy to be a bit sniffy about it but we never have and never will have to face the prospect of our, for want of a better phrase, 'local rivals' winning the highest honours available.

Just try and imagine it for a moment, without laughing.

[Risso]

[devil's advocate]

Their feelings towards Champions League qualification are probably a bit more blasé than ours. They've played in it, what, six times over the last decade or so, including a run to the final?

So while I'm sure they'd much rather be in it than not, it would be understandable if they don't see it as quite as big a deal as we do.

[/devil's advocate]

On the other hand...I get why Small Heath fans are why they are. They've had their entire history of being vastly inferior to us in every conceivable way. Shit club, shit ground, shit owners, shit fans and they've won as close to fuck all as makes no difference. Deep down they know that they'll always be shit, and forever destined to never win anything again. So they're jealous of us, with our fancy players, intelligent manager and the fact we're on the cusp of winning things and being in the top 4 again.

Spurs on the other hand are supposed to be a similarly sized club to Arsenal, with similar hopes and ambitions. But they'd honestly rather lose even if it damages them than see Arsenal do well. I don't get it, at all.

[ez]

[devil's advocate]

Their feelings towards Champions League qualification are probably a bit more blasé than ours. They've played in it, what, six times over the last decade or so, including a run to the final?

So while I'm sure they'd much rather be in it than not, it would be understandable if they don't see it as quite as big a deal as we do.

[/devil's advocate]

Amazingly I've heard villa fans say they'd rather us win the conference league than finish top 4.

[Dave]

Spurs on the other hand are supposed to be a similarly sized club to Arsenal, with similar hopes and ambitions. But they'd honestly rather lose even if it damages them than see Arsenal do well. I don't get it, at all.

As Lee says though, we don't have that frame of reference of needing to be bothered about it. Spurs have spent most of the last hundred being nearly, but not quite as good as their main rivals. And for the last two - three years have been watching one of their rare spells of being the better side coming to an end.

Given we've never known such a scenario and probably never will, it's hard to judge how we might react if we found ourselves in the space that Spurs fans are in.

I also imagine Spurs fans hoping they lose to Man City are in a minority.

[Olneythelonely]

[devil's advocate]

Their feelings towards Champions League qualification are probably a bit more blasé than ours. They've played in it, what, six times over the last decade or so, including a run to the final?

So while I'm sure they'd much rather be in it than not, it would be understandable if they don't see it as quite as big a deal as we do.

[/devil's advocate]

Amazingly I've heard villa fans say they'd rather us win the conference league than finish top 4.

Amazing. Villa fans want to win a trophy ahead of finishing behind 3 other teams? Mad.