Preston North End vs Aston Villa pre-match thread

[Dave]

Emi
Garcia
Konsa
Mings
Maatsen

Onana
Kamara

Bailey
Asensio
Rashford

Malen

Pretty much first team but give Youri, Digne McGinn and Rogers a break.

[Dave]

F365 saying generally nice things about us again.

Firmly in the conversation for being ‘too big for so long without a trophy’, Aston Villa need this and the fans deserve this.

Winning the FA Cup would be tangible proof of their incredible rise under Unai Emery but again, we feel qualifying for the Champions League takes precedence for the Midlands club. They have made the quarter-final of this season’s competition and have French champions and European bottlers Paris Saint-Germain between them and a semi-final. Honestly, if Arsenal somehow overcome Real Madrid, you would fancy Villa to reach the final; it would be so Arsenal to back up knocking out the European champions with a semi-final defeat to Emery’s side.

Villa are ninth in the Premier League but such is the tightness of the top half, they are only three points behind Man City in fifth, which should be enough to qualify for Europe’s premier competition. Goal difference could be crucial and Villa’s is crap – they are on minus four and only the bottom five teams are worse off in that regard.

The Villans were the lucky Premier League team drawn against Preston North End – the other quarter-finalist and only Championship or below club left. The tie being at Deepdale means it could be sticky, but you fancy Villa to get through and just like that they have a date at Wembley booked. If you get that far, you would be as well winning it, right?

[Brend'Watkins]

The Guardian has done a paragraph on all the QF games. With our tie they’ve focused on KKH not playing and have sort of intimated he should be allowed to play.

[Nev]

The Guardian has done a paragraph on all the QF games. With our tie they’ve focused on KKH not playing and have sort of intimated he should be allowed to play.

Which I thought was a bit shit. There is no sentimentality in the game, otherwise we'd throw the tie in favour of the lower league club.

It's a shame that he isn't playing but it's a shame that we haven't won it since '57 but that's no reason to change the rules.*




* It is.

[VillaTim]

Is Watkins injured ?

[Dave]

Injury stopped him being called up for England and he played no part in the match out in Dubai, presumably for the same reason. But there have been no reports of it being anything serious.

But even then, it doesn't really feel like a match he needs to start.

[Somniloquism]

The Guardian has done a paragraph on all the QF games. With our tie they’ve focused on KKH not playing and have sort of intimated he should be allowed to play.

The Quote.

Aston Villa very considerately sent Kaine Kesler-Hayden to Preston last summer for the fifth loan spell of his career. The 22-year-old has made only five senior appearances for his parent club, hence the requirement for him to gain experience in the Championship. It seems extremely unfair that he is not eligible to play against Villa on Sunday, leaving Preston short of a player and Kesler-Hayden to miss out on an incredible opportunity. Surely Unai Emery is not afraid that his third-choice right-back is better than what he currently has in his squad, and would like to see what he can do to prove he has a long-term future at Villa Park. Admittedly, it would put Kesler-Hayden in an awkward position but he would no doubt prefer a chance to reach the top of the game. An FA Cup quarter-final is not a regular or guaranteed occurrence in anyone’s playing career.

So Preston will only have 10 players on the pitch because that bully Emery insisted he should be banned.

(I'm not sure if the ruling is FA based or loaning club based for the FA Cup, but definitely for the Prem it is premier league rules and has nothing to do with loaning club).

[ADVILLAFAN]

Idiotic piece by the Guardian. It's a rule in the FA Cup, players are not allowed to play their Parent Club.

There's nothing Villa could do to change that.

[OCD]

That reads like we can give our consent for him to play when presumably the rules don't give us a chance to give our consent.

[Sexual Ealing]

We could have given our consent.

[Brend'Watkins]

The more I read it the more I feel they are very much on our case.  "Only 5 senior appearances" Yes, that's why he's gone on loan to gain additional experience you twats. There's every chance he will be back in contention next season. 

[Dave]

We could have given our consent.

Nah.

Temporary (loan) Transfers
(i) A player on a temporary (loan) transfer is ineligible to compete in the Challenge Cup
Competition unless permission to do so is given by the lending Club in writing and a
copy is received by The Association by 12 noon on the Friday prior to the date fixed
for playing the Round. Any permissions must clearly state that the player has
approval to play in The FA Challenge Cup Competition. A registered Trainee or a
player who is registered on a Scholarship for work experience may play for another
Club, subject to written permission being given by the Club that he is registered to
and provided that such permission is received by The Association by 12 noon on the
Friday prior to the date fixed for playing the Round. The Association will not give
permission for players on loan or work experience to play against the lending Club

Pretty cut-and-dried.

[cdbearsfan]

We could have given our consent.

No, we couldn't.

Unless you mean we could have given our consent in the hope that they'd be stupid enough to play him and got kicked out if they win so we sneak back in, in which case I agree.

[Brend'Watkins]

We could have given our consent.

If it was allowed that we could, can you imagine the outcry if he gave the ball away needlessly in the box for us to score? 

[Clampy]

Has the 'journalist' who wrote the piece put their name to it? He/she may have a twitter account where you can pull them up on it.