Ramar Posted May 15, 2016 Posted May 15, 2016 Can we just pause for a second to reflect on a season Spurs were "the best team in the league".... But finished third. Today was as best an end to a miserable season we could have had.
killthenet Posted May 16, 2016 Posted May 16, 2016 Must have felt almost as good as winning a title Ramar, knew we would give you and easy game today and give you the chance to finish above Spurs. The Villa squad is going to have to have a major overhaul in the summer, I can see maybe 4 or 5 of our players that are both fit for purpose and likely to stay at the club. Gueye and Ayew will certainly be snapped up by another Premier League team, Agbonlahor would be foolish not to take the opportunity to play in China. I can see Guzan and Richards possibly going to a team like Sunderland - Allardyce seems like the kind of guy who'd liked Micah Richards - and Bacuna will probably move back to the Eredivisie. N'Zogbia and Richardson are thankfully out of contract, so that frees up £100k or so in wages. Grealish could potentially get a move, but it would have to be a loan at most because despite his potential, he hasn't had a season to convince anyone he's worth a purchase - the same goes for Jordan Amavi, but because of injury rather than his form. If Amavi had stayed fit he would have easily been one of our stand out players. Westwood, Amavi, Bennett, Steer, Gestede, Grealish, Okore, Clark, Sanchez, Gil, Baker, Gardner & Robinson are the only senior players I'd want to hold on to that we stand a realistic chance of keeping at the club. It would give us a decent spine to build a team around, then we could buy a mixture of young players and seasoned Championship pros that would surely make us competitive in the league. Unfortunately though, it is plain to see that Randy Lerner is not interested in investing any money in the squad, so the longer we go without being sold the more likely it is that we'll end up struggling again, and will probably be facing relegation to League One.
Blade Posted May 16, 2016 Posted May 16, 2016 Delph, Townsend, Wilshire and Rashford? Erm okay then. Looking like the usual scraping out the group stages only to be knocked out at the top 16 stage.
killthenet Posted May 16, 2016 Posted May 16, 2016 Townsend has been great for Newcastle over the last couple of months, so I don't have a problem with his inclusion and I expect him to go to the tournament. Wilshere, Delph and Rashford seem like the obvious 3 to get cut when the 26 goes down to 23. I'm disappointed that Antonio didn't get a call up, he's arguably been as good as Dele Alli this season. Most of the team kind of picks itself, but I'm not sure who will play on the wings. Could be any combination of Lallana, Milner, Sterling or Barkley and even Vardy, Sturridge or Rooney could do a job on the wing. In terms of Rooney, I think if he's going to start, it would be best to play him in central midfield alongside Dier or Henderson. He's played his best football in that position for United this season, and it would be a travesty if Hodgson played him in place of Alli or Kane, so hopefully Roy realises that Rooney is better utilised as a deep lying playmaker.
Fierce_LiNk Posted May 16, 2016 Posted May 16, 2016 So...a team that finished 3rd (level on points with the second placed team and four points off the leaders) are out of contention for promotion to the Premier League, yet a team that finished 15 points beneath them are one game away from doing so. The Play-Offs are a load of shit, tbh. It's anti-football. If you finish third, you should be going up. Just wait until they do a play-off for the last/third relegation spot in the future.
Blade Posted May 16, 2016 Posted May 16, 2016 So...a team that finished 3rd (level on points with the second placed team and four points off the leaders) are out of contention for promotion to the Premier League, yet a team that finished 15 points beneath them are one game away from doing so. The Play-Offs are a load of shit, tbh. It's anti-football. If you finish third, you should be going up. Just wait until they do a play-off for the last/third relegation spot in the future. I think it gives "something to play for". Similarly with the Premier League and the Champions League spots. Although the team that did get into a play off final spot tonight are the most luckiest team ever known to man. The jammy bastards! They'll end up getting promoted too!
ipaul Posted May 17, 2016 Posted May 17, 2016 So...a team that finished 3rd (level on points with the second placed team and four points off the leaders) are out of contention for promotion to the Premier League, yet a team that finished 15 points beneath them are one game away from doing so. The Play-Offs are a load of shit, tbh. It's anti-football. If you finish third, you should be going up. Just wait until they do a play-off for the last/third relegation spot in the future. The system does look mental when results like this occur. I think it's because there's so many teams in the Championship that they don't want so much of it to look like mid table with nothing to play for. I agree though, it should just be the top 3 teams. Although maybe I'll change my mind if we finish 6th next season....
Charlie Posted May 17, 2016 Posted May 17, 2016 (edited) So...a team that finished 3rd (level on points with the second placed team and four points off the leaders) are out of contention for promotion to the Premier League, yet a team that finished 15 points beneath them are one game away from doing so. The Play-Offs are a load of shit, tbh. It's anti-football. If you finish third, you should be going up. Just wait until they do a play-off for the last/third relegation spot in the future. It's like the split in the SPL. The team that finishes 6th can have fewer points than the teams below! Edit - I've just checked and this did happen. I understand the reasoning behind it,the clubs at the top of the bottom-half of the split (Inverness and Dundee) are playing worse teams than Motherwell and Ross County but the table just looks daft. 5. Motherwell - 50 points 6. Ross County - 48 points 7. Inverness - 52 points 8. Dundee - 48 points 9. Partick Thisle - 46 points Edited May 17, 2016 by Charlie
Hero-of-Time Posted May 17, 2016 Posted May 17, 2016 Wow. Derby could actually do this. They've managed to get 2 goals already and are easily looking the better side.
Julius Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Haven't seen anyone mention the fact that BT Sport are allowing both subscribers and non-subscribers access to watching the UEL and UCL finals live. I think it's great.
Goron_3 Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Looking forward to tonight's match. Hoping Liverpool start with Sturridge upfront and Firmino, Lallana and Coutihno behind him. Do it for MadDog!
nekunando Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Haven't seen anyone mention the fact that BT Sport are allowing both subscribers and non-subscribers access to watching the UEL and UCL finals live. I think it's great. Yeh.. I'm watching on Freeview channel 59 The slight irritation for me is that I subscribed to BT Sport for a bargain £2.50 a month largely for this. If Liverpool don't win, it'll be a bit of a waste as I could have watched the final anyway and we won't have any European football next season I need us to win tonight
Hero-of-Time Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Haven't seen anyone mention the fact that BT Sport are allowing both subscribers and non-subscribers access to watching the UEL and UCL finals live. I think it's great. Thanks for the heads up! Chuffed to bits I can now watch this.
lostmario Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 So...a team that finished 3rd (level on points with the second placed team and four points off the leaders) are out of contention for promotion to the Premier League, yet a team that finished 15 points beneath them are one game away from doing so. The Play-Offs are a load of shit, tbh. It's anti-football. If you finish third, you should be going up. Just wait until they do a play-off for the last/third relegation spot in the future. When that team who finished 15 points behind are Sheffield Wednesday, I don't care. Come on Wednesday! Not getting carried away but no one thought at the start of the season that Wednesday would be in a position where they would be one game away from the Premier League, so whatever happens it's been a great season.
Hero-of-Time Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 When that team who finished 15 points behind are Sheffield Wednesday, I don't care. Come on Wednesday! Not getting carried away but no one thought at the start of the season that Wednesday would be in a position where they would be one game away from the Premier League, so whatever happens it's been a great season. If Hull play like they did last night then Shef Wed should butcher them.
killthenet Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Haven't seen anyone mention the fact that BT Sport are allowing both subscribers and non-subscribers access to watching the UEL and UCL finals live. I think it's great. I think it's appalling. Theirs and UEFA's refusal to negotiate with ITV to allow them to broadcast one Champions League game and a couple of Europa League games a week - as has been the case in every other season - is dreadful. BT promised to offer one game a week on free to air TV, but their selection was almost always a Europa league game involving smaller non-British teams. And Sky subscribers were cut out from viewing the free games completely. Offering everyone the chance to watch the finals is the least they could do. Thankfully UEFA have come out and said they regret the BT Sport deal, so hopefully there will be some sort of negotiation that will allow a return to how things used to be.
Julius Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 I think it's appalling. Theirs and UEFA's refusal to negotiate with ITV to allow them to broadcast one Champions League game and a couple of Europa League games a week - as has been the case in every other season - is dreadful. BT promised to offer one game a week on free to air TV, but their selection was almost always a Europa league game involving smaller non-British teams. And Sky subscribers were cut out from viewing the free games completely. Offering everyone the chance to watch the finals is the least they could do. Thankfully UEFA have come out and said they regret the BT Sport deal, so hopefully there will be some sort of negotiation that will allow a return to how things used to be. I meant that I think it's great that we're getting it given to us regardless, not many businesses would do that. But I do agree. I miss UCL evenings.
Ramar Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 I think it's appalling. Theirs and UEFA's refusal to negotiate with ITV to allow them to broadcast one Champions League game and a couple of Europa League games a week - as has been the case in every other season - is dreadful. BT promised to offer one game a week on free to air TV, but their selection was almost always a Europa league game involving smaller non-British teams. And Sky subscribers were cut out from viewing the free games completely. Offering everyone the chance to watch the finals is the least they could do. Thankfully UEFA have come out and said they regret the BT Sport deal, so hopefully there will be some sort of negotiation that will allow a return to how things used to be. Bollocks. If ITV or Sky wanted the matches they should have paid for them. Don't lose any sleep over multi-million pound companies out doing each other.
killthenet Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Bollocks. If ITV or Sky wanted the matches they should have paid for them. Don't lose any sleep over multi-million pound companies out doing each other. But UEFA should have made it a caveat of the deal that there would be a more substantial free to air schedule. I guess it's not a problem they've had to contend with before, because ITV have always had a share of the rights, but it sets a terrible precedent that could see things going the same way as the Premier League. Obviously we're all used to having no live Premier League coverage on the BBC or ITV because it's been that way for 20 years or so, but imagine the uproar if it happened nowadays. In other news, it seems Villa have finally got a new owner. Looking like we'll appoint Roberto Di Matteo as manager and Damian Comolli as director of football, both with mixed records but good that there's finally some movement.
Hero-of-Time Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 I'm hoping that those missed chances don't come back and bite us in the butt....
killthenet Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 Sevilla tearing Liverpool apart now. Another problem I have with BT Sport is that their coverage is dog shit. They employ the worst people as pundits and commentators. Owen Hargreaves as co-commentator? I'd rather have Michael Owen.
Fierce_LiNk Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 This is a great game. I thought both goals were really well taken and with an excellent build-up. The tie is well balanced. Next goal is absolutely crucial.
Happenstance Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 I'd rather have Michael Owen. Woah, woah, now let's not say something we can't take back!
Fierce_LiNk Posted May 18, 2016 Posted May 18, 2016 I've never found Michael Owen to be THAT bad. He's not a natural pundit and doesn't really have the charisma or personality for television, but I wouldn't say he's god awful. There is a bit of a "it's cool to take the piss out of him" thing going on.
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