TWar

It's really common to play half your first 11 and half your depth players and then swap to the other halves. It gets everyone fit and gives players a chance to gel with people they wouldn't otherwise gel with in a competitive environment, it also gives everyone the chance to impress. Here are the lineups from friendlies for other prem sides: Leicester Brighton (strongish but no Dunk, Webster, Welbeck) very much a depth option CB pairing. Palace (a lot of players I don't expect to start but maybe new signings aren't ready yet, no Benteke, Milo, or Gallagher starting though) Brentford

OK, not great. He works hard and is good in the press, hasn't been much of a threat in front of goal but made our first goal against Cardiff with his pressing and hard work followed by a simple pass to an unmarked Walcott. Judging by how amazing a number of other players looked against Cardiff (Djenepo, Redmond) who I don't think are that great I think they were just very poor opposition. Therefore the fact Oba only looked good ment that I am not that impressed to be honest, same with Elyounoussi. In the Swansea game him and Ings played the final 30 mins or so and both looked thoroughly ineffective to be honest. I think I'd probably look to cash in about £5m if I were the club. Tella is an absolute tonne more exciting and plays a similar role in the squad, he looked world class against Cardiff, my man of the match, and good at Swansea too. Maybe slightly unlucky though as has been paired with Ings in preseason mostly with Che and Long paired up and Ings looks well off the pace so far.

Yep, players and staff will be required to vaccinate too: https://theathletic.com/2722921/2021/07/23/explained-the-premier-league-and-compulsory-covid-19-vaccinations/ (paid but better source) https://www.goal.com/en/news/premier-league-footballers-will-need-to-have-covid-19/1sd0s4fb1m0zc10yhowqonebed (free but less well written)

1% of people dying is still a big deal because of how infectious it is, also the COVID death rate in this country is higher than that. Pre-vaccine polio killed about up to 750 people a year from 7760 cases with a deathrate of about 10% (https://vk.ovg.ox.ac.uk/vk/polio). COVID between March 2020 and today killed about 130,000 people from about 5.8 million cases (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/uk/) in the UK. This is a deathrate of about 2%. The deathrate of COVID is less than 1/5th of Polio but polio killed in a year less than 1% of the people Covid does because it was less infectious. This is why discussing the death rate % rather than number who have actually died is stupid.

I'm also in the "villa without Grealish are worse than us" camp. Grealish didn't start 12 games last season, from them they got 12 points, third lowest in the league in that period. Villa without Grealish are a one point a game side, which is firmly "relegation battler" level. Dunno if Bailey and Buendia boost them that heavily tbh, Buendia certainly wasn't much of a difference maker last time he was in the prem with the same number of goal involvements as Nathan Redmond. Bailey seems alright but german fans are hardly unanimously positive about him, have heard people say things like "he has 5 good games a year".

Feels like another KWP Hojbjerg "not a swap" swap deal could happen.

It's all about his importance to us really, and Ralph has repeatedly called him our most important player. Skillwise he's probably about £40-45m, but add on an extra £5m for being English, £5m for selling to a rival, and £10m because of how hard he is to replace in our system and I think that's where the money comes from. As Villa don't need English players as their home grown quota is very healthy and they don't need him to complete their team like we do, I see our valuations as being quite far apart.

He will be much closer to £65m for me, I very much doubt we deal below £50m and I very much doubt Villa reach £50m. It'll be Emile Smith-Rowe all over again, lowball pointless offers and then they will remember they are a midtable side and stop punting above their weight.

Bailley is massively hot and cold, german fans considered him wildly inconsistent. Cantwell averages 7 goal involvements a season over the last three seasons and two of those is in the championship and was bang average last season and dropped a lot. Buendia has good chance creation but not much else, was very poor last time up. Watkins is pretty average imo too, looked good playing with Grealish but without him looked dreadful, think he was carried by Grealish a bit. Pukki only got three fewer goals than Watkins in the prem and didn't have the privilege of playing with one of europes best creators, without Grealish I very much doubt Pukki would have topped that last season. Obviously it is better than Norwich as Bailey is more promising than McClean/Tettey. And I don't think they will have nearly as bad a season as their midfield and defence are both much better. I do think it is worthy of notice that an attack that consists mostly of Buendia, Cantwell and Watkins doesn't feel that much better than one that consists mostly of Buendia, Cantwell, and Pukki. Top 6 is a very bold prediction imo, as others have said they weren't a top half side with Grealish and they are definitely downgrading.

Villa linked with Cantwell as a Grealish replacement, wow that's a step down! Front four of Buendia Cantwell Bailley Watkins isn't that much better than the one Norwich finished 20th with. One more team I think we would be very competitive with.

People massively reading into things here, no one is immune to injury, JWP needs a rest as much as anyone, and a slight knee injury he might play through in the season probably isn't worth pushing in friendlies, especially when Diallo and Romeu both need minutes. A bit conspiracy theory for me, we ain't going to call a clubs bid "derisory" and then put the player on hold for them, Ings is much more likely to leave imo and he's played both games.

Salisu with a "glad it's only a friendly moment" but aside from that we've been all over them and they've been 0 threat.

The loan doesn't need to be paid for 5 years (4 years now) and will be paid off with ticket sales/TV money. Semmens said repeatedly the loan will not be paid back with transfer budget and is not due any time soon so people need to stop worrying about it.

I'm a big proponent of buy low sell high but I don't think this is JWP peak. I back him to have a great season, keep improving, maybe make the England squad, and be a great asset next year at 27 with 3 years left on his contract. There is more growth in him.

This is why we won't imo. If we weren't losing Vest and Ings this summer (or at best next summer) we might consider big bids for JWP around £50m but I think he won't be for sale even at that as we can't lose all our important players at once, and JWP is our most important by a good margin.

A players value if they aren't for sale is whatever the club selling them would accept for them. A players value if they are for sale is whatever the highest bidder will give. Since JWP is categorically not for sale and is a massive part of our future plans, I'd describe it as the former.

No, I don't. I think Villa put in a derisory offer about half his value, as said in the athletic, and they won't up it to what we want and therefore he will stay.

Alright mate, we'll see.

Saints captain, one less goal contribution than Grealish, on a long term deal vs Brightons 2nd/3rd best CB after his first season in the premier league. I feel we probably would expect quite a bit more than White.

No doubt there is truth. Villa definitely did bid I reckon. It's a saints classic, lose a big name, make some bids on ambitious signings way below their value to excite the fanbase, then find more realistic targets later in the window.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/football/2021/07/30/exclusive-manchester-city-make-jack-grealish-transfer-bid-100million/ Looks like Grealish might be off. Bad news for those who like a competitive league at the top, good news for us as Villa without Grealish are dreadful so big big shoes to fill.

Leach clearing things up a bit. Djenepo is not expected to be our back up left back but could be third or fourth choice if really needed.

Didn't realise at the time but three of our goals were absolute beauties. Individual class from Djenepo, phenomenal throughball from Tella and very clever finish from Che, and an excellent interplay goal with Tella and Che both showing incredible composure, quality and pace. I have been saying all summer attacking mid is our number one priority but I'm not too proud to admit I was wrong if Tella keeps playing like this.

Exactly! Gao's job is to hire someone to manage the football side of things, he has, and I rate that person. Certainly a hell of a lot more than the guys who tanked us post Koeman.

Why would a football club need a USP? I think a lot of this is overcomplicating the issue. We don't need the chairman to have a "plan" or "vision", this isn't a marketing exercise, the aim is to win football matches. Gao ain't investing or taking money out, we use what we make, and it is Semmens job to turn that into results on the pitch. His strategy is to buy young, develop and sell at a profit. Not a bad one at all in my eyes. It will work to keep us competitive imo but it won't propel us up the table by default. We need good scouting, good youth and a good manager, I think recently we have shown all those things. I am quietly optimistic.