Aston Villa Vulvas Sat 6th Feb KO 1230

[falkirk goon]

I wouldn't normally start a match thread during a match but Var has fucked us again at wolves so here it is.We could be on the back of a ragdolling at wolves here so my guess is confidence will be low..Villa by a couple and of course Martinez to play a blinder.

[SteveO 35]

There seems to be a view round here that sacrificing the cups was all worthwhile for these massive games. I disagreed it with it then and on the Arteta thread I said that I thought most people would agree come the end of February

This lot are fresh as daisies with all their games postponed. We are patched up to the eyeballs with walking wounded and suspensions.

There isn't a prayer of reaching the top four, and I'll be stunned if we make the EL spots with our league placing

That cup loss to Southampton was a massive mistake.

8 points off the top four having played one game more. One point behind this lot who have 3 games in hand, 2 points above 12th placed Leeds who have 2 games in hand. Was it really all worth it?

The early kick off just to add to our woes. Can't see us winning. Roll on the Europa League

[goonersid]

There seems to be a view round here that sacrificing the cups was all worthwhile for these massive games. I disagreed it with it then and on the Arteta thread I said that I thought most people would agree come the end of February

This lot are fresh as daisies with all their games postponed. We are patched up to the eyeballs with walking wounded and suspensions.

There isn't a prayer of reaching the top four, and I'll be stunned if we make the EL spots with our league placing

That cup loss to Southampton was a massive mistake.

8 points off the top four having played one game more. One point behind this lot who have 3 games in hand, 2 points above 12th placed Leeds who have 2 games in hand. Was it really all worth it?

The early kick off just to add to our woes. Can't see us winning. Roll on the Europa League

So if we we'd won the fa cup this season? All would have been ok?
As i've said before, I will judge Arteta on our league position and lge performances and not cup football.

[SteveO 35]

There seems to be a view round here that sacrificing the cups was all worthwhile for these massive games. I disagreed it with it then and on the Arteta thread I said that I thought most people would agree come the end of February

This lot are fresh as daisies with all their games postponed. We are patched up to the eyeballs with walking wounded and suspensions.

There isn't a prayer of reaching the top four, and I'll be stunned if we make the EL spots with our league placing

That cup loss to Southampton was a massive mistake.

8 points off the top four having played one game more. One point behind this lot who have 3 games in hand, 2 points above 12th placed Leeds who have 2 games in hand. Was it really all worth it?

The early kick off just to add to our woes. Can't see us winning. Roll on the Europa League

So if we we'd won the fa cup this season? All would have been ok?
As i've said before, I will judge Arteta on our league position and lge performances and not cup football.

All wouldn't have been ok by any means......just as it wasn't last season. But it would mean a trophy which ultimately the game is all about, and also provide us with a likely minimum of 10 EL games to bring through the best of our kids......just like we've done with ESR, Martinelli and Saka over the past 2-3 years. For those that still ***** themselves into a sock over the prospect of hearing the Champions League anthem, the competition also represents our best chance of getting back into it as we sure as hell won't be coming near the top 4 any time soon

[rodders999]

Only Arsenal could sign a badly needed back up keeper, have their first choice keeper sent off the very next game and not be able call on the back up because he’s already injured.

This fucking club

[SteveO 35]

Only Arsenal could sign a badly needed back up keeper, have their first choice keeper sent off the very next game and not be able call on the back up because he’s already injured.

This fucking club

Still.....we got a whopping £18m for our one! And reinvested £2m of it on Runarsson and a freebie from Brighton

[falkirk goon]

Only Arsenal could sign a badly needed back up keeper, have their first choice keeper sent off the very next game and not be able call on the back up because he’s already injured.

This fucking club

Villa have to be the shout on sat with that young ringhole in the goals Rodders,surely a beating by 2 or 3 goals with that useless prick between the sticks.

[rodders999]

Only Arsenal could sign a badly needed back up keeper, have their first choice keeper sent off the very next game and not be able call on the back up because he’s already injured.

This fucking club

Villa have to be the shout on sat with that young ringhole in the goals Rodders,surely a beating by 2 or 3 goals with that useless prick between the sticks.

Gonna spend the rest of the week searching Twitter for Matt Ryan fitness update news, yea folk that’s where we’re at

[goonersid]

Martinez, had a great 8 weeks in empty stadia, prior to that he'd had 10 years of being shite at Arsenal and on various loan deals!
We didn't offload him, he chose to leave rather than stay and challenge Leno, on the back of those 8 weeks!
He's had horror shows for Villa, as well as good performances!
We are short in the keepet dept, but FFS why do people on here keep creating mythical fucking memories of managers and players

[SteveO 35]

Martinez, had a great 8 weeks in empty stadia, prior to that he'd had 10 years of being shite at Arsenal and on various loan deals!
We didn't offload him, he chose to leave rather than stay and challenge Leno, on the back of those 8 weeks!
He's had horror shows for Villa, as well as good performances!
We are short in the keepet dept, but FFS why do people on here keep creating mythical fucking memories of managers and players

The fact remains that he was our number 2 keeper and we upgraded that number 2 to who....someone 100x more shite for 2m from the depths of the French league.....realised he was shite halfway through the season and picked up a cast off from Brighton.

You surely can't be happy with that. I thought things were bad when we had Almunia and Flappy, and even Ospina but those fuckers were goalkeeping giants compared to Runarsson

[DB10GOONER]

Football is about winning trophies. End of.

I'm not sure where this fucking pompous snowflake nonsense of preferring to qualify for something you cannot win over actually winning a trophy came from.... possibly the scum with their "but at least we play attractive football" horseshit... later taken to new heights by Wenger with his "4th place is a trophy" abomination. I'll never forget the fucking humiliation of our team doing a lap of "honour" joyously celebrating finishing 4th. How fucking sperzy was that ffs.

Fuck that. We cannot win the league with this squad or this manager. I could not give a fuck if we finish 2nd or 7th. Theres no runners up trophy. There's the league winners and the rest are losers end of.

So if we cannot win the league what can we do?

Qualify for the tedious bloated CL that we also cannot win?

Brilliant. Fuck that. I'll take a cup every single day of the fucking week and twice on Sunday.

[SteveO 35]

Football is about winning trophies. End of.

I'm not sure where this fucking pompous snowflake nonsense of preferring to qualify for something you cannot win over actually winning a trophy came from.... possibly the scum with their "but at least we play attractive football" horseshit... later taken to new heights by Wenger with his "4th place is a trophy" abomination. I'll never forget the fucking humiliation of our team doing a lap of "honour" joyously celebrating finishing 4th. How fucking sperzy was that ffs.

Fuck that. We cannot win the league with this squad or this manager. I could not give a fuck if we finish 2nd or 7th. Theres no runners up trophy. There's the league winners and the rest are losers end of.

So if we cannot win the league what can we do?

Qualify for the tedious bloated CL that we also cannot win?

Brilliant. Fuck that. I'll take a cup every single day of the fucking week and twice on Sunday.

^^ This x100

The other argument that you get is "think of the financial benefits associated with the CL". Yeah yeah - I'm not a shareholder, or the CEO of the club. I'm a fan of the club. I don't jump up and down and hug the nearest bloke to me when the balance sheet looks good........all my best memories have been going ape shit when we've won a trophy.

When i talk to my lads about '89, I still remember my usually unemotional Dad banging his fists on the carpet with joy when Mickey stuck that winner in and feeling like I never wanted the moment to end. When we won the League Cup at Wembley in '87 and broke Ian Rush's record I felt much the same

I don't quite look back as fondly at the 'miracles' of St James's Park or the Hawthorns where we secured those glorious 4th place finishes.

Finish 2nd or 17th , what difference does it make. You won nothing and you're in the same division when the season starts again.

Frankly I'm relieved we're out of the Champions League as personally I feel some of our most shameful humiliations came in that competition and its clear we qualified for it purely for the financial benefits, and had no ambition to ever go far in it from 2010 onwards. The 10-2 against Bayern, the 'not having a shot' against Barca, losing 4-0 in Milan, 1-3 to Monaco. Fuck all that thanks very much.

[DB10GOONER]

Football is about winning trophies. End of.

I'm not sure where this fucking pompous snowflake nonsense of preferring to qualify for something you cannot win over actually winning a trophy came from.... possibly the scum with their "but at least we play attractive football" horseshit... later taken to new heights by Wenger with his "4th place is a trophy" abomination. I'll never forget the fucking humiliation of our team doing a lap of "honour" joyously celebrating finishing 4th. How fucking sperzy was that ffs.

Fuck that. We cannot win the league with this squad or this manager. I could not give a fuck if we finish 2nd or 7th. Theres no runners up trophy. There's the league winners and the rest are losers end of.

So if we cannot win the league what can we do?

Qualify for the tedious bloated CL that we also cannot win?

Brilliant. Fuck that. I'll take a cup every single day of the fucking week and twice on Sunday.

^^ This x100

The other argument that you get is "think of the financial benefits associated with the CL". Yeah yeah - I'm not a shareholder, or the CEO of the club. I'm a fan of the club. I don't jump up and down and hug the nearest bloke to me when the balance sheet looks good........all my best memories have been going ape shit when we've won a trophy.

When i talk to my lads about '89, I still remember my usually unemotional Dad banging his fists on the carpet with joy when Mickey stuck that winner in and feeling like I never wanted the moment to end. When we won the League Cup at Wembley in '87 and broke Ian Rush's record I felt much the same

I don't quite look back as fondly at the 'miracles' of St James's Park or the Hawthorns where we secured those glorious 4th place finishes.

Finish 2nd or 17th , what difference does it make. You won nothing and you're in the same division when the season starts again.

Frankly I'm relieved we're out of the Champions League as personally I feel some of our most shameful humiliations came in that competition and its clear we qualified for it purely for the financial benefits, and had no ambition to ever go far in it from 2010 onwards. The 10-2 against Bayern, the 'not having a shot' against Barca, losing 4-0 in Milan, 1-3 to Monaco. Fuck all that thanks very much.

Agreed fully mate. The financial argument is nonsense too. Does our owner reinvest all that CL money in the squad? No, so how the fuck anyone can say we are better off in the CL is beyond me. I could accept that argument if the money was used to better the team.

[falkirk goon]

Football is about winning trophies. End of.

I'm not sure where this fucking pompous snowflake nonsense of preferring to qualify for something you cannot win over actually winning a trophy came from.... possibly the scum with their "but at least we play attractive football" horseshit... later taken to new heights by Wenger with his "4th place is a trophy" abomination. I'll never forget the fucking humiliation of our team doing a lap of "honour" joyously celebrating finishing 4th. How fucking sperzy was that ffs.

Fuck that. We cannot win the league with this squad or this manager. I could not give a fuck if we finish 2nd or 7th. Theres no runners up trophy. There's the league winners and the rest are losers end of.

So if we cannot win the league what can we do?

Qualify for the tedious bloated CL that we also cannot win?

Brilliant. Fuck that. I'll take a cup every single day of the fucking week and twice on Sunday.

^^ This x100

The other argument that you get is "think of the financial benefits associated with the CL". Yeah yeah - I'm not a shareholder, or the CEO of the club. I'm a fan of the club. I don't jump up and down and hug the nearest bloke to me when the balance sheet looks good........all my best memories have been going ape shit when we've won a trophy.

When i talk to my lads about '89, I still remember my usually unemotional Dad banging his fists on the carpet with joy when Mickey stuck that winner in and feeling like I never wanted the moment to end. When we won the League Cup at Wembley in '87 and broke Ian Rush's record I felt much the same

I don't quite look back as fondly at the 'miracles' of St James's Park or the Hawthorns where we secured those glorious 4th place finishes.

Finish 2nd or 17th , what difference does it make. You won nothing and you're in the same division when the season starts again.

Frankly I'm relieved we're out of the Champions League as personally I feel some of our most shameful humiliations came in that competition and its clear we qualified for it purely for the financial benefits, and had no ambition to ever go far in it from 2010 onwards. The 10-2 against Bayern, the 'not having a shot' against Barca, losing 4-0 in Milan, 1-3 to Monaco. Fuck all that thanks very much.

Agreed fully mate. The financial argument is nonsense too. Does our owner reinvest all that CL money in the squad? No, so how the fuck anyone can say we are better off in the CL is beyond me. I could accept that argument if the money was used to better the team.

I concur wholeheartedly lads 2nd or 17th who gives a flying fuck.Id take 17th and an fa cup, fuck it even a league cup over 2nd and no cup any day of the century.I think we go balls in for the europa,league games are all dead rubbers from here on in.

[GoonerMuzz]

I agree completely about winning cups over league position however saying the owner won't invest money from CL is rather strawman.

The idiot works on the self sustaining model so less money earned means less money invested, we averaged 15- 25M a year from CL so that is a huge drop in money available to cover all investment not just players, it also gives him an excuse to cut even more corners.

If I'm honest I actually hate the Thurs night Okey dokey more than the ECL.

Also I dispute the results thing, 6-0, 8-2, 6-3, even 4-4 stick in my throat more because they were against domestic rivals.....