Barring a miracle, after tonight's 4-0 hammering against Leicester City at the King Power Stadium, it now appears inevitable that Conor and his mates will be plying their trade in the Championship next season. What a pity that looking at the current table,it looks as if we won't have the pleasure of welcoming back one of our favourite ex- Reds to Oakwell, as we will in all likelihood be back in League One. Leicester were ruthless tonight and it was great to see our former loanee Harvey Barnes being singled out for the Man of the Match award. Definitely one for the future is young Harvey.
Shame, my favourite stadium in the whole county. Away concourse in the upper tier isn’t the safest mind, but what a beautiful stadium they’ve got. Fortunately I’ll be going with England in the summer and sitting in the Holte end. But I’d love to see us play a league game there again one day.
Last season’s promoted sides in all divisions struggling - with the exception of Blades, and Lincoln. Villa and Norwich look like they’re going back down, as do all three of the sides promoted from league one. Even the sides that went up from League two are looking shaky - MK Dons and Tranmere, not to mention poor old Bury.
And the rest. They have lost their last four games scoring three and conceding eleven. Out of those losses, they were beaten 2-1 by fellow strugglers Bournemouth and 2-0 by Southampton, which has not helped their cause. They have ten games still left to play. At Villa Park they entertain Chelsea (4th), Manchester United (5th), Wolverhampton Wanderers (6th), Sheffield United (7th) and Arsenal ( 9th). All of those teams will be vying to qualify for the coveted Champions League slots, so it won't be easy for the Villa. Their other home game is against Crystal Palace (11th). Their four away games include a trip to Anfield to face Liverpool (1st) and three teams who will be desperate to consolidate their position in the table re- Everton(12th), Newcastle United (13th) and West Ham United (16th). Over the past fifteen seasons, the average number of points needed to avoid the drop, has been forty points. After nineteen games, Villa have accrued 25 points, which means that as minimum ,they would need to get an additional fifteen points from those remaining ten games. Personally, looking at those games their current poor form and the lack of goals, as far as I am concerned, it will take a massive effort to get to forty. One thing in their favour, is that their influential striker John McGinn is around three weeks away from a comeback after incurring an ankle injury in December. Two keepers Tom Heaton ( Cruciate ligament) , Jed Steer ( Torn Achilles) and Brazilian striker Wesley Moreas ( Anterior cruciate ligament) are all out for the remainder of the season. They will be hoping that they can keep Jack Grealish fit, otherwise they would definitely have a slim chance of surviving.
The best thing for Conor is to not search his name on Twitter. Lots of abuse from their fans calling him championship quality and one trick pony with free kicks. A lot even want Dean Smith sacked!!!
Can't be arsed looking but didn't Villa spend a lot of money last summer too? Expect Dean Smith to be sacked if they are relegated.
I’m sure Villa were very close and needed to go up. No idea if they’ll be affected when they come down.
Villa's Board claim compliance, but like Wednesday and Derby, their calculations involve the sale of their ground to their owners. It will be very interesting to see how the powers that be interpret those claims and if it is in breach of FFP rules, what kind of a penalty they finally decide upon. Whatever the outcome re- fine and/or points deduction or automatic relegation, it seems only fair that the penalty is imposed in the season when the investigation takes place instead of applying it at the start of the new one. That way, it would serve as a deterrent to any club thinking of taking similar action in the future. https://www.expressandstar.com/spor...ts-as-club-confirms-30m-randy-lerner-payment/
Speaking generally, all this ground sale malarkey sounds ridiculous, but I suppose they can only sell a ground once. Presumably after that, these clubs have nowhere else to go and will have to get their houses in order.
