‘Damn you Unai Emery’ as (most) Villa fans are out and proud
Aston Villa fans are on the floor but feeling proud of their heroes. Well, most are; there’s always one who wants to talk missed chances.
Send your mails on any subject to theeditor@football365.com
Pride of Brum
If you are going to go out, you go out like that.
Proud.
Paul
…F**king hell.
I feel like Richard E Grant at the end of Withnail and I.
Up the Villa.
Neil Raines
…As you rightly pointed out (in a rare Villa specific article – and no, ones leading with Rashford don’t count) if you had said that we would reach the CL quarter final and beat one of the best teams in Europe but narrowly go out but a few short years ago, I would have called you mad and given you a wide berth in future.
It feels weird to be proud of a result that ultimately means this wonderful run is over, but by god those lads fought and battled to the very end and nearly pulled off the impossible.
I had zero expectation of this competition, finishing in the playoff spots would have been a great result before it all kicked off, but here we are falling at the QF stage and I genuinely cannot fault a single player, and can only send my thanks for giving me/us such a wonderful ride.
Hopefully we can continue this momentum as I have tasted the ambrosia and really want some more.
Nik. UTV (It’s been 5 years almost to the day, since one of my best friends passed away – Laz Cassar for any ex/current forummers reading this – and I remember saying I didn’t think I would ever see us play in the CL. The timing of this game was poignant)
…I’m too old to lose my shit like I did when I sat in the North Stand Lower when Collymore put on in the top corner against the Vieri inspired Atletico in the UEFA cup in 98, which took the roof off Villa Park.
But I still gave out a yell large enough to spring my kids out of their seats tonight as I watched Villa against a top class PSG side.
I’ve been trying to explain to my kids how you can (maybe) beat an infinitely better team by being your best and not giving up to the point that their spirit breaks. My son understood that today. PSG didn’t break and fair play to them they are quality, but we showed that we bent and bent them towards that point. It wasn’t enough for the win but it was enough for maximum pride. Nine odd years ago we were getting relegated and that turned out to be the best thing for us…what a ride it’s been since.
Duck
…Put enough things in a prediction-based mail and some of it will stand up. (See yesterday). Bit like a Mystic Meg horoscope.
Super proud of Villa tonight. Could be annoyed at the mistakes for the goals conceded. Could be annoyed at the chances missed. I’ll take my cue from the man that’s got us this far though and just enjoy being here and performing like that in the 2nd half, when Villa could have capitulated. I hope Villa can kick on from this and finish strong. I have more hope that they can than I would have had if they’d have been crushed by 4 or 5.
Gary AVFC, Oxford (Oh Ezri! And Marco)
Actually…
I’m a Villa fan and Sarah Winterburn’s flat out wrong. Few tears? No lingering regrets? Sorry, that is the very price of being a half decent team. I still regret Gazza not getting to that ball across the goalmouth in the Euro 96 semi. And it will be a long, long time before I stop reliving that save from Rashford or wondering what might have been if Ascensio had taken it round the keeper instead of shooting straightaway. Damn you, Unai Emery. You made me hope and we all know what hope does to you.
Matt Pitt
Villa and Emery deserve plaudits
Fair play to Villa, what a brilliant tournament for them and a brilliant result in the second leg. They seemed to really rattle PSG and had the chances to win the whole tie.
What Emery has done there has been nothing short of excellent and I’ll say again as an Arsenal fan I’m really pleased he gets to show what a good manager he is in this country after his messy time at Arsenal. Firmly falls into the right man, wrong time category for me, we had a bunch of precious prima donnas who downed tools for him and a bunch of egomaniacs at board level battling for power, whomever was in that seat wouldn’t have survived.
I hope all Villa fans can get past the disappointment and be dead proud of their club and what they’ve done, really hope they can push on now and get into the top 5 and qualify again for the Champs League. It’s been great watching a club I consider an English Heritage Club climbing back up the ladder to the top table.
With my Arsenal hat on I’m kind of pleased they went out though as if….if…IF….Arsenal can finish the job in Madrid I’d much rather play PSG purely because I hate playing teams from your own country in Europe. This is mainly as I’ve been scarred by Arsenal’s poor record with losses to Chelsea (03/04 & 18/19) and Liverpool (07/08) and losing to a country rival seems to hurt so much more.
However, the SF is irrelevant as we have an epic game tonight, we all know what Madrid are capable of even if they are supposedly out of sorts, the Chumps League is just their tournament. If Madrid win then fair f*cks as they’ll have to do something special to do it but repeat the first leg performance (more so the second half performance) and we should be in with a bloody good shout. Not sure how my nerves are going to hold up getting to this evening though…
Lee AFC Bristol
No sympathy for Yoro
I get that United fans don’t like to hear criticism, who does, especially when you’re absolutely shit and all the criticism is 100% justified.
I am however baffled why they think Henry was “bullying” Yoro. Henry was making a point about the fact Yoro was looking at linesman instead of …doing his job and looking at either the ball or his man.
I’ve seen fans saying that all defenders do this. Maybe they do, to be honest I haven’t noticed. But what I do know for 100% sure is that they SHOULDNT be looking at the linesman. Every single professional manager will always say the exact same thing to every single player – you should always play to the whistle. Once the whistle has blown, then you can complain to the ref or linesman if you like. Before that point do your job and stop trying to do the ref’s job.
Henry is 100% correct. Sorry United fans. Also are we really calling criticism bullying? It’s not like he took the piss out of his hairstyle while saying he runs like a girl. He was literally talking about mistakes in his game.
Will Virgil van Dijk ever get criticised? That’s not the first time this season that he’s made a bumbling error which led to a goal , he also did it twice last year as well. Yet somehow Robbo was the one who got criticised when it was definitely not his fault. Van Dijk very rarely seems to get criticised but in total truth there are quite a few errors in his game, people can’t seem to tell but there is definite decline. He doesn’t pass like he used to and he loses his man a fair amount these days.
Finally after a good three paragraph mail about how shit transfer speculation is the editor ended my letter with the following text
READ: Liverpool man who *must* leave, multiple Man Utd targets in Premier League transfer target XI
Gotta admit, it made me laugh. Kudos ed.
Lee
…If he plays with men then he’s going to get a man’s review.
Y.N.W.A.
Ian Smith
…Jill Scott was asked in an interview ‘What’s Roy Keane like?’ ‘He does have a rant, but you know what? He’s usually right’
I’m starting to think this is true. On the Overlap Roy was having a ‘rant’ about Man U and Bruno as captain.
Ian Wright said ‘you can’t have a go at Bruno’ to which Roy replied ‘who can we have a go at then? You can’t have a go at him because he’s young, you can’t have a go at him because he’s new to the premier league’.
Thierry Henry pointed out mistakes and confusion of a younger player. He is completely right to dig him out for it.
If you take to the pitch you need to be ready. You can blood players in, of course, but you start and play? Then you’re as equal to any player on the pitch
Henry pointed out his naivety and rawness….. but getting dug out will help him.
Rob (Henry is a superb pundit, is there anything he can’t do?)
Why was Carra forgiven?
People in the Mailbox complaining about the punditry of Jamie Carragher… It’s quite astounding how everyone seems to have glossed over how he spat at a child and her dad. Why have we forgotten/forgiven that? I’m sure he’d been getting a lot of verbals, but I wouldn’t spit at someone like that if I was in my teens, let alone as a father in my 40s as he was at the time. I find the collective amnesia really weird, especially as other people have been sacked/cancelled for far less.
Lewis, Busby Way