Emery ‘owes the referee a drink’ for screwing Aston Villa as ‘man child’ ruins Villans legacy
The Premier League’s final day was full of drama, but it’s a ‘comical’ decision at Manchester United that cost Aston Villa Champions League football which dominates the Mailbox.
Send your views on a crazy final day and what happens next to theeditor@football365.com…
Villa didn’t show up
Imagine that to make a the CL all you need to do is beat a team that hasn’t won in the league in months, just lost a crucial final a few days before and has it’s worst finish in modern memory.
Then you simply don’t show up. No shots on target. 30ish possession. Then your talismanic keeper talismanically earns a clear early bath.
Make no mistake, in public Emery will rage at the ref, but in private he should be buying him a drink, because Villa lost that match utterly and thoroughly of their own volition, and now he has an excuse.
Ryan, Bermuda
Good process, boys
Just when we’d thought VAR and Darren England’s infamous “good process” call last season summited the peak of PGMOL buffoonery, along comes Thomas Bramall to fly ever higher with relish. Take a bow good sir, you’ve single-handedly outdone all who’ve shat the sheets before you and I definitely know what your new crown is made of.
I am nowhere near being a Villa fan and that left me seething. A club’s entire trajectory has been knocked back because of one idiotic decision by an undercooked imbecile far, far out of his depth at this level. And how in the world is Howard Webb allowed to continue his purview, overseeing such farcical degrees of incompetence with absolutely no accountability.
Can’t wait to hear how Webb spins all this with another round of rehearsed, contrite bullsh*t followed by disingenuous babble in the coming days. Such a comical way to end the season but not surprising in the least.
Eric, Los Angeles CA (Equally unsurprising that all of England’s traditional ‘big six’ clubs have once again qualified for Champions League football next term.)
Emi Martinez…
How to ruin your legacy:
1. Bring attention to yourself that want to leave the club, the game before last game where need a result.
2. Change your agent during the lead up to the big game.
3. Get yourself sent off during the big game.
Man child is some plonker.
Paul
VAR farces
Well done VAR once again for interfering and screwing up and costing two clubs a fortune.
Firstly, having enjoyed a full season without the Stockley Park idiots, we then have to welcome them for the Champo final at Wembley. Without VAR, the Blades second goal stands as the ref allowed the goal, and in all probability, we go up to the Premier League. But no. In steps VAR and overturns the decision (correctly) and we manage to screw it up by sitting back and allowing Sunderland to win the game. Cost to United – around £130m as an estimate.
Then we get the farce at OT when VAR cannot step in because the schoolboy running the game blew his whistle before Villa scored. What is the point of having VAR if a clearly wrong decision cannot be rectified? If that goal stands, then the probability is that Villa either win or hold out for a draw. Cost to Villa – around £100m as an estimate.
That’s two incredibly expensive decisions influenced (or not) by VAR. They should be made to re-imburse Villa and should be barred from all future play off finals where teams are used to not having the interfering prats doing all they can to rule out goals. Leave it to the ref and the lino’s.
At first, pretty peeved that we didn’t make it 10th time lucky in the play-offs (lost the previous 9), but on reflection, I think we may have swerved another season of misery and frustration dealing with VAR decisions. Good luck to the Black Cats – they are going to need it – but I think I’d rather enjoy the game than put up with the VAR nonsense.
Either scrap VAR or fix it, because at present what we cannot cure, we have to endure.
Bladey Mick (Happy days are here again)
Poor refereeing
On the balance of play Utd deserve the win and no arguments about the red card.
But to blow the whistle for a foul on Rogers when it clearly isn’t has lowered the bar for the standard of refereeing to an all time low. It’s a game changer that one. We might still have lost but I’m fuming.
Iain, Worcestershire
Oh, Villa…
Once again, a ref has decided the future of a club.
We haven’t shown up. We were a man down and but the ref decided this and we have financial holes to fill.
Paul
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Corruptionés, corruptionés
Soz Villa,
After pethically losing the Europa to a team that couldn’t even shoot, we had to use all our left-over Red Cartel corruption powers to ensure we finished 16th. Probably should have leveraged our undisputed red bias earlier in the season but I think Ruben just didn’t know our shirt allows us to rig all decisions and games in our favour. So while it hurts right now, just know that the prem needed us to finish 16th so everyone else can eat next year.
P.S. F*cking Lol by Bayandir – that’s a goal. F*cking sh*te by Villa – get what you deserve (like us)
Moses
Can Newcastle take the next step?
It’s hard to believe PIF have only been in charge at Newcastle for 3.5 years. 2 cup finals, 2 champions league qualifications, surviving the threat of instant relegation and winning their first major trophy for 70 years. Not bad for a group that a lot of UK media views as worse than the British Empire, Hamas and the CCP rolled into one.
9 of the players who started their last game were PIF aquisitions as the squad’s Mike Ashley players have been slowly upgraded since the takeover. Evolution not revolution. Method not madness.
This summer Newcastle have a chance that won’t come again. To give Eddie Howe the squad (not just the first 15) that he deserves for his spectacular achievements. Trafford, Guehi, Asensio and Mbuemo would cost about £180m. Even if Paul Mitchell has to turn tricks down the docks to raise the money, they have to give Eddie the players he needs. If not, that vacant England role in the summer of 2026 will look mighty attractive to Mr Howe.
Anon
…Joey Windle LFC what an arrogant and bias article
Be humble in victory not look down your nose at others. Oh how perfect LFC as they celrbrate just 2nd title in 34 years.
Enjoy while it lasts and be humble as you will get your comeuppance one day.
JV25
Welcome, Thomas Frank
Morning all
I’ve decided to put my deep regret at not having travelled to Bilbao to one side to offer some thoughts on Ange. Maybe it’ll be the catharsis that Wednesday night would have been had I not passed up tickets twice. Yeah, that’s right, twice.
As ever it’s so far been a case of internet poll yes or no. Leave or remain. The reality is always more nuanced. If not Ange, then who? That who looks like Thomas Frank.
The obvious case for Ange – he got the monkey off Spurs back. And he could do the same again. With a kind cup draw, a lack of injuries, and a rousing speech about landing in Melbourne aged 6 months and fighting 2 great white sharks…he could win another cup. He’s not going to win the league or champs league but it wouldn’t come be a surprise to see Spurs win the FA or League Cup.
But that stubborn pr*ckliness that runs so deep. He can’t help the questions he’s being asked but has a way of making everything about him. That’s fine and quite entertaining if it’s a press conference but if it’s heated squabbles with fans or Micky Van der Ven’s hamstrings, that stubbornness is more damaging.
The reassuring thing here is that Daniel Levy is the least sentimental man alive so when it comes to making the decision, there’ll be no..well..sentiment. Spurs were the favourites for the Europa back in September. In Levy’s snaky eyes he’s delivered what the bookies thought he should have done with the strongest squad in the competition.
I was reticent about taking one of the managers from the Barclays emerging middle class, none of whom have managed in the Champions League. I think? But Frank has got some x factor. An ability to motivate players, classy football and a Slott-like levelheaded pragmatism which Levy once thought he was too good for. And bloody hell its going to be tested to the max. Egos like Romero seem to be headed for the door. Players like Guehi and Dibling are right up Frank’s street. Maddison will look at what he’s done to Mbuemo. Ben Davies will welcome him because that’s Ben Davies. He won’t make crap jokes about Lucas Bergvall missing school, he’ll turn him into the player he can be.
The final and most important point here is what ENIC cares about. Money. That Europa win is going to make the managed discontent so much easier for the next year. The natives aren’t restless. Quite the opposite. The fans would love another cup or two and finish 8th or 9th ….the establishment want 5th and the riches that go with it. Frank is much more likely to deliver that…and that’s why he’ll be waved in in a week or so.
Cheers
Andrew
The play-offs need to change
Watching the conclusion of a very enjoyable Championship play-off final between Sheffield United and Sunderland on Saturday and I couldn’t help but feel sorry for the Blades. Not just in how they lost the game after being the better team, but the fact they finished a huge 14 points clear of Sunderland and receive no real advantage in the playoffs.
The value of winning the game – whether it’s worth £150/£200/£220 million as Sky kept telling us – will sort Sunderland out for at least the next three seasons, in prize money and, when they inevitably get relegated, parachute payments. It also means Sheffield United have one final throw of the dice to get promoted, before they no longer receive parachute payments and have to sell assets and cut costs. With that in mind, it seems out-dated that this game is now a one-off event at a neutral ground, where inevitably the importance and pressure of the occasion narrows the quality gap proven by league position over a 46 game season.
Sheffield United won 92 points in the season – finishing on 90 with the points deduction. This points total would have seen them promoted in 24 of the last 30 years of the First Division/Championship, and only the anomaly of the top two getting 100 points (first time that has happened) pushed them into third.
Their reward for this finish is to play the 6th place team in playoff semi-final – Bristol City – who finished closer to the relegation places than to Sheffield United. You could argue that it shouldn’t be much of a contest (and wasn’t in fairness) but that’s still two additional games to navigate, usually to a team on a high after reaching the playoffs on the last day. Look at what happened to York in the National League. Their reward in the final for finishing 14 points clear of Sunderland? They got first pick of using their home kit in the final…which is only an advantage if both teams have the same colours anyway.
Now, I’m not saying we scrap the play-offs as they are great value and provide entertainment towards the end of the season, but let’s take some inspiration from the National League and start rewarding league position a bit more. One-off games, favouring home advantage, with the 3rd place team automatically in the final, and 4th place in the semi-final, both given home advantage. Yes, no Wembley – sure, kept it for League One and League Two if you want to patronise fans with a ‘big day out’ but unless you’re a London or surrounding area-based team, it’s expensive for fans an often a nightmare logistically.
Here’s my proposal for the revised Championship playoffs, based on this season’s table.
Saturday after the season ends: Coventry (5th) vs Bristol City (6th) at Coventry Building Society Arena, Coventry
Wednesday: Sunderland (4th) vs Winner of above, at Stadium of Light, Sunderland
Saturday: Sheffield United (3rd) vs Winner of above, at Bramall Lane, Sheffield
You’ll still get drama with the games being a straight shoot-out, but now league position is rewarded more with home advantage, whereas currently it’s not at all.
But it won’t happen as the playoff final is too much of a cash cow for the EFL and the FA, and after all, isn’t that what football is all about
P.S. Faily scandalous that VAR isn’t used at all in the season, not even the playoff semis, but is in the final. Both managers were right to call it out and once it again it’s taken the headlines.
Jim
Chantz bantz
Strong rumours of Man United interest in signing Cunha and Mateta for next season. This could mean no worries for the rest of our days, and an epic terrace song.
Red Jim
