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Welcome to Wolves Ruben Neves

People say about us "not capitalising" on 2017-2020 but I don't know what they really mean?

Like were they expecting us to permanently anchor in as a top 6-7 team? That doesn't happen. Spurs finished 8th this year. Chelsea 12th. This is Villa's first top half finish for well over a decade.

We have made huge amounts of mistakes, some really stupid ones too but we weren't nailing anything down from where we were. We should have done much better but it still doesn't necessarily mean Neves would have been here for much/any longer than he has been.

If we're getting into the realms of "Jeff promised* Champions League a few years ago" then may I suggest Twitter for that particular brand of stupidity.



*He didn't
 
I was resigned to losing him last summer and having him for another year was fantastic but makes parting even harder. After the way the way the move happened I thought I’d got over him going and was glad that we’d got a good deal that helped the club and it was all done and we could move on. Watching that affirms that he is simply an outstanding human being as well as footballer. I so hope after filling his bank account for a couple of years he can fill a trophy cabinet. Just watching for six seasons was a joy and knowing how much it meant so to him and how he feels about the club takes it a step up. Thank you Ruben.
 
People say about us "not capitalising" on 2017-2020 but I don't know what they really mean?

Like were they expecting us to permanently anchor in as a top 6-7 team? That doesn't happen. Spurs finished 8th this year. Chelsea 12th. This is Villa's first top half finish for well over a decade.

We have made huge amounts of mistakes, some really stupid ones too but we weren't nailing anything down from where we were. We should have done much better but it still doesn't necessarily mean Neves would have been here for much/any longer than he has been.

If we're getting into the realms of "Jeff promised* Champions League a few years ago" then may I suggest Twitter for that particular brand of stupidity.



*He didn't
I remember a lot of fans fantasising that after back to back 7ths we should be looking to push top 6 and 4 consistently.

It was an absolute pipe dream. The big 6 (7 now with Newcastle) have far to many resources for a team to break them up for multiple seasons. You may get the odd year where another team pushes in (see Brighton) but next year I’d back the top 7 to be the normal 6 and Newcastle.

It’s basically impossible to break the mould unless you have ridiculous wealth that is being spent
 
For me not capitalising means we missed the opportunity to add to very good team. The Semedo & Silva transfers were the pinnacle of that. That £60m could have been spent in a much, much better way.
 
For me not capitalising means we missed the opportunity to add to very good team. The Semedo & Silva transfers were the pinnacle of that. That £60m could have been spent in a much, much better way.
Exactly.

And decisions like that ultimately lead to sacking Nuno and appointing Lage.

There's a fair bit of revisionism here, we didn't capitalise, that's a fact. That's not saying we should have come top 4 the 3rd season, but we fell away, significantly.
 
Well, that brought a tear to this old cynic`s eye. What a decent human being.
 
Yeah, that was a tough watch. Goes down as a club legend. Absolute top player and even better man.

I hope things work out for him moving forward and that he gets everything he could wish for. It won’t feel right watching us next season without him.
 
Yeah, that was a tough watch. Goes down as a club legend. Absolute top player and even better man.

I hope things work out for him moving forward and that he gets everything he could wish for. It won’t feel right watching us next season without him.
I feel you should take credit for his proper arrival in English football.
You pissed him off ahead of the Hull game by telling, actually demanding he stops spannering shots from distance as he is shit at it.
 
Yep definitely some revisionism


Eh? The hype and positivity around those signings proved to be totally wrong didn't it. So I am not sure what your point is?
 
I feel you should take credit for his proper arrival in English football.
You pissed him off ahead of the Hull game by telling, actually demanding he stops spannering shots from distance as he is shit at it.
I’m still claiming an assist for that.

“Please stop shooting from that far out, Ruben”

Two minutes later pings one in the top corner!

In fairness, before the goal, he’d fired about 5 long range shots in to people’s shins/row Z, but I can’t argue the timing was sublime and I’m obviously grateful you remind me of it every couple of months 😂
 
For me not capitalising means we missed the opportunity to add to very good team. The Semedo & Silva transfers were the pinnacle of that. That £60m could have been spent in a much, much better way.
I’d agree with that.

For what it’s worth, the best we can realistically hope for was consistent 7-10 finishes with the occasional cup run or top 6 push dependent on abit of luck. I think we all would’ve been thrilled with that.

The drop off to where we were at start of the year should never of happened if we were ran correctly
 
Eh? The hype and positivity around those signings proved to be totally wrong didn't it. So I am not sure what your point is?
I think that is the point? Revisionism being revising our thoughts/opinion as too a man we were very excited about the signings being statements of intent and we were heading upwards, but in reality it’s turned out totally different
 
I think that is the point? Revisionism being revising our thoughts/opinion as too a man we were very excited about the signings being statements of intent and we were heading upwards, but in reality it’s turned out totally different
Yes. So we failed to capitalise.
 
So that was Paul’s point. You were questioning it. Just helping you out.
It made no sense in the context of what I was saying though did it?

Like saying Roger Johnson and JOH were seen as good signings at the time, they were. But actually they totally weren't and were a huge part of why we went down the following season.

Using fans support for signings as an argument against someone saying we failed to capitalise on being in a good position after two 7th placed finishes doesn't make sense.

Also there were plenty at the time who thought £35mill on a 17/18 year old who'd barely played a pro game was stupid.
 
I think that is the point? Revisionism being revising our thoughts/opinion as too a man we were very excited about the signings being statements of intent and we were heading upwards, but in reality it’s turned out totally different

Not just those signings though, the taps being completely turned off, sacking our greatest modern manager and then appointing a village idiot are bigger contributors. I'm aware that consistently getting in the top 4/6 is immeasurably difficult for a side like us but I don't think it would have been beyond the realms for us to win a Europa League or FA Cup if we'd have continued to invest in the squad.
 
Using fans support for signings as an argument against someone saying we failed to capitalise on being in a good position after two 7th placed finishes doesn't make sense.
It's an easy and fair argument to say that we could/should have bought better/more suited players between 2020 and 2022. We definitely shouldn't have swapped our best manager in 40 years for someone who would easily get in the five worst in 40 years.

However you were not making us a permanent top 7 side whatever you did, no chance.
 
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