Because, I

mean, it was enough that he got booked and he certainly didn't deserve to get sent off for it.

It wasn't one of them.

But I can't recall a time of seeing, certainly for Villa, that we've used up all of our subs and then somebody's had to go off injured as a result of a bad tackle that's been punished and that's left us down a player.

And you just felt as soon as we were down to 10 men, it was going to be...

It was going to be difficult.

McGinn going to left back was going to be tough because he already looked a bit out on his feet, although he certainly looked better when he was in the centre of midfield than we did with Barkley in there.

I

Yeah,

well, that's kind of where my head was at, was I think if everybody was fully integrated...

You might be looking at a central defensive partnership there of Taylor Harwood-Bellis and Tyrone Mings and just stick Mings on McBurney to... you know, to nullify him because I don't think there's a huge pace threat from McBurney.

But, you know, that being said, I think he perhaps will want to give some of the new signings an extra week and he might be happy that Lindelof and Pau can deal with McBurney and also they, you know, they give us that opportunity bit of passing strength as well.

So I think it'd be interesting.

If there is going to be changes, I would probably expect it to be further up the field.

I guess it depends how he feels.

I think there's too much depth for it not to happen.

Like, it needs to kind of happen pretty quickly, I think.

Yeah, it could do.

I think it's going to be hard to...

And I'll go back to your well-worn phrase a minute ago.

It's going to be hard to compare apples with apples because...

I think from what we saw against PSG, Brighton first 10 minutes till we let a goal in, what we saw last night, I think we're potentially going to see a bit of a different style of football.

And I think that's evidenced in the players that have come in.

I think we'd be

So what do you reckon on the left? Do you think Garnaccio gets a start at Villa Park? I think that's something massive to his confidence, I think.

If he's fit, I would.

I think we need, we are going to need an outlet.

And I think, you know, we...

We touched a little bit there on Harwood Bellis.

I think one of the things that's interesting, obviously if he does sign, he's not going to be playing against Arsenal unless he signed days ago like Martinez did for Chelsea.

And it's all just been a big trick.

That's fair.

So for someone who's 31 years old, he would have been right up there in most minutes played if he had had that season at Villa.

Yeah, no, I think it's been interesting seeing people concerned about his age and also people wanting to give Ollie Watkins a new contract when there's only a few months between them, really.

Can't be one or the other.

No, I mean, I get that players age differently and different positions have different requirements, but Goretzka's clearly been a very good player for a long time.

I can imagine a lot of Villa fans are perhaps still feeling a little bit burnt after Coutinho, who was a dwindling superstar that we brought in.

But I think he was very much...

It was clear that he was dwindling, whereas...

For more information, see calchi.com slash regulatory.

For more information, see calchi.com slash regulatory.

particularly on the back of now winning a trophy.

And it was clear, it was so apparent how much winning that trophy meant to him.

None of that was theatrics.

He's still a very good goalkeeper.

But as a club, we are unfortunately in a position where we're having to... to look at spreadsheets as well as team sheets and i think that it's um he's clearly on a lot of money and rightly so given his you know his ranking in world football but with the money that we've brought in this season and i wouldn't be surprised if there's more to come i wouldn't be surprised to see concert go i wouldn't be overly surprised to see watkins go but that would be He'd be the one.

It was interesting the other day that Unai only mentioned about Watkins being on the phone to McGinn and wanting to get back, and he didn't mention the other two, which I didn't think anything of at the time, but now I'm starting to get a little bit more suspicious.

every every window every summer yeah it's

[laughs]

I think we all concentrate on the World Cup race in front of us.

Jordan Williams, number one qualifier.

Specialized Gravity.

Teammates with Finn Iles, Loic Bruni.

He has won a World Cup race, his first Elite race back in 2023 in Lenzerheide, when he came up from the juniors.

And the pace is there again this weekend in La Thuile.

[laughs]

It's not, it's not saying, is it?

it?They're taking it down so we can't- But say- ... can't comment on it.

[laughs] He came in at 17th by the looks of it.

It's, it's 'cause we start predicting it, we ruined it.

Yeah.

They're taking it down now.

But speaking of people on form, Benoit Coulange.

I can get it

But what makes a good one then, a World Cup shirt, do you think? 'Cause, um, I, I'm looking at a list here, and I'll be interested to pick a few out for you, but what, what sort of broadly are the rules that you would perhaps, you and your, your team sort of sit and pick through before you start, start trying to come up with one?

Yeah, I mean, I, I, I think certainly one of the main things for me was always creating something that had a massive benefit to the athlete, which we see to a certain extent with a lot of brands now.

Um, but it was, it was very much the focus when, when I was designing kits in the, the noughties and, and into the, the mid-2010s.

Um, I think you always look for something that perhaps picks up an insight from a cultural perspective within the country and showcases that in a way that not only people from around the world perhaps haven't recognized in the past, but even people from that particular nation may not have recognized it either.

And I think when you bring those two worlds together of athletic performance and aesthetic pleasure, then that's where you, you strike gold.

Obviously, then a certain amount of it depends on how the team [laughing] performs on the pitch.

How much of that is a challenge now for I guess the company selling them, but also people designing them, the kind of explosion of, of classic football shirts and people buying retro shirts, whether they be on eBay or specific sites like Classic Football Shirts and things like that too, that that's become a big part of sort of football fan culture?

Yeah.

Mm.

If we think about how methodical Emery likes to be, then clearly on- only having whatever 48 hours from realistically when they get back to this country to then, to then kicking off, there's, there's not a lot that they can really work on, talk about, do before the, before the game.

So I, I think both teams have just turned up to, to play the way that they would typically want to play.

I thought the starting lineup was a bit of a surprise for me, to see Lindelof and, and Torres in there, and Barkley playing in that number 10 role, but it kinda made sense as well, thinking that we would probably have a lot of the ball.

Yeah.

Every, every phase of the game, every 10-minute chunk or whatever feels like it's, it's been specifically mapped out as to what we wanna do.

But when you are banking on efficiency, then you've got to be efficient, and if you're not taking your chances, then you're, you're not efficient.

I think the, probably the criticism I would have for, for Watkins, and not just today, but in general, is that when he's got, when he's got the ball at his feet and there's a, a chance to run with it or there's somebody up in support with him, I very rarely feel like he's gonna beat a player or-

Mm.

I don't know.

I think he, he... perhaps he is tired.

He's played absolutely loads of football.

For a little while there when he, when he was banging form before Christmas, he was pretty much carrying the team.

Um, albeit with, with goals rather than performances, but there was a lot of pressure on him that if he didn't pull something out the hat, we were gonna get beat or certainly weren't gonna win.

Um, but yeah, I think I, I probably would sell him on the balance of not just down to his footballing ability or his, or his attitude.

That felt a bit more, I don't know whether comprehensive is the right word, but that felt like signs of like, oh, if Villa play like that for the next few games, like, yeah, we'll be fine here.

Mm-hmm, yeah, yeah.

Um, the fact that we've, we showed guts against Newcastle, which hasn't always been the case.

You know, yes, we didn't play great, but we got stuck in and, and put in a performance, whereas too often we've, we've rolled over against that lot.

Um, you know, I think speaks volumes.

I think we do seem to be trying to play a little bit differently, but quite whether we've got the personnel for that through the doors this summer remains to be seen.

I think Ramsey's potentially a loss, um, particularly if I think of if we're gonna look at Matson as an overlapping full-back.

Uh, but I think Gerson will bring us something very different as well, and I, I would expect we'll see a couple more people in now.

Mm-hmm.